Showing posts with label History Brave Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History Brave Men. Show all posts

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Put your parka on before watching


 






PBS American Experience Documentary on The Battle of Chosin .



"...somebody started singing the Marine Corps hymn. I couldn't believe it, they're singing the Marine Corps hymn!  We're
coming through the lines and somebody handed me a canteen cup full of hot coffee and a box of graham crackers and I just sat down the snow and had probably the best meal I ever had my life. At night I slept in my sleeping bag on the straw inside a tent that was like luxury. 

After that Marines regiments had gotten back from west of the reservoir and consolidated, there was a lot of correspondents  there,  likeTime magazine and Life [saying that] it's not like Marines to retreat].  Gen. Smith bristled at the notion that this was a withdrawal or a retreat. There was no front;  there was no rear.  He was surrounded in all directions and therefore any movement in any direction is essentially an attack,  General Smith insisted his men were not retreating but attacking in another direction ....


I cannot remember having a meal at Hagrid. We were pretty short of everything. The worst part was those rubber boots that came up about halfway to your knees. The bottom portion of them with rubber and as long as you were moving that they worked good and but climbing those hills your your socks would get wet from sweat and then that  you had no way to change the socks so if you laid in the snow all night long your feet would freeze.

The rubber boots had a felt insole,  about a half inch thick, that was supposed to absorb perspiration. Instead the insole would freeze and it was like walking on ice.  They'd give me some hot coffee and morphine, but they they took my boots  off and I saw that my toes were black and I sort of lost it I wanted to cry again.  I didn't, but I wanted to cry. I said a  few curse words  ... somebody came over and says 'knock it off; Act like a Marine!  I shut up.  My boot was frozen so they could chop the boot off and part of my toes head came off inside the boot and when they took the boot off, all the toes are gone. They tapped my toe; big toe, and 2/3 of them was found inside of that that boot ... (transcript)

Found this on You Tube.  There were (are)  precious few books, stories, documentaries, or even mentions of the Korean war. This is one of the best.

Monday, July 03, 2017

Well, I wish I was in the land of ....



Sunday, May 28, 2017

Real History 101





Monday, August 15, 2016

The Somme





cinema à la carte                                 





 ... extraordinarily poignant.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Ban by Liberal Judges Overturned




“
"Hillary: The Movie" ...
 ... never became a blockbuster. The Federal Election Commission restricted Citizens United's ability to advertise the film during the 2008 primary season, a decision that Bossie and other conservative activists saw as a threat to their freedom of speech.

When the Supreme Court first heard the case in March, Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm L. Stewart, representing the FEC, was pulled into a discussion of an issue that took him down a slippery slope: If the movie were a book, would the government ban publishing the book if it mentioned a candidate for office within the election time frame?

Stewart (representing the FEC) said that it could.


"That's pretty incredible," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said.

Then came questions about electronic devices such as the Kindle.

"If it has one name, one use of the candidate's name, it would be covered, correct?" Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked.

"That's correct," Stewart replied.

"It's a 500-page book, and at the end it says, 'And so vote for X,' the government could ban that?" Roberts asked.

Bossie said this was the argument that turned a majority of the bench against the FEC and in favor of Citizens United.

"That sent a chill down the Supreme Court," Bossie said. The argument became a "point of demarcation."

Citizens United spent about $1.25 million in legal fees on the case -- so much, Bossie said, that it "makes you cry."    --[WaPost, "The film that cracked the case"]



Here it is.  It's worth watching, and making others watch, at gunpoint if necessary.  Okay, maybe not that.  By the way, the  four disenters were - guess who?   Justices Stevens, Ginsburg,  Breyer, and Sodahead

”

Thursday, September 26, 2013

WWII in Color



“ WW II : RARE COLOR FILM : AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN THE PACIFIC


Having ridden aboard ships built prior to or during WWII and having gone through various types of training for jungle evasion and survival, I gotta tell ya, those guys who rode those "tin cans" and "pig boats" and slogged through those Pacific Islands back then certainly have MY respect.  Tough sonsabitches.  And kids today bitch and moan when the A/C goes out or the batteries run down in their iPad.' - Eddie Lowenstein  via Metzger

Very early on there are sailors jousting about in a raft.  They look like Jr. High-schoolers. 


”

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Today's Great Boner

Great Brit Warplane Collection



Click 4 Collection

Cuzzin Ricky

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

The Longest Day

The Longest Day




Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day 2012 Tribute


Picture Album for Memorial Day
Some off the pictures I've saved over the past few years

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Monday, January 30, 2012

I know. McQueen's tennis ball would have rotted


You know you're  old when ...
archaeologists dig up artifacts from your own lifetime

 
“ Tunnel back in time: Revealed after 67 years,
the passage used in Great Escape
Not really McQueen's tennis ball. That would have rotted.

Only three made it back to Britain. Another 50 were executed by firing squad on the orders of Adolf Hitler, who was furious after learning of the breach of security.

In all, 90 boards from bunk beds, 62 tables, 34 chairs and 76 benches, as well as thousands of items including knives, spoons, forks, towels and blankets, were squirreled away by the Allied prisoners to aid the escape plan under the noses of their captors.

Read more:

 It rankles Brits that us Yanks get too much credit for winning their war, so I love that the Daily Mail's account includes this:

Although the movie might  suggest otherwise, no Americans were involved in the actual operation. Most were British and the others were from countries including Canada, Poland and Australia.

So, how do they explain Steve McQueen?  Huh?


”

  thoR


Sunday, May 01, 2011

Night Fighters

I am reminded

Night fighter

My dad told the story about a company of  colored tankers rolling into whatever German town he was in at the time.  He said they were very popular with the local women, who had never seen a black man before, and were utterly unaffected by race issues.  The tankers told the girls they were special "night fighters," and scored heavily. 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Historically Accurate Prints

Historically Accurate Prints
(Click to Enlarge)

Prints that Obama would never allow in the White House.  That Bastid.
thor

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Hail DeMint!

DeMint comes out against tax deal,
says GOP must do ‘better than this’


“ On both counts. I’m glad the President recognizes that tax increases hurt the economy. I mean, I guess that’s progress. But frankly, Hugh, most of us who ran this election said we were not going to vote for anything that increased the deficit.

This does.

It raises taxes, it raises the death tax. I don’t think we needed to negotiate that aspect of this thing away. I don’t think we need to extend unemployment any further without paying for it, and without making some modifications such as turning it into a loan at some point.   Hugh ... we don’t need a temporary economy, which means we don’t need a temporary tax rate. A permanent extension of our current tax rates would allow businesses to plan five and ten years in advance, and that’s how you build an economy.

Jim DeMint the Impaler
DeMint is right.  The path Republicans take here will define them in as being serious as hell, or face savers who settle for Pyhrric victories.  If they choose the latter, they can never rise above that mark. 

Friday, June 26, 2009

American History - Short Version

history .... a condensed version: 

“ Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

Barn Army's Donny M
The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundations of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals, and
2. Conservatives.(right)

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals (left) like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in  Hollywood  and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Miller or Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, fisherman, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to  America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

And there you have it.
”
C/R

Friday, December 12, 2008

Epiphany

Soldiers
I'm watching a Hitler Channel story on the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, in 1944.   A videotaped remembrance by one of the Americans involved, a guy named "Miller," struck me.

“ "I was so scared, for so long, that finally I got sick of being scared. I was pissed at the people who were making me scared, and decided to do something about it.  I realized that, at that moment, I had become a soldier."
”

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Nazi Captives

Escape from bad performances

After watching the Redskins for as long as I could stomach them, against the Giants, I was in no mood for sissy boys wearing Maryland basketball uniforms getting cornholed by Georgetown bullies.  So, where do we go to escape unpleasant events?  That's right.  The Hitler Channel.  I hadn't missed too much of Shot From the Sky, a docudrama about B-17 pilot Paul Roy Allen's odyssey, after being shot down over France in 1944.  Hidden by a 21 year-old French school teacher, betrayed by French snitch, tortured in Paris by the SS, sent to Buchenwald,  condemned to the crematorium after getting double pneumonia,  etc.  Not a dull moment, and  I recommend it.  If you do watch it, see if you don't agree that the script all but declares some heavy fraternization went on between Allen the the pert little teacher?  I bet the widow Allen caught it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mig Alley

Captain James Jabara, Triple Ace
Mig v, F-86

This is a condensed (19 minutes) version of last night's "SHOWDOWN" on the Military Channel.  It features Capt. James Jabara's dog fight with Mig15's that made him the word's first jet v. jet fighter ace. Not the best dogfight, but still a very interesting look into that world. 

Among these videos of the MIG 15 is one of our own Tim flying one.  He sent me the link a long time ago, but I lost it.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day - In Iraq

Roll Call

Sunday, November 11, 2007

A Letter from Dad

Men At War
And those who also serve

c. 1944
My instinct is to publish every one of these Reagan stories, but of course I can't.  I don't think RR will mind that I did this one, though.

“Dear Son:

I wish I had the power to write
The thoughts wedged in my heart tonight
As I sit here watching that small star
And wondering where and how you are.
You know, Son, it's a funny thing
How close a war can really bring
A Father, who for years with pride
Has kept emotions deep inside.
I'm sorry, Son, when you were small
I let reserve build up that wall;
I told you real men never cried,
And it was Mom who always dried
Your tears and smoothed your hurts away
So that you soon went back to play.
But, Son, deep down within my heart
I longed to have some little part
In drying that small-tear stained face
But we were men - men don't embrace
And suddenly I found my Son
A full grown man, with childhood done.
Tonight you're far across the sea,
Fighting a war for men like me.
Well, somehow pride and what is right
Have each changed places here tonight.
I find my eyes won't stay quite dry
And that men sometimes really cry.
And if we stood here, face to face
I'm sure, my Son, we would embrace.
Son, dads are quite a funny lot,
And if I've failed you on some spot
It's not because I loved you less
But just this cussed manliness.
And if I had the power to write
The thoughts wedged in my heart tonight,
The words would ring out loud and true,
I'm proud, my Son, yes proud of you..

”
“
He signed it "Dad"and walked down to the corner and dropped it in the mailbox.  As he returned home and reached his own doorstep he was handed the war department telegram, the one that began with the fateful words "We regret to inform you."

I'm glad that I can believe his son knew he had written that letter.

Ronald Reagan, "Stories in His Own Hand"
”

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Four Stars- General Patton on Iraq

So, You Thought George S Patton Was Dead?`

He wants to talk to you about Iraq
NSFW- Language
Linda