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Thanksgiving Proclamation 1938

A Thanksgiving Turkey
That’s right little guy. Smile while you can…

 

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

In the spirit of being thankful and spending time with family this week we will be sharing a couple fo the Thanksgiving Proclamations that have been put out by various American Presidents.

Today’s proclamation is from 1938 from the desk of President Roosevelt. The winds of war were blowing in Europe. The Great Depression was still effecting the US. There was a lot of uncertainty in the world. With this brief proclamation the President emphasis the one simple phrase that would see the country through the coming storm. “In God We Trust.”

 

The 1938 Thanksgiving Proclamation

 

 

                         Franklin D. Roosevelt

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-fourth of November, 1938, as a day of general thanksgiving.

Our Fathers set aside such a day as they hewed a nation from the primeval forest. The observance was consecrated when George Washington issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in the first year of his presidency. Abraham Lincoln set apart “a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Thus from our earliest recorded history, Americans have thanked God for their blessings. In our deepest natures, in our very souls, we, like all mankind since the earliest origin of mankind, turn to God in time of trouble and in time of happiness. “In God We Trust.”

For the blessings which have been ours during the present year we have ample cause to be thankful.

Our lands have yielded a goodly harvest, and the toiler in shop and mill receives a more just return for his labor.

We have cherished and preserved our democracy.

We have lived in peace and understanding with our neighbors and have seen the world escape the impending disaster of a general war.

In the time of our fortune it is fitting that we offer prayers for unfortunate people in other lands who are in dire distress at this our Thanksgiving Season.

Let us remember them in our families and our churches when, on the day appointed, we offer our thanks to Almighty God. May we by our way of living merit the continuance of His goodness.


FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
WWI

The Inter-Allied Games 1919

The Inter-Allied Games 1919

The Inter-Allied Games 1919

There is no other way to say it than WWI sucked. Millions died, nations were torn apart, entire towns and villages ceased to exist and in the aftermath a chaos ensued that nearly caused another world war to break out. So why not have an athletic competition to make everyone feel better. With that thought the Inter-Allied Games were devised.

From June 22 to July 6 over 1500 athletes from eighteen nations took the field to compete in 19 different sports. The contest was open to anyone currently serving in the military or that had served during the Great war. The location of the event was Pershing Stadium in Paris. The stadium had been built via a joint effort of the US military and the YMCA and was gifted to “the people of France”. The stadium is actually still in place and used today!

The Events

The list of events is fairly impressive:

American football
Association football
Athletics
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Cross country running
Equestrian
Fencing
Golf
Hand-grenade throwing
Rowing
Rugby union
Shooting
Swimming
Tennis
Tug of war
Water polo
Wrestling

 

One can only wish that hand grenade throwing and American Football could someday become Olympic sports! More military based games were going to part of the agenda, but they sadly did NOT make the final cut.

The Participants

The list of participating nations was almost as impressive:

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Czechoslovakia
France
Great Britain
Greece
Guatemala
Kingdom of Hejaz
Italy
Newfoundland
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
United States

China had been invited and was initially going to attend but it could not get its athletes there in time for the competition. So they supplied some of the medals. The Kingdom of Hejaz did not send athletes but provided a demonstration of the equestrian abilities.

The big winner of the games was Norman Ross and American who won 5 gold medals in the swimming competitions. he would then go on to win several more medals in the 1920 Olympics. Sadly George S. Patton, who had competed in the 1912 Olympics did not participate in the games.

The games were well attended and successful.  If nothing else it gave everyone a reason to cheer in the shadow of a great catastrophe. If you would like more info? You can read the “official” report here.

 

Word and Phrases

Wednesday Words & Phrases: Ninja

Image result for ninja
Yes. This ninja is a penguin. We can;t be serious all the time.

Ninja

An Assassin of Japanese origin

OK, so this one will be kind of short but it is totally fascinating. As we know them from the movies, black clad, using throwing stars and katanas most likely never existed. Though “ninjas” were real their myth sort of evolved over time. You see the actual term “ninja” is not of Japanese origin. It was coined by Westerners in Japan during the mid-19th century. The actual phrase used to describe these shadow warriors was Shinobo no mono, “person of stealth”. Westerners being the kind of people they were decided they needed a shorter term, so the borrowed on from the Chinese. Nin (stealth) and ja (person). Put together and we have nin-ja. (stealth person). So yes, it is actually a Chinese word.

Interestingly enough, the first time the word “ninja” appeared in print? 1964 in You Only Live Twice by Mr. Ian Flemming.  So maybe it should be Ja, Nin Ja… (See? Bond. James Bond. Get it? Nevermind.)

Mexican-American War

The Spot Resolution – Mexican American War

Lincoln the Congressman Spot Resolution

 

The Spot Resolution – Mexican American War

In August 1846 Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress as the Whig representative for his Illinois district and officially embarked on his national political career. When he took his seat in December 1847 he was a freshman representative he found himself in quite a quandary.  Most of his supporters back home were supporters of the current Mexican-American War, Lincoln not so much.

While he was not outright opposed to the war he did question how it was being fought and the reasons why it was being fought. Sort of an early version of “I support the troops, but not the war” that has been all the rage the last twenty years by people in Washington. For Lincoln though one particular thing sort of stuck out to him. In most ways the Mexican War was fought over the disputed border between Texas, now a state, and Mexico.  Tensions ran hot on both sides.  It was not until a unit of the US Army was “bushwhacked’ by the Mexican Army on American soil did the war actually start-up. At least that was the story given by President Polk in 1846 when he asked Congress for a declaration of war.

Lincoln and The Spot

Lincoln decided to challenge the President’s version of events. He requested to be shown on a map the exact spot where the soldiers had been killed. The Spot Resolution, as it became known, was Lincoln’s first real taste of the national stage. It did not go over well. His own party sort of back away from any support for him.  The Democrats accused him of being unpatriotic for questioning the President.  The resolutions were tabled, never debated or voted upon. Lincoln only ended up serving one term in the House before retiring back to his law practice.

For the record it should be noted that the “spot” of the actual ambushed happened well inside the disputed area. So “technically” the attack happened on Mexican soil. Truth be told it was not the first, nor the last time the US went to war under questionable circumstances.

 

Civil War

A Post About A Post

Post

A Post About A Post

When people start shooting at you it is generally a good idea to find some sort of cover. Tree, fence, big hole in the ground, whatever works. Early in the Civil War the armies matched up in the  Old World Style, line up shoulder to shoulder, get as close as you can and shoot in the general direction of the enemy.

Today we look at the paintings and read the descriptions of such battles and wonder what the heck they were thinking doing that. It is however the only way it would work. See guns at the time, for most of the “black powder” era, were incredibly in accurate. Mainly because they were smooth bore. Basically every time you fired it there was no way to tell where the shot would go. So your only hope of hitting anything was to have a lot of people shooting at it.

As the accuracy progressed and the armies started seeing more rifles (grooved barrels) the idea of standing in lines, getting close and shooting started to be a losing proposition for all sides.  As such more fighting started being done from cover, this would eventually evolve into the precursor of trench warfare that made WWI such a joy.

The pic above is a fence post that has become a bullet catcher. In battles all over the country trees and fences absorbed more lead than a five-year old eating paint chips. Think for a second what it would have been like to be on the other side of the fence. Hearing it whittled down more and more with each shot.  I count seven bullets, how many do you see?

 

 

 

Vietnam

Brown Water Navy

Brown Water Navy

Brown Water Navy

 

The Vietnam War was fought in every nook and cranny of the country, from the mountains to the cities and most especially on the rivers. The waterways that spread across the country served as highways for the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet-Cong. They could use the ships to move men and supplies faster and  quieter than  over land. In response to this the United States dusted off a concept that had seen little use since the Civil War. The brown-water navy. These were Naval ships designed to operate on the rivers and along the coasts that would extend the reach of the US Navy where ever it was needed.

The concept of the brown-water navy came into its own during the Civil War when the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and other major rivers became the fronts in the conflict and the entire coast of the Confederacy became fair game. Outside of the river and coastal regions, the “blue-water” navy ruled supreme.

The boats in the picture above are PFC (Patrol Craft Fast) class Swift Boats. 50 feet long and made of aluminum these boats formed the base of the brown-water navy in Vietnam. This was a joint venture between the US Army and Navy. It operated in groups of three to five boats. Their missions consisted of patrols, interdiction and inserting special operation forces into their target areas.

Towards the end the focus of the war shifted as the United States military looked to get out.  The South Vietnamese military was to take on the bulk of the fighting.  Besides training and land based equipment, this also included the transfer of several Swift Boats. With the fall of the south many of the surviving boats ended up in the service of the communist regime.

Movie Reviews, Vietnam

Movie Review: Good Morning Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]

Good Morning Vietnam

Robin Williams

Forrest Whitaker

Good Morning Vietnam  was one of the big hits of 1987, 4th highest grossing film of that year. It starred Robin Williams and allowed him to lay it all on the line in what some consider the best role of his career. He even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor that year.

The film is set in Saigon in 1965 during the early days of our involvement in Vietnam. Williams plays Adrian Cronauer an Armed Forces radio DJ that doesn’t care much for the chain of command, less for the war going on, and who uses his sense of humor to bring a little lightness to the growing conflict. In the movie Cronauer has just as much to fear from the higher-ups in his command as he does the Viet Cong and in the end he is forced off the air, more disillusioned than ever.

A couple of quick things. The real Adrian Cronauer starting pitching a TV series on his time in Vietnam to the TV networks, who passed because the did not believe that “war could be funny”. This was while M*A*S*H was on the air so, yeah. they may have missed a boat or two. Cronauer then morphed his pitch to a movie of the week which got the attention of Robin Williams and the rest is history. (Williams and Cronauer did not meet until the premier as the director was worried Williams would end up trying to imitate Cronauer instead of doing his own interpretation.)

Certainly one of the classic comedies of the 80’s and Williams did not let any one down. I personally still quote this movie twice a day on a slow day. How does it work as a war movie though?

There is very little combat seen in it, but there is a lot of after effects seen. Though Cronauer in the movie called out some of hypocrisy of our involvement there was still a sense of optimism in 1965, that would fade quickly as time drew on. The soldiers that he meets and those in enjoying his broadcasts in the inter cut scenes of his bits are far from the war-weary, soldiers that they would become later.

The true emotional impact of this movie is with the civilians that Cronauer interacts with during the film. During the third act you can feel his heart-break when the truth of the matter is spelled out plain, to most of the people in Vietnam the US was just another invader in a long line of invaders. All the fun and games of movie evaporate in an instant as the cost of war is driven home. So is this a good war movie? No, not really. But it is movie that drives home the cost of war on those fighting and those just trying to live through it.

Worth it? Oh yes. And you can get the Blue Ray by clicking on the movie image above.

American Revolution

What Is a Gorget?

Gorget of General Washington

What Is a Gorget?

That above in the photo is a gorget. It is worn over the neck like a necklace. In the 18th century, it was a military symbol of rank worn by commissioned officers.

Gorgets (from the French gorge meaning throat) started off in the Middle Ages as a woman’s fashion piece, usually linen, that wrapped around their neck or was part of a hood. It eventually became a leather or steel collar worn by men to serve as protection for the throat, eventually growing into a full piece of armor itself that would cover the upper portion of the chest as well as the throat.

Gunpowder eventually entered the battlefield and made most armor obsolete. The gorget became more of a decoration for an officer. In this form, it was much smaller than its medieval counterpart. Usually, it hung on a chain or ribbon around the throat. Made with either gold or silver gilt, they served as a badge of rank. Also as an indication that the officer was “on duty”. In the 18th and 19th century most European armies made use of gorgets.

The decorations of the gorgets varied based on the armies. For the British, they were decorated with the royal coat of arms until 1796. The Swedes contained the king’s monogram. Junior officers usually just had them inscribed with their initials.

British and French

British officers wore then until 1830, the French until about 1830. Prussia/Germany kept them until 1914 and brought them back under the Third Reich. the Swedes kept them until 1792 and then replaced them with epaulets. However… they are making a comeback in their original armor form in the US Military as part of the new generation tactical vests.

So that gorget above, kind of pretty all gold and such. That one once belonged to George Washington and was from his days a Virginia Militia officer. The decoration on the piece is the symbol of his Virginia regiment. In fact, it is most likely the very one that he is wearing in this famous painting of the great man.

1772 portrait of Colonel George Washington by Charles Willson Peale.
Book Reviews, WWI

Book review: The World Remade: America in World War I

The World Remade: America in World War I

by G..J. Meyer

Every now and then a book comes along that shifts your way of thinking on a subject.  Sometimes that shift comes from learning about a subject things you never knew before. Sometimes it comes in the way that material is presented. And sometimes it comes from being able to put the present in perspective thanks to the past. My experience in reading this book was shaped by each of those three things.

I thought I was well versed in the events that led up to the dawn of WWI. Reading this book I now realize I have always just skimmed the surface. This was a war that should never have happened, but by the time it did, no one could find their way out of it.  Once the ball got rolling, America acted almost as if it needed to keep it going as long as it could, with as little cost to them as possible. The war was terrible, the peace and peace process even more so. After reading this come away with a bitter taste in your mouth from the way the British, French and Americans acted. Not giving Germany a pass, but there were no “good guys” in this fight. (I speak of governments, not the brave soldiers and sailors on either side.)

The way that G.J. Meyer presented the material was fresh and informative. Sometimes the statistics could bog it down a bit, sometimes debates of international law seemed a little long-winded. Still though those things were necessary to provide context. The author shone best when providing that context.

The most engaging part to me was the deep dive into the man who was President Woodrow Wilson. In this production he was the man who was sent to save Europe, nay the world, from itself and nothing would stand in his way. He was apolitical weather vane when it suited him, moving up and down the ideological scale as he saw fit. He would be your best friend if you agreed with him, but become your worst enemy if you didn’t. In a lot of ways the way he is presented in this book reminds me of the current President. There was no middle ground.

So is it worth a read? Yes. Will you end up shaking your head reading about the starvation blockade the allies imposed. Yes. Will you cry a little when you realize that Wilson sent thousands of Americans to die simply to get a place at the peace table? You should. Will you shudder when you learn how the American public and press were treated by the administration? Without a doubt.

As always you can pick up a copy via Amazon by clicking on the cover above.

 

American Revolution

The Trees of Guilford Courthouse

Guilford Courthouse

The Trees of Guilford Courthouse

On March 18th, 1781 British General Cornwallis led his army against the Americans led by General Greene into battle at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina. This was the largest battle fought between the two sides in the Southern Campaign and proved to be one of the most important battles of the American Revolution.

Which is weird because it was not an American victory. The British “won” the day and held the field, but Cornwallis‘s army was so devastated that he decided to stop chasing Greene and pull back to the Wilmington on the North Carolina coast for reinforcements and supply. Once there he decided it would be best to take the fight into Virginia. That decision led him to a little place called Yorktown, and we know how that ended.

One of the striking things about this battle is the ground over which it was fought. Most of the time when you picture battles of the Revolution you probably still think of them as old-fashioned.  “Two sides line up in an open field and shot at each other from real close”. Of course at the time many of the battles were fought like that. Even Guilford Courthouse started that way, but a large portion of the battle occurred in a forest. This made it difficult to form lines and concentrate fire. Inside this battle within a battle a bloody melee became the order of the day.

The View of the Field

The picture above is from the site of the battle at Guilford Courthouse which still maintains a very close feel to how it was back in 1781. Placed among the trees are several silhouettes that show you  it may have looked like during the height of battle. You have to imagine the plumes of smoke that would have obscured your vision as much as the trees..

 

People, Places and Things from US Military History

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