Newsletter & Updates
To Iran’s leadership we are the Great Satan; Israel is the Little Satan, and they’ve always said they want to eliminate both of us. It’s very appropriate that we’re taking them out before they have a nuclear warhead, and it’s happening. This is taking longer than I had hoped, but they started this war when they attacked our embassy in Iran in 1979—I know what happened because I was a Middle East War Planner then.
The war with Iran and control of the Straits of Hormuz is the big story right now, and it’s in process. We have to eliminate the leaders in Iran who want our nation destroyed. There’s a similar and much less obvious fight going on right here in the USA. Our kids are not being taught what they need to be good citizens and to keep our nation strong and free. I taught American Government in college for 15 years, retiring about 5 years ago. A question I’d ask the first day of class each semester was, “Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?” While many students would say it was Independence Day, only one in 15 years knew what happened that day, that on July 4th, 1776, the Congress passed the Declaration of Independence. The kids didn’t learn basic American history in their schools.
This explains, perhaps, why public school officials nationwide are warning about the falling enrollment, as more and more parents are moving their children to private or religious schools.
In recent years, public school enrollment has really dropped, especially in big cities. Denver dropped 10,000 students; New York City lost over 117,000, and Philadelphia now has 70,000 empty seats.
This year-after-year enrollment loss is, reasonably, causing major retrenchments: cutting stffa and teacher head counts, consolidating schools, or totally closing schools. Some teacher unions are calling for recruiting efforts to attract students to these schools. Things have changed a lot from the days when public schools were regularly growing.
One thing that is contributing to this situation is the US Supreme Court’s Carson v Makin decision in June 2022. The Court ruled that publicly funded tuition-assistance programs cannon legally exclude faith-based schools. This certainly made faith-based schools more attractive to the general public.
And, our nation seems to be moving solidly away from the education concept that includes things like DEI and similar that are far from the values our nation was founded on.
I see us moving in the direction of again being One Nation Under God.
Our nation has a large number of challenges and currently some very good people at the top of our government, but we have a lot to do to maintain our nation as the world’s finest country.
This is a Link to the Home Defense Podcast:
The Smiling Ranger
I was thinking…
that, as far as I know, I still hold two records at West Point. The first I set as a plebe. I am the only cadet in the history of the Point to be ordered not to sing, even at football rallies (“Just mouth the words, Mr. Gillem,” I was ordered by the senior cadets in front of me.) Now, I think I have a great voice; I know all the words to the songs I enjoy, and I like to sing. That said, my wife and I were attending a small church once; the choir was directly in front of and facing the congregation. We took a seat in the front row. After the service the choir leader asked me, nicely, if I would sit somewhere else in the future. Apparently I’d made a major impact on the choir.
My second record involved a major paper I had to submit during my senior year. In that paper I spelled the word “maintenance” seven different ways, none of them correctly. My professor told me that was a record. And now, thanks to spell-check (we had typewriters) my record is safe.
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We Americans should be very proud of our nation; despite our current challenges and differences, we live in the best and freest nation in the world. Let’s end all the name calling and appreciate each other and our nation, even if we don’t all agree on everything. When you talk with someone you have disagreements with, you can at least understand why they feel like they do; we need to understand each other. Good Americans come in many flavors.
Military History
On 17 Apr 1492, Spain & Christopher Columbus agreed on a contract for him to sail to Asia to get spices.
On 17 Apr 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
On 17 Apr 2014, Ukraine & Russia agreed on a tentative halt to violence & to calm tensions along their shared border after more than a month of Cold-War style military posturing triggered by Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
On 18 Apr 1945, journalist Ernie Pyle, America’s most popular WWII correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific.
On 18 Apr 1983, a Moslem suicide-bomber blew himself up & destroyed the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
On 18 Apr 1988, the US launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since WWII—response to Iran mining the Persian Gulf during Iran/Iraq war.
On 19 Apr 1775, Our Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.
On 19 Apr 1943, during WWII: In Poland, Nazi troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
On 19 Apr 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ended in success for the defenders.
On 20 Apr 1775, during the Revolutionary War: The siege of Boston began, following the battles at Lexington and Concord.
On 21 Apr 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.
On 21 Apr 1918, during WWI. in the skies over Vauz sur Somme, France, Manfred von Richthofen, the German flying ace known as “The Red Baron,” was killed by Allied fire. Richthofen, the son of a Prussian nobleman, switched from the German army to the Imperial Air Service in 1915. In 1917, Richthofen surpassed all flying ace records on both sides of the western front & began using a Fokker triplane, painted entirely red in tribute to his old cavalry regiment. It is this aircraft that he was associated with & it led to an enduring English nickname for him–the Red Baron. On 21 April, with 80 victories under his belt, Richthofen penetrated deep into Allied territory in pursuit of a British aircraft. He was flying too near the ground–an Australian gunner shot him through his chest; his plane crashed into a field. Another account has Captain Roy Brown, RAF, shooting him down. British troops recovered his body; he was buried with full military honors. He was 25 years old. In a time of wooden & fabric aircraft, when 20 air victories ensured a pilot legendary status, von Richthofen downed 80 enemy aircraft.
On 22 Apr 1915, during WWI, Germans were the first to use poison gas on the Western Front.
On 22 Apr 1915, the US & Afghanistan reached a deal on a strategic partnership agreement ensuring that Americans would provide military & financial support to the Afghan people for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw.
On 22 Apr 2013, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death. Eventually, he faced 17 federal charges in the April 15 attack that killed 3 people & injured more than 260. He was convicted in April 2015 on all charges.
On 23 Apr 1908. the US Army Reserves was founded.
On 24 Apr 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South.
On 24 Apr 1898, Spain declared war on the US, rejecting our ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
On 24 Apr 1980, we launched an abortive attempt to free the American hostages who had been the staff in our embassy in Iran when it was raided, a mission that resulted in the deaths of 8 US servicemen.
On 25 Apr 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller used the term “America” on a world map to refer to the huge land mass in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
On 25 Apt 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal.
On 25 Apr 1898, the US formally declared war on Spain.
On 25 Apr 1945, Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the UN.
On 25 Apr 1960, the US Navy submarine USS Triton completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
On 25 Apr 2001, in unusually blunt terms, President Bush warned China that an attack on Taiwan could provoke a US military response.
On 26 Apr 1865, Union cavalry troopers cornered & shot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
On 26 Apr 1986, a nuclear reactor accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
On 27 Apr 1805, during the first Barbary War: US Marines & Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna. The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ hymn.
On 28 Apr 1952,
• War with Japan officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the US & 47 other nations took effect.
• Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, one of the most highly regarded American generals of WWII, stepped down as supreme commander of the combined forces of NATO. He did this to run for president. In Nov 1952; “Ike” won a resounding victory in the presidential elections, & in 1956, was reelected by a landslide.
On 29 Apr 1945, during WWII,
• American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
• Hitler married Eva Braun & designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor; the next day, as Russian troops approached the bunker, the two of them committed suicide.
• The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Allies.
On 29 Apr 2010, our Navy officially ended a ban on women serving on submarines, saying the first females would be reporting for duty by 2012.
On 30 Apr 1789, George Washington took office in NY as the first president of the US.
On 30 Apr 1798, US Navy was formed.
On 30 Apr 1803, the US purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.
Humor/Puns
Why did the capacitor kiss the diode? He just couldn’t resistor.
Stir-fry cooks come from all woks of life.
When the plane hit turbulence, the passengers really went flying.
if you see an improperly lowercased letter, you must capitalize on it.
Can Napoleon return to his place of birth? Of Corsican.
The lumberjack loved his new computer. He especially enjoyed logging in.
Two antennas met on a roof and fell in love. Their marriage ceremony wasn’t much but the reception was excellent.
Now that we have self-driving vehicles it won’t be long before we have a western song where the guy’s truck left him, too.
The man who created autocorrect has died. Restaurant in peace.
I went to the doc about my short-term memory problems; he made me pay in advance.
My friend is a Singer song writer. Or sew it seams.
What did the French groundhog see when he awoke? His chateau.
You can’t use “beefstew” as a password. It’s not stroganoff.
There’s so much anger in the world; yesterday the tire of a used car kicked me.
Buck passing is not new, but now they’ve never passed faster than they do now.
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Quote/Verse
”Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.”
―Dwight D. Eisenhower
James 1:12
“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him”
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God Bless America!