News & Updates
The upcoming election is beyond critically important for our nation. We need a commander in chief who will turn our military around and make it focused on being combat ready, and who will be respected by both our friends and enemies. We need secure borders and a balanced budget and more. Please do the research to find the right person for each of the many offices that are open and be sure to vote. If you have the time, please volunteer to be at voting places and counting ballots and being sure that all is honest and legal. This wonderful nation of ours is, I believe, a gift to us from God, and I also believe that He expects us to be good stewards of His gift. The time to vote will be here before you know it; do your planning now.
In early Aug: WWII ended as we dropped atomic bombs on Japan. Our Department of Defensee was created. Iraq invaded Kuwait, and Operation Desert Shield began.
On 1 Aug 1942, during WWII, Ensign Henry White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sank U-166 as it approached the Mississippi River, the first U-boat sunk by the US Coast Guard. In the summer of 1942, German submarines put saboteurs ashore on American beaches.
On 1 Aug 1943, during WWII, Japanese destroyer rammed American PT boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction was so massive other PT boats assumed the crew dead. Eleven survived, including Lt. John Kennedy. Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands. Japanese destroyers had to make it to Kolombangara Island to deliver supplies. But our PTs was a threat. The PTs set out to intercept those Japanese destroyers. During the battle, a Japanese destroyer hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific. After five hours of clinging to debris, the crew made it to a coral island. Then they swam to a larger island. They met with two natives who took a message south. Kennedy carved the distress message into a coconut shell: “Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive need small boat.” The message reached a coast-watcher. Kennedy and his crew were rescued. Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. The coconut shell with his message found a place in history-and in the Oval Office.
On 1 Aug 1957, the US and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
On 2 Aug 1909, what would become the US Army Air Corps was formed as the Army Signal Corps took its first delivery from the Wright Brothers.
On 2 Aug 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. The day came to be known in Kuwait as “Black Thursday.” 330 Kuwaitis died during the occupation and war. Sadam Hussein, leader of Iraq, took over Kuwait. President Bush led an international coalition for a demand for withdrawal. The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.
On 5 Aug 1861, our Army abolished flogging.
On 5 Aug 1945, during WWII, Hiroshima, Japan, was struck with the uranium bomb, Little Boy, from the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay. The atom bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. The bomb’s yield was about 20,000 tons of TNT. Sixty percent of the city was destroyed. About 80,000 Japanese were killed and more severely burned; others become ill later from exposure to radiation. It was not the most devastating bombing attack of the war, but the economy of the effort involved in sending only one plane on a mission to destroy a city shows the complete change in military and political thinking.
On 7 Aug 1782, in Newburgh, NY, General George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, created the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple,
heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched across the face in silver. The badge was to be presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action” and permitted its wearer to pass guards and sentinels without challenge. The honoree’s name and regiment were also to be inscribed in a “Book of Merit.” That award is now the Purple Heart.
On 7 Aug 1964, Congress overwhelming approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose “communist aggression” in Southeast Asia. This marked the beginning of an expanded military role for our nation in the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
On 7 Aug 1990, President George HW Bush ordered the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2. Our troops prepared to become part of an international coalition in the war against Iraq that would be launched as Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. To support Operation Desert Shield, Bush authorized a dramatic increase in US troops and resources in the Persian Gulf.
On 7 Aug 1942, during WWII, the 1st Marine Division began Operation Watchtower, the first US offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.
On 9 Aug 1918, during WWI, following the lead of other countries, our government ordered automobile production to halt by January 1, 1919, and convert to military production. Factories instead manufactured shells, and the engineering lessons of motor racing produced light, powerful engines for planes. Manufacturers turned out staff cars and ambulances by the hundreds. WWI has often been described as the war of the machines.
On 9 Aug 1945, during WWII, a second atom bomb was dropped on Japan, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the demand for unconditional surrender. We had already planned to drop a second atom bomb on August 11 if needed, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th.
On 10 Aug 1949, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Bill, establishing the Department of Defense. As the Cold War heated up, the Department of Defense became the cornerstone of our military effort to contain the expansion of communism. The bill created the office of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to end the inter-service bickering that had characterized the Joint Chiefs. We realized that more coordination and efficiency were needed for our military-defense bureaucracy, which had experienced tremendous growth during and after WWII. The Cold War was a new and dangerous kind of war for us, and this reorganization was recognition of the need for a different approach to US defense
On 13 Aug 1948, responding to increasing Soviet pressure on western Berlin, US and British planes airlifted a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British
control. The massive resupply effort, carried out in weather so bad that some pilots referred to it as “Black Friday,” signaled that we would not give in to the Soviet blockade of western Berlin.
On 14 Aug 1945, General Douglas MacArthur was appointed supreme Allied commander to accept the Japanese surrender. An immediate suspension of hostilities was ordered, and Japan was ordered to end fighting by all its forces on all fronts immediately.
On 15 Aug 1845, the US Naval Academy established at Annapolis, MD on former site of Fort Severn.
On 15 Aug 1945, celebrations mark VJ Day (VJ = Victory over Japan). Since Germany had already surrendered, this was the end of WWII.
COMING UP ON FRONTLINES OF FREEDOM
On the weekend of Aug 3,4. Congressman and retired General Jack Bergman will join us. Forrest Hamilton from Universal Coin and Bullion will discuss investments. Army vet Jeff Nelligan will discuss his great book about raising sons, and Theresa Robinson will introduce a female veteran.
And on the weekend of Aug 10,11. We’ll talk with Tunnels to Towers about their support for veterans. The we’ll discuss the biggest air show anywhere in Oshkosh, WI. And Til and Skip will share about the Southern Border and a Book.
- *When RSVPing to a wedding invite, “maybe next time” is apparently not an acceptable response.*My New Year’s Resolution was to read more, so I enabled the closed captioning on my TV.
*A duck is standing next to a busy road, cars zooming past while he waits for a break in the traffic. A chicken walks up to him and say, “Don’t do it, man. You’ll never hear the end of it.”
*The temptation to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is always just a whim away, a whim away, a whim away, a whim away.
*5 ants rented an apartment with 5 other ants. Now they’re tenants.
*A pun has not completely matured until it is full groan.
*A snail without a shell is not faster; actually, it’s more sluggish.
*Two bed-bugs fell in love and got engaged. They’ll be married in the spring.
*Bread is like the sun. It rises in the yeast and sets in the waste.
*I was going to tell a railroad joke, but I lost my train of thought.
~ Interesting Quote ~
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson
