Linda has written another excellent blog post. I’ve often said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Her analysis of one poem and inclusion of another conveys this directly. My own life has been excellent and I’ve been surrounded by wonderful friends, found a loving and marvelous wife, been granted amazing opportunities and truly been happy. I’d recite the hurdles I’ve faced in recent years, but truth be told, the things that seemed bad ended up being good because they pushed me into a far better place.
I will never understand how some people allow themselves to dwell on the negatives in life.
I decided to splurge and secured a domain name for my humble blog. Now, you can also reach it by going to WereNotLostWereInFrance.com
I’d been urged to do this for my software development blog, LostInXpages.com, in which I write about technical issues encountered in XPages development, so I thought I might as well make life easier for everyone here as well.
The change should be minor, since links to the old redirect to the new.
Filed under: Henderson, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Blogging Advice, Henry Henderson, Historical Marker Database, Mumbai, Rule 5, Terrorists
We’ve had a mild winter and I’ve been diving into more veteran reunions, so I’ve gone far too long since I last posted a Weekend Wanderings.
- As I was cleaning out my inbox to try to rebuild my To Do list, I came across a link to our pet photographer’s blog, in particular to her entry on our photo shoot for our Christmas car with our little Cavalier, Henry.
- Melissa was in Mumbai, at the Taj, not long before the terror attacks there in 2008. We were both more horrified about the risks taken by the staff who’d been so marvelous to her, so when our favorite Village Smith blogged about the Heroes of the Hotel Siege, we really took note.
- If you’re blogging and you’ve wondered how to get a million hits on your blog in less than a year, you should consider following The Other McCain’s advice. I picked and chose from among his recommendations, so you will never see a Rule 5 post here. Of course, if you like Rule 5, you can always go see XBrad’s Monday posts labelled Load HEAT.
- In my paying job, I do software development for a company that does international development (think “foreign aid”, but sponsored by many sources, not just first world governments). So, I get to see a lot of interesting technologies. The latest one is FormHub, which is used for mobile data collection. It allows collection of survyes, integration with GPS data at the time of data collection and rapid analysis of that data via maps. They’ve got a great explanatory video and I keep thinking that we can come up with some applications as military historians for this software. Craig Swain’s work on the Historical Marker Database comes to mind.
Filed under: 36th, Officers, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: 36th Infantry Division, British, Dunkirk, Gun Control, Jonathan Yale, Jordan Haerter, Navy Cross, Operation Market Garden, Pearl Harbor, Russ Littel, Sag Harbor, SAS, Signal Corps, US Naval Institute
It’s been a while since I’d posted a Weekend Wanderings, so let me share some of the interesting things I’ve found of late:
- For the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Naval Institute blog posted an article written by Thomas C. Hone for the December 1977 issue of Proceedings magazine detailing the specifics of the damage to the battleships. It makes for fascinating reading.
- Bob Costas went on an anti-gun rant after the recent murder-suicide of an NFL player. He made no such grandstanding speech when another such player killed a teammate by driving drunk. UltimaRatioRegis pointed this out ably over on Bring the Heat, Bring the Stupid.
- There was a fishing tournament held in late September in Sag Harbor, NY, the in honor of Sag Harbor native LCPL Jordan Haerter, who was awarded the Navy Cross along with CPL Jonathan Yale, for their actions in Ramadi. One of my connections to Haerter is via SFC Russ Littel, married to a Sag Harbor gal, who is currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 36th Infantry Division. His in-laws are keeping a candle lit for him until he returns home.
- If you’ve seen those “most interesting man in the world” ads for Dos Equis, you have the flavor of the life of Major-General Tony Deane-Drummond. He escaped Dunkirk, the failed drop at Arnhem, and a POW camp in Italy (twice). He led a successful attack by the SAS on a 7,000-foot high plateau. In 34 years in the British Army, he was awarded the Distinquished Service Order and two Military Crosses. He lived life to it’s fullest and has now passed on. Hat tip to Mike Stransky on this one. “On one occasion [during his escape from Arnhem] Baroness Ella van Heemstra, the mother of Audrey Hepburn, arrived with a bottle of champagne.” Stay thirsty, my friends.
Craig pointed out a daring daylight raid on Paris in 1942 to XBrad. You should definitely read Brad’s intro and then the article.
Filed under: 509th, Veterans, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Andrew Pelkey, Eric Greitens, Jim Broumley, Lions of Kandahar, Memorial Day, Morton Katz, Navy SEAL, Special Forces, Stuart Beare, Tufts University, William Bennett
As most of the country simply enjoys another day off, I’m sure those reading this are spending some time thinking about the true meaning of Memorial Day.
- Jim Broumley, who wrote an excellent book on the 509th (The Boldest Plan is the Best) notes that COL Morton Katz, who is expected to attend the Operation Dragoon seminar and commemoration in July, will be delivering the keynote speech at the Avon, Connecticut memorial service on Monday.
- Speaking at Tufts University, Navy SEAL Eric Greitens challenged graduating seniors to sacrifice, “to serve one’s country and to live magnanimously.” Greitens noted of his own service, “The more I thought about myself, the weaker I became. The more I recognized that I was serving a purpose larger than myself, the stronger I became.” I’m going to order his book, The Heart and the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy SEAL
and I think everyone ought to. Thanks to Mr. Pelkey for the link to Bill Bennett’s column.
- On Wednesday, the “Lions of Kandahar“, 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, were awarded the Canadian Commander-in-Chief Unit Commendation by LTG Stuart Beare, Commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. LTG Beare compared the honor to the Presidential Unit Citation – this is only the 7th award of the citation and the first to a foreign unit since the citation was established in 2002.
Filed under: 506th, Band of Brothers, Veterans, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Army Air Corps, B-25, Buchenwald, Doolittle Raid, France 1940, Hedy Lamarr, Joe Muccia, John McGrath, Marcus Brotherton, Torpedoes
“I demand satisfaction!” is a cry of an earlier time when I man could seek redress on a field of honor for slights suffered at the hands of others. If you long for such times, as opposed to the endless blathering of slanders and disagreements found on the internet, you will surely enjoy this video, courtesy of our friends re-enacting Easy Company.
- I may be going out on a limb here, but I don’t think any current leading ladies of film hold any technical patents, but Hedy Lamarr was far different, as Valerie Curl pointed out on her EpiphanyBlog, “In 1942, at the height of her Hollywood career, she patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was two decades ahead of its time.”
- Robert Seale took some excellent photos of 3 of the 5 surviving Doolittle Raiders. The 70th anniversary of those “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” is approaching (18 April 2012) and he got to fly with Doolittle’s co-pilot, Colonel Richard E. Cole, in Larry Kelley’s B-25, Panchito.
- Speaking of re-enacting, there is apparently an event over in south-west Michigan that might be fun if you’re nearby, Lest We Forget: WWII Public Display and Battle Recreation. There will be a vehicle parade, beach landings, a public battle and a hangar dance. It will be held at the Southwest Michigan Regional Airport and the beaches of St. Joseph.
- At the GI Film Festival (don’t forget to help out Firewatch) there will be a film on The Lost Airmen of Buchenwald. Betsy Miller, in the Military History group on LinkedIn, had recently pointed out the fate of some American airmen who got trapped in the Holocaust, pointing us to the National Museum of the US Air Force for more information.
- Volunteer fireman and Easy Company veteran, John “Jack” McGrath passed away. McGrath was a humble man, not eager to tell his stories, leaving dedicated Easy Company researchers like Marcus Brotherton and Joe Muccia lamenting that they couldn’t learn more from him. Joe noted that, “in fact he spent more time asking me about my war”.
