Gettysburg

We are engaged in a great civil war…

A hundred and fifty years ago, in a field outside of a town in Pennsylvania that most people had never heard of before the fate of a nation would be decided.  Over the past few months General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, would be making advances into the Northern Territory, through Maryland and into Pennsylvania.  There near the town of Gettysburg Lee's Army would clash with General George Meade and the Army of the Potomac.

From these three days we would learn of leaders like Pickett, Chamberlin, Sickles, Sykes, Longstreet, and Ewell. We would also learn about places like Cemetery Ridge, Culp's Hill, the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top. These three days would make, or in some cases break, the careers of military leaders and they would be the ultimate turning point in the American Civil War.

 

I first set foot on this hallowed ground in the summer of 2009, I was ill prepared for the experience that I would have over the next few hours.  I had been to other battle grounds in the past, I had learned about Gettysburg in school, I had seen movies about, and referencing, this battle but none of this would prepare me nor compare to my being here.

Before the fighting broke out, the Union forces were holding the town as General Lee was advancing the Army of Northern Virginia into the heart of Union territory.  After his defeat at the battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam, Lee had regrouped and was continued his tactics of skirmishes into the north and then pulling back to the south, a tactic that he had utilized up to this point.  Lee was now advancing past Maryland and into Pennsylvania.  As his forces moved up and surrounded the town of Gettysburg, General Meade was reinforcing the Union position with his Army of the Potomac.

Prior to the battle Lee was already in a position of disadvantage with the loss of his Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson about two months prior, thus leaving most of his forces under the command of two of his new "green" Generals, although they were good men and generals combined they were no Stonewall Jackson, The lack of senior leadership and the long distance his supply lines would have to cover would ultimately lead to his defeat.

As the first day progressed into battle, it was little more than skirmishes amongst union forces here and confederate forces there.  With union and confederate units fighting each other around and through the town of Gettysburg.  This would lead Meade to bring his forces back to the high ground of cemetery ridge running south of town ending at round top, creating the formation of the "fish hook", the one thing that would be the saving grace of the Union army.

On the morning of the second day of fighting General Sickles, unhappy with his position on little round top, and thinking that there was high ground with the land at the peach orchard, against orders moved his units down the hillside to the peach orchard.  This move left the 20th Maine, a unit of volunteer soldiers under the command of LTC. Chamberlin defending the side of little round top, a position that would soon have them surrounded if not for the forward thinking of General George Sykes who lead his men to little round top to aide in the defense of that position. After a day of being constantly attacked and ordered to hold their ground on two separate occasions Colonel Chamberlin knew his men were growing restless and short of ammunition.  When the confederates stated their third attempt to take little round top the order was given to fix bayonets, and after the intense fighting Colonel Chamberlin gave the order to attack the confederate forces that were seeking cover in "Devil's Den."  The Men of Maine who had held the line under intense fighting and prevented the Union Army from being routed by confederates now stormed the field of battle.  The story of the 20th Maine is one of heroic sacrifice that would be told for the next 150 years.

On the last day of fighting perhaps the most known action of the battle of Gettysburg would take place, all morning the confederate and union forces would line up their artillery on seminary ridge and cemetery ridge respectively.  About one in the afternoon the two armies would begin firing at each other over a distance of about a mile.  For the next two hours canon fire filled the air until about three PM the smoke was so thick that the armies could not even see the enemy at which they were aiming.  General Meade had his forces stop firing and the confederates believed that they had taken out the Union canons, had 12,500 soldiers step out of the security of the ridge line and began advancing the 3/4 mile distance to the union lines. Once the confederate forces were near General Hancock opened up his second corps and decimated the southern forces as they advanced.  Many of the South’s great leaders were killed in these three days of fierce fighting and General Lee would order a full retreat back down into Virginia, never again advancing his forces into Pennsylvania.

These three days would be one of the most studied battles of the American Civil War, and in fact all of American history, one that showed old families from Virginia battling old families from New York and Maine, little is known about the young men who consecrated that hallowed ground in those three days, but I have had the pleasure to learn of a man, an immigrant from Bavaria, who at the age of 19 left his home in Europe and came to make a new life for himself in Ohio.  His name was Daniel Young, a private in the 107th Ohio infantry, he fought and was wounded at Gettysburg, but he survived he married, had a family.  In the years that followed his first grandson would be named after him, Daniel Young Carman, my great grandfather.  When I learned this about two years ago I knew that the battle of Gettysburg was not some action that had taken place 150 years ago that had no bearing on my life, but instead it was a major conflict in American history that I know that my family, and all of our families, have played a role in.

 

“The world will little note… but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

~~Abraham Lincoln 1863

 

Wars over Happy V-E Day

May 8, 1945 V-E Day

"Wars over!!!"

It was D-Day plus 336, Hitler had been dead for just over a week, and the ink on the instruments of surrender was beginning to dry... It was a day that would bring an end to the suffering much of the Europe had felt since the unprovoked invasion of Poland in 1939. The number of dead would be in the millions with more displaced through the upheaval of Europe through a totalitarian regime that was bent on ruling the world. After the invasion of Poland many believed that giving a little to the Nazi machine would allow Europe to remain in relative peace but one man from England put it so well...

"Appeasement is like feeding the crocodile in hopes that it will eat you last."~~ Sir Winston Churchill
As history has shown time and time again if you give a bully an inch they will try and take a mile. After much of Europe had been overrun by Nazi forces, and an unprovoked attack on the island of Oahu the United States joined the war effort.

When war broke out the United States was not ready to be engaged in a great world conflict, but as Americans have always stepped up an accepted a challenge, this challenge would bring America from the depths of the Great Depression to being the dominate world power. At once the American military machine began to work. As well as assisting in defending Britain from the onslaught of the German air force, the Luftwaffe. General George S. Patton Jr. brought the war to General Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, in North Africa. And over the next few years slowly the Nazi forces would be pushed back from Africa, and the daily assault on Britain would come to an end. Under the leadership of Eisenhower the allies would begin to turn the tide of war against the Axis powers. Patton would lead his men as he pushed on and he would liberate Italy.

By the spring of 1944 Ike would have devised a plan that would be the start of the end of the Nazi's conquest of Europe. An operation know by the code word OVERLORD. Many in the German military thought that General Patton would be the one to lead such an invasion of Europe. It was decided that early June would be D-Day. After weather setbacks finally the planes taking the 82nd, 101st, and the British 1st airport would leave England for France. Finally the Allies would bring the war to mainland Europe.

 

On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the largest amphibious assault in human history occurred on the Cherbourg peninsula. At least 12,000 men would be lost in the intense fighting as the beaches were stormed. If it had not been for men like Lt. Richard Winters, Easy co. 506 PIR, who lead his men in the assault on Brecourt Manor, where they destroyed the four 105mm cannons were raining shells onto Utah beach, many more men would be lost before the beaches would be secured. After more than a month in France the allies would have control of a deep water port that they could bring in heavy tanks and equipment. The allies would keep advancing and on more than one occasion General Patton would over run drop zones in France. Until finally Paris was freed.

In the fall of 1944 the allies would next liberate Holland, this would be under the command of British Field Marshall Montgomery. The plan would be to drop thousands of airborne soldiers from Eindhoven to Arnhem, all the while running armor up "Hell's Highway" to support the airborne. Although the initial operation was a failure and hundreds of British airborne were captured by the Nazi forces in Arnhem, Holland would be freed.

Right before Christmas 1944 Hitler knew that the war was going bad for Germany so he massed his forces near the Luxembourg and Belgium border in the Ardennes Forest. Ike sent the 101 into the area to defend the town of Bastogne. With little prep time the men of the 101st loaded up into trucks and drove to the front line, Ill prepared and under supplied the men began to move into position to defend the town, Lt George Rice, 10th armored division, hearing that the 101st was entering without much ammo and supplies, jumped into a jeep and he began making runs from an ammo dump to the line until every man had all he could carry. The actions of Lt. Rice and the men he "recruited" for these ammo runs would make the difference in the 101st defense of Bastogne. On Christmas Eve the Germans had surrounded the town of Bastogne. The German commander sent a message to General Anthony McAuliffe calling for the surrender of the American forces. General McAuliffe responded with the greatest answer in American military history, a one word response the puzzled the German commander, "NUTS!" The 101st stayed in Bastogne and fought off everything the Germans threw at them, they stayed and fought, from time to time they would be resupplied by an air drop from the Army Air Corps. Some have said that General Patton rescued the 101st, but no member of the 101st has ever stated they needed rescuing, all Patton did was reopen ground supply lines, thus freeing up the Army Air Corps for other missions.

While the ground forces were fighting in Italy, France and Holland, the Army Air Corps were busy with a fight of their own. The bombers during the Second World War were equipped with gunners but for the most part they were still sitting ducks for the German fighters, which were smaller faster and much more maneuverable. It was up to the fighter escorts to defend the bombers so they could safely fly into and return home from bombing runs over Germany. These men, some of whom were not even 20 years old, were flying airplanes when they did not even have a car back home to drive. For these men the fighting in the air was just as dangerous as the action the men on the ground faced. World War Two also saw the first Africa American fighter squadrons, commonly known as the Red Tails, aside from a spectacular record for defending bombers as they flew missions over Europe they were given countless awards for their bravery and heroism. These men would take the first steps and start paving the way for the desegregation of the United States military, and ultimately the rest of the country.

The soldiers on the ground also came across the greatest horror of the 20th century, the holocaust. The Nazi party came up with the "final solution" to what they saw as problems within the Third Reich. Mostly the Jews of Europe but also the ethnic minorities and Catholics in Germany and other occupied areas of Europe. They also sent anyone who spoke against the Nazi party to these concentration camps. This scar the Nazi party put on the Earth will never be erased, but thank God for the men who helped to end it.

Come the end of April and beginning of May 1945 these men would go from a fighting force to an army of occupation. From the 506th occupation of Berchtesgaden to the American and Russian soldiers shaking hands in Berlin. The war in Europe was over. Millions of men from all over the United States would be returning back home on countless victory ships, while others would start preparing to join the Navy and Marines in the Pacific, fortunately a journey most would never have to take but that is another story. But on that spring day in 1945 Europe would once again be at peace.

In my travels I have met many World War Two vets, I am always honored to meet those men. I always stop what I am doing to shake their hand and say welcome home, or just a quick thank you. I am honed that both of my grandfathers served in the European theater, one as a combat engineer in Simpson's Ninth Army, the other as a Chief Petty Officer, CMM, on a ship from England to Russia before he transferred to the submarine service and finished the war in the pacific. In my fraternity I have met men who left the safety of the college campus to answer the call and volunteer to our great nation, I once told one that he was my hero, he told me he was not a hero; he said the men who never came home were the heroes... I sit back and I know that he is being the humble man that the war made him, but I realized that he is a hero, so is every man and woman who put on a uniform, from the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who fought, some living and some left buried on the shores of a place they never knew existed before they arrived, to the USO girl handing out coffee and smiling, giving those boys one dance before they left for the hell that awaited them. They are all heroes, and let us never forget the ones who gave of themselves, "the ones who never got to enjoy a world without war."

There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

~~Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle

NASA

Ever since I was a small child, five or six, I have done what countless billions of our ancestors have done and looked up into space and wondered what is up there.  I have spent countless nights looking to the Moon and wondering what mysteries lay in the deep shadows that cross its pitted face…  Looked at the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter and I instantly knew that there is a God and that he has created some of the most awe inspiring and beautiful things man has ever looked upon.  In my years I have had the opportunity to meet many of the men, and women who are a part of a very select club, the men and women of NASA who have taken that first step; the step that almost every child dreams of, the step into the final frontier that is space.

I have always loved the thought of space travel and I remember as a child I would wake up early and watch many launches from my parent’s living room in Houston. From my earliest memories I remember watching the Space Shuttle launch and dreamed about being one of those brave men to sit on top of millions of gallons of rocket fuel and a machine with about a billion moving parts built by the lowest bidder...  I joke only because of the respect that I have for those men, and a bit of envy that I will never being a part of their exclusive club...  As a child in Elementary School I remember when a couple of Astronauts came and spoke to us about their trip into space, they were giants among men.  I have said it before and I will say it again, I really don’t have a big hero worship for athletes or actors, to me real heroes are men with ribbons on their chest, Heroes are men and women who wear helmets.  Astronauts meet both of these definitions.  

Almost immediately after the end of World War Two a new global contest was begun and that was the space race.  Both the USA and the USSR were racing to be the leaders, not only here on Earth but also in Space.  In September of 1962 President John F. Kennedy, Speaking at Rice University, about 25 miles from where I sit tonight writing this, stated “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not… …We mean to be a part of it - we mean to lead it.”  Those words launched the greatest technological triumphs in human history, many of the things we use every day came out of the new ideas and inventions of the 1960’s all brought forth by the most ancient of dreams, the dream to reach the moon.

In less than a month we will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the end of the Mercury project, Where the US planned to send 7 men into space.  After six successful flights the Mercury program ended with Gordo Cooper being the last American to fly in space alone.  That would bring us to the Gemini Project where we would send a two man spacecraft into space, and look at how much more we accomplished, Ed White became the first American to do an EVA, to walk in space hanging above the earth and just looking down on all of us with a joy that I don’t think many can express or even understand.  We sent not one but two rockets into space at the same time and then had them link up in space, not because it was an easy task but one that we would have to do in order to move our program forward, forward to the moon.

The final tasking that Kennedy envisioned in that hot September day was the Apollo program.  Where three men would take the perilous journey 240,000 miles to that large grey ball that has inspired us since we first looked up into the sky.  The Apollo program led us through some of our greatest triumphs and through some of our darkest days as a nation.  The program almost never got off the ground, literally.  In January of 1967 Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were participating in a test of the Apollo command module when a fire rushed through the command module and killed all three men. 

If it had not been for the hard work and dedication of many great men like Frank Borman the Apollo Program might have died there on Launch Pad 34. But like the Greek God that the Program was named after Apollo would rise again and in just under 18 months Neil Armstrong would take that “one small step.”  I have had the joy of seeing and touching that ship that made the journey carrying Neil, Buzz and Michael over the abyss of space, the module is named Columbia, this would not be the first time the US has had a ship Columbia, and I know she would not be the last.

After a nearly flawless landing and return on the next trip led by Pete Conrad showed Americans that going to the moon was a tasking that we were up to and that America would win the Space Race.  Then came Lucky number 13, Jim Lovell, on his fourth trip into space, and his second trip to the moon, uttered those words which will forever haunt NASA, “Houston… We have a problem.”  But again just as Kennedy had predicted Americans rose to the occasion and Apollo 13 became the successful failure and where Gene Kranz coined the phrase “failure is not an option.” The rest of the Apollo program ended without a hitch and 12 men would walk on her surface and would return with countless samples of lunar geology.

After the end of the moon shot NASA took some time and developed the Sky Lab program where we had a temporary home in space, that program started a dream, a dream of an permanent structure in space, a space station that would be brought to life in NASA’s next generation of spacecraft, Thirty-two years ago the Space Shuttle Columbia, I knew that name would come up again, launched on the first trip into space of a reusable Spacecraft. Through 30 years of service the space shuttles would expand our understanding of not only of our world, and solar system but of the cosmos. They built our international Space Station and placed the Hubble Telescope into orbit.

This thirty year odyssey around our home planet was not without its own stumbling blocks, but it also had its fair share of victories. The original name for the first orbiter was to be the Constitution, but because of a very famous science fiction television program from the late 1960’s the craft was renamed the Enterprise.  Although the Enterprise never went into space she was used for testing and she was launched from the top of a 747 and landed on her own.  I have seen the Enterprise a few time, she had a special place in the Smithsonian until 2012 when she was rolled out and moved to her new home in New York.  A year ago when I was in DC I got to see her sitting on the tarmac at Dulles Airport waiting for the weather to clear and she would take her last flight.  Looking up at her white frame and tiles she is an impressive piece of engineering that reminds you what man can accomplish when he sets his mind to a goal.  

Through some of my travels, and my job I have had the honor to meet many of the men and women who have gotten to ride on the five Space Shuttles a few of them are Mike Fossum, Daniel M. Tani, Dr. Mae Jemison, Chiaki Mukai, Jon McBride, who I got to have dinner with in the summer of 2010 at the Kennedy Space Center, and F. Story Musgrave, the only man to ride into space on all five space shuttles, these last two men just happen to be fraternity brothers of mine…

Although Columbia and her sister ship Challenger would not see the end of this program the legacy left to us by these ships will fill scientific volumes for years, but more important will fill the dreams of children for all time. Thank you NASA for this and for the dreams of all children to ride a rocket into space and to touch the face of God.  It is my hope, and dream that the next project is one that will do the same thing for generations of children to come. And I hope that we will never forget those words uttered as an inspiration to all Americans…

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard… …because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” 

~~John F. Kennedy September 12, 1962

Vietnam--

As a child born three months after the fall of Saigon I never understood what happened in Southeast Asia in the 1960's and 70's. I thought it was a place my G. I. Joes went for training. I knew nothing of the French occupation, or the fall of Dien Bien Phu, Ia Drang valley and the four day hell that Hal Moore and his men experienced there. The gulf of Tonkin was a footnote in the back of my history book that we almost never got to in school.

As I grew up I heard stories about how bad Vietnam was, but nothing about the men who served and the reasons they went, for a time all I learned was the evil that came from that war, with Agent Orange, friendly fire on civilians and the atrocities American Soldiers committed in Southeast Asia. None of the stories about how men saved their units through sacrifice, defended the people from the encroachment of those who wished to be their slave masters, and men who did their best to live up to the pledge made to leave no man behind.

 

My first understanding came, as it usually does, years after I learned the lesson. Again I was in Washington, D.C. My junior year in high school, crazy how much of my life was defined by that week, I was visiting the memorial with my teacher, a Vietnam vet who, despite being polar opposites when it comes to all things political, is one of the men I respect the most in this world. Well as we walk through the most hallowed ground on the mall, I noticed him pause at the wall. He stood there for a moment then he moved on. Being 16 I did not know if it was he had something in his eye, he was adjusting his backpack, or he walked past the names of his friends who are etched in enteral honor on that black wall. Coach took a few pictures and then we continued on our trip around DC. As a typical 16 year old, after we moved on the thought slipped from my mind and I really paid no more attention to it. But that memory stayed, not in the forefront of my mind but would return 20 years later, but we will get to that...

In 2005 I started my annual trips to DC. I go at least once a year and I always stop by a few spots, and the wall is one. As an adult I see the wall not as a collection of unknown names, but in fact the opposite, each name is someone's son, father, a friend, or a brother, by blood or in arms. Each name represents a family that has paid the ultimate sacrifice upon the alter of freedom. Each name is that of a family that will never again be whole. Some of those family members will be able to think back to shared Christmases, Thanksgiving dinners, and many many other important family events, while family members of many of them would know only know him through pictures and stories told by those who shared a part of his life, a life that would forever be cut short by the ugly face of war.  Each name is a family that would never again enjoy the world without the scar of war.

Each time I visit the wall I walked around and looked at the people, families, vets, and others like myself who knew no one on the wall, I have seen school trips much like the one I was on the first time I ever saw the memorial, Boy Scout troops, but the thing that sticks out the most is when I see strong men break down, the lucky ones were with their families that could help them through the experience at the wall, men who normally nothing phased them had to be helped up that black stone walkway because of the memories that hit them harder than anything man has ever made. Men who served, men who had protected me before I was even born, Men who were never given the respect they earned as patriots, as national heroes.

 

 

I never had any of these experiences at the wall other than standing by helplessly watching strangers, until last summer. I was in DC for work and we went out on the usual day’s exploration of the mall. We had a great day, we toured the Capitol walked about the mall and then we came to the wall, we removed our hats; we stopped acting like the overgrown 12 year old on their first field trip without their parents, like we had been doing at the Smithsonian, and walked into that sacred ground as we walked one of my co-workers started to shake and pause. I looked over at him and I saw the tears running down his face. I had no words.  I just placed my hand on his shoulder and he smiled at me. I told him to take his time, he walked to the wall and placed his hand on it, he stood there for a moment then he turned around, full tears running down his face, he looked at me with a half-smile and said thank you. I looked at him and said welcome home. He smiled and we rejoined our group and continued on our tour.
I have been back to the wall since then and it has a very different feel to me. I don’t know exactly where on the wall we stopped, but now when I visit the wall and I get about halfway down the walk way I am overtaken by a rush of emotions, I have that feeling that I have 58,000+ men looking at me and watching me.  I know that they are in heaven smiling down and they hear me when I pray and say thank you.

I now stop, not just at the wall but anywhere I am, if I see a Vietnam Veteran hat, I pause walk up to him give him my hand and I always say “Welcome home!” I only wish I could have been there forty years ago to say that to him when he was a young man returning home to a country that he has proudly served.
As I think about Vietnam the only thing that stays forever in my mind is that Heroes don't wear numbers on their back, they wear ribbons on their chest.

Thank You!!

As I think about my travels and where I have gone I have realized a handful of things, First America is truly the greatest nation in the history of man.  Second America has everything you will ever want to see, from her “purple mountain majesties… From sea to shining sea” and lastly it is not because of people standing up and giving speeches or those playing a sport, or even those who tell us “what is really going on.”  It is the American Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Airman who have given us the freedom that we enjoy.  It is the Veterans, who are the Heroes we should never forget.

I love to study war, I don’t really know why I just do, I always have and I always will.  When I was a child we were in Hawaii and for my tenth Birthday my father took me to Pearl Harbor.  While we were there we walked along the pier where all the ships were in port and my father pointed out this ship and that ship, he told me that this was an escort, that was a destroyer so on and so forth.  But then as I looked out across the Harbor there was this gleaming white “bridge” I had seen pictures of it before from all of my father’s photos and from books I had read.  After a little while we boarded a small boat and took the short trip to the memorial from the visitor’s center and I stood above the remains of that beautiful ship looking down into what would forever be the grave of 1,177 Officers and Men who died in the service of our great nation.  At that time I knew, even at 10, that this place is a place of Honor.  Since then I have visited many historic battle sites and visited more memorials that I can possibly remember that was the first and it will forever leave a lasting impression on me.  

I am not trying to over glamorize war here, that is not the point of this essay, but in fact the opposite.  I am very thankful that in the history of the United States, including our Declaration of Independence as a formal Declaration of War, we have only declared war on our fellow man 6 times.  Now there have been many more military actions, and all of our Veterans deserve our admiration and respect for being willing to “write a check pay to the United States People… Up to and including my life.” They are the heroes that built America and we should always remember them and the sacrifice they have laid upon the Alter of Freedom.  I have always believed that a man wearing a helmet defending the Constitution of the United States deserves to be paid more than a boy wearing a helmet defending a ball; there is no comparison between the two.

In the summer of 1776 56 men in Philadelphia started this great experiment in Democracy.  They signed a document that amounted to high treason.  But the last line will always resonate what it means to be an American Soldier; “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  With those words The American Revolution was declared, Yes I know that the shot heard round the world occurred a year before and that the United States Army, Navy and Marines had all formed up in 1775.  But this was our Declaration, and read those words, they are not just good words, they are great words that still ring true 236 years later.
Not 40 years after the great experiment started we find ourselves back in the same place we were in 1776.  The War of 1812 was where we continued to cut our teeth against our Brothers from England, not much was gained except of a poem written by a lawyer in Baltimore.  As he looked up at “twilight's last gleaming,” and saw that our “flag was still there.”  This war also started the training for one of my heroes, General Sam Houston, who fought with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812.  General Houston was a man that exemplified the word Honor.  But that is another story for another time.
But speaking of the good General, that brings me to the next war, the Mexican American War resulted from the Republic of Texas joining the United States in 1846.  Other than upholding the Texas Revolution, The Mexican American war did two things.  First it is where two Young Army Officers, both west point grads, would meet and begin their training to be two of the greatest generals of the 19th century.   Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant, these men would later meet in 1865 when the American Civil War ended.  The Second thing this war taught us was that Americans do not fight wars to conquer other nations. General Colin Powell said it best…

       "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

No truer words have been spoken about Americans at war.

At the end of the 19th Century America was no longer the new kid on the block.  We had shown that our experiment was succeeding, we fought our own civil war and we were living up to the Monroe Doctrine of controlling all the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, again not through conquest but through migration and mutual agreement.  Then the Spanish American War occurred.  At this time the great European powers were moving away from empire building, with the sinking of The USS Maine in Havana, once again Americans mobilized.  Men like Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders riding up San Juan hill helped to secure the western hemisphere from the empires of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century and helped to create the 20th century which was the greatest century for freedom around the globe.  And again living up to our doctrine we liberated Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines and did they become new territories enslaved by the United States, no they were all given the option to join us or to be free nations.  Only Puerto Rico stayed as a commonwealth of the United States, and just as they were over 100 years ago they are still free to choose their own destiny. 



World War One was the most devastating war in the modern age.  We had new technology, but still fought old style warfare.  Sending men from trenches to advance as a column and attempt to take ground while running through mounted machine guns, flame throwers and the newly devised chemical weapons of the early 20th century. Almost 10,000,000 Men were killed while another 9,000,000 are still MIA and 20,000,000 more men were wounded.  Those who returned from the war were forever changed by it and would tell their children about the atrocities that they saw in the trenches of Europe, but they would be nothing compared to the atrocities that we would see in the early 1940’s.  

World War 2 was a time that changed our countries history, the men and women of the US military fought a true Global conflict the likes of which had never been seen before and thank god have not been seen since.  We saw the rise of fascism and totalitarianism in Europe and Asia. We saw a country come out of the ashes of a great depression to become the leading world power for good.  And we lived up to our nation’s credo that freedom comes from nature and natures God and not from the Government. And it was a time when “We the People” rose up and defended the whole world not because they had something we wanted to take from them, not because we wanted to gain new lands.  But for the only reason that anyone should ever go to war, to defend freedom from those who wish to do it harm.  And to this greatest generation I salute you.

Aside from these six times there have been many terrible wars that just did not have the formal declaration of war from congress the most notable are The American Civil War, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.  The veterans of these wars also should not be forgotten and I thank god that they will not be.  I know it is sad that I quote Star Trek in this but there was a line I learned many years ago that still rings true today about our veterans. “If he could not find a role for himself in peace, we can pity him - but we shall not dismiss him.” The memorials on the National Mall are inspiring to the model of freedom that is the US solider and to we the people to never forget what they have done for us.

 On Veterans day and every day we must remember that it is not the actor, the celebrity, the famous athlete, the politician or the protestor who has given us the freedom we so enjoy. It is the American soldier, sailor, marine and airman they have sacrificed so much for us all. Many of them came home and had to adjust to a changing world, while some of their brothers in arms never got to enjoy a world without war. So today take a moment and thank a veteran for everything that they have given us. All gave some, some gave all.

Thank you for your service to our great nation!

Semper Fi!!

“Some spend their entire lives wondering if they have made a difference in this world. The Marines don't have that problem.”

~Ronald W. Reagan

Ever since I was young I have always known a few things, but the most important thing is that I love the United States of America.  As my father would say even with all America’s problems the United States is still far better than whatever country is in second place.  As I have grown up I understand this phrase and I have embraced it more and more.  One of the reasons that the United States is so great is our home grown heroes. 

This piece is about those men, and women, who are known from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.  We call them Devil Dogs, Jarheads, and Leathernecks, but all in all they are Marines. 

Unlike the other branches of our Armed Services the Marines are never former Marine or ex-Marines, from the day they graduate from basic until they are laid to rest, usually by their fellow Marines, they are Marines.  Ever since Captain Samuel Nicholas formed two battalions of Continental Marines on November 10, 1775 in Philadelphia, PA Marines have defended this country with their lives, they are the heroes that everyone should look up to.  In my life I have had the privilege to know many Marines and count them as some of my best friends. 

When I was in high school my sister came home from a School trip in DC and she showed me her pictures she that she had taken.  There was this one picture that I keep coming back to, a large bronze statue of six men planting our flag into the ground.  At that time, I did not know that it was a representation of the most iconic photo of the 20th century, or even that Iwo Jima was a real place nor the story of those six boys.  All I saw was an icon of America.

In the past few years I as I have started taking pictures I have noticed a few things, any place that the Eagle Globe and Anchor is placed on a memorial to Marines it is ALWAYS shined and kept clean.  Most people would never notice this, but when you are looking at photographs you start noticing things.  So I asked my friend Tom a question about it.  Tom is a Marine that I work with and he told me that Marines have so much pride in their emblem that they will go out to a memorial, clean the emblem and polish it and Marines will never allow it to be tarnished, be it by the elements or through dishonor.

 

So on the 237th anniversary of the Marine Corps founding let us honor these men who have always done what the United States has needed them to do.  If you see a Marine today wish them a Happy Birthday and Semper Fi!  

“Of the Marines on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

~~Chester W. Nimitz

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery

Almost 21 years ago, when I was in high school (1991), I went on a trip to Washington DC.  To this day I still look on some of my photos that I took that week with awe and joy.  As a sixteen year old kid this was my first trip without my parents other than to Boy Scout camp or to a church event and defiantly my first time being 1000 miles from my parents and home.

Well the week was great and it gave me a new found love for the United States, a love that I am sure will come out the more and more as I blog about these things.   This trip had me going to DC with a teacher that I knew but I was never in his class, Mr. Stanford.  He was a Social Studies Teacher and the Golf Coach, tough life right.  Well as the week went on we had our last day that was a free day and was open for us to explore the city.  Well Mr. Stanford wanted to tour the White House, which we did, but in order to get tickets we had to leave EARLY… he had us out of the hotel and our first stop was to Arlington National Cemetery. 

To this day I am sure we snuck in early because of two reasons.  One I now know the Cemetery opens for visitors at 8:00am and closes at 7:00pm, these times are VERY strict and when they say it closes at 7:00pm it means you better be on your way out or a nice Army Specialist lets you know that the Cemetery closed an hour and a half earlier that evening, yeah that happened… Recently… I am just saying that gate was open when we walked in, but that is another story for another time.  The second reason I am relatively sure that we snuck in was that I remember shortly after we entered into the Cemetery we heard revelry playing… Yeah it was that early.

As a 16 year old boy I did not really understand the value of the sacred ground I was about to enter and even though the 16 year old in me would never have admitted it, what I learned that day changed my life.  We walked around and we saw the Tomb of the Unknowns, the grave site of the Challenger Seven, and of course Jack and Bobby.  We did all the touristy things.  But as we walked out I stopped and I looked around, in all four directions, as far as the eye could see there were rows of white headstones.  As I look back on it as the man I am today I wondered why I had never thought about this before… Each one of those headstones is a different man or woman.

As the years have passed I have been back many times, sometimes with a purpose, some times to do the touristy thing and other times just as a reminder of all the men and women who served our great nation, and who many of them never got to enjoy the world without war. 

Well let’s fast forward a few years to 2006, I was in DC visiting my friend Tony, he was still in the US Coast Guard stationed just outside DC and so I had flown up to visit.  We went to Arlington this time to do the tourist thing, after we went to the Arlington house, being the good Boy Scouts that we are we got lost trying to find the Tomb of the Unknowns.  As we walked around, we saw deer roaming the grounds and we looked at all of the unique tomb stones on top of the hill and that was when it hit me, every one of these stones represented someone, here was someone’s father, mother, brother,  sister, son or daughter.  This was not just some National Park that I was visiting this is THE memorial to what is so great about our nation, our fellow citizens who put it all on the line in the service of the United States.  We saw the grave sites of famous men, like John Basilone, USMC who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the early days of World War 2, or his fellow Marines Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and Michael Strank, who raised our beautiful flag on top of Mount Suribachi. Generals John J. Pershing, Omar Bradley, Maxwell Taylor, Anthony McAuliffe, and Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, Jr..  There are of course Astronauts Roger B. Chaffee, Stuart Roosa, Gus Grissom, Pete Conrad, and the memorials to the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia.  One of my heroes from World War 2 General Robert F. Sink and a fellow Texan Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War 2. There are men who served and then went on to be great sports figures, the boxer Joe Louis and Dwight F. Davis- founder of the Davis Cup in Tennis and a fellow Phi Delt.

When I first went to Arlington I thought of these GREAT men that are buried there but it was that day in 2006 that I realized that there were other men, who some of which are very distinguished and others that had served.  Some had given their lives for our country, while others had to come home and adjust to life as best as they could. 

This past summer (2012) I went to DC for my Fraternity’s conference and I had the great pleasure to walk around Arlington with a very good friend.  He is a retired Army Lt. Colonel and as much of a history nut as I am.  Mark pointed out a few grave sites of some of his friends and I made a personal trip as well.  As I walked around I would randomly stop and take a picture for some of the grave sites that I photographed I have done a little research, which means I saw the name in one of my pictures and I went to the Arlington Cemetery website and looked them up:  

Colonel Nick Rowe—Col Rowe was a POW in Vietnam, escaped his captors after 5 years and returned to serve his country for the next 21 years.  Col Rowe was killed by Terrorists in 1989.

Colonel David Haskell Hackworth— Most Decorated US Solider a few of his awards…34 Air Medals, 10 Silver Stars, and 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Colonel Andrew Irvine Lyman-- an Annapolis graduate that served in the United States Marine Corps during World War 2 and Vietnam.

David E. Hayden— He was a Medic, a Pharmacist's Mate Third Class, during World War 1.  He was assigned to a Marine Unit in France.  He received the Medal of Honor for rushing out onto the field of battle to save Corporal Creed under intense machine guns fire.  He bandaged up his brother in arms on the battle field and then carried him back to safety.

The last person on the list has a special place in my book, about 11 or 12 years ago I was visiting with my grandfather who was telling me about his time in the US Navy during World War 2.  In one of my grandfather’s stories he was getting a ride from San Francisco, CA to Pearl Harbor, HI to join his ship.  He caught a ride onboard the new USS Yorktown CV-10.  When he boarded the ship he saw that the ship was commanded by Captain Joseph James Clark.  Now many of you are wondering two things, one who the hell is J.J. Clark, and two why would someone remember a commanding officer 60 years after catching a ride on his ship?  Well let me tell you, Jocko Clark is my grandfather’s cousin.  They are both from the town of Pryor Creek, Oklahoma.  My grandfather grew up hearing the tails of his cousin as Jocko was the first Cherokee to graduate from Annapolis and when he retired from the Navy as a four star Admiral he is the highest ranking Cherokee in the US military.  Before my one of my trips to DC in early 2012 I did a little research on Jocko and where he was buried, since the first time I found his grave site I have been back and I plan to return to it every time I am in DC.  Jocko is my only known family member that is buried in Arlington but I am sure as I do more research there will be other family members that are laid to rest there with their brothers in arms.

If you know someone who is buried there or if you have only heard a story of their greatness, Arlington is the greatest Memorial to the American Citizen.  It is our shrine to all of those who have given so much to us, the ones who have saved this planet from tyranny and oppression, many of whom gave their life on the battle field or the countless who returned home to help make America the greatest place in the world.  Each of them has a story and each story is a varied as the man who lived it.  It is my greatest hope that we never forget the sacrifice these men and women made for us all.