The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Wyatt E. Barnese: My First Day in Combat (11/25/1944) - July 6th, 2005

Military History Quarterly | Spring 1999 | Wyatt E. Barnese

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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My First Day in Combat

A retired soldier recounts the fear and excitement of his first day of combat as a nineteen-year-old GI in November 1944--and how his desire for a souvenir almost turned that first day on the line into his last.

We travel-worn replacements were adopted by F Company, 318th Regiment, Eightieth Infantry Division, on November 13, 1944. Our induction was without ceremony, as befitted such a routine event, for there had been several similar infusions of bewildered replacements in the period after the division's heavy losses during the Lorraine battles of October and early November. My own odyssey, that of a nineteen-year-old GI, had begun six weeks earlier on the quay in Greenock, Scotland, where I debarked from Queen Elizabeth along with fifteen thousand other American soldiers. We then entered the replacement system's sluice, which dumped its contents into the hungry divisions on the line.

As I traveled through the replacement pipeline, the few friends I had made during the crossing went to other units. I knew no one in the group who joined F Company, now in reserve building its strength in the village of Haute-Vigneulle in Lorraine. There were occasional shell bursts, but the unit was not seriously bothered by them. I was impressed by my warlike surroundings, though the veterans were unaffected. They had seen much worse and now luxuriated in the relative peace.

This idyll was about to end. On November 24, an officer told us that the next morning we would descend the south slope of a nearby valley and cross a small stream, destroying whatever enemy we encountered. We would then drive up the north slope and seize its crest. The two Maginot Line bunkers glaring down from that promontory, sited for all-around defense, need not trouble us, he said; artillery would deal with them. Difficulties were minimized, and the briefing ended.



The officer did not disclose the purpose of the drive. In any case, the men of F Company did not care. The immediate front, not high strategy, was our real concern, and we replacements worried most about how we would endure the utterly new experience that awaited us. Actually, it was a major effort, involving the whole of the Fifth and Eightieth Infantry divisions against the Falkenberg Stellung (Falkenberg Position), defended by the Thirty-sixth Volksgrenadier (People's Infantry) Division. The Thirty-sixth was understrength and not well-equipped, though it was augmented by a battalion or two from the 347th Infantry Division. The Americans would attack with three infantry regiments, a tank battalion and two tank destroyer battalions in close support. A five-minute artillery bombardment would precede the operation.

Late that afternoon we were led to the top of the south slope and told to dig in just below the crest in two-man teams. Excavating the thick, clayish soil, soaked by weeks of rain, was an ordeal. The day soon became night. When my foxhole companion and I had to answer the call of nature, we slid out of our hole as best we could. A faint light suffused our surroundings, for the heavy cloud cover could not completely hide the full moon. While we attended to our needs, there was a blinding flash and a shattering explosion. An enemy mortar had zeroed in on our position; its alert crew must have seen faint movement and dropped a ready shell into the barrel. It was almost a direct hit--all that saved us was that glutinous clay that had made our digging so difficult earlier in the day. The shell buried itself, exploded, and rained clumps of clay upon our prostrate forms. It was a narrow escape. A Hollywood war movie would have had us philosophizing at length over the meaning of this adventure in light of the experience we were to undergo the next day. Drenched and miserable, however, we exchanged scarcely a word as the two of us slithered back into our hole. We huddled in our watery shelter and awaited the dawn.



When it came, F Company assembled in the slowly gathering light and moved down the hill in a skirmish line. The rain had almost stopped, and the valley ahead could be seen through the trees. In the dimness, I could make out other companies on our right. As we moved forward, our shells were striking the north slope and its bunkers, but this activity and the closer sounds of machine guns and rifles went almost unheard by me. I was intent on keeping my place in the line and navigating the slippery slope with its brush and trees.

I did feel adequately equipped. I carried five or six eight-round clips for my M-1 rifle, a first-aid packet, a canteen, and a shovel on my cartridge belt. Slung over my shoulders were my gas mask and two bandoleers, each containing six additional clips of M-1 ammunition. In my raincoat pockets were one concussion grenade and two fragmentation grenades. My augmented combat pack, containing items of varying value, weighed thirty-five pounds or so. I was as prepared as possible for whatever destiny might demand.



We reached the valley bottom to find that the "small stream" the briefing officer had mentioned was not merely a simple bubbling brook. Rain swollen, the stream had become a swift torrent four or five feet deep. We lowered ourselves into it and gained the opposite bank. After we crossed the stream, the open fields of the valley floor, laced by barbed boundary fences, lay before us. The whole north slope, including the two German bunkers, was in sight.

Soon I saw my first enemy soldiers. On my right some twenty yards away, fifteen or twenty men in yellow raincoats moved about. The sight struck me as incredible. Here I was, trudging through a marshy field, climbing barbed-wire fences, drenched to the skin, trying to focus on all that was happening around me, and worrying about sticking to my unit, and then, suddenly, there was the enemy. But then I hesitated. Were they our own men who had unexpectedly gotten in front of us? The fear of firing on comrades was in my thoughts during my entire time on the front line; I could imagine nothing worse. Pushing aside my uncertainty, I fired at the left-most raincoat-clad soldier. He fell. Then, perhaps moved by the excitement of my first shot fired in anger, I fired four more rounds into his presumably lifeless body. The other soldiers in yellow were giving up. We moved on.



Continuing across the valley, I fired the three rounds left in my rifle at nothing in particular and inserted a fresh clip. Steady artillery fire hammered the two north-crest bunkers. Then their garrisons ran outside with white flags, and the shelling ceased. That was a relief; if the garrisons had fought seriously, we would have suffered heavily. Hugh Cole's The Lorraine Campaign notes that "these works were now in a poor state...[and] the Germans had little time to familiarize themselves with the Maginot system."

[SAMWolf]

We climbed the north slope, bearing to the right of the bunkers. Cole quotes Generalmajor (Brig. Gen.) August Wellm, commander of the Thirty-sixth Volksgrenadier Division, as attributing its collapse to our artillery. Wellm mentioned "the coolness displayed by the American infantry, who advanced calmly through the thickest fire 'with their weapons at the ready and cigarettes dangling from their lips.'" My weapon was certainly ready like the riflemen he described, but I did not smoke.



A tank trap in the form of a deep trench now appeared across our front and slowed our advance. The sides had collapsed from the incessant rain, and the bottom was deep in mud. I got stuck in the glutinous mess and was rescued by a luckier comrade.

I then climbed the final slope to the crest. The advancing companies were mixed together, and I saw no one I recognized. I inspected one of the bunkers that had just surrendered. Its steel door was open, and the interior was dimly lighted by sunlight peaking through the door and the two firing embrasures. An enemy soldier had left a bread crust on a table. I was hungry, not having eaten since the day before, but the bread was hopelessly inedible.



We had also seized another bunker near a small forest, from which rifle fire could be heard--both ours and the enemy's (the flatter sound of the German Model 98k carbine was easy to recognize). A favorite status symbol of GIs was a captured German pistol. An officer's Walther P-38 was the pistol of choice, though any kind would do. With this hidden objective in mind, I moved down the wood line toward the sound of gunfire. Then a lieutenant shouted that the Germans in the woods who were firing at us were ready to surrender. Here was my chance.

I dashed into the woods followed by a few other souvenir hunters. About fifty yards in, I paused at a large tree and looked ahead. The enemy soldiers, now in view, were strangely diffident about giving up. From behind my tree I saw four Germans, heavily armed, in a small clearing forty feet away, unaware of my presence. Braced against the tree, I brought my rifle up to my shoulder and fired four fast rounds. They scattered instantly. I may have hit one, maybe two, though probably not fatally. A second later, I was alone again.



My four enemy targets had been in front of me. I now saw another man to my right, crouching and moving at right angles, also about forty feet away. He seemed unaware of my assault on his nearby friends just seconds before, but such is the fog of war, even on such a tiny scale. I fired two shots at him, and soundlessly he pitched forward. My second round had passed through him from right to left, almost certainly fatally. I now looked ahead. Here was something I could not identify, looking like someone in a strange pose. I soon realized it was a man kneeling, pointing his rifle at me! I stared for a second or two. Suddenly, amid a deafening explosion, the tree that my left cheek was pressing against was torn, and a hail of splinters flew into my face. A bullet had hit the tree two inches from my left eye. I kicked my feet out behind me and fell. A grenade explosion followed and debris cascaded against my bowed helmet. Then came a long burst from an MG42 machine gun. I saw a tree to my right shredded by the fire. I was left alone; the enemy must have thought I had been killed.

I was now uncomfortably alert. The men who had followed me were not in sight. I peered around my protecting tree. Then I heard movement and voices coming from behind me. To my alarm two Germans strolled nonchalantly from my left rear, fifty feet away. They walked to my left, chatting away, their gas-mask canisters clanking steadily against their belts as they strolled. Obviously, I was well within the enemy position. Then, to my further alarm, I saw an enemy soldier in front of me carefully inserting twigs in his helmet netting. I could have shot him easily but at the cost of my own life, which I placed at a higher value than his. Soon, five crouching Germans, just behind the camouflager's position, advanced past my front. The enemy was attacking. Firing increased.



Much to my relief, the attack stalled, and I saw no further activity. However, worried about my left flank, I raised my rifle and pointed it around my tree in that direction. I also had another concern. I had fired four rounds into the group I had first met and two more at the man I had shot to my front. I should eject the two remaining rounds and insert a new clip, but this would involve loud clicks, which I could only muffle a bit. The distant firing was subdued by the forest, and it was deathly quiet in my lonely domain. I placed a clip upright on a leaf. I would fire my two remaining rounds and ram the clip home as fast as I could. I had done this quite often in training but never when my life depended on it.

Time passed. Suddenly, a single enemy soldier approached along a path traced earlier by two others. On coming abreast, where the path angled left, he turned and stared down at me. At his slightest move, I decided, I would fire. I could not miss; he was less than forty feet away. We stared at each other for some seconds. I cannot imagine what he was thinking. He may have thought I was a comrade, or perhaps I was dead or not human at all, for I was motionless and covered in mud. I will never know. He turned and disappeared.



It was a very close call. He may have noticed me after all; maybe he would call his friends to deal with me. After four hours of lying motionless, I eased out of my heavy pack and crawled over the intimidating open stretch of ground behind me to the sheltering trees, stood up, and returned to the American lines.

[SAMWolf]

Within minutes of my escape our tanks had gotten behind the Germans and forced them to surrender. We headed into the woods while I regretted my pusillanimous retreat. If I had waited just a bit longer, I would have been in at the finish. I did get a pistol though, from a German noncom. It was not a P-38, but it would do.



The area was littered with German casualties. Policy declared that prisoners must cast off their helmets. I seized the helmet strap of a wounded German and tried to wrest it off. He groaned in pain. Then I saw a bullet hole in his helmet and what looked like blood and brains seeping out. He was seriously wounded and probably near death. I left him alone. A slightly wounded German was leaning against a tree. I pointed my rifle at him while, with genuine curiosity, I examined his attire and equipment. "Nicht schiessen" ("Don't shoot"), he pleaded and dissolved in tears. Another man had been shot in the genitals and was in great distress. I moved on. There were other scenes of equal misery to witness.

I later rejoined my unit. Escorted by tanks, we crossed an adjacent field toward more woods, at whose edge was another bunker. The tanks offered protection, and their treads compacted the sodden earth, making walking easier. The bunker was empty, but a tank fired at close range, blowing chunks of concrete from its face, exposing the reinforcing rods within. We bore right, to the north side of the forest and found two more bunkers, also unoccupied--fortunately, since the tanks had now left. The bunkers faced a barren field stretching to the brink of a cliff, whose ominous feature was an observation cupola. En route, I found myself walking with my platoon leader, ahead of our main body. If that cupola is manned, I said, we were in trouble even if we threw ourselves down. He had thought of that, too, but we had no choice.



I had another problem. Earlier, I had tried to open my rifle's bolt to replace the two remaining rounds with a full clip. It would not budge, even after grounding the butt and bringing my heel down hard on the handle. It had turned much colder, and all the mud and water coating my rifle had frozen. I was afraid it might explode if I fired.

At the cupola, we were atop yet another bunker set into the cliff and commanding the wide plain below. This bunker was also empty. I stuck my rifle muzzle into the observation port, turned my head and fired. The slug careened off the sides of the bunker. The bolt was safely freed.



We milled around the area. It was sunset, the skies had cleared, and there was a bitter wind. From the cliff's edge we could see far across the plain into Germany. We withdrew to the forest edge and the two bunkers. In a belt before the bunkers stood a knee-high barbed-wire thicket, twenty feet deep and traversed by crooked paths. A tank barrier ten feet deep lay before the wire--rails set six feet below ground, probably in concrete, and extending four feet above ground. Before these obstacles lay a fifteen-foot open tract ending in a low ledge atop which began the plain that stretched to the cliff. We were to dig in against the ledge and await a counterattack.

Four of us began digging a shallow pit into the ledge as darkness fell. I shivered constantly, still wet from fording the stream that morning, the earlier rains, and my long session pinned down in the forest. The other GIs were equally miserable. Digging was hard in the frozen ground, but at last we all stretched face down in our new abode, wondering about a counterattack.



Then came a creeping barrage of German 88mm artillery rounds. In wordless anxiety, we felt the shells coming closer. A shell fell almost on us, but there was no explosion; it was a dud. The barrage continued over us, then ceased. There was no counterattack. And with those last shells, my first day in combat ended.

My experiences that day, November 25, 1944, were quite humble, but they made a profound impression on me. Curiously, for decades afterward I rarely thought about them, although they loomed prominently in the back of my mind. Now, in my indolent retirement, the day has assumed a special place. It was so filled with events I could not have imagined that later combat experiences, quite stressful themselves, have receded from memory, though hardly forgotten. The experiences of others on their first day of combat may well have been worse, but on my first day I stared death in the face more than once and behaved, I believe, with reasonable calmness and resolve. I am content with those thoughts.

Additional Sources:

wing.chez.tiscali.fr
www.80thdivision.com
www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/6882
www.army.mil

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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July 6, 2005

Dusty Leaves

Read:
Psalm 32:1-7

I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. —Psalm 32:5

Bible In One Year: 2 Kings 18-19

The rubber plant I bought for my wife Dorothy added a touch of life to our home. But one morning its leaves were dropping as if in a state of dejection. I wondered what happened.

When I came home for lunch that noon, the plant was completely transformed. It looked as hearty as it did the day I got it from the store. Its leaves were extended outward once again. When I asked Dorothy about it, she told me of reading a household hint on how to keep plants looking fresh. It stated that dust accumulating on the leaves can actually prevent the light from getting to them, so it's necessary to wipe them off regularly. She had done this and the result was amazing.

As we live in this world, tiny "particles" of sin can easily build up in our lives. Resentments, sharp words, impure thoughts, or selfish attitudes all take their toll on our spiritual vitality. Unless they are confessed right away, they begin to form a layer of "dust" that prevents us from experiencing the light of God's grace in our hearts. Those around us will sense that something is wrong.

If the accumulation of unconfessed sin has gathered on your soul, do as David did—confess it to the Lord (Psalm 32:5). Wipe off the "dusty leaves" of your life and enjoy once again the glorious sunshine of God's love. —Dennis De Haan

Before the cross of Him who died,
Behold, I prostrate fall;
Let every sin be brought to Him
And Christ be all in all. —Bridges

Confession of sin lets the light of God's forgiveness shine through.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
The Forgiveness Of God

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on July 06:
1747 John Paul Jones naval hero ("I have not yet begun to fight")
1796 Nicholas I Russia, Tsar (1825-55)
1818 Adolf Anderssen Prussia, world chess champion (1851-66)
1814 Justus McKinstry, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1897
1821 Edward Winston Pettus, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1907
1884 Harold Vanderbilt NY, America Cup (1930,34,37)/inv contract bridge
1903 Axel Theorell Sweden, biochemist, studied enzymes (Nobel 1955)
1915 LaVerne Andrews singer The Andrews Sisters
1918 Sebastian Cabot London, actor (Mr French-Family Affair)
1922 William Schallert LA Calif, actor (Martin-Patty Duke Show)

1923 Nancy Davis Reagan NY, 1st Lady (1981-89)

1925 Bill Haley Mich, (& the Comets-Rock Around the Clock)
1925 Merv Griffin San Mateo Calif, TV host (Merv Griffin Show)
1927 Janet Leigh Merced Cal, actress, She's in the shower (Psycho, Harper)
1927 Pat Paulsen comedian, presidential candidate (Smothers Bros Show)
1932 Della Reese Detroit, singer/actress (Della Reese Show, Touched by an Angel)
1937 Gene Chandler [Eugene Dixon], Chicago, rocker (Duke of Earl)
1937 Ned Beatty Lexington Ky, actor (Deliverance, Repossed, Network)
1945 Burt Ward LA Calif, actor (Robin-Batman)
1946 Fred Dryer Hawthone Calif, NFLer (NY Giants, LA Rams)/actor (Hunter)
1946 Jamie Wyeth Penn, artist (An American Vision-Boston)
1946 Sylvester Stallone NYC, actor/director (Rocky, Rambo, Cobra)


1946 George Walker Bush President United States of America

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Deaths which occurred on July 06:
1189 Henry II King of England (1154-89), dies at 56
1415 Jan Hus burned for heresy by the Church at Constance, Germany
1535 Sir Thomas More executed in England for treason
1762 Peter III Feodorovich, tsar of Russia (1761-62), murdered at 34
1835 John Marshall, the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, dies (79) Two days later, while tolling in his honor in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell cracked
1863 Strong Vincent, US Union brig-general, dies
1864 Samuel Allen Rice, US Union brig-gen, dies of injuries at 36
1962 William Faulkner author, inventor of Yoknapatawpha Co, dies at 64
1971 Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong jazz musician (Hello Dolly), dies at 70
1971 Thomas C Heart, US admiral/commander (Asiatic fleet), dies
1972 Brandon De Wilde actor (Jamie), dies at 30 in a car crash
1973 Otto Klemperer, German/US conductor, dies at 88
1975 Otto Skorzeny, German/Austrian SS (Mussolini/Ardennen), dies
1993 Ruth Lady Fermoy, maternal grandmother of Princess Diane, dies at 84
1994 Cameron Mitchell, actor (High Chapparral), dies of lung cancer at 75
1998 Roy Rogers (b.1911), singing cowboy, dies (Happy Trails to you)
2003 Buddy Ebsen (95), Actor/Dancer "The Beverly Hillbillies" & "Barnaby Jones," dies.

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GWOT

Iraq
06-Jul-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Jeffrey M. Wershow Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant David B. Parson Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - ambush

06-Jul-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Justin T. Hunt Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Corporal Jeffrey D. Lawrence Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Scott Eugene Dougherty Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Rodricka Antwan Youmans Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack


Afghanistan
A Good Day

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/
(subtle hint SEND MONEY)

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On this day...
1483 England's King Richard III crowned
1535 Sir Thomas More executed in England for treason
1609 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of religion
1685 James II defeats James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor. (last major battle fought on English soil)
1699 Capt William Kidd arrested in Boston
1775 Congress issues "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms," listing grievances but denying intent to be independent
1776 Dec of Ind announced on front page of the "PA Evening Gazette"
1777 British Gen Burgoyne captures Fort Ticonderoga from Americans
1785 Congress resolves US currency named "dollar" & adopts decimal coinage
1798 US law makes aliens "liable to be apprehended, restrained,... & removed as alien enemies"
1854 1st Republican state convention, Ripon, Wisc
1863 Northern Territory passes from New South Wales to South Australia
1864 Battle of Chattahoochee River,
1869 Black candidate for lt governor of Va, Dr J H Harris, defeated
1882 14 Russian Jews of Bilu, arrive in Jaffa Palestine
1885 1st inoculation (for rabies) of a human being, by Louis Pasteur

1886 Horlick's of Wisconsin offers 1st malted milk to public

1892 Striking steelworkers in Homestead, Pa fire on scabs, killing 7
1894 Cleveland sends 2,000 troops to Chicago to suppress Pullman strike
1908 Robert Peary's expedition sails from NYC for the north pole
1917 Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
1919 British R-34 lands in NY, 1st airship to cross Atlantic (108 hr)
1920 Democrats end convention in S F select James Cox of Ohio and running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

1923 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics formed

1924 1st photo sent experimentally across Atlantic by radio, US-England
1928 1st all-talking motion picture shown, in NY (Lights of NY)
1928 Worlds largest hailstone 1lbs (17') falls in Potter Nebraska
1936 114ø F, Moorhead, Minnesota (state record)
1936 121ø F, Steele, North Dakota (state record)
1939 German Nazi's close last Jewish enterprises
1943 2nd day of battle at Kursk: 25,000 German killed
1944 US General Patton lands in France
1944 170 die in a fire at Ringling Bros Circus in Hartford Conn
1945 Nicaragua becomes 1st nation to formally accept UN Charter
1945 Pres Truman signs executive order establishing Medal of Freedom
1945 B-29 Superfortress bombers attacked Honshu, Japan, using new fire-bombing techniques
1945 Wash Senator Rick Ferrell catches a record 1,722 games
1957 Althea Gibson became 1st black tennis player to win Wimbledon
1957 Harry S Truman Library established in Independence, Missouri
1958 Alaska becomes the 49th state
1959 Saar becomes part of German Federal Republic
1960 Dr Barbara Moore completes a 3,207 mile walk from LA to NYC
1964 Beatles' film "Hard Day's Night" premiers in London
1964 Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Britain (Natl Day)
1965 Rock group "Jefferson Airplane" forms
1967 Biafran War erupts as Nigerian forces invade
1971 White House Plumbers unit formed to plug news leaks
1974 Garrison "The Jerk" Keillor makes his 1st live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
1976 United States Naval Academy admittes women (81 inducted)
1976 Soyuz 21 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 5 space station
1983 Supreme Court rules retirement plans can't pay women less
1987 1st of 3 massacres by Sikh extremists takes place in India
1988 Carlos Salinas de Gortari elected president of Mexico
1989 US marshals & FCC sieze pirate radio station WHOT in Brooklyn
1994 A firestorm killed 14 firefighters near Glenwood Springs, Co., while fighting a forest fire.
1995 Bosnian Serbs under Radislav Krstic attack UN safe area at Srebrenica 7,500 Muslim men and boys killed.
1996 The Libertarians nominated financial counseling author Harry Browne for president.
1997 Martian rover Sojourner rolls down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander and begins mankind’s first mobile exploration of Mars. The first rock targeted for examination was named "Barnacle Bill."
2001 Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleads guilty to 15 criminal counts and agrees to give a full accounting of his spying activities for Moscow.
2003 Dennis Schmitt and 5 companions stepped on a 120-foot-long pile of dirt at 83°42’ latitude, Earth’s farthest north piece of known land. In 2004 Danish authorities discount the find in favor of a larger island called Kaffklubben.
2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (who served in Viet-Nam) selects John "pretty boy" Edwards to be his running mate

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Malawi : Independence Day (1964)/Republic Day (1966)

National Canned Luncheon Meat Week (Day 4)
Nude Recreation Week (Day 3)
National Fried Chicken Day
Freedom Week (Day 3)
Old Milwaukee Day in Wisconsin.
Louisville Kentucky : Storytelling Festival
National Anti-Boredom Month

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Religious Observances
Luth : Commemoration of Jan Hus, martyr
Old Catholic : Commemoration of St Thomas More, humanist/martyr
RC : Memorial of St Maria Goretti, virgin/martyr (opt)

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Religious History
1415 Martyrdom of Jan Hus, Czech reformer, who was condemned for heresy and burned atthe stake because of his outspoken appeals for church reform and for political and religiousrights for the common people.
1535 English Catholic theologian Thomas More was beheaded for refusing to recognizeHenry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, which had just broken with the RomanCatholic Church.
1757 Birth of William McKendree, colonial American church leader. In 1808 he was ordained the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
1846 Birth of John H. Sammis, American Presbyterian clergyman and author of the hymn,'Trust and Obey.'
1941 English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink observed in a letter: 'It is those who walk the closest with God who are most conscious of their sins.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Root Canals, Emus Honored In Wis.

MADISON, Wis. -- Root canals and amateur radio operators were honored with special days in Wisconsin this year. Emus got a whole week.


Gov. Jim Doyle has issued about 1,000 proclamations since taking office in 2003, according to a review by The Post-Crescent of Appleton. Some honor people or raise awareness about serious issues, while others simply note the offbeat.

Family storytelling had its own day last October, a month that also promoted pornography awareness. March promoted caffeine awareness and recognized certified government financial managers.

But Doyle isn't the only Wisconsin governor to issue scores of proclamations - his predecessors issued thousands of their own over the decades.

"It's a way to acknowledge and honor the contributions that individuals and organizations have made to the state of Wisconsin, and in some cases it's a way to highlight or get information out to people," said Doyle spokeswoman Melanie Fonder.

The Wisconsin Emu Association received proclamations for the past five or six years, president Joylene Reavis said.

This year's declared the week of May 7 as Emu Week and reads, "Whereas the emu's hide is soft and supple enough to be popularly used in the fashion industry..."

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Thought for the day :
"This way of life is worth defending."

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning, everyone.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

[Samwise]

That's a heartbreaker.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Folks~

One of the best reads on a soldier's life I've read. The young man puts any Hollywierd writer to shame. If I have one criticism it would be his description "I regretted my pusillanimous retreat". No way that word belongs anywhere in his first day of combat.

but on my first day I stared death in the face more than once and behaved, I believe, with reasonable calmness and resolve.

Amen.

[Professional Engineer]

Good read today Sam.

[Professional Engineer]

Nude Recreation Week (Day 3)

!!!

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather.

I found a chess bishop in my shoe today. Hmmm

[Professional Engineer]

Aye.

[Professional Engineer]

The
Red Green
Show
will start production on its 15th and Final Season in
April 2005

[alfa6]

The Red Green Show will start production on its 15th and Final Season in April 2005

DANG NAB IT

This is a Pigeon Pad Update Bump fore the Wednesday Freeper Foxhole.

Well I was finally able to get the slide fabricated and about halfway installed today before I ran out of time. Had to 'borrow" the neighbor's boys for a few minutes to help me get it lifted into place. 30+ feet of treated 2x12 is heavy!!! I still need to install 1 more guard rail and a finish getting the slide anchored down for good. Have to work tonight so off for a nap before I have to go in.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

Bitty Girl has struck again.

I bet she is laughing right now.