Posted on 09/07/2004 4:53:05 AM PDT by The Mayor
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THE WEEKEND THREAD
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Nice post.
Young boy Sammy liked to hang out at Mom and Pop's Grocery Store. Other boys that visited the store would tease him often, calling him Slow Sammy, and punching him on the shoulder as they passed. Pop couldn't quite figure out what Sammy's problem was, because he seemed to be a very bright and intelligent person when the other boys were not around.
As an example, the boys would often mock Sammy for being slow. To prove their point they would offer him a dime and a nickel, telling him he could have just one. They said he always took the nickel because it was bigger.
One day after Sammy took the nickel, Pop pulled him to one side and spoke to him.
"Son, don't you know they're making fun of you? They think you don't know that the dime is worth more than the nickel. Are you really grabbing the nickel because it's bigger?"
"No," Sammy replied. "But if I took the dime they'd quit doing it!"
That is so beautiful.
It's a wonderful life.
Yipper-Roo, pardners.
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LOVE that pledge graphic!!!
Good afternoon all. Mama B, this is so beautiful. We have such a brave military. God bless them and their families.
The lights are still on and we have a steady rain here with a little wind gusts here and there. Hopefully the worst of Frances is going to stay south and east of us. Think the worst of it is going your way Lady.
News from the past war
Brothers in arms
An Italian-American family in North Texas sent five sons to World War II, who became known as the Fighting Fenoglios
By Chris Vaughn
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - The postman who walked the route near the convent on the city's south side used to look out for the letters from the Fenoglio boys.
He knew that when he got one he'd better linger with Marietta Fenoglio for a few extra minutes, knew she'd get weak and shed a lot of tears.
"He would stand there with her until she got under control," said Marietta's daughter Sylvia Fenoglio Webb, who lived at home at the time. "My daddy told the boys to be sure they wrote letters to their mama, and they did what Daddy told them."
The last world war tapped five Fenoglio sons, an Italian-American family that was profiled in the Star-Telegram in 1944 for its sacrifices. The paper called them the Fighting Fenoglios, and every one of them came home.
The youngest of the bunch is Melvin, now 77 and living with a son near Bryan. Henry, 79, is the only son left in the Fort Worth area. Frank died in 1991, Charley in 1993, James in '99.
At a time when hundreds of thousands of American families are again separated by military service in far-off countries, there are a few people who understand, none better than the Fenoglios.
B.J. and Marietta Fenoglio raised their nine children on a cotton farm three miles east of Montague, an unlikely place for northern Italians to settle. But in the late 1800s, they did, coming from little towns in the Piedmont region.
They grew every vegetable they ate, slaughtered hogs and chickens, canned fruit from the peach orchards and produced their own wine, which the local lawmen politely ignored.
"You could always tell the Italian kids because we had purple feet," Henry Fenoglio said.
Marietta Fenoglio spoke Italian to her children, but most of them learned only the comprehension end of the language.
Charley went into the service first, in 1939, because finding steady work was still tough during the tail end of the Depression. Charley became an electrician aboard the battleship USS Pennsylvania, which was docked at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked.
He served on the USS Mount Vernon, USS Breton and USS Casablanca before becoming chief electrician on the USS Bismarck Sea, a light aircraft carrier. That carrier was sunk by Japanese kamikaze planes on Feb. 21, 1945, off the coast of Iwo Jima; Charley was dumped into the sea for about four hours.
Charley was rescued and taken to Saipan, where he had a hunch that his youngest brother, Melvin, was stationed. In letters to each other, the Fenoglio brothers had a code for locations that they didn't think the censors could figure out.
"I was working in the maintenance office," said Melvin Fenoglio, who served with an air rescue squadron. "I seen him coming across the ramp. He was wearing someone else's clothes because he had lost everything. I told the chief, 'Well, here comes my brother.' "
By then, the Fenoglio parents had sold their farm in Montague County and moved south to Fort Worth, buying a three-bedroom house on College Avenue south of Berry Street.
B.J. Fenoglio became a steelworker at the steel plant on Hemphill Street, and Sylvia went to work as an electrician at the Convair bomber plant on the west side, a Rosie the Riveter.
"They'd never had indoor toilets or running water or electricity," Henry Fenoglio said. "So Mama kind of liked it when she got down here."
Henry was inducted into the Army in 1943 and soon ended up in North Africa at the headquarters of the Allied army. He asked if he could join the 36th Infantry Division and see some combat, but his superiors shook their heads.
They made him a messenger for a general.
"I had gone to business school in Wichita Falls and learned how to keep books" after high school, he said. "That's what kept me off the front lines, I suspect."
Frank, the fun-loving Fenoglio, was spared overseas duty, undoubtedly because of his weak eyesight, and served as a training soldier at Fort Bliss and Camp Maxey.
It was James, the second-oldest son, who saw the most action, ironically in the country where his mother was born.
James belonged to Texas' legendary 36th Infantry, and he fought in Italy, including the bloody battles of San Pietro, Cassino and the Rapido River.
He became a sergeant and earned two Purple Hearts. The war ended for him near Rome. It wasn't the physical injuries that sent him back to the United States but mental and emotional injuries.
"He wasn't acclimated to that kind of violence," Henry Fenoglio said. "He was a quiet guy who never seemed to feel pressure. But after he came back, he was pretty nervous."
The war weighed perhaps most heavily on Marietta Fenoglio.
"Honey, that little lady went through a lot," Sylvia Webb said. "I would hear her crying all night through the wall."
By 1947, though, Marietta Fenoglio had all her children back from the military, four of them even living at home.
"She was a happy woman until 1950," Henry Fenoglio said.
Charley was recalled to the Navy at the beginning of the Korean War and was sent to an aircraft carrier.
On Nov. 29, 1950, the Fenoglios gathered around the radio to listen to the news. The newscaster reported that hordes of Chinese soldiers swept across the border and were scattering the U.S. military.
"Mama collapsed," Henry Fenoglio said. "She never regained consciousness and died the next day. Those were the last words she heard. In her mind, we were all going back for another war, and we had all just gotten back together.
"Our mama was the family's only casualty."
I'm glad that its better there. I still havn't heard from my son and his family in FL.
'Diligence' and crew sail into second Haitian crisis
By Trista Talton
Staff Writer
The Wilmington-based Coast Guard cutter Diligence is where it was almost 10 years ago – in the blue waters where the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea meet – interdicting fleeing Haitians.
A spokeswoman with the Coast Guard's 7th District in Miami confirmed Tuesday that the Diligence and its crew of about 75 Coast Guardsmen are operating in the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba about 600 miles east of Miami.
Star-News attempts to reach the crew, which deployed in late January, were unsuccessful.
American and French troops have been working to restore order in Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile in Africa Sunday morning. Hundreds of Camp Lejeune-based Marines have been sent to the poverty-stricken country since early last week.
The crisis in Haiti began mounting when rebel leaders vowed to oust the former president.
Mr. Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1990. He was removed by a coup in 1991 and restored by the United States in 1994.
Andy Cascardi was captain of the Diligence in July of that year, when the cutter arrived in the Windward Passage.Mr. Cascardi, now retired, said he remembers approaching Hispanolia and seeing the orange blazes of burning boats dotting the horizon.
Abandoned boats were torched because they were navigational hazards. Mr. Cascardi said his crew destroyed 15 to 20 boats.
The crew's mission was to rescue Haitians who tried to flee the poverty and politics of their native country by piling into rickety boats.
"At one time we had over 500 Haitians on the ship," he said.
Men, women and children crowded the 210-foot cutter's deck for several days. The crew used parachutes as makeshift tents and buckets as toilets. Many pulled to safety needed medical care. Refugees were primarily fed rice and chicken.
The cutter crew worked grueling hours, eventually repatriating more than 1,000 Haitians.
"It was a pretty rewarding mission," Mr. Cascardi said. "Those people were close to being doomed to failure."
He said he worried while the ship was en route that his crew would not understand the plight of the people they were saving. The former cutter captain held an all-hands meeting before the ship reached Haiti to reiterate the humanitarian aspect of the operation.
"I think, after that, the crew understood that this was a significant thing," he said. "We had 500 Haitians on board and had not one incident. They were very mild and peaceful."
He remembers how some of his crew played card games with the waiting refugees.
Explaining the decimated economy and politics in Haiti to those who haven't witnessed it first hand is difficult, Mr. Cascardi said.
The uproar in Haiti was not a surprise to him.
"I'm not really surprised, but I had hoped for the best," Mr. Cascardi said.
Its great to have the USCG around. They are really doing a good job. We don't usually even hear about them. They are there 24/7.
Here, thanking God for His protection in the ongoing Tornado Watch for the entire state of South Carolina.
Yesterday and last night there were several, including the county where my sister lives.
During the night was one in the community just 15 miles above us, and one 17 miles below us.
We twice briefly had power loss, and this a.m. Wal-Mart was dark - had to go to the other major grocery store for bread, the truck just unloading a fresh supply.
Am battened down and have plenty of edibles and water, and secure in God being in charge of all things...
Looking for numerous severe thunderstorms as the bands of Frances rake the state, so will not be online much again.
We will be glad to see them come to Texas. We love our troops.
More Troops to Texas?
President Bush in August announced that 60,000 to 70,000 troops and roughly 100,000 family members would be leaving overseas bases and returning to the United States, the largest troop realignment since the Cold War. The troops and their families will be stationed at domestic bases over the next decade. I continue to advocate for bringing overseas troops to Texas, including during three meetings with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld this year. I’m optimistic that the redeployment of troops recently announced by the President Bush has the potential to strengthen Texas military facilities.
Know at least they are not one of the fatalities, or we'd have been notified, and since they both long ago invested in generators, they are probably not suffering.
Do you know if your son stayed put, or left his residence?
Well I put in 4 hours down at the Bush HQ in Memphis...handed out 300 campaign yard signs.
Hi Gail...thanks for all your efforts in GW's relection bid. I'm still so thrilled that I got to see him as well as all his energized supporters. There's nothing like it. Cyber treat to Rocky.
Prayers for both your kids in Fla (and that you stay safe Maggie)
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