Posted on 08/14/2005 6:57:07 PM PDT by Jeff Head
Saw half of it today beforce it was stopped by a storm going through. Got a rain pass --literally--and am going back tomorrow.
What is sad is General Patton tried something similar in Europe. It was a devastating failure. and earned him many enemys who accused him of mounting the raid just to free his son-in-law.
I beter stop, I'm getting mad thinking of the quislings now in America!
The movie sounds amazing and a rarity to come out of Hollywood. I will see it for sure.
And your political commentary afterwards is profound. It should be in every newspaper across the country.
Thanks for posting.
I'd like to think that here at FR, that essay is mostly choir-preaching, but there is no such thing as too much truth, bravery or honor.
Maybe a trip to the theater is in order.
Thanks for the review Joanie , I shall spend the dime and buy the DVD when it comes out !!
To date my favorite read on the prep and plan for such a raid involved the attempt at Son Tay prison. The book I highly suggest ya read about the actual raid to free American POW's in Vietnam was written by Benjamin F. Schemmer , The Raid.
Was there ever a movie about Son Tay Jeff ?
Yes, and today would have been a perfect day for Japan to offer sincere apologies and reparations to the families of the tortured and murdered, well to the whole country. You realize of course, that they never have.
Amen!
Maybe a trip to the theater is in order.
(Am I being too bossy? :)
Thank you for your outstanding review. Very inspiring, as was the film.
The book this movie is based on ( 'Ghost Soldiers' ) is an excellent read, if you'd rather not wait for the DVD.
Thanks for the kind words.
~ joanie
I read this yesterday on another thread, but it didn't hurt to read it twice. ;)
Thanks again for writing it Joanie. And thank you, Jeff, for posting it as a thread of its own. The more people who read this, the more will see the movie- I intend to go sometime this week.
Thanks, Steve.
Thanks, Dave.
I like to first see a movie and then read the book as the book is usually the truth for most of hollywoods attempts. I'll get the visual from the DVD and then the details from the book.
I had friends at Desert 1 that were part of Delta and albeit I haven't found a book on the subject , my talks with some of those guys all these years later revealed so much detail and planning that they didn't even take web gear due weight restrictions, just field jackets w/ a few magazine pouches sewn into the coats and other awesome stuff that can't even be repeated to this day. It was a dang shame that plan failed as those men would have carried out the rescue had their transport not failed em....
This raid, the Son Tay raid, Desert One etc were if anything were points in the history of this country that showed we are willing to come and get our troops and citizens from the enemy regardless of the risks.
Thanks....Stay safe !
The just-released movie, 'The Great Raid' shows us what Americans once were. That was a time in our history when the President wouldn't dare opening our borders to illegal aliens because there would be an armed revolt at the first sign of selective law enforcement.
I think the days have gone past to where Americans could ultimately survive as a people and as a culture. Today our government encourages immigrants to maintain their culture. We celebrate diversity and multi-languages rather than unity. We encourage dual citizenships and promote divided loyalties. We are rapidly evolving into North Americans of a multiculturalist continent where national sovereignty is frowned upon. This social engineering process is being supported by both parties making it more difficult to determine who we should vote for.
Sure, there is a few of us who refuse to accept what we have allowed to happen to our once great nation but soon we too will die of old age and that debate will settle into past history. It will be another NON recorded vote with only very few present that sends us over the edge and erases America from existance. We will soon become another United Nations state rather than an independent country.
Deserves repeating ...
Glad you are intending to break your record. :) You won't regret it. Those of us who have seen it also need to tell others. A movie in which there is absolutely no politically correct history revisionism is a rarity indeed. And unless we spread the word to fellow conservatives/patriots, its run is doomed to be a short one. Most of the mainstream movie critics are panning it brutally.
Thanks for the kind words.
~ joanie
The ship he and almost eighteen hundred more American prisoners were on was sunk in Subic Bay by American dive bombers. Only fifty-nine survived and swam to shore with two escaping and making their way back to American lines. That was quite a feat after having been starved in those despicable Japanese prison camps for almost three years.
Captain Shamblin was one of the survivors. Unfortunately his was soon loaded onto another ship bound for Japan which was sunk by American bombers near Formosa (now Taiwan). This time he did not survive.
It is quite interesting reading all the correspondence between the War Department and the family, the letters and telegraphs, including one from Harry S. Truman. The first listed him as MIA and assumed either killed or captured by the Japanese. Later ones saying the Japanese government confirmed that he was a prisoner. Then the notification that he was killed during the bombing in Subic Bay. Then the corrections saying he survived, and finally the notification of the sinking of the ship he was on near Formosa and of his death on January 10, 1945. He survived much but he finally was against more than he could overcome.
His mother was president of the Gold Star mothers in Amarillo for years and did all kinds of volunteer work for the soldiers in the VA. She would be extremely upset by the hijacking of the Gold Star mothers name by Cindy Sheehan and the other Communists.
Even though the mainstream media will surely continue to cram Cindy Sheehan (and the other useful idiots who will no doubt continue to join her various left wing causes) down our throats, and pretty much ignore those of you who gave of your time and energy to show your support for our troops and the President’s Iraq policies, your efforts are appreciated by all American patriots.
Her uncle, Captain Otho L, Shamblin … He was part of the death march and survived until he was removed in December, 1944, to go to a Japanese prison in Japan and become part of the slave labor regime … The ship he and almost eighteen hundred more American prisoners were on was sunk in Subic Bay by American dive bombers. Only fifty-nine survived and swam to shore with two escaping and making their way back to American lines. That was quite a feat after having been starved in those despicable Japanese prison camps for almost three years … Captain Shamblin was one of the survivors. Unfortunately his was soon loaded onto another ship bound for Japan which was sunk by American bombers near Formosa (now Taiwan). This time he did not survive.
What an incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing it!
The letters and telegrams you referenced surely represent a heartbreaking chapter in your wife’s family’s history – especially the communication from President Truman. But what precious pieces of history you have. And what an incredible story of the Hand of Providence intervening in her uncle’s behalf, until it was time for him to leave this earth.
All of us are appalled and angered at Cindy Sheehan’s despicable beliefs and behaviors. I cannot even imagine how your wife’s uncle’s mother, as President of the Gold Star Mothers in Amarillo, would feel about the tarnishing of that once proud designation.
Again, thank you so much for sharing such a fascinating story of personal courage.
~ joanie
An excellent, quick-thinking response if I ever heard one!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.