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To: Right_in_Virginia
I’ve actually learned a lot from tonight’s show. Had no idea that the German’s blew up American oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Brutal, horrible reality, but I really haven’t seen much bias.

My dad, Pearl Harbor survivor and life long conservative always said the what happened to the Japanese Americans during the war was a big disgrace. I think it was an honest telling of what happened to these people following Pearl Harbor.

147 posted on 09/23/2007 7:37:05 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: KosmicKitty
I’ve actually learned a lot from tonight’s show. Had no idea that the German’s blew up American oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.

I think that somebody has been putting together a project to document all of the naval action in the Gulf. There were some German subs sunk, and a lot of ships. I want to say that people have recently dived on some of the wrecks near Florida and near New Orleans.

I remember reading that the Germans were working to get in close enough to shut down Houston and New Orleans and Mobile by blocking the ports with sunken ships.

It was kept quiet by the government for fear of panicking people, but the woman in tonight's show mentioned that everybody knew it was happening, since stuff from the wrecks was washing up on the beaches.

My dad, Pearl Harbor survivor and life long conservative always said the what happened to the Japanese Americans during the war was a big disgrace. I think it was an honest telling of what happened to these people following Pearl Harbor.

It was not one of our finest moments, and many Conservatives have blasted FDR and other liberals who supported it over the years. I can certainly see why the government reacted the way they did though, because all it would have taken was a few people working for the Japanese to lay out some signals or light some fires in a certain pattern, and it could have been disastrous. I'm not saying it's justified, just that when you put it in context, you can see the government over-reacting, because they didn't have a grasp on what was happening in the Pacific. They messed, and many Americans of Japanese descent paid for it by being sent to the internment camps.
207 posted on 09/23/2007 8:40:10 PM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: KosmicKitty
I’ve actually learned a lot from tonight’s show. Had no idea that the German’s blew up American oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.

I remembered now the info on the Gulf of Mexico - it was a NOAA expedition:

OceanExplorer.noaa.gov

The MMS, in partnership with the NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), under the auspices of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, awarded a contract to C & C Technologies, Inc. to conduct the research. MMS is providing $350,000 toward research costs and NOAA OE is funding the ship time, a deep-submergence remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and personnel for both, all provided by Sonsub, Inc. of Houston.

The study has two separate but equally important objectives: an archaeological/historical objective and a biological objective. The archaeological aim is to document the wreck sites being investigated as historic properties with significance to American history. The biological component will approach the question, “Do manmade structures, such as shipwrecks, function as artificial reefs in deep water?"

“The Gulf is the ideal laboratory for this study, because of the number of steel-hulled ships that were casualties of World War II,” explained Rob Church, C & C Technologies' project manager for the study. The Gulf represents one of the greatest concentrations of Allied vessels lost to German U-boats (U-166 Exploration 2003) anywhere in the world, with 56 ships sunk in 1942 and early 1943.


That link has pictures of some the ships on the bottom (including a German sub that is near New Orleans) and some of the ships sunk included a passenger freighters (Robert E. Lee among others).

The reason why many people don't realize it was because the government didn't want people freaking out, and they didn't want the Germans knowing of any successes. If the Germans thought they were hitting ships but not sinking them, they might move on to other parts of the ocean.
211 posted on 09/23/2007 8:45:49 PM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: KosmicKitty
Had no idea that the German’s blew up American oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oh yes, the Nazis were indeed active in the Gulf waters. My father-in-law was a navigator aboard a naval patrol bomber (Martin PBM Mariner). After initial training, his squadron was formed and continued training flights out of Corpus Christi (where there was, IIRC, a German POW camp co-located with the Navy base). His aircraft sighted u-boats several times and dropped aerial bombs, but never got a confirmed kill.

His squadron did eventually move on the the west coast and then the Pacific theater of battle, but another squadron formed at the same time never left Corpus - they were retained there to patrol the Gulf.

Luck of the draw.


256 posted on 09/24/2007 2:01:39 PM PDT by Charles Martel (The Tree of Liberty thirsts.)
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