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FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Julia Child ~ January 12, 2015
Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !!
| StarCMC
Posted on 01/11/2015 4:59:59 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska
Our Troops Rock! Thank you for all you do! |
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For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. |
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Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! |
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~ Hall of Heroes ~ Julia Child Info from this website and this website. |
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Julia Child: 1912-2004 Julia McWilliams Child was born Aug. 19, 1912, and was, she has said, "an adolescent until I was 30." One of her grandfathers left Illinois in 1849 when he was 16 to pan for gold in California. Her mother, tall and lively like Julia, had roots in New England. Julia grew up in Pasadena in a large house with drivers, gardeners, cooks and a kitchen that both she and her mother rarely saw or cared about. She played center for her private-school basketball team and enrolled in Smith College where she lived what she describes as a "butterfly life," driving her friends around in a Ford and graduating in 1934.
To many, Julia Child is the darling grandmother who taught Americans how to appreciate great cooking. Few know, however, that this part of her life came after a high-level stint in the OSS (a CIA precursor) during WWII. Julia Child became interested in military service when she joined the Red Cross after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Before then, Julia was becoming the Paris Hilton of her day -- she would stay out late drinking and socializing and, being from a privileged background, could afford to do so. Joining the Red Cross helped her focus her life on constructive goals. The new lifestyle appealed to her and the Red Cross became her first step toward serving her country.
Julia was eager to do more, but at 6' 2" she was too tall for other military service organizations. Refusing to give up, she a traveled to Washington in 1942 to explore her options. Soon she began working for the Office of Strategic Services. Although she has modestly claimed her duties were only clerical, her performance record suggests otherwise. By 1943 she had been promoted and was working with very sensitive intelligence material. That same year, she was recruited to travel overseas and help manage intelligence activity in WWIIs Pacific theater. Stationed in Kandy, Sri Lanka, she helped the OSS track data on a range of topics including troop movement and espionage. Julia helped coordinate the information necessary to plan the attacks on the Japanese-held islands in the area.
To some degree, Julia was to the service what Q was to James Bond -- although her duties didnt involve undercover work, she helped develop supplies and techniques for spies and clandestine operatives. One of Julias first OSS teams was assigned the task of finding ways a spy stranded on a life raft could get water. One particularly unappealing strategy they experimented with was drinking water squeezed from a fishs body. Unfortunately, the technique turned out to be useless.
Julias other surprising contribution to the OSS was a shark repellant. The United States had underwater mines that were being inadvertently detonated by sharks. The shark-induced explosions had two main downsides: There was one less mine and German U-Boats could chart the minefields location and know where to avoid. The OSS needed a way to keep sharks away from the explosives, so they turned to Julia. She and some coworkers cooked up a shark repellant that was used to coat the explosives. Unlike her fish squeezing technique, Julia's shark repellant seemed to be successful.
After her service in the OSS, Julia married Paul Child, an OSS operative she had worked with while in Sri Lanka. The two moved to Paris in 1948 where Paul Child worked for the U.S. Intelligence Service. Soon, she began attending the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and developed skill in preparing French cuisine. Julia's cooking interests and abilities grew steadily, and in 1961 she published her first cookbook: 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' It was this book and her subsequent television appearances that made Julia Child a household name, but the events were set in motion by her employment in a clandestine intelligence agency. |
Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families. This is a politics-free zone! Thanks for helping us in our mission! |
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Free Republic
KEYWORDS: canteen; heroes; military; troopsupport
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
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To: Kathy in Alaska
Julia is a hero!
OS operative, Politico, Master Chef and Television pioneer.
41
posted on
01/11/2015 6:08:25 PM PST
by
mylife
To: ConorMacNessa
That’s when SNL was good, nearly a half century ago!
42
posted on
01/11/2015 6:09:52 PM PST
by
left that other site
(You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
To: Kathy in Alaska
If I am not mistaken she flew on missions over the “hump” in China.
43
posted on
01/11/2015 6:11:27 PM PST
by
mylife
To: left that other site
Absolutely correct - I was just musing over the quality of programming in those days vis-a-vis what we now have - what do you think Newton Minow would make of this?
44
posted on
01/11/2015 6:16:06 PM PST
by
ConorMacNessa
(HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
To: Intolerant in NJ
Anyone who works in those circles will have all sorts of things “said” about them.
45
posted on
01/11/2015 6:17:05 PM PST
by
mylife
To: Kathy in Alaska; StarCMC; LUV W; Jet Jaguar; HiJinx; AZamericonnie; Soaring Feather; All
Good evening, all!
Many thanks to our military men and women, past and present, and their families. You are the greatest!
And here, all these years, I thought Julia was some nutty woman on tv who went crazy in the kitchen. LOL! I had no idea she did all these things during WWII.
46
posted on
01/11/2015 6:22:21 PM PST
by
radu
(May God watch over our troops and keep them safe)
To: ConorMacNessa
Well, if TV was a Vast Wasteland 50 years ago,
I would venture that now it could be called a “dead planet”.
47
posted on
01/11/2015 6:25:11 PM PST
by
left that other site
(You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
To: left that other site
Indeed! Something one could kick down the gutter.
48
posted on
01/11/2015 6:31:02 PM PST
by
ConorMacNessa
(HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
To: left that other site
Loved Jacques and Julia
49
posted on
01/11/2015 6:35:10 PM PST
by
mylife
To: ConorMacNessa
I just cut my cable bill in half, and still can get My high-speed internet, telephone service with unlimited long distance, and even FOX news, which I hardly watch anymore either.
The local stations are nearly all in Spanish, so i just use the TV for DVDs.
50
posted on
01/11/2015 6:37:35 PM PST
by
left that other site
(You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
To: mylife
Get your finger OFF the Trigger, Julia, unless you plan on using it! LOL!
51
posted on
01/11/2015 6:38:38 PM PST
by
left that other site
(You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
To: left that other site
She knows what she’s doing. *or she did*
52
posted on
01/11/2015 6:41:26 PM PST
by
mylife
To: left that other site
53
posted on
01/11/2015 6:48:08 PM PST
by
mylife
54
posted on
01/11/2015 6:49:16 PM PST
by
mylife
55
posted on
01/11/2015 6:50:08 PM PST
by
mylife
Julia was NEVER squeamish.
56
posted on
01/11/2015 6:54:09 PM PST
by
mylife
To: Kathy in Alaska
57
posted on
01/11/2015 7:02:46 PM PST
by
Pelham
(WWIII. Islam vs the West)
To: Pelham
I like the tagline, FRiend - of course, we've been at war with them for 14 centuries. May our Almighty Lord give us the strength and Grace to vanquish them as we did at Tours and Lepanto!
58
posted on
01/11/2015 7:08:24 PM PST
by
ConorMacNessa
(HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
To: radu; StarCMC; Kathy in Alaska; ConorMacNessa
Yes, her story is quite amazing huh!
Thanks to the galz for bringing it to us.
I still can’t stand to watch her or listen to her voice. LOL!
Merle Streep was wonderful in the movie about her.
59
posted on
01/11/2015 7:10:29 PM PST
by
luvie
(All my heroes wear camos! Thank you David, Michael, Chris, Txradioguy, JJ, CMS, & ALL Vets, too!)
60
posted on
01/11/2015 7:19:30 PM PST
by
mylife
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