Posted on 10/16/2002 11:52:34 PM PDT by Snow Bunny
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This is how I think of the USO Canteen Freeper Style. It is like a cottage down a road, a place where a weary veteran can spend the night.
Since it opened, it is magical how so many Freepers who post here, feel it too. It has been so dear how the Freepers kept making it a cottage - a home-type of place that had a huge living room for them to visit in and a dance floor, a library, etc.
Many Veterans have written to me, saying that the Canteen is like home to them for the first time since they served.
This is your Canteen - a respite from our busy and sometimes troubling world. Make yourself at home.
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Tribute To HEROES
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 While the dogtag is used to provide information on an individual serviceman,
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The Minuteman in 1776 has a connection to the soldier fighting in Afghanistan today. Each of us represents a link in the chain that connects that Minuteman of SAMWolf
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Tribute to Vietnam Veterans
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The great intangible of America's wars beyond logistics,
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For our Troops, and supporters of
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.To Jim Robinson,
Thank you, from all those
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Today's classic warship, USS Kearny (DD-432)
Gleaves class destroyer
Displacement. 2,060
Lenght. 347'4"
Beam. 36'1"
Draft. 11'10"
Speed. 33 k.
Complement. 208
Armament. 4 5", 12 .50 car., 2 10" tt., 2 dct.
Kearny (DD-432) was launched 9 March 1940 by the Federal Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Miss Mary Kearny; and commissioned on 13 September 1940, Comdr. A. L. Danis in command.
After shakedown and sea trials, Kearny got underway 19 February 1941 from New York Harbor for St. Thomas, V.I., where she took part in the "Neutrality Patrol" off Fort de France, Martinique, French West Indies, until 9 March. The new destroyer patrolled around San Juan, P.R., and escorted ships in the Norfolk area until August when she sailed for Argentia, Newfoundland, to escort North Atlantic convoys.
While Kearny was escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic before the United States entered the war, three convoy merchant ships were torpedoed 16 October. Kearny immediately began dropping depth charges and continued to barrage throughout the night. At the beginning of the midwatch 17 October, a torpedo struck Kearny on starboard side. The capable crew confined flooding to the forward fire room enabling the ship to get out of the danger zone with power from the aft fire room. Regaining power in the forward fire room, Kearny steamed to Iceland at 10 knots, arriving 19 October. Kearny lost 11 bluejackets and 22 others were injured in this attack. After temporary repairs Kearny got underway Christmas Day 1941, and moored 6 days later at Boston, Mass., for permanent repairs.
From 5 April to 28 September 1942, Kearny was busy escorting convoys to the British Isles, Panama Canal, and Galveston, Tex. Late in September, she sailed to act as a fire support unit in the North African invasion. There she screened Texas and Savannah on fire support missions, shot down an enemy plane, and escorted troop ships to Safi, French Morocco. Kearny departed the invasion theater and escorted a convoy back to New York, arriving 3 December 1942.
Kearny escorted ships to Port of Spain, Recife, Brazil, and Casablanca until 15 November 1943, then joined the Core hunter-killer task group 25 November. During the day of 1 January 1944, in coordination with antisubmarine planes from Core, Kearny fired a depth charge attack on a submarine resulting in a large oil slick, she returned to New York 18 January.
Next month Kearny joined the 8th Fleet in French Algeria. She reported to Brooklyn 10 March for duty in Italy, where both warships engaged in supplying fire support for the 5th Army. Due to their daily fire-support trips to the Anzio beachhead area, the warships became known as the "Anzio Express." They later were commended by General Mark Clark for the accuracy of this fire support.
Kearny was detached from the group the beginning of June and steamed to Anzio alone to give Allied troops their last naval fire support prior to their breakthrough and capture of Rome. The veteran destroyer saw more convoy duty before sailing for the invasion of Southern France.
Kearny was inner fire support ship tor Red Beach, Cavalaire Bay, France, and rendered counter-battery fire and pre-H-hour bombardment. She screened heavy fire support ships; laid smoke screens off Toulon; and, on 19 August 1944, began 2 months of duty screening transports carrying troops between Naples and southern France.
Afterward, Kearny made several cross-Atlantic voyages from New York to Oran. On 6 August 1945, Kearny transited the Panama Canal for duty in the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor late in August after hostilities had ended. She escorted a transport squadron carrying occupation troops to Japan via Saipan, arriving at Wakayama, Japan, 27 September. During the next month Kearny made voyages to Philippine Islands and Okinawa before returning to Japan in October. She sailed from Wakayama, Japan, 29 October 1945 for home via Pearl Harbor, San Diego, and the Panama Canal, arriving Charleston, S.C., 5 December 1945. She decommissioned there 7 March 1946, and went into reserve. Kearny was subsequently moved to Orange, Tex. where she remained until stricken June 1 1971, and sold October 6 1972 and broken up for scrap.
Kearny received three battle stars for service in World War II.
An old man lived with his hound-dog, Mace, in a run-down shack on the outskirts of town. He had no family and only a few meager possessions: a table and chair, a bed, a bag of hand tools, and his dog. He used the tools to do odd jobs in town, for which he usually would be paid enough to get food for the next day. Mace and his master lived from one day to the next on what little these jobs would bring in. The dog was just a normal hound, with one exception: while most dogs like to chew on grass occasionally, Mace loved it. When the old man was in town, Mace would spend the day in the yard in front of the house, chewing away on the lawn. One bright, sunny day the old man said goodbye to his dog and headed into town to work. He had a plumbing repair job in one of the homes there that would take him most of the day and would probably pay enough for food for the remainder of the week, if he managed the money carefully. He headed for town with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. Inside the house and ready to start, the old man reached in the bag for his wrench. To his surprise, he didn't feel it. He dug around again, but there didn't seem to be any wrench. He looked in the bag, then dumped its contents on the floor, but still no wrench. Reality set in. Without a wrench he couldn't finish the job, and without the pay he couldn't even buy food for that night's supper, let alone for tomorrow. When he finally came to grips with reality, he told the lady who hired him what the situation was. While she sympathized with his situation, the job needed to be done. If the old man couldn't do it, she would have to hire someone else. The old man packed up his tools and headed home, head bowed and shoulders stooped. The whistle was gone and no longer was there a spring in his step. A walk that normally took 15 minutes seemed to last forever. But finally the old shack came into view, and there was Mace in the distance, munching away as usual on the lawn. When the dog saw his master, he came running, tail wagging, telling the old man how glad he was to see him. Kneeling beside the hound, the man began to pet him, and through tear-filled eyes told the dog that there would be no supper tonight and no food for tomorrow. What's more, without money to buy a new wrench, he had no idea what the future held. It was the loneliest, most helpless feeling he ever had! Then he caught a glimpse of something shining in the grass. As the old man went over to see what this piece of shining material was, his despair turned in an instant to joy! It was the wrench! The old man had dropped it on his way out that morning, and it would have been lost forever had Mace not been eating farther away from the house than he usually did! The old man grabbed the dog, gave him a hug that almost suffocated him, and ran into the house. Reaching for a stub of pencil and the only piece of paper he had, he wrote a moving tribute to his canine companion. Few people have ever heard these words...until now, that is. One man who did happen to read them changed them a bit and has his name recorded in music history. The old man never did get the credit he deserved. But now you are privileged to read the beginning line of his original poem, which went: "A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for me."
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