The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

TECHNOLOGY’S CHILD:
SCHWARZKOPF AND OPERATION DESERT STORM

BACKGROUND

Operation DESERT STORM was a military episode embedded in a much wider military-political campaign. Waged by Iraq, the campaign aimed at gaining political and economic hegemony over the Persian Gulf region. The military phase, which was to evolve into Operation DESERT STORM, began on July 16, 1990, when a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst noted that a brigade of the Hammurabi Division of Iraq’s Republican Guard had moved into southern Iraq, opposite its northern border with Kuwait.

President and Mrs. Bush walking along the desert with General Schwarzkopf and entourage.
November 22, 1990

Over the next two days, three divisions, the Hammurabi, Medina Luminous, and In God We Trust, were spotted moving into the same area. During the next week, Iraq moved an additional five divisions to assembly areas close to the Kuwait border. On August 1, these units uncoiled from their assembly areas and deployed in assault formation on the border with Kuwait.

That same day, at 5 p.m. Washington time, Iraq invaded. Initially, two Republican Guard divisions—the Hammurabi and the Medina Luminous—spearheaded the assault. Within three hours, the Iraqi armored forces were in Kuwait City, assisted by a Special Forces division that had been airlifted into the city itself. As Iraqi armored units piled up on the roads in and around Kuwait City, the ultimate intentions of the Iraqi leadership remained unclear. By midday on August 3, however, the Iraqis had sorted themselves out and were clearly moving south, threatening the security of Saudi Arabia. As the situation was developing during the run-up to the invasion, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, had instructed the Commander in Chief of Central Command (CINCCENTCOM), General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, to prepare a two-tiered set of military options to respond to a potential invasion: a set of defensive options to protect Saudi Arabia, and a set of offensiveoptions to take the war to the Iraqis if necessary. On August 4,Schwarzkopf briefed President George Bush on CENTCOM’s contingency war plan, OPLAN 90-1002 (or “ten-oh-two”), which laid down the force requirements for defending Saudi Arabia, and the transport, logistics, and time required to get them there. It envisioned a 17- week deployment of three Army divisions, two Marine Expeditionary Forces, and three carrier battle groups to the Persian Gulf—over 200,000 soldiers in all.

At the White House, General Schwarzkopf with Vice President Quayle, President Bush. Secretary of Defense Cheney and JCS Chairman Powell

Ten-oh-two was briefed to several groups of policymakers. Finally, President Bush instructed Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to discuss with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia the idea that a massive influx of U.S. military power might be necessary to secure the kingdom. After several days of negotiations, the Saudis agreed to allow the U.S. military to deploy to the Saudi kingdom to deter an attack on Saudi Arabia. At 4 p.m. in Washington on August 7, General Powell received the authorization to execute OPLAN 90-1002. Immediately, two squadrons (48 aircraft) of F-15 fighters and the Division Ready Brigade of the 82d Airborne Division (2,300 soldiers) deployed to Saudi Arabia, arriving at Dhahran on August 8. Two carrier battle groups arrived onstation at the same time. By mid-September, the air deployment was almost complete, with over 700 aircraft in place. Over the following 14 weeks, an additional 230,000 troops arrived. On December 1,General Schwarzkopf reported to the President that he had accomplished his mission. A force adequate to deter an Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia was in place.

Halfway through this process, policymakers in Washington pressed General Powell to develop an offensive option—to take the war to the Iraqis and push them out of Kuwait. On October 10 and 11, Schwarzkopf’s deputy, Marine Major General Robert B. Johnston, briefed a rough outline of an offensive plan to the Joint Chiefs and to President Bush. General Powell telephoned Schwarzkopf and asked him what he would need in resources for the offensive option. Schwarzkopf asked Powell for two more ground divisions—specifically, the U.S. VII Corps, which at that time was stationed in Germany.

On October 31, at a White House meeting, General Powell presented Schwarzkopf’s “shopping list” to President Bush, along with the caution that it would take an additional three months to get the troops in place for an offensive operation. President Bush agreed to provide the forces necessary for the task, and, on November 1, issued the order.

Powell gave Schwarzkopf all he had asked for, and more. He ordered the services in response to send three extra Army divisions, a second Marine division, two more carrier battle groups (for a total of six), and over 300 more Air Force aircraft—approximately twice the force that was currently in-country.

At the same time, the United States was successfully marshaling a coalition of nations to support actions against Iraq with the aims of (1) garnering world (and United Nations) approval, (2) keeping the conflict from being seen as an American or Western versus Arab or Islamic conflict, and (3) preventing Israeli involvement, a lightning rod for Arab hostility. The resulting political coalition and the appearance of a military coalition were essential to the success of Operation DESERT STORM. However, despite the significant military participation by other nations, military operations were dominated by U.S. forces and their logistics support. Thus, the descriptions that follow are centered on the U.S. coalition commander and U.S. military operations.

THE PLANS

Prior to the invasion, Iraq had three publicly stated goals. The first was a demand for adjustments to the Kuwait border in favor of Iraq. The second was forgiveness of Iraq’s $40 billion war debt with Kuwait. The third was cession to Iraq of control of the islands of Warba and Bubiyan, which controlled the approaches to the mouth of the Euphrates River, and thus to Iraq. After the invasion, annexation of Kuwait as Iraq’s “nineteenth province” was added. Iraq’s strategic objective was to terminate any hostilities so that she would be holding more than she had started with—territory, wealth, and prestige. Iraq’s operational objectives were to hang onto as much Kuwaiti territory as possible, by inflicting sufficient punishment on the coalition forces to cause them to sue for peace:

A strategy of intensive defense, conceding no ground without a hard fight, was Saddam’s best hope of achieving his political objective of holding on to as much of Kuwait as possible. The higher the costs imposed, the more the enemy would be prepared to accept a peace on terms that were unobtainable prior to hostilities. . . . [T]o this end, Iraqi forces barricaded themselves into Kuwait. They constructed a massive defensive line close to the border with Saudi Arabia, a mixture of obstacles designed to stop a tank offensive, with coastal defenses prepared to repulse an amphibious assault.

The Iraqis had 1,127 aircraft; a ground force of 900,000 soldiers in 63 divisions, 8 of which were of the Republican Guard; 5,747 tanks, 1,072 of which were modern T-72s; 10,000 armored fighting vehicles, including 1,600 modern BMPs (Soviet armored personnel carriers); and 3,500 artillery tubes. With this force at their disposal, the Iraqi Armed Forces’ General Command calculated that the United States would need a force three times as large—or 3 million soldiers—to throw it out of Kuwait.

A great deal of uncertainty was expressed among U.S. decisionmakers about the level of risk involved in an offensive campaign. Many voices were raised, warning of huge numbers of potential casualties. A key question that surfaced repeatedly was whether waging an air-only campaign would reduce risks to U.S. forces. General Powell was steadfast in his adamant opposition to that idea: Many experts, amateurs, and others in this town, believe that this can be accomplished by such things as surgical air strikes or perhaps a sustained air strike. And there are a variety of other nice, tidy, alleged low-cost, incremental, may-work options that are floated around with great regularity all over this town [but] one can hunker down, one can dig in, one can disperse to ride-out such a single-dimension attack. . . . Such strategies are designed to hope to win, they are not designed to win.

The fundamental flaw, he argued, was to leave the initiative with the Iraqi president:

He makes the decision whether he will or will not withdraw. He decides whether he has been punished enough so that it is now necessary for him to reverse his direction and take a new political tack.

By the end of October, President Bush had become firmly convinced that an offensive to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait was necessary.14 To accomplish this objectives, the CENTCOM planners came up with a four-phase plan:

Phase 1 was to last between seven and ten days, and was intended to achieve air supremacy and incapacitate Iraq’s command and control system. This phase was to be executed by strategic air activity.
Phase 2 was intended to last several additional days, and was aimed at Iraq’s warmaking ability—primarily at weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, and chemical), the eight Republican Guard divisions, and 12 major petrochemical facilities, including three refineries.
Phase 3 was intended to be an intense bombing campaign in Kuwait proper, aimed at disrupting, demoralizing, and destroying as many of the 400,000 troops occupying Kuwait as possible.
Phase 4 was a ground campaign designed to surround, isolate, and defeat in detail the Iraqi occupation forces in Kuwait:

Since Saddam had most of his forces in southern Kuwait and along the Gulf coast to the east, the ground plan called for moving VII Corps several hundred miles in a wide arc to the west, and attacking through Iraq to hit the Republican Guard. It would amount to a gigantic left hook. Massive, swift, crushing tank attacks were central to the plan. . . . The idea was to force Saddam to move his hundreds of thousands of troops from dug-in positions so they could be picked-off with superior US air and ground fire.

After Schwarzkopf was informed of which units he would have at his disposal for an offensive operation, he assembled their commanders in Dhahran on November 14 to brief them on his intent:

The first thing we’re going to have to do is, I don’t like to use the word ‘decapitate,’ so I think I’ll use the word ‘attack,’ leadership, and go after his command and control. Number two, we’ve got to gain and maintain air superiority. Number three, we’ve got to totally cut his supply lines. We also need to destroy his chemical, biological, and nuclear capability. And finally, all you tankers, listen to this. We need to destroy—not attack, not damage, not surround—I want you to destroy the Republican Guard. When you’re done with them, I don’t want them to be an effective fighting force anymore. I don’t want them to exist as a military organization.

Schwarzkopf then continued by explaining how CENTCOM would accomplish this task:

I anticipated, I said, a four-pronged ground assault. Along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border near the gulf, I wanted two divisions of US Marines and a Saudi task force to thrust straight into Kuwait, with the objective of tying up Saddam’s forces and eventually encircling Kuwait City. . . . I’d reserved a second corridor, in the western part of Kuwait, for a parallel attack by the pan-Arab forces led by two armored divisions from Egypt and another Saudi task force. Their objective would be the road junction north of Kuwait City that controlled the Iraqi supply lines. . . . I indicated a section of Saudi-Iraqi border more than three hundred and fifty miles inland. . . . I wanted Luck’s [XVIII Airborne Corps] divisions to race north from that area to the Euphrates, blocking the Republican Guard’s last route of retreat. . . . Finally, I turned to Fred Franks [Commander VII Corps]. “I think it’s pretty obvious what your mission’s going to be,” I said, moving my hand across the desert corridor just to the west of Kuwait, “attack through here and destroy the Republican Guard.”

For deception, Schwarzkopf instructed XVIII Airborne Corps and VII Corps to maintain their forces in assembly areas near Kuwait, to keep Iraqi forces focused on those two avenues of approach. As soon as the air war began, the Iraqis would be pinned down and both corps would shift laterally several hundred miles to the west without interference.

On December 29, Defense Secretary Cheney signed the Warning Order to implement DESERT STORM, with a target date for the initiation of the air campaign of January 15, 1991. At 1030 hours on January 15, President Bush met with his advisers to discuss the text of a National Security Directive (NSD) authorizing the execution of DESERT STORM. The President approved the NSD, and Powell and the Secretary of Defense signed the execute order at 5 p.m. Washington time, authorizing General Schwarzkopf to initiate Operation DESERT STORM at 3 a.m. Riyadh time on January 17.

THE CAMPAIGN

On January 17 at 1:30 a.m. in the Persian Gulf, the USS Bunker Hill fired a Tomahawk missile, the first of 106 Tomahawks that would be launched into Iraq during the first 24 hours of the war. The air campaign moved into high gear, achieving air superiority, blinding Iraqi C2 systems, and attacking strategic targets. Schwarzkopf decided to transition to Phase 3 on the fifteenth day of the bombing campaign:

After two weeks of war, my instincts and experience told me that we’d bombed most of our strategic targets enough to accomplish our campaign objectives; it was now time, I thought, to shift most of our air power on to the army we were about to face in battle.

By February 8, the two corps had almost completed their move to the west and were occupying attack positions. Schwarzkopf calculated that the mountains of logistics material and the remaining units would be in place within ten days. He informed Secretary Cheney, who was in Riyadh for a briefing, that he would be ready to go anytime after February 21. On February 24 at 4 a.m., the coalition forces attacked on the ground.

Operation DESERT STORM lasted 42 days. The three air phases took 38 days. The Iraqi air defenses, command and control centers, and air forces were quickly neutralized. Many strategic targets, including some in Baghdad itself, were successfully attacked. An improvised but very effective attack against a deep-underground Iraqi C2 bunker produced an unexpected and embarrassing number of civilian casualties among those who had supposedly taken refuge there. The Iraqis employed ballistic missiles in attacks upon Saudi Arabia and Israel. Although those attacks proved of little military significance, their political consequences proved very distracting to the air effort.

The coalition efforts to defend against those ballistic-missile attacks were mirror images—of more political than military effect. The bombing of Iraqi forces in Kuwait was relentless, but was probably more demoralizing that lethal in its effects.

The ground war lasted just 100 hours before President Bush, in consultation with his military commanders, called a halt. Of 42 Iraqi divisions in the theater at the beginning of the war, 27 were destroyed and an additional six were rendered combat-ineffective. However, over half the Republican Guard, including the nearly intact Hammurabi Division, escaped the enveloping “left hook,” leaving a legacy of controversy about whether General Frederick Franks’ VII Corps had moved quickly enough. When the Iraqis finally fled from Kuwait, they jammed the road north out of the city with vehicles and booty, which the coalition air power then blocked and savaged. The vivid descriptions of the resulting carnage were probably a significant factor in the decision to halt military operations.

COMMAND AND CONTROL

From the perspective of the U.S. military, the chain of command finally seemed to work as it was supposed to—but too often previously had not. In Schwarzkopf’s words, the President had been presidential; the Secretary of Defense had concentrated on setting military policy; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs had served as the facilitator between civilian and military leadership; and as theater commander I’d been given full authority to carry out my mission.

One result of this fidelity to the command structure was that, after launching the ground offensive, Powell had to wait until Schwarzkopf had the time to inform him of progress on the battlefield. At the same time, Schwarzkopf understood that he was not going to be able to track the entire battle in real time—only key portions of it:

Back at the war room in Riyadh, we were so removed from the action that all we knew was that our forces were finally on their way across the border. It might take an entire day to piece together an accurate picture of how the attack was progressing. I desperately wanted to do something, anything, other than wait, yet the best thing I could do was stay out of the way. If I pestered my generals, I’d just distract them: I knew as well as anyone that commanders on the battlefield have more important things to worry about than keeping higher headquarters informed. . . . My job was to stay in the basement with our radios and telephones, assessing the offensive as it developed, keeping the senior commanders apprised of one another’s progress, and making sure we accomplished three strategic goals: to kick Iraq out of Kuwait, to support our Arab allies in the liberation of Kuwait City, and to destroy the invading forces so Saddam could never use them again.

Nonetheless, Schwarzkopf listened attentively to the electronic “sounds” of the battlefield as events developed. At about noontime, eight hours after the initiation of the ground campaign, he received news that the Iraqis had destroyed the desalinization plant in Kuwait City by blowing it up:

Since Kuwait City had no other source of drinking water, this could only mean that the Iraqis were about to leave. And if they intended to pull out of Kuwait City, I reasoned, they intended to pull out of Kuwait.

At that point, I knew that I had to act. Timing is everything in battle, and unless we adjusted the plan, we stood to lose the momentum of the initial gains. I’d fought this campaign a thousand times in my mind, visualizing all the ways it might unfold, and from the fragmentary reports coming into the war room, I could discern that the Iraqis were reeling. If we moved fast, we could force them to fight at a huge disadvantage.

This was the only significant intervention that Schwarzkopf made during the course of the ground campaign. As a result of the evidence of the Iraqi withdrawal, he sprang the main attack (the “left hook”) approximately 18 hours early.

SCHWARZKOPF’S COMMAND CONCEPT

Although the strategic war aims of the United States were never explicitly spelled out by President Bush, General Powell instructed Schwarzkopf, in early December, to draft a Strategic Directive, which is reproduced below.

DRAFT PROPOSED STRATEGIC DIRECTIVE TO COMBINED COMMANDER

1. TASK. Undertake operations to seek the complete withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in accordance with the terms of the UN resolutions and sanctions. If necessary and when directed, conduct military operations to destroy Iraqi armed forces, liberate and secure Kuwait to permit the restoration of its legitimate government, and make every reasonable effort to repatriate foreign nationals held against their will in Iraq and Kuwait. Promote the security and stability of the Arabian/Persian Gulf region.

2. AUTHORIZATION. When directed, you are authorized to conduct air operations throughout Iraq and land and sea operations into Iraqi territory and waters as necessary to liberate and secure Kuwait and destroy Iraqi forces threatening the territory of Kuwait and other coalition states. Forces should be prepared to initiate offensive operations no later than February 1991.

At any time, you are authorized to take advantage of full or partial withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait by introducing forces under your command to secure Kuwaiti territory and waters, defend against renewed aggression, and permit the restoration of the legitimate government in Kuwait.

Pending authority to execute operations to destroy Iraqi forces and liberate Kuwait, defend Saudi Arabia. Should Iraqi forces invade Saudi Arabia, you are authorized to conduct air, land, and sea operations throughout Kuwait and Iraq, their airspace, and territorial waters.

3. OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE. The objectives of your offensive campaign will be to destroy Iraqi nuclear, biological, and chemical production facilities and weapons of mass destruction; occupy southeast Iraq until combined strategic objectives are met; destroy or neutralize the Republican Guard Forces Command; destroy, neutralize, or disconnect the Iraqi national command authority; safeguard, to the extent practicable, foreign nationals being detained in Iraq and Kuwait; and degrade or disrupt Iraqi strategic air defenses.27 Schwarzkopf’s command concept is clearly derived from and serves the strategic objectives enumerated earlier. Recast in our format of an ideal command concept, it might read as follows:

I. ABOUT THE ENEMY AND HIS PLANS:

1. The enemy [Iraq] currently has approximately 400,000 troops in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations (KTO). He expects us [the United States] to conduct amphibious and ground operations aimed at the recapture of Kuwait City and the liberation of Kuwait.

2. The enemy is expected to resist a frontal attack fiercely. Once flanked and isolated, however, resistance in the KTO should quickly collapse.

3. You should expect the Iraqis to attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible on our forces, possibly through the use of chemical or biological agents.

4. The Iraqis will likely respond to tactical surprise by attempting to preserve the “center of gravity” they have vested in the Republican Guard divisions.

II. ABOUT OUR FORCE DISPOSITIONS AND PLANS:

We shall first attack with air power to incapacitate Iraqi command, control, logistics, and air defense systems. We shall follow this with an intensive air campaign to keep in place, disrupt, attrit, and demoralize deployed Iraqi forces in the KTO. We shall then attack with four army corps to (1) neutralize Iraq’s fielded forces, (2) liberate the country of Kuwait, and (3) destroy Iraq’s ability to conduct invasion operations in the future.
We shall conduct this operation in four phases, the first three with air power and the last with combined forces:

Phase 1—Using strategic and tactical air assets, achieve air supremacy in the KTO and incapacitate Iraq’s command and control system.
Phase 2—Extend the air war to destroy, disrupt, and render ineffective Iraq’s warmaking ability, placing top priority on destroying weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, biological, and chemical), the eight Republican Guard divisions, and petrochemical facilities.
Phase 3—Having isolated the theater, conduct an intensive bombing campaign against fielded Iraqi forces in Kuwait proper, with the aim of disrupting, demoralizing, and destroying as many of the 400,000 troops occupying Kuwait as possible.
Phase 4—Having attrited, disrupted, and demoralized the Iraqi Army, conduct a rapid and violent ground campaign designed to surround, isolate, and defeat completely the Iraqi occupation forces in Kuwait.

III. ABOUT CONTINGENCIES:

General Schwarzkopf addresses Congress after the successful conclusion of Operation Desert Storm. Speaker of the House Tom Foley stands behind Schwarzkopf

If the Iraqi forces give evidence of withdrawal from the theater at any time—during the air campaign or during the subsequent ground campaign—we shall accelerate our planned operations, with the aim of destroying their forces during the confusion of withdrawal.
If the air campaign is delayed by weather or other impediments, we shall adjust our ground campaign accordingly. We shall delay our repositioning to the west until we are assured that the Iraqis have been blinded and that any countermove by their forces can be exploited by air strikes against their forces on the move.

ASSESSMENT

President Bush greets General H. Norman Schwarzkopf who leads the Desert Storm Homecoming Parade in Washington, D.C. (06/08/1991)

This modern-day blitzkrieg offers an insight from a vantage point different from Guderian’s. Schwarzkopf did not have (nor did he seek) “Guderian’s perspective”—at least not physically. Conceptually, however, Schwarzkopf clearly understood and identified the information that was essential to managing the execution of his command concept. Schwarzkopf sitting in his bunker and reacting to the destruction of the water-desalinization plant is perhaps one of the clearest examples of the theory that history offers. Unlike French Field Marshal Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre in his chateau, Schwarzkopf, although physically isolated, was mentally tuned in to the way the battle had to go. Powerful evidence of this is the minimal level of traffic over command channels between Schwarzkopf and his field commanders during the battle. Schwarzkopf essentially listened in on the command networks, mentally ticking off the progress of the battle against his own expectations, intervening when he (correctly) detected activity at variance with his expected timetable. Indeed, except for the decision to advance the timing of the “left hook,” Schwarzkopf could have left the theater to his subordinates to carry out his plans.

In one sense, Schwarzkopf can be criticized for not executing his command concept with complete success. Many have commented on Schwarzkopf’s handling of war termination in this conflict, accusing the general of having lost touch with the status of the Republican Guard divisions and recommending ending the conflict before the retreating Guard divisions were enveloped and rendered combat-ineffective. In truth, it is possible that the unexpected rapidity with which the Marines advanced on the right accelerated events beyond Schwarzkopf’s ability to precisely control them. The failure to completely destroy the Republican Guard is probably the result of this and two other factors: (1) the unexpectedly light resistance, low casualties, and obvious destruction of Iraqi forces in place, which undoubtedly made a precise calculation of when to terminate a difficult one and show Schwarzkopf’s expectations to be too pessimistic, and (2) the relatively vague political objectives set by the U.S. leaders, which never really specified how far they wanted Schwarzkopf to go beyond the liberation of Kuwait. Schwarzkopf assumed that destruction of the Republican Guard would be necessary to the liberation of Kuwait—and when it was clear that it was not, other considerations intervened (concern about Arab reaction to the wanton slaughter of Iraqi forces, for instance) to force what may have been, in retrospect, a premature termination of the conflict.

Victory Parade after the Gulf War, 1991

In that light, it is important to separate Schwarzkopf’s generalship from his articulation and management of his command concept. His failure to coordinate the planning and execution of the Marine and Army operations, noted in several of the sources, probably allowed the Marines to push the Republican Guard out of the trap before it closed. That said, Schwarzkopf’s accomplishment is nonetheless impressive. He developed a vision, communicated it effectively to his subordinates, and employed his C2 resources to give him the information he believed was necessary to make critical decisions during the war. We can also say that his C2 system fully supported his command concept—a support that might have been more obvious if the initial attacks had met with difficulty. He understood how to use his capability, and focused his ability to look “everywhere” on looking at areas that were essential to the confirmation or refutation of his plan. Given the fact that Schwarzkopf’s need to communicate was minimal because his plan was basically sound, a more difficult enemy would not have significantly altered Schwarzkopf’s ability to listen for key events and understand when it was time to make a decision.

Unlike Schwarzkopf, MacArthur did not listen for the key event; he built his plan around what he knew beforehand to be a key factor: the absolute necessity of landing at Inchon. Like Guderian, he knew that a hard drive was essential to vanquishing the enemy; unlike Guderian, he had only one month in which to practice, not five or six.

Additional Sources:

www.digitaljournalist.org
www.the-v-man.com
bushlibrary.tamu.edu
www.gisearch.com
members.aol.com/desertkate

'The mothers and fathers of America will give you their sons and daughters...with the confidence in you that you will not needlessly waste their lives. And you dare not. That's the burden the mantle of leadership places upon you. You could be the person who gives the orders that will bring about the deaths of thousands and thousands of young men and women. It is an awesome responsibility. You cannot fail. You dare not fail...'

'....If you leave here with the word DUTY implanted in your mind; if you leave here with the word HONOR carved in your soul; if you leave here with love of COUNTRY stamped on your heart, then you will be a twenty-first century leader worthy...of the great privilege and honor...of leading...the sons and daughters of America...'

-- Excerpts from remarks made in Eisenhower Hall Theater to the Corps of Cadets on 15 May 1991 by General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USMA Class of 1956 and Commander of Operations in Operation Desert Storm.

'The loss of one human life is intolerable to any of us who are in the military. But, I would tell you that casualties of that order of magnitude, considering the job that’s been done and the number of forces that are involved, is almost miraculous … It will never be miraculous for the families of those people, but it is miraculous.'

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Veterans Day 2003
PDN News Desk ^ comwatch

November is Here - Veterans Day is right around the corner.

It only takes a few minutes to write a letter to the kids and share a story of why you served.

If you aren't a Veteran then share your thoughts on why it is important to remember our Veterans on Veterans Day.

It's an opportunity for us to support our troops, our country and show appreciations for our local veterans. It's another way to counter the Anti-Iraq campaign propaganda. Would you like to help? Are there any VetsCoR folks on the Left Coast? We have a school project that everyone can help with too, no matter where you live. See the end of this post for details.

Three Northern California events have been scheduled and we need help with each:

Friday evening - November 7th Veterans in School (An Evening of Living History, A Veterans Day Ice Cream Social)

http://www.patriotwatch.com/V-Day2003c.htm

Saturday - 11 a.m. November 8th: Veterans Day Parade (PDN & Friends parade entry)

http://www.patriotwatch.com/V-Day2003b.htm

Sunday November 9, 2003 Noon to 3:00 PM Support our Troops & Veterans Rally prior to Youth Symphony Concert

http://www.patriotwatch.com/V-Day2003d.htm

Each of the WebPages above have a link to e-mail a confirmation of your interest and desire to volunteer. These are family events and everyone is welcome to pitch in. We'd really appreciate hearing from you directly via each these specific links. This way, we can keep you posted on only those projects you want to participate in.

Veterans in School - How you can help if you're not close enough to participate directly. If you are a veteran, share a story of your own with the children. If you have family serving in the military, tell them why it's important that we all support them. Everyone can thank them for having this special event. Keep in mind that there are elementary school kids.

Help us by passing this message around to other Veteran's groups. I have introduced VetsCoR and FreeperFoxhole to a number of school teachers. These living history lessons go a long way to inspire patriotism in our youth. Lets see if we can rally America and give these youngsters enough to read for may weeks and months ahead. If we can, we'll help spread it to other schools as well.

Click this link to send an email to the students.

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.......Good Saturday Morning Everyone!

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Good Morning Snippy.

Good Night SAM.

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the freeper Foxhole.

It's Bedlam Saturday. OU/OSU today at 2:30PM in Norman. Should be a good one.

Present!

Today's classic warship, USS Vermont (BB-20)

Connecticut class battleship
displacement. 16,000 t.
length. 456'4"
beam. 76'10"
draft. 24'6"
speed. 18 k.
complement. 880
armament. 4 12", 8 8", 12 7", 20 3", 12 3-pdrs., 4 1-pdrs, 4 .30-cal. mg., 2 .30-cal. Colt mg.

The USS Vermont (Battleship No. 20) was laid down on 21 May 1904 at Quincy, Mass., by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 31 August 1905; sponsored by Miss Jennie Bell, the daughter of Governor Charles J. Bell of Vermont; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 4 March 1907, Capt. William P. Potter in command.

After her "shaking down" cruise off the eastern seaboard between Boston and Hampton Roads, Va., Vermont participated in maneuvers with the 1st Division of the Atlantic Fleet and, later, with the 1st and 2d Squadrons. Making a final trial trip betwe en Hampton Roads and Provincetown, Mass., between 30 August and 5 September, Vermont arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 7 September and underwent repairs until late in November 1907.

Departing Boston on 30 November, she coaled at Bradford, R.I.; received "mine outfits and stores" at Newport, R.I.; and picked up ammunition at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, N.Y.; and arrived at Hampton Roads on 8 December.

There, she made final preparations for the globe-girdling cruise of the United States Atlantic Fleet. Nicknamed the "Great White Fleet" because of the white and spar color of their paint schemes, the 16 pre-dreadnought battleships sailed from Hampton Road s on 16 December, standing out to sea under the gaze of President Theodore Roosevelt who had dispatched the ships, around the globe as a dramatic gesture toward Japan, a growing power on the world stage.

Vermont sailed as a unit of the 1st Division, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans, who was concurrently the Commander in Chief of the Fleet. Over the ensuing months, the battleship visited ports in Chile, Peru, Mexico, California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, China, and in the Mediterranean, before she returned to Hampton Roads again passing in review before President Roosevelt-on Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1909. During the voyage, Vermont's commanding officer, Capt. Potter, was advanced to flag rank and took command of the division; his place was taken by Capt. (later Admiral) Frank Friday Fletcher.

Modernized after this trip, Vermont received two "cage" masts and other new features. After completion of this work in June 1909 she rejoined the fleet off Provincetown. She subsequently spent the 4th of July at Boston as part of the 1st Division of the Fleet before spending nearly a month, from 7 July to 4 August, in exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. Subsequently coaling at Hampton Roads, the battleship conducted target practice off the Virginia capes in the operating area known as the Southern Drill Grounds.

For the remainder of 1909, Vermont continued maneuvers and exercises, broken by visits to Stamford, Conn., for Columbus Day festivities and to New York City for the observances of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration from 22 September to 9 October. She spent the Christmas holidays at New York City, anchored in the North River.

The battleship then moved south for the winter, reaching Guantanamo Bay on 12 January 1910. For the next two months, she exercised in those Caribbean climes, returning to Hampton Roads and the Virginia capes for elementary target practice that spring. Ultimately reaching Boston on 29 April, the battleship underwent repairs at that yard through mid-July, before embarking members of the Naval Militia at Boston for operations between that port and Provincetown from 22 to 31 July.

Vermont subsequently visited Newport and then sailed for Hampton Roads on 22 August, where she then prepared for target practices between 25 and 27 September, before visiting New York City with other ships of the Atlantic Fleet.

After minor repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the battleship sailed for European waters on 1 November. Reaching the British Isles a little over two weeks later, Vermont-with other units of the 3d Division, Atlantic Fleet-visited Gravesend, England, from 16 November to 7 December and then called at Brest, France, where she remained until heading for the West Indies on 30 December.

Vermont engaged in winter maneuvers and drills out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 13 January 1911 to 13 March, before sailing for Hampton Roads. In the ensuing weeks, the battleship operated in the Southern Drill Grounds and off Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, where she conducted target practice. After dropping off target materials at Hampton Roads on 8 April, Vermont sailed later that day for Philadelphia where she arrived on 10 April and entered drydock.

Later in the spring, Vermont resumed her operations with the other pre-dreadnought battleships of the 3d Division. She operated off Pensacola, Fla., and ranged into the Gulf of Mexico, calling at Galveston, Tex., from 7 to 12 June before returning to Pensacola on 13 June for provisions.

Shifting northward to Bar Harbor, Maine, Vermont spent the 4th of July there before she drilled and exercised with the Fleet in Cape Cod Bay and off Provincetown. The battleship then operated off the New England seaboard through mid-August, breaking her periods at sea with a port visit to Salem and alterations at the Boston Navy Yard. She then shifted south to conduct experimental gunnery firings and autumn target practice in the regions from Tangier Sound to the Southern Drill Grounds.

After repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 12 September to 9 October, Vermont rejoined the Fleet at Hampton Roads before participating in the naval review in the North River, at New York City, between 24 October and 2 November. She then maneuvered and exercised with the 1st Squadron of the Fleet before returning to Hampton Roads.

Touching briefly at Tompkinsville on 7 and 8 December, Vermont reached the New York Navy Yard on the latter day for year-end leave and upkeep and remained there until 2 January 1912, when she sailed for the Caribbean and the annual winter maneuvers . She operated in Cuban waters, out of Guantanamo Bay and off Cape Cruz, until 9 March, when she sailed for the Norfolk Navy Yard and an overhaul that lasted into the autumn.

She departed Norfolk on 8 October and reached New York City on the 10th. She participated in the naval review at that port from 10 to 15 October before embarking Commander, 2d Division, Atlantic Fleet, at Hampton Roads between 16 and 18 October.

Vermont subsequently worked out of Hampton Roads, in the Virginia capes-Southern Drill Grounds area, into December. During that time, she conducted target practices and twice participated in humanitarian deeds, searching for the stranded steamship SS Noruega on 2 November and assisting the submarine B-2 (Submarine No. 11) between 13 and 15 December.

The battleship spent Christmas 1912 at the Norfolk Navy Yard before steaming for Cuba and winter maneuvers. En route, she visited Colon, Panama, a terminus of the nearly completed Panama Canal, and reached Guantanamo Bay on 19 January 1913. She subsequently operated out of Guantanamo and Guayancanabo Bay until sailing for Mexican waters on 12 February.

Vermont arrived at Vera Cruz on the 17th and remained at that port into the spring, protecting American interests until 29 April, when she sailed north to rejoin the fleet in Hampton Roads. The battleship conducted one midshipman's training cruise that summer, embarking the midshipmen at Annapolis on 6 June. After rejoining the fleet, Vermont cruised in Block Island Sound and visited Newport.

The battleship then received her regular overhaul at Norfolk from July into October before she conducted target practice off the Southern Drill Grounds. Vermont then made her second European cruise, departing Hampton Roads for French waters on 25 October, reaching Marseilles on 8 November. Ultimately departing that Mediterranean port-on 1 December Vermont reached the Norfolk Navy Yard five days before Christmas, making port on the end of a towline because of storm damage to a propeller.

Soon after she had completed her post-repair trials and had begun preparations for the spring target practice with the Fleet in the Southern Drill Grounds, tension in Mexico beckoned the battleship. Departing Hampton Roads on 15 April, Vermont reached Vera Cruz very early in the morning of 22 April in company with Arkansas (Battleship No. 33), New Hampshire (Battleship No. 26), South Carolina (Battleship No. 26), and New Jersey (Battleship No. 16). Her landing force-a "battalion" of 12 officers and 308 men-went ashore after daybreak that same day as United States forces occupied the port to block an arms shipment to the dictator Victoriano Huerta. In the fighting that ensued, two officers from the staff were awarded Medals of Honor: Lt. Julius C. Townsend, the battalion commander, and Surgeon Cary DeV. Langhornes, the regimental surgeon of the 2d Seaman Regiment. During the fighting, Vermont's force suffered one fatality, a private from her Marine detachment, killed on the 23d. But for a visit to Tampico, Mex., from 21 September to 10 October, Vermont remained in that Mexican port into later October.

Over the next two and one-half years, Vermont maintained her schedule of operations off the eastern seaboard of the United States, ranging from Newport to Guantanamo Bay, before she lay in reserve at Philadelphia from 1 October to 21 November 1916. Vermont subsequently supported the Marine Corps Expeditionary Force in Haiti from 29 November 1916 to 6 February 1917 and then conducted battle practices out of Guantanamo Bay. She ultimately returned to Norfolk on 29 March 1917.

On 4 April 1917, Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Two days later, the United States declared war on Germany. The battleship emerged from the yard on 26 August 1917 and sailed for Hampton roads for duty as an engineering training ship in the Chesapeake Bay region. She performed that vital function for almost the entire duration of hostilities, completing the assignment on 4 November 1918, a week before the armistice stilled the guns of World War I.

Her service as a training ship during the conflict had been broken once in the spring of 1918 when she received the body of the late Chilean ambassador to the United States on 28 May 1918; embarked the American Ambassador to Chile, the Honorable J. H. Shea, on 3 June and got underway from Norfolk later that day. The battleship transited the Panama Canal on the 10th; touched at Port Tongoi, Chile, on the 24th; and arrived at Valparaiso on the morning of 27 June.

There, the late ambassador's remains were accompanied ashore by Admiral William B. Caperton and Ambassador Shea. Departing that port on 2 July, Vermont visited Callao, Peru, on the 7th, before retransiting the Panama Canal and returning to her base in the York River.

Vermont entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 5 November and was there converted to a troop transport. She subsequently sailed from Norfolk on 9 January 1919 on the first of four round-trip voyages, returning "Doughboys" from "over there." During her time as a transport, the battleship carried some 5,000 troops back to the United States, completing her last voyage on 20 June 1919.

Prepared at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for inactivation, Vermont departed the east coast on 18 July, sailing from Hampton Roads on that day, bound for the west coast. After transiting the Panama Canal, the battleship visited San Diego, San Pedro, Monterey, and Long Beach, Calif.; Astoria, Ore .; and San Francisco, Calif., before reaching the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif., on 18 September. There, the battleship was decommissioned on 30 June 1920. She was subsequently reclassified as BB-20 on 17 July of that same year.

Vermont remained inactive at Mare Island until her name was struck from the Navy list on 10 November 1923, She was then sold for scrapping on 30 November of the same year in accordance with the Washington Treaty limiting naval armaments.

Good morning everyone in The FOXHOLE.

'The mothers and fathers of America will give you their sons and daughters...with the confidence in you that you will not needlessly waste their lives. And you dare not. That's the burden the mantle of leadership places upon you. You could be the person who gives the orders that will bring about the deaths of thousands and thousands of young men and women. It is an awesome responsibility. You cannot fail. You dare not fail...'

This quote is a real tearjerker.

Thanks SAM for today's thread on Schwarzkopf, great pictures too. I think he was the right man for the right time.

The Strategic Directive was facsinating to read.

Good Morning EGC. Good luck and have fun watching the games.

Good morning manna.

...returning "Doughboys" from "over there." During her time as a transport, the battleship carried some 5,000 troops back to the United States, completing her last voyage on 20 June 1919.

What a great way to spend her time as her service time wound down!

Good morning poet bentfeather! That's my favorite patriotic graphic. Thank you for bringing it to the Foxhole this morning.

I'll be dropping into the Lair later today and hopefully have time to leave some prose. ;)

On This Day In history

Birthdates which occurred on November 01:
1500 Benvenuto Cellini sculptor/goldsmith/writer (Perseus)
1607 Georg Philipp Harsdorfer Nurenberg Germany, poet (Poetischer Trichter)
1762 Spencer Perceval (Tory), British PM (1809-12)
1782 Viscount Goderich (Tory), British PM (1827-28)
1798 Sir Benjamin Lee Baronet Guinness, Irish brewer/Dublin mayor
1815 Crawford Williamson Long surgeon/pioneer (use of ether)
1853 Jose Santos Zelaya (L), ruler of Nicaragua (1893-1910)
1859 Charles Brantley Aycock (Gov-NC)
1871 Stephen Crane US, novelist/poet (Red Badge of Courage)
1878 Carlos Saavedra Lamas Argentina, jurist (Nobel Peace Prize 1936)
1880 Grantland Rice sportswriter (NY Herald Tribune 1914-30, Colliers 1925-37)
1880 Sholem Asch Poland, Yiddish novelist/playwright (Three Cities)
1886 Hermann Broch Austria, novelist (Sleepwalkers, Bewitchment)
1889 Philip John Noel-Baker statesman, disarmament advocate (Nobel '59)
1890 James Barton NJ, Broadway actor (Tobacco Road, Iceman Cometh)
1892 Alexander Alekhine Russia, world chess champion (1927-46)
1896 Edmund Blunden English poet/critic (Undertones of War)
1902 Eugen Jochum Babenhausen Bavaria, German conductor (Hamburg Orchestra)
1902 Nordahl Grieg Norwegian poet, dramatist, novelist (The Defeat)
1915 Michael Denison York England, actor (Importance of Being Earnest)
1919 John Secondari Rome Italy, newscaster (Open Hearing)
1920 James J Kilpatrick Oklahoma City OK, columnist (60 Minutes)
1922 Jeff Richards Portland Oregon, actor (Don't Go Near the Water)
1922 George S Irving Springfield MA, singer/actor (Dumplings)
1924 Victoria de los Angeles Spain, soprano (Mimi-La Boheme)
1929 Betsy Palmer E Chicago IN, actress (Mr Roberts, Friday the 13th)
1935 Gary Player South Africa, PGA golfer (US 1965, British 1959,68,74)
1937 Bill Anderson country singer (Still, From This Pen)
1939 Barbara Bosson Belle Vernon PA, actress (Fay-Hill St Blues, Hooperman)
1941 Robert Foxworth Houston TX, actor (Chase-Falcon Crest, Frankenstein)
1942 Larry Flynt magazine publisher (Hustler)
1942 Marcia Wallace Creston Iowa, actress (Carol-Bob Newhart Show)
1944 Keith Emerson England (Emerson, Lake & Palmer-Brain Salad Surgery)
1949 Jeannie Berlin Los Angeles CA, actress (Heartbreak Kid, Portnoy's Complaint)
1953 Jackie Zeman actress (Bobbie Spencer-General Hospital)
1953 Michael Zaslow actor (One Life to Live, Guiding Light)
1953 N Jan Davis Cocoa Beach Florida, PhD/astronaut (sk:STS-47)
1954 Ruben Guerrero Mexico, relay swimmer (Olympic-1968)
1958 Rachel Ticotin NYC, actress (Grace-For Love & Honor)
1959 Eddie MacDonald rocker (The Alarm-Knocking on Heaven's Door)
1960 Elizabeth Dennehy actress (Guiding Light)
1960 Fernando Valenzuela pitcher (Los Angeles Dodgers)
1960 Lyle Lovett country singer (Desert Rose Band, Give Back My Heart)
1961 Mags Furuholmen Norway, rocker (Aha-Take on Me)
1963 Rick Allen rocker (Def Leppard-Hysteria, Rock of Ages)
1964 Joe Leste San Diego Cal, rock vocalist (Bang Tango-Dancin' on Coals)

Deaths which occurred on November 01:
1924 Bill Tilghman 71
1927 Florence Mills dancer/singer, dies at 32 in NYC
1947 Man O' War dies
1950 Griselio Torresola, attempted to assassinate Pres Truman, shot dead
1956 Lajos Asztalos International Chess Master (1950), dies at 67
1959 Gershon Agron mayor of Jerusalem, dies at 66
1961 Joan McCracken actress (Claudie The Story of a Marriage), dies at 38
1963 Elsa Maxwell writer (Jack Paar Show), dies at 80
1963 Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese PM, assassinated in a military coup
1967 Benita Hume actress (Vicky-Thew Halls of Ivy), dies at 61
1975 Doro Merande actress (That Was The Week That Was), dies at 77
1982 James Broderick actor (Doug-Family), dies of cancer at 55
1982 King Vidor director, dies at 88 of a heart ailment
1984 Norman Krasna writer/director, dies of a heart attack at 74
1985 Phil Silvers comedic actor (Sgt Bilko), dies at 73 in his sleep
1986 Paul Frees animation voice (Bullwinkle), dies at 66
1987 Rene Levesque Quebec premier (1976-85), dies at 65
1994 Noah Beery Jr in California, actor (Rockford Files, Quest, Doc Elliot), dies at 81

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 GILLSON PETER R.---AUSTRALIA
1965 KNIGHT BILLY---CLIMAX GA.
1966 CARPENTER ALLAN R.---SPRINGVALE ME.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 WEAVER GEORGE R. JR.---LANCASTER PA.
1968 KENNEY HARRY J.---CINCINNATI OH.
1969 ADVENTIO RUDOLPHO ANDRES
1969 BAILEY DANIEL T.
1969 PARTINGTON ROGER D.---SPARTA IL.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
79 Pompei buried by Mt Vesuvius
1210 King John of England begins imprisoning Jews
1349 Duke of Brabant orders execution of all Jews in Brussels, accusing them of poisoning the wells
1512 Michelangelo's paintings on ceiling of Sistine Chapel, 1st exhibited
1604 William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" 1st presented
1611 Shakespeare's romantic comedy "The Tempest" 1st presented
1623 Fire at Plymouth, Massachusetts destroys several buildings
1755 Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000
1765 Stamp Act went into effect in the British colonies. Prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.
1776 Mission San Juan Capistrano founded in California
1784 Maryland grants citizenship to Lafayette & his descendants
1787 1st free school in NYC (African Free School) opens
1800 1st President to live in the white house (John Adams)
1834 1st published reference to poker (as Mississippi riverboat game)
1848 1st US women's medical school opens (Boston)
1861 Gen George B McClellan made general in chief of Union armies
1863 Fortifications built on Angel Island (San Francisco Bay) by troops
1869 Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion.
1870 US Weather Bureau begins operations (24 locations)
1894 Vaccine for diphtheria announced by Dr Roux of Paris
1910 1st issue of "The Crisis" published by editor W E B Du Bois
1913 Notre Dame upsets Army 35-13, 1st to use forward pass effectively
1917 First US soldiers are killed in combat in WWI
1918 97 die in NYC subway's worst accident
1922 Ottoman Empire abolished
1924 1st US NHL franchise, Boston Bruins founded
1924 Forest Peters of Montana State U hits 17 of 22 attempted field goals
1924 Legendary Oklahoma marshal Bill Tilghman, 71, is gunned down by a drunk in Cromwell, Oklahoma.
1928 1st celebration of Author's Day
1928 Graf Zeppelin sets airship distance record of 6384 km
1929 Lundy, part of the British Isles, issue their own stamps
1932 Wernher von Braun named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program
1936 Mussolini describes alliance between Italy & Germany as an "axis"
1936 Rodeo Cowboy's Association founded
1938 Seabiscuit beats War Admiral in a match race at Pimlico
1939 1st animal conceived by artificial insemination (rabbit) displayed
1939 1st jet plane, Heinkel He 178, demonstrated to German Air Ministry
1940 1st US air raid shelter, Fleetwood, Pa
1942 John H Johnson publishes 1st issue of Negro Digest
1943 Dim-out ban lifted in San Francisco Bay area
1945 1st issue of Ebony magazine published by John H Johnson
1946 Charles S Johnson becomes 1st black President of Fisk University
1946 NY Knicks 1st basketball game beat Toronto Huskies 68-66
1946 West German state of Niedersachsen formed
1947 1st Aloha Week Parade held in Hawaii
1947 UN trusteeship for Nauru granted to Australia, NZ & UK
1950 1st negro player in NBA, (Celtic's Charles Cooper) Fort Wayne IN
1950 Puerto Rican nationalists try to kill President Truman at the Blair House
1951 1st atomic explosion witnessed by troops, NM
1951 Jet magazine founded by John H Johnson
1952 1st hydrogen device exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific
1952 Fusion occurred for the 1st time on Earth
1954 Algeria begins rebellion against French rule
1954 General Fulgencio Batista "elected" pres of Cuba
1954 India takes over administration of 4 French Indian settlements
1955 Time bomb aboard United DC-6 kills 44 above Longmont Colorado
1956 Delhi becomes a territory of the Indian union
1956 Indian state of Madhya Pradesh formed
1956 Indian states of Punjab, Patiala & PEPSU merge as Punjab protection
1956 Nagy government of Hungary withdraws from Warsaw Pact
1959 1st NHL goalie to wear a hockey mask (Jacques Plante)
1959 WOV-AM in New York City changes call letters to WADO
1960 Benelux treaty goes into effect
1962 Greece enters the European Common Market
1962 USSR launches Mars 1; radio contact lost before arrival at Mars
1963 Revolt against the Diem regime in South Vietnam
1964 George Blanda of Houston throws NFL-record 37 passes in 68 attempts
1964 Kansas City Chief Len Dawson passes for 6 touchdowns vs Denver (49-39)
1965 1st concert at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco
1965 Trackless trolley plunged into Nile River drowning 74 (Cairo Egypt)
1966 Indian Haryana state created from Punjab; Chandigarh terr created
1966 NFL awards New Orleans its 16th franchise (All Saints Day)
1966 William Dana in X-15 reaches 93 km
1967 The first issue of Rolling Stone hits the streets
1968 US pro soccer 14 teams merged into 1 all star team
1969 Beatles' "Abbey Road," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 11 weeks
1970 1st regular season Giants-Jets game, Giants win 22-10 at Shea
1970 Discotheque in Grenoble France burns, all exits padlocked & 142 die
1971 Eisenhower dollar put into circulation
1972 Germain Gagnon scores 1st Islander hat trick
1974 Fire kills 189 in less than 25 min (Sao Paulo Brazil)
1976 Gilbert Is (Kiribati) obtains internal self-gov't from Britain
1977 Islander Goran Hogosta's only shut-out Flames 9-0-Trottier 4 goals
1979 Federal government made $1.5 billion loan to Chrysler
1979 Tanker Burmah Agate off Galveston Bay, Texas, spills 10.7 m gallons of oil, in US's worst oil spill disaster
1981 1st Class Mail raised from 18 to 20
1981 3rd meeting of Giants-Jets, Jets up 2-1 with 26-7 win
1981 Antigua & Barbuda gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1982 Andrew "Dice" Clay & George Wendt appear in "Trick or Treatment"
1984 Despite Mike Bossy 4 goals Islanders lose 5-6 to Canadians making Islander record when scoring a hat trick-77-3-4
1985 Nostalgia Television begins on cable
1987 22,000 run in NYC Marathon (won by Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya 2h11m1s)
1987 New Orleans Saints shutout Atlanta Falcons 38-0
1987 NY Jets retire Don Maynards #13
1988 Actor Jeff Goldblum & actress Geena Davis wed in Las Vegas
1988 Staten Island ferry gets 1st pay phones
1989 Scandinavian Airlines System bans smoking on many flights
1989 East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia, prompting tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the West.
1990 Last of Margaret Thatcher's original cabinet resigns, Deputy PM Sir Geoffrey Howe
1990 Rhetoric escalates as Bush likens Saddam to Hitler
1990 Sandra Miller awarded $100 for Mike Tyson fondling her breasts
1993 European Union comes into existence
1996 Accused of peddling access to the Oval Office, President Clinton demanded an end to what he called the "escalating arms race" for political money.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Algeria : Revolution Day (1954)
Antigua : State Day (1981)
Celtic : Samhain; beginning of year & most important holiday
San Marino : Commemoration of the Dead
Togo : Memorial Day
US : Author's Day
USA : Fig Week Begins
Vietnam : Revolution Day (1963)
Virgin Islands : Liberty Day (Monday)
Liberia : Thanksgiving Day (Thursday)
Denmark : Esbjerg Cup-World's largest ice skating championship (Saturday)
National Raisin Bread Month
Aviation History Month

Religious Observances
Ang, RC, Luth : Solemnity of All Saints' Day (741)

Religious History
0451 The Council of Chalcedon (located in modern Turkey) adjourned. Begun on Oct 8th, its 17 sessions were attended by over 500 bishops __ more than participated in any other ancient Church council.
1512 Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, 37, unveiled his 5,808_square_foot masterpiece, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He had been commissioned in 1508 by Pope Julius II to do a work depicting the whole story of the Bible.
1537 German reformer Martin Luther stated during one of his "Table Talks": 'There are many fluent preachers who speak at length but say nothing, who have words without substance.'
1950 Pope Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His Apostolic Constitution "Munificentissimus Deus" taught that, at the end of her earthly life, Jesus' mother was taken, body and soul, into heaven to be united with the risen Christ.
1963 English linguistic scholar J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in a letter: 'In the last resort, faith is an act of will, inspired by love.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"God gives us relatives; thank God we can chose our friends."

You might be a Martha Stewart junkie if...
you sew doily trims onto your toilet paper.

Murphys Law of the day...(Oppenheimer's Observation)
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist knows it.

Amazing fact #984...
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

[John] came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. —John 1:7 If we should hide our shining light
And not reflect God's Son,
Then how will people in sin's night
Be guided, helped, and won? Branon

If we should hide our shining light
And not reflect God's Son,
Then how will people in sin's night
Be guided, helped, and won? Branon

You can attract people to Christ when you have His light in your life.

Great biography. thanks