The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Navy Corpsmen - Unsung Heroes of Iwo Jima - Jan. 8th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Unsung Heroes of Iwo Jima



Navy Corpsmen

World War II

Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima--as subsequently memorialized in sculptor Felix deWeldon's bronze statue in Arlington National Cemetery--is probably the most famous military image in the world.



It is appropriate that one of the six men straining to lift the flagpole was a Navy corpsman, Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley. Like his Marine buddies, Bradley was a member of the 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division.



Each of the three divisions engaged in the struggle for Iwo Jima included roughly 100 Navy surgeons and nearly 1,000 corpsmen in its ranks. Most of those emergency medical specialists deployed forward with the maneuver elements or worked in improvised aid stations just behind the front lines. The nature of their work required continuous risk-taking. They retrieved wounded Marines, performed initial life-saving measures, evacuated severe casualties back to the beach--always under fire. Navy medical crews paid an exorbitant price in the savage fighting at Iwo Jima. Twenty-three doctors and 827 corpsmen were killed or wounded in action, a casualty rate twice as high as bloody Saipan. One of the wounded was John Bradley, a casualty of heavy fighting in the northern part of the island 17 days after the historic flag raising.



Typical of the Navy corpsmen who served at Iwo Jima was Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class William B. Jett of Batesville, Ark. Jett came ashore with a replacement draft and joined the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, veterans of Suribachi, a unit that had already lost a disproportionate share of corpsmen. Jett was a company aid man assigned to a rifle platoon operating along the northwest corner, an area dubbed "the jungle of stone." In the next three weeks of fighting, Jett survived four platoon commanders--a lieutenant, a platoon sergeant, a sergeant and finally a corporal. But Jett, in his turn, was not immune to the heavy fire; shrapnel hit him in the left arm and wrist as he leaped out of a shell hole. He stayed in the lines. "Coming out alive on Iwo," he said, "was like going through a rainstorm without getting wet."



Four Navy corpsmen received the Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery on Iwo Jima: Pharmacist's Mates (1st Class) Francis J. Pierce, (2nd Class) George Wahlen, (3rd Class) Jack Williams, and (1st Class) John H. Willis. The last two were posthumous awards. Small wonder that most Marine infantrymen traditionally regard their accompanying corpsmen with special respect and affection.

---

John Bradley
b. July 10, 1923 Antigo, WI.
d. January 11, 1994 Antigo, WI.
"Doc" Bradley was a Navy Corpsman who "just jumped in to lend a hand." He won the Navy Cross for heroism and was wounded in both legs.

Bradley, a quiet, private man, gave just one interview in his life. In it he said . . . "People refer to us as heroes--I personally don't look at it that way. I just think that I happened to be at a certain place at a certain time and anybody on that island could have been in there--and we certainly weren't heroes--and I speak for the rest of them as well. That's the way they thought of themselves also."

************

John Bradley in later life . . .

"Of the surviving Flag Raisers, only Bradley was successful in putting his life back together after the war."

---From the best-selling "Immortal Images" by Tedd Thomey

John Bradley returned to his home town in the Midwest after the war, prospered as the owner of a family business, and gave generously of his time and money to local causes. He was married for 47 years and had eight children.

While Bradley had a public image as a war hero, he was a very private person. He avoided discussion of his war record saying only that the real heros were the men who gave their lives for their country.

The Global Media reported the death of a World War II icon on January 11, 1994 at the age of 70. But his hometown newspaper best captured the essence of Bradley's life after the war:

"John Bradley will be forever memorialized for a few moments action at the top of a remote Pacific mountain. We prefer to remember him for his life. If the famous flag-raising at Iwo Jima symbolized American patriotism and valor, Bradley's quiet, modest nature and philanthropic efforts shine as an example of the best of small town American values."

---Editorial, "The Antigo Daily Journal"

***************

John Bradley - Navy Cross

Navy Cross awarded to John H. Bradley February 21, 1945, D-Day plus 2:

"For extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy at Iwo Jima on Feb. 21, 1945 as a hospital corpsman attached to a Marine Rifle platoon. During a furious assault by his company upon a strongly defended enemy zone at the base of Mt. Suribachi, Bradley observed a Marine infantryman fall wounded in an open area under a pounding barrage by mortars, interlaced with a merciless crossfire from Machine guns.

With complete disregard for his own safety, he ran through the intense fire to the side of the fallen Marine, examined his wounds and ascertained that an immediate administration of plasma was necessary to save the man's life. Unwilling to subject any of his comrades to the danger to which he had so valiantly exposed himself, he signaled would-be assistants to remain where they were. Placing himself in a position to shield the wounded man, he tied a plasma unit to a rifle planted upright in the sand and continued his life saving mission.

The Marine's wounds bandaged and the condition of shock relieved by plasma, Bradley pulled the man thirty yards through intense enemy fire to a position of safety. His indomitable spirit, dauntless initiative, and heroic devotion to duty were an inspiration to those with who he served and were in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Naval Service."

(Bradley served until wounded in both legs on March 12 by an enemy mortar shell, but refused evacuation until rendering aid to two other wounded Marines.)

---

---

FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

Remembering Iwo Jima



Corpsman vets remember battle on Iwo Jima

Journalist 3rd Class Robert N. Sealover, USS Fort McHenry public affairs

Posted 03/18/2003

IWO JIMA, Japan -- Sailors and Marines gather and make their way around the tiny island. They stand together on the black sands and atop the mountain -- quiet, reverent and awed. This is a place of memories. This is hallowed ground.

More than 58 years ago this month, an American landing force of 110,000-plus Marines stormed the beaches of volcanic Iwo Jima in what would result as a 36-day struggle to gain control of the island. Nearly all the Japanese defenders and 25,000 Americans were killed or wounded here, but one small group of Sailors were not there to take life at all. Their mission was to save it.

Forward-deployed Sailors and Marines of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group and embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit revisited the island with returning veterans to pay tribute in the 58th commemoration of the Battle of Iwo Jima. Navy corpsmen again stood on the black sands.

Navy corpsmen, affectionately called "Doc" by their units, stormed the beaches alongside the invasion forces. They administered aid to the wounded, they bled and they died with the combatants. Of the seven Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to medical personnel during World War II, four were for actions in the field at Iwo Jima, two of which were posthumous.



When planning began for the invasion of Iwo Jima in July 1944, preparations for medical aid began with the coming fall. Due to poor beach conditions and heavy Japanese fortifications, casualties were expected to be high, about five percent of the entire landing force within the first two days. One corpsman remembers the weeks of training he spent in Hawaii prior to the invasion.

“We trained and trained -- amphibious exercises along the beaches and infantry assaults, said Pharmacist’s Mate 2nd Class Stanley H. Dabrowski, who served as a corpsman in the 28th Marines during the battle. “Our job was to set up aid stations, apply the battle dressings, administer medications, properly tag and evacuate the wounded, the whole bit,” he added.

There was one reoccurring theme throughout the training.

“One thing that always stood out in our minds, every time we went on these so-called field problems,” Dabrowski remembered. “There was a hill involved.” “It wasn’t until we saw the first picture of Iwo Jima on our way there that it dawned on us why. That hill was Mount Suribachi.”



Once the fighting began, corpsmen faced one of the most horrific battles of the Pacific campaign.

"The beach looked like hell," said retired Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, a young Marine captain during the invasion who returned for the commemoration and described the scene below Mount Suribachi as “a beach littered with broken and bleeding bodies.”

"You knew that if you didn't get off you were going to get hit, so you had better get up and go," he said.

Beach conditions made it difficult to land supplies and equipment and caused several days of delay for establishing hospital facilities ashore. The corpsmen’s efforts in the field saved countless lives as they cared for the wounded and prepared them for evacuation. Casualties among corpsmen on the front lines ran very high. Corpsmen were exposed to the same intense enemy fire that brought down the men they were caring for. A flight nurse testified to the horror.



“I turned a man over and could see the exit wound. He was bleeding profusely,” said Katheryn Van Wagner Pribham, a flight nurse present at Iwo Jima. “I knew his pleural cavity [lungs] was filling with blood so I turned him on the side that was bleeding in an effort to keep the lung that wasn’t affected, possibly aerating. I covered the entrance and exit wounds with just adhesive tape --a futile attempt to stop the loss of pleural air.”

At night, the beaches were “blacked out,” meaning no light could be used, not even to treat wounded.

“I opened the can [of serum albumin] and rigged it without the aid of light,” said Pharmacist’s Mate 1st Class Ray Crowder, a corpsman assigned to the 3rd Marine Division at Iwo Jima. “With a tourniquet tied to the upper portion of his arm I tried to hit his vein with the needle as I crouched under a poncho and used the light of a match. Finally, after several attempts I felt the needle hit the vein…I loosened the tourniquet, waited a couple minutes and checked his arm to see if a bulge had formed. It was perfect…he began to revive.”

"This makes me feel so much respect for our rating," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SW/FMF) Stuart Dodd, of Beachmaster Unit 1 Det. Western Pacific. "Those guys did so much more with so much less … I feel proud to be a corpsman."

Being able to visit Iwo Jima and stand where their predecessors worked so heroically almost 60 years ago brought a new sense of understanding to corpsmen who landed on Invasion Beach with the Essex ARG and 31st MEU.

"It's incredible to do something like this and not a lot of people get to," said HN Tara Braun, a USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) general duty corpsman. "It gives you a chance to really visualize what went on here.”



Bullet casings and aging pieces of the mechanisms of war still litter the island. Looming over Invasion Beach, MountSuribachi bears the scars of the struggle with countless bullet holes. And like the mountain, the men who fought here remember.

"On D+3 [the fourth day of the battle] we got the first patrol up the mountain," said Maj. Gen. Haynes. "When we got the first flag up, you could hear the cheers go up from the guys all the way down on the beach."



The struggle, the tribulation and violence are gone from this place, but the memory of the men who fought here in defense of freedom will live on, and those who fought to save the wounded will hold a special place in that history.

-USN-

---

Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.historynet.com/wwii/blunsungheroes
www.c7f.navy.mil/news/2003/March/13.htm
www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingc.htm

[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Saturday Morning Everyone.



If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

If you'd like to drop us a note you can write to:

The Foxhole
19093 S. Beavercreek Rd. #188
Oregon City, OR 97045

[snippy_about_it]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

---

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

---

NOW UPDATED THROUGH JULY 31st, 2004
Categorized by PAR35



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

[Coleus]

My uncle was shot over there.

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy.

We paid a high price for that rock.

[Iris7]

I spent the night on Iwo in about October '66. Aircraft landing gear hydraulic problems on the DC6 I got there on, en route to Guam from Tachikawa, sent the aircraft back to Japan for maintenance while I stayed the night. Picked up about 4PM the next day.

About four months in Viet Nam by that time, really very aware of fields of fire, cover and concealment, that sort of thing. Iwo was a place and a fight beyond anything. I walked the ground, walked a lot of it, seeing fields of fire, tiny areas of cover, easy to see since I was standing. Swing the eyes over the ground, fields of fire, pick out where the Jap machine gun had to be, went there, and at my feet was a pile of 7.7 empties and rusted Hotchkiss trays almost covered in windblown dirt. Looked at another field of fire, the first one I saw. The Marines had to have been four deep dead right there, I can see the place perfectly in my mind right now. Looked it up later, and I was close enough. The defense was tenacious, determined, and skillful.

This will sound really weird, but really there is no death. God is God of the living, Jesus said. Those men, died so young, live. As I live. That is what I learned there.

So, folks, don't sweat the "death" business, and never scold or belittle anyone who loves you. Especially dogs. Most especially your family.

And that last suggestion I am only passing along. Heard it in the wind on an island once.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[GailA]

Good morning..it's cold, but not raining for a change. It is supposed to warm up today.

[The Mayor]

January 8, 2005

What's Worth Keeping?

Read: Genesis 25:27-34

For one morsel of food [Esau] sold his birthright. —Hebrews 12:16

Bible In One Year: Genesis 23-26

---

A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn't read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. A copy just sold for over two million dollars!"

His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."

This fictitious story shows how a person can treat as worthless that which is valuable. That's what Esau did. Although he was a nice enough fellow, Esau was a "profane" man because he sold his spiritual birthright "for one morsel of food" (Hebrews 12:16). Only when it was too late to undo his wretched bargain did he realize that he had sacrificed the permanent on the altar of the immediate.

We had better be careful of the "bargains" we make in life. Our culture places a high price on what is worthless and throws away as worthless what is of eternal value.

Ask the Lord to help you discern what's worth keeping and what is best discarded. —Haddon Robinson

The little choices we must make
Will chart the course of life we take;
We either choose the path of light
Or wander off in darkest night. —D. De Haan

Why pay the high price for this world's bargains when eternal life is free?

[Valin]

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on January 08:
1081 Henry V Roman German king/emperor (1098/1111-25)
1583 Simon Episcopius Dutch bishop/theologist
1587 Johannes Fabricius Denmark, astronomer (discovered sunspots)
1632 Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf German jurist
1658 Nicolas Coustou French sculptor (Descente de Croix)
1786 Nicholas Biddle made 2nd bank of US 1st effective central bank
1791 Jacob Collamer (Senator-VT)
1814 Thomas Green Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1815 George Webb Morell Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1883
1815 Lawrence Pike Graham Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1905
1817 John Selden Roane Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1867
1821 James Longstreet Confederate General (1st Corps, ANV)
1830 Governer Kemble Warren Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1882
1830 Hans von Bülow Dresden, pianist/virtuoso conductor/musical writer
1836 Fannie M Jackson pioneer & educator, 1st US Black woman college grad
1860 Nancy Jones US black missionary in Africa
1862 Frank Nelson Doubleday publisher/founder (Doubleday & Co)
1868 Sir Frank Dyson proved Einstein right about light bent by gravity
1870 Miguel Primo de Rivera Orbaneja dictator of Spain (1923-30)
1891 Bronislava Nijinska ballet choreographer
1891 Walther Bothe Germany, subatomic particle physicist (Nobel 1954)
1902 Georgy M Malenkov Stalin's successor as head of CPSU, PM (1953-55)
1905 Carl Gustav Hempel German Logical Positivist philosopher
1912 José Ferrer Santurce PR, actor/director (Cyrano de Bergerac, Blood Tide, Dune, Big Bus)
1920 Hendrikus J Wittebold civil servant/resistance fighter
1923 Joseph Wiezenbaum artificial intelligence pioneer
1923 Larry Storch New York City NY, comedian (F Troop, Larry Storch Show)
1926 Soupy Sales [Milton Hines], North Carolina, comedian (Soupy Sales Show)
1928 Sander Vanocur Cleveland OH, news anchor (NBC Weekend News)
1931 Bill Graham Germany, rock promoter (Fillmore)
1933 Charles Osgood New York City NY, news anchor (CBS Weekend News)
1934 Jacques Anquetil France, Tour de France bicycle racer (5-time winner)

1935 Elvis Aaron Presley Tupelo MS, rocker/THE KING (Blue Suede Shoes, Hounddog)

1935 Jesse Garon Presley stillborn twin brother of Elvis
1937 Bob Eubanks Flint MI, TV host (Newlywed Game)
1939 Yvette Mimieux Hollywood CA, actress (Time Machine, Where the Boys Are)
1940 Anthony Gaurdine (Little Anthony & Imperials-Goin' Out of My Head)
1940 Cristy Lane US, country/gospel singer
1941 Graham Chapman England, comedian (Monty Python's Flying Circus) (And now for something completly different)
1942 Stephen Hawking English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes)
1942 Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich Zudov USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 23)
1944 Terry Brooks US, sci-fi author (Sword of Shannara)
1946 Robbie Kreiger Los Angeles CA, guitarist (Doors-Come on Baby Light My Fire)
1947 David Bowie [Jones], London, singer/actor (Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust)
1964 Virgil Hill Missouri, middleweight boxer (Olympics-silver-1984)
1968 Ami Dolenz Los Angeles CA, actress (General Hospital, Can't Buy Me Love)
1971 Brenda Lee Armstrong Albert Lea MN, Miss Minnesota-America (1990)

---

Deaths which occurred on January 08:
0482 Severinus German monastery founder/saint, dies
0624 Abu Sufjan ibn Harb Kurashite chief, dies in battle
1198 Coelestinus III [Giacinto Bobo], pope (1191-98), dies
1324 Marco Polo Venetian explorer/Governor of Nanking, dies
1336 Giotto di Bondone Italian Renaissance painter, dies at about 71
1455 Laurentius Justitianus [Lorenzo Giustiniani], saint, dies at 73
1598 Johan Georg elector of Brandenburg (1571-91), dies at 72

1642 Galileo Galilei Italian physicist/astronomer, dies at 78 in Arceti Italy

1775 John Baskerville English printer/type designer, dies at 68
1815 Edward Pakenham English General (Battle of New Orleans), dies in battle
1880 [Joshua] Norton I Emperor of US/Protector of México, dies at 60
1922 Colonel Charles R Young dies at 58, in Lagos Nigeria
1941 Lord Robert Baden-Powell founder of the Boy Scout movement, dies at 83
1950 Joseph Issac Shneerson Jewish Lubavitch Chabal leader, dies
1950 Joseph A Schumpeter Austrian/US economist/Minister of Finance, dies at 66
1952 Antonia Maury discoverer (supergiant, giant & dwarf stars), dies
1975 Anthony Warde actor (Big Punch, Buck Rogers), dies at 66
1975 Gertrude Olmsted actress (Cobra, Torrent), dies at 70
1976 Chou En-lai China's PM (1949-76), dies of cancer in Beijing at 78
1978 Walter Keirnan TV panelist (I've Got a Secret), dies at 75
1983 Gale Page actress (4 Daughters, Knute Rockney), dies of cancer at 72
1988 Frank Pace Jr US Secretary of Army (1950-53), dies at 76
1990 Terry Thomas English comic (Heroes), dies of Parkinson's disease at 78
1992 Abderrahim Bouabid Morroco prime secretary (1972), dies
1992 Johnny [Jan] Meijer Dutch king of accordions (Body & Soul), dies
1992 Menachim Begin Israeli PM, dies at 78 of a heart attack
1993 Asif Nawaz Pakistani General , dies
1993 Hakija Turajlic Bosnian vice-premier, murdered
1994 Harvey Haddix pitcher (12 perfect inning game), dies at 68
1994 Pat Buttram actor (Haney-Green Acres), dies of kidney failure at 78
1996 Francois Mitterrand President of France (1981-95), dies of cancer at 79
1998 Walter Diemer inventor (bubble gum 1928), dies of heart failure at 93

---

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 BIFOLCHI CHARLES L.---QUINCY MA.
1968 CANNON FRANCES E.---PHOENIX AZ.
[09/68 ON PRG DIC LIST REMAINS RETURNED 08/14/85]
1968 FISCHER RICHARD W.---MADISON WI.
1968 HARKER DAVID N.---LUNCHBURG VA.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 SMITH HALLIE W.---PORTLAND OR.
1968 STRICKLAND JAMES H. DUNN NC.
[11/05/69 RELEASED]
1968 WILLIAMS RICHARD F.---SAN LEANDRO CA.
[09/27/68 ON PRG DIC LIST REMAINS RETURNED 08/14/85] 1971 CURRY KEITH R.---SALEM WV.
1973 BUSH ELBERT W.---JACKSON MS.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1996 ID'D 10/04/99]
1973 DEANE WILLIAM L.---ORLANDO FL.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1996 ID'D 10/04/99]
1973 KNUTSON RICHARD A.---HALLOCK MN.
[REMAINS RETURNED AND IDENTIFIED 11/95]
1973 LAUTERIO MANUEL A.---LOS ANGELES CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1996 ID 10/04/99]
1973 STINSON WILLIAM S.---GEORGIANA AL.
[REMAINS ID'D 11/03/99]
1973 WILSON MICKEY A.---MOUNTAIN VIEW CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1996 ID 10/04/99]

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

---

On this day...
0624 Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan
0794 Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
0871 Battle at Ashdown Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1198 Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1499 Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown
1598 Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1656 Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1675 1st American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)
1745 England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1790 George Washington delivers 1st "State of the Union" address
1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1800 Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
1806 Cape colony becomes English colony
1806 Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1811 Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast

1815 Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew

1833 Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes, New Jersey
1853 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
1856 Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA
1867 Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite President Johnson's veto
1870 US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
1878 Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley
1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
1889 Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine (1st Computer)
1894 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1897 Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
1902 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago IL)
1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
1918 Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
1918 President Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WWI
1925 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas

1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia

1931 Philadelphia Quakers set then NHL record of 15 straight loses
1935 Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1937 -50ºF (-45.6ºC), San Jacinto NV (state record)
1940 Britain's 1st WWII rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1941 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns

1945 "Youth for Christ" organizes

1947 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
1947 General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State
1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1951 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1952 Jordan adopts constitution
1953 Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
1954 Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his 1st two songs, "Casual Love" & "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
1955 Georgia Tech ends Kentucky's 130-game home basketball win streak
1956 Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" single goes to #1 & stays #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic
1962 Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21, 1st pro appearance, he came in 50th
1964 President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
1965 Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the national flower (didn't pass)
1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1966 Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
1966 Who & the Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
1968 Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established
1971 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA
1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1974 Loch Ness Monster photographed (or did it?)
1975 Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1978 Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
1979 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
1982 Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
1982 Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville Tennessee
1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
1986 President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
1986 Willie McCovey is 16th elected to Hall of Fame in his 1st year
1987 Dow Jones closes above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)
1988 Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1991 Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins & Rod Carew elected to Hall of Fame
1991 Rod Carew is 22nd player elected to Hall of Fame on 1st try
1992 US President George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap during Japanese tour
1993 Chicago Bull Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
1996 Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
1996 For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1998 Roseanne files for divorce from 3rd husband Ben Thomas
1998 Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
1998 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

---

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

Louisana : Battle of New Orleans/Old Hickory Day/ Jackson Day (1815)

---

Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of St Gudula, patron of Brussels
Orthodox : St Dominique's Day
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Severinus
Jewish : Asarah B'Tevet (Siege of Jerusalem); Tevet 10, 5758

---

Religious History
1800 In London, the first soup kitchens were opened for the relief of the poor.
1954 The State Convention of Baptists in Ohio was formed, representing 39 Southern Baptist churches in that state.
1956 In Ecuador, Plymouth Brethren missionaries Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully and Pete Fleming were killed by the Auca Indians, while attempting to evangelize their tribe. Elliot's widow Elisabeth later published the story of their work and martyrdom in her book "Through Gates of Splendor" (1953).
1966 Stephen Cardinal Wyszynski, the primate of Poland, was barred by the Polish government from attending the Vatican celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in Poland.
1979 American Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'A Christian is a person who has the possibility of innumerable new starts.'

---

Thought for the day :
" Someone whom you reject today, will reject you tomorrow. "

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[The Mayor]

Mornin Feather!

[SAMWolf]

Morning Coleus.

I thank your Uncle for his service.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Iris7.

I can imagine the feeling you had at Iwo, I've felt it at Bloody Lane at Antietam and the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh, at Malmedy, Bastogne and other places. Some ground takes on very special meaning if you just close your eyes and look at it.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

We didn't get the snow they said we might, just turned to an all day rain.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA.

Spring is coming ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.

I got a laugh out of the book story, but it does get the point across.

[SAMWolf]

1923 Larry Storch New York City NY, comedian (F Troop, Larry Storch Show)

The end of the Civil War was near
When quite accidentally,
A hero who sneezed abruptly seized
Retreat and reversed it to victory.

His medal of honor pleased and thrilled
his proud little family group.
While pinning it on some blood was spilled
And so it was planned he'd command F Troop.

Where Indian fights are colorful sights
and nobody takes a lickin'
Where pale face and redskin
Both turn chicken.

When killing and fighting get them down,
They know their morale can't droop.
As long as they all relax in town
Before they resume with a bang and a boom
F Troop.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Feather

[The Mayor]

Mornin Sam..
Yes it does.
I would love to have the original transcript.