.......
BEHIND JAPANESE LINES IN NORTHERN BURMA
By Sgt. DAVE RICHARDSON YANK Staff Correspondent
(from Yank the Army Weekly British Edition Vol 3. No. 14)
Sept. 17 1944
There's been plenty of hocus-pocus in this jungle war ever since Merrill's Marauders first popped up here.
The magic show started within a week of the Marauders' arrival in Burma. The night before their first sneak around Jap strong points, a Jap reconnaissance plane droned over the Marauders' bivouac area. Before they could stamp out all their campfires, the plane had spotted the position.
Nhpum Ga
About april 9, 1944
Marauder, at Nhpum Ga cemertary, checks dog tags of buddy killed in action during the 14 day seige. at Nhpum Ga Hill.
Next morning, when the Marauders pulled out Brig. Gen. Frank D. Merrill ordered a few men to stay behind. For several nights they lit campfires in the original bivouac area. And each night the Jap plane returned to circle the area again, its pilot apparently satisfying himself that whoever was camped there hadn't moved.
Meanwhile the main body of Marauders marched steadily into enemy territory over little used native trails, lighting no fires or even cigarettes after dark. When they finally bumped into startled enemy outposts, they were well behind Jap lines.
The Marauders opened their bag of tricks again during an eight-day battle on a hill named Nhpum Ga. One night a Marauder unit set up part of its perimeter only a stone's throw *am camouflaged Japanese machine-gun positions. Anxious to check on the location of these emplacements, but not wanting to risk men prowling around in the darkness, the Marauders shoved a pack mule out in front of the perimeter and started him walking toward the Japanese.
Lagang Ga-Walawbu, Burma
March 7, 1944
American-Chinese Tank of Battalion attached to Chinese Divisions visits with Marauders after battle of Walawbum. For most men of 5307th, this was only time that an allied tank was seen on 5307th missions.
As the animal rustled through the jungle underbrush, the Japanese figured it was a patrol and opened up with their machine guns, thereby revealing their positions. Next morning the Marauders outflanked the Japanese pocket and wiped it out.
They found the mule lying dead a few feet from one of the machine guns, its hind quarters neatly butchered. The hungry Japanese, cut off from supplies, had eaten Missouri mule steak before dying for the Emperor.
Speaking of animals, the Japanese thought up a slick way to guard themselves against Marauder booby traps along the narrow jungle trails. They sent dogs down the trails ahead of their patrols to trip the booby-trap wires. But a Marauder pioneer and demolition platoon countered this move by rigging up the traps in relays. After that, when a Japanese dog romped down a trail a dozen yards or so in front of a patrol and tripped a booby-trap wire, nothing happened to the dog, but traps exploded at intervals all the way back down the hill, killing or wounding some of the enemy. Even after the Japanese discovered this trick, there was little they could do about it they had to stick to jungle trails or risk getting host.
Wesu Ga, Burma
Early March, 1944
Men of 2d Battalion, 5307th among bamboo patch in jungle. Japanese is American Nisei acting as interpreter. Note cut off sleeves as concession to heat and humidity. L to R Thomas J. Dalton, T/Sgt. Herbert Miyaski, S/Sgt., Frank Wonsowicz and S/Major Jack Crowley of Orange Combat Team, 5307th.
The old power of suggestion helped beat the Japanese at another stage of the campaign. for several days the Marauders had been trying to break through a pocket of Japanese dug in strongly on a razor-backed ridge along the only trail in the area. The steep sides of the ridge made outflanking next to impossible. The only way to get through was by frontal attack, and this was costing the Marauders a number of casualties. They pounded away with mortars, raked the ridge with machine guns and BARB, and staged one attack after another. But the going was painfully slow a few yards a day.
One night the Marauders decided to try another method. A few men and mules set out on the trail leading up to Marauder forward positions from the rear. The men smoked tell-tale cigarettes, talked in loud voices and jiggled the mule saddles to make plenty of noise. Each time they reached the front, the men doused their cigarettes, turned around and silently withdrew to their starting points. Then they began all over again, keeping it up for three hours.
When the Marauders attacked the ridge again the next day, they pushed through easily. Only a couple of Japanese were still there; the rest had pulled out. They had been fooled into thinking that all the noise and movement of the night before were reinforcements for a big attack. One of the most valuable tricks in the Marauder repertoire was a variation of the Statue of Liberty play in football. It was used in attacking a series of Japanese strong points on high ground.
The CP long-range radio called for air support to soften up the Japanese hill positions. Soon some P-40s came roaring over. Directed by air-ground radio, they went to work on the Japanese, dive-bombing and strafing enemy emplacements on the crest of the hill. After each pass they zoomed up, circled around and attacked again.
JanPan, Burma
March 19, 1944
Supply drop taken in Kachin village because of lack of clear space on top of mountain. A number of chutes landed in trees, requiring tree climbing to retrieve them. Note rugged mountain terrain in background.
The Japanese scrambled down the back of the hill and huddled there for protection while the bombs and tracers chewed up their positions. But as soon as the planes finished their dives and roared away, the Japanese crawled right back up the hill again and resisted the Marauder advance as stubbornly as before. This went on for several days, with the Japanese defending one hill after another in the same way against air and ground attack. All that beautiful air support didn't seem to help much.
Then a Marauder officer suggested the Statue of Liberty play. He radioed the planes to make a few fake passes after they had completed their regular bombing and strafing runs. The pilots dived their ships at the emplacements just as though they were going to let loose with 500 pound bombs or .50 caliber slugs, but they pulled out without doing a thing except scare hell out of the Japanese.
Up the hill came the unsuspecting Japanese to reoccupy their old positions. As soon as the planes began these passes, the forward Marauder platoon rushed up the hill and climbed into the vacated Japanese positions. When the dummy passes ended and the planes went away, the fun began. Up the hill came the unsuspecting Japanese to reoccupy their positions. The Marauders cut them down with automatic-weapons fire.
............
BEHIND JAPANESE LINES IN NORTHERN BURMA
.By Sgt. DAVE RICHARDSON YANK Staff Correspondent
(from Yank the Army Weekly British Edition Vol 3. No. 16)
Oct. 1 1944
Jap artillery was pounding Merrill's Marauders again. Three weeks before. the enemy guns had sent shells whistling into Marauder positions facing the Walawbum garrison. Two weeks before. a Jap battery had ranged in on the Marauders during their attack on the enemy supply route at Inkangahtawng. One week before, a couple of rapid-fire guns had hammered the Marauders all night after their capture of a section of the Shaduzup-Kamaing road.
And now Jap artillery was concentrated on a unit of Marauders on Nhpum Ga hill. Another Marauder unit was driving through to relieve the outfit the Japs had surrounded.
General Frank D. Merrill flanked by two of his Japanese-language interpreters, Herbie Miyasaki and Akiji Yoshimura. The interpreters cut into Japanese communication lines and slipped close enough to enemy camps to report on the activities and the plans of the 18th Division, who were fighting the Marauders in Burma.
As the 70-mm shell blasts reverberated through the jungles. Maj. Edwin J. Briggs of La Crande, Oreg., CO of the attacking unit, sent for a mule skinner and offered him a new job.
S/Sgt. John A. Acker, the mule skinner, was an ex-mineworker from Bessemer, Ala., who had shipped overseas a year before with a pack howitzer outfit. The outfit had gone to New Guinea. After sitting around for months without going into action, Acker and several others grew restless. When a call was made for animal transportation men to join Merrill's Marauders, they volunteered. That was seven months before.
"Acker," said the major, "I understand you and some of the other mule drivers who used to be in the pack artillery would like to fire some howitzers back at these Japs. Is that right?"
The Alabaman said it was.
"Well, Acker," the major grinned, "this is an emergency. Two 75-mm pack howitzers will be parachuted to us tomorrow. Get two gun crews together and be ready to fire them."
Next day an expectant bunch of mule drivers stood on the airdrop field, watching brilliantly colored parachutes drift lazily down. When the "parachutes hit the ground, the mule skinners became artillerymen again. They grabbed the dismantled howitzers and went to work assembling them. The guns were brand new and clean of cosmoline. Within two hours they were assembled, dug in on the airdrop field and firing.
A mile away the Marauder unit that was driving through Jap machine-gun positions along the trail to Nhpum Ga heard the shells whistle overhead. "What the hell is that?" one rifleman asked another. "Jap artillery behind us, too?" Then a radio message explained that it was Marauder artillery. Soon infantry-directed fire was blasting the strong 'points holding up the rifle platoon.
Two days later Acker and his impromptu artillery crews put their howitzers on mules and climbed the winding trail for three miles. They emplaced their guns on a ridge overlooking the Jap positions between the trapped Marauder unit on Nhpum Ga hill and the attacking unit. While the guns were being set up again T-4 Robert L. Carr of San Luis Obispo, Calif., started for the front as artillery observer with a walkie-talkie.
The point platoon had run smack up against one of the strongest Jap positions yet. This was a perimeter atop a little knoll from which Jap machine gunners commanded a clear field of fire for several hundred feet down the trail. The steep sides of the knoll made flanking difficult. It would have to be taken frontally. The point platoon asked for artillery and mortar support.
Carr, the observer, took his walkie-talkie up to the first squad. "Jap position approximately 700 yards from guns," he radioed, adding the azimuth. 'Fire a smoke shell, and I'll zero you in."
The smoke shell whistled over, followed by a few more as Carr adjusted the firing data. Finally he okayed both range and azimuth. Lacking an aiming circle, the only piece of equipment that was not dropped with the guns, Acker and his men were obliged to use an ordinary infantry compass to gauge azimuth.
The order came to fire five rounds. Up ahead all morning there had been constant mortar, machine-gun and small-arms fire. But as soon as the howitzers opened fire, Jap bullets began singing over the artillerymen's heads. All day the Japs reminded Acker's men that they were firing practically point-blank at 700 yards.
Just after the howitzers fired the five rounds, S/Sgt. Henry E. Hoot of Shepherd, Tex., radioman with the guns, shouted to Acker: "Holy smoke! Some Infantry officer is on the radio. He's excited as hell. Says you're right on the target. And—get this—he wants us to fire 'Battery 100 rounds'."
There's no such order in artillery parlance; actually the correct order for a lot of firing is "Fire at will." Acker chuckled at the order. "Okay, boys," he said. "Open those shell cases fast. Gun crews, prepare to fire at will."
In the Next 15 minutes, the jungle hills rang as the two pack howitzers threw 134 shells into the Jap perimeter. The crews had been a bit slow two days before because they hadn't seen a howitzer in seven months, but now they performed as artillerymen should.
Up front the point platoon drove through They found parts of Jap bodies in trees and all over the ground, virtually blown out of their holes. The dense" jungle had become a clearing under the terrific blasting. A platoon leader going through the area, a few minutes after the barrage. discovered two shivering Japs deep in a foxhole, unhurt but moaning with fear. He killed them with a carbine. Apparently they were the only ones who had survived and stayed in the area. The platoon moved through unopposed.
For the next few days the artillery worked hand in hand with the point platoon in blasting other Jap positions. On one of these days Pvt. John W. (Red) Seegars of Kershaw, S. C.. walked up to the guns with a broad smile. Seegars had been requested by Acker as No. I man on one of the howitzers but because he was a rifleman and was [deeded in the drive, he had not been sent back to the guns. Now Seegars was wounded in the left arm.
Ledo Road, Burma
February, 1944
140 mile march down the Ledo Raod towards combat area ordered to sweat in the pack saddles and to toughing up the men, “separate the men from the boys”
"As a rifleman I can't crawl with this arm wound," said Seegars, "so they sent me back to the aid station for evacuation. But I'm not going. I can still pull a howitzer lanyard with my right arm." Acker was glad to get him.
MEANWHILE Carr. the artillery observer, found things pretty hot at the front. On an advance with a ride platoon, he was pinned down on the side of a hill by Jap machine guns and grenades at the top. Two men were wounded near him. He left the radio and dragged each of them back through the fire to an aid man. Returning to his radio, Carr egged the Japs into revealing their positions by throwing grenades, thus drawing fire on himself. Then he radioed the howitzers to shorten their range and swing their azimuth until the shells burst near a Jap heavy machine gun 30 yards away.
All this time, a Jap dual-purpose antiaircraft gun was throwing 70-mm shells into the midst of the trapped Marauder unit on Nhpum Ga hilt Acker got a liaison plane to spot the ack-ack gun's position. Then the howitzers fired on it all day. At dusk the Jap gun- tried to fire back at the howitzers, but its trajectory was too flat to hit them. The shells either hit an intervening hill or whistled harmlessly high over the artillerymen's heads.
And that morning the Marauder attacking unit broke through to relieve the unit that had been cut off by the Japs for 10 days. Acker and his men, mule skinners no more, fired a salvo to celebrate.
On this Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on March 25:
1133 Henry II King of England (1154-89)
1532 Pietro Pontio composer
1767 Joachim Murat marshal of France/King of Naples (1808-15)
1786 Giovanni B Amia Italian astronomer/physicist/botanist
1797 John Winebrenner US, clergyman, founded Church of God
1818 Isaac Ingalls Stevens Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1823 William Thompson Martin Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1910
1867 Arturo Toscanini Parma Italy, temperamental conductor
1867 Gutzon Borglum sculptor (Mount Rushmore)
1873 Rudolf Rocker German/US anarchist
1881 Béla Bartók Hungary, composer/pianist (Concerto for Orchestra)
1893 Edward Hart (Representative-Democrat-NJ)/1st chairman of Committee on Un-American Activities
1906 Alan J P Taylor British historian (English history 1914-1915)
1906 Howard Pyle (Governor-Republican-AZ, 1951-55)
1908 David Lean Croydon England, director (Dr Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter)
1920 Patrick Troughton actor (Doctor Who)
1921 Simone Signoret Wiesbaden Germany, actress (Casque d'Or, Room at the Top)
1922 Eileen Ford modeling agency head (Ford Modeling Agency)
1925 Flannery O'Connor Georgia, novelist (A Good Man Is Hard to Find)
1928 James A Lovell Jr Cleveland OH, USN/astronaut (Gemini 7, 12, Apollo 8, 13)
1934 Gloria Steinem Toledo OH, feminist/publisher (Ms Magazine)
1938 Hoyt Axton Duncan OK, musician (Della and the dealer, I've never been to spain)
1940 Anita Bryant Barnsdall OK, Miss Oklahoma-America (1958)/singer (George Gobel Show)
1942 Aretha Franklin Memphis TN, Soul Sister #1/singer (Respect)
1942 Paul Michael Glaser Cambridge MA, actor (Starsky-Starsky & Hutch)
1944 Frank Oz muppetteer (Grover-Sesame Street, Muppet Show)
1947 Elton John [Reginald Kenneth Dwight] Pinner Middlesex England, singer (Rocketman, Your Song, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)
1965 Sarah Jessica Parker Nelsonville OH, actress (Square Pegs, LA Story)
1974 Vyninka Arlow Australia, diver (Olympics-96)
2184 Pavel Andreivich Chekov St. Petersburg, Russia
Deaths which occurred on March 25:
1223 Afonso II 3rd King of Portugal (1211-23), dies at 36
1751 Frederik of Hessen Kassel King of Sweden (1720-51), dies at 74
1918 Claude A Debussy French composer, dies in Paris France at 55
1949 Hanns A Rauter German SS-commandant in Netherlands, executed at 54
1962 Auguste Piccard Swiss explorer/balloonist, dies at 78
1963 David Moore US feather weight boxer, dies at 29
1973 Edward Steichen pioneer of American photography, dies at 92
1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia shot to death by his nephew
1992 Nancy Walker actress (Ida Morgenstern-Rhoda), dies of cancer at 69
GWOT Casualties
25-Mar-2003 4 | US: 2 | UK: 2 | Other: 0
US Major Gregory Lewis Stone Camp Pennsylvania Non-hostile - homicide
US Hospital Corpsman 3rd Cl. Michael Vann Johnson Jr. Not reported Hostile - hostile fire
UK Corporal Stephen John Allbutt Basra Hostile - friendly fire
UK Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke Basra Hostile - friendly fire
25-Mar-2004 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Adam D. Froehlich Ba’qubah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Jeffrey C. Burgess Fallujah (E of) Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal James A. Casper Al Asad Non-hostile - unspecified cause
Afghanistan
A good Day
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
http://icasualties.org/oif/
On this day...
0031 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus
0421 Venice was founded on a Friday at 12 PM
0708 Constantine begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0752 Stephen ends his reign as Catholic Pope (or 26th)
1133 William the Conqueror orders 1st Domesday Survey of England
1306 Robert the Bruce crowned king of Scotland
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh renews Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America
1609 Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for Dutch East India Co
1634 Lord Baltimore founded Catholic colony of Maryland
1655 Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan, (Saturn's largest satellite)
1668 1st horse race in America takes place
1669 Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000
1774 English Parliament passes Boston Port Bill
1776 Continental Congress authorizes a medal for General George Washington
1802 France, Netherlands, Spain & England signs Peace of Amiens
1807 1st railway passenger service began in England
1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade
1813 1st US flag flown in battle on the Pacific, frigate Essex
1817 Tsar Alexander I recommends formation of Society of Israeli Christians
1821 Greece gains independence from Turkey (National Day)
1847 Pope Pius IX encyclical "On aid for Ireland"
1856 A E Burnside patents Burnside carbine
1857 Frederick Laggenheim takes 1st photo of a solar eclipse
1863 1st Army Medal of Honor awarded
1863 Skirmish at Brentwood TN
1864 Battle of Paducah KY (Forrest's raid)
1865 Battle of Bluff Spring FL
1865 Battle of Fort Stedman VA: in front of Petersburg
1865 Battle of Mobile AL (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)
1882 1st demonstration of pancake making (Department store in New York NY)
1894 Coxey's Army of the unemployed sets out from Massillon OH for Washington DC
1895 Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1896 Modern Olympics begin in Athens Greece
1898 Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association formed in New York NY
1900 US Socialist Party is formed at Indianapolis
1902 Irving W Colburn patents sheet glass drawing machine
1905 (some)Rebel battle flags captured during war are returned to South
1910 Chalmers Auto Co offers a new car to each leagues' batting champion
1911 146 die in a fire at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York NY
1913 Home of vaudeville, Palace Theatre, opens (New York NY) starring Ed Wynn
1915 1st submarine disaster; a US F-4 sank off Hawaii, killing 21
1916 Women are allowed to attend a boxing match
1920 Greek Independence Day
1923 British government grants Trans-Jordan autonomy
1931 Scottsboro Boys (accused of raping a white woman) arrested in Alabama
1934 1st Golf Masters Championship: Horton Smith wins, shooting a 284
1937 Italy & Yugoslavia sign no-attack treaty (Pact of Belgrade)
1937 It's revealed Quaker Oats pays Babe Ruth $25,000 per year for ads
1938 1st US bred horse (Battleship) to win Grand National Steeplechase
1939 Billboard Magazine introduces hillbilly (country) music chart
1942 700 Jews of Polish Lvov-district reach Belzec Concentration camp
1943 97% of all Dutch physicians strike againt Nazi registration
1944 RAF Sergeant Nickolas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber from 18,000 feet without a parachute
1945 US 1st army breaks out bridgehead near Remagen
1945 US 4th Armored division arrives at Hanau & Aschaffenburg
1947 Coal mine explosion in Centralia IL, claims 111 lives
1949 SS police chief Rauter request for a pardon, denied
1954 Pope Pius XII encyclical "Sacra virginitas" (On consecrated virginity)
1954 RCA manufactures 1st color TV set (12½" screen at $1,000)
1955 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power, USSR
1957 Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic Community (Common Market)
1958 Sugar Ray Robinson is 1st boxing champion to win 5 times
1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)
1961 "Gypsy" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 702 performances
1961 Elvis Presley performs live on the USS Arizona
1961 Explorer 10 launched into elongated Earth orbit (177/181,000 km)
1961 Sputnik 10 carries a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered
1964 Egypt ends state of siege (1952-64)
1965 Martin Luther King Jr led 25,000 to state capitol in Montgomery AL
1966 US Supreme court rules "poll tax" unconstitutional
1967 The Turtles' "Happy Together" goes #1
1967 Who & Cream make US debut at Murray the K's Easter Show
1969 Pakistan General Agha Mohammed Jagja Khan succeeds Ayub Chan as President
1970 Concorde makes its 1st supersonic flight (700 MPH/1,127 KPH)
1971 Boston Patriots become New England Patriots
1972 America's LP "America" goes #1
1972 Bobby Hull becomes the 2nd NHLer to score 600 goals
1975 Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz, king of Saudi-Arabia (1964-75), shot by nephew
1976 Argentine military junta bans leftist political parties
1982 Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st NHL to score 200 points in a season
1985 Edwin Meese III becomes US Attorney General
1986 Supreme Court rules Air Force could ban wearing of yarmulkes
1987 Supreme Court rules women/minorities may get jobs if less qualified (Remember diversity is our strength...or not)
1990 10th Golden Raspberry Awards: Star Trek V won
1992 British scientists find new largest perfect number (2 756839 -1 2 756839)
1995 Boxer Mike Tyson released from jail after serving 3 years
1996 "Braveheart" won Academy Awards for best picture and best director Mel Gibson
1996 Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) approaches within 0.1018 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1996 US issues newly-redesigned $100 bill
1997 Georgia Gov. Zell Miller signes into law a ban on a controversial form of late-term abortion.
1997 Former President George Bush, 73, parachuted from a plane over the Arizona desert
2000 In Belarus thousands of people demonstrated in Minsk against the rule of Pres. Lukashenko and clashed with police
2001 In Saudi Arabia the Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law claimed that Pokemon games and cards have “possessed the minds” of Saudi children
2003 7th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US aircraft dropped more than 2,000 precision-guided bombs on Iraq since the war's start. The "smart" bombs were produced for a relatively cheap $20,000 each. Sandstorms slowed coalition movement and air missions. US officials reported 150-200 Iraqi soldiers were killed near Najaf.
2004 The United States uses its veto power to quash a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for killing Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in a missile strike.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
England : New Year's Day 1155-1752
Greece : Independence Day (1821)
Maryland : Maryland Day (1634)
US : Pecan Day
Alaska : Seward Day (1867) (Monday)
US Virgin Island : Transfer Day (1917) (Monday)
US : Pecan Day
US : Chocolate Week (Day 6)
US : Straw Hat Week (Day 6)
Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Feast of the Annunication
Christian : Saint Dismas Feast Day - The good thief who died on the cross next to Jesus
Christian : Commemoration of St Margaret Clitherow, English martyr
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Lucy Filippini, Italian educator
Moslem : 'Id al-Fitr; end of Ramadân fast (Shawwâl 1, 1412 AH)
Religious History
1 Roman Church historian Dionysius Exiguus (ca.500_550), in calculating his history of the Christian Church, took this day as the supposed date of the Annunciation. March 25th afterward became the first day of the calendar year, until the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1753 changed the day to January 1st.
1533 During one of his recorded "Table Talks," German reformer Martin Luther declared: 'That the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom - this is the reason for our rejoicing.'
1634 The Catholic Church gained a foothold in colonial America when the ships "Dove" and "Ark" arrived in Maryland with 128 Catholic colonists, selected by Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. The colony was under the leadership of Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother.
1951 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot reflected in his journal: 'When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die.'
1953 A group of 22 Southern Baptist military personnel, stationed at Rapid City, met to form the Calvary Baptist Church , the first Southern Baptist congregation established in South Dakota.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."
