The FReeper Foxhole - Dick Winters' Reflections on His Band of Brothers - Nov 3rd, 2005

American History Magazine | Christopher J. Anderson

[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.


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Dick Winters' Reflections



His Band of Brothers, D-Day and Leadership

Major Richard "Dick" Winters of "Band of Brothers" fame speaks candidly about the men and actions of Easy Company and reflects on D-Day and the lessons he learned about leadership.

After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1945, Major Richard Winters returned to civilian life. He worked for a while for Nixon Nitration Works, the family firm of his wartime friend Louis Nixon. Following a brief tour of duty during the Korean War, he returned to Hershey, Pa., embarked on a successful business career, raised a family and lived the quiet life he had promised himself after his first day in combat on June 6, 1944. In 1992 this solitude was interrupted with the publication of historian Stephen E. Ambrose's best-selling book Band of Brothers, which brought the World War II story of Dick Winters and Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division -- which he had commanded from Normandy to Berchtesgaden -- to the public's attention. The spotlight intensified exponentially when Hollywood's Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks teamed up to bring Winters' story to tens of millions in the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. This mass exposure transformed Winters and his comrades into cultural icons for generations far removed from World War II. They have become the embodiment of millions of American servicemen who marched off to war as ordinary men but achieved extraordinary things.

Faced with his newfound fame, Winters seized the opportunity to continue to lead and instill in others the lessons about leadership he learned in the life and death crucible of war. It was Ambrose who, after chronicling Winters' story, impressed upon him that his leadership ethics could inspire all generations.

Major Dick Winters: After Band of Brothers became such an unexpected success, Ambrose wrote me a letter of thanks. In that letter he said, "Thanks for teaching me the duties and responsibilities of a good company commander." Later on, he again acknowledged me in his book on Lewis and Clark. He continued to do this with every book he wrote afterward. I appreciated that recognition, and I appreciated the fact that he never forgot me. I was one of the first people he called when he said that he had sold the book to Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Ambrose later wrote me another letter and said that in the future, whenever I had an opportunity, I should talk on the subject of leadership. So, as a way to deliver what I believe is an important message, and to honor my friend's request, I speak on this subject whenever I have an opportunity.

Winters' first opportunity to lead came in 1942, when he completed Officer Candidate School and began his journey to Easy Company and war.

When I first joined the Army I took a series of tests to see where I would best fit. I scored high enough that I qualified for Officer Candidate School [OCS]. While I was at OCS at Fort Benning, Ga., I applied for the airborne, a new thing that looked like a challenge. I had always enjoyed sports and physical activity, and there was a certain appeal to being with the best. After graduating from OCS, I reported to Camp Croft, in South Carolina, where I was busy training new men. I had been at this for about 13 weeks when I got orders to report to Camp Toombs in Georgia. On the way to the camp I was pretty unsettled. I took Highway 13, passed a casket factory and reported in at Camp Toombs. There was not much there, and I was assigned to a tar-paper shack. There were no windows in any of the buildings, and the only place with electricity was the latrine. This was rough. But you were expecting to have it rough if you were going to be in the parachute troops.

Training started right away, and there was this Currahee Mountain that we had to run up and down. It was wicked, a real killer. But Currahee was terrific, as it became a test for all the men and officers. Everyone had to run up it -- walk actually, in what we called the "airborne shuffle." It was equal for every man, every officer. Nobody was getting by with a thing. Everybody was being treated the same.

Shortly after Winters' arrival in July 1942, the Georgia camp's name was changed from the ominous Toombs to Toccoa. The new airborne officers were highly selective when it came to picking the men to fill what was to be the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.


Winters at Toccoa

We looked for the ones who looked like they could take it. When the going got tough, could they stick with it? We also looked for the men who accepted discipline. I already knew discipline is what makes a good soldier. On the runs and the hikes it was discipline that kept the men going. Another thing we looked at was if the individual was accepted by the other men. The men themselves did a lot of the work for the officers by sizing each other up. If someone could not be accepted by his fellow soldiers he was gone right away. The men who were told to leave didn't get to vote or make an appeal. This was not a popularity contest.

At Toccoa, Winters first met Colonel Robert Sink, the legendary commander of the 506th. Sink turned down two promotions during the war to stay with the regiment, an unusual choice given his West Point credentials as a professional soldier.

When I first met Sink I was in awe. He was sitting behind his desk smoking a cigarette. He came across as having this West Point attitude. You know, "You are not any big deal." But I learned pretty quickly that my first impression was wrong. Sink was a terrific leader, and he stuck with the regiment from the beginning to the very end of the war. I often wondered during the war how come this guy is sticking around? Frankly, I thought it was his drinking problem. He had a drinking problem, but it did not affect his leadership of the regiment.

This was his first regiment. And if you look at it through his eyes, and you see these troops coming from civilian life, direct from school, from work, maybe a few of them with a little college, and he is supposed to make a regiment out of this group?

It makes it even tougher when you look at the officers he was assigned -- and I include myself here. Here I am, a year out of college. I go through basic training as a volunteer. I signed up for Officer Candidate School. So a 90-day wonder, and now I am a second lieutenant. And this is the kind of stuff he was assigned and told to turn into a crack airborne unit. He had a heck of a job. To make it worse, he had nothing there at the camp. There were no buildings when he first reported in. He had to build an obstacle course. He had to beg, borrow and steal what he needed. He had to search for men who knew even the basics of their job. Of the cadre that he started with in Toccoa, not one of them was around by the time we got into combat. They were all good enough men, they were just not fit enough to be in the airborne. They came in and were there to teach us, give us basic training and construct the camp, put it together, but not one of them was around by the time we were ready to go to France. Sink did a terrific job from start to finish. He stuck with us throughout the entire war. I respect "Bourbon Bob." He was a good man.

Following Camp Toccoa, Winters and his men continued training at Fort Benning and other camps in the States before shipping out for Aldbourne, England, in September 1943. Winters credits his time in the idyllic English village and his relationships with its residents with truly preparing him for the tasks to come.

On the way over to England, the conditions on the troopship were awful; even the officers were crowded together. We arrived in Aldbourne on a Saturday evening and were immediately made busy getting the men settled and bedded down. All of the officers were crowded together in another building. The next morning, Sunday, I decided to get away from everybody to be by myself for a few minutes. The best place to be alone with your thoughts is in church, so I went to church. It gave me a chance to relax a little bit, get my thoughts together. I didn't pay any attention to the sermon, that wasn't important -- I just needed to be alone. After the service I still wanted to enjoy my solitude. Adjacent to the church there was a small cemetery. I went out of the church and walked up a hill to two small benches, and I sat down. As I looked over the cemetery I could see an elderly couple fussing over a grave. They eventually wandered up the hill and sat beside me.

We were soon engaged in a little conversation, and they invited me for tea. We had been briefed on how to handle our dealing with the English. It had been pointed out to us that they were on very strict rationing and that we shouldn't overdo invitations of this kind and make their problem all the more severe. But I went to tea and had a few visits with them after that. Shortly, it was decided that the officers were too crowded and some should be boarded with families in the town. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes offered to take two officers in, as long as I was one of them. I took Lieutenant Harry Welsh with me. Our quarters were with the family in a room over their store. It was not a big room, and we slept on army cots, but it got us away from the crowds. Now Welsh, he enjoyed going out in the evenings to the pubs, but I preferred to stay at home with the Barneses. In the evenings, as was their custom, shortly before 9 o'clock when the news came on, Mrs. Barnes would come up and knock on my door and say, "Lieutenant Winters, would you like to come down and listen to the news and have a spot of tea?" So naturally I took the opportunity to join them and listen to the news. Afterward Mr. Barnes, who was a lay minister, would lead us in a short prayer. Then we would have a small treat and chat for a while. Then, at 10, Mr. Barnes would announce that it was time for bed. That ritual became so important. I'd found a home away from home.

And, you see, the day I first saw the Barnes couple they had been decorating the grave of their son, who was in the Royal Air Force and had been killed. They adopted me and made me part of the family. This helped me prepare mentally for what I was about to face. As I look back on the months before the invasion, my stay with the Barnes family was so important. They were giving me the best treatment they could; they gave me a home, which was so important for my maturing.

While his time with the Barnes family afforded him an opportunity for calm and reflection, the days after his transfer to the marshaling area at Uppottery, England, were filled with final preparations for the impending invasion of Normandy.

They would take groups of us into tents in the marshaling areas to brief us and show us sand table models of the area where we were going to be jumping. When I went into the tent, a staff officer instructed us to memorize everything we saw -- the roads, bridges, trenches, everything. It was all very impressive, but you can only take so much of this. Frankly, I didn't let myself get carried away trying to memorize every cockeyed thing, because the big thing in life, not only in making a jump into Normandy, is that you have got to be able to think on your feet. That's what we had to do, and that's what we did. You've got to be able to think on your feet throughout your life. You have to do it every day.

The miniseries depicts a moment in the marshaling area at Uppottery when Winters disciplines Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton, a fellow officer and close friend.

Compton had been with the company for six months, and I liked him very much. One problem, however, was that he had gotten into the habit of gambling with some of the men in the marshaling area. That is why I reprimanded him. It is a poor policy, and it puts him in the position, the embarrassing position, that if he wins, he must take from the men. He had taken from the men already. The point I was trying to make is that you have to be prepared to give to the people you lead. You must give in every way. You must give of your time, and you must be consistent in your treatment of them. You must never take from people you lead. Later, at Brécourt Manor, Compton did a fantastic job leading his men.

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Winters leapt out into the flak-filled skies over Normandy and landed outside of Ste. Mère-Eglise just after 1 o'clock in the morning. After a harrowing night, he managed to collect a handful of men from Easy Company and bring them to Le Grand-Chemin, from where he led the attack on a battery of four German guns at Brécourt Manor -- guns that lay at the end of crucial Causeway No. 2, and that the 4th Infantry Division needed to get off Utah Beach. Of all Winters' actions in France, the destruction of German guns positioned at Brécourt Manor, raining down fire on the Americans struggling off Utah Beach, has been the most often cited. Professors at West Point have used this action as a lesson on the proper method of carrying out a small-unit attack. Chillingly depicted in the HBO miniseries, this daring assault is credited with saving many lives and expediting the advance of American forces inland on D-Day.




After roaming around at the tail end of another column for most of the evening, I finally stumbled into Le Grand-Chemin, where the 2nd Battalion was gathering. At the time, E Company consisted of just 13 men. As I was sitting there with my men, an officer came back and said, "Winters, they want you up front!" When I got there, Captain Clarence Hester turns to me and says: "There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it." That was it. There was no elaborate plan or briefing. I didn't even know what was on the other side of the hedgerow. All I had were my instructions, and I had to quickly develop a plan from there. And as it turns out, I did. We were able to take out those four German guns with the loss of only one man, Private John Hall, who was killed just in front of me. He was a good man, and his death was hard on me. But the attack leaves good memories. We got the job done. It was only later, much later, that I realized how important knocking out those guns had been to our securing Causeway 2, which became the main causeway for troops coming off Utah Beach.

Years later, I heard from someone who had come up off the beach on that causeway. This guy, a medic, had been following behind some tanks. As they came up from the beach, one of the tanks became disabled. When the driver got out, he stepped on a mine. The medic went out into the field and patched this guy up. Later, after the book came out, this medic wrote me a letter and pointed out that he always wondered why the fire onto Utah Beach had stopped. "Thanks very much," he said. "I couldn't have made it without those guns being knocked out." That medic was a man named Eliot Richardson, who, as it turns out, later became attorney general in the Nixon administration. So we did a little good out there for those troops coming in on D-Day, which makes you feel pretty good.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

""I can't make you do it...but I can make you wish you had." "

Good saying.

[Diver Dave]

Great presentation once again. Mornin' snippy.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Dave.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Folks.

We should know later today what updates if any will be relased by Microsoft. This coming Tuesday is the second one in this month and that is usually the day they release those critical updates.

It's in the low 80's today. Fire alert is out for our area.

[w_over_w]

Winters has a couple co-authored books out I will have to put on my Christmas list.

Well, as much as I love you, with the cost of college tuition, cost of airfare from Richmond, cost of gifts for a large number of in-laws, and of course the cost of bird seed, I might not be able to take you up on your "subtle" hint. ;^)

[Professional Engineer]

Sarge is sure a handsome pup.

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather.

Msdrby and I both got to sleep through the night last night. yeay!

[Professional Engineer]

1964 LBJ (D) soundly defeats Barry Goldwater (R) for President

Bring out yer dead...

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am

He had the same expression in all of the pictures.

Bittygirl was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood, but her costume was finished in time, and apparently too big. Next year!

[E.G.C.]

From Microsoft.

Microsoft will release one update for Windows along with the November version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool.

That's coming next week.

Be sure to download the updates if you use Windows.

[Soaring Feather]

Ah, got some meds for Bittygirl??

[Professional Engineer]

Aye, she has a tot version of prednisone.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the post. What a man. Winters just epitomizes the American citizen soldier. A ninety-day wonder who kicked the crap out of the pro's in the Wermacht and their master race.

BTW, I've thrown some strong hints and I think I'm getting a copy of the mini-series for Christmas.

[Valin]

re Bittygirl:
One Prayer......On The Waaaay.

[alfa6]

Friday for you, Monday for me bump for the Freeper Foxhole.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone! TGIF!

Trying to keep my head above water all week!

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies and gents. It's Friday!

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on November 04:
1650 William III of Orange, king of England (1689-1702)
1812 Aleardo [Gaetano] Aleardi Italian/East poet (Lettere a Maria)
1816 William Polk Hardeman Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1818 Alexander Robert Lawton Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
1820 Robert Vinkler Richardson Brig Gen (Confederate Army), died in 1870
1835 Lunsford Lindsay Lomax Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1913
1842 William Barker Cushing Lt Cmdr (Union Navy), died in 1874
1876 James Fraser designed buffalo nickel
1879 Will Rogers Oologah Indian Territory (Oklahoma), humorist
1886 Ian Wolfe Canton IL, actor (Diary of a Madman, Wizards & Warriors)
1900 Luigi Lucioni Italian, landscape painter (opera stars)
1906 Bob Considine sports columnist (Bob Feller Story)
1912 Pauline Trigere fashion designer (Bell Bottoms)
1913 Gig Young St Cloud MN, actor (They Shoot Horses Don't They)
1916 Walter Cronkite St Joseph MO, news anchor (CBS Evening News 1962-81)
1918 Art Carney Mount Vernon NY, actor (Ed Norton-Honeymooners)
1918 Cameron Mitchell Dallastown PA, actor (Buck-High Chaparral)
1919 Martin Balsam NYC, actor (Murray-Archie Bunker's Place, Catch 22)
1923 Alfred Heineken (beer mogul: Heineken Brewery)
1929 Jimmy Piersall baseball player (Red Sox, Senators, Indians)
1931 Darla Hood Leedey OK, singer/actress (Little Rascals)
1937 Loretta Swit Passaic NJ, actress (Hotlips Houlihan-M*A*S*H)
1940 Delbert McClinton Lubbock Tx, singer (Everytime I roll the dice)
1946 Laura Welch Bush 1st Lady
http://www.whitehouse.gov/firstlady/flbio.html
1947 Aleksandr Tkachev USSR, parallel bars gymnast (Olympic-gold-1980)
1950 Markie Post [Marjorie], Palo Alto Cal, actress/serious Babe (Christine-Night Court)
1962 Ralph Macchio Huntington NY, actor (Karate Kid, 8 is Enough)
1966 Kool Rock [Damon Wimbley], rapper (Fat Boys-Jail House Rock)
1975 Heather Tom actress (Victoria-Young & Restless)

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Deaths which occurred on November 04:
0644 Omar I, Arabic 2nd Calif of Islam, murdered
1702 John Benbow, English vice-admiral (Santa Marta)
1847 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Germ pianist/composer, dies at 38
1921 Takasji Hara, premier of Japan, murdered
1928 Arnold Rothstein, US "businessman"/gambler, shot to death at 46
1956 Art[hur] Tatum US jazz pianist/composer, dies
1984 Merie Earle actress (Maude-Waltons), dies of uremic poisoning at 95
1987 Raphael Soyer artist (Depression scenes in NYC), dies at 87
1995 Yitzhak Rabin IDF Chief of Staff, diplomat and the fifth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, assassinated at 73
1997 H Richard Hornberger, surgeon (inspired M*A*S*H), dies at 73

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Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
04-Nov-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Robert T. Benson Baghdad Non-hostile - weapon discharge
US Sergeant Francisco Martinez Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

04-Nov-2004 6 | US: 3 | UK: 3 | Other: 0
UK Private Scott William McArdle Fallujah (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb
UK Private Paul Aitken Lowe Fallujah (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb
UK Sergeant Stuart Robert Gray Fallujah (near) - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb
US Lance Corporal Jared P. Hubbard Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal Jeremiah A. Baro Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Specialist Cody L. Wentz Balad (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack


Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY


http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
Project Valour-IT
http://soldiersangels.org/valour/index.html

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On this day...
1520 Danish/Norwegian king Christian II crowned king of Sweden
1529 English cardinal and Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey arrested
1576 Spanish defeat Walloons & take Antwerp Belgium
1760 Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Torgau.
1791 General Arthur St. Clair, governor of Northwest Territory, is badly defeated by a large Indian army near Fort Wayne. Miami Indian Chief Little Turtle (1752-1812) led the powerful force of Miami, Wyandot, Iroquois, Shawnee, Delaware, Ojibwa and Potawatomi. 623 regulars killed and 258 wounded
1798 Congress agrees to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping.
1842 Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd in Springfield, Ill
1854 Lighthouse established on Alcatraz Island
1861 University of Washington founded in Seattle
1864 Confederate assault on Johnsonville, Tennessee
1866 Kingdom of Italy annexes Venetia
1867 90 kegs of powder used to get rock from Telegraph Hill for seawall
1873 Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown
1875 "Pacific" collides with "Orpheus" off Cape Flattery Wash, 236 dies
1879 James & John Ritty patent 1st cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in their Dayton, Ohio saloon
1889 Players League begins, declaring independence from baseball's NL
1904 1st stadium built specifically for football (Harvard Stadium)
1922 Howard Carter discovers tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt
1924 California legalizes pro boxing (illegal since 1914)
1924 Calvin Coolidge elected 30th president on a platform of pro-business policies.
1924 Nellie Tayloe Ross elected 1st US female gov (Wyoming)
1934 Pittsburgh ends Detroit Lions' shutout streak at 7 games but loses 40-7
1939 1940 Olympics awarded to Helsinki, Finland
1939 1st air conditioned automobile (Packard) exhibited, Chicago, Ill
1939 United States modifies its neutrality stance in World War II, allowing "cash and carry" purchases of arms by belligerents, a policy favoring Britain and France.
1942 13th day of battle at El Alamein: Afr corps draws back out Fuka-posing
1946 UN Educational, Scientific, & Cultural Organization formed
1949 "One Man's Family" premieres on TV
1954 Philadelphia A's move to Kansas City

1956 200,000 Russian troops and tanks attacked Budapest and crushed the Hungarian revolt under Premier Imre Nagy. Soviet troops marched into the country. Martial law was proclaimed and mass arrests followed. The UN censured the USSR. The repression was organized by Yuri Andropov who later became Chief of the KGB in 1967. 25,000 people were killed. Janos Kadar was installed by the Soviet Union as head of Hungary's Communist Party.

1956 Israel captures Straits of Tiran from Egypt
1956 Israeli troops reach Suez Canal
1957 2nd Soviet Earth-satellite launched
1959 Ernie Banks, Cubs shortstop, wins NL MVP
1960 The film "Misfits" premiered. It was the final movie for Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe
1963 John Lennon utters his infamous "Rattle your jewelry" line at the Royal Command Variety Performance ("The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands... and if the rest of you would just rattle your jewelry.")
1965 Lee Breedlove sets female land speed record (308.56 MPH)
1966 Flooding of Arno River (Italy) destroys countless art works
1968 Battles between Jordanian army & Al Fatah-arm forces

1970 Andre Sakharov, Russian nuclear physicist, forms a Human Rights Committee

1978 Iranian troops fire on anti-Shah student protesters by Tehran U
1978 Islanders start 15 game undefeated streak (12-0-3)

1979 The US Embassy was taken over by Iranian students and a hostage crisis began. 90 people, including 63 Americans, were taken hostage at the American embassy in Teheran, Iran, by militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini who demanded the return of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Iran for trial.

1980 Ronald Reagan (R) beats President Jimmy "the wabbit killer" Carter (D) by a landslide!!!! Inflation and the crises in Iran and the fact that Jimmy was a clueless idiot with delusions of adequacy caused Jimmy Carter to lose to Ronald Reagan, America’s oldest Pres.-elect.

1983 Washington Capitals 1st NHL overtime victory beating Vancouver 5-4
1984 Nicaragua holds 1st free elections in 56 years; Sandinistas win 63%
1986 Democrats gain control over the US Senate
1987 Lisa Steinberg, battered into coma by her adoptive father
1987 NBA announces 4 new franchises; Charlotte & Miami for 1988 & Minneapolis & Orlando for 1989
1989 A million East Germans filled the streets of East Berlin for a pro-democracy rally.
1990 Iraq says it is preparing for a "dangerous war".
1991 Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., with a dedication ceremony attended by President Bush and former presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon - the first-ever gathering of five U.S. chief executives.
1991 Mid East peace conference ends in Madrid Spain
2001 Intense bombing by U.S.-led forces pounded the Afghan capital of Kabul while U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on as tour of the region, told reporters in Uzbehistan that strikes on Taliban targets were showing "measurable progress."
2003 Following a conservative outcry over a made-for-TV movie about former President Ronald Reagan, CBS scrapped plans to televise "The Reagans," sending it off to the Showtime cable network instead.
2003 Republicans picked up two governorships in the South. Haley Barbour ousted Mississippi's Democratic incumbent Ronnie Musgrove. Rep. Ernie Fletcher won Kentucky's top job ousting Democrats from power after 32 years.

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

Italy : Unity Day (1945)/Victory of Vittorio Veneto (1866)
Oklahoma : Will Rogers Day (1879)
Panama, Panama Canal Zone : Flag Day
US: oD gnihtemoS lainigirO yaD
US : Peanut Butter Lover's Day
Sadie Hawkins Day (Run gentlemen Run)
Tonga : Constitution Day (1970)
Republicans : National gloat day
Democrats : National get falling down drunk and cry in your beer day
National Accordion Month

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Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of St Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, confessor

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Religious History
1646 The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law making it a capital offense to deny that the Bible was the Word of God. Any person convicted of the offense was liable to the death penalty.
1740 Birth of Anglican clergyman Augustus M. Toplady. A highly respected evangelical leader, Toplady authored the hymn "Rock of Ages" two years before his premature death at 38 in 1778.
1898 The first church to bear the Pentecostal Holiness name was organized at Goldsboro, NC, under the leadership of Methodist evangelist Ambrose Blackman Crumpler, 35.
1936 Future U.S. Senate Chaplain Rev. Peter Marshall, 34, married Catherine Wood, 22. Following Peter's premature death at age 46, Catherine immortalized his name through her 1951 bestÂselling biography, "A Man Called Peter."
1966 London's "Evening Standard" newspaper published John Lennon's controversial remark stating that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." The quote touched off a storm of controversy and international protest, resulting in a world_wide boycott of Beatles music.

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

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CONFEDERACY WAS BUILDING AN ATOMIC BOMB . . . 80 YEARS BEFORE WW2!

Civil War historians are reeling over the discovery that a Confederate scientist was just weeks away from perfecting a crude atomic bomb -- and planned to use the device to destroy Washington, D.C., 138 years ago . . . in 1864!

Physicist Thaddeus McMullen was killed before he could carry out the plot, reveals Joel Remarsh, a Civil War historian who uncovered McMullen's maniacal plan while studying a collection of war-era journals, letters and documents given to him by McMullen's descendants.

"My blood ran cold when I realized what I was reading," says Remarsh, who plans to reveal all in a book tentatively titled Southern Victory: The Confederacy's Atomic War.

"Thaddeus McMullen was a plantation slave-owner who loathed Abraham Lincoln and was willing to do anything to ensure a Confederate victory.

"He was also a brilliant researcher and scientist -- in league with Albert Einstein. This made for a horrifying combination that almost resulted in the fiery deaths of thousands of innocent people."

According to Atlanta-based Remarsh, McMullen designed a primitive, steel-encased fission bomb using dynamite, uranium ore and other elements -- 80 years before American scientists developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"I showed McMullen's writings to physicists familiar with nuclear fission and they were stunned," Remarsh states. "His bomb was crude, with maybe a tenth of the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but it would have worked.

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Thought for the day :
"Things ain't what they used to be...and never were."
Will Rogers