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Posted on 02/13/2006 8:35:48 PM PST by alfa6
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| 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.
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THE VALENTINE TANK  Based on the A10 Cruiser tank, the Valentine was privately designed by the Vickers-Armstrong corporation (hence its lack of an "A" designation) and was submitted to the War Office on February 14, 1938. Like many other projects, the Valentine was rushed into production following the loss of nearly all of Britain's equipment during the evacuation at Dunkirk. Several versions exist concerning the source of the name Valentine. The most popular one says that the design was presented to the War Office at St. Valentine's Day (February 14). Some sources, however, claim that the exact date the design was submitted was February 10. According to other version, the tank was called Valentine in honor of Sir John Valentine Carden, the man who led the development of the A10 and many other Vickers vehicles. Yet another version says that Valentine is an acronym for Vickers-Armstrong Ltd Elswick & Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  The War Office was initially deterred by the size of the turret and the crew compartment. However, concerned by the situation in Europe, it finally approved the design in April 1939. The vehicle reached trials in May 1940, which coincided with the loss of nearly all of Britain's equipment during the evacuation at Dunkirk. The trials were successfull and the vehicle was rushed into production as Infantry Tank III Valentine. The Valentine remained in production until April 1944, becoming Britain's most mass produced tank during the war with 6855 units manufactured in the UK (by Vickers, Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon and Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon) and further 1420 in Canada. They were the Commonwealth's main export to the Soviet Union under the Lend-lease Act, with 2394 of the British models being sent and 1388 of the Canadian (the remaining 30 were kept for training).  The Valentine was Britain's most mass produced tank during the war, having manufactured 6855 and a further 1420 in Canada. They were the Commonwealth's main export to the Soviet Union under the Lend-lease Act, with 2394 of the British models being sent and 1388 of the Canadian (the remaining 30 were kept for training). In Soviet service, they were quite popular due to their small size, reliability, and generally good armour protection. In Soviet service, the Valentine was used from the Battle of Moscow until the end of the war. It was employed mostly on the southern fronts, both because of the proximity to the Persian supply route and in order to avoid using the tank in very cold climate. Although criticized for its speed and its weak gun, the Valentine was liked due to its small size, reliability and generally good armour protection. The Valentine was something of an oddity, having the weight and size of a cruiser tank, but the armour and speed of an infantry tank. Though its armour was still weaker than the Matilda and, due to its weaker engine, it shared the same top speed, its high reliability and lower cost kept it in the war. ![](http://www.dad.incomingwormhole.com/Valentine/valentine_mk_iii_01.jpg") By 1944, in the European Theater of Operations the Valentine was almost competely replaced in the frontline units by the Churchill and the US-made Sherman. In the Pacific the tank was employed in limited numbers at least until May 1945. There were 12 variants of the Valentine as follows:     |
Always trust your first (and snippy's) instinct. Bottom line, things got worse with her roommate so Rachel moved out of the dorm and into a campus student apartment building. She now rooms with a Junior who is studying to be a physical therapist, is mature and serious about education. The School of Arts is very challenging and time consuming, so her new living arrangements are a definite benefit. Thanks for asking.
I'd ask about Sarge but you've already answered that. ;^)
Absolutely!!
I love hearing (reading) stories about how folks ancestors came to America.
Your grandmother arrived about four years after my great grandfather (1895) on my father's side. Like her, he left Germany (Bonn) to escape the war (fascism) and immigrated to New Orleans, LA. where he owned and operated a barbershop in the French Quarter.
It's on my Mom's side that I became a 5th generation Texan but that's another story.
Glad to hear she is out of there and in a good place now, studying hard!
I was chased by bison once...lol. Ah to be a youngster again. :-)
| March 4, 2006
Another Walk With Whitaker
Read:
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My dog Whitaker and I like to take early-morning walks through the woods. He runs ahead while I amble along, meditating or praying. I know where we're going; he's not sure. I stay on the trail and he trots ahead—sniffing, investigating, and taking occasional forays into the forest to chase real or imagined chipmunks.
Though Whit is ahead, I'm leading. Every so often he checks to see where I am. If I've turned back toward home or gone on to another trail, I hear his pounding feet and panting breath as he races to catch up with me. If I hide behind some brush, he runs to the last place he saw me and tracks me down. Then we walk the trail together again.
It's like that with God's leading. He knows the way because He has prepared the way. But sometimes we may not see Him—so we do our best to go where He wants by following the guidance of His Word. Other times it may seem as if He is hidden from us. His pace may not be as fast as we would like, or we wish He would slow down.
Just as Whitaker keeps looking back at me, we need to look to God and His Word at every important juncture we come to. We must rely on the direction of His Spirit.
That's what I thought about today while I was walking with Whitaker. —Dave Egner
If you want God to lead you, be willing to follow.
The South Dakota received 13 battle stars for service during World War II.
The Washington also recieved 13. So the best the South Dakota can claim is a tie.
North Carolina got 12, Massachusetts got 11.
Amen Mayor. Good story today, thanks.
uh oh.
The NC site says the NC got 15!
http://www.northcarolinatravels.com/museums/battleship-northcarolina/
oH yEAH, i'VE GOT 16!
pbbbt!
"North Carolina received 12 battle stars for World War II service.
"http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/n6/north_carolina-iii.htm
I don't know where the other 3 are supposed to have come from
By the way - that wasn't the official site for the ship. That can be found here:
http://www.battleshipnc.com/index.html
Hey I'm just sittin' here eatin' popcorn and watchin' the debate. ;^)
LOL. Won't be much of a debate, I'm not debated PAR35 for sure! Just letting him know some say differn't.
lol.
Howdy howdy all. I'm in for the weekend again! Now I gotta go back and figure out what ya'll are debating. I hate being an occasional around here.
I did check the ship's history, and it wasn't in Korea - later wars are how the New Jersey ran up its score.
Speaking of other sources, here's one that claims the USS Washington had 15 battle stars
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/v-lite/story/4172343p-3946200c.html
The Navy credits it with 13. http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w3/washington-viii.htm
Speaking of battle stars, ships of other classes did better than the BBs. For example, the Enterprise won 20 battle stars. The Nicholas (DD) won 16 in WWII and another 5 in Korea. The O'Banion had 17 and 3, winning the class record for WWII.
For submarines, the Tautog got 14 battle stars. I don't know if that is the record or not.
Howdy! How've you been?
1. The city of Kingston served as Tennessee's state capital for one day (September 21, 1807) as a result of treaties negotiated with the Cherokee Indians. The two-hour legislative session passed two resolutions and adjourned back to Knoxville.
2. Andrew Johnson held every elective office at the local, state, and federal level, including President of the United States. He was elected alderman, mayor, state representative, and state senator from Greeneville. He served as governor and military governor of Tennessee and United States congressman, senator, and vice president, becoming President of the United States following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
3. Iroquois, bred at Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation, was the first American winner of the English Derby in 1881. Such modern thoroughbreds as Secretariat trace their bloodlines to Iroquois.
4. Actress-singer Polly Bergen, from Knoxville, is the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
5. Tennessee won its nickname as The Volunteer State during the War of 1812 when volunteer soldiers from Tennessee displayed marked valor in the Battle of New Orleans.
6. The Copper Basin is so different from the surrounding area it has been seen and is recognizable by American astronauts. The stark landscape was caused by 19th-century mining practices.
7. There were more National Guard soldiers deployed from the state for the Gulf War effort than any other state.
8. There are more horses per capita in Shelby County than any other county in the United States.
9. The only person in American history to be both an Admiral in the Navy and a General in the Army was Samuel Powhatan Carter who was born in Elizabethton.
10. Greeneville has the only monument in the United States honoring both the Union and Confederate armies. It is located on the lawn of the Green County Courthouse.
11. The city of Murfreesboro lies in the exact geographical center of the state.
12. Grinders Switch, entertainer Minnie Pearl's fictitious hometown, is now an entertainment complex in her real hometown of Centerville.
13. Conifer forests similar to those in Canada are found in the higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
14. Hattie Caraway (1878-1950) born in Bakersville became the first woman United States Senator.
15. Davy Crockett was not born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, as the song says. He was born on the banks of Limestone Creek near Greeneville, where a replica of the Crockett's log cabin stands today.
16. The Tennessee Aquarium is the largest facility of its kind to focus on fresh water habitat. It features 7,000 animals and 300 species of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.
17. The largest earthquake in American history, the New Madrid Earthquake occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in northwestern Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake located in Obion and Lake Counties was formed during this earthquake.
18. Reputed "Turtle Capital of the World," Reelfoot Lake also features thousands of sliders, stinkpots, mud and map turtles.
19. Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously running live radio program in the world. It has broadcast every Friday and Saturday night since 1925.
20. The legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones, who was killed when his train crashed on April 30, 1900, lived in Jackson.
21. Oak Ridge was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. Today, because of constant energy research, it is known as the Energy Capital of the World.
22. Tennessee has more than 3,800 documented caves.
23. The Alex Haley boyhood home in Henning is the first state-owned historic site devoted to African Americans in Tennessee.
24. Bristol is known as the Birthplace of Country Music.
25. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States. The park was named for the smoke-like bluish haze that often envelops these fabled mountains.
26. Elvis Presley's home called Graceland is located in Memphis. Graceland is the second most visited house in the country.
27. Knoxville was home to the 1982 World's Fair. Attendance was recorded at 11,127,786 visitors.
28. Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union during the Civil War and the first state to be readmitted after the war.
29. The nation's oldest African-American architectural firm, McKissack and McKissack, is located in Nashville.
30. The nation's oldest African-American financial institution, Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, is located in Nashville.
31. Robert R. Church, Sr. of Memphis is purported to be the South's first African-American millionaire.
32. The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain in 1968. The museum preserves the motel and tells the history of the American Civil Rights Movement.
33. A replica of The Parthenon, the famous ancient Greek building in Athens, Greece, stands in Nashville's Centennial Park.
34. The "Guinness Book of World Records" lists the Lost Sea in Sweetwater as the largest underground lake in the United States.
35. The Cherokee silversmith, Sequoyah, was the only known man in the history of the world to single-handedly develop an alphabet. His syllabus for the Cherokee Nation resulted in the first written language for a Native American people. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore tells his story and is dedicated to the history and culture of Native Americans.
36. The Watauga Association at Sycamore Shoals near Elizabethton drafted the first constitution ever written by white men in America in 1772. It was patterned after the constitution of the Iroquois League of Nations, a federal system of government developed 200 years earlier for five eastern Native American tribes.
37. Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tennessee war hero Alvin York in the 1941 hit movie, Sergeant York. World War I hero Sgt. Alvin C. York was born in Pall Mall.
38. When Tennessee became a state in 1796, the total population was 77,000.
39. The capitol building was designed by noted architect William Strickland, who died during its construction and is buried within its walls.
40. Tennessee ranks number one among other states in the total number of soldiers who fought in the War Between the States.
41. Tennesseeans are sometimes referred to as Butternuts, a tag which was first applied to Tennessee soldiers during the Civil War because of the tan color of their uniforms.
42. The Ocoee River in southeastern Tennessee is rated among the top white water recreational rivers in the nation and was the site for the Olympic white water canoe/kayak competition in the 1996 Olympics.
43. The name "Tennessee" originated from the old Yuchi Indian word, "Tana-see," meaning "The Meeting Place."
44. Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville introduced to the world the plaintive beauty and tradition of the Negro spiritual, which became the basis for other genres of African-American music. It was because of their successful tours to raise funds for the university during the 1870s that Nashville first became known for its music.
45. Tennessee ties with Missouri as the most neighborly state in the union. It is bordered by 8 states.
46. Dolly Parton is a native of Sevierville. A major highway, the Dolly Parton Parkway, takes visitors traveling to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
47. The world's largest artificial skiing surface is located at the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort in Gatlinburg. There a 5-acre artificial ski surface permits skiing in any type of weather.
48. Coca-Cola was first bottle in 1899 at a plant on Patten Parkway in downtown Chattanooga after two local attorneys purchased the bottling rights to the drink for $l.00.
49. Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, lost a football game to Georgia Tech on October 7, 1916 by a score of 222 to 0. The Georgia Tech coach was George Heisman for whom the Heisman Trophy is named.
50. Cotton made Memphis a major port on the Mississippi River. The Memphis Cotton Exchange still handles approximately one-third of the entire American cotton crop each year.
Gee, I wonder what's first?
Could it be...
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