The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Creighton Abrams, Jr. - Aug. 2nd, 2003

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/abrams.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

Dear Lord,

There's a young man far from home,
called to serve his nation in time of war;
sent to defend our freedom
on some distant foreign shore.

We pray You keep him safe,
we pray You keep him strong,
we pray You send him safely home ...
for he's been away so long.

There's a young woman far from home,
serving her nation with pride.
Her step is strong, her step is sure,
there is courage in every stride.
We pray You keep her safe,
we pray You keep her strong,
we pray You send her safely home ...
for she's been away too long.

Bless those who await their safe return.
Bless those who mourn the lost.
Bless those who serve this country well,
no matter what the cost.

Author Unknown

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

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General Creighton Williams Abrams, Jr.
(1914-1974)

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Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, General Abrams would have been sixty on September 15th. He had worn his country's uniform for over forty-two years, for four years as a cadet at West Point, and for thirty-eight years as an Army officer.

A veteran of three wars, General Abrams rose to the Army's highest leadership position because he was preeminently a leader and commander of troops, particularly in wartime. From platoon to corps, he commanded at every Level and finally served as Joint Commander of all U.S. Forces in Vietnam. Commissioned in the Cavalry in 1936, General Abrams served initially with various cavalry and tank units of the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Armored Division. Joining the newly activated 4th Armored Division in 1941, he remained with the Division throughout World War II. As a battalion commander, and then combat command commander, he participated in every campaign the Division fought and became widely known as one of the Army's most aggressive and successful Armor commanders. It was Lieutenant Colonel Abrams, in a conference on the banks of the Moselle, who pointed east and remarked: "That is the shortest way home." It was a tank unit called Task Force "Abe" that led the thrust across the Moselle; it was a tank unit commanded by Abrams that broke the German encirclement at Bastogne. It was Abrams' unit that tore from Bitburg to the Rhine including an attack of over forty miles in less than two days. Time and time again Abrams led the thrust across the German homeland and into Czechoslovakia, often at the head of the column. His World War II commander, General George S. Patton, Jr., once said: "I'm supposed to be the best tank commander in the Army but I have one peer - Abe Abrams. He's the world champion."

The 4th Armored Division is now inactive, but its former members still meet from time to time. To these men, General Abrams was always one of them. At a 4th Armored Division Association convention last year, General Abrams was introduced to the gathering as "the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Colonel Abe!"

During the Korean War, General Abrams served successively as Chief of Staff of I, IX and X Corps. He participated in the defense against the last major Communist offensives of the war. He remained to help set up I Corps as a key link in the United Nations Command organization.

Following his duty in Korea, General Abrams served for a period as Chief of Staff of the Armor Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Returning to Europe in 1959, he was assigned as Assistant Division Commander, 3d Armored Division, and later as Commanding General of the Division. After another tour in Washington and yet another in Europe, this time as a Corps Commander, he received his fourth star and was selected as the Army's Vice Chief of Staff.


General Abrams, commanding U.S. forces in Vietnam, confers with General Forsythe, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, in Phuoc Vinh, 1968.

In 1967, he became Deputy Commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam; a year later, he was appointed its Commander. For the four years General Abrams commanded in Vietnam, it was his task to reduce direct U.S. military involvement and to transfer increasing defense responsibilities to Vietnamese forces, as they became capable of assuming them. By the time he left Vietnam in 1972, that job had been virtually completed.

After his extensive service in Vietnam, General Abrams was nominated to be Chief of Staff, United States Army, and was confirmed by the Senate on October 12, 1972. Since that day, General Abrams' principal challenge was to knit together an Army that had suffered the double trauma of rapid reduction in size and massive repositioning of forces, both occasioned by the end of U.S. military operations in Vietnam. To add to the challenge, it was during this same period that authority for induction ended, and the Army shifted to an all-volunteer footing.

The major themes in the Army during those two years were Abrams themes, as plain and strong as the man who established them: the readiness mission; rethinking the Army's role; and taking care of the soldier. The actions that flowed from this guidance increased the readiness and effectiveness of the Army dramatically. At the same time, morale improved and disciplinary problems subsided, responding to the firm hand at the top. Just prior to his being stricken by lung cancer, General Abrams had set in motion a program to increase markedly the Army's combat capability without increasing its total strength. It was to be done the Abrams way, by cutting out entire headquarters, by making other headquarters - including his own - much smaller, and by making every element in the Army count toward the overall mission.



Direct and plain-spoken, General Abrams liked being around soldiers and was approachable by soldiers of all ranks. He understood them, and they respected and admired him. He was equally respected by his civilian superiors and by Members of Congress. Secretary of the Army Howard H. Callaway referred to him as "our number one soldier." Senator John C. Stennis, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made reference to General Abrams as "a real soldier . . . I always thought of him as having mud on his boots." Senator Sam Nunn, another member of the Armed Services Committee, referred to him as "a great soldier."

His military superiors also thought highly of General Abrams as he assumed positions of increasing responsibility. When Brigadier General Abrams was a young Assistant Division Commander in Europe in the early sixties, his Division Commander wrote: " . . . he has attained a rare balance between his natural characteristics of a colorful, decisive, driving commander and a calculating, canny, thorough planner . . . He knows soldiers as few men do and has no peer as an armored leader."

Abrams as Division Commander was, if anything, even more highly praised. According to his Corps Commander, ". . he is the outstanding armor commander of his generation . . He is open, honest, frank, sincere, completely dedicated to the Army and the highest ideals of service . . . He is tactful but firm."


COMUS HONORS CAV – General Creighton W. Abrams, commanding general United States Army Vietnam, presents the 69th battle streamer to the 3/4 Cav during ceremony at Cu Chi. (Photo by SP4 Joe Loper)

Throughout his subsequent career, General Abrams was repeatedly evaluated in terms such as "unequalled," "without peer," "the best." That he became Chief of Staff of the Army surprised none of those officers under whom he served.

Preferring to remain as far from the public eye as possible, he was well-known to the public and sought by the media, largely as a result of his straightforward, candid way of conducting the public's military business.

General Abrams was a private person, by preference. He enjoyed listening to classical music at home, and just being with his family. He tended to limit his public appearances and speech-making, but people liked to hear him talk. He had a modest, but well-polished, collection of stories, many of them autobiographical, at least in spirit. His favorite stories tended to hark back to earlier days, to the era when he played football at West Point and to his early cavalry days. The messages he brought to the military and civilian groups he talked to reflected the basic ideas he felt most strongly about: the safety of the Nation; the need for the Army to be ready, and the dreadful human costs of unpreparedness; the importance of simple integrity; and the needs the paramount needCof remembering the soldier and his immediate leaders, the people at the end of a long chain of command.



General Abrams is survived by his wife, the former Julia Harvey, and by their children; Noel, Creighton Jr., John, Jeanne, Elizabeth, and Robert Bruce. He is also survived by a sister, Bette (Mrs. William L.) James of Feeding Hills.

[SAMWolf]

The Growing US Army in Germany>
Time Magazine Cover Story of October 13, 1961



The Razor's Edge.

The Seventh Army must also be prepared to fight with conventional weapons, and no one knows it better than the 3rd Armored's General Abrams. "We're combat-ready in 'atomics.' " he says, "but a lot of things could happen without having to use them. If I thought only in terms of 'atomics,' and I couldn't use them for ten days or so, then, by God, I couldn't get the job done right."

To get the Job done right, with what ever it takes, General Abrams is honig his 3rd Armored to a razor's edge. Each man spends some 135 days a year on field maneuvers. The division's tanks and combat vehicles are kept stocked with a full supply of ammunition. Since taking command of the division a year ago, Abrams has weeded out some 200 officers and men who did not shape up to his standards. Abrams tries every day to get away from the paperwork at his headquarters in Frankfurt, climb aboard his personal Bell helicopter, and whirl off to inspect everyone in a unit from bird colonel to buck private. "No one is more deliberate in planning for war," says General Bruce Clarke of Abrams. "No one is more violent in execution."

At the Bottom.

Abe Abrams has spent years living down a family nickname of "Tootsie," a fond reference to his cherubic babyhood back home in Springfield, Mass. Abrams was the oldest of three children born to Creighton Abrams, Sr., a railroad hand on the Boston & Albany, and the former Nellie Randall, the daughter of an estate caretaker. When Abrams was a boy, the family settled in the rural area of nearby Feeding Hills. There Abrams raised baby beef., ran a trap line for skunk and muskrat, patched together a wheezing Model T. and learned to shoot by drilling holes with his .22 through tin cans tossed up by his father.


Brigadier General Creighton Abrams receiving his stars at a Pentagon ceremony, 17 February 1956. The future commander in Vietnam and Army Chief of Staff had commanded the 4th Armored Division tank battalion that punched through German lines to relieve the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during World War II.

In high school Abrams won nearly every academic and extracurricular honor in sight. As captain and center of the football team, he led his school to an undefeated, untied and unscored-upon season and the championship of Western Massachusetts. One day a West Point graduate lectured at school and enraptured Abe with tales of the Academy and its spirit.

As a cocky plebe, Abrams had problems at West Point. "The hazing was degrading," says Abrams today, "I gladly would have resigned at any time. but I didn't see how I could go home to face my friends and family." Abrams swiped food from the mess hall, anointed an upper-classman's radiator with Limburger cheese, kept a contraband radio in a hollowed-out corner of his mattress, and plinked away at the hindquarters of upperclassmen with an air rifle. Recalls Abrams: "The only thing in which I was outstanding was discipline. I was at the bottom of the class." What with his guerrilla warfare against the Point, Abrams stood a mediocre 185th in his class of 276 upon graduation in 1936. That year Abrams married an athletic, auburn-haired Vassar graduate named Julia Harvey, who regularly drove him to distraction by trouncing him in tennis, and began his Army career on horseback in the 1st Cavalry stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Born to Battle.

With the 1st Cavalry, Abrams earned the reputation of being the worst polo player in the U.S. Army and mastered the day's standard tactics of how to attack an enemy tank: circle it at 15 yds. with five troopers like Indians closing in on a wagon train. Not until Hitler's Panzer divisions blitzkrieged France out of World War II in 1940 did the Army really begin its own tank program. Assigned to the brand-new 4th Armored Division, Abrams rose to command the 37th Battalion with the rank of major and drilled his tankers incessantly in marksmanship - particularly on getting in the second shot. Says Abrams: "We really shot much too much, but God it paid off later."


Relief of Bastogne

The 37th Battalion was a fearsome weapon of destruction from the moment it wheeled into action in Normandy in July 1944. From the start, Ahrams showed the feel and flair of the born cornbat man. As General George Patton's Third Army led the conquering sweep across Europe, the 4th Armored Division led the Third Army. The 37th Tank Battalion led the 4th Armored - and Abe Abrams led the 37th. Leaning out of his Sherman tank, he chomped on a huge cigar and rallied his tankers with his war cry: "Attack! Attack' Attack!" Said Abrams: "I like to be out on the point where there's nothing but me and the goddam Germans and we can fight by ourselves." When the 101st Airborne was surrounded at the Battle of the Bulge, Abrams led the relief column into Bastogne with an attack that was watched with unabashed professional admiration by Panzer Commander Fritz Bayerlein. Later, Abrams led the dash to the Rhine, moved so fast that he captured an astonished lieutenant general and his staff at their desks. Fighting far out in front of the Third Army, Abrains was frequently cut off. "They've got us surrounded again," he once said, "those poor bastards." Said General George Patton of his aggressive tank commander: "I'm supposed to be the best tank commander in the Army, but I have one peer - Abe Abrams. He's the world champion."

Because Abrams worked in close tandem with an infantry major named Harold Cohen, the Nazis assumed they were both Jewish and took to calling them "Roosevelt's Butchers." In fact Abrams is not Jewish - he is a Methodist and his ancestors were English - but he often fought as though he was waging a personal crusade against the Germans. Said Abrams at the time: "There's too much stress on taking prisoners. Our job is to annihilate the enemy."

Job to Be Done.

After the war, to the surprise of colleagues, Abrams calmed down enough to become a fine staff officer. He rewrote the book on armored tactics - putting the stress on the shock value of the mass attack. He served with distinction as chief of staff of three successive corps during the Korean war, and weathered the Pentagon on a tour spent working with the reserves. When he took the command of the 3rd Armored, Abrams moved into a big house outside of Frankfurt with his wife and the four youngest of their six children. The general takes his two little girls out for Sunday ice-cream treats, wrestles shoes onto the plump feet of Brucie, and cheers with his bull-toned bellow for 15-year-oid John, who plays tackle on the high school team.



But in thought or action, Abrams is never far away from his 3rd Armored Division. Last week he was busily checking with his troops as they worked to master the new equipment that was flooding in. He approved of the M-60 machine gun with the cold, matter-of-fact terms of the professional soldier: ''Now my platoons can kill more men." He listened intently as his men talked about the M-60 tank and its 105-mm. gun. "Someone who makes tanks finally started taking suggestions from the people who use them," said Sergeant Reuben Hawes. "I can shoot a country mile with this tank."

Abrams nodded. ''The Hessian Corridor is a playground for tanks," he said later, and for a moment the old light of battle flamed in the eyes of the combat soldier. Abrams makes no bones about his pride in commanding U.S. soldiers at a critical point in Western defenses. "If there's going to be trouble," says Abrams, "I prefer to be right here and right in this division. This is the job I want."

[SAMWolf]

AS THE HOMETOWN KNEW HIM

When Creighton Abrams was a small boy, the family moved to Feeding Hills and after living in several rented locations, built a home on North Westfield Street. The father, Creighton Abrams Sr., worked as a repairman for the Boston & Albany Railroad and was interested in all the activities of a very busy son. Creighton was involved in 4-H Club work, raising baby beef and pigs and in 1929 was selected to represent the Hampden County boys at Camp Field at Brockton Fair. A local 4-H leader recalls the day in the summer of 1927 when she and Otis Hall, County Director, visited the Abrams home. Creighton was not there and his mother remarked ruefully that he seemed to be giving up 4-H for other interests. Mr. Hall responded with his usual eager enthusiasm, "We're not trying to make farmers out of all these boys. We don't care how many hogs or cabbages he raises; it's the boy we're interested in. We're trying to build self-reliance, good judgment and character. For many, 4-H is a stepping stone."



At school, Creighton was a good student and his teachers remember him as a dependable boy of firm character. In his spare time he trapped muskrats, an activity in which he was usually accompanied by his dog. He patched a wheezing Model T, learned to shoot by drilling holes with his .22 through tin cans tossed up by his father, and played his favorite sport, football. In 1931, he was captain and center of Agawam High School's football team through an unbeaten, untied and unscored-upon season. Creighton was described in his class yearbook as the "loudest, happiest, fightinest man on the team."

He was on the staff of the Agawam Mirror, Class officer, Student Council, Pro Merito and other activities. He was voted the best all-around boy and the most likely to succeed.

The class prophecy in the yearbook of 1932 says: "And didn't you get a thrill last week when you read the headlines 'Major General Abrams Leads Attack on Russian Revolutionists.' "

Creighton Abrams was Army-oriented even then. His speech as class orator started with the fact that the date was the two hundredth anniversary year of the birth of George Washington, "the man who as a boy led his playmates in mimic battles and as a man led a nation in a dreadfully real war."



To illustrate the High School's ability to win over larger schools, he told of a battle in ancient history where a small army won over a large one, and he seemed to be thinking even then in terms of tactics.

Agawam High School Football team. Back row, Benoit, Provost, Jones, Tisdel. Front Mosely, Pond Roberts, Abrams, Parent, Ray mond In the same address, he spoke to the school staff, "You will take this High School system through this period of depression just as Washington led his Army through the winter at Valley Forge with a clear head and a confident spirit."

When the hoped-for appointment to West Point came through, Creighton was so jubilant that he rushed out of the school and seeing his sister, picked her up and whirled her about in dizzying circles yelling, "I got it, I got it!"

He was soon sobered by the realization that he would have to have $300 in order to start life as a cadet. Due to the depression, his father was working only part time and that was a very large sum. School Superintendent Benjamin Phelps told him to go and see Mrs. Minerva Davis. Although the errand was not to his liking, he went. Mrs. Davis loaned him the $300, which he paid back after graduation from West Point.


General Creighton W. Abrams, US. commander in South Vietnam, discusses the military situation in Vietnam with President Johnson and his advisors October 29 at the White House in Washington. 1968. White House.

In 1939, as Lieutenant Abrams, he was speaker at a High School assembly and made a lasting impression on the students.

Years later, when he took command of the 3rd Armored, he moved to Germany with his wife and four of their six children. He stated that "if there is going to be trouble I prefer to be right there. This is the job I want."



Agawam people were glad that a man like Creighton Abrams was out there on the job during the war, and are proud to have known him during those early years of his life.

Additional Sources:

www.3ad.us
www.jodyharmon.com
www-cgsc.army.mil
www.generalhieu.com
www.usarmor-assn.org
www.lewis.army.mil
www.army.mil
www.pattonsgallery.com
teachpol.tcnj.edu
www.i-kirk.info
americanhistory.si.edu

[SAMWolf]

'You people are telling me what you think I want to know. I want to know what is actually happening.'

-- General Creighton Abrams

'I like to be out on the point where there's nothing but me and the goddam Germans and we can fight by ourselves.'

-- General Creighton Abrams
[of his WWII experiences with the 4th Armored Div., when he was Gen. George Patton's favorite Third Army battalion commander]

'There's too much stress on taking prisoners. Our job is to annihilate the enemy. '

-- General Creighton Abrams

[SAMWolf]

[SAMWolf]

I may be a little late showing up today. I have an early blood donation appointment.

[snippy_about_it]

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[Valin]

On This Day In history


Birthdates which occurred on August 02:
1696 Mahmud I Ottoman sultan, fought Austrians & Russians
1754 Pierre Charles L'Enfant France, architect laid out Wash DC
1832 Henry Steel Olcott 1st president of Theosophical Society
1878 Princess Ingeborg of Sweden
1884 R¢mulo Gallegos Venezuela, novelist (Do¤a B rbara), pres (1948)
1891 Sir Arthur Bliss (Edward Drummond) London, composer (Olympians)
1892 John Kieran NYC, columnist/author (Natural History of NYC)
1905 Myrna Loy Montana, actress (Rebound, Emma)
1910 Lou Zara NYC, writer (Stump the Authors)
1914 Gary Merrill Hartford Conn, actor (Young Dr Kildare, All About Eve)
1916 Beatrice Straight Old Westbury NY, actress (Poltergeist, Nun's Story)
1922 Carroll O'Connor NYC, actor (All in the Family, Heat of the Night)
1922 Paul Laxalt (Sen-R-Nev)
1924 James Baldwin US writer (Another Country)
1926 Betsy Bloomingdale dept store mogul
1932 Lamar Hunt owns NFL KC Chiefs
1932 Peter O'Toole Ireland, actor (Lord Jim, Beckett, Lawrence of Arabia)
1934 Albert W Hall actor (Apocalypse Now)
1934 Valery Bykovsky cosmonaut (Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, 31)
1937 William Cannon football player (Heisman-1959)
1938 Brunhilde Hendrix German FR, relay runner (Olympic-silver-1960)
1939 Edward Pattern Atlanta Ga, singer (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
1940 Doris Kenner Passaic NJ, singer (Shirelles-Soldier Boy)
1942 Garth Hudson keyboardist (The Band)
1944 Joanna Cassidy [Caskey], Haddonfield NJ, actress (240 Robert)
1946 Bob Beamon long jumper (Olympic-gold-1968 29' 2«" (8.9m))
1949 Bertalan Farkas 1st Hungarian space traveler (Soyuz 36)
1950 Kathryn Harrold Tarzewell Va, actress (MacGruder & Loud)
1951 Andrew Gold Burbank, rocker (Lonely Boy)
1952 Paul David Crews SC, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
1955 Roberta Wallach NYC, actress (Civil Wars)
1956 Isabel Pantoja Spain, spanish singer (Genio y Figura)
1959 Britt Helfer Utah, actress (Lily-Loving, Alley Cat)
1960 Apollonia [Patricia Kotero], Santa Monica Ca, actress (Purple Rain)
1960 Linda Fratianne US, figure skater (Olympic-silver-1980)
1967 Aaron Krickstein Ann Arbor, Mich, tennis player (Tel Aviv 1983)
1967 Derek Wells LA Calif, actor (Fitzpatricks)
1973 Kia Goodwin Livingston NJ, actress (Tiffany Holloway-227)
1977 Edward Furlong Pasedina Calif, actor (John Connor-Terminator 2)

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Deaths which occurred on August 02:
1075 John VIII Xiphilinus theologian/patriarch of Constantinople, dies
1876 Wild Bill Hickok shot dead (from behind) by Jack McCall while poker. He held a pair of Aces & a pair of 8's
1923 Pres Harding dies at Palace Hotel, SF
1934 Paul Von Hindenburg dies at 86, Hitler takes over presidency
1964 Jack Kirkwood actor (Fibber McGee & Molly), dies at 69
1967 Claude A Barnett founded Associated Negro Press, dies at 78
1972 Brian Cole rocker with the Association, dies of heroin OD at 28
1979 Thurmon Munson killed in a plane crash at Akron Oh at 32
1982 Cathleen Nesbitt English actress (Seperate Tables), dies at 93
1985 Frank Faylen vaudevillian, dies at 79 of pneumonia
1988 Raymond Carver poet/short story writer (Furious Season), dies at 50
1997 William S. Burroughs, author "Naked Lunch". The godfather of the "Beat" generation

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 DAUGHTREY ROBERT NORLAN DEL RIO TX.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 HAIL WILLIAM WARREN LOS ANGELES CA.
1967 CUNNINGHAM CAREY A. COLLINGSVILLE AL.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1989 IDENTIFIED 04/01/98]
1967 HYNDS WALLACE G. JR. SUMTER SC.
1969 TALKEN GEORGE FRANCIS CHICO CA.

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

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On this day...
216 BC Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae.
47 BC Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, "veni, vidi, vici," (I came, I saw, I conquered).
257 St Stephen I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
640 Severinus ends his reign as Catholic Pope
686 John V ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1375 1st roller skating rink opens (London)
1492 Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
1552 The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1610 Henry Hudson explores bay later named after him the Hudson Bay
1776 The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.
1798 British under Adm Horatio Nelson beat French at Battle of Nile
1819 1st parachute jump in US
1832 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sac & Fox indians, end Black Hawk War
1832 Black Hawk defeated (IA)
1832 Whites decimate Indians in Battle of Bad Axe River, Wisc
1858 1st street mailboxes-Boston, Mass
1864 2nd Saratoga Racetrack (NY) opens
1873 1st trial run of SF cable car, Clay Street between Kearny & Jones
1877 SF Public Library opens with 5,000 volumes
1903 Unsuccessful uprising of Macedonians against Turkey
1906 Chicago White Sox begin record 19 game win streak
1909 1st Lincoln head pennies minted
1909 Army Air Corps formed as Army takes 1st delivery from Wright Brothers
1914 Sherlock Holmes Adventure "His Last Bow" takes place
1920 Marcus Garvey presents his "Back To Africa" program in NYC
1921 A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal.
1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.
1929 Phillies Don Hurst sets NL record of 6 consecutive games with a HR
1932 Charlie Grimm replaces Roger Hornsby as manager of Chicago Cubs
1934 1st airplane train, plane tows 3 mail gliders behind it
1934 William Franks twirls an indian club overhead 17,280 times in 1 hour
1938 1st test of a yellow baseball (Dodgers vs Cardinals)
1939 Hatch Act prohibits political activity by federal workers
1941 Jews are expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia
1943 PT-109 rammed & sunk
1959 Milwaukee Brave Bill Bruton hits 2 bases loaded triples
1961 Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club
1961 St Louis Cards (NFL) beat Toronto Argonauts (CFL) 36-7 in Toronto
1962 NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m
1964 North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin
1964 Race riot in Jersey City NJ
1965 Morley Safer's sends 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing
1966 Radio Vila (New Hebrides) begins transmitting
1967 New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season game, they lose to LA Rams 16-77
1967 US's Lunar Orbiter 5 launched; enters lunar orbit Aug 5
1972 Gold hits record $70 an ounce in London
1975 Billy Martin named manager of NY Yankees (1st time)
1979 Gilda Radner Live From New York opens on Broadway
1980 US swimmers set 3 world records at National championships
1983 STS-8 vehicle moves to launch pad
1983 US District Court begins trying Yonkers accuse of race discrimination
1985 5 die in a train crash in Westminster Colo
1985 NASA launches space vehicle S-209
1986 Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US) sets record for heptathlon (7161 pts)
1986 TODAY/PC born today
1987 Cin Red Eric Davis becomes 7th & earliest 30 HR 30 steal man
1987 Don Brown sets flight record for handbow (1,336 yds 1'3")
1987 Kevin Seitzer (KC Royals), gets 6 hits in one baseball game
1987 Michael Andretti runs fastest Indy car race in history (171.49 MPH)
1988 Raymond Acevedo is retired from singing group Menudo
1988 System Enhancement Assoc settles case with PKware (ARC vs PKARC)
1989 NASA confirmed Voyager 2's discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2, 1989 N3 & 1989 N24
1990 Iraq invades & occupies Kuwait
1991 Funk singer Rick James, arrested on sexual torture charges
1991 Hedy Lamaar is arrested for shoplifting in LA
1991 Space shuttle STS 43 (Atlantis 9) launched
2000 Republicans awarded Texas Gov. George W. Bush their 2000 presidential nomination at the party's convention in Philadelphia and ratified Dick Cheney as his running mate.

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

Costa Rica : Virgin of Angels feast
Grenada : Emancipation Day
Lesotho : National Tree Planting Day
Malawi : Bank Holiday
Arizona, Michigan : American Family Day ( Sunday )
Italy : Joust of the Quintana (1st Sunday) ( Sunday )
Bahamas, Barbados, Turks & Caicos Island : Emancipation Day (1838) ( Monday )
British Commonwealth : Bank Holiday ( Monday )
Canada : Civic Holiday (1st Monday) ( Monday )
Colorado : Colorado Day (1876) ( Monday )
Jamaica : Independence Day (1962) ( Monday )
St Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla : August Monday ( Monday )
US : National Smile Week begins ( Monday )
Grasmere England : Rush-Bearing Day ( Saturday )

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Religious Observances
Orth : St Elias Day
Yorkshire, England : St Wilfred
RC : Memorial of Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (opt)
Old RC : Feast of St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, bishop

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Religious History
1776 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'Use all the ability which God gives, and He will give you more.'
1907 The Vatican issued the decree "Ne temere," declaring that marriages of Catholics were valid only if celebrated before a duly qualified priest and at least two witnesses.
1946 English literary scholar and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Apologetic work is so dangerous to one's faith. A doctrine never seems dimmer to me than when I have just successfully defended it.'
1948 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot penned this prayer in his journal: 'Father, teach me the speed of eternity. Synchronize my movements with the speed of Thine Own heart then, hasting or halting, I shall be in good time.'
1982 Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'There is the constant danger of slipping into the idea that if a person has sufficient faith, he will always be healed. This is clearly not what the Bible teaches.'

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

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Thought for the day :
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."

---

You might be a caffeine addict if...
Starbucks has decided to use you as their official mascot.

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Todays Murphys law.....(MP Laws)
Don't stand, if you can sit - don't sit, if you can lay down - if you can lay down, you might as well take a nap.

---

Cliff Clavin says, it's a little known fact that...
Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC, woke up to rain this morning which means it's a good day to go back to sleep. I think I will. :)

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning all!!
Have a great day!
Snippy, have you had your Starbucks yet???

[Darksheare]

"Now my platoons can kill more men."
Straightforward, I like it.
Wish we had guys like him now!
I remember listening to a guy BS us about "the mission of artillery".
The officer was telling us that our mission was to "Deny the enemy accces to an area, delay an enemy attack, destroy equipment, and harrass teh enemy."
When he asked for questions, I said "I thought our mission was to blow things up and kill people."
I got slapped down for it, for not being 'sensitive' enough or some such BS.

We need more officers like General Abrams.

[Darksheare]

I'm in, finally.

[Darksheare]

Morning.
We've secretly switched snippy's Starbucks with some Brew of Doom, let's see if she notices...

[snippy_about_it]

Morning feather. Nope, not yet. Just good old fashioned Maxwell House this morning.

[snippy_about_it]

Secretly switched. LOL! Good morning Darksheare.

I'm sure I'd notice on the first sip. Cute!! Thanks for my morning chuckle.

[Darksheare]

Well, if you were really tired and dragging.. You might not have noticed until after it gave you a buzz..

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy. Heading out the door. Catch up with you all later

[snippy_about_it]

All these quotes in post three of Abrams, they speak to honesty in the man it seems, how interesting he would have been to know.

He didn't live a long life but it sure was a full one.

Thanks for his profile today.

[snippy_about_it]

Good Morning, see you later.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Mornin' all ..

A fine article on a fine tanker. And, for the benefit of our friends in the Airborne, I'm glad to see that the word "rescued" never appeared in connection with Bastogne :)