Posted on 02/19/2015 4:14:44 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
PS: You can think of Iwo Jima as our “Stalingrad” experience. Similar type of fighting, only we won where the Germans lost.
Maybe played an important role in the U.S. military thinking that dropping the H bomb(s) would net more lives saved because the war would end more quickly.
Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!" Eleanor Roosevelt
And I wager that she never used a Marine to hold an umbrella for her.
The article about carriers quotes a “Vice Admiral John Sidney McCain.” Is that who I think it is?
The Battle for Okinawa reinforced that in spades.
Senior's status as an admiral during the Vietnam War was, if I'm correct, used by the North Vietnamese to make John Jr's. captivity more difficult.
Yes, I was thinking it was the father.
Yes, I was thinking it was the father.
WWII Admiral McCain was grandfather of the Senator. Vietnam Admiral McCain was his father.
It’s the Senator’s grandfather. He died four days after the Japanese surrender. John Sidney McCain II was also a Navy admiral, John Sidney McCain III is the Senator, John Sidney McCain IV is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy.
Beat me by a minute. I type too much.
I wonder if IV had a hard time getting an appointment to Annapolis.
Iwo wasn't any good for a naval base or Army staging area, but for the reasons you suggest it did have some use as an American air base and depriving the enemy of its use.
I disagree with Howlin' Mad Smith that a few days more bombardment would have substantially lowered the butcher's bill. My god, the Japanese CP was 75 feet underground. We could have taken out a few more installations, but the bad guys were dug in deep. Plus, he doesn't have a lot of credibility with me - he was always Howlin Mad at the Army or Navy or both.
Thanks for the correction. I did no research (obviously) before typing, and after posting I realized how unlikely it was for the WW2 admiral to still be an admiral 25 years later. Glad you’re paying such close attention.
Is this where you might need henkster's unused sarcasm tag?
On page 8 above, the article about Montgomery discussing the final push, the NYTs published his statement to the troops and included a line from a poem.
“Peace for the kids, our brothers freed,
A kinder world, a cleaner breed.”
I had never heard thi line so I went to look for the poem. Here is the full poem.
This anonymous poem was blown into a slit trench in Tunisia during a heavy bombardment in the early days of World War II.
Stay with me, God. The night is dark,
The night is cold: my little spark
Of courage dies. The night is long;
Be with me, God, and make me strong.
I love a game; I love a fight.
I hate the dark; I love the light.
I love my child; I love my wife.
I am no coward. I love Life,
Life with its change of mood and shade.
I want to live. I’m not afraid,
But me and mine are hard to part;
Oh, unknown God, lift up my heart.
You stilled the waters at Dunkirk
And saved Your Servants. All Your work
Is wonderful, dear God. You strode
Before us down that dreadful road.
We were alone, and hope had fled;
We loved our country and our dead,
And could not shame them; so we stayed
The course, and were not much afraid.
Dear God that nightmare road! And then
That sea! We got there-we were men.
My eyes were blind, my feet were torn,
My soul sang like a bird at dawn!
I knew that death is but a door.
I knew what we were fighting for:
Peace for the kids, our brothers freed,
A kinder world, a cleaner breed.
I’m but the son my mother bore,
A simple man, and nothing more.
But-God of strength and gentleness,
Be pleased to make me nothing less.
Help me, O God, when Death is near
To mock the haggard face of fear,
That when I fall-if fall I must-
My soul may triumph in the Dust.
Some notes from wiki:
John Sidney “Slew” McCain Sr. (August 9, 1884 – September 6, 1945) was a U.S. Navy admiral.
He was the father of Admiral John S. McCain, Jr.; they became the first father–son pair ever to achieve four star admiral rank in the U.S. Navy. He was the grandfather of U.S. Senator from Arizona and 2008 Republican presidential nominee Captain John S. McCain III, and the great-grandfather of John S. McCain IV. All four generations graduated from the United States Naval Academy.
William’s son, the first John Sidney McCain, known as J. S. McCain (which may explain the apparent discrepancy in Senator John S. McCain being the III, rather than the IV), served as Sheriff and, later, President of the Board of Supervisors of Carroll County.
Interestingly, he is technically John Sidney McCain, II. His father was also John Sidney McCain. The family uses the designations incorrectly as noted above.
I also find this amazing: All four generations graduated from the United States Naval Academy. I looked up grandpa to see if his father had been a military man, but he was not having been a Mississippi plantation owner. His grandfather, William Alexander McCain died while serving as a private in Company I, 5th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, Confederate States Army.
Patton had a better bloodline.
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