Replies

USO Canteen FReeper Style

Military Support Links

Please Thank someone in the military for ensuring our Freedom.
Take a moment and Thank a Service Man or Woman.
Just Click on the graphic to SEND an e-mail.

Armed Forces Careers


Army	Navy	Air Force	Marines	Coast Guard

The Fisher House program is a unique private-public partnership that supports America's military in their time of need by providing homes close to a loved one during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.

There are currently 31 houses located on the grounds of every major military medical center and several VA medical centers. These houses will play a critical role in caring for casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom. Donations will be used to help meet the cost of lodging for a family whose loved one was injured in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. There is a limit to the number of families who can stay in a Fisher House and program is committed to help provide lodging for families who must find commercial lodging, because the Fisher House is full.

You think you're hot?
Our military forces in Iraq sweat it out in 130 degree heat everyday!

Cool Our Troops is a non-profit effort to 'Cool' our troops in Iraq. They are raising funds to send personal misters to 50,000 military personnel serving in Iraq. The misters are portable, no batteries or electricity required, and rely on evaporation to cool surrounding temperatures by 20-30 degrees.

Access the Wounded Heroes Guestbook to write a message of encouragement for a hero wounded in the line of duty.

Messages in the Wounded Heroes Guestbook are viewed by wounded soldiers, their loved ones, and the general public.

Links to
Veteran
Associations

Visit the Department of Veterans Affairs

Visit the Veterans of Foreign Wars Home Page

Share your thoughts, good wishes and messages with American troops
deployed around the globe. In turn, we hope those in service will
be able to view them on this site, and perhaps respond themselves.

ADD A SERVICEPERSON: Please help make this tribute more
complete by creating a page for your own friends and family who
are currently deployed around the globe.

Support the Military Relief Societies!
Please support the the Military Relief Societies that help families whose loved
ones were injured or killed in battle. Click any one of the following:

Audio Reports from the
3rd Brigade Combat Team

Click on the patch and you can see and hear the voice of
our own txradioguy reporting from somewhere incountry.

Send a message to a Marine!

MSgt. Edwards a/k/a FReeper M1911A1 is currently serving in Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom!

Please click the pic and FReepmail Mrs. MSgt Dan a/k/a FReeper M0sby with your messages of support, goodwill or prayers.

Mrs. MSgt Dan will send your message to MSgt Dan in a great big HAPPY MESSAGE for him to read and pass around!

Click here for info on
USO Canteen FReeper Style Business Cards

Good morning Radix .

He won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and was an All-Star for the first of 18 consecutive seasons

Yeah, he could hit a little bit. A BUMP for the Wednesday Pancakes Cultists! Great work on your intro.

SALUTE!

Good morning, MR. RADIX! Good morning, Canteen Crew! Good morning, EVERYBODY!

GOODMORNINGTROOPS!!

BELIEVE!

Today's FEEBLE attempt at humor:

The Food and Drug Administration approved a video-camera pill
Wednesday. "Swallow-Cam," as some call it, will transmit
pictures of your digestive system.

Wow, the Food Network MUST be desperate for new program
ideas.

Chicagoland Weather

Currently
37°

Fair

Hi: 55

Lo: 33

5 Day Forecast

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

Mostly Sunny

High:	55
Low:	31

Mostly Sunny

High:	50
Low:	42

Showers

High:	59
Low:	39

Scattered Showers

High:	56
Low:	39

Few Showers

High:	56
Low:	38

A very pleasant good morning to everyone at the Freeper Foxhole and to all of our military personal at home and abroad and to all of our allies. Thank you so very much for your continued service to our country.

Folks, be sure to update your anti-virus and get the very latest critical updates for your computer.

Good Morning Cateen FReepers. Going home from Mids, can I have a coffee for the road? Y'all have a good one and if y'all can't behave yourselves, don't get caught....

Click on the pic and I'll guide you
to the start of today's thread

USO CANTEEN FREEPER STYLE MISSION STATEMENT
Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.
CLICK HERE TO FIND LATEST THREAD.

I read this and wanted to stop in and say hi and I miss many of you. I could only think of one place that would appreciate this true story as seen on the Today Show yesterday.

‘Flyboys: A True Story of Courage’

A true tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope

During World War II, eight American airmen were shot down over Chichi Jima and taken prisoner by Japanese troops. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth. Not even the families of the airmen were informed what had happened to their sons. It has remained a mystery—until now. Read an excerpt of James Bradley’s “Flyboys” to learn about a tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope that will make you proud, and break your heart.

DECLASSIFIED
All these years I had this nagging feeling these guys wanted their story told.
— Bill Doran

The e-mail was from Iris Chang, author of the groundbreaking bestseller The Rape of Nanking. Iris and I had developed a professional relationship after the publication of my first book, Flags of Our Fathers. In her e-mail, Iris suggested I contact a man named Bill Doran in Iowa. She said Bill had some “interesting” information.

This was in early February 2001. I was hearing many “interesting” war stories at that point. Flags of Our Fathers had been published recently. The book was about the six Iwo Jima flagraisers. One of them was my father.

James Bradley on ’Flyboys’

Author James Bradley recounts for “Today’s” Al Roker seldom heard true tales of heroism and bravery from airmen serving in the South Pacific during World War II, as found in his new book, “Flyboys”.

Indeed, scarcely a day passed without someone suggesting a topic for my next book. So I was curious as I touched his Iowa number on my New York telephone keypad.

Bill quickly focused our call on a tall stack of papers on his kitchen table. Within twenty minutes I knew I had to look Bill in the eye and see that stack. I asked
if I could catch the first plane out the next day.

“Sure. I’ll pick you up at the airport,” Bill offered. “Stay at my place. It’s just me and Stripe, my hunting dog, here. I have three empty bedrooms. You can sleep in one.”

Riding from the Des Moines airport in Bill’s truck, I learned that Stripe was the best hunting dog in the world and that his seventy-sixyear- old owner was a retired lawyer. Bill and Stripe spent their days hunting and fishing. Soon Bill and I were seated at his Formica-topped kitchen table. Between us was a pile of paper, a bowl of popcorn, and two gin and tonics.

The papers were the transcript of a secret war crimes trial held on Guam in 1946. Fifty-five years earlier, Bill, a recent U.S. Naval Academy graduate, had been ordered to attend the trial as an observer. Bill was instructed to report to the “courtroom,” a huge Quonset hut. At the entrance, a Marine guard eyed the twenty-one-year-old. After finding Bill’s name on the approved list, he shoved a piece of paper across a table.

“Sign this,” the Marine ordered matter-of-factly. Everybody was required to.

Bill read the single-spaced navy document. The legal and binding language informed young Bill that he was never to reveal what he would hear in that steaming Quonset hut / courtroom.

Bill signed the secrecy oath and he signed another copy late that afternoon when he left the trial. He would repeat this process every morning and every afternoon for the trial’s duration. And when it was over, Bill returned home to Iowa. He kept silent but could not forget what he had heard.

Then, in 1997, Bill noticed a tiny newspaper item announcing that vast stashes of government documents from 1946 had been declassified. “When I realized the trial was declassified,” Bill said, “I thought, Maybe I can do something for these guys now.”

As a lawyer, Bill had spent his professional life ferreting out documents. He made some inquiries and dedicated eleven months to following where they led. Then one day, a boxed transcript arrived in the mail from Washington. Bill told Stripe they weren’t going hunting that day.

The transcript contained the full proceedings of a trial establishing the fates of eight American airmen — Flyboys — downed in waters in the vicinity of Iwo Jima during World War II. Each was shot down during bombing runs against Chichi Jima, the next island north of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima was coveted for its airstrips, Chichi Jima for its communications stations. Powerful short- and long-wave receivers and transmitters atop Chichi’s Mount Yoake and Mount Asahi were the critical communications link between Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo and Japanese troops in the Pacific. The radio stations had to be destroyed, the U.S. military decided, and the Flyboys had been charged with doing so.

A stack of papers my brother found in my dad’s office closet after his death in 1994 had launched me on a quest to find my father’s past. Now, on Bill’s table, I was looking at the stack of papers that would become the first step in another journey.

On the same day my father and his buddies raised that flag on Iwo Jima, Flyboys were held prisoner just 150 miles away on Chichi Jima. But while everyone knows the famous Iwo Jima photo, no one knew the story of these eight Chichi Jima Flyboys.

Nobody knew for a reason: For over two generations, the truth about their demise was kept secret. The U.S. government decided the facts were so horrible that the families were never told. Over the decades, relatives of the airmen wrote letters and even traveled to Washington, D.C., in search of the truth. Well-meaning bureaucrats turned them away with vague cover stories.

“All those years I had this nagging feeling these guys wanted their story told,” Bill said.

Eight mothers had gone to their graves not knowing the fates of their lost sons. Sitting at Bill’s table, I suddenly realized that now I knew what the Flyboys’ mothers had never learned.

History buffs know that 22,000 Japanese soldiers defended Iwo Jima. Few realize that neighboring Chichi Jima was defended by even more — Japanese troops numbering 25,000. Whereas Iwo had flat areas suitable for assault from the sea, Chichi had a hilly inland and a craggy coast. One Marine who later examined the defenses of both islands told me, “Iwo was hell. Chichi would have been impossible.” Land troops — Marines — would neutralize Iwo’s threat. But it was up to the Flyboys to take out Chichi.

The U.S. tried to blow up Chichi Jima’s communications stations for quite some time. Beginning in June of 1944, eight months before the Iwo Jima invasion, American aircraft carriers surrounded Chichi Jima. These floating airports catapulted steel-encased Flyboys off their decks into the air. The mission of these young airmen was to fly into the teeth of Chichi Jima’s lethal antiaircraft guns, somehow dodge the hot metal aimed at them, and release their loads of bombs onto the reinforced concrete communications cubes atop the island’s twin peaks.

The WWII Flyboys were the first to engage in combat aviation in large numbers. In bomber jackets, posing with thumbs up, they epitomized masculine glamour. They were cool, and they knew it, and any earthbound fool had to know it too. Their planes were named after girlfriends and pinups, whose curvy forms or pretty faces sometimes adorned their sides. And inside the cockpit, the Flyboys were lone knights in an age of mass warfare.

In the North Pacific in 1945, the Flyboys flew the original “missions impossible.” Climbing into 1940s-era tin cans with bombs strapped below their feet, they hurtled off carrier decks into howling winds or took off from island airfields. Sandwiched between blue expanses of sky and sea, Flyboys would wing toward distant targets, dive into flak shot from huge guns, and drop their lethal payloads. With their hearts in their throats, adrenaline pumping through their veins, the Flyboys then had to dead-reckon their way back to a tiny speck of landing deck or to a distant airfield their often-damaged planes never made it to.

The Flyboys were part of an air war that dwarfed the land war below. In 1945, the endgame in the northern Pacific was the incineration of Japan. This required two layers of bombers in the sky — huge B-29s lumbering high above with their cargo of napalm to burn cities, and smaller, lower-flying carrier-based planes to neutralize threats to the B-29s. My father on Iwo Jima shared the same mission with the Chichi Jima Flyboys: to make the skies safe for the B-29s.

Japanese military experts would later agree that the napalm dropped by these B-29s had more to do with Japan’s surrender than the atomic bombs. Certainly, napalm killed more Japanese civilians than died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Most of the Chichi Jima Flyboys fought and died during the worst killing month in the history of all warfare — a thirty-day period in February and March of 1945 when the dying in WWII reached its climax. If you look at a graph charting casualties over the four years of the Pacific war, you will see the line jump dramatically beginning with the battle of Iwo Jima and the Flyboys’ assaults against mainland Japan. And few realize the U.S. killed more Japanese civilians than Japanese soldiers and sailors. This was war at its most disturbing intensity.

It was a time of obscene casualties, a time when grandparents burned to death in cities aflame, and kamikaze sons swooped out of the sky to immolate themselves against American ships. It was the time of the worst battle in the history of the United States Marine Corps, the most decorated month in U.S. history, a valorous and brutish time of all-out slaughter.

By February of 1945, logical, technocratic American military experts had concluded that Japan was beaten. Yet the empire would not surrender. Americans judged the Japanese to be “fanatic” in their willingness to fight with no hope of victory. But Japan was not fighting a logical war. Japan, an island nation, existed in its own moral universe, enclosed in a separate ethical biosphere. Japanese leaders believed that “Japanese spirit” was the key to beating back the barbarians at their door. They fought because they believed they could not lose.

And while America cheered its flyers as its best and brightest, the Japanese had a very different view of those who wreaked havoc from the skies. To them, airmen who dropped napalm on defenseless civilians living in paper houses were the nonhuman devils.

This is a story of war, so it is a story of death. But it is not a story of defeat. I have tracked down the eight Flyboys’ brothers and sisters, girlfriends, and aviator buddies who drilled and drank with them. Their relatives and friends gave me photos, letters, and medals. I have scoured yearbooks, logbooks, and little black books to find out who they were and what they mean to us today. I read and reread six thousand pages of trial documents and conducted hundreds of interviews in the U.S. and Japan.

The families and friends of the Flyboys could only tell me so much. Their hometown buddies and relatives had stories of their youth and enlistment. Their military comrades had remembrances from training camp up until they disappeared. But none of them —not even the next of kin or the bunkmates who served in the Pacific with them — knew exactly what happened to these eight on Chichi Jima. It was all a dark hole, an unfathomable secret.

In Japan, some knew, but they had kept their silence. I met Japanese soldiers who knew the Flyboys as prisoners. I heard stories about how they were treated, about their interrogations, about how some of the Flyboys had lived among their captors for weeks. I met soldiers who swapped jokes with them, who slept in the same rooms.

And I ventured to Chichi Jima. Chichi Jima is part of an island chain due south of Tokyo the Japanese call the Ogasawara Islands. On English maps the chain is called the Bonin Islands. The name Bonin is a French cartographer’s corruption of the old Japanese word munin, which means “no man.” These islands were uninhabited for most of Japan’s existence. They literally contained “no peoples” or “no mans.” So Bonin translates loosely into English as No Mans Land.

I hacked through forest growth in No Mans Land to uncover the last days of the Flyboys. I stood on cliffs with Japanese veterans who pointed to where they saw the Flyboys parachute into the Pacific. I strode where Flyboys had walked. I heard from eyewitnesses who told me much. Others revealed a great deal by refusing to tell me anything.

Eventually, I understood the facts about what happened to Dick, Marve, Glenn, Grady, Jimmy, Floyd, Warren Earl, and the Unknown Airman. I comprehended the “what” of their fates.

But to determine the “why” of their story, I had to embark upon another journey. A trip back in time, back 149 years, to another century. Back to when the first American military men walked in No Mans Land.

Excerpted from “Flyboys: A True Story of Courage” by James Bradley.

Birthdates which occurred on October 01:
1207 Henry III king of England (1216-72)
1685 Charles VI Holy Roman emperor (1711-40)
1746 John Muhlenberg Lutheran pastor/general/congressman
1760 William Beckford British writer (Epsiodes of Vathek)
1781 James Lawrence naval hero (War of 1812-"Don't give up the ship!")
1791 Sergey Aksakov Russia, novelist (Chronicles of a Russian Family)
1799 Rufus Choate US, lawyer (Hall of Fame)
1832 Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison 1st wife of Benjamin Harrison
1835 William H "Red" Jackson Brig Gen (7th Tennessee Cavalry)
1837 Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during America's Civil War.
1847 Annie Besant [Wood], England, philosopher/thesophist
1865 Paul Dukas Paris France, composer (Vell‚da)
1881 William Edward Boeing founded aircraft co (Boeing)
1885 Louis Untermeyer NYC, poet/critic (Immortal Poems, Story Poems)
1890 Stanley Holloway London England, actor (Higgins-Our Man Higgins)
1893 Faith Baldwin New Rochelle NY, author/novelist (They Who Love)
1903 "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom NYC, light-heavyweight box champ (1932-34)
1904 Vladimir Horowitz Kiev Ukraine, pianist (Carmen)
1907 Hiram Fong (Sen-Cal)
1909 Sam Yorty (Mayor-LA)
1911 Edward P Boland (Rep-D-Mass)
1911 Irwin Kostal Chicago Ill, orchestra leader (Garry Moore Show)
1911 Richard Torriani Switzerland, took 1948 Olympic oath
1914 Daniel Boorstin author (1974 Pulitzer Prize)
1920 Lonny Chapman Tulsa Okla, actor (Investigator, For the People)
1920 Walter Matthau NYC, actor (Odd Couple, Bad News Bears)
1921 James Whitmore White Plains NY, actor (Give 'em Hell Harry)
1924 Jimmy Earl Carter (D) 39th Pres (1977-1981)
1924 William Rehnquist Ws, Supreme Court (1972-86)/chief justice (1987- )
1927 Tom Bosley Chicago, actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote)
1928 George Peppard Detroit Mich, actor (Banacek, A-Team, Blue Max)
1928 Laurence Harvey actor (Alamo, Romeo & Juliet)
1930 Richard Harris actor (A Man Called Horse), singer (MacArthur Park)
1935 Julie Andrews England, actress/singer (Sound of Music, Mary Poppins)
1936 Charles G Fullerton Rochester, NY, astronaut (STS-3, 51F)
1936 Edward Villella US, ballet dancer (NYC Ballet)
1936 Stella Stevens Yazoo City Miss, actress (Girls! Girls!, Manitou)
1945 Donny Hathaway Chicago, singer/songwriter (Where is the Love)
1945 Rod Carew baseball slugger (AL Rookie of the Year 1967)
1946 Eva Klobukowska Poland, relay (Olympic-gold-1964)
1947 Stephen Collins Des Moines Iowa, actor (Star Trek I, Tattingers)
1948 Ellen McIlwaine Nashville, blues singer (Honky Tonky Angel)
1949 Annie Leibovitz photographer (Rolling Stones)
1950 Randy Quaid Houston Tx, actor (Midnight Express, Vacation, SNL)
1953 Greta Waitz Norway, marathon runner (NYC)
1960 Elizabeth Dennehy actress (Guiding Light)
1962 Trevor Baxter record holder for high jumping with a skateboard
1963 Beth Chamberlin Danville Vt, actress (Beth Spaulding-Guiding Light)
1963 Mark McGwire Oakland A's (AL rookie of year 1988)
1968 Jay Underwood actor (The Boy Who Could Fly)

Deaths which occurred on October 01:
0290 [Christian] Bacchus, Roman soldier/martyred saint, killed
0540 Vedastus St Vaast, 1st bishop of Atrecht/saint, dies
0976 Al-Hakam II, Moors kalief of Cordoba, dies
1404 Boniface IX, [Pietro Tomacelli], Pope (1389-1404), dies
1578 Don Juan d'Austria, Spanish land guardian of Netherlands, dies at 31
1807 John Muhlenberg Lutheran pastor, dies on his 61st birthday
1961 Donald Cook actor (Too Young To Go Steady), dies at 60
1965 Edward E "Doc" Smith, US, sci-fi writer (Subspace encounter), dies
1968 - Marcel Duchamp, French painter (Descending an Escalator), dies
1972 Louis Leakey anthropologist, dies at 68
1973 Joe Devlin actor (Sam-Dick Tracy), dies at 74
1985 Charlotte White, US author (New Yorker, Charlotte's Web), dies at 86
1990 Curtis E LeMay USAF General, dies at 83

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 MASSUCCI MARTIN J. ROYAL OAK MI.
1965 OFFUTT GARY PHELPS STEWARTVILLE MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED 03/97]
1965 SCHARF CHARLES J. SAN DIEGO CA.
1966 NIX COWAN GLENN TAMPA FL.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

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

On this day...
2016 BC Origin of Era of Abraham
331BC Alexander the Great decisively shatters King Darius III's Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that leaves him master of the Persian Empire.
110 -BC- Origin of Sidonian Era
366 St Damasus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1529 Meeting between Martin Luther & Huldrych Zwingli
1588 The feeble Sultan Mohammed Shah of Persia, hands over power to his 17-year old son Abbas.
1661 Yachting begins in England; King Charles II beats his brother James
1688 Prince William III accept invitation of English crown
1791 1st session of the new French legislative assembly
1800 Spain cedes Louisiana to France in a secret treaty
1837 "Racer's" Hurricane (Gulf of Mexico)
1837 Treaty with Winnebago Indians
1847 Maria Mitchell discovers a non-naked-eye comet
1851 1st Hawaiian stamps issued
1869 1st postcards are issued (Vienna)
1878 General Lew Wallace is sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and write Ben-Hur. His Civil War heroics earned him the moniker Savior of Cincinnati.
1879 Cincinnati Enquirer publishes 1st report on baseball reserve clause
1885 Special delivery mail service begins in US
1886 US mint at Carson City, Nevada closes
1889 Washington voters adopt state constitution in referendum
1890 Yosemite National Park established
1893 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 (Mississippi)
1894 Civic organization, Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben founded in Omaha, Nebraska
1896 Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Veiled Lodger" takes place (BG)
1898 Henry Huntington buys the LA Railway
1898 Jews are expelled from Kiev Russia
1903 The first World Series opened in Boston. The Boston Pilgrims of the American League vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates won, 7-3. However, Boston would go on to win the series, five games to three.
1908 - Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile to the market. The Model-T came in many colors --all of them black. (costs $825)
1908 Jack Chesbro's final Yankee victory, beats Walter Johnson 2-1
1910 Berkshire Cattle Fair held in Pittsfield Mass (1st state fair)
1912 Yanks lose game #100 en route to a 50-102 season
1919 World Series #16 begins as a best of 9 affair, White Sox intentionally throw this series to satisfy gamblers (The Black Sox Scandal)
1921 1st all NY series to be played entirely in 1 stadium (the Polo Grounds) & 1st NY Yankee World Series begins (World Series #18)
1922 Former Chicago Staleys play 1st NFL game as Chicago Bears, win 6-0
1928 Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium bicycled 76 miles 504 yards in 1 hour
1932 Babe Ruth's points & hits a HR there, off of Cubs Charlie Root
1932 NHL readmits Ottawa & drops Pittsburgh
1932 Oswald Mosley forms British Union of Fascists
1933 Packers make 5 1st downs, the Giants make 0, but still win 10-7
1933 Wash Senator coach Nick Altrock plays in a game at age 57
1936 Gen Francisco Franco establishes the state of Spain
1937 Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
1938 Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia)
1939 Winston Chruchill refers to Soviet policy as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"
1940 Pennsylvania Turnpike, pioneer toll thruway, opens
1942 Little Golden Books (children books) begins publishing
1942 Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter, 1st US jet, makes maiden flight
1943 Allied forces captured Naples during WW II
1944 Newspaper editor Alejandro C¢rdova assassinated in Guatemala
1944 St Louis Browns win their only AL pennant
1944 Experiments begin on homosexuals at Buchenwald
1945 Heavyweight champ Joe Louis is discharged from the army
1946 1st NL playoffs, Dodgers vs Cards (St Louis wins 2 games to 0)
1946 Bob Feller 348th strikeout of the season
1946 Twelve Nazi war criminals are sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials---Karl Donitz, Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg.
1947 1st helicopter air mail & express service, LA, Ca
1947 NHL Pension Society founded
1947 US control of Haitian customs & governmental revenue ends
1948 Calif Supreme Court voids state statute banning interracial marriages
1948 Radio Denmark begins transmitting
1949 People's Republic of China proclaimed by Mao Tse-tung (National Day)
1949 Republic of China (Taiwan) forms on the island of Formosa
1950 Phillies win NL pennant on last day of season (10th inning HR)
1951 1st treaty signed by woman ambassador-Eugenie Anderson
1951 24th Infantry Regiment, last all-black military unit, deactivated
1952 1st ultra high frequency (UHF) television station, Portland Or
1953 Indian state of Andhra Pradesh partitioned from Madras
1954 British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation
1955 "Honeymooners" premieres
1956 Johnny Heckmann rides 7 winners at Chicago Hawthorne Horse track
1957 B-52 bombers begin full-time flying alert in case of USSR attack
1958 Britain transfers Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia
1958 Inauguration of NASA
1958 Vanguard Project transferred from military to NASA
1959 1st World Series (World Series #56) since 1948 not to feature a NY team (LA vs Chic)
1960 Nigeria gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1961 A believed extinct volcanco erupts in Tristan da Cunha
1961 East & West Cameroon merge as Federal Republic of Cameroon
1961 Roger Maris sets record of 61 HRs, last off of Tracy Stallard
1962 Barbra Streisand signs her 1st recording contract (with Columbia)
1962 Brian Epstein signs a contract to manage the Beatles through 1977
1962 James Meredith became 1st black at U of Mississippi
1962 Johnny Carson hosts his 1st Tonight Show, Joan Crawford guests
1962 The Lucy Show premiers
1962 US National Radio Astronomy Obs gets a 300' (91m) radio telescope
1963 Nigeria becomes a republic within the Commonwealth
1964 Free Speech Movement launched at U of California, Berkley
1964 SF cable cars declared a national landmark
1968 "Night of the Living Dead" premieres in Pittsburgh
1969 Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage stamps
1970 Last game at Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium, Phils-2 Expos-1
1971 Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opens
1972 1st games of the World Hockey Association
1973 Leo Durocher resigns as Houston Astro manager
1975 Britain grants internal self-government to Seychelles
1975 Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands, take name "Tuvalu"
1975 Reunion Island stops prints stamps, France takes over production
1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Joe Frazier in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1977 Brazilian soccer great Pele' retires with 1,281 goals in 1,363 games
1977 Yanks win 2nd consecutive AL East title
1978 Tuvalu (Ellice Islands) gains independence from Britain
1978 Yanks lose 9-2 to Indians forcing a playoff game with Red Sox
1979 US returns Canal Zone to Panama after 75 years (but not the canal)
1980 Cosmonauts Ryumin & Popov break space endurance record of 176 days
1982 EPCOT Center opens in Orlando Florida
1982 West Germany's Parliament ousts chancellor Helmut Schmidt
1984 Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip resumes after 2-year hiatus
1984 Peter Ueberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as 6th commissioner of baseball
1986 President Carter's presidential library/museum dedicated in Atlanta
1987 6 killed by an earthquake measuring 6.1 in LA
1988 Lowest batting avg for NL champion (Tony Gwynn .313)
1988 Robert Englund the actor who plays Freddie Kruger weds Nancy Booth
1989 Dallas Cowboy, Ed "Too Tall" Jones records his 1,000th NFL tackle
1988 Mikhail Gorbachev became president of Soviet Union
1989 Thousands of East Germans flee to West Germany
1989 US issues a stamp, labeling an apatosaurus as a brontosaurus
1990 Pres Bush at the UN, condemns Iraq's takeover of Kuwait
1991 Howard Stern adds Baltimore to his radio network (WJFK-AM)
1992 A missile accidentally fired by the U.S.S. Saratoga struck a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean Sea, killing nine Turkish sailors.
1992 Dallas billionaire Ross Perot formally announced his independent candidacy for the presidency.
1995 10 Muslims were convicted of conspiring to conduct a terrorist campaign in the New York City area aimed at forcing the United States to drop its support of Egypt and Israel.
1996 A federal grand jury indicted Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski in the 1994 mail bomb slaying of an ad executive.
2000 Israeli troops battled Palestinians as riots continued to rage through the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said peace talks were "on the shelf" and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called for an emergency Arab summit as renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians continued.

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

Burma : Bank Holiday
Cameroon : Unification Day (1961)
Cyprus & Tuvalu-1978 : National Day
Nigeria : Independence Day (1960, 1963)
Omaha, Nebraska : Ak-Sar-Ben Day (1894)
South Korea : Armed Forces Day
Spain : Day of Caudillo (1936)
US : Agricultural Fair Day (1810)
World : Vegetarian Day
Massachusetts : Grandparents Day (Sunday)
Missouri : Missouri Day (Monday)
World : Child Health Day, Universal Children's Day (1928) (Monday)
China PR : Liberation Day (1949)
Vegetarian Day.
(it's not no much that I love animals but I hate plants)
International Day for the Elderly
Family History Awareness Month
Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month

Religious Observances
Ang, RC : St Remigius, bishop of Rheims, confessor
RC : Memorial of St Th‚rŠse of the Child Jesus-Little Flower
Jewish : Erev Rosh Hashanah-New Year's Eve (last day of the year)

Religious History
1883 American churchman A. B. Simpson founded the first school in America to train missionaries, in New York City. Called the Missionary Training Institute in 1894, its name was changed to Nyack College in 1972.
1889 Birth of Ralph W. Sockman, American scholar and devotional writer. His best-remembered poem begins: "I met God in the morning, when my day was at its best...."
1921 The Latin American Mission was incorporated in Philadelphia by founders Harry and Susan Strachan. Today, over 125 staff work with LAM in eight Central and South American countries.
1946 World Literature Crusade was founded in Saskatchewan, Canada, by Rev. Jack McAlister (president 1946-79). This mission is engaged primarily in Bible distribution, church planting and Bible correspondence courses.
1957 Representatives from 49 churches met in Roseville, MI, to begin organizing the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. The organization officially came into being the following month.

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

Thought for the day :
"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside"

You might be a bad cook if...
the dog goes to the neighbors' to eat.

Murphys Law of the day...
Schmidt's Law:
Never eat prunes when you're hungry
(think about it)

It's a little known fact that...
Hostess Twinkies were invented in 1931 by James Dewar, manager of Continental Bakeries' Chicago factory. He envisioned the product as a way of using the company's thousands of shortcake pans which were otherwise employed only during the strawberry season. Originally called Little Shortcake Fingers, they were renamed Twinkie Fingers, and finally "Twinkies."

Good morning Troops and canteen!

It's pancakes on wednesdaYS!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous day!
I'm off to the doctor's office.

Thank you to our brave heroes for the freedom we enjoy today!

Chat with all of you later!!

HUGS to all!

Good morning Troops!!

Good morning Canteen crew!!

We made it to Lake Charles last night about 12:30. It was an uneventful trip, which is good. :-)

I hope everyone has a terrific Wednesday!!

See you all tomorrow when we get back!

We love you Troops! Stay safe and God Bless!

I am extremely sorry that I did not get on today. I overslept this morning, and haven't had a chance to get on since. And I still haven't woken up yet today(my classmates will verify this, if you ask them. I was a total wreck in school today.)
If I wanted to, I could really actually use my school day as a humor attempt, but it'd be kinda embarassing because I was REALLY Dense today. Enough babbling, here is today's humor attempt.

Two vampire bats wake up in the middle of the night, thirsty for blood. One says, "Let's fly out of the cave and get some blood."

"We're new here," says the second one. "It's dark out, and we don't know where to look. We'd better wait until the other bats go with us."

The first bat replies, "Who needs them? I can find some blood somewhere." He flies out of the cave.

When he returns, he is covered with blood.

The second bat says excitedly, "Where did you get the blood?"

The first bat takes his buddy to the mouth of the cave. Pointing into the night, he asks, "See that black building over there?"

"Yes," the other bat answers.

"Well," says the first bat, "I didn't."

Good job on the thread, Radix.

Wasn't Tom Bosley in Charlie's Angels?