Several hundred thousand Irish immigrants fought in the American Civil War.
It is estimated that 40,000 Irsh fought for the Confederacy and 170,000 Irish fought for the Union. The Union had Irish Brigades. The Irish were integrated in with the general troops in the Confederacy.
In first Manassas they fought without their shirts because of the heat.
You would think that after all that they would have just all gone home. What a horrible war. We soon get to relive it. The Sesquicentennial is almost upon us and I feel a strong wave of depression coming over me.
This month’s issue (actually it might say August 2011) of Smithsonian Magazine features The Battle of Bull Run: The End of Illusions on the cover. The article, written by Ernest B. Furguson, begins:
Both North and South expected victory to be glorious and quick, but the first major battle signaled the long and deadly war to come.
To those of us who are local, the article was not particularly revealing but the fact that it was about our area and about an event we have been anticipating for several years makes the article a must-read. It provided an excellent in-depth coverage for a nation that also commemorates the most dreadful period in our nation’s history.
The longer I live the more horrible that war becomes to me. I fear too many people will celebrate. There is nothing to celebrate other than death and destruction of property, stock and human beings. So I will be a grouch and stay home.
Will anyone be going to most of the events? Will the county and City make profits on the events? Will we be overrun with visitors?
Further reading: The Battle of Bull Run: The End of Illusions
June 6, 2011 marks the 67 anniversary since Allied Forces crossed the English Channel and invaded occupied Europe via the French coast. 250 thousand were involved in the invasion and any vessel that wouldn’t sink was deployed in the effort to get allied troops, mainly from the Great Britain, Canada and the United States into France to begin the invasion that would ultimately win the war.
The D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia is a non-profit museum dedicated to preserving the history of D-Day. More men from Bedord lost their lives during that invasion than any other locality in the United States, per capita.
The D-Day Memorial has struggled since the crash of 2008. Additionally, WWII vets are dying at a rate of over 1000 per day. Let’s not let this memorial go to the ages along with those who fought and those who died for our country.
Contributions can be made at the D-Day Memorial website.
Virginia has a long Memorial Day past and lots of war dead. Arlington National Cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia. The site of the Lee Mansion has been used as a national cemetery since the Civil War. Mrs. Lee left her plantation for obvious safety reasons, even though she was horribly crippled with arthrits and lived the life of a vagabond until the end of the war.
In the past decade, 233 Virginians have been killed in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. 25 of those were killed just in the past year. On Thursday, Governor McDonnell and members of his administration gathered on the steps of the State Capital to pay tribute.
“This is the story of America,” McDonnell said. “When I think of what defines our country, it is sacrifice and it is freedom…Throughout our history, the price of liberty has always been American blood.”
Marlene Blackburn, left, who lost her son, U.S. Army Cpl. William Kyle Middleton, in Afghanistan, is comforted by her uncle Bob Galaspie at the service. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber – AP)
The names of all 233 were read aloud by members of different branches of the armed services. A Coast Guard helicopter performed a ceremonial fly-by in the capital city’s sky, and a bagpiper with the Virginia Department of Corrections played “Amazing Grace.”
The weekend starts today. Over the Memorial Day Weekend I will be posting a number of articles, pictures, and videos to commemorate Memorial Day. Here is our first–The Homecoming for Robert Bayne. He gave all.
Calvin and Kenneth Bayne stood silently among Army officers, watching their brother’s remains transferred from a plane to a waiting hearse. Kenneth kept his hand on his heart. Calvin saluted and then walked directly to the flag-draped casket and kissed it.
The somber ceremony on a tarmac at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport offered the two men the first tangible contact with their older brother in more than 66 years. Pfc. Robert B. Bayne went missing in action in 1945 as he fought along the Rhine River near Mannheim, Germany. The Army officially identified his body in March of this year, largely spurred by the constant urging of the 83-year-old fraternal twins who were teens when the man they called “Buddy” enlisted. Read more…
The mayor of Virginia Beach wants to honor the Navy Seals who killed Bin Laden. The secret military unit deploys out of a tiny military installation at Dam Neck, Virginia, right outside Virginia Beach. The problem with the mayor’s plans is, the unit is too secretive for the mayor to know who they are or how to find them. That’s just the way that unit works.
The Washington Post had a very interesting article about Navy SEALs:
But while such discretion is a prerequisite for covert operations, it raises practical hurdles for a mayor who is used to the cheering crowds that welcome home aircraft carriers to the naval base in Norfolk.
“This community is extremely proud. I’d like to come up with a way to have a city celebration of some kind. If we can!” said Sessoms, whose initial thought was to include the SEALs in the city’s “Patriotic Festival” in June. “But it’s challenging.”
Other Virginia politicians were able to overlook such details, satisfied with the knowledge that that men who killed bin Laden had a connection to the Old Dominion state. Former Republican Senator and current candidate George Allen tweeted: “As Virginians were hit at the Pentagon on 9-11 & USS Cole, it is appropriate that a VA-based SEAL team brought justice directly to #Osama.”
I just finished watching Restrepo. It is available on Netflix. It will also be shown again on NatGeo Monday night at 9 pm. We have been so protected from our wars. Only military families have suffered. Industry and defense contractors have gotten rich. The rest of us have basically remained untouched.
The war in Afghanistan is costing 2 billion dollars a week. Our troops are being asked to be social workers. Meanwhile, those same troops are suffering death, horrible brain injuries, loss of limb and overall life-altering injuries. Military families have suffered because also because of the multiply deployments. Children have grown up without a parent and spouses have spent 10 years with partners popping in and out of their lives.
This anchor takes his leader seriously. Does this only happen on state run TV?
My guess is that in Libya, it doesn’t matter who owns the TV station, you do what you are told.
Can you imgaine turning on your TV and seeing Bill O’Reilly with an automatic weapon?
I laughed but this video really isn’t funny at all. This dude is deadly serious.
Every once in a while you hear about someone so good and decent it just must be shared. (Thank you, Bear)
An artist named Kaziah Hancock of Utah paints portraits of fallen soldiers free of charge for their families as part of Project Compassion.
Nic Robertson says he expect lies out of governments in that part of the world but that he doesn’t expect them out of other journalists.
From Huffington Post:
Fox News’ defense correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, reported on Monday that the British army had been due to fire seven missiles at Gaddafi’s compound. But the attack was held off, she said, because Libya had brought journalists from CNN, Reuters, the AP, the Times of London and other news outlets to the compound for what, in the government’s words, was a press tour. According to Griffin, the actual reason for bringing the journalists to the compound was to “effectively use them as human shields.”
Speaking to Fox News’ John Roberts, Griffin said that Fox News had kept its correspondent in the region, Steve Harrigan, away from the tour because the network was “concerned they could be used as human shields.”
In an interview with Wolf Blitzer later on Monday, CNN’s senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who was one of the reporters on the tour, lashed out at Fox News. He called the report “outrageous and absolutely hypocritical,” and said that, when you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don’t expect it from the other journalists.”
Robertson’s report certainly differs a great deal from Faux News’ report. Why would they lie?
Washington Post:
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen provided an update regarding the military situation in Libya. “I would say that the no-fly zone is effectively in place,” said Mullen, outlining the ultimate goal as being threefold: successfully establishing the no-fly zone, arresting Gaddafi’s ability to massacre his own people, and making possible the entry of humanitarian assistance into Libya. “While the United States leads this right now,” said Mullen, “we expect in the next few days to hand that leadership off to a coalition-led operation, and the United States recede somewhat to the background in support.”
So where do we stand? What do we hope to achieve? Are we leading the pack or are we part of a coalition? Who is the boss? Who pays the bills? Humanitarian assistance sort of says ‘boots on the ground’ doesn’t it? Are we trying to take Gaddafi out or not? If not, then why are we bombing his compound?
All of this is very confusing. Don’t we think most wars will be over in a week or 2?
Remember last week when the Frank Buckles, the only surviving veteran of WWI died? His death is not without controversy. From Foxnews.com:
CHARLES TOWN, West Virginia — The daughter of Frank Buckles, who was the last American veteran of World War I, is urging lawmakers to let him lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday.
Susannah Buckles Flanagan said her father, who served as a military ambulance driver, wanted to lie in the rotunda to honor the memory of all WWI veterans.
“He looked upon this as his final duty, which he took seriously,” she said.
“If the last American soldier surviving is not suitable to serve as a symbol around which we can rally to honor those who served their country in the Great War, then who can serve that purpose? There is no one left,” she said in a letter released Saturday. Read more…
The last living WWI veteran Frank Buckles of West Virginia died Sunday at age 110. His death was not unexpected. Buckles was born in Missouri. At age 16, he wiggled his way into the military by lying about his age. 90 years later, he had the distinction of being the only surviving WWI veteran,
The Washington Post reports:
In 1917 and 1918, close to 5 million Americans served in World War I, and Mr. Buckles, a cordial fellow of gentle humor, was the last known survivor. “I knew there’d be only one someday,” he said a few years back. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
His daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, said Mr. Buckles, a widower, died of natural causes on his West Virginia farm, where she had been caring for him.
Buckles’ distant generation was the first to witness the awful toll of modern, mechanized warfare. As time thinned the ranks of those long-ago U.S. veterans, the nation hardly noticed them vanishing, until the roster dwindled to one ex-soldier, embraced in his final years by an appreciative public.
“Frank was a history book in and of himself, the kind you can’t get at the library,” said his friend, Muriel Sue Kerr. Having lived from the dawn of the 20th century, he seemed to never tire of sharing his and the country’s old memories – of the First World War, of roaring prosperity and epic depression, and of a second, far more cataclysmic global conflict, which he barely survived
Another piece of living history has been lost to the annals of time. There are no living survivors of WWI. How long before we will be forced to say the same about those who served in WWII?
A starving North Korea is begging for food from foreign nations. Flood, a brutal winter, and livestock disease has made the situation worse in a country where malnutrition is already a way of life. The North Korean government has ordered its embassy personnel to basically beg. It is currently betting from Japan, a country that North Korea usually threatens.
The United States cut off food aid several years ago over concerns about nuclear transparency. It has said it has no plans to start up again. The UN Food Program has said it will only contribute food for another month.
According to the Washington Post:
The request has put the United States and other Western countries in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to ignore the pleas of a starving country or pump food into a corrupt distribution system that often gives food to those who need it least.
We have always been a generous nation, even with our enemies, at least in the 20th century. North Korea is simply too much of a problem to start giving hand outs. A country that won’t play by the rules and issues threats all the time is in no position to be asking favors. On the other hand, there are starving people. The question we must ask ourselves is, would the starving people even get the food? I would give food only if I could distribtute it to those in need. If our troops went anywhere near there to give food, they would probably fire on them.
What do you think we should do?
Notice North Korea at night. The people have no electricity:
Richard “Dick” Winters, the Easy Company commander whose World War II exploits were made famous by the book and television miniseries “Band of Brothers,” died last week in central Pennsylvania. He was 92.
Winters was a humble man and very respected by the men under his command. He asked that his death not be announced until after his funeral. He lived in Hershey, PA.
