11th Minute of the 11th Hour of the 11th Month

…1918 was the agreed time for hostilities to cease in that “war to end all wars”.

I have never been one who has recorded many of our family stories. Although on reflection I wish that I had.

But among the few that I have remembered occurred in Baltimore, MD on an evening of October 11, 1918.

RIP Niki

The only Grand Prix that I have ever seen was in the summer of 1973, courtesy of the Army Special Services.

If you were off duty they sometimes arranged day trips of the local areas. The German Grand Prix was to be at a fabled course called the Nurburgring. This course, built in the 1920s, was the longest closed circuit course by far, at 14 miles or so. Fourteen miles of terrifying sharp turns, long straights, and in one area a jump through the Eifel forest.

Racing great Jackie Stewart called the course The Green Hell, and the term stuck.

Some Unsung Heroes

A Painting of Virginia Hall Using Her Suitcase Radio

Imagine that you are a young woman in her 20s or 30s and in Britain. You are either British, French, or, at least in one case, an American.

The Nazis have just finished their invasion of France, and a desperate British government is asking for volunteers for a dangerous mission.

They won’t tell you what it is until they get to know you. You don’t even know what group you are trying to join.

Then you are either out or in.

A Hard Fight

Posted by  lex, on March 12th, 2011

Read what the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines are taking on in Afghanistan:

The regiment has patrolled Sangin for nearly five months. Twenty-five Marines have died. More than 150 have been wounded; many of the wounded have lost limbs.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a battalion in the Marine Corps at any time — in World War II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam — that’s pulled a tougher mission than what 3/5 has right now,” Gen. Richard Mills, commander of U.S. and international forces in southwestern Afghanistan, told reporters in November.

Read the whole thing to learn how Rick Wimer, former Marine and father of a lance corporal stationed in Sangin is coping.

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The 200

By lex, on October 9, 2007

 

Two hundred Marine infantrymen of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment who were transitioning to the civilian work force at the end of their enlistments faced a daunting choice when their unit was due for rotation back to Iraq, back to the crucible that was then Ramadi: Exercise their privilege to remain in stateside billets as short-timers and wave good-bye to their comrades as they departed for the fight, or else extend their enlistments and join them.

All 200 extended their enlistments and accompanied their comrades to Iraq for a seven month deployment. And yesterday, all 200 of them came home.

In seven months of patrolling the streets of Ramadi, once the most violent city in Anbar province, the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment had no Marines or sailors killed and only one injured. In its previous deployment, the battalion’s numbers were 15 killed and more than 200 wounded.

No one is saying that the presence of the 200 Marines who had extended their tours was the crucial factor in the battalion’s returning with no fatalities. No one is saying it wasn’t.

“One-hundred percent accountability. Everybody came home alive,” said Staff Sgt. Joe Flores, 33, as he embraced his wife, Yadira. “One-hundred percent.”

For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of serving alongside Marines, this is what they mean by ”Semper Fi.”

God, I’m proud to be from the same country as these men.

 

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A Debt That Cannot Be Repaid

I read this yesterday, and a number of us thought it should be re-posted here.

In a country that most would struggle to find on a map, in a compound that few possess the courage to enter, men from my previous life took the fight to our enemy.

In that compound, they found men that pray five times a day for your destruction.  Those men don’t know me, they don’t know you, and they don’t know America.  They don’t understand our compassion, our freedoms, and our tolerance.  I know it may seem as if those things are currently missing, but they remain, and I know they will return.  Our capacity for them is boundless, and is only dwarfed by their hatred for you.  They don’t care about your religious beliefs; they don’t care about your political opinions.  They don’t care if you sit on the left or the right, liberal or conservative, pacifist or a warrior.  They don’t care how much you believe in diversity, equality, or freedom of speech.

Sully

Steven Day / AP File

These days, I am rather jaded when it comes to driving to the cineplex to see a movie. I don’t really need some screenwriter’s social message or a recycled comic book hero.

There are a couple of exceptions – if it is made by Ron Howard, or has Clint Eastwood on either side of the camera, it automatically passes my filter test. Tom Hanks in any movie usually guarantees a decent movie.

This movie, directed by Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks took a subject that just about everyone not living in a cave the last 10 years is familiar – and made it into a movie both thoroughly entertaining and informative. In fact at the end the audience in the nearly packed theater applauded.