A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.

President Obama’s new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

Except it’s not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.

For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you’re fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.

A century later, during the civil rights movement, King, an admirer of Parker, quoted the Bostonian’s lofty prophecy during marches and speeches. Often he’d ask in a refrain, “How long? Not long.” He would finish in a flourish: “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

King made no secret of the author of this idea. As a Baptist preacher on the front lines of racial justice, he regarded Parker, a religious leader, as a kindred spirit.

Yet somehow a mistake was made and magnified in our culture to the point that a New England antebellum abolitionist’s words have been enshrined in the Oval Office while attributed to a major 20th-century figure. That is a shame, because the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was so eloquent in his own right. Obama, who is known for his rhetorical skills, is likely to feel the slight to King — and Parker.

My investigation into this error led me to David Remnick’s biography of Obama, “The Bridge,” published this year. Early in the narrative, Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, presents this as “Barack Obama’s favorite quotation.” It appears that neither Remnick nor Obama has traced the language to its true source.

Parker said in 1853: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

The president is at minimum well-served by Parker’s presence in the room. Parker embodied the early 19th-century reformer’s passionate zeal for taking on several social causes at once. Many of these reformers were Unitarians or Quakers; some were Transcendentalists. Most courageously, as early as the 1830s, they opposed the laws on slavery and eventually harbored fugitives in the Underground Railroad network of safe houses. Without 30 years of a movement agitating and petitioning for slave emancipation, Lincoln could not have ended slavery with the stroke of a pen in the midst of war. Parker was in the vanguard that laid the social and intellectual groundwork.

The familiar quote from Lincoln woven into Obama’s rug is “government of the people, by the people and for the people,” the well-known utterance from the close of his Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Funny that in 1850, Parker wrote, “A democracy — that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.”

Theodore Parker, Oval Office wordmeister for the ages. – WaPo

“It was my father’s film. So, it was in his basement until he passed away,” says retired Army Colonel Bill Kosco. Kosco’s father is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. When retired Captain George Kosco died in 1985 he left behind mementos from his time as a meteorologist and navigator in the Navy. “This is an album my father put together, files and photographs he obtained on board the USS Missouri.” – Breitbart

British forces under General William Howe and his brother, Admiral Richard viscount Howe, defeat Patriot forces under General George Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights in New York on this week in 1776.

On August 22, Howe’s large army landed on Long Island, hoping to capture New York City and gain control of the Hudson River, a victory that would divide the rebellious colonies in half. On August 27, the Redcoats marched against the Patriot position at Brooklyn Heights, overcoming the Americans at Gowanus Pass and then outflanking the entire Continental Army. The Americans suffered 1,000 casualties to the British loss of only 400 men during the fighting. After the victory, Howe chose not to follow the advice of his subordinates and did not storm the Patriot redoubts at Brooklyn Heights, where he could have taken the Patriots’ military leadership prisoner and ended the rebellion.

General Washington ordered a retreat to Manhattan by boat. The British could easily have prevented this retreat and captured most of the Patriot officer corps, including Washington. Howe, however, still hoped to convince the Americans to rejoin the British empire in the wake of the humiliating defeat, instead of forcing the former colonies into submission after executing Washington and his officers as traitors. On September 11, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and other congressional representatives reopened negotiations with the Howes on Staten Island. The negotiations fell through when the British refused to accept American independence.

The British captured New York City on September 15; it would remain in British hands until the end of the war.

This week in 1969, the grooviest event in music history–the Woodstock Music Festival–draws to a close after three days of peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll in upstate New York.

Conceived as “Three Days of Peace and Music,” Woodstock was a product of a partnership between John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang. Their idea was to make enough money from the event to build a recording studio near the arty New York town of Woodstock. When they couldn’t find an appropriate venue in the town itself, the promoters decided to hold the festival on a 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York–some 50 miles from Woodstock–owned by Max Yasgur.

By the time the weekend of the festival arrived, the group had sold a total of 186,000 tickets and expected no more than 200,000 people to show up. By Friday night, however, thousands of eager early arrivals were pushing against the entrance gates. Fearing they could not control the crowds, the promoters made the decision to open the concert to everyone, free of charge. Close to half a million people attended Woodstock, jamming the roads around Bethel with eight miles of traffic.

Soaked by rain and wallowing in the muddy mess of Yasgur’s fields, young fans best described as “hippies” euphorically took in the performances of acts like Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Sly and the Family Stone and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The Who performed in the early morning hours of August 17, with Roger Daltrey belting out “See Me, Feel Me,” from the now-classic album Tommy just as the sun began to rise. The most memorable moment of the concert for many fans was the closing performance by Jimi Hendrix, who gave a rambling, rocking solo guitar performance of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

With not enough bathroom facilities and first-aid tents to accommodate such a huge crowd, many described the atmosphere at the festival as chaotic. There were surprisingly few episodes of violence, though one teenager was accidentally run over and killed by a tractor and another died from a drug overdose. A number of musicians performed songs expressing their opposition to the Vietnam War, a sentiment that was enthusiastically shared by the vast majority of the audience. Later, the term “Woodstock Nation” would be used as a general term to describe the youth counterculture of the 1960s.

A 25th anniversary celebration of Woodstock took place in 1994 in Saugerties, New York. Known as Woodstock II, the concert featured Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as newer acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Green Day. Held over another rainy, muddy weekend, the event drew an estimated 300,000 people.

American Delegation To Attend Hiroshima Event
August 4, 2010
FoxNews.com

EXCLUSIVE: The son of the U.S. Air Force pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb in the history of warfare says the Obama administration’s decision to send a U.S. delegation to a ceremony in Japan to mark the 65th anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima is an “unsaid apology” and appears to be an attempt to “rewrite history.”

James Tibbets, son of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., says Friday’s visit to Hiroshima by U.S. Ambassador John Roos is an act of contrition that his late father would never have approved.

“It’s an unsaid apology,” Tibbets, 66, told FoxNews.com from his home in Georgiana, Ala. “Why wouldn’t it be? Why would [Roos] go? It doesn’t make any sense.

“I know it’s the anniversary, but I don’t know what the hell they’re trying to do. It needs to be left alone. The war is over.”

Tibbets, whose father died in 2007 at the age of 92, said he receives dozens of calls from veterans every year around this time thanking him for his father’s service.

“‘If it wasn’t for your dad, I wouldn’t be here,’” Tibbets said many veterans tell him. “This has been going on since he dropped that bomb.”

Tibbets said he sees Roos’ impending visit — it will be the first time the U.S. has sent a delegation to the anniversary commemoration in Hiroshima — as an attempt to revise history.

“It’s making the Japanese look like they’re the poor people, like they didn’t do anything,” he said. “They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn’t slaughter the Japanese — we stopped the war.”

Roughly 140,000 people were killed or died within months after an American B-29 — nicknamed the Enola Gay — bombed Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, roughly 80,000 people died when the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered nine days later, bringing an end to World War II.

White House officials on Wednesday referred calls to the State Department, which did not respond to several inquiries about how the decision was made or if national veterans organizations were contacted prior to the announcement that a delegation would attend the commemoration.

During Wednesday’s daily press briefing, State Department officials defended the visit, saying Roos’ attendance at the ceremony “was the right thing to do,” spokesman PJ Crowley said.

The ceremony will begin early Friday with the ringing of a bell and the release of doves. Roos visited Hiroshima weeks after he arrived in Tokyo as a U.S. ambassador last year, and the response was generally positive.

Lt. Col. Rob Manning, director of public affairs at the Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region U.S. Military District of Washington, which oversees ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, said Japanese officials are “fairly frequent” visitors to the national site.

“Emperor Hirohito visited the cemetery and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in the early 1970s,” Manning wrote in an e-mail. “Most of the more recent prime ministers have also placed wreaths at the Tomb.”

Manning said Gen. Ryoichi Oriki, the Japanese Army’s chief of staff, also visited the cemetery and placed a wreath on a grave on June 24.

President Obama is expected to visit Japan in November, and calls have been growing there for him to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, since he has spoken of his vision of a nuclear-free world.

Tibbets said he hopes Obama will decide to forgo visiting to the two cities.

“What’s his purpose? I don’t know what it’d do,” Tibbet said. “History is history, the past is the past. You can’t change it and I don’t know why he’d visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“This all sounds like, ‘Oh, we did you wrong.’ That’s what it sounds like.”

Ryan Galucci, a spokesman for AMVETS, an organization representing more than 180,000 veterans, said his organization supports the decision to send Roos, but he said the visit should not be seen as a conciliatory act.

“Considering how our relationship with Japan has evolved into a peaceful partnership over the years, we support the U.S. decision to send an envoy acknowledging the human toll of WWII,” Galucci said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “To AMVETS, the U.S. visit is an appropriate act of reciprocation for Japan’s solidarity over the years, such as last summer’s visit to the Punch Bowl National Cemetery (the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific) by Emperor Akihito, where he laid a wreath in honor of America’s sacrifices in WWII.

“However, in no way should the United States be expected to apologize for its actions, and we hope that this visit will not be misconstrued as an act of contrition.”

Paul Schalow, a professor of Japanese at Rutgers University, told FoxNews.com that Japanese media outlets are linking Roos’ visit to Obama’s desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“They’re linking it to Obama’s speech in Prague,” he said. “They connect Roos being there as proof of interest by the Obama administration to reduce the number of atomic weapons worldwide.”

Schalow said Roos’ visit appears to “pave the way” for Obama to visit the two cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 65 years ago.

“I imagine the Japanese would be eager to receive a U.S. president,” he said. “The real question is the domestic reaction to it. [White House officials] are probably observing reactions of veterans’ groups to this official visit by Roos.”

Schalow speculated that Roos’ visit could be a step toward positioning the U.S. to condemn any future use of atomic weapons, perhaps by North Korea.

1. Marine glider at Page Field. Parris Island, South Carolina, May 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

2. M-4 tank crews of the United States. Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

3. Children stage a patriotic demonstration. Southington, Connecticut, May 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Fenno Jacobs. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

4. Woman is working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber Tennessee, February 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

5. Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Many more @ Denver Post

(H/T Powerline)

For all those in the MSM and on the left claiming the Tea Party and the Arizona illegal alien law are racist they need to take a long hard look in the mirror. But then, I doubt it is a case of ignorance to their own bigotry on their part. I wouldn’t doubt it is just a tool they use, knowing full well they could give a rat’s-ass about racism and bigotry. They seem to be experts at practicing it.

Moonbattery @ Phoenix Rally for Secure Borders and Immigration Enforcement
: [...] Despite the liberal establishment’s desperate lie that grassroots resistance to their agenda is “racist,” non-Caucasians were as usual hardly underrepresented. America’s Black Shield is only one example. The excellent speakers included SB1070 author Russell Pearce and Ted Hayes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always easy to hear them, because the Tea Party movement is now very much on the radar screen of our collectivist rulers, who dispatched a motley contingent of communist thugs to drown out the proceedings. [...]

And who is Ted Hayes?

HIROSHIMA – (Kyodo) —Documents containing the original of the famous epitaph composed by a Hiroshima University professor for the atomic bomb monument in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima City have been found and donated to the city’s archives office.

The brush-stroke writings, both in Japanese and English, by Tadayoshi Saika (1894-1961), are contained on a sheet of “washi” Japanese paper and three “shikishi” paper boards.

Just like on the monument itself, the epitaph is written in three separate lines, with English translations given underneath. The writings are signed by Saika without a date.

The documents show two different English translations, indicating Saika rewrote and refined the expression before the finalization of the official translation, which reads, “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”

In the “washi” paper document, the translation for the latter part of the epitaph is “for to repeat the fault we shall cease.” This version was used in around July 1952 when the city announced the epitaph.

The translations on all three paper boards are the same as the city’s official translation being currently used.

The documents were found in April when Tsuneo Sato, 76, a hospital director in Nishi Ward in the city, was sorting through the personal belongings of his late mother, who was acquainted with the professor.

The documents are believed to be from the 1950s, based on the address and other information on their back.

“I would imagine that professor Saika, who was an expert on English literature, was refining the expression so that Hiroshima’s prayers would be conveyed to as many people as possible around the world,” said Kazuhiko Takano, head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Archives.

The epitaph was unveiled Aug. 6, 1952. As the subject of the epitaph is not made clear, it spurred a controversy in the months after the unveiling with critics saying it failed to question who was responsible for the war. **

In 1983, the city set up a board near the monument saying that the epitaph is a prayer from all the people for those who died in the bombing and that it expresses their vows not to repeat the mistake of war.

** Just a reminder exactly who was responsible for the war … We didn’t start it, but we sure as Hell finished it:

The Harris Treaty Opens Up Trade With Japan
This Week In American History
by Marc Stockwell-Moniz
Chandlers Watch.com

On July 29, 1858, the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (the Harris Treaty). Townsend Harris, the first U.S. diplomatic representative to Japan, negotiated the arrangement, which became effective July 4, 1859. A New York merchant with experience in Asia, Townsend was appointed consul general to Japan in August 1856 and began his assignment shortly thereafter. Harris was not welcomed and was ignored by the Japanese authorities for more than a year. He operated in diplomatic isolation out of the Gyokusenji Buddhist temple in Shimoda.

In 1857 the Japanese government approved Harris’ move to Edo (Tokyo); he used the Zenfukuji Temple in Azabu as the U.S. legation. His negotiations with the Tokugawa regime were aided by concessions that the British had already wrought in China. Harris convinced the Japanese that a voluntary treaty with the United States was more advantageous than a forced treaty with the Europeans.

Harris is credited with opening the Japanese Empire to foreign trade and culture. In addition to Shimoda and Hokadote, which already traded with the U.S., the Harris Treaty opened new ports to U.S. trade; granted U.S. citizens extraterritorial rights (exempting them from the jurisdiction of Japanese law); and permitted Americans their religious freedom. The tariff rates attached to the treaty favored the United States over Japan, but the treaty provided an opportunity to renegotiate in 1872. The Japanese Government also was allowed to “…purchase or construct in the United States ship-of-war, steamers, merchant ships, whale ships, cannot, munitions of war, and arms of all kinds … [as well as] to engage in the United States scientific, naval, and military men, artisans of all kind, and mariners to enter into its service…”

The Harris Treaty made reciprocal diplomatic representation possible. In 1860, a delegation of more than seventy Japanese traveled to the United States. Congress appropriated $50,000 for the visitors, who spent seven weeks touring the United States. Another trip was made twelve years later when, in accordance with the Harris Treaty, the Japanese attempted to gain concessions from the U.S. These visits are credited with helping to dispel cultural stereotypes and furthering diplomatic ties between the two countries.

U.S.S. Indianapolis News

More than 900 men died on 31 July 1945, when the USS Indianapolis, was torpedoed and sunk in the Philippine Sea. Bill Milhomme tells the story of US Navy Chaplain, Fr Thomas Conway, who stayed in the water for three nights praying with survivors, until he died.

Fr Thomas M Conway, a 37-year-old Navy Chaplain from Buffalo, New York, was sleeping soundly on July 31, 1945, on board the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser. At 12.14am the first torpedo from the Japanese submarine, I-58, blew away the bow of the ship.

An instant later the second struck near midship on the starboard side, the resulting explosion split the ship to the keel, knocking out all electric power. Within 12 minutes the unescorted cruiser slipped beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea, midway between Guam and Leyte Gulf.

Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 900 men made it into the water. Few life rafts were released; the majority of the survivors wore the standard kapok life jacket and life belts. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident four days later, only 316 men were still alive.

For three nights Fr Conway, a Catholic priest, swam to the aid of his shipmates, reassuring the increasingly dehydrated and delirious men with prayers until he himself expired, the last Catholic chaplain to die in WWII. Like many stories of heroism, Fr. Conway was commemorated in simple ways among his friends and shipmates. As time moves on, and generations pass away, many stories of history are lost, and sometimes they are rediscovered.

Fr. Conway was born on April 5, 1908, in Waterbury, Conn. He was the oldest of three children born to Irish immigrants, Thomas F. and Margaret (Meade). Fr. Conway attended Lasalette Junior Seminary, in Hartford, Conn. In 1928, he enrolled at Niagara University (New York) and received an AB degree in 1930. On June 8, 1931, Conway enrolled in Our Lady of Angels Seminary, on the campus of Niagara University. May 26, 1934, he was ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of Buffalo, NY, in St. Michael’s Cathedral, Springfield, Mass.

For the next eight years Fr Conway served as a curate in the parishes of St Rose of Lima, All Saints, St Teresa, St. Nicholas and finally St. Brigid. Former parishioners recall that
Fr Conway’s favorite pastime was to navigate Lake Erie in his little sailboat, a common sight parked along side the rectory during the week. He is remembered as a “man’s man” – a priest in touch with and sympathetic to the blue-collar realities of his parishioners living among the Erie Canal neighborhoods.

On September 17, 1942, Fr. Conway enlisted in US Navy, commissioned as chaplain. A few
days before leaving on active duty, Fr. Conway recorded a voice message on a 78 rpm recorder to Mary Noe. The Noe’s had become both family and home to Fr Conway. Mary had eight children, one of whom was also a Buffalo priest, and in the recording he referred to her as ‘Ma.’ The recording, though scratched and distorted, preserves most of his farewell message prefaced with a song, “Well, Ma, your Sailor Boy is going to dedicate a very special number to you, a very, very special mom. I’d like you to excuse the singing. It’s not so hot. Remember, it is always the thought behind it that counts!” Fr. Conway sings two verses of the song I Threw a Kiss into the Ocean, by Irving Berlin for the US Navy Relief:

“I spoke last night to the ocean
spoke last night to the sea
And from the ocean a voice came back
‘Twas my Blue Jacket answering me
Ship Ahoy, ship ahoy
I can hear you, Sailor Boy”

Fr Conway served at naval stations along the East Coast and in 1943 was transferred to the Pacific. For several months he served on the USS Medusa, and on August 25, 1944, Fr. Conway was assigned to the USS Indianapolis.

On March 31, 1945 the USS Indianapolis took part in operations against the Japanese Home Islands. While off Okinawa the cruiser was hit by a kamikaze bomb that fortunately exploded after passing through the bottom of the hull. Because of the damage the ship lay anchored off Okinawa for five days, during which time the Japanese continued to try to sink the USS Indianapolis. Nine crew members were killed in action during this battle. A temporary repair permitted the ship to sail to the US naval base at Ulithi, a nearby atoll. After her hull was mended she was dispatched across the Pacific to Mare Island, near San Francisco for further repairs.

One of the sailors killed in the kamikaze attack was Earl Peter Procai. On April 10, 1945, while sailing to Mare Island, Fr Conway wrote a letter to the sailor’s parents, in which he described their son and sacrifice. “Your son was one of the most well liked and respected men aboard this ship. Everyone from the Commanding Officer down to the men in his division thought and spoke very highly of him. He was always cheerful and willing and devoted to his duties and we will all miss him very much. Our loss however will be small compared to the loss you will feel a losing such a wonderful boy. His country is proud of him and shall never forget what he contributed to her. The memory of his courageous sacrifice will never fade and to and to us who knew him it shall ever be an inspiration and an encouragement to carry on the work that still needs to be done. I hope you will find some consolation in the thought that when this war shall end and peace and happiness will once more come to the world, you will remember that you before all other have paid the greatest price anyone could pay, for you have given your son and no one can do more than this.

I pray and hope that Almighty God in His Goodness will give you the strength to bear up under this severe loss and I know He will be most generous with you who have been so generous with others. May He help and bless you and your family.”

Melvin W. Modisher, a survivor and Jr Medical Officer on oard the USS Indianapolis, recalled the kamikaze attack and Fr. Conway, “The day before D-Day on Okinawa, the Indianapolis was hit by a kamikaze killing nine of the crew and injuring a couple of dozen others. The ship could not be repaired on site and had to return to California for major repairs. Fr Conway spent the entire repair period traveling across the country visiting the families of all nine who had been killed telling how they had been buried at sea, etc. He did this on his own time and at his expense rather than spend time with his own family and friends. This is a small example of the kind of Love and Devotion he displayed for others.”

On April 26, en route to Mare Island, Fr Conway wrote a sailor’s ditty for the ship’s newsletter, the Wigwam. The simple verses expressed the unspoken love, valor and sacrifice of the crew. Fr. Conway wrote:

Stand by to man the golden gate
And swing it open too
For standing in the bay today
Is the cruiser Indy Maru.

Steaming along on two screws and a prayer
With half her boilers cold
The Indy Maru’s been thru the wars
And looks a little old.

She’s hit the nip north and south
The mighty cruiser Indy Maru
At Tokio and Iwo
And Okinawa too.

Thru freezing cold and tropic heat
And kamikazes too
And Nippon’s shells and bombs and fish
Has comes the Indy Maru.

So break out your blues and shine your shoes
The Indy Maru-is here -
They’ll double the shore patrol
And raise the price of beer,

For months your wives have waited
For the cruiser Indy Maru
So take along your dog tag
To prove that you are you.

Frisco’s seen some great ships
But the greatest it ever knew
Is that tootin’ shootin’ cruiser
The fighting Indy Maru

After repairs, on July 16th, the cruiser set sail for Tinian Island to deliver the, trigger and radioactive core of the atom bomb destined to be dropped on Hiroshima. Under Captain Charles Butler McVay III, the ship from Farallon Light at San Francisco to Diamond Head on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in a record 74.5 hours. Stopping briefly for fuel at Pearl Harbor, the USS Indianapolis proceeded to Tinian, reaching it on 26 July.

After discharging its top-secret cargo, the ship, with a crew of 1,196, left for Guam and then Leyte in the Philippines, which had been liberated only a few weeks before. It was to join the American invasion fleet bound for Japan.

July 30, 1945, was a typical Sunday for Fr. Conway. He celebrated a Catholic Mass and later conducted a Protestant service. It was known that Fr Conway could usually be found in the ship’s library or his room for confession or just someone to talk to. A few minutes past midnight Fr Conway was bobbing among the burning oil, debris, chaos and voices of the 900 survivors.

Fr Conway’s actions are vividly recalled by several of the survivors. Frank J. Centazzo recently wrote: “Father Conway was in every way a messenger of our Lord. He loved his work no matter what the challenge. He was respected and loved by all his shipmates. I was in the group with Father Conway. I saw him go from one small group to another getting the shipmates to join in prayer and asking them not to give up hope of being rescued. He kept working until he was exhausted. I remember on the third day late in the afternoon when he approached me and Paul McGiness. He was thrashing the water and Paul and I held him so he could rest a few hours. Later, he managed to get away from us and we never saw him again.

Father Conway was successful in his mission to provide spiritual strength to all of us. He made us believe that we would be rescued. He gave us hope and the will to endure. His work was exhausting and he finally succumbed in the evening of the third day. He will be remembered by all of the survivors for all of his work while on board the ‘Indy’ and especially three days in the ocean.”

Lewis L. Haynes, Captain, Medical Corps, USN, recalled in an article for the Saturday Evening Post (Aug. 6, 1955), “All thoughts of rescue are gone, and our twisted reasoning has come to accept this as our life until the end is reached… The chaplain, a priest, is not a
strong man physically, yet his courage and goodness seem to have no limit. I wonder about him, for the night is particularly difficult and most of us suffer from chills, fever and delirium…The chaplain’s delirium mounts; his struggles almost too much for me. I grab the chaplain and thrust my arm through the chaplain’s life jacket so that I may hold him securely through his wild thrashing. He cries a strange gibberish – some of the words are Latin – but in a little while he sinks into a coma. The only sound is the slap of water against us as I wait for the end. When it comes, the moon is high, golden overhead. I say a prayer and let him drift away…”

Fr William F Frawley, was a chaplain at Base Hospital #20, Peleliu Island where the majority of survivors were taken for medical attention. Though there was a government news blackout about the incident, Fr Frawley wrote a letter to Archdiocese of Military Services, dated August 5, one day after the rescue. He wrote, “The true facts concerning the death of Fr Thomas Conway…He along with about eight hundred others, got off the ship into the water when the explosions occurred. On the evening of the third day in the water, completely exhausted, he drowned. All the survivors who were brought to our Base Hospital have the highest praise for him. They report that he had been aboard the cruiser for the past year; that he had done much to improve the ship’s facilities; that he treated the personnel indiscriminately, devoting as much attention as possible to the non-Catholics…”

Several books about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis have referenced Fr Conway. In his book, In Harm’s Way, author Doug Stanton wrote: “The boys usually confided in Father Conway. During the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, most of them had been scared out of their wits. … As the kamikazes dove at the ships, the boys cried out from their battle stations for the kind priest. … Fr. Conway, in his early thirties, was relentless and fearless in his duty. Once, while saying Mass, battle stations had been called suddenly, and the astute Father shouted out, ‘Bless us all, boys! And give them hell!’ The boys loved him for this. He was a priest, it was true, but he was a priest with grit. … (Conway) spent the bleak early morning hours swimming back and forth among these terrified crew members, sometimes dragging loners back to the growing mass … the priest also never stopped swimming among the boys, hearing their confessions and administering Last Rites.”

Thomas Helms, in his book, Ordeal by Sea (1960), wrote, “Father Thomas Michael Conway swam from group to group, never stopping to rest, praying with the men, encouraging those who were frightened, trying to reason with the maddened. His faith and his prayers gave solace to many … Fr Conway, like Ensign Park, Seaman Rich and many others, burned himself out keeping up a constant patrol among the men, ministering to the dying, talking reason into others who had become momentarily deranged and calming the frightened with prayers until all at once he reached the limit of his endurance, and his life drained away.” On August 2, 1945, Fr Thomas Conway was the last chaplain to die in combat in WWII.

A park in Buffalo is now named after Fr Conway, and a memorial at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park dedicated by Bishop Edward U Kmiec, in May 20, 2006 by artist Brian Porter depicts Father Conway clutching a fistful of dog tags in his left hand and flotation vests in his right hand. Father Conway removed the sailors’ dog tags as they died.

The story of Fr Thomas Michael Conway is only one example of the countless unknown and unrecorded lives of compassion and selfless heroism that is sewn into the fabric of our nation’s collective memory. My invitation to the reader; discover and share the stories of our nation’s forgotten heroes. Document and make known the stories of the selfless courage of the men and women who are serving now in our armed forces today.

(1ST LT. VERNON J. BAKER at 76)

Vernon J. Baker, African American Medal of Honor recipient, dies at 90

First Lt. Vernon J. Baker, 90, an Army infantryman who, more than 50 years after the end of World War II, became the only surviving African American to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the war, died July 13 at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He had brain cancer.

In 1993, the Army commissioned a study led by researchers from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., to determine whether there had been a racial disparity in how the Medal of Honor was awarded during World War II.

Of the more than 400 Medals of Honor awarded, not one of the 1.2 million African Americans who served in the war was a recipient.

After researchers found the discrepancy, the Army recommended seven African American soldiers for the country’s most prestigious military honor, including Lt. Baker.

On Jan. 13, 1997, after Congress voided a statutory limit for awarding the medal, President Bill Clinton presented the families of six men with the Medal of Honor; four had died in combat, and two others had died since the end of the war. Lt. Baker, then 77, was the only living recipient.

In April 1945, then-2nd Lt. Baker was one of the few black officers serving in the segregated 92nd Infantry Division near the northern Italian village of Viareggio.

He and his 25 men were ordered to lead an assault on Castle Aghinolfi, a heavily guarded mountain fortress on the western end of the Gothic Line, a series of fortified bunkers considered to be the one of the last lines of German defense toward the end of the war.

Two hours after starting their mission on April 5, Lt. Baker and his men came within 300 yards of the castle. While attempting to find a suitable place for a machine gun, Lt. Baker observed two rifle barrels hanging out of a concealed slit in some rocky earth.

After stealthily crawling to the opening, he popped up and emptied the clip of his M-1 rifle into the observation post, killing two sentries.

While searching for more camouflaged emplacements, Lt. Baker spotted a machine-gun nest occupied by two soldiers distracted by their breakfast. He shot and killed them both.

A German soldier then hurled a grenade that landed at Lt. Baker’s feet. Undeterred, he fired two fatal rounds at the fleeing German, while the grenade by Lt. Baker’s boots failed to explode.

He found the door to another bunker and blasted it open with a grenade. A wounded German soldier stumbled out in confusion, and Lt. Baker shot him. After tossing in a second grenade, he raided the bunker with a submachine gun blazing, killing two more Germans.

On the way back to his men, Lt. Baker saw that his platoon’s position had come under heavy machine gun and mortar fire. He watched in despair as 19 of his men were cut down by bullets or wounded by shrapnel.

Even though he’d been shot in the hand, Lt. Baker led the evacuation of his remaining men, helping to eliminate two machine-gun nests and four more German troops.

In the midst of the retreat, Lt. Baker’s platoon came across German soldiers wearing helmets painted with red crosses carrying litters covered with blankets.

His shellshocked men urged him to let them fire, but Lt. Baker refused. When the platoon came within 50 yards of the supposed medics, the Germans dropped their stretchers and picked up machine guns.

“Hit the bastards!” Lt. Baker instructed his men, according to his 1997 memoir “Lasting Valor.” “Our riflemen cut loose with a vengeance. . . . The enemy platoon dissolved.”

On July 4, 1945, Lt. Baker received the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second highest decoration for his actions in Italy. Upon receiving the Medal of Honor 52 years later, he burst into tears.

“I’m not a hero,” Lt. Baker later said. “I’m just a soldier that did a good job. I think the real heroes are the men I left behind on that hill that day.”

Vernon Joseph Baker was born Dec. 17, 1919, in Cheyenne, Wyo., where he was raised by his grandparents. He learned to hunt at a young age and became an expert marksman.

He shined shoes, swept out a barbershop and worked as a railroad porter before graduating from high school. When he attempted to enlist in the Army, he was told by a recruiter that there was no place for “you people.” He tried again and was accepted into the infantry in June 1941.

He stayed in the Army until 1968, retiring as a first lieutenant. His other decorations included the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. After his Army career, Lt. Baker worked in Vietnam with the Red Cross and counseled military families.

His marriage to Leola Baker ended in divorce. His second wife, Fern Brown, died in 1986. Survivors include his third wife, Heidy Pawlik Baker; and two children.

He spent much of his later life hunting big game in Idaho. During one expedition, he discovered a mountain lion lurking behind him. After receiving his Medal of Honor, Lt. Baker was asked by Clinton what happened to the cougar.

“Why, it’s in my freezer,” Lt. Baker said. “I’m going to eat him.” -- WaPo

(H/T Weasel Zippers)

The Construction Of The Great Hoover Dam Started This Week In 1930
by Marc Stockwell-Moniz
ChandlersWatch.com
July 8, 2010

Eighty-years ago this week in 1930, the construction of the Hoover Dam began. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.

Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.

Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis’ vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.

Even with Hoover’s exuberant backing and a regional consensus around the need to build the dam, Congressional approval and individual state cooperation were slow in coming. For many years, water rights had been a source of contention among the western states that had claims on the Colorado River. To address this issue, Hoover negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which broke the river basin into two regions with the water divided between them. Hoover then had to introduce and re-introduce the bill to build the dam several times over the next few years before the House and Senate finally approved the bill in 1928.

In 1929, Hoover, now president, signed the Colorado River Compact into law, claiming it was “the most extensive action ever taken by a group of states under the provisions of the Constitution permitting compacts between states.”

Once preparations were made, the Hoover Dam’s construction sprinted forward: The contractors finished their work two years ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget. Today, the Hoover Dam is the second highest dam in the country and the 18th highest in the world. It generates enough energy each year to serve over a million people, and stands, in Hoover Dam artist Oskar Hansen’s words, as “a monument to collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal.”

Understanding The Declaration of Independence -- 9 Key Concepts Everyone Should Know

July 4, 2010
by Marc Stockwell-Moniz Chandlers Watch.com

Today we celebrate America’s 234th birthday. While most of us will be out with family and friends, cooking out, shooting fireworks and generally enjoying the day, we should all take a couple of minutes to appreciate and be thankful for our freedoms. Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day, we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

May God bless The United States as we shall bless and give thanks to God.

And God bless the troops that keep us safe everyday no matter where they may be stationed on this planet!

Just A Friendly Reminder To The World.
by Marc Stockwell-Moniz
Chandlers Watch.com
July 2, 2010

When you look up into the night sky (or day sky for that matter) and see the moon, remember that there are several American flags flying proudly on that satellite orbiting planet Earth. And no other nation can say that.

Happy Fourth of July America!

As some area veterans know, the story lines of two epic movies about World War II — “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers” — center on two local families.

Now the memories of those World War II soldiers will be enshrined along the banks of the Niagara River in the City of Tonawanda.

That’s because the four Niland brothers, whose story helped inspire “Saving Private Ryan,” and Sgt. Warren H. “Skip” Muck, a central figure in “Band of Brothers,” hailed from Tonawanda.

An Amherst couple, Rick and Lisa Lewis, donated $150,000 for the multistone monument to pay special tribute to the Nilands and Muck for their sacrifices.

“There will be one stone for each family, and etched on the stones will be the stories of the Niland brothers and Skip Muck,” said Rick Lewis, whose family lived nearly a century in Tonawanda and became prominent when it owned the Talking Phone Book.

In the center of the veterans memorial plaza, which will be dedicated Saturday, will be a 10-foot-tall granite replica of the Washington Monument with a tribute to all other City of Tonawanda veterans from various wars.

“This will be in Niawanda Park directly behind City Hall, and at night it will be prominently illuminated, and I believe it will become a signature landmark for the City of Tonawanda,” Lewis said.

The story about the Niland brothers is well known in some veteran circles.

On June 6, 1944, at the start of the Normandy invasion, Michael I. and Augusta Niland received the first of three telegrams that three of their four sons were missing in action. Two other telegrams soon followed, notifying the parents that two more sons were missing.

Their fourth son, Sgt. Frederick W. “Fritz” Niland, an Army paratrooper, was participating in the invasion.

War Department officials wasted no time ordering Fritz Niland out of the combat zone, once his whereabouts were determined. It was that effort that inspired the basic storyline of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 movie starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.

The other Niland brothers were not as fortunate. Tech. Sgt. Robert J. Niland perished on the day of the invasion, and the next day, Lt. Preston T. Niland died. The third missing brother, Tech. Sgt. Edward F. Niland, was shot down over Burma and captured by the Japanese. He survived 11 months as a prisoner of war.

As for Muck, he became famous posthumously, with his story told in the best-selling book, “Band of Brothers,” and later in the HBO cable network movie miniseries of the same name.

Muck was a member of Company E, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and one of about a dozen main characters. The story told of how the soldiers, first meeting in paratrooper school, became like a family.

“They banded together because they were up against so many hardships. That’s why they called themselves the Band of Brothers. If any got injured, they would go to the hospital, get patched up and want to be back with their guys,” said Becky Krurnowski, a 55-year-old niece of Muck.

In her City of Tonawanda home, she has a reminder of her uncle, who was killed Jan. 10, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge.

“A million years ago, my mother gave me the American flag that had covered my uncle’s coffin,” Krurnowski said. “It’s been in my family room for about 20 years now on display.”

Adding a sense of irony, Lewis said, is the fact that Skip Muck and Fritz Niland were best friends before going off to war.

“The sacrifices made by the Muck and Niland families in Tonawanda are just unbelievable,” said Thomas Beilein, a Niland family cousin and former sheriff of Niagara County who now serves as head of the State Commission on Correction.

“As children, we didn’t hear stories about the sacrifices. The family never talked about it. They never held it out there for the world to see. They didn’t wear it on their sleeve,” said Beilein.

The monument will be officially unveiled at 11 a.m. Saturday with members of the Niland and Muck families present. Surviving members of the Band of Brothers, all around 90 years of age, are scheduled to travel here from different parts of the country to attend.

The actor who played Skip Muck, Richard Speight Jr., will also attend and speak at the dedication.

A military flyover and reception are also planned, and HBO has agreed to provide free showings of Band of Brothers after the ceremony in the nearby Riviera Theatre on Webster Street, North Tonawanda.

Pete Niland, son of the late Edward Niland, also is scheduled to speak at the ceremony.

“I’m going to especially thank Rick and Lisa Lewis, who are sponsoring this, and I’m going to make mention that this is an honor not only to our family but to all the Tonawanda families who sacrificed, and there were a number of them,” said Niland.

Lewis said he and his wife have wanted to honor the two families for years and put a spotlight on the City of Tonawanda.

“The area has been very good to my family, and we’re anxious to do some things for the community,” said Lewis, who organized a special committee a year ago with City of Tonawanda Mayor Ronald Pilozzi and representatives from several veterans groups, including Post 264, American Legion.

Pilozzi, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor and a Purple Heart, says he feels a special closeness for the monument.

“One of the reasons I’m so proud of it is I was in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam,” Pilozzi said, explaining that Muck and a Niland family member were in the 101st.

The 101st faced its toughest assignment during the Battle of Bastogne, one of the more famous encounters against the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.

“The 101st Airborne was completely encircled and cut off by the Germans, but they made their stand and held out long enough for Gen. [George S.] Patton to come in and relieve them and basically defeat the Nazis,” Pilozzi said of the division’s bravery.

Describing himself as an amateur historian for the modest working-class City of Tonawanda, Lewis said the memorial will ensure that no one ever forgets the sacrifices and bravery demonstrated by the deceased relatives of the Niland and Muck families.

The City of Tonawanda has a tremendous history of which it can be very, very proud,” he said. “I still have family members there and consider myself an amateur historian of the city.”

The monument, Lewis explained, is designed with enough open space to add additional stones in the future, should Tonawanda want to honor other veterans.

The monument was chiseled and inscribed by Stone Art Memorial Co. of Lackawanna. The grayish colored granite was quarried in Maine. – Military.com

(H/T BK)

New video added:

MILWAUKEE — A great wooden steamship that sank more than a century ago in a violent Lake Michigan storm has been found off the Milwaukee-area shoreline, and divers say the intact vessel appears to have been perfectly preserved by the cold fresh waters.

Finding the 300-foot-long L.R. Doty was important because it was the largest wooden ship that remained unaccounted for, said Brendon Baillod, the president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association. (Scroll down for a slideshow of the sunken ship.)

“It’s the biggest one I’ve been involved with,” said Baillod, who has taken part in about a dozen such finds. “It was really exhilarating.”

The Doty was carrying a cargo of corn from South Chicago to Ontario, Canada in October 1898 when it sailed into a terrible storm, Baillod said. Along with snow and sleet, there were heavy winds that whipped up waves of up to 30 feet.

The Doty should have been able to handle the weather. The ship was only five years old, and the 300-foot wooden behemoth’s hull was reinforced with steel arches.

But it was towing a small schooner, the Olive Jeanette, which began to founder in the storm after the tow line apparently snapped, Baillod said. The Doty probably sank when it came to the schooner’s aid. All 17 of its crew members died, along with the ship’s cats, Dewey and Watson.

As a maritime historian Baillod spent more than 20 years researching the shipwreck. He knew that swaths of debris had washed up afterward in Kenosha, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. But he found news accounts that it had last been seen closer to Milwaukee, near Oak Creek.

Meanwhile, a Milwaukee fisherman in 1991 reported snagging his nets on an obstruction about 300 feet under water. The observation was largely forgotten for decades until diving technology improved enough to enable exploration at that depth.

A number of explorers did some preliminary scouting on the lake’s surface in recent months, using deep-sea technology to find a massive submerged object. Divers waited until last week to descend, when the weather was just right.

As soon as they got to the lake floor they knew they had found the Doty.

“It felt so good to solve this,” said Jitka Hanakova, 33, a diver and captain of the charter boat that led the exploration. “This ship has been missing for so many years and it’s one of the biggest out there.”

Divers found the ship upright and intact, settled into the clay at the lake’s bottom. Even the ship’s cargo of corn was still in its hold.

The Doty is so well-preserved because it’s in a cold, freshwater lake. It’s also far enough below the surface that storms don’t affect it.

Those same factors mean the crew’s corpses are likely intact as well, Baillod said. Their bodies are probably still in the boiler room, where the sailors must have huddled as the ship went down, he added.

While details of the sinking remain unclear, Baillod said the most likely explanation is that rudder chain snapped while the Doty was turning around to aid the Olive Jeanette. That would have left the 20-foot-tall ship at the mercy of 30-foot waves that would have dumped tons of water on the fragile wooden hatches.

“When the rudder broke (the crew) must have known they were going to die,” Baillod said. “They probably had a good hour to contemplate their fate until the cargo holds collapsed.”

There are no plans to raise the Doty, which is now the property of the state of Wisconsin. The ship will remain preserved indefinitely where it is, rather than exposing it to air that would cause it to rot away within a few years, Baillod said.

Few divers are expected to disturb it. It’s in such deep water that only a small group of highly experienced divers can access it, Hanakova said.

Thousands of ships remain submerged in the Great Lakes, some vessels scuttled and others the victims of shipwrecks. Lake Michigan has about 500 dive-worthy ships still to be found, Baillod estimated.

He said his next target is the largest known missing ship: the car ferry Pere Marquette 18. He said it went down in 1910, about 20 miles from the southeastern Wisconsin shore.

The new technology that made finding the Doty possible can also help locate the Pere Marquette, he said.

“What’s nice about finding these ships is, it contributes to our cultural history,” he said. “Many people are disconnected from history so it’s nice to reconnect to our past – to maybe look out today and think of the wooden steamships that were out there 100 years ago.

More history: Steamer L.R. Doty Located in 300 ft of Water off Milwaukee

(H/T BK)

Lack of Funds May Force Korean War Museum to Surrender Its Land

A ground-breaking ceremony for the Korean War National Museum in Springfield, Ill., will no longer be taking place this summer – because the museum doesn’t have enough money even to start construction.

According to the museum website, the museum is “well short of financial and operational goals to break ground” due to “the recent economic downturn,” as well as leaders it says were “too optimistic” about their ability to raise funds.

Organizers are now desperately trying to fund the initiative to honor the aging vets before it is too late.

“It’s an effort and an organization that goes back to 1997,” Korean War National Museum Executive Director Ryan Yantis told FoxNews.com.

That was when Robert Kenney, the first president of the board, and his wife, Lorraine, opened up a small storefront in Tuscola, Ill.

“They had, as I understand it, been promised some funding from the state which didn’t materialize,” said Yantis, a Korean War veteran.

Still, the museum gained enough private donations of items and artifacts that it outgrew the small town and was moved to the former Chanute Air Base in Rantoul, Ill.

“It was a nice little museum. The problem is, where’s Rantoul?” said Yantis. “It’s another small town, out in the middle of that southern central portion of Illinois. Difficult to find, difficult to get to, not in a heavily touristed area.

“So in 2008 they decided as they were growing in items and influence that they would move to Springfield and that they would get a plot of ground there and build an $18 million facility, and in the meantime they would open up another storefront museum, and that’s the Dennis J. Healy Freedom Center.”

The Freedom Center went up quickly and is open for business in Springfield with about 6,000 square feet of exhibits, but plans for the larger museum went south.

“Every other tourist aspect of Springfield focuses on Lincoln, and the Korean War National Museum planners figured we’ll move there and the half a million or so tourists a year that come to visit the Lincoln museum will get to see something else; we’ll be another offering,” Yantis said.

“But there’s not that cognitive link between Abraham Lincoln and the Korea War. And Springfield is also primarily a summer season tourist destination; they don’t have a robust attendance in the November-March months.”

Add a crumbling economy and some controversial management decisions and the project collapsed. But now, with a new board and a new plan in place, Yantis says the organizers hope to build a world-class national museum in his — and other vets’ — lifetimes, so they can see their story told.

“We term it not the forgotten war… it’s the forgotten victory,” Yantis said. “The Korean War fit between World War II, which many considered to be a good war, and Vietnam, which a lot of folks really didn’t like. And Korea was this conflict in-between.

“President Truman sent troops over on an executive order, and when asked if it was a war he said, ‘no, no it’s a police action.’ ”

As a result, Yantis said, troops returned from heavy combat to a public that was barely aware of the conflict.

“There was also some resistance from various organizations and even the Veterans Administration. The Korean War veterans would go in and say, ‘Hey, I’m a combat injured vet.’ Well, earlier on, VA said not really, it’s not a war.”

All the while, Yantis says, the country was enjoying the fruits of their sacrifice.

“South Korea was this very feeble, embryonic democracy … but it emerged in the late ’80s as a democratic and economic powerhouse in Asia — it’s the 14th largest economy today, it’s a very vibrant democracy,” he said. “The South Korean government, the South Korean people that we’ve interfaced with, have been very supportive and very appreciative of that success. Forty million people are living in a democracy that wouldn’t have happened, and we’re seeking to help tell the story of that success here.”

Yantis hopes the story can be told at a newly planned facility in the heart of Chicago.

“Right now we’re waiting on a decision from Chicago at Navy Pier, and if we get that bid we’re going to put together a world-class facility there, because Navy Pier is a huge tourist attraction and Chicago is a destination city. Our thought is that Chicago is a base that would support a world-class museum.”

But getting the location approved isn’t the only obstacle in the new museum’s way.

“We understand that Congress and the government have other challenges, but the Korean War National Museum, to our understanding, is the only national museum that’s not receiving support by the federal government,” Yantis said.

Yantis plans to go to Washington, D.C., next month in hopes of garnering government support, but says the museum won’t be waiting around for a bailout. The new board has already made inroads with the South Korean government, private donors and even major companies, he said.

“There needs to be a combination of the people and the government. Previous fund-raising efforts have been on the backs of the veterans. Now it’s time for the corporations that have benefited from 60 years of peace to say ‘we believe that this is a great story to tell.’”

For the people who served, it seems that opportunity can’t come soon enough.

“It would be nice to have a national museum dedicated to the Korean War. It would have been much nicer had the museum been in place 10 years ago when more Korean War veterans would have enjoyed it,” Korean War Veterans Association Director Glen Thompson told FoxNews.com. “Korea War veterans are all about 80 now, and physical impairments will keep many of us away.”

Korean War veteran Frank Metersky agreed that the museum is “long overdue, like anything else having to do with the Korean War,” but said he supports any venture that aims to relay the veterans’ message.

“Anything that they do positive related to the Korean War, particularly with the 60th anniversary of the war is terrific, ” Metersky, a lead activist for Korean War MIA issues, told FoxNews.com.“You know, as Colin Powell said, it’s a victory forgotten, and anything that focuses on that and brings it into proper perspective is fabulous.”

Yantis says aging veterans make it increasingly vital that they get the museum up as soon as possible. But even if it doesn’t happen, he said, it’s important that their story will be told long after they are gone.

“When the war started, 36,000 people gave their lives, over 100,000 were wounded, all to keep from being taken over by the communist north,” Yantis said. “…Understanding why we committed troops on the ground and what their purpose was and understanding in a total sense the victory is a very important thing.” – FOX News

Click here for information on how to donate to Korean War National Museum.

Nurse in Iconic WWII Times Square Kiss Photo Dies

The nurse captured in the iconic 1945 photo of her kissing a U.S. sailor in New York’s Times Square at the end of World War II has died at age 91, her family said.

The photo shows Edith Shain, dressed in her white nurse’s uniform, being dipped and kissed by a jubilant U.S. sailor as V-J Day celebrations roar around them. The image by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous photos of the WWII era, and was published in Life magazine.

But the young nurse’s identity was a mystery until the 1970s, when Shain wrote the photographer and said she was the nurse in the photo, taken on Aug. 14, 1945, while she was working at the Doctor’s Hospital in New York City. The sailor’s identity is still unknown.

Shain died Sunday at her Los Angeles home, her family announced Tuesday on her website. She was a registered nurse, kindergarten teacher and public access cable television producer who became famous late in life once her identity in the photo was revealed. She participated in ceremonies on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of V-J Day in 1995 and 2005.

Her son Michael Shain described Eisenstaedt’s photo as having captured “an epic moment in American history, one that inspired patriotism, unity, joy and a spontaneous national pride in victoriously ending the war.”

As a WWII celebrity later in life, Shain devoted herself to helping veterans. “My mom was always willing take on new challenges and caring for the World War II veterans energized her to take another chance to make a difference,” another son, Justin Decker, said on the website.

Shain is survived by three sons, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

California’s Bear Flag Revolt Begins.
June 15, 2010

One-hundred and sixty-four years ago this week, Californians were anticipating the outbreak of war with Mexico. American settlers in California were rebeling against the Mexican government and proclaimed the short-lived California Republic.

The political situation in California was tense in 1846. Though nominally controlled by Mexico, California was home to only a relatively small number of Mexican settlers. Former citizens of the United States made up the largest segment of the California population, and their numbers were quickly growing. Mexican leaders worried that many American settlers were not truly interested in becoming Mexican subjects and would soon push for annexation of California to the United States. For their part, the Americans distrusted their Mexican leaders. When rumors of an impending war between the U.S. and Mexico reached California, many Americans feared the Mexicans might make a preemptive attack to forestall rebellion.

In the spring of 1846, the American army officer and explorer John C. Fremont arrived at Sutter’s Fort (near modern-day Sacramento) with a small corps of soldiers. Whether or not Fremont had been specifically ordered to encourage an American rebellion is unclear. Ostensibly, Fremont and his men were in the area strictly for the purposes of making a scientific survey. The brash young officer, however, began to persuade a motley mix of American settlers and adventurers to form militias and prepare for a rebellion against Mexico.

Emboldened by Fremont’s encouragement, on this day in 1846 a party of 33 Americans under the leadership of Ezekiel Merritt and William Ide invaded the largely defenseless Mexican outpost of Sonoma just north of San Francisco. Fremont and his soldiers did not participate, though he had given his tacit approval of the attack. Merritt and his men surrounded the home of the retired Mexican general, Mariano Vallejo, and informed him that he was a prisoner of war. Vallejo, who was actually a strong supporter of American annexation, was more puzzled than alarmed by the rebels. He invited Merritt and a few of the other men into his home to discuss the situation over brandy. After several hours passed, Ide went in and spoiled what had turned into pleasant chat by arresting Vallejo and his family.

Having won a bloodless victory at Sonoma, Merritt and Ide then proceeded to declare California an independent republic. With a cotton sheet and some red paint, they constructed a makeshift flag with a crude drawing of a grizzly bear, a lone red star (a reference to the earlier Lone Star Republic of Texas), and the words “California Republic” at the bottom. From then on, the independence movement was known as the Bear Flag Revolt.

After the rebels won a few minor skirmishes with Mexican forces, Fremont officially took command of the “Bear Flaggers” and occupied the unguarded presidio of San Francisco on July 1. Six days later, Fremont learned that American forces under Commodore John D. Sloat had taken Monterey without a fight and officially raised the American flag over California. Since the ultimate goal of the Bear Flaggers was to make California part of the U.S., they now saw little reason to preserve their “government.” Three weeks after it had been proclaimed, the California Republic quietly faded away. Ironically, the Bear Flag itself proved far more enduring than the republic it represented: it became the official state flag when California joined the union in 1850.