Monday Music "Birds Fly(Whisper to a scream) Icicles Works

I remembered this song hitting in 1983 on the MTV music circuit, you know MTV...Back when they played Music video's rather than the insipid reality shows and other crap.   and I thought it was a pretty cool song, but it faded away and I forgot about the song until my Sirius/XM did their forgotten hit with cuts from Indiana Jones and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and this song came on and it was a "Eureka" moment and I recalled the song and saved it and bootlegged it on an app I have on my phone.


"Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)", given the reversed title "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)" in some markets, is a song by the British band The Icicle Works. It was released in 1983 as the first single from the band's 1984 debut eponymous album The Icicle Works. The song was written by Ian McNabb, the band's lead singer, and produced by Hugh Jones.

The Icicle Works is the eponymous debut album by The Icicle Works. The album was released in 1984 and charted at number 24 in the UK and number 40 in the US.^[2][3]
The original 1984 issue features different track listings and cover artwork in the UK, in the USA, and in Canada.
In 2006, Beggars Banquet Records issued both a 2-CD and a limited edition 3-CD expanded edition of The Icicle Works. Disc 1 consists of the original album in its entirety, in the UK configuration. Disc 2 features a selection of b-sides, radio sessions, and remixes, as well as one live track. On the 3-CD edition, the first 10 tracks of disc 3 consist of "radio session" versions of the songs from the original UK Icicle Works album; they are presented in the original UK album sequence. Disc 3 then concludes with a previously released b-side, and a previously unreleased album outtake.
The US version of the album has a remixed and re-titled version of "Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)". The US remix does not include the female spoken introduction heard on the UK mix. The US album was released by Arista Records.

Pitchfork Media described the song "Love Is a Wonderful Colour" as "one of those "wow where was this hiding?" tracks that make you think there's something left to 80s crate-digging."

Press Secretary told to leave restaurant.

Ran across this meme after President Trump's Press Secretary was asked to leave a restaurant because of who she worked for. I understand having disagreements with people over politics, I disagree with people on politics, but I keep it inside boundaries, there is a decorum to this, manners even, but this is getting a bit much. We are having politics spilling over into "regular life" and that is a problem. There needs to be a civility to this.
https://www.cnn.com/…/sarah-sanders-restaurant-k…/index.html

   And here is the owner of the Restaurant...

 

"Writers block"..

Hey Y'all....I haven't fallen off the planet, but I have a problem...

Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. The condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years. Throughout history, writer's block has been a documented problem.
Professionals who have struggled with the affliction include authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joseph Mitchell, comic strip cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff,and songwriter Adele. Research concerning this topic was done in the late 1970s and 1980s. During this time, researchers were influenced by the Process and Post-Process movements, and therefore focused specifically on the writer's processes. The condition was first described in 1947 by psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler. However, some great writers may have already suffered from writer’s block years before Bergler described it, such as Herman Melville, who quit writing novels a few years after writing Moby-Dick.


    Yeah, I pulled this from Wiki, I have some great ideas for a blog post and once I get in front of the computer, the good ideas vanish like the morals of a democratic politician.....
   
      I have gone through this before...I always come back though....I know it happens to everyone and I am glad that I don't have to depend on my writing for an income...cussing at airplanes pays better, LOL. 

Task Force Smith

I remembered reading about Task Force Smith and how a bunch of "occupation" soldiers with poor equipment got rolled up by the North Koreans.  Since the Korean War it has been canon that there will be "No More Task Force Smith".   I remember us in Europe training hard even though we were in "Peacetime", there always the possibility of going to war and the training came in handy when we got sent to the middle East on a reverse REFORGER.  From the report the units of TF Smith performed as well as any units in U.S. History, the higher up in the chin of command were more to blame than the TF itself, the institute of advanced studies stated that the fault from MacArthur on down gave the task force impossible tasking orders and set them up for failure.  Please read the link at the end of the posting. it is long and really good reading.

Task Force Smith was composed mostly of men under 21 years of age, and before war broke out in Korea on June 25, 1950, its experience involved little more than garrison duty in Japan. Few of its members had been in combat.
The troops of Task Force Smith weren’t unlike most other G.I.s of their day — laid-back, under-trained and perhaps too accustomed to peacetime. Author T.R. Fehrenbach described them as “probably as contented a group of American soldiery as had ever existed.”
“It was not their fault that no one had told them that the real function of an army is to fight, and that a soldier’s destiny — which few escape — is to suffer, and if need be, to die,” wrote Fehrenbach, who was a combat officer in Korea.

Task Force Smith of the 24th Infantry Division arriving at the railway station in Taejon, Korea.

What America needed Task Force Smith to do in the summer of 1950 was blunt North Korea’s rapid southward advance as long as possible. It became the first American unit to meet the North Koreans in ground combat.
“In all American history, no group of soldiers has displayed greater bravery and dedication than the mostly untried members of Task Force Smith,” author Bevin Alexander wrote.
The Formation of Task Force Smith
Task Force Smith consisted of 406 men from the 1st Battalion, 21st Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, and 134 men from Battery A of the 52nd Artillery Battalion.

Map of the Battle of Osan

When the North Korean onslaught began with smashing success, the 24th was the first U.S. division sent to Korea, and Lt. Col. Charles B. Smith’s battalion was in the vanguard. Smith headed to Korea with just two rifle companies, which were under-strength, and some headquarters, communications, and heavy weapons troops.
After a long journey that included travel by plane, truck, and train, Smith’s troops were joined on July 4 in Pyongtaek by the artillerymen of Lt. Col. Miller O. Perry, who brought six 105-millimeter pieces, with 1,200 rounds of ammunition.
The combined infantry/artillery unit was dubbed Task Force Smith. Its men were optimistic heading into battle. They had no idea of the long odds they faced.

Task Force Smith arrives in South Korea.

Task Force Smith Fails to Stop North Korean Tanks
Task Force Smith was trucked 12 miles north from Pyongtaek, moving to a position three miles beyond the village of Osan on July 4. The group dug in on high ground that overlooked the highway and a railroad to the east.
At 7:30 a.m. on July 5, a line of North Korean tanks churned into view, and the Americans let loose with all of the heavy weapons they had, which in the grand scheme of things weren’t much.

A team mans a Bazooka at the Battle of Osan. Members of the 24th Infantry Division, first United States ground units to reach the front, go into action against North Korean forces at the village of Sojong-Ni, near Osan. At right is Private First Class Kenneth Shadrick, who was killed by enemy fire a few moments after this photo was made, thus becoming the first United States soldier to die in the Korean campaign.

While Perry’s artillerymen had a decent supply of high-explosive shells, they possessed only six rounds of armor-piercing ammunition. Smith’s “battalion” could add just two 75-millimeter recoilless rifles and six bazookas. That was not nearly enough firepower to stop the North Korean force of Russian-made T34 tanks, which smashed through Task Force Smith’s position.
Most of the hits scored by the Americans bounced off the T34 armor, and the North Koreans continued south after inflicting 23 casualties, destroying a handful of U.S. vehicles, and knocking out a forward 105 howitzer position. There was a temporary panic among the artillery crews, but it was brought under control well before any enemy infantry arrived.

The T-34 tank was standard armor used by the North Korean Army in 1950 and was also present at Osan.

Task Force Smith Battles North Korean Infantry
An hour after the tanks passed through, the Americans spotted a six-mile column of North Koreans with three more T34 tanks leading the way. Behind them were some 5,000 infantry — two regiments. The North Koreans were unaware of the American positions and were predictably surprised when Smith’s troops opened fire at 11:45 a.m. Trucks exploded, some men fell, and the rest scattered in different directions.
But unlike the tank column that broke through hours earlier, this North Korean force directly engaged the Americans. The Communists began spreading around the flanks. And with their huge numerical superiority — and ample mortar and artillery support — they proved to be an insurmountable force.
Smith ordered his force to withdraw before it was surrounded, and the task was accomplished with great difficulty. The Americans suffered most of their 150 casualties during the retreat. Task Force Smith had delayed the North Koreans for a total of seven hours — at the cost of 20 killed, and 130 wounded or missing.

South Korean sailors in formation in front of the Task Force Smith memorial at Osan

The Legacy of Task Force Smith
Task Force Smith is not a name that is synonymous with triumph in U.S. military annals. To some, it is a symbol of failure and unpreparedness — a model for future generations not to emulate. Task Force Smith did not have enough men, training, supplies, or ammunition when it entered combat, yet somehow it was called upon to perform a monumental task.
Yet it’s difficult to fault the men of the task force, who, under the circumstances, performed better than perhaps anybody had a right to expect. Their fight lasted only hours, but as the U.S. struggled to assemble additional troops in Korea and every hour was critical.
In 2005, a monument to Task Force Smith was erected near the battle site, almost exactly 55 years after the engagement.

    Here is a REPORT that the U.S. Army institute for advanced studies and lessons learned

Why the Immigration debate flared up...

I was real surprised how fast this immigration crap flared up....Remember Last week...?

The democrats desperately needed something to get the positive news off President Trump so they trotted out this immigration fiasco to flog the administration and score points before the midterm elections...To the Democrats it is about power and winning the election.  They are hoping this big blue wave will show up and they get congress so they can try to impeach Trump.

It is an older cartoon but the message is still the same.  The Democrats seem to care more about the illegals than American citizens.

Alaxanders Legacy "The battle of Gaugamela"

This is another one of my ancient history post that I like to do well...because I like History., I honestly believe that once a people forget their history, they are doomed to repeat it.

In the countless theoretical lists of best generals of all time, Alexander the Great is often at or very near the top, in fact, such lists often spark great amounts of arguments and controversy, but over the other generals, not Alexander.
In his string of victories across his thousands of miles of campaigning, Alexander had one masterpiece that won him an empire and securely ensured the protrusion of Greek culture in the eastern world. That battle was fought near the small village of Gaugamela.
To better understand Alexander’s success, especially at such a young age, one must understand all of the advantages he had in addition to his own inherent talent. Alexander was lucky enough to have excellent mentors in his early life; his personal teacher was none other than Aristotle, a philosopher who learned from Plato, who learned from Socrates. While not directly correlating to warfare, lessons learned from one of the most enlightened thinkers of the ancient world would have had near universal applications.

Alexander also learned valuable lessons from his father. Before Philip, Macedon was an afterthought on the world stage. With Philip’s reorganization of the army into a professional mixed army, Macedon became an organized military power. The core of the army was the sarissa wielding phalanx able to stoutly hold their ground or methodically churn their collective spearheads forward through any foe.
The army had other important elements as well, skilled skirmishers including Cretan archers, a mix of light and heavy cavalry and elite Hypaspists capable of multiple battlefield roles. This mixed army was intended to be used in multiple ways and relied on skilled generals to adapt to conditions of a battle and use the different troops in the best way possible, Philip was quite good at this and taught Alexander the basics of utilizing such an army.

Map of Macedon showing the strides taken by Philip in preparation for a Persian invasion. Persia looms large just across the Aegean. By Marsyas – CC BY-SA 3.0

Philip passed this army down to Alexander in excellent condition. Philip also was the original planner for a Persian invasion and likely passed along a wealth of information and ideas for an invasion, perhaps thoughts on fighting the Persian armies, what they would consist of, how they were led into battle and so on. Ultimately Alexander was given the absolute best tools for his invasion, a professional army meant to be utilized by creative commanders, and outstanding practical and military education for him and many of his leading commanders.
As Alexander invaded Persia, he had immediate success, first winning the battle of the Granicus River that proved the ability of the phalanx to cross a river and still fight effectively. At Granicus, Alexander defeated a Persian satrap, at Issus Alexander faced an army assembled by the Persian King Darius himself. Issus was another victory for Alexander, and he used the victory to march along the coast to Egypt and capture Persian naval bases such as Tyre.
With the coast secure and supply lines in place, Alexander sought to take the fight to Darius again. This time, Darius had as large of a force as he could muster and the stakes were fairly clear, whoever won this battle would have control over Persia.

At the Granicus, Alexander led from the front but also depended on his companions to come to his aid when needed. In this battle as well as many others Alexander risked death but also inspired others.

Darius knew that Alexander needed to come to him, so he picked a flat, featureless battlefield that would favor his larger army and allow his secret weapons to run wild. These secret weapons were as many as 200 chariots covered in spikes and scythed wheels that would attack along with some elephants to break up the tight phalanx formations for the cavalry and infantry to exploit.
The overall numbers of the Persians are widely discussed and disputed. Ancient sources are never lower than about 200,000 and often approach a million while modern sources go as low as about 55,000 and as high as 200,000. Alexander’s numbers are more fixed with about 40-50,000. A number around 70-100,000 seems the most likely for the Persians as evidence does point to a clearly larger army.
Prior to the battle, Alexander’s generals sought to attack at night to make up for their smaller numbers, some thought that a night attack was their only hope against such a numerically superior force. Also, Darius picked the field, not just for his chariots, but also so he could freely send troops around to envelop Alexander’s forces. Alexander’s deployment on the day of battle was also geared specifically towards preventing flanking and total encirclement.
With larger numbers, Darius’ tactics were simple, break formations with chariots and fully attack with extra pressure to extend around the flanks. Alexander’s strategy was a bit more complicated; he needed to account for and defend against the larger forces while also finding a way to secure a victory.
To hold off flanking attempts Alexander swept back his flanks so that flanking troops would need to travel farther and rather than hitting the sides of the formation, they would hit the swept back flanks head on. Various mercenaries formed a small second line to respond to flanks or breaks in a line. At the onset of the battle, Alexander would take his elite companion cavalry and march far to the right of the battle to force Darius’ hand.

Initial dispositions and opening movements.

When Alexander marched off to the right Darius was forced to match his movements and stretched his left flank out as a fierce cavalry battle ensued on the Macedonian right. On the Macedonian left and center things were tight. The scythed chariots were handled with relative ease; most were let through the ranks and captured as they slowed greatly to turn around. After the chariot charge, however, the large numbers of Persians combined with elite immortals and Persian heavy cavalry put a heavy strain on the phalanx.
Eventually, a gap opened in the center and Persian cavalry poured through. Rather than wheeling and flanking the phalanx, the undisciplined cavalry went straight for the Macedonian baggage train and loot. While the Macedonian infantry were fractured, they still held, and Alexander was able to execute his most key maneuver.
Having marched to the right and stretching out the Persian left, Alexander cut hard to the left in what can only be described as a battlefield scale “juke” move that left much of the Persian left in the companions’ dust as they formed a wedge formation and charged directly at Darius’ position. The wedge cut deep into Darius’ guarding troops, and while it did not reach the king, Darius could clearly see the carnage in front of him and decided to flee the field. Alexander had achieved his goal but still had to finish his battle.

Alexander’s decisive attack. By Frank Martini 

Darius was gone but the Persian right was still overloading the Macedonian center and left, and several holes were forming. Desperate messages were sent to Alexander to send help, and Alexander wheeled around his wedge formation and charged towards the rear of the attacking Persians. On the way Alexander and his elite cavalry ran into the most elite of the Persian cavalry and the resulting battle caused a fair share of the casualties for the whole battle.
Eventually, Alexander forced his way through and released the overwhelming pressure of the Persians. After reforming the lines, the Macedonians were able to turn to the offensive and push the rest of the Persians off of the field.
With this great battle, Alexander essentially won Persia. Babylon and most of western Persia readily submitted to Alexander and Darius fled to the east hoping to raise another army only to be later killed by his own men. The battle itself was hard fought, and victory was only assured after Alexander returned from putting Darius to flight and early defeat was spared by the lack of discipline by the victorious Persian cavalry.
Alexander both organized a daring battle plan and also executed it himself, leading from the front and being heavily involved in the most decisive fighting. His genius and his leading by example allowed him to be one of the greatest individual factors for the Macedonian victory, cementing him as the greatest general of all time.

Monday Music "The Dance" by Garth Brooks

This song hit in 1990, but I didn't hear the song until I was in the Gulf and Armed Forces Desert Network would play the song.  It was haunting and sad all in the same vein, we were a bit bummed out being deployed and it kinda fit our mood during the buildup from shield to storm.  We didn't know what to expect and the song talked about loss of relationships, loss of opportunity and redemption.  Even now 28 years later it still is contemporary. 


"The Dance" is a song written and composed by Tony Arata, and recorded by American country music singer Garth Brooks as the tenth and final track from his self-titled debut album, from which it was also released as the album's fourth and final single in April 1990. It is considered by many to be Brooks' signature song. In a 2015 interview with Patrick Kielty of BBC Radio 2, Brooks credits the back to back success of both "The Dance" and its follow up "Friends in Low Places" for his
 phenomenal success.

Garth Brooks is the debut studio album of American country music artist Garth Brooks, released on April 12, 1989 through Capitol Nashville. It was both a critical and chart success, peaking at #13 on the Billboard 200 and at #2 on the Top Country Albums chart. The album has been certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments over ten million copies. This is Garth's only album to have a neotraditional country sound before developing a more crossover-friendly country-pop sound.

At the opening of the music video, Brooks explains that the song is written with a double meaning - both as a love song about the end of a passionate relationship, and a story of someone dying because of something he believes in, after a moment of glory.

It was awarded Video of the Year at the 1990 ACM Music Awards.

Fathers Day quotes

Happy Fathers Day to all my fellow readers and bloggers.  I saw this last week from "Art of Manliness".  I thought the quotes were very good.   This is on my scheduler thingie

The Ultimate Collection of Quotes About Fatherhood

By Brett & Kate McKay on Jun 11, 2018 12:51 pm

Fathers tend to be taken for granted.
We invariably make more of a fuss over Mom on Mother’s Day than Dad on Father’s Day, for one.
Dads are like a steady but less sentimentalized institution — the sun in our familial sky that warms and gives life but isn’t much thought about unless he goes missing.
Yet this belies the enormous impact fathers truly have on their children; while a dad’s nurturing may often take the form of playful roughhousing and silly jokes, his influence is quite serious and significant: the presence of a loving father greatly increases a child’s chances of success, confidence and resilience, physical and mental well-being, and yes, quite naturally, their sense of humor.
One of the manifestations of the way we take fathers for granted is that there exist many more quotes about Mom than dear old Dad (and even fewer about fathers and daughters). To make more accessible those great pearls of wisdom that do exist, we searched high and low for the very best, and created this ultimate treasury of quotes about fatherhood. These short quotations provide great prompts for reflection; typically, we’re so busy plowing ahead that we don’t pause to look up and get a “birds-eye” perspective on things — taking the time to ponder what our own dads meant to us, and the way we’re shaping, and should be savoring, our kids right now. 

Quotes About Fatherhood

“You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” –Walter M. Schirra, Sr.
“Some dads liken the impending birth of a child to the beginning of a great journey.” –Marcus Jacob Goldman
“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” –George Herbert
“Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later . . . that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.” –Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
“The best way of training the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them, but to be seen never doing that of which you would admonish them.” –Plato

“The nature of impending fatherhood is that you are doing something that you’re unqualified to do, and then you become qualified while doing it.” –John Green
“One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” –Howard W. Hunter
“To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.” –Euripides
“If there is any immortality to be had among us human beings, it is certainly only in the love that we leave behind. Fathers like mine don’t ever die.” –Leo Buscaglia
“That is the thankless position of the father in the family—the provider for all, and the enemy of all.” –J. August Strindberg

“Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.” –Charles Kettering
“Son, there are times a man has to do things he doesn’t like to, in order to protect his family.” –Ralph Moody
 “A boy needs a father to show him how to be in the world. He needs to be given swagger, taught how to read a map so that he can recognize the roads that lead to life and the paths that lead to death, how to know what love requires, and where to find steel in the heart when life makes demands on us that are greater than we think we can endure.” –Ian Morgan Cron
“Parenthood remains the single greatest preserve of the amateur.” –Alvin Toffler

“My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.” –Clarence Budington Kelland
“When you’re a dad, there’s no one above you. If I don’t do something that has to be done, who is going to do it?” –Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am
“‘Why do men like me want sons?’ he wondered. ‘It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone.’” –John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
“If the past cannot teach the present, and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time.” –Russell Hoban

“There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railway man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.” –Theodore Roosevelt
“Father!—To God Himself we cannot give a holier name.” –William Wordsworth
“We think our Fathers Fools, so wise we grow; Our wiser Sons, no doubt, will think us so.” –Alexander Pope
“His values embraced family, reveled in the social mingling of the kitchen, and above all, welcomed the loving disorder of children.” –John Cole
“Children are a poor man’s riches.” –English proverb

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” –Frederick Douglass
“A girl’s father is the first man in her life, and probably the most influential.” –David Jeremiah
“Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers and fathering is a very important stage in their development.” –David Gottesman
“Father of fathers, make me one,
A fit example for a son.”
–Douglas Malloch

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” –Umberto Eco
“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’” –Harmon Killebrew
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy beyond joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.” –Kent Nerburn
“When my son looks up at me and breaks into his wonderful toothless smile, my eyes fill up and I know that having him is the best thing I will ever do.” –Dan Greenberg

“Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow.” –Reed Markham
“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” –Pope John XXIII
“When I looked at you first I saw not your mother and me, but your two grandfathers . . . and, as my father, whom I loved a great deal, had died the year before, I was moved to see that here, in you, he was alive.” –Peter Carey
“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song.” –Pam Brown

“‘Father’ is the noblest title a man can be given. It is more than a biological role. It signifies a patriarch, a leader, an exemplar, a confidant, a teacher, a hero, a friend.” –Robert L. Backman
“Noble fathers have noble children.” –Euripides
“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.” –Confucius
“No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, what anything means, until he has a child and loves it.” –Lafcadio Hearn

“I cannot think of any need in children as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” –Sigmund Freud
 “A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.” –Frank A. Clark
“His father watched him across the gulf of years and pathos which always divide a father from his son.” –John Marquand
“A family needs a father to anchor it.” –L. Tom Perry
“Words have an awesome impact. The impression made by a father’s voice can set in motion an entire trend of life.” –Gordon MacDonald

“Children need models rather than critics.” –Joseph Joubert
“A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.” –Unknown
“Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.” –Joseph Addison
“Mostly you just have to keep plugging and keep loving—and hoping that your child forgives you according to how you loved him, judged him, forgave him, and stood watching over him as he slept, year after year.” –Ben Stein

“Life doesn’t come with an instruction book — that’s why we have fathers.” H. Jackson Browne
“Fathers, you are your daughter’s hero. My father was my hero. I used to wait on the steps of our home for him to arrive each night. He would pick me up and twirl me around and let me put my feet on top of his big shoes, and then he would dance me into the house. I loved the challenge of trying to follow his every footstep. I still do.” –Elaine S. Dalton
“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” –Billy Graham
“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.” –The Talmud
“My father always said there are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep, and lots of soap and water. After that, what he needs most is some intelligent neglect.” –Ivy Baker Priest

“Like so much between fathers and sons, playing catch was tender and tense at the same time.” –Donald Hall
“By profession I am a soldier and take great pride in that fact, but I am also prouder, infinitely prouder, to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys.” –General Douglas MacArthur
“The lone father is not a strong father. Fathering is a difficult and perilous journey and is done well with the help of other men.” –John L. Hart
“Children of the new millennium when change is likely to continue and stress will be inevitable, are going to need, more than ever, the mentoring of an available father.” –Ian Grant
“The quality of a father can be seen in the goals, dreams, and aspirations he sets not only for himself, but for his family.” –Reed Markham

“Fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man.” –Frank Pittman
“Never fret for an only son. The idea of failure will never occur to him.” –George Bernard Shaw
“My son is seven years old. I am fifty-four. It has taken me a great many years to reach that age. I am more respected in the community, I am stronger, I am more intelligent and I think I am better than he is. I don’t want to be his pal, I want to be a father.” –Clifton Fadiman
“Some day you will know that a father is much happier in his children’s happiness than in his own. I cannot explain it to you: it is a feeling in your body that spreads gladness through you.” –Honore de Balzac, Pere Goriot

“A child enters your home and for the next twenty years makes so much noise you can hardly stand it. The child departs, leaving the house so silent you think you are going mad.” –John Andrew Holmes
“Every parent is at some point the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.” –John Ciardi
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The U.S.S Pueblo and the Hawaiian" Good luck sign"

 I have blogged before about the U.S.S Pueblo and I got into a discussion on facebook right after the U.S/NK Summit and people were wondering why didn't Trump ask for the Pueblo back.  My attitude back then and now was that we should have sunk the ship by limpet mine or tomahawk strike rather than the ship be used as a prize for an illegal seizure.  The NORKS in the past especially in the late 1970's caused several incidents pushing the Americans, they figured that we were weakened after Vietnam.  I honestly believed that President Trump was able to have a summit with Kim Jon-un because he treated the NORKS differently.  The NORKS were used to playing all the professional politicians that the Americans had from Bill Clinton, Bush and Obama.  President Trump is not a professional politician and he didn't react like they expected him to.    But I digress, This story is about the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign" and how it came to be.

I had this on my scheduler thingie and apparently this article duplicated itself on the blog posting.  I corrected it

 The Hawaiian" Good Luck Sign"

In 1968, North Korea seized a US Navy ship, held its crew for almost a year, and tortured them. To free themselves, the captives had to do something unusual – repeatedly insult North Korea. For that outrage, the US government nearly punished the ship’s officers.
Lloyd Mark “Pete” Bucher was born in Idaho in 1927. When WWII broke out, he dropped out of school to enlist. In 1949, Bucher got into college on a football scholarship while keeping himself on the Naval ROTC. Upon graduating in 1953, he became a commissioned Ensign in the US Naval Reserve.
Bucher rose through the ranks and served aboard ships and submarines. He was passionate about the latter and dreamed about commanding one, but it was not to be. He was assigned as captain of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) – a spy ship with a top speed of 12.7 knots (14.6 mph), armed with only two M2 Browning 0.50-caliber machine guns.

Edward R. Murphy, Jr. was born in California in 1937. Upon graduating from college in 1960, he entered the US Navy and was later assigned to the Pueblo as Bucher’s executive officer and navigator.
He would also write Second in Command – a first-hand account of the incident. Murphy’s book contradicts Bucher’s own version as described in Bucher: My Story.
According to military psychologists, Bucher tended to get overly-attached to his men – one of many reasons he was denied command of a battleship. While this made him popular among the lower ranks, the Pueblo’s five other officers felt differently.

Lieutenant Edward R. Murphy, Jr.

Stationed at the US Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, Bucher allegedly brought bar girls aboard the Pueblo. Though forbidden, that was not the issue. What was at issue was his habit of taking them into sensitive areas where even the lower ranks were banned. This put Bucher at odds with the senior officers who wanted his security clearance revoked.

The US Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan

On January 5, 1968, the Pueblo set off to conduct an “environmental study” en route to another American base at Sasebo (also in Japan) with orders “not to be cowboys.” It was to be a training mission only. If trouble broke out, they were to retreat.

As a spy ship, they had a substantial amount of secret documents and advanced technology aboard. Protocol, therefore, required they have TNT (to blow the ship up) and thermite (to melt metal quickly) should they be captured. There was only one problem – the Navy had none to spare.

Course of the USS Pueblo, which put it in international waters according to the US Navy

According to Bucher, he pooled money from the crew and bought an incinerator. Murphy claims they did not know about the lack of TNT and thermite until they were at sea, so he contacted Yokosuka. The base promised to airlift the TNT and thermite to them but never did. Six days later, Pueblo headed north through the Tsushima Strait toward the Sea of Japan.
They met the North Koreans, instead – a submarine chaser on January 20, followed by two fishing boats two days later. Murphy suggested returning to base, but Bucher wanted to continue the mission and accused his second-in-command of cowardice.
On January 23, another North Korean submarine chaser confronted them and demanded to know their nationality. Pueblo raised the American flag and continued on. The North Koreans ordered them to stop, but Bucher refused.

Course of the USS Pueblo, which put it in North Korean waters according to the North Korean government

The sub chaser fired warning shots. Three more showed up, as did two M9G-21 fighter planes. There was no way the Pueblo could outrun them. On board its machine guns were protected by tarpaulin and the strings covering them were frozen stiff. Worse, the machine guns had not been properly calibrated for the weather and were acting up.
Bucher insisted the Pueblo was nothing more than a research vessel in international waters and refused to stop. He was trying to buy time needed to destroy documents and contact base.
The Seventh Fleet Command at Kamiseya promised to come to the Pueblo’s rescue but never did. The North Koreans were losing their patience and tried to board the ship, but Bucher would not stop.

The Hawaiian good luck sign

At about 2:30 PM (Korean time) the North Koreans fired – killing Fireman Duane Hodges and injuring several more. Twenty-five minutes later, they boarded the Pueblo. The men were taken to a POW camp, and though Bucher was the captain, Murphy was singled out.
North Korea’s military follows the Soviet model. According to that system, the second-in-command is a political officer who answers directly to the Politburo. To break him, Murphy was kept next to the interrogation room so he could hear everything that was going on.
There were periods when the men were treated well. Once healed, they were made to pose for group pictures. To show the world that they were not cooperating willingly, the men posed with their middle fingers raised. When asked what it meant, Bucher said it was the Hawaiian good luck sign – which pleased the North Koreans.

Bucher reading his confession on North Korean TV, later broadcast internationally

That was until Time magazine’s October 18, 1968, edition which explained what the sign actually meant. The beatings started again, and the men were denied food. Many never recovered. Bucher, who entered North Korea weighing 200 pounds, left it weighing barely 128.
When they threatened to shoot his men before him, however, Bucher finally broke. He went on TV and his confession reads, in part:
… this bowel wrenching confession is attested to by my fervent desire to paean (pronounced “pee on”) the Korean People’s Army… I therefore swear the following account to be true on the sacred honor of the Great Speckled Bird…

The Americans being released one at a time on the Bridge of No Return to South Korea

… we had traversed Operation Areas Mars, Venus, and Pluto, so named because like the planets, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is really far out… we had to find out how [North Korea had become]… number one… As we went about detecting this valuable information, particularly the oceanic salinity, density, ionic dispersion rate, humpback whale counts, both low and high protoplasmic unicellular euglena and plankton counts…
He then signed it, So help me, Hanna.
American officials struggled to keep a straight face. North Korea was impressed by such a sincere and detailed confession, but demanded an official apology from the US government, as well. It was given, and the prisoners were finally released on December 23, 1968… whereupon the US retracted the apology.

Bucher receiving the Purple Heart after his release

The capture of the Pueblo was considered to be the greatest breach of state secrets since John Anthony Walker (and later, Edward Snowden). Which was why Bucher and his officers were to be court-martialed. A public outcry prevented that, however, so instead they got Purple Hearts.
The Pueblo is still a commissioned ship of the US Navy… even though it is also a tourist attraction in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Albert Einstein a Racist?"

I saw something in Drudge that has me concerned, I saw yesterday that the diaries of Albert Einstein was released to the Media, and there are statements about his opinions of other peoples and other countries and the SJW's are in a tizzy, I am hearing the clarion call of the

the SJW's are already getting spooled up to discredit all the work that Albert Einstein ever did because the journal of his travels has gotten released.  They are all ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because Einstein who is recognized as being one of the most intelligent humans ever recorded.  Albert Einstein who's theory of E=MC2  is recognized as the basis of nuclear power.  Now there are people already wanting to get rid of everything that Einstein ever did because he said something "racist".  
     Several points here:
    One it was written a long time ago when the times and standards were different.  The SJW's are using the modern prism to look at something that was written almost 100 yeara ago.  The same people that go after "Tom Sawyer" for the "N" word reference totally discount the abolitionist message of the book, that we all bleed the same.  But it don't matter to them, because the "N" word was used even though it was the standard of the time.
      Same thing with the Einstein diaries, they were written to the standard of the time.  But because Albert Einstein is a white guy, there is total outrage going on about it.  They want to throw out all the genius of the man because he wrote something "hurtful".  Really?   Do you see the slippery slope here?  Finally the only people that will be acceptable for being "smart" will be women and "People of Color" talk about exclusion here.   I can see the SJW's going after Oppenheimer, Marconi, Da Vinci(well he was rumored to be gay, so he might be ok)Galileo, Tesla, Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Plato and Sir Issac Newton.  The SJW's are applying the prism of "Race" to the sciences.
     Also there are problems in the colleges of the minority students taking "STEM" classes and being heckled by their peers for taking classes that involve "Racism, support of the patriarchy and suppression.".  This is an affliction of the west due to the PC movement that was started at the "Frankfurt" school and morphed into this levitation that has choked every discourse.  I guarantee the Chinese don't have this problem, and we will be a second rate power once we lose our technological edge because only women and "People of Color" are allowed to be smart by liberal dogma.  Talk about discrimination.   

C130 lands on aircraft carrier.

I was surfing around and ran across this story.  I remembered seeing the story when I and my son went to the Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola.  It is one of my favorite museum besides having all the cool airplanes, they let you "touch" the airplanes.

Aircraft carriers are enormously important. They serve as mobile bases for warplanes at sea. They have flight decks for planes to take off and land. They carry equipment for arming warplanes and recovering planes that have been damaged.
An aircraft carrier is considered a capital ship, the most important ship. This is because the Navy can use it to extend its power anywhere in the world. Countries who want to exercise influence need to have aircraft carriers.
Aircraft carriers arose from cruisers that had been converted to carry aircraft in the early twentieth century. They were important during World War II, especially in the Pacific. Nowadays they are some of the largest ships on the water and carry all kinds of aircraft, including helicopters, fighters, reconnaissance planes and strike aircraft. They are, of course, enormously expensive to build. When on duty, and especially in war zones, they are protected by other ships.

When it comes to being the heaviest and largest airplane to land on an aircraft carrier, the award goes to the C-130 Hercules.

C-130 Hercules

For two months during the fall of 1963, a Hercules made a total of 21 take-offs and landings on the USS Forrestal while it was carrying an increased amount of weight.
The first time a multi-engined plane took off from an aircraft carrier was in March 1936. That craft, the Potez 565, was a modified six passenger plane with two engines. Could a larger aircraft do it?
The United States Navy tested a larger plane on October 30, 1963. The Hercules was a hulking four-engine C-130 turboprop. It is one of the most versatile military planes, designed to take off and land on rough runways.
The first production aircraft, C-130As were first delivered beginning in 1956. While a carrier that can be at sea for long periods of time, it needs resupplying regularly. The C-130 had just entered into US Air Force service, so it was considered for this particular task. Navy planes are designed to specially operate from carriers.

They are fitted with arrestor gear in order to not fall from the other side. It also uses steam catapults for take-off.

C-130 Hercules landed on an aircraft carrier.

Today, it is still the tactical airlift of choice, not only for the United States but other militaries as well. The basis of a Hercules frame is used in planes designed for aerial refueling, weather reconnaissance, aerial firefighting, and more.
Planes designed specifically for aircraft carriers connect to steam catapults for lift off and have an arresting hook for landing. The Hercules did not have this equipment. It was chosen for the test because of its cargo capacity and its stability in flight and landing.
The Hercules was also able to fly longer distances than other craft considered. The desired result of the test was to find a plane that could resupply aircraft carries. The Navy was limited with the plane it was using, the twin piston engine Grumman C-1 Trader, which could fly only 300 miles and had restricted cargo space.
The test flight was piloted by Lt. James Flatley III and his copilot, Lt. Cmdr. W.W. Stovall. Neither man had flown a C-130. They performed 29 touch and go landings, increasing the weight of the cargo throughout the test. Flatley was awarded the Flying Cross for piloting for his efforts.

An air-to-air left front view of an AC-130 Hercules aircraft during target practice.

The Hercules could fly 2,500 miles with a 25,000 lb payload and successfully land. However, it was considered to be too risky. The Navy settled for the smaller and more prudent Grumman C-2 Greyhound.
James Flatley III, who was the pilot, had never flown a four-engine plane before these tests. After a short training period, he was able to achieve the incredible feat of successfully landing and taking off from the aircraft carrier.

Because of his participation in the feat, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Despite the tests being highly successful, the idea was deemed to be too much of a risk for the Carrier Onboard Delivery operations, so the C-2 Greyhound was developed as the program dedicated aircraft.

The Hercules that was used in the test was kept in operation until 2005. It is now at home in the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.