Semiquincentennial

On the road to independence we find ourselves in the winter of 1775-1776 and the patriot cause has ground to a halt. The Continental Army had surrounded and laid siege to Boston but lacked the heavy artillery necessary to drive the the British garrison from the town.

Enter Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller and aspiring artillery officer who proposed a daring solution.  Knox would lead a force north; to march 300 miles to Fort Ticonderoga in New York.  From there he would disassemble and pack cannon, powder and shot and return across 300 miles of rivers, swamps and frozen wilderness to Boston; bringing the weapons of deliverance to Washington's army.  

Knox lacked any formal military training; nevertheless, he had proven himself the previous May when he, Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen ambushed the small British garrison at the fort, capturing it intact, including its artillery.  Washington approved the plan and sent newly-commissioned colonel Knox on his mission in late November.

Arriving at the fort, Knox did not delay.  Within 24 hours he selected 59 pieces of artillery, including brass and iron mortars, howitzers and cannon, each ranging in weight from 100 lbs. to 5,000 lbs.  That was the easy part.  Now he had to figure out how he would bring this enormous weight of firepower 300 miles back to Boston in the dead of winter.  It would prove to be a logistical challenge like no other: a feat of endurance, ingenuity and sheer determination.  Knox's expedition is often referred to as the Noble Train of Artillery. 

Image Credit: Tom Lovell (American, 1909-1997), The Noble Train of Artillery, 1946

Knox packed everything on wooden sledges pulled by teams of oxen.  While the frozen ground and ice made travel easier than wagons on muddy roads nothing was straightforward or without enormous challenges.  

The return route wound south along Lake George, across the Hudson River and east through the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.  Conditions were brutal and took a toll on men and beasts.  

December 16, 2025 Reenactors

Sleds broke through the ice dumping cannon into lakes and rivers that had to be recovered.  Steep hills were a challenge to surmount and a more formidable challenge to descend as the drovers struggled mightily to keep both teams and cargo from cascading out of control. 

   

Against all odds, and in just over two months, the artillery arrived in late January 1776.  

On March 4 - 5, under the cover of darkness, Washington's troops positioned the Ticonderoga artillery behind earthworks on the Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor.  When British General William Howe woke the morning of the 5th he arose to the sight of his army and fleet now withing range of cannon positioned on the high ground. 

Faced with assaulting fortified positions or evacuating, on March 17 British troops including their Loyalist followers sailed out of Boston Harbor without a fight. 

Henry Knox's audacious plan became one of the most celebrated logistical feats of the American Revolution.  Knox commanded the Continental Army's artillery for the duration of hostilities and later served as Washington's Secretary of War.  

Notably, Knox had never received any formal military training.  He owned and ran one of the best-stocked bookshops in Boston:  the London Book Store.  Knox regularly placed orders to London on behalf of occupying British troops.  And when British military technical manuals arrived Knox made a point of putting them aside, reading them and taking copious notes.  In particular anything and everything to do with the Royal Artillery.  Only after he was finished with his studies did he deliver the order to its British soldier.

Henry Knox's London Book Store on the corner, left.

When the Ticonderoga guns were emplaced on Dorchester Heights and trained on British forces Knox organized the construction of fortifications, fields of overlapping fire and prepared for siege warfare.  He supervised and drilled the gun crews on powder load, shot size and fuse timing.  He taught the mathematics of trajectory, range and elevation and drilled the crews in the discipline of loading, firing and safety.

At the time America had no formal military academies - Knox was entirely self-taught.  He turned imperial knowledge against the empire itself; essentially beating the British at their own game.  A home-schooled artilleryman and military commander.

National Museum of the United States Army

Fun Facts: Knoxville, Tennessee, the state's first capital, was founded in 1786 and named for Knox while he was Secretary of War.  Fort Knox, Kentucky was established in 1918; named for Henry Knox and his role as Washington's chief of artillery and the first Secretary of War.  Eight states are home to counties named after Knox.

This ends the short series on the Semiquincentennial as our trip to Boston essentially ended with the end to the Continental Army's siege of Boston.  I had high hopes for a post featuring Old Ironsides; alas, the USS Constitution was closed to the public as it is undergoing extensive refitting likely in preparation for being under sail during next year's festivities.

Thanks for reading. 

Semiquincentennial

Following the action at Lexington and Concord in April the colonies were preparing for war. British reinforcements were arriving in Boston and both the nascent Continental Army and the Minutemen bolstered their numbers with volunteer patriots.  

While the British occupied Boston they were surrounded by rebellious colonists who happened to hold the high ground. Whoever controlled the hills encircling Boston could also control the harbor.  It was a matter of time before the opposing forces came to blows.

Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne of His Majesty's Army famously declared - What!  Ten thousand  peasants keep five thousand of the King's troops shut up!  Well, let us get in and we'll soon find some elbow room!  

General Thomas Gage was the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in the colonies.  While he did not lead the forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 he was the commander who gave the orders for a costly frontal assault on patriot positions on Breed's Hill.   

Gage's Council of War, including William Howe, Henry Clinton and John Burgoyne, drafted the initial plans.  Their army would land on Dorchester Neck south of Boston and sweep around the capital in a broad arc.  Nevertheless, colonial spies learned of Gage's plans and set-about to thwart them.  On June 16, several thousand militiamen converged at Charlestown and overnight constructed crude fortifications of earth and timbers atop Breed's Hill; which unlike Bunker Hill was not as high yet closer to Boston.  Fast Fact:  This last minute change persists to modern times contributing to confusion over the battle's name.  

The British generals debated their options with General Henry Clinton advocating for a flanking maneuver that would land troops to the rear of American forces thereby preventing any American retreat.  However, Gage and the other commanders overruled Clinton and  settled-upon General Howe's recommendation for a direct, frontal assault on the well-defended American positions.  

Gage ordered the attack in which Major General Howe would lead 2,400 British soldiers in three successive assaults up the hill.

As dawn broke on the 17th of June the appearance of the American earthworks surprised the British forces.  Gage was of the opinion that the Yankee rabble was no match for Britain's Finest.  Consequently, Gage's forces took their time packing for a three day campaign to take Charlestown and sweep through the countryside.  The redcoats sweated in the hot sun shouldering heavy packs with blankets, rations and kit.  By mid afternoon the colonial militia has been reinforced and firmly ensconced behind their fortifications.

As gunpowder was in short supply Colonel Prescott ordered his militia not to fire - 'til you see the whites of their eyes - orders that were decisive in the outcome of the battle. 

In close order formation the British troops advanced through the tall grass and up the hill.  Further and further they marched. Why did the militia not fire they wondered?  Were they gutless cowards?  Had they retreated?  Suddenly and without warning the command came to FIRE!

The British were decimated as row upon row were mowed-down.  Some British units suffered losses of 75 to 90 percent.  Casualties were greatest among the officers who were singled-out as targets.

Regrouping and forcing their men forward at the tip of a sword a second assault was mounted a half hour later with similar results.  An hour later, with fresh reinforcements and artillery support the third assault chased the rebels from the hill.  They had run out of gun powder and skedaddled. 

Technically, this was a British victory but at great cost.  Losses to the redcoats amounted to 1,054 dead or wounded - nearly half of those who fought.  Colonial losses were 441 of a much larger force.  Privately, General Gage admitted that: The loss we have sustained is greater than we can bear.   Brigadier General Nathaniel Greene of the Rhode Island Militia summed it up:  I wish I could sell them another hill at the same price.

In the aftermath General Howe ordered Charlestown to be burned. Gage was recalled to England and Howe was made commander of all British forces in America.

The beloved Colonial Major General Joseph Warren was killed by a musket ball through the head.  The British stripped his body of clothing, mutilated his face with bayonets, urinated on and otherwise defiled his corpse as Warren was viewed as a principal instigator of the rebellion.  He was buried in a shallow mass grave on the hill with other patriots.  Months later, and after the British had fled Boston, the colonists exhumed their dead for identification and repatriation to their kin.  Warren was identified by his dental work fashioned by patriot, silversmith and erstwhile dentist, Paul Revere.  This was likely one of the earliest examples of forensic dental identification in America.  

 

Martial law and the government of a well regulated city are so entirely different, that it has always been considered as improper to quarter troops in populous cities, as frequent disputes must necessarily arise between the citizen and the soldier, even if no previous animosities subsist.

- Joseph Warren 

Today the monument is a proper urban park and bears little resemblance to the hilly pasture of 1775.  Preservationists originally hoped to save all of the battlefield but much of the land was sold to finance the cost of the monument's obelisk.  In 1825 the cornerstone was laid by Lafayette on the 50th anniversary of the conflict and orator Daniel Webster spoke.  Webster returned more than 17 years later in 1843 to speak at the dedication following completion of the monument.  St. Francis de Sales Church stands atop the true Bunker Hill.

Armistice Day

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, there was a temporary cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I as a consequence of the armistice signed by the Allies and Germany.

American troops in France celebrate the armistice

On its first anniversary President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11, 1919 as the first celebration of Armistice Day.  In 1938 this day officially became a federal holiday.  Later, in the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became known as Veterans Day in the United States.  And while the allied nations honor members of their armed forces on Armistice Day – we commemorate it as Veterans Day.  

Inasmuch as today is Veterans Day I figure I'd take a moment to talk about my favorite veteran - Howard Gaertner.  Who also happens to be my dad.  Dad has been gone now for more than fifteen years already but I'm sure he'd appreciate the mention. 

This picture of him was taken in Kidderminster England, November 2, 1944. 

He'd already spent more than three months in combat - including the invasion at Normandy, the battle of the hedgerows, the breakout of the bocage at Saint-Lô, the dash across northern France with Patton's forces and the liberation of Belgium.  He was evacuated to England after being wounded in the Meuse River crossing in September of 1944.  Following his convalescence he returned to Europe serving until the cessation of hostilities in May of 1945 including the Army of Occupation.  

This was turning out to be much more than an average adventure for a previously skinny depression-era kid who was drafted after graduating high school.  

Thinking of dad today and giving a shout out to all of my acquaintances and friends who have served in the armed forces of our nation and call themselves veterans.

Semiquincentennial

As with any other historical event the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere has morphed over time and become mythologized - mostly as a consequence of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem.  Longfellow, by the way, was a poet - not a historian.  The best description of the events of April 18, 1775 are found in Revere's own words which follow.  Misspellings too.

On this date Revere had proven himself one of the patriot's most reliable and trusted messengers having traveled thousands of miles to deliver messages throughout the colonies.  Many of these deliveries included reports of the movement of occupying British soldiers.  In the words of Revere:  Upwards of thirty, chiefly mechanics, who formed our selves in to a Committee for the purpose of watching the Movements of British Soldiers , and gaining every intelegence of the movements of the Tories.  Revere, like other patriots, was a spy.

Three days earlier, April 15, the committee observed that: The boats belonging to the Transports were all launched, and the Grenadiers & light Infantry were all taken off duty.  From these movements, we expected something serious was [to] be transacted.

Old North Church

Consequently, the very next day Revere rode to Lexington to warn that something was afoot.  Of his ride home that Sunday Revere wrote: Returned at Night thro Charlestown; there I agreed with a Col. Conant, & some other gentlemen, that if the British went out by Water, we should Shew two Lanthorns in the North Church Steeple; & if by Land, one, as a Signal; for we were aprehensive it would be dificult to Cross the Charles River, or git over Boston neck. 

We climbed the steeple of the Old North Church from where the lantern signal was relayed to Revere and Dawes about the movement of British troops to neighboring Charlestown on the opposite bank of the Charles River.

The eight bells here are the oldest set of church bells in North America.  They were cast in Gloucester, England in 1744 by Abell Rudhall and installed in the steeple in 1745. As a teenager, Paul Revere was a bell ringer at this church.   

 

View From the Steeple

On Tuesday, the 18th Revere wrote:  It is observed, that a number of Soldiers were marching towards the bottom of the Common.  About 10 o'Clock, Dr. Warren Sent in great haste for me, and beged that I would imediately Set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock & Adams  were, & aquaint them of the Movement, and that it was thought they [Hancock and Adams] were the objets.

Unsure of the British troop movements the patriots initially concluded that the redcoats would attempt to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams who were staying at the parsonage in Lexington.  The truth of the matter was that the British troops were mustering  to march on Concord, seven miles beyond Lexington, to seize rebel armament and munitions.

When I got to Dr. Warren's house, I found he had sent an express by land to Lexington; a Mr. Wm. Dawes.  Dawes was back-up; a contingency in the event of a messenger being captured by the British.

Revere walked a couple of blocks to the waterfront and had to row across the Charles River passing under the guns of the British ship Somerset anchored mid-river to guard against anyone crossing.  Dawes, who went by horseback, had to pass through a British checkpoint at Boston Neck and feign innocence in order to pass.  Arriving on the shore, Revere borrowed a horse and like Dawes had to proceed across terrain teeming with British patrols.  A third rider dispatched from Charlestown never made it to Lexington.

Revere continues:  I left Dr. Warrens, called upon a friend, and desired him to make the Signals.  I then went Home, took my Boots & Surtout [overcoat], & went across the Charles River, a little to the eastward were the Somerset Man of War lay.  It was then young flood [tide], the ship; was winding, & the moon was Rising.   

The story gets better.  When Revere and his pals got to his rowboat they lacked a cloth to muffle the sound of the oars.  Afraid to return home one of his accomplices went to his lady friend's house.  After a whispered conversation a window was thrown-open and a flannel petticoat - still warm from the wearer's body - was tossed to the men. 

Arriving in Charlestown, Revere:  Got a Horse of Deacon Larkin.  It was then about 11 o'clock, & very pleasant.  Taking a direct route Revere was blocked by two Officers on Horse-back, standing under the shade of a Tree.  One of the soldiers chased Revere for about 300 Yardes until becoming mired in mud.   

Revere arrived at the parsonage after midnight.  Having left earlier, but traveling further, Dawes showed-up 30 minutes later.  Hancock and Adams were notified of British troops landing at Charlestown by boats.  Mission accomplished, Revere and Dawes set-off to warn the Minute Men at Concord.  Along the way they encountered Dr. Samuel Prescott who joined them.  Halfway to Concord they were stopped by a British patrol.  Prescott escaped and in a stroke of good fortune successfully delivered the warning.  Dawes bluffed the British soldiers but was subsequently thrown from his horse never to arrive at Concord.  Revere was arrested.    

Detained for a short while the British troops eventually released Revere; he returned to Lexington on foot.  Deacon Larkin's horse was the first permanent detainee of the imminent conflict.

Revere was not initially noted in the annals of history as a midnight courier who rowed, rode, was arrested and walked home. He was better-known as a silversmith and manufacturer.  

85 years passed before Longfellow - inspired by a visit to the Old North Church - published Paul Revere's Ride in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.   

That's likely the revisionist tale you know best.....

 

 

Eighty-One Years

Yesterday marked the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings on the Cotentin Peninsula of Northern France.  The next step in wresting tyranny from the Axis powers and returning freedom to the people of Europe after years of occupation.

My father landed on Utah Beach as an infantry replacement following the initial invasion.  He was a machine gunner in a weapons platoon.  He spent more time training for his assignment  than fulfilling it.  He was wounded in September in the liberation of Belgium.  Repatriated to England to recover from his wounds he returned after the surrender of Germany to serve briefly in the Army of Occupation before returning stateside.

Quite the adventure for a 20 year-old man who came of age in the depression years.

Anyway, on our first trip to France we traced his unit's movements In the Bocage of the Norman countryside.  Some photos from the beachhead and the first objective; the town of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont....

 

At The Movies

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on a voyage to cross the Antarctic.  In 2022, the wreck of the Endurance was finally discovered.

Combining masterfully-restored archival footage from that voyage juxtaposing it with the modern-day quest for the remains, Endurance brings one of history's amazing stories of survival to life like never before.

Its from the people over at The National Geographic Society; so what's not to like.

If you have streaming service you'll find it on Hulu and Disney....

On This Day In History

 

Sixty-three years ago, February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet Earth. 

Time flies when you pay attention to a lifetime of advances in space exploration.

He went on to become a United States senator and flew to space again on the Space Shuttle STS-95 mission. 

John Glenn passed away at the age of 95 on December 8, 2016; a true American hero.

The Right Stuff is what made America great...... 

D-Day Advance

80h anniversary - then and now....

Quote Of The Day

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent . . .

But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. 

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for.

-President Ronald Reagan - D-Day 40th Anniversary

D-Day

80th Anniversary. 

 

Sgt. Joseph Gorenc, assistant S3 of HQ/3, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, climbing aboard C-47 Dakota 8Y-S “Stoy Hora” of the 440th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Exeter, Southwest England, for the D-Day airborne assault on Normandy - June 5, 1944.

 

Joseph F. Gorenc Jr. was born on April 24, 1923 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. 

 

Two days after D-Day, Sgt. Gorenc was taken prisoner near St. Côme-du-Mont and reported as MIA. He later escaped from a prison train, joined the French Resistance blowing up bridges and other sabotage, then made it back to the UK in time to rejoin the 101st Airborne for 'Operation Market Garden'.

 

Gorenc returned home after the war, married, had two daughters, and was involved in a new startup manufacturing firm. 

 

In October 1957, Gorenc was severely injured in an industrial accident when an oil tank exploded. He passed away from his injuries two weeks later at the age of 34 on October 30, 1957. 

 

Gorenc is buried at Greendale Cemetery, Kohler, Wisconsin.

 

D-Day

Utah Beach - click on images to enlarge

 

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: 

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. 

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. 

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. 

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. 

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. 

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.   

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces 

Pfc. Howard H. Gaertner waded-ashore at Utah Beach following the initial invasion as an infantry replacement.  Trained in heavy weapons – mortar and machine gun - he was assigned to M Company, 47^th Infantry, Ninth Division as a machine gunner in a weapons platoon. 

After being bottled-up in the Bocage of the Norman countryside where progress was often measured in a few hundred yards – at the close of July he participated in Operation Cobra - the breakout at Saint-Lô.  In the ensuing weeks his unit linked-up with British troops to out-flank and encircle fleeing German forces.  Straining their supply lines to the extreme his unit later provided infantry support to General George Patton’s armored dash across Northern France. 

Howard was convinced that his squad was the first to liberate Belgium when they surprised and captured a group of unsuspecting German soldiers sipping wine at a Belgian café.  You would have to take his word for it.  Later in September he was wounded in the Meuse River crossing and for Howard the war was over. 

Recovered from his wounds Howard served in the occupation army in Germany, returned home, went to school, got married and raised a family.  If he was alive today he would be 100 years old. 

Funny thing is that other than vague and general terms he rarely spoke of his time in combat as I was growing-up.  It wasn’t until I was in college that the details emerged. 

My first of three trips to France was in 2012 and Jill and I spent time touring the Normandy battlefield in a rental car.  Meticulous records maintained by the US Army allowed us to literally retrace Howard’s footsteps through the Norman countryside.  Spooky stuff for sure. 

I’ve included a couple of photos from the invasion beachhead that are before and after pics of real places he may have walked. 

Raising a toast to the Greatest Generation for liberating continent Europe from fascist rule....

Utah Beach Sea Wall

 

 

Beachhead Bunker

 

Memorial Day

It is, in a way an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away.  The imagination plays a trick.  We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise.  We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired.         

But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and one they would have lived.       

When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers.  They gave up their chance to be revered old men.  They gave up everything for our country, for us.  And all we can do is remember.    

 - Ronald Reagan

 

Originally called Decoration Day - Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service to our country.                          

There is an American Cemetery and Memorial located in Colleville-sur-Mer on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.  Dedicated in 1956 the Cemetery and Memorial is situated closely to the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 - the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.              

This is the final resting place of 9,388 of our military dead - most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations.  If you were to visit this place you will note that upon the walls of the Garden of the Missing are inscribed an additional 1,557 names.  And because old battlefields continue to yield their dead - rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.              

In Plot E Row 26 Grave 37 rests James D. Johnston - Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.   

Jill and I walked this sacred place on a typical rainy Norman morning and while I have no connection to James Johnston, his life before the war, or his survivors following the war, what you can discern from the marker is that Johnston was from North Carolina and was a commander in the same division and infantry regiment my dad served.  

       

Howard Gaertner landed at Utah Beach as an infantry replacement.  He was a machine gunner in a heavy weapons platoon.  Dad fought in the battle of the hedgerows, the breakout at Saint-Lô and Patton's mad dash across northern France.  

Among the first allied troops to participate in the liberation of Belgium his European excursion ended less than three months later by wounds incurred in combat.  By the grace of God (and fortunately for me) he was not killed.  Following his recovery in England he was redeployed and served for a brief period in the US Army of Occupation in Germany.        

 

Johnston died from wounds suffered from the detonation of a German 88mm shell at the blood-stained Crossroads 114 near Acqueville just outside of Cherbourg.*  Death in combat was fickle in the skirmishes and battle for mere meters in the uneven and mixed woodlands and pastures of the Bocage.  Lt Col Johnston was killed - PFC Gaertner was not. 

Dad returned home from the war and lived a full and rewarding life.  He worked quietly in a public school system and never spoke about his war experiences in any great detail until I was well into adulthood.  I am alive today to muse about this subject because he survived.  James Johnston never had the opportunity to sit on the stoop with a a beer and share closely-guarded feelings about the war with a son.        

This is why Memorial Day is bit more personal for me.        

When it came time for a permanent burial, the families of the dead were asked if they wanted their loved ones repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S. or interred overseas.  Lieutenant Colonel Johnston's remains lie here with approximately 461 graves belonging to 9th Infantry Division G.I.s.           

On this holiday it is useful to remember and honor the lives that brave men and women sacrificed.

Both of those lives.   

 

 

 *Eight Stars to Victory - Mittelman, The Battery Press

 

 

This Is What Governing Looks Like

Bravo Mike Johnson for straight-up votes on foreign policy and global security interests. 

No one likes war yet Russia, China and Hamas are antithetical to basic western values.  

Johnson did the correct thing because, as a leader, he saw a differing perspective than a back-bencher like Marjorie Taylor Greene. His leadership today was courageous and he must be congratulated by all regardless of any other consideration.

This is what governing looks like.

Memorial Day

It is, in a way an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away.  The imagination plays a trick.  We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise.  We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired.         

  

But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and one they would have lived.       

When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers.  They gave up their chance to be revered old men.  They gave up everything for our country, for us.  And all we can do is remember.    

 - Ronald Reagan

 

Originally called Decoration Day - Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service to our country.                          

There is an American Cemetery and Memorial located in Colleville-sur-Mer on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.  Dedicated in 1956 the Cemetery and Memorial is situated closely to the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 - the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.              

This is the final resting place of 9,388 of our military dead - most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations.  If you were to visit this place you will note that upon the walls of the Garden of the Missing are inscribed an additional 1,557 names.  And because old battlefields continue to yield their dead - rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.              

In Plot E Row 26 Grave 37 rests James D. Johnston - Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.   

Jill and I walked this sacred place on a typical rainy Norman morning and while I have no connection to James Johnston, his life before the war, or his survivors following the war, what you can discern from the marker is that Johnston was from North Carolina and was a commander in the same division and infantry regiment my dad served.  

       

Howard Gaertner landed at Utah Beach as an infantry replacement.  He was a machine gunner in a heavy weapons platoon.  Dad fought in the battle of the hedgerows, the breakout at Saint-Lô and Patton's mad dash across northern France.  

Among the first allied troops to participate in the liberation of Belgium his European excursion ended less than three months later by wounds incurred in combat.  By the grace of God (and fortunately for me) he was not killed.  Following his recovery in England he was redeployed and served for a brief period in the US Army of Occupation in Germany.        

 

Johnston died from wounds suffered from the detonation of a German 88mm shell at the blood-stained Crossroads 114 near Acqueville just outside of Cherbourg.*  Death in combat was fickle in the skirmishes and battle for mere meters in the uneven and mixed woodlands and pastures of the Bocage.  Lt Col Johnston was killed - PFC Gaertner was not. 

Dad returned home from the war and lived a full and rewarding life.  He worked quietly in a public school system and never spoke about his war experiences in any great detail until I was well into adulthood.  I am alive today to muse about this subject because he survived.  James Johnston never had the opportunity to sit on the stoop with a a beer and share closely-guarded feelings about the war with a son.        

This is why Memorial Day is bit more personal for me.        

When it came time for a permanent burial, the families of the dead were asked if they wanted their loved ones repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S. or interred overseas.  Lieutenant Colonel Johnston's remains lie here with approximately 461 graves belonging to 9th Infantry Division G.I.s.           

On this holiday it is useful to remember and honor the lives that brave men and women sacrificed.

Both of those lives.   

 

 

 *Eight Stars to Victory - Mittelman, The Battery Press