Bon Mots From Madeleine

Posted on December 9, 2012 by yellojkt

IMG_0027This afternoon rather than watching the Ravens-[Ethnic Slurs] game, I went to a talk at the Newseum given by Madeleine Albright. She was plugging her memoir Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War but she talked about a lot about other current issues as well.

Her primary message was that as a Czechoslovakian refugee from the Nazis who lived through The Blitz as a child she has a unique perspective on the United States’ role in the world. She particularly warns against the American tendency towards isolation. She wonders how the world might have been different if the United States had been at the table during the negotiations between France, Britain and Nazi Germany over the eventual fate of Czechoslovakia.

She had a very nuanced take on the events in Libya. As a former Secretary of State she emphasized that ambassadors are the eyes and ears of the United States in foreign countries. That is why embassies tend to be in the center of capitols where they are tough to defend. She noted that the trend to make embassies fortresses began after embassy bombings during her tenure.

During the Q and A she gave some other interesting observations. When asked about the UN Disability Treaty vote she lamented that it seemed to have been the result of “people who believe the United Nations actually has black helicopters to secretly steal their lawn furniture. Their problem with the UN seems to that it is full of foreigners which is tough to avoid.”

She was also asked about her advocacy for women getting involved in public affairs. She had earlier noted that her father had a bright young student he had inspired to study international diplomacy, one Condalezza Rice, making her father responsible for two of the three female Secretaries of State the US has had. The third is a fellow Wellesley alumna. While she thinks women in power are a force for good she said that “If you think a world run entirely by women would be a good thing, you don’t remember high school.” She also said she would support a pro-choice man over a woman who wasn’t.

Overall, I was very impressed with her expansive knowledge and sly sense of humor. She is a national treasure who should be listened to.

Filed under: Foreign Policy, WWII | Tagged: | 7 Comments »

“Unbroken” – A Book Review

Posted on October 6, 2012 by lmsinca

Interestingly enough this was a difficult book for me to read. Next month will be the five year anniversary of my father’s death. He was a bombardier (First Lieutenant) in WWII and flew over Germany in support of Patton’s Army. Their B17 suffered from structural problems, not unlike the B24.

Part of a passage from my father’s diary reminds me how dangerous their mission was:

Al and I were looking up records of previous missions of the Group. Since they started B-17’s they have had three times as many “major aircraft damage” in half as many missions. Ratio-six to one. That isn’t good.

A couple of years ago I received a copy of a letter my father wrote to one of his buddies after arriving in Europe that never reached his friend. He went down with the plane and the pilot during a terrible fire on the plane, originating in the bomb bay, while most of the crew was able to abandon ship. His nephew tracked me down and I sent him a copy of my dad’s diary and he sent me a copy of the letter my father wrote to his uncle.

My father was also raised in Southern California, not far from Torrance, and graduated from USC. He attended college after the war however, taking advantage of the GI Bill. Reading Louie’s story occupied my time with a lot of reflection and comparing and contrasting stories. It was very strange for me. I kept wishing I could ask my dad what he knew about Louie, if anything.

My father was also an athlete, although not in the same league as Louie (football and swimming), and always stressed participation in athletics as a character building exercise and that the discipline needed to succeed in sports would be useful in fighting life’s adversities. It’s one of the lessons I tried to pass on to our children. Reading Unbroken, I couldn’t help but believe that Louie’s passion for, and commitment to running taught him how to survive in some of the worst circumstances we can imagine.

Anyway, it was an odd experience for me reading the book, even down to the description of the crew flying the Enola Gay and dropping the bomb over Hiroshima. One of my father’s best friends, Rick Nelson, was the radio man on that flight. Reading how the pilot desperately tried to maneuver the plane away from the blast and how the fillings in his teeth tingled gave me chills. I sat around a dining room table on many occasions listening to that story and more.

Luckily my father had a much different experience than Louie. Even though there were bomb bay door fires, feathered engines, blown tires, damaged landing gear, hot flak breaking through the skin of the airplane, and even one emergency landing in Belgium, he flew his 36 missions and came home without suffering the terrible conditions many of these young men did, if they were lucky enough to survive at all.

Another reason I had trouble reading the book was because of the awful conditions the POW’s suffered from. It was a very vivid reminder of why we used to be so careful in our treatment of enemy combatants, at least I thought we were. That kind of brutality and suffering is difficult for me to read about.

This passage from the book really resonated with me.

Few societies treasured dignity, and feared humiliation, as did the Japanese, for whom a loss of honor could merit suicide. This is likely one of the reasons why Japanese soldiers in World War II debased their prisoners with such zeal, seeking to take from them that which was most painful and destructive to lose. On Kwajalein, Louie and Phil learned a dark truth known to the doomed in Hitler’s death camps, the slaves of the American South, and a hundred other generations of betrayed people. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.

I’ll be curious to hear what the rest of you thought of the book.

Filed under: 2012, Book Review, Unbroken, WWII | 85 Comments »

August 11, 1943

Posted on August 10, 2012 by markinaustin

During early 1943, after he had negotiated the withdrawal of the Vichy French from north Africa, the American Fifth Army was formed under the command of Mark Clark.  He was one of Marshall’s “boys” – Ike, Patton, Bradley, and Clark.

Patton’s II Corps was attached to British First Army in north Africa and distinguished itself on the ground. Clark received much credit for strategic command. Clark was also in strategic command of the intended eventual American invasion of Italy. USA Fifth planned its crossing to Italy for September. Meanwhile, the British Eighth Army had crossed the Mediterranean, with the American Seventh Army attached, and under Patton’s command.

On August 3, 1943, Patton had his famous slapping incident, which would have got someone not one of Marshall’s boys cashiered.

On August 11, 1943, Patton took the first toehold in Sicily.

That news had not reached my dad, who decided his son would be named “Mark”.  Many boys were named “Mark” in 1943. It was probably the most popular name for boys that year, in the USA.

Filed under: WWII | 18 Comments »

D-Day, 68 years ago today

Posted on June 6, 2012 by ScottC

A few photos from my trip last year:


Overlooking Omaha Beach

Another view, from a machine gunner’s nest

From the beach, looking inland

A sense of how much beach had to be crossed at low tide

View from a German bunker, looking out at the beach

The cliffs of Pointe du Hoc

A small patch of American land in France.

Filed under: WWII | 11 Comments »

Memories from WWII

Posted on November 11, 2011 by lmsinca

My Dad was a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II and flew 35 missions over Germany as a bombardier in a B-17. He wanted to be a pilot but a deviated septum kept him out of the cock pit. He celebrated his 20th. birthday over there at the end of 1944 and kept a diary of his missions, summarizing the first 11, and then documenting each one after that in a 3” X 5” brown spiral notebook written in pencil. When I was in 8th grade I was home sick from school one day and, being a “nosey parker”, was going through his photos of the war and came across his little book. The front page simply said “Secret!” and so naturally I spent the rest of the day reading it and even took it to school the next day to share with one of my classes. Boy, did I get into a lot of trouble for that. Shortly before my Dad died I again rummaged through all his war memorabilia and put together a beautiful shadow box piece for him for Father’s Day. We invited a lot of his friends and our family over to honor his life and his service but I couldn’t find the diary. I asked him about it but he indicated he didn’t know what happened to it. A few weeks after his death I finally came across it again, a little post it on the front with my name on it, and to this day it is a treasured keepsake in our family.

Here are just a few of the entries.

September, 1944

The raid on Magdeburg was very successful. Visibility was good but flak was very accurate. Think it was as rough as any mission we have been on. It was on this raid that we believe we saw a “jet plane”, the first and only enemy aircraft to be seen by any of our crew so far.

Next day came Ludwigshafen, a target which has been attacked again and again by the 8th Air Force. I have never seen it hit really successfully. Again the flak was very accurate. Tail gunner saw a B-17 go down in pieces and flames and I saw one circling slowly with #3 engine spurting flames and also saw three chutes.

It was on the 17th of Sept. that we got our Air Medal mission. Was a milk run to Holland. We bombed flak installations around the Arnhem. This was in preparation for the great airborne invasion. Arnhem later became quite the headline news.

October 4, 1944

We have now earned a cluster for the Air Medal. Could have been a rough mission but I guess we were just lucky. The bombing was done PFF and the target was marshalling yards at Koln (Cologne). They briefed us on 290 guns but the gunners must have been out to lunch. Some of them came close but there wasn’t too much. Barney picked up a few holes and was forced to feather #4. It was colder than it has ever been so far, -40 C. The flag’s up so maybe will get #13 in tomorrow. Could hope for an easy one but I think they are a thing of the past. By the way, the bombing today was in support of the attack on Aachen.

November 5, 1944

We just got back from a rough one to Ludwigshafen. They really threw up everything at us. I believe there was more flak than ever before. We lost two ships over the target. They were out of the low squadron. Our primary target, visual only, was in direct support of a drive by Gen. Patton. However it was 10/10 and we had to go on to Ludwigshafen. This broke clear and all 270 guns had a shot at us. Am anxious to hear how Patton did without us. We were to bomb some big guns north of Metz. That was number 19, getting right along.

December 4, 1944

Not a bad mission! Things went fairly well until we made the bomb run, didn’t drop the bombs and made a tight 180 turn. Our squadron was flying the high and we were on the inside of the turn. The air speed (115) really dropped and our formation broke all to hell. We were really wide open for fighter attack. Luckily none were around. There was a big hole in the clouds and so we visually bombed the marshalling yards at Friedberg. There was no flak over the target and therefore we were able to enjoy the impact of the bombs. Was the first time I had seen incendiaries hit. First came the usual upheaval of the dermis and then these hundreds of little fires like fire flies all over the area. It is indescribable. The only difficulty was in the fact that we hit a little short. We did start a fire in the middle of the yards though, all in all not bad.

December 16, 1944

Well we really flew a good one today. The weather was such that the whole 8th. Air Force consisted of but 9 groups, 3 from each division. Even at that, the 1st. scrubbed and we think the 2nd. did also. Had a hell of a time forming because of all kinds of clouds and contrails. After we left England and hit the continent the high and middle clouds broke up and we almost had a visual run. In fact the high squadron did final bombing visual. They hit the target but the lead missed it.

The rough part came on return when we ran into these clouds which we could neither climb over nor go beneath. We peeled off here (near Brussels) and came back individually. I really started to sweat when we hit the English coast at 250’ and were still in the clouds. We could see patches of the ground which made it a little better. We were sort of afraid to let down much lower. Well anyway, we found the field, made our landing and now have in 29 missions. The flak was very light which made things rather nice over the target. I would have hated to fly through that stuff with a feathered engine or the like.

Gen. Partridge commended the group for this mission. He did this without knowing any of the results. It was purely because of the adverse weather conditions. Col. Good said it was the first time he had heard of a mission being flown in such lousy weather. Ain’t we good? By the way the target was the R.R. Marshalling Yards just north of Stuttgart and was in direct support of Gen. Patton’s Army. Seems they are having a little trouble with the Huns in that area. Number 30 tomorrow, I hope.

He counted down every mission until the 35th. and always wanted to fly every chance he had. There were a few close calls, but in general he thought he lead a charmed existence to live through it and took that confidence and what he liked to call luck with him and went on to live a great and happy life.

Happy Veteran’s Day to all you guys and gals out there who had the courage to serve your country.

Filed under: Veterans Day, WWII | 32 Comments »