And Margot Kidder before she went koo koo - sweet lady.
Posted on 03/10/2016 6:57:16 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
--SNIP-- In January 1916, to protest President Woodrow Wilson’s support for Carranza, Villa executed 16 U.S. citizens at Santa Isabel in northern Mexico. Then, in early March, he ordered the raid on Columbus. Cavalry from the nearby Camp Furlong U.S. Army outpost pursued the Mexicans, killing several dozen rebels on U.S. soil and in Mexico before turning back. On March 15, under orders from President Wilson, U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa and disperse his rebels. The expedition eventually involved some 10,000 U.S. troops and personnel. It was the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles, including automobiles and airplanes.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
they also had radio wagons...horses at first and then motor powered...
George Patton was an aide to Pershing...ordered his Colt single action pistol from El Paso...I believe...used it to good effect in taking one of Pancho’s ...leaders...
I believe Erwin Rommel(later Desert Fox) was a young aide to the Mexican Federal Army...please correct if I am wrong...
The invasion continues on our soil. No Woodrow Wilson or Pershing to take it under control.
My great-uncle John was around in those days. There was actually considerable sympathy for Villa. He said they were just hungry.
Blackelk relayed a story to me about Pancho Villa crossing the border incognito, getting into a card game with U.S. soldiers, and winning big. When the soldiers thought they could welch on a lone Mexican, they found themselves surrounded by shooters, and paid up.
A fiend of mine who is a student of the history of cinema told me that Pancho Villa actually had a movie crew follow him to bank holdups, and couldn’t market the products, as they were not realistic enough, in the silent movie era!
Quite the character.
Wow, that’s something to think about. My mother was born 100 years ago on this past Monday, and I was looking at how things have changed. One hundred years seems like a long time, but in the big picture it isn’t.
The movie stuff sounds like part of a plot from an episode of the short lived Nichols series.
I visited Columbus in 2002. Interestingly, the local branch of the county library was still using a card catalog. It is also noteworthy that the site of the 1916 raid—Pancho Villa State Park—is named for the perpetrator.
You’re exactly right. 100 years ago my maternal grandfather was in France, fighting the Germans.
Mine was there about the same time, perhaps a bit later.
/On May 14, 2nd Lt. George S. Patton raided the San Miguelito Ranch, near Rubio, Chihuahua. Patton, a Pershing aide and a future World War II general, was out looking to buy some corn from the Mexicans when he came across the ranch of Julio Cárdenas, an important leader in the Villista military organization. With fifteen men and three Dodge touring cars, Patton led America’s first motorised military action, in which Cárdenas and two other men were shot dead. The young lieutenant then had the three Mexicans strapped to the hood of the cars and driven back to General Pershings headquarters. Patton is said to have carved three notches into the twin Colt Peacemakers he carried, representing the men he killed that day. General Pershing nicknamed him the /Bandito/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa_Expedition
My grandfather served in the US Army in this conflict before later heading to Europe for WWI
http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-george-patton
My Regiment Association is sending a small delegate to Camp Fulong where they will dedicate a memorial plaque. The 16th Infantry impressed General Pershing and they were one of the regiments who went with him to France a year later.
The one thing that seems to never change is that Mexico is a political mess
For sure.
My grandfather was working inside a railroad yard in Mexico at the that time. He was twelve years old but had the responsibility of moving the boxcars with whatever type of locomotive that would be used for this. He was eventually forced to drive elements of Villa’s army to and fro until he escaped six months later. He remembered being very frightened by the bodies of people who were hung on the telegraph poles along the train tracks. He finally got home and the whole family bugged out to Yuma, Arizona, where they had family ties.
I believe Erwin Rommel(later Desert Fox) was a young aide to the Mexican Federal Army...please correct if I am wrong...
No, Rommel never set foot on Mexican soil.
On a raid, Lt. George Patton shot and killed Julio Cardenas, a high ranking member of Pancho Villa.
I read a book about Villa and Zapata a few years ago. They estimate about one million Mexicans were killed during the civil war out of population of around 20 million.
Small world, which battalion? I was in B/5-16 Infantry at Riley from ‘85-’87.
And Margot Kidder before she went koo koo - sweet lady.
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