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The FReeper Foxhole - Dick Winters' Reflections on His Band of Brothers - Nov 3rd, 2005
American History Magazine | Christopher J. Anderson

Posted on 11/02/2005 10:46:59 PM PST by snippy_about_it



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.



...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Dick Winters' Reflections




His Band of Brothers, D-Day and Leadership


Major Richard "Dick" Winters of "Band of Brothers" fame speaks candidly about the men and actions of Easy Company and reflects on D-Day and the lessons he learned about leadership.

After his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1945, Major Richard Winters returned to civilian life. He worked for a while for Nixon Nitration Works, the family firm of his wartime friend Louis Nixon. Following a brief tour of duty during the Korean War, he returned to Hershey, Pa., embarked on a successful business career, raised a family and lived the quiet life he had promised himself after his first day in combat on June 6, 1944. In 1992 this solitude was interrupted with the publication of historian Stephen E. Ambrose's best-selling book Band of Brothers, which brought the World War II story of Dick Winters and Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division -- which he had commanded from Normandy to Berchtesgaden -- to the public's attention. The spotlight intensified exponentially when Hollywood's Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks teamed up to bring Winters' story to tens of millions in the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. This mass exposure transformed Winters and his comrades into cultural icons for generations far removed from World War II. They have become the embodiment of millions of American servicemen who marched off to war as ordinary men but achieved extraordinary things.

Faced with his newfound fame, Winters seized the opportunity to continue to lead and instill in others the lessons about leadership he learned in the life and death crucible of war. It was Ambrose who, after chronicling Winters' story, impressed upon him that his leadership ethics could inspire all generations.


Major Dick Winters: After Band of Brothers became such an unexpected success, Ambrose wrote me a letter of thanks. In that letter he said, "Thanks for teaching me the duties and responsibilities of a good company commander." Later on, he again acknowledged me in his book on Lewis and Clark. He continued to do this with every book he wrote afterward. I appreciated that recognition, and I appreciated the fact that he never forgot me. I was one of the first people he called when he said that he had sold the book to Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Ambrose later wrote me another letter and said that in the future, whenever I had an opportunity, I should talk on the subject of leadership. So, as a way to deliver what I believe is an important message, and to honor my friend's request, I speak on this subject whenever I have an opportunity.

Winters' first opportunity to lead came in 1942, when he completed Officer Candidate School and began his journey to Easy Company and war.

When I first joined the Army I took a series of tests to see where I would best fit. I scored high enough that I qualified for Officer Candidate School [OCS]. While I was at OCS at Fort Benning, Ga., I applied for the airborne, a new thing that looked like a challenge. I had always enjoyed sports and physical activity, and there was a certain appeal to being with the best. After graduating from OCS, I reported to Camp Croft, in South Carolina, where I was busy training new men. I had been at this for about 13 weeks when I got orders to report to Camp Toombs in Georgia. On the way to the camp I was pretty unsettled. I took Highway 13, passed a casket factory and reported in at Camp Toombs. There was not much there, and I was assigned to a tar-paper shack. There were no windows in any of the buildings, and the only place with electricity was the latrine. This was rough. But you were expecting to have it rough if you were going to be in the parachute troops.

Training started right away, and there was this Currahee Mountain that we had to run up and down. It was wicked, a real killer. But Currahee was terrific, as it became a test for all the men and officers. Everyone had to run up it -- walk actually, in what we called the "airborne shuffle." It was equal for every man, every officer. Nobody was getting by with a thing. Everybody was being treated the same.

Shortly after Winters' arrival in July 1942, the Georgia camp's name was changed from the ominous Toombs to Toccoa. The new airborne officers were highly selective when it came to picking the men to fill what was to be the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.


Winters at Toccoa


We looked for the ones who looked like they could take it. When the going got tough, could they stick with it? We also looked for the men who accepted discipline. I already knew discipline is what makes a good soldier. On the runs and the hikes it was discipline that kept the men going. Another thing we looked at was if the individual was accepted by the other men. The men themselves did a lot of the work for the officers by sizing each other up. If someone could not be accepted by his fellow soldiers he was gone right away. The men who were told to leave didn't get to vote or make an appeal. This was not a popularity contest.

At Toccoa, Winters first met Colonel Robert Sink, the legendary commander of the 506th. Sink turned down two promotions during the war to stay with the regiment, an unusual choice given his West Point credentials as a professional soldier.

When I first met Sink I was in awe. He was sitting behind his desk smoking a cigarette. He came across as having this West Point attitude. You know, "You are not any big deal." But I learned pretty quickly that my first impression was wrong. Sink was a terrific leader, and he stuck with the regiment from the beginning to the very end of the war. I often wondered during the war how come this guy is sticking around? Frankly, I thought it was his drinking problem. He had a drinking problem, but it did not affect his leadership of the regiment.

This was his first regiment. And if you look at it through his eyes, and you see these troops coming from civilian life, direct from school, from work, maybe a few of them with a little college, and he is supposed to make a regiment out of this group?

It makes it even tougher when you look at the officers he was assigned -- and I include myself here. Here I am, a year out of college. I go through basic training as a volunteer. I signed up for Officer Candidate School. So a 90-day wonder, and now I am a second lieutenant. And this is the kind of stuff he was assigned and told to turn into a crack airborne unit. He had a heck of a job. To make it worse, he had nothing there at the camp. There were no buildings when he first reported in. He had to build an obstacle course. He had to beg, borrow and steal what he needed. He had to search for men who knew even the basics of their job. Of the cadre that he started with in Toccoa, not one of them was around by the time we got into combat. They were all good enough men, they were just not fit enough to be in the airborne. They came in and were there to teach us, give us basic training and construct the camp, put it together, but not one of them was around by the time we were ready to go to France. Sink did a terrific job from start to finish. He stuck with us throughout the entire war. I respect "Bourbon Bob." He was a good man.

Following Camp Toccoa, Winters and his men continued training at Fort Benning and other camps in the States before shipping out for Aldbourne, England, in September 1943. Winters credits his time in the idyllic English village and his relationships with its residents with truly preparing him for the tasks to come.

On the way over to England, the conditions on the troopship were awful; even the officers were crowded together. We arrived in Aldbourne on a Saturday evening and were immediately made busy getting the men settled and bedded down. All of the officers were crowded together in another building. The next morning, Sunday, I decided to get away from everybody to be by myself for a few minutes. The best place to be alone with your thoughts is in church, so I went to church. It gave me a chance to relax a little bit, get my thoughts together. I didn't pay any attention to the sermon, that wasn't important -- I just needed to be alone. After the service I still wanted to enjoy my solitude. Adjacent to the church there was a small cemetery. I went out of the church and walked up a hill to two small benches, and I sat down. As I looked over the cemetery I could see an elderly couple fussing over a grave. They eventually wandered up the hill and sat beside me.

We were soon engaged in a little conversation, and they invited me for tea. We had been briefed on how to handle our dealing with the English. It had been pointed out to us that they were on very strict rationing and that we shouldn't overdo invitations of this kind and make their problem all the more severe. But I went to tea and had a few visits with them after that. Shortly, it was decided that the officers were too crowded and some should be boarded with families in the town. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes offered to take two officers in, as long as I was one of them. I took Lieutenant Harry Welsh with me. Our quarters were with the family in a room over their store. It was not a big room, and we slept on army cots, but it got us away from the crowds. Now Welsh, he enjoyed going out in the evenings to the pubs, but I preferred to stay at home with the Barneses. In the evenings, as was their custom, shortly before 9 o'clock when the news came on, Mrs. Barnes would come up and knock on my door and say, "Lieutenant Winters, would you like to come down and listen to the news and have a spot of tea?" So naturally I took the opportunity to join them and listen to the news. Afterward Mr. Barnes, who was a lay minister, would lead us in a short prayer. Then we would have a small treat and chat for a while. Then, at 10, Mr. Barnes would announce that it was time for bed. That ritual became so important. I'd found a home away from home.

And, you see, the day I first saw the Barnes couple they had been decorating the grave of their son, who was in the Royal Air Force and had been killed. They adopted me and made me part of the family. This helped me prepare mentally for what I was about to face. As I look back on the months before the invasion, my stay with the Barnes family was so important. They were giving me the best treatment they could; they gave me a home, which was so important for my maturing.

While his time with the Barnes family afforded him an opportunity for calm and reflection, the days after his transfer to the marshaling area at Uppottery, England, were filled with final preparations for the impending invasion of Normandy.

They would take groups of us into tents in the marshaling areas to brief us and show us sand table models of the area where we were going to be jumping. When I went into the tent, a staff officer instructed us to memorize everything we saw -- the roads, bridges, trenches, everything. It was all very impressive, but you can only take so much of this. Frankly, I didn't let myself get carried away trying to memorize every cockeyed thing, because the big thing in life, not only in making a jump into Normandy, is that you have got to be able to think on your feet. That's what we had to do, and that's what we did. You've got to be able to think on your feet throughout your life. You have to do it every day.

The miniseries depicts a moment in the marshaling area at Uppottery when Winters disciplines Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton, a fellow officer and close friend.

Compton had been with the company for six months, and I liked him very much. One problem, however, was that he had gotten into the habit of gambling with some of the men in the marshaling area. That is why I reprimanded him. It is a poor policy, and it puts him in the position, the embarrassing position, that if he wins, he must take from the men. He had taken from the men already. The point I was trying to make is that you have to be prepared to give to the people you lead. You must give in every way. You must give of your time, and you must be consistent in your treatment of them. You must never take from people you lead. Later, at Brécourt Manor, Compton did a fantastic job leading his men.

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Winters leapt out into the flak-filled skies over Normandy and landed outside of Ste. Mère-Eglise just after 1 o'clock in the morning. After a harrowing night, he managed to collect a handful of men from Easy Company and bring them to Le Grand-Chemin, from where he led the attack on a battery of four German guns at Brécourt Manor -- guns that lay at the end of crucial Causeway No. 2, and that the 4th Infantry Division needed to get off Utah Beach. Of all Winters' actions in France, the destruction of German guns positioned at Brécourt Manor, raining down fire on the Americans struggling off Utah Beach, has been the most often cited. Professors at West Point have used this action as a lesson on the proper method of carrying out a small-unit attack. Chillingly depicted in the HBO miniseries, this daring assault is credited with saving many lives and expediting the advance of American forces inland on D-Day.




After roaming around at the tail end of another column for most of the evening, I finally stumbled into Le Grand-Chemin, where the 2nd Battalion was gathering. At the time, E Company consisted of just 13 men. As I was sitting there with my men, an officer came back and said, "Winters, they want you up front!" When I got there, Captain Clarence Hester turns to me and says: "There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it." That was it. There was no elaborate plan or briefing. I didn't even know what was on the other side of the hedgerow. All I had were my instructions, and I had to quickly develop a plan from there. And as it turns out, I did. We were able to take out those four German guns with the loss of only one man, Private John Hall, who was killed just in front of me. He was a good man, and his death was hard on me. But the attack leaves good memories. We got the job done. It was only later, much later, that I realized how important knocking out those guns had been to our securing Causeway 2, which became the main causeway for troops coming off Utah Beach.

Years later, I heard from someone who had come up off the beach on that causeway. This guy, a medic, had been following behind some tanks. As they came up from the beach, one of the tanks became disabled. When the driver got out, he stepped on a mine. The medic went out into the field and patched this guy up. Later, after the book came out, this medic wrote me a letter and pointed out that he always wondered why the fire onto Utah Beach had stopped. "Thanks very much," he said. "I couldn't have made it without those guns being knocked out." That medic was a man named Eliot Richardson, who, as it turns out, later became attorney general in the Nixon administration. So we did a little good out there for those troops coming in on D-Day, which makes you feel pretty good.




FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links




TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: airborne; freeperfoxhole; history; majordickwinters; samsdayoff; usarmy; veterans; wwii
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To: bentfeather

Busted.

Yep, I live with capslock on. All of my drawings are done in upper case lettering. It makes them more readable.


181 posted on 11/08/2005 12:41:39 PM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: Professional Engineer; snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; bentfeather; All
Bump for the Hump Day edition of the Freeper Foxhole.

Forecast for Kansas City today: North West winds at about 20mph with gusts up to 35mph, if we are lucky it won't get any colder than it is now at 5 AM 55F.

Any chance I can get yesterday back :-)

Off to work for another twelve hours of fun and frivolity>

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

182 posted on 11/09/2005 3:01:07 AM PST by alfa6
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To: alfa6; snippy_about_it; bentfeather; Samwise; Peanut Gallery; Wneighbor; Valin; Iris7; SAMWolf; ...
Good morning ladies and gents. Flag-o-Twofer Wednesday-o-Gram.

Bittygirl says she voted touchscreen.


183 posted on 11/09/2005 5:52:34 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: Professional Engineer

Morning PE, this is just too, cute. What a sweetie.


Thanks so much.


184 posted on 11/09/2005 6:11:48 AM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: alfa6

Morning alfa!!


Well, we ain't having a heat wave in old NY either. LOL

I think your temp is higher than ours.


Awesome machine there.


185 posted on 11/09/2005 6:13:35 AM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: SAMWolf

Hey Sam, I have not seen you forever!! How are you??
186 posted on 11/09/2005 6:46:47 AM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: Professional Engineer

Is this your little girl? darling pix! I have saved it to use somehow on a FR Finest thread in future...what a cutie!


187 posted on 11/09/2005 6:50:12 AM PST by DollyCali (Don't tell GOD how big your storm is -- Tell the storm how B-I-G your s God is!)
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To: alfa6; snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; Professional Engineer; Peanut Gallery; The Mayor; bentfeather; ...

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on November 09:
1731 Benjamin Banneker Ellicott MD, black mathematician/surveyor (Wash DC)
1802 Elijah P Lovejoy American newspaper publisher/abolitionist
1818 Ivan Turgenev Russia, novelist/poet/playwright (Fathers & Sons)
1825 Ambrose P Hill Lt General (Commander 3rd Corps, ANV)
1841 Edward VII king of England (1901-10)
1850 Lewis Lewin Germany, toxicologist/father of psychopharmacology
1886 Ed Wynn Philadelphia PA, comedian (Ed Wynn Show)
1898 Paul Robeson actor/singer/football star (King Solomon's Mines)
1903 Gregory Pincus inventor (birth control pill)
1905 James William Fulbright (Ex-Sen-D-ARK.)
1907 Burrill Phillips Omaha Nebraska, composer (Play Ball)
1913 Hedy Lamarr actress (Ecstacy, Samson & Delilah)
1915 Sargent Shriver Dem VP candidate (1972)/directed Peace Corp
1918 Florence Chadwick swimmer (Swimming Hall of Fame)
1918 Spiro Theodore Agnew (R) 39th VP (1973-77), crook
1921 Viktor Chukarin USSR, gymnast (Olympic-gold-1952, 56)
1931 Whitey Herzog baseball manager (St Louis Cardinals)
1932 Carl Perkins singer (Blue Suede Shoes, Honey Don't)
1934 Carl Sagan NYC, astronomer/author/professor (Cosmos, Broca's Brain)
1935 Bob Gibson Cardinal pitcher (Cy Young/NL MVP 1968)
1936 Mikhail N Tal USSR, world chess champion (1960-61)
1942 Tom Weiskopf Ohio, PGA golfer (British Open 1973)
1945 Roger Lee Jones WV, child molester (FBI Most Wanted List)
1948 Sharon Stouder US, 100m butterfly swimmer (Olympic-gold-1964)
1951 Lou Ferrigno Brooklyn NY, body builder/actor (Incredible Hulk)



Deaths which occurred on November 09:
1874 Israel Bak created 1st hebrew printing press, dies
1952 Chaim Weizmann 1st President of Israel, dies at 57
1953 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud founder of Saudi Arabia, dies (born c 1880)
1953 Dylan Thomas author-poet, dies in NY at 39
1967 Charles Bickford actor (Johnny Belinda, Virginian), dies at 68
1970 Charles DeGaulle French President, dies at 79
1970 William L Dawson (Rep-D-Ill), dies at 84
1976 Billy Halop actor (Bert Munson-All in the Family), dies at 56
1978 Joe Wong actor (Ken Murray Show), dies at 75
1980 Victor Sen Yung actor (Bonanza, Bachelor Family), dies at 65
1985 Helen Rose costume designer, dies at 81
1988 John Mitchell former Attorney General, dies of heart attack in Washington
1991 Yves Montand actor, dies at 70 from a heart attack
2000 Hussein Abayat, a West Bank terrorist commander, was killed by a missile from an Israeli helicopter gunship
2003 Art Carney, actor (b.1918) died


Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
09-Nov-2003 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Nicholas A. Tomko Iskandariyah (W of) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack

09-Nov-2004 14 | US: 14 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Abraham Simpson Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant David M. Caruso Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant John Byron Trotter Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Staff Sergeant Todd R. Cornell Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Staff Sergeant Russell L. Slay Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Nathan R. Wood Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Nicholas D. Larson Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal William C. James Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Juan E. Segura Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant Lonny D. Wells Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Command Sergeant Major Steven W. Faulkenburg Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Specialist Travis A. Babbitt Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire
US Master Sergeant Steven E. Auchman Mosul - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - mortar attack
US Major Horst Gerhard "Gary" Moore Mosul - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - mortar attack




Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY


http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php


On this day...
0694 Spanish King Egica accuses Jews of aiding Moslems; sentences them to slavery
1526 Jews are expelled from Pressburg Hungary by Maria of Hapsburg
1720 Rabbi Yehuda Hasid synagogue set afire
1799 Napoleon becomes dictator (1st consul) of France
1821 1st US pharmacy college holds 1st classes, Philadelphia
1853 Origin of Carrington rotation numbers for rotation of the Sun
1857 Atlantic Monthly magazine 1st published
1858 1st performance of NY Symphony Orchestra
1861 Battle of Piketon, KY
1862 US Grant issues orders to bar Jews from serving under him (quickly rescinded)
1864 Sherman designs his "March to the Sea"
1864 1st export of goods from Burrard Inlet, BC to a foreign country
1872 Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston
1877 American Chemical Society chartered in NY
1904 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt leaves Washington, D.C., for a 17-day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official visit outside of the United States
1913 Storm "Freshwater Fury" sinks 8 ore-carriers on Great Lakes
1918 Bavaria proclaims itself a republic
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates after German defeat in WW I
1924 Miriam (Ma) Ferguson becomes 1st elected woman governor (of Texas)
1927 Giant Panda discovered, China
1930 1st nonstop airplane flight from NY to Panama
1932 Hurricane storm wave sweeps over Santa Cruz del Sur Cuba kills 2,500
1935 United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.(CIO)
1938 "Kristallnacht" (Crystal Night)-Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jews
1938 Al Capp, cartoonist of Lil' Abner creates Sadie Hawkins Day
1946 Pres Truman ends wage/price freeze
1950 White Sox release Luke Appling, who had been a Sox since 1930
1953 Cambodia (now Kampuchea) gains independence within French Union
1953 Supreme Court rules Major League baseball exempt from anti-trust laws
1961 PGA eliminates Caucasians only rule
1961 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 30,970 m
1965 5:16 PM, massive power failure in New Engl, & Ontario (NY blackout)
1965 Willie Mays named NL MVP
1967 1st unmanned Saturn V flight to test Apollo 4 reentry module
1970 Trial of Seattle 8 anti-war protesters begins
1971 John List kills family & moves to Colorado
1973 Fire at Taiyo department store, kills 101 & injures 84 (Kumamoto Japan)
1973 Ringo releases "Ringo" album
1976 UN General Assembly condemns apartheid in South Africa
1980 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declares holy war against Iran
1982 Sugar Ray Leonard retires for the 1st time
1983 Discovery flies from Vandenberg AFB to Kennedy Space Center
1984 Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("3 Servicemen") completed
1985 Gary Kasparov (USSR) becomes World Chess Champion at age of 22
1988 MLB All-Star team beat Japan 8-2 in Nishinomya, (Game 4 of 7)
1989 The Berlin Wall is opened after dividing the city for 28 years.
1990 President Bush announces DOUBLING of US forces in Gulf
1993 Serbian army fires on school in Sarajevo, 9 children died
1997 Algerian terrorists disguised as policemen slit the throats of 28 civilians in 2 separate attacks in the northwest
2000 Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts, claiming “an injustice unparalleled in our history.”
(Sore-Loserman)
2001 Northern Alliance forces under Gen. Rashid Dostum claimed the capture of Mazar-e-Sharif.
2002 450,000 marched through Florence in a protest against globalization and U.S. policy in Iraq....and the high price of birkenstocks


Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Pakistan : Iqbal Day
Tunisia : Arbor Day/Tree Festival Day
Turks & Caicos Island : Peacemaker's Day
US : Hire A Veteran Week (day 4)
US : Womens Veterans Recognition Week (Day 4)
Chaos Never Dies Day
One Nation Under God Month


Religious Observances
RC : Dedication of Church of Lateran (Basilica of Our Savior), Rome
RC-Vatican City : Feast of Dedication of Church of Lateran, Rome


Religious History
1538 German reformer Martin Luther declared: 'It would be a good thing if young people were wise and old people were strong, but God has arranged things better.'
1800 Birth of Asa Mahan, American educator and Congregational clergyman. President of Oberlin College in Ohio from 1835_1850, Mahan was instrumental in establishing interracial college enrollment and in the granting of college degrees to women.
1836 Birth of Christian business traveler Samuel Hill. In 1899 Hill, John Nicholson and W.J. Knights co_founded the Gideons, a Christian organization that ministers through distribution of the Scriptures. To date, the Gideons have placed over 12 million Bibles and 100 million New Testaments.
1837 British philanthropist Moses Montefiore, 52, became the first Jew to be knighted in England. Montefiore was a banking executive who devoted his life to the political and civil emancipation of English Jews.
1938 The worst Jewish pogrom in peacetime Germany took place as Nazi thugs led a "spontaneous" campaign of terror. During the night 267 synagogues were plundered, 7,500 shops were wrecked, 91 Jews were killed and 20,000 others were arrested and sent to concentration camps. It was afterward known as "Kristallnacht" because of the thousands of windows broken.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.


Golfer makes his way across UK

A golfer has played his way across Britain.
David Sullivan played his way from John O'Groats to Land's End in 70 days taking 247,387 strokes reports The Sun.

David from Oxted, Surrey is hoping to raise £250,000 for charities - and get in the Guinness Book of Records.


Thought for the day :
"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."
Guillaume Apollinaire


188 posted on 11/09/2005 6:56:52 AM PST by Valin (Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum)
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To: Valin
1961 PGA eliminates Caucasians only rule

Good idea PGA!

Charles Sifford

Calvin Peete

Super Mex - Lee Trevino

Guess?

189 posted on 11/09/2005 7:49:59 AM PST by w_over_w (This tagline is blank, well, not actually blank but it would be if I didn't just tell you.)
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To: Professional Engineer; SAMWolf; snippy_about_it
Thanks for the ping, P.E.

I want to wish all in the Foxhole a happy Berlin Wall Day. To all Cold War veterans, well done!

190 posted on 11/09/2005 8:23:51 AM PST by colorado tanker (I can't comment on things that might come before the Court, but I can tell you my Pinochle strategy)
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To: Valin
1934 Carl Sagan NYC, astronomer/author/professor (Cosmos, Broca's Brain)

He never said, "billions and billions", according to his last book.

191 posted on 11/09/2005 8:35:12 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: Professional Engineer

I used to watch Cosmos all the time, and I could have sworn that he said it.


192 posted on 11/09/2005 9:22:47 AM PST by Peanut Gallery
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To: Professional Engineer

< /smooch>


193 posted on 11/09/2005 9:23:31 AM PST by Peanut Gallery
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To: Professional Engineer

Awwwwwwwwww. Whata sweetie!


194 posted on 11/09/2005 9:59:19 AM PST by Samwise (The media is "stuck on stupid.")
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To: Peanut Gallery

SIGH

iT'S A BLUE SOCK/BLACK SOCK DAY.


195 posted on 11/09/2005 10:50:30 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: bentfeather

Hi miss Feather


196 posted on 11/09/2005 10:56:57 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: DollyCali; bittygirl
Is this your little girl? darling pix! I have saved it to use somehow on a FR Finest thread in future...what a cutie!

Yes, she is. Check her profile page to her Love Tank.

197 posted on 11/09/2005 10:58:44 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: Samwise

How's the Shire today?


198 posted on 11/09/2005 11:01:27 AM PST by Professional Engineer (It's not always yelling ya' know.)
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To: Professional Engineer

The world is conspiring to really tick me off. I need a pint.


199 posted on 11/09/2005 12:25:53 PM PST by Samwise (The media is "stuck on stupid.")
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To: Professional Engineer

Thanks for the cutie pie flag-o-gram.


200 posted on 11/09/2005 7:56:19 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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