The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Major General Fox Conner - May 23rd, 2006

see educational sources

[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.

.

.

.

Major General Fox Conner

.

“The Man Who Made Eisenhower”

Men such as Douglas MacArthur and George Patton came from families with rich military heritages. They regarded the United States Military Academy at West Point as their first important step in a lifetime of military service. Dwight Eisenhower, on the other hand, saw “the Point” as little more than the source of a free college education and a place to play college sports, especially football. Ike was by no means certain he would make the Army a career.

By graduation in 1915, the future supreme commander of allied armies was known to his classmates as a fun-loving maverick, one who had earned little in the way of academic distinction or knowledge of military science. Four years of schooling above the Hudson River had yet to shape Ike into a military leader.


Dwight D. Eisenhower (With the Tank Corps, Camp Meade, Maryland, 1919.)

Indeed, after several years in the service, Eisenhower was downright discouraged. Despite enormous personal effort, he had not been sent overseas during World War I, the “Great War.” Then, when his intellectual potential began to emerge, he was slapped down by his superiors. In 1920, he was given a stiff verbal reprimand for having published an article about the future of tank warfare, an article deemed provocative and heretical by the Army’s chief of infantry. Less than a year later he was stoutly reprimanded for an honest mistake that would have seemed trivial outside the Army.

Without a combat record and having earned the disapproval of important superior officers, Ike’s military future looked bleak. Then, in 1921, his three-year-old son, Doud Dwight, died of scarlet fever. Ike and Mamie were devastated. It was a depressed and deeply dejected Captain Eisenhower who took up his new assignment in January 1922 at Camp Gaillard, in the Panama Canal Zone.


Camp Gaillard, Panama, 1922 General Fox Conner awards a commision to Eisenhower

The Army commander at the Canal Zone, Brigadier General Fox Conner, had been General Pershing’s Chief of Operations in France during the Great War. Wealthy, intellectual, and immensely respected throughout the Army, Conner had pulled some heavy strings to get Eisenhower transferred to Panama as his executive officer.

A top Army strategist and military historian, Conner was convinced that the peace treaty following the war was deeply flawed and would inevitably trigger a second world war. To prepare for that struggle, Conner set out to identify and guide the most talented younger officers, those who were likely to become the future leaders of the American Army. George Catlett Marshall was an early choice for his cultivation and then George S. Patton, Jr., followed. Patton introduced Conner to Eisenhower in 1919, and Ike soon became the next addition to the General’s list of promising officers.

For the next three years Fox Conner taught graduate courses in military history, strategy, and leadership in a “virtual” classroom located in the humid jungle of Panama. This classroom contained a single student, Dwight David Eisenhower. Military history classes at West Point had been poorly taught. But Fox Conner stirred Ike’s interest in history — he taught Ike how to read it, think it, and intelligently discuss its lessons. He drummed into Eisenhower his belief that another world war could not be escaped and that whenever it came it would have to be fought with allies. He imbedded this thought in Eisenhower’s mind: “Dealing with the enemy is a simple and straightforward matter when contrasted with securing close cooperation with an ally.”


Ike in Panama

Eisenhower was transformed by his mentor. Three years of rigorous service and education with Fox Conner changed his life. Ike became a more serious reader of everything from military history to science, philosophy and the classics. With Conner’s help, Eisenhower overcame depression and set out with determination to resurrect his military career.

General Conner’s mentorship continued long after Eisenhower’s assignment to Panama ended. Conner helped Ike in gaining admission to the Army’s Command and General Staff School. Ike graduated first in his class. Conner later influenced Eisenhower’s assignment to the American Battle Monuments Commission. This gave Ike the chance to work directly under General Pershing. Conner’s final act as a mentor was to bring Ike’s talents to the attention of George Marshall. When World War II came to America in 1941 — just as Conner had predicted — one of Marshall’s first actions was to have Eisenhower appointed to his personal staff.

Little wonder that in 1969 Frank Van Riper characterized General Conner as “the man who made Eisenhower.”

© Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Washington, DC, 2004

[Professional Engineer]

wiseacre

[Professional Engineer]

Didja get pictures to share?

[Soaring Feather]

Nah, nary a camera in sight. ;(

[Professional Engineer]

Now there's a word ya hear everyday.

[Professional Engineer]

[The Mayor]

May 28, 2006

The Angel Of Music

READ: Ephesians 6:10-18

Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. —2 Corinthians 11:14 In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera, a young chorus girl named Christine Daae receives voice training from a mysterious musician she calls the “Angel of Music.” Christine believes this is the angel her dying father had promised to send to complete her musical training.

As the plot thickens, we find that her mysterious mentor is really a demented man who wants to carry her away into a bizarre underworld beneath the opera house. What the girl thinks is a supernatural agent sent by her beloved father is really a madman who wants to possess her for his own ends. The “Angel of Music” is evil masquerading as good.

The believer in Christ also faces an evil one who masquerades. One of Satan’s key strategies is to look like someone who is good. Paul told us, “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). The Greek word translated as “transforms” means “to change appearance, masquerade, or disguise oneself.”

In preparing us to face the evil strategies of the devil, God has provided all the equipment we need to stand our ground. Protecting ourselves with the armor of God unmasks the evil that opposes us and stabilizes our spiritual walk (Ephesians 6:10-18). —Dennis Fisher

When you’re making a decision,
Evil sometimes wears a mask;
Trust the Lord for true discernment—
He’ll give wisdom if you ask.  —Hess

God’s armor is tailor-made for us, but we must put it on.

Bible in One Year: Bible in One Year:  2 Chronicles 4-6; John 10:24-42

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.
We remember them.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies and gents. Flag-o-The Greatest Spectacle In Racing-o-Gram.

Soldiers and Marines pose at the only remaining bricks from the original Indianapolis Motor Speedway track. The servicemembers were guests of Checkers/Rally's restaurants for the Checkers/Rally's Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley

OOH-RAH sized

[Soaring Feather]

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae


IN FLANDERS FIELDS


In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Russlaw]

I just ran across this article on MG Conner. How wonderful! Good for You! He has been a source of fascination to me for several years and I have devoted the last four to writing a soon to be published book on his life, as well as Eisenhower's mentoring while assigned to Camp Gaillard, Panama. It is unfortunate that Gen. Berry's article is still sold as accurate history. With all due espect to the General, who probably was ghost written, many of his dates and assignements do not jive with the official record nor does his version of Eisenhower's intro to Conner square with the historical record. Virgina Conner's long lost book, "What Father Forbad" offers unique insight into that relationship. Berry does not use it as a source.His date of the meeting is also a year off. His fact checker was asleep at the switch. It's unfortunate Gen. Berry put his name to this much used article, without having the facts verified. Also, as an aside, the picture of the bi-plane aircraft on the site is not from Panama in the 20's, but from actually from Eisenhower's assignment in the Philippines..next to Ike stands his close friend "Gee" Gerow who was killed in an aircraft accident while stationed there with Ike as the two were assigned as aides to MacArthur. An assignment that Ike came to loathe.
General Conner was a talented and blunt spoken man whose lines Patton often used; "the crap through a goose" line of the Geo. C. Scott film can be traced to a lecture given by Conner at the War College in 1933, with Patton attending. Conner and Patton were good friends having both married wealthy, strong willed women who were both pharmaceutical/notions heiresses.Avid outdoorsmen, they once rented a houseboat and fished their way from Tampa to Havanna Bay.
I agree MG Conner is a historical enigma...so much so that most of the bio's and snippets of his life are highly innacurate...being a very private man...he probably liked it that way.
I am happy to correspond with anyone regarding MG Conner, Camp Gaillard and young Major Eisenhower. My address is russlaw2000@yahoo.com
My best,
Russ S.