The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Matthew Bunker Ridgway - Jul. 12th, 2003

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ridgway.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

Dear Lord,

There's a young man far from home,
called to serve his nation in time of war;
sent to defend our freedom
on some distant foreign shore.

We pray You keep him safe,
we pray You keep him strong,
we pray You send him safely home ...
for he's been away so long.

There's a young woman far from home,
serving her nation with pride.
Her step is strong, her step is sure,
there is courage in every stride.
We pray You keep her safe,
we pray You keep her strong,
we pray You send her safely home ...
for she's been away too long.

Bless those who await their safe return.
Bless those who mourn the lost.
Bless those who serve this country well,
no matter what the cost.

Author Unknown

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

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

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Lt General Matthew Bunker Ridgway
(1895 - 1993)

Portrait Courtesy of the U.S. Army
Center For Military History

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Matthew Bunker Ridgway was proud of the fact that he an "Army Brat," son of Colonel Thomas Ridgway, an artillery officer, and the former Ruth Starbuck Bunker. He was born March 3, 1895, Ft Monroe, Virginia, where his father was stationed. He said in his memoirs "Soldier," (Harper & Brothers, 1956) that his "earliest memories are of guns and Marching men, of rising to the sound of the reveille gun and lying down to sleep at night while the sweet, sad notes of 'Taps' brought the day officially to an end." He was reared on several Army posts and grad from English High School in Boston in 1912.

His first attempt to enter West Point was unsuccessful because he failed geometry on his entrance examination. But he succeeded on second try and in 1913 he entered the academy, where be became undergraduate manager of the football team. He graduated in 1917, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry and, in anticipation of being sent to fight in WWI, was quickly promoted to First Lieutenant and then to temporary Captain. But he did not go overseas; instead, he went to Eagle Pass, Texas, where he commanded an Infantry company.

In 1918 he returned to West Point, became an instructor in Spanish and later manager of the athletics program. In 1925 he completed the Company officers course at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was given his first overseas assignment, command of a company in the 15th Infantry in Tsientsin, China.

Routine Infantry duty in U.S. followed. But in 1927, because of his fluency in Spanish, he was asked by Major General Frank Ross McCoy to become member of a U.S. mission to Nicaragua, charged with supervising free elections in that war-torn republic. He had hoped to be part of the Army's pentathlon team in 1928 summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam, but he recalled later that he had realized that "I could not reject so bright an opportunity to prepare myself for any military-diplomatic role that the future might offer." It was the first of several diplomatic assignments.

He sat on a commission that adjudicated differences between Bolivia and Paraguay, and in 1930 became a military adviser to Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., then Governor General of Philippines. His success in that assignment led to his appointed to the Army's Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After completing that 2-year course in 1937, he became one of the elite Army officers marked for quick advancement and top leadership. By then had been promoted to Major and had come under the wing of George C. Marshall, then a Brigadier General, who, as Army Chief of Staff designate, took him to Brazil on a special assignment.



In September 1939, when WWII erupted in Europe, was sent to the war plans Division of War Department's General staff in Washington, DC. It was much-desired assignment because it was from war plans Division that senior officers were selected for higher command. By August 1942 he was a Brigadier General and in command of newly activated 82nd Infantry Division. When it became one of the Army's first 2 Airborne divisions he remained in command and won his Paratrooper wings. In North Africa in the spring of 1943, he planned the Army's first major night Airborne operation, part of the invasion of Sicily. The invasion, which began on July 10, 1943, led to a rapid conquest of the western half of the island. By the end of the month all resistance had ceased. That first Airborne attack, involving Paratroopers dropped from airplanes and troops flown into enemy territory on gliders, made American military history, but it was carried out with severe losses. Both enemy and Allied antiaircraft gunners shot down more than a dozen of the 82nd's transport planes. These and other losses resulted from staff failure, mistaken instructions and the newness of such an operation. As a result, he, along with other Airborne commanders like Maxwell D. Taylor and James M. Gavin, had a difficult time persuading higher command of the ultimate effectiveness of landing soldiers and equipment by parachute and gliders.

Although he had not jumped into battle with his troops in the Sicilian campaign, he insisted on a combat jump into Normandy before D-Day, June 6, 1944. The citation to the OLC on his DSC said that in the Normandy jump he "exposed himself continuously to fire" and "personally directed the operations in important task of securing the bridgehead over the Merderet River." His recollection of his jump was slightly less reverential. "I was lucky," he said. "There was no wind and I came down straight, into a nice, soft, grassy field. I recognized in the dim moonlight the bulky outline of a cow. I could have kissed her. The presence of a cow meant the field was not mined."


18th Airborne Corps

A few months after D-Day, he was given command of the new 18th Airborne Corps and directed its operation in the vicinity of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in the Ardennes and along the Rhine River. His troops battled the German "Ruhr Pocket" and finally, on May 2, made a historic link up with Soviet troops on the Baltic. "General Ridgway has firmly established himself in history as a great battle leader," General Marshall said later. "The advance of his Army corps to the Baltic in the last phase of the war in Europe was sensational to those fully informed of the rapidly moving events of that day."

The war over, he, early in 1946, went to London as Eisenhower's military adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Assembly. He helped draft a plan for an international United Nations force to curb aggression, a force that he himself was destined to command a few years later in Korea. In the late 1940's, he was commander of U.S. forces in Caribbean, a post more diplomatic that military.

By late Dec 1950 was a Lieutenant General, serving as Army Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pentagon, when word came that Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, commander of the 8th Army in Korea had been killed in a jeep crash. The 8th Army was then in full retreat from Chinese Communist forces, which had opened a massive counteroffensive a month before, and was fleeing back across 38th Parallel, which divided South and North Korea. He was named Walker's successor and was soon on his way to Korea. Was credited with rallying United Nations forces, whose morale had been severely strained by heavy losses and bitterly cold weather. He stayed conspicuously at the front lines, exhorting his troops to concentrate on killing the enemy rather than trying to regain ground. But in a series of hard-fought counteroffensives, he succeeded in driving the Communist forces out of all but the northwestern corner of South Korea, seizing strategic territory north of the 38th Parallel.



Then in 1951 came the epic clash between his superior, General Douglas MacArthur, who was overall allied commander in the Far East, and President Harry S. Truman. General MacArthur, embittered by the Chinese Communist forces' victory south of the Yalyu River in North Korea, proposed various steps to defeat the enemy, including "unleashing" the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan against mainland China. President Truman, afraid that such measures might widen the war, ruled out General MacArthur's ideas. Then the General made the disagreement public. Ridgway wrote later, in his 1967 book, "The Korean War," that the confrontation was a "clash of wills, bordering closely on insubordination." On April 11, 1951, Truman removed Genera MacArthur, a national hero, from his command in the Far East, provoking a public uproar, and named Ridgway to succeed him. James A. Van Fleet replaced Ridgway as commander of United Nations forces in Korea, where the war settled into a stalemate while peace talks dragged on for two years at Pananmujon, near the 38th Parallel. Fighting ended on July 27, 1953, when Chinese and North Koreans signed an armistice with United Nations and South Korean forces.


Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgeway; Maj. Gen. Doyle Hickey; and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of U.N. Forces in Korea, in a jeep at a command post, Yang Yang, approximately 15 milies north of the 38th parallel, April 3, 1951.
Grigg. (Army)NARA FILE #: 111-SC-365348WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1376

In Tokyo, he generally followed occupation policies established by MacArthur. The occupation essentially ended with the signing of a peace treaty in San Francisco on September 8, 1951. The next year he succeeded Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. In 1953, he received what he was to call "the toughest, most frustrating job of my whole career," his appointment as Army Chief of Staff.

Seeing what he regarded as dangerous efforts to downgrade the role of the Army, clashed repeatedly with Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of Defense, and Admiral Arthur Radford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Finally, a few months short of his original retirement date, he left the Army in June 1955.


U.S. military leaders in Korea visit the front linres north of Suwon on 28 January 1951. General MacArthur is at the right front. General Ridgeway is in the center, third from the left.
(DA photograph)

In retirement in Pittsburgh, the old soldier grew increasingly dissatisfied with nation's military policy. He summed up his resentments in 1979, after Pentagon ordered paratroopers to stop wearing the Airborne's distinctive red beret, symbol of paratrooper spirit. After urging that order be reversed, General Ridgway asserted: "I publicly protested the adoption of the volunteer Army, now a demonstrated failure and perhaps a disaster. I publicly deplored the dismantling of Selective Service and the admission of women into our service academies. Every one of those actions is now looming as potentially detrimental to the esprit and effectiveness of our armed forces - a blow at discipline, without which no military unit is worth its keep."

In 1986, he was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. The citation said: "Heroes come when they are needed. Great men step forward when courage seems in short supply. WWII was such a time, and there was Ridgway."



In 1991, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by General Colin Powell, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

His first marriage, to former Caroline Blount, ended in divorce. A second marriage, to Margaret Wilson, also ended in divorce. In 1947 married Marjory Anthony Long. He had 2 daughters by his first marriage, Constance and Shirley, with whom he had lost touch. A son from third marriage, Matthew B. Ridgway, Jr., died in train accident in 1971.

[SAMWolf]

Korea, 1951, LtGen Matthew Ridgeway:
"Why We Are Here"



HEADQUARTERS
EIGHTH UNITED STATES ARMY KOREA (EUSAK)
Office of the Commanding General

21 January 1951

MEMORANDUM FOR: Corps, Division, Separate Brigade or RCT Commanders, and Commanding General, 2nd Logistical Command

SUBJECT: Why We Are Here

1. In my brief period of command here I have heard from several sources, chiefly from the members of combat units, the questions, "Why are we here?" "What are we fighting for?"

2. What follows represents my answers to these questions.

3. The answer to the first question, "Why are we here?" is simple and conclusive. We are here because of the decisions of the properly constituted authorities of our respective governments. As the Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur said publicly yesterday: "This command intends to maintain a military position in Korea just as long as the Statesmen of the United Nations decide we should do so." It is conclusive because the loyalty we give, and expect, precludes any slightest questioning of these orders.

4. The second question is of much greater significance, and every member of this command is entitled to a full and reasoned answer. Mine follows.

5. To me the issues are clear. It is not a question of this or that Korean town or village. Real estate is, here, incidental. It is not restricted to the issue of freedom for our South Korean Allies, whose fidelity and valor under the severest stresses of battle we recognize; though that freedom is a symbol of the wider issues, and included among them.

6. The real issues are whether the power of Western civilization, as God has permitted it to flower in our beloved lands, shall defy and defeat Communism; whether the rule of men who shoot their prisoners, enslave their citizens, and deride the dignity of man, shall displace the rule of those to whom the individual and his individual rights are sacred; whether we are to survive with God's hand to guide and lead us, or to perish in the dead existence of a Godless world.

7. If these be true, and to me they are, beyond any possibility of challenge, then this has long ceased to be a fight for our Korean Allies alone and for their national survival. It has become, and it continues to be, a fight for our own freedom, for our own survival, in an honorable, independent national existence.

8. The sacrifices we have made, and those which we shall yet support, are not offered vicariously for others, but in our own direct defense.

9. In the final analysis, the issue now joined right here in Korea is whether Communism or individual freedom shall prevail, and, make no mistake, whether the next flight of fear-driven people we have just witnessed across the HAN, and continue to witness in other areas, shall be checked and defeated overseas or permitted, step by step, to close in on our own homeland and at some future time, however distant, to engulf our own loved ones in all its misery and dispair[sic].

10. These are the things for which we fight. Never have members of any military command had a greater challenge than we, or a finer opportunity to show ourselves and our people at their best -- and thus be an honor to the profession of arms, and a credit to those who bred us.

11. I would like each commander to whom this is addressed, in his own chosen ways of leadership, to convey the foregoing to every single member of his command at the earliest practicable moment.

M. B. Ridgeway
Lieutenant General, United States Army
Commanding

[SAMWolf]

General Matthew Ridgeway planned and executed the Army's first major Airborne assault, in Sicily in WWII, and was a soldier-diplomat who served on several international commissions. In April 1951 he succeeded General of the Army Douglas MacArthur as commander of United Nations forces in Korea and of allied occupying forces in Japan. In June 1952 he replaced General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. In 1953 he was appointed Army Chief of Staff by President Eisenhower, under whom he had served in WWII. But what should have been the capstone of distinguished military career ended in bitter frustration for him in 1955, when he retired after finding himself in almost constant disagreement with Eisenhower, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At one point, the President bluntly told him that his views were "Parochial" because he did not accept new strategy of using the threat of atomic bombs delivered by airplanes as nation's chief line of defense and de-emphasizing the role of the foot soldier. He objected to the strategy as failing to adequately develop concepts of using airpower, nuclear weapons and ground soldiers in conjunction in distant conflicts. But he continued to fight budget cuts for the Army.


Left to right: Departing SACEUR General Lauris Norstad (US) shaking hands with newly appointed SACEUR, General Matthew B. Ridgeway (US) - May 1952- July 1953.
(NATO Photo 326kb Ref. no: 3639)

"Throughout my 2 years as Chief of Staff," he recalled later, "I felt I was being called upon to tear down, rather than build up, ultimately decisive element in a properly proportioned fighting force on which the world could rest its hope for maintaining the peace or, if the catastrophe of war came, for enforcing its will upon those who broke that peace."


LTG Matthew B. Ridgeway, CG, 8th U.S. Army, pins 2LT bars on MSG Darwin K. Kyle, 26 January 1951.

Although he was otherwise known as an unflamboyant officer, he had one habit that became his trademark. Just as General George S. Patton was famous for wearing twin pearl-handled revolvers in WWII, he always had a hand grenade attached to one shoulder strap on his battle jacket, and a first aid kit on the other. "Some people thought I wore the grenades as a gesture of showmanship," he said years later. "This was not correct. They were purely utilitarian. Many a time in Europe and Korea, men in tight spots blasted their way out with hand grenades."

Additional Sources:

www.milhist.net
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.multied.com
www.defenselink.mil
www.benning.army.mil
www.nato.int
www.bob-west.com
www.arlingtoncemetery.net
www.bragg.army.mil
www.martin.thornton.btinternet.co.uk

[SAMWolf]

'I was lucky. There was no wind and I came down straight, into a nice, soft, grassy field. I recognized in the dim moonlight the bulky outline of a cow. I could have kissed her. The presence of a cow meant the field was not mined.'

-- Matthew Ridgway wrote about parachuting into France during Operation Overlord in his autobiography, The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (1956)

'I publicly protested the adoption of the volunteer army, now a demonstrated failure and perhaps a disaster. I publicly deplored the dismantling of Selective Service and the admission of women into our service academies. Every one of those actions is now looming as potentially detrimental to the espirit and effectiveness of our armed forces - a blow at discipline, without which no military unit is worth its keep.'

-- Matthew Ridgway in a 1979 interview

[SAMWolf]

[Support Free Republic]

Hint! Hint!Hint! Hint!Hint! Hint!

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning SAM!! Snippy, you up yet?? LOL

[GailA]

[SAMWolf]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Morning Everyone!

Samwolf posting for Snippy while she enjoys a well deserved vacation


If you would like added or removed from our ping list let me know.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning GailA. Nice one this morning.

[SAMWolf]

Hi Feather. About to call and wake Snippy up.

[armymarinemom]

Good Morning

God Bless our troops

[SAMWolf]

Morning armymarinemom. Great graphic! Where'd you find that one?

[E.G.C.]

Good Morning, SAMWolf. How are things where you are?

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on July 12:
100 -BC- Julius C‘sar Roman Emperor
1730 Josiah Wedgewood England, pottery designer/manufacturer
1817 Henry David Thoreau Concord Mass, naturalist/author/pacifist
1849 Sir William Osler Canada, physician/author (circulatory system)
1854 George Eastman Waterville NY, invented Kodak camera
1864 George Washington Carver studied the peanut
1868 Stefan George Germany, lyric poet (Algabal)
1884 Amedeo Modigliani Italy, painter/sculptor (Reclining Nude)
1895 Oscar Hammerstein II NYC, lyricist who worked with Richard Rodgers
1895 R Buckminster Fuller architect (invented geodesic dome)
1904 Pablo Neruda Chile, poet (Residence on Earth-Nobel 1971)
1908 Milton Berle Harlem NYC, comedian (Uncle Miltie, Mr Television)
1909 Joey Faye NYC, comedian (Joey Faye's Follies)
1917 Andrew Wyeth US, painter (Christina's World)
1920 Keith Andes Ocean City NJ, actor (Farmer's Daughter, Away All Boats)
1922 Clark MacGregor politician (involved in Watergate)
1922 Mark O Hatfield (Sen-R-Ore)
1934 Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr La, pianist (Tchaikovsky 1958)
1936 Jan Nemec Prague Czech, director (Diamonds of the Night)
1937 Bill Cosby Phila, actor/comedian (I Spy, Cosby, Leonard Part 6)
1942 Richard Stoltzman Omaha Nebraska, clarinetist (Tashi)
1943 Christie McVie rocker (Fleetwood Mac-Got A Hold on Me)
1943 Ernie Anastos Nashua NH, news anchor (WCBS, WABC)
1943 Paul Silas NBAer (Boston Celtic, Seattle SuperSonic)
1944 Denise Nicholas Detroit Mich, actress (Room 222, Baby I'm Back)
1948 Richard Simmons exercise guru (Deal-a-Meal)
1948 Walter Egan rocker (Not Shy, Fundamental Roll)
1950 Eric Carr drummer (Kiss-Beth)
1951 Cheryl Ladd Huron SD, actress (Charlie's Angels, Purple Hearts)
1956 Mel "Mary Ellen" Harris Bethlehm Pa, actress (Hope-30 Something)
1957 Buddy Foster actor (Hondo, Mayberry RFD)
1964 Judi Evans Cal, actress (Guiding Light, Adrienne-Days of our Life)
1971 - Kristi Yamaguchi (Olympic gold medalist: figure skater [1992]; U.S. and world champion [1992])

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Deaths which occurred on July 12:
1450 Jack Cade slain in a revolt against British King Henry VI
1536 Desiderius Erasmus, humanist/priest (Novum instrumentum omne),
1712 Richard Cromwell, English Lord Protector (1658-59), dies at 85
1804 Alexander Hamilton, Sect of Treasury, dies of wounds inflicted a day earlier in a pistol duel with VP Aaron Burr
1861 Dave McCanles, first to fall from Wild Bill Hickok's gun fire
1935 Alfred Dreyfus, French officer (Dreyfus Affair)
1976 Ted Mack TV host (Original Amateur Hour), dies at 72
1977 Ed Holmes actor (Growing Paynes, Once Upon a Tune), dies at 66
1979 Minnie Ripperton singer (Lovin' You), dies of cancer at 30
1980 John W Davis Pres (WV State college), dies at 92
1982 Kenneth More actor, dies of Parkinson disease at 67
1988 Joshua Logan Broadway producer, dies at 79 of palsy
1996 John William Chancellor, news anchor (VOA, NBC), dies at 68

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 ALMENDARIZ SAMUEL MC ALLEN TX.
1967 DOVE JACK PARIS SR. BLUEFIELD VA.
[REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95]
1967 FRANK MARTIN S.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1967 HENRY NATHAN B. FRANKLIN NC.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED,ALIVE IN 98]
1967 MC MURRAY CORDINE DETROIT MI.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 00]
1967 NEWELL STANLEY A. PEKIN IL.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE & WELL 12/95-98]
1967 PERRICONE RICHARD R. UNIONDALE NY.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1967 SCHIELE JAMES F. GRANGER UT.
1967 SQUIRE BOYD EDWIN SACRAMENTO CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95]
1967 SULLIVAN ROBERT J. EAST ALSTEAD NH.
1967 VAN BENDEGOM JAMES L. KENOSHA WI.
[WOUNDED DIED SEVERAL DAYS AFTER CAPTURE]
1969 BANNON PAUL W. HUEYTOWN AL.
1969 PIKE PETER X. NEW YORK NY.
1972 SHIMKIN ALEX
1972 HUARD JAMES L. DEARBORN MI.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED THROUGH DNA 01/27/97]
1972 O'DONNELL SAMUEL JR. DEARBORN MI.


POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
526 St Felix IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1109 Crusaders capture harbor city of Tripoli
1191 Richard Coeur de Lion & Crusaders defeat Saracens in Palestine
1290 Jews are expelled from England by order of King Edward I
1543 England's King Henry VIII weds Catherine Parr (6th & last wife)
1679 Britain's King Charles II ratified Habeas Corpus Act
1690 Orangeman's yearly celebration (The battle of the Orange) - Actually "Battle of the Boyne" ( 1 July 1690), when Protestant had victory in Ireland
1691 Battle of Aughrim (Aghrim) England, William III beats James II
1774 Citizens of Carlisle, Penn. pass a declaration of independence
1794 British Admiral Lord Nelson loses his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.
1812 US forces led by Gen Hull invade Canada (War of 1812)
1817 1st flower show held (Dannybrook, County Cork, Ireland)
1859 Paper bag manufacturing machine patented by William Goodale, Mass
1862 Congress authorizes Medal of Honor
1874 Ontario Agricultural College founded
1874 Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "The Gloria Scott" (BG)
1876 Paul Henry discovers asteroid #164 Eva
1882 1st ocean pier in US completed, Washington, DC
1900 114ø F (46ø C), Basin, Wyoming (state record)
1906 Alfred Dreyfus found innocent in France
1909 16th Amendment approved (power to tax incomes)
1910 J Helffrich discovers asteroid #701 Oriola
1912 1st foreign feature film exhibited in US-"Queen Elizabeth"-NYC
1914 Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut, pitches for the Red Sox
1920 Lithuania & USSR sign peace treaty, Lithuuania becomes independent rep
1923 K Reinmuth discovers asteroids #997 Priska & #3682
1927 Babe Ruth hits 30th of 60 HRs
1928 1st televised tennis match
1931 Cubs & Cards hit a record 23 doubles in a game (2nd game of DH)
1933 Congress passes 1st minimum wage law (33 per hour)
1934 US Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island abandoned
1946 Vance Dinges hits the only Phillie pinch hit inside-the-park HR
1948 1st jets to fly across the Atlantic (6 RAF de Havilland Vampires)
1949 AL beats NL 11-7 in 16th All Star Game, NL makes a record 5 errors
1949 Baseball owners agree to erect warning paths before each fence
1949 LA Rams sign Norm Van Brocklin
1950 ILTF re-admit Germany & Japan in Davis Cup, Poland & Hungary withdraw
1951 Mob tries to keep black family from moving into all-white Cicero Ill
1951 NY Yankees Allie Reynolds no-hits Cleve Indians, 8-0
1954 Major League Baseball Players Assn founded
1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.
1955 NL beats AL 6-5 (12 innings) in 22nd All Star Game (Milwaukee)
1957 1st President to fly in helicopter-Dwight Eisenhower
1960 The Ohio Art Co. introdiced the first Etch-A-Sketch for sale. Over 50 million units were sold during the next 25 years.
1960 Congo, Chad & Central African Republic declare independence
1960 Echo I, 1st passive satellite launched
1960 USSR's Sputnik 5 launched with 2 dogs
1962 1st time 2 manned crafts in space (USSR)
1962 Rolling Stones 1st performance (Marquee Club, London)
1966 26.70 cm (10.51") of rainfall, Sandusky, Ohio (state record)
1966 Most rain fell in 1 day in Ohio, 10.5" in Sandusky
1966 NL beats AL 2-1 (10 innings) in 37th All Star Game (Busch, St Louis)
1966 Race riot in Chicago
1966 US Treasury announces it will buy mutilated silver coins at silver bullion price at Philadelphia & Denver mints
1967 23 die in Newark race rebellion
1967 5th Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 4-0
1967 Blacks in Newark, riot, 26 killed, 1500 injured & over 1000 arrested
1970 Janis Joplin debuts in Kentucky
1971 Juan Corona, indicted for 25 murders
1974 John Ehrlichman, an ex-aide to President Richard Nixon, and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist.
1975 Sao Tom‚ e Pr¡ncipe gains independence from Portugal (Nat'l Day)
1977 1st free flight test of space shuttle Enterprise
1978 Sun Bank Building opens
1979 Kiribati (Gilbert & Ellice Is) gains independence from Britain
1979 "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, causes fans to go wild & causes White Sox to forfeit 2nd game of a doubleheader to Tigers
1982 FEMA promises survivors of a nuclear war will get their mail
1984 Geraldine Ferraro, NY became 1st woman major-party VP candidate
1985 Doctors discover a cancerous growth in Pres Reagan's colon
1985 STS 51-F launch scrubbed at T -3s because of main engine shutdown
1987 Phillies Kent Tekulve pitches his 900th game in relief
1988 Margo Adams alleges Red Sox Wade Bogg's "Delta Force" revenge plan
1988 USSR launches Phobos II for Martian orbit
1989 NY Yankee pitching great Ron Guidry retires (170-91 .651, 3.29 ERA)
1990 Chicago White Sox Melido Perez no-hits the Yankees 8-0 in a rain shortened 6 inning game at Yankee Stadium (7th no-hitter of 1990)
1990 Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin shocked the 28th congress of the Soviet Communist Party by announcing he was resigning his party membership.
1991 The House voted overwhelmingly to define marriage in federal law as a legal union of one man and one woman _ no matter what states might say.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Eat Your Jello Day
Central African Republic, Chad, Congo : Independence Day (1960)
Northern Ireland : Orangeman's Day (1690) (7/1 OS)
Rhodesia : Thodes Day
South Africa : Family Day - - - - - ( Monday )
Swaziland : Reed Dance Day - - - - - ( Monday )

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Religious Observances
Christian : St John Gualbert, abbot
Orth : Feast of SS Peter & Paul (6/29 OS)
RC : Commemoration of St John Gualbert, abbot
Luth : Commemoration of Nathan S”derblom, archbishop of Uppsala

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Religious History
1191 The armies of the Third Crusade (1189-92), led by England's King Richard ('TheLionhearted'), captured the Syrian seaport of Acre.
1843 Mormon church founder Joseph Smith announced that a divine revelation had beengiven him sanctioning polygamy among his newly-organized religious followers.
1898 Birth of Peter Deyneka, missions pioneer. The Slavic Gospel Association, whichhe founded in 1934, undertakes evangelistic work in Europe and South America.
1944 Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary was chartered in Mill Valley, CA, undersponsorship of the Southern Baptist Church.
1963 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'Do not stop testing andcorrecting your insights by holy scripture. Then, being sound in what really counts, youcan live and represent a comforted life.'

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

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Thought for the day :
"The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion."

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Today's 'You Might Be A Redneck If' Joke...
You think fast food is hitting a possum at 65 mph.

[armymarinemom]

That was done with several different photos and a B&W Airborne wings clip art graphic. Bunch of filters used.

[Fiddlstix]

Good Morning Everybody.

You Know The Drill
Click the Pics J

Coffee & Donuts J

(Note: To those who made reply posts to me yesterday, thank you and I'm sorry I didn't answer your comments. I was gone most of the day and it looks like the same will be true today also. Thanks again. Enjoy the coffee, donuts, and music :)

[Soaring Feather]

Hi SAM,

Is Snippy up yet????

Morning snippy!! Have a wonderful day you guyzs!!

[HiJinx]

Good grief, it's only a little before 7AM, you expect her to be up already?

I'll bet she's about worn out with all the travelling and visiting from yesterday...!!

Great thread, by the way...

It looks like Ridgway became a little bitter towards the end.

[Soaring Feather]

Come on Snippy, up and at 'em!!! You and SAM gotta go mountain climbing today!!
Sam have you made coffee for Snippy yet??

[Sparta]

In retirement in Pittsburgh, the old soldier grew increasingly dissatisfied with nation's military policy. He summed up his resentments in 1979, after Pentagon ordered paratroopers to stop wearing the Airborne's distinctive red beret, symbol of paratrooper spirit. After urging that order be reversed, General Ridgway asserted: "I publicly protested the adoption of the volunteer Army, now a demonstrated failure and perhaps a disaster. I publicly deplored the dismantling of Selective Service and the admission of women into our service academies. Every one of those actions is now looming as potentially detrimental to the esprit and effectiveness of our armed forces - a blow at discipline, without which no military unit is worth its keep."

He was right on somethings, wrong on others.