History

The Oklahoma National Guard Office of Public Affairs produced a mini-documentary titled, “Remembering the 168”. The video contains past and recent interviews from Guardsmen and civil authorities who answered the call on April 19, 1995, and the days following the Alfred P. Murrah building bombing. …

Out of the rubble, they emerged: six minimiracles. Rescuers pulled out their tiny bodies — bloodied, battered and some gashed beyond recognition… Some grappled with debilitating injuries that persist today. Others battled deep emotional traumas that have long since been overcome. …

India assists Americans evacuating Yemen in wake of weak State Department response… One has to ask, what exactly is going on at the US State Department? We have been following the deterioration of Yemen for months. Despite the obvious dangers to American citizens within this country, I guess our bureaucrats decided they really didn’t need an evacuation plan. Fortunately, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government seem to be more on top of the situation.…

The Pentagon is considering ordering the exhumation of nearly 400 sailors and Marines who died on the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, and were buried as "unknowns" at Punchbowl cemetery, so they can be identified and returned to families.

Those exhumations could be followed by the disinterment of unknowns killed on the battleships California and West Virginia,and other World War II losses, as the U.S. military tries to increase its annual identification of Americans missing from past wars. …

On the night of August 5, 1945, Takashi Tanemori was asleep in a bomb shelter in Hiroshima, Japan, when a bomb went off in his dreams. … Over the next 40 years, Tanemori would go to college, convert to Christianity, attend seminary and become a Baptist minister. Along the way, he also opened a Japanese restaurant in California. But 40 years later, Tanemori was still bitter. …

IOTO, Japan – Dozens of aging U.S. veterans, many in their early 90s and some in wheelchairs, gathered on the tiny, barren island of Iwo Jima on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the bloodiest and most iconic battles of World War II.

More than 30 veterans flown in from the U.S. island territory of Guam toured the black sand beaches where they invaded the deeply dug-in forces of the island's Japanese defenders in early 1945. …

"The Islamic State jihadist group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq on Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said.…"

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient bathtub in a first-century mansion… situated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, would have belonged to wealthy owners, signified by its size and features such as intricate carvings, a luxurious oven and the bathtub… built close to the walls of the Second TempleL… could have been home to… a man belonging to the Sadducees class… another expedition has found a town where Jesus is believed to have stayed following the feeding of the 5,000 miracle… Dalmanutha…"

"The Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma — a prosperous black-owned business district — was destroyed and some 300 blacks were killed by white mobs in the Tulsa race riot of 1921.

"Olivia Hooker, whose father owned a department store, was just 6 years old…."

“It’s amazing that just a few feet from here where I’m standing are the signatures of the 56 Founders who put their names on a Declaration that changed the course of history,” [First Lady Michelle Obama] said during her speech, referring to the Declaration of Independence. “And like the 50 of you, none of them were born American – they became American.”

…Did she actually mean that those who signed the Declaration of Independence and participated in the drafting of the Constitution were not born in America? Benjamin Franklin was born in Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison were born in Virginia. John Adams was born in Massachusetts. Surely she knows this. But maybe not. …

The best-laid plans of the Supreme Allied Command were almost immediately rendered moot; the massive landing amounted to a chaotic dumping of troops into a very hostile environment. Allied forces landed out of position, units were a shambles, and radio communications were knocked out.

But Ambrose identifies a crucial difference between the German and Allied fighting men. The Germans were hamstrung by sweeping orders issued from far away. In contrast, the Allies relied on mid-level and junior-grade officers issuing impromptu commands based on facts gleaned first-hand.

There is no more dramatic example of F.A. Hayek's seminal discovery: the importance of dispersed information--"knowledge of time and place." [From 1999 Dec issue]

Chester Nez, last of original Navajo code talkers of World War II, dies. … After the war, the Japanese chief of intelligence, Lt. General Seizo Arisue, admitted they were never able to crack the Navajo code used by the Marines and Navy, according to the Navy. … "I could understand when they sent the message and received on the other end," Nez said. "I could understand, and I could sit there and write it down myself. I still remember it." It was a far cry from his childhood, when he was forced to attend a boarding school and punished by the teachers for speaking Navajo…

Six decades ago - April 12th 1954 - a chubby-faced kiss-curled man pushing 30 with a backing group named after a theory published in Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae in 1705 went into the recording studio at the Pythian Temple on West 70th Street in New York and sang a song written by a man born in the 19th century:

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock!

I was positioned in a small foxhole on the downside of Capmon Hill where we were set up in a defensive arrangement for a couple of weeks after the invasion of Leyte, and I will never forget my shock one morning, when I heard that Lt Williams, and SGT Corn had apparently gotten out of their holes, for whatever reason, and were shot by one of our men because he did not know who they were, or they did not ID themselves.

I had never discussed this with anyone much at the time, so I do not know the particulars, except this is a thing that happens in war, on occasion, and we were warned to stay put in our foxholes at night, for this very reason.

This is about all I can tell you about this tragic incidence. I am 89 years of age, nearly 90, in December, and my wife passed away one year ago, I am alone now. Dick was one of my favorite friends in our Company B, and as I stated earlier herein, I held as a friend, and a friend lost, when he died. He is in my memory always.