Thank You - Veterans Day

Today we remember, honor and thank all our loved ones and friends who have served in the military.  Thank you for defending our rights and the rights of other nations. May God bless each and every one of you.

We at National Write Your Congressman want to extend a special thank you to some of our own Veterans.  Pictured below are Representatives of NWYC, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers.  Thank you for being our heroes.....

Part Three- Air Evacuation and The Nurse

There have been many "firsts" since the first graduation of Air Evacuation Nurses in 1943.

2nd Lt. Geraldine Dishroon received the first pair of flight nurse's wings and the honor graduate of the first class on Feb. 18, 1943.

The 802nd MAES was the first air evac squadron to serve in any theater of war - in North Africa.  The 801st followed suit in the Pacific.

Lt. Catherine Grogan was the first chief nurse of an air evac squadron to serve in a theater of war.

Lt. Ruth M. Gradiner, from the 805th MAES, was the first flight nurse killed in combat in Alaska.

Nancy Leftenant-Colon, was the first black nurse to be commissioned into the Regular Army Nurse Corps.

April 1945, the 806th MAES set a world record by evacuating 17,287 patients for that month.  This set a record for monthly evacuations in any theater of operations by any squadron.

May 18, 1944 the first major catastrophe of the 803rd MAES occurred while in flight.  Plane #372 received a radio message asking for the hospital ship to enter Myitkyina, Burma which the Allies captured the previous night.  Capt. Collins, flight surgeon, two nurses, Chief Nurse Audrey Rogers, 2nd Lt. E Baer and Sgt. Miller were the medical team on board.  They landed with enemy action still in play.  As they loaded the wounded, the Japaneese were strafing the runway and Capt. Collins and Sgt. Miller were struck by shell fragments and the patient on the litter was killed.  Lt. Rogers sustained shrapnel wounds to the right knee and thigh.  Lt. Baer, who was pushed out of the line of fire was unharmed.  The plane was riddled with bullets.  They treated each other's wounds, continued to load the injured, and flew the patients to Ledo.  They recuperated and returned to duty.  They all received the Purple Heart.

The first and only glider air evac in the ETO was made March 22, 1945 by 2nd Lt. Suella Bernard, flight nurse and Maj. Albert D. Haug, flight surgeon, members of the 816th MAES from Germany to an evac hospital in France with flying time of 30 minutes.

Lt. Dorothy P. Shikoski was awarded the Air Medal of Bravery for pulling crew members of her downed aircraft to safety and continuing to pull medical supplies into her raft all while being injured from the crash.

Reba Z. Whittle was the first flight nurse to be imprisoned by the Germans and the first repatriated.

Lt. Janette Pitcherella, 803rd MAES was near Calcutta when the plane she was in started going down.  She was the first nurse to bail out of a plane.  When she reached the ground she discovered she was missing a finger.  "I must have caught it on the door on the way out."

Lt. Thelma Le Fave of the 820th SWP was one of the first nurses into Tadji, and later was missing in action in the Philippines.

The first flight nurse to board a C-47 bound for France to evacuate wounded American soldiers was 1st Lt. Grace E. Dunnam.  On June 11, 1944, she made the first authorized evac trip to Omaha Beach and brought back 18 litter of patients.

Lt. Ellen Church was mentioned in a wire service story from General Eisenhower's headquarters.  It read, "Another woman, who did heroic work yesterday in the drive toward Bizerte was Lt. Ellen Church, a nurse in the Air Evac Unit of the AAF."

Lt. Ellen Church was also the first nurse employed as an airline stewardess in the US.

Women have continued to serve as flight nurses during war time.  They bravely stepped up for WWII and continued through Korea, Vietnam and today.

On a personal note, being from the Vietnam era, I have a particular admiration and heart of thanksgiving for the following story by a flight nurse named Patricia Clark Stanfill.  She was on the first air evacuation plane to land in Hanoi and retrieve American prisoners of war in Vietnam.  It was a mission of anticipation and anxiety.   Friends and I stayed up until 2:30 AM glued to the TV, and watched the arrival of the first POW's to touch American soil.

"On a misty morning in February 1973, a U.S. cargo plane veered toward the only Hanoi airport runway that wasn't bombed out.  Rows of North Vietnamese soldiers stood stiffly at attention in the grass along the runway and thinking, they have guns laying in the grass.

We had been told that if something happened, they weren't going to come get us.  There was no question in my mind this was not a peaceful thing."

Many of the POW's had been captured five and six years earlier, some longer.  As one boarded the plane he grabbed Nurse Stanfill and kissed her.

"I don't think any of them really believed we were leaving until we were airborne.  They had been told, yes we are coming; no, we are not.  It was very difficult to believe it was finally over.  I can still remember that as soon as we got up and the landing gear came in, everybody just stood up and cheered."

Miss Stanfill recalls the anguish of Vietnam, she also remembers the last assignment, flying POWs out, in a very positive way.  "Knowing that it was over and that this was the last of it, and we weren't going to have to bring pieces home any longer.  It was a good way of ending the tour and in a way helped me a lot, being part of it, that happy era at the end."

Part Two - Air Evacuation and The Nurse

By the end of 1940, Miss Mary Beard, Director of the Red Cross Nursing Service, acknowledged that Shimmoler had the idea of something that was needed.  However, there was a general lack of enthusiasm among most medical officers.  As late as July 1940, the Chief of the Medical Division felt that in time of war, nurses would not be used on airplane ambulances.  He felt it was too dangerous for a woman and that they could not handle the physical and mental demands.

Without the personal interest of General David N. Grant, an air surgeon, the concept of the flight nurse as a part of the medical team might not have ever been realized during this time because of the military's indifference and the danger during war time.  But, on Nov. 30, 1942, an urgent appeal was made for graduate nurses for appointment to the Army Air Forces Evacuation Services.  The nursing program at Bowman Field, KY was at this time under the direction and leadership of Capt. Grace Mundell.

On Feb. 18, 1943 the first formal graduation of nurses of the 349th Air Evac Group was held at the base chapel at Bowman Field.  The 30 members of this group had completed a program on instruction that was only in the experimental stage.  The 4 week course included class work in air evac nursing, air evac tactics, survival, aeromedical physiology, mental hygiene in relation to flying, training in plane loading procedures, military indoctrination and a one day bivouac.

Gen. David N. Grant officiated over the first class graduation.  At the end of his address, realizing no one had thought of an insignia for the flight nurse, he unpinned his own miniature flight surgeon's wings and pinned them on the honor graduate, 2nd Lt. Geraldine Dishroon, remarking that the insignia of the flight nurse would be similar to that of the flight surgeon, with the addition of a small "N" superimposed on it.  Having created this insignia on the fly without authority, there was much difficulty having it manufactured as no insignia manufacturer would make the wings without the War Department's approval.

The School of Air Evacuation was the first of its kind and its influence was world wide.  During 1943 nurses from the Royal Canadian Air Forces attended the school.  The Brazilian Government, in cooperation with the Brazilian Red Cross, sent a representative to study the school so that one could be instituted in Brazil.

The training of the flight nurse was designed to equip her for her duties in connection with the evacuation of the sick and wounded and prepare her for duty with ground medical installations.  In order to become a flight nurse, graduate nurses were required to apply for a commission in the Army Nurse Corps.  After a minimum of 6 months in the Army Service Forces unit hospital, she could apply for admission to the school.  She had to be 62-72 inches in height, weight from 105-135 pounds, her age between 21-36.  Physical fitness was important, in view of the fact most of the work was done at altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 feet.  Work at that altitude is very tiring.  The work of the flight nurse was not without danger.  The aircraft used, usually C-46, C-47 or C-54 types, acted in a dual capacity.  They carried cargo and troops to the battle fronts, after the planes were unloaded they were rapidly converted into ambulance planes for the return trip.  Because of the dual use of the planes, they were not marked with the Geneva Red Cross, and on the return trip they were fair game for the enemy.  Thus all nurses, who entered this field were volunteers.

In July 1943, 2nd Lt. Ruth M. Gardiner died in an aircraft crash en route to evacuating patients in Alaska. She was the first USAAF flight nurse killed in a combat theater.  She was with the 805th MAES.  Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to the memory of Second Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner as the first Air Evac nurse killed in the line of duty.

Part One - Air Evacuation and The Nurse

The original idea of air evacuation of the sick and wounded by military air transport is rooted in the period when the Wright Brothers developed the airplane.  The first known report of aircraft to be used in the transportation of patients was made by Capt. George H.R. Gosman and Lt. A.L. Rhoades, US Army, to the Surgeon General of the Army in 1910.  These officers had constructed an ambulance plane to be used in the transport of patients at Fort Barracas, Florida.  They were the first to point out the great possibilities of the airplane for evacuation of sick and wounded.  In Feb. 1918, Maj. Nelson E. Driver and Capt. William C. Ocker converted a "Jenny" airplane that was turned into an airplane ambulance by changing the rear cockpit so that a special type litter with a patient could be accommodated.  They are credited with the first transportation of patients in an airplane in the U.S. and aiding in demonstrating the practicability of transporting patients by air.

In 1921, the Army made a request for Curtis Eagle airplanes which could accommodate four litters and six sitting patients.  Unfortunately for the progress of aerial evacuation, this advanced airplane ambulance crashed while flying in a sever electrical storm.  This untimely crash played an important part in delaying the development of aerial transportation of patients in the U.S.

There were many changes and improvements to airplanes to enable them to carry more patients and medical personal.  Then in 1940, Headquarters AAF proposed the organization of an ambulance battalion to consist of an AT Group together with medical personnel.  The Medical Air Ambulance Squadron was authorized in Nov. 19, 1941, calling a group composed of one headquarters squadron and three airplane medical squadrons which, "would lighten and speed the task of transporting casualties due to the extreme mobility and would be able to render service at a time and place where other means of transportation are at a minimum."

Within three months, the country was at war, and it became a matter of military necessity to evacuate patients by air, even though it was not an accepted practice.  The first mass movement of patients occurred in Jan. 1942, during the construction of the Alcan Route to Alaska.  C-47 type aircraft were utilized in evacuating these patients over long distance to medical installations.  The medical personnel involved were largely untrained and on a voluntary basis.

In May 1942, the Buna-Gona Campaign marked the beginning of a counter-attack against the Japanese in New Guinea.  Many days of travel would be required to evacuate patients by surface means;  but by air, it was a flight of approximately 1 hour over the Owen-Stanley Range.  A total of 1,300 sick and wounded Allied trips were flown over this route during the first 10 days.

In June 1942, the 804th MAES (Medical Air Evacuation Squadron) arrived in New Guinea to aid in the air evac operations.  In late August 1942, Marine Air Transport and the AAF Troop Carrier Transport units began to evacuate patients from Guadalcanal.  12,000 casualties had been evacuated by air by the end of 1942.

The first flights had not medical staff, then flights were staffed with one surgeon and one male nurse.  The flight nurse emerged as the counterpart of the flight surgeon.  Laurette M. Schimmoler, who as early as 1932 envisioned the Aerial Nurse Corps of America is credited with the idea.  She suggested an organization composed of physically qualified and technically trained registered nurses, who would be available for duty in "air ambulances" as well as other aerial assignments.  Miss Schimmoler exchanged many letters with Gen. "Hap" Arnold, then Chief of the Air Corps.  In her letters she sought recognition of her organization.  General Arnold advised her to coordinate her project with the Red Cross.  She replied that she had contacted the Red Cross in previous years, and the personnel in that office were not air minded and could not see the need for nurses to be so educated.  The Red Cross stayed to that way of thinking until 1940.  By then, the activities of the Aerial Nurse Corps, had been publicized and many inquiries were being directed to the Army Nurse Corp and the Red Cross.   From the Red Cross the inquiries were answered with an attitude of opposition to the organization and a lack of imaginative foresight concerning the possibility of the future use of the airplane in the evacuation of the wounded.

Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

As we once again approach Sept. 11,  Americans turn their memories and hearts back to one of the worst days ever perpetrated in our beloved Country.

I cannot do a better job on this story than History.com has covering one of our darkest days in American history, Sept. 1, 2001.  These are their words...

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.

As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane--United Flight 93--was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger--Todd Beamer--was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.

Patriotism

What is Patriotism to you?  Is it putting a flag in your yard on holidays to show your allegiance to your country?  Is it your willingness to serve at all costs in the armed services to protect your country and defend others' human rights to live in freedom?  Is it loving your country by loving your countrymen and loving the rest of the world by loving your country first?  Is it blindly following the leaders of your country, or the freedom of practicing your 1st amendment right to speak your mind and object if you believe your government is hurting your country?

Many a great mind have spoken on the subject of Patriotism.  These are just a few of the many quotes made by patriots whether you agree with them or not.  They did practice their right to speak on the subject.

"Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance.  It is also owed to justice and to humanity.  Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong." - Bryce James

"The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree." -Campbell Thomas

"A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth." -Henry Ward Beecher

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." -Abbey Edward

"Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."  -Calvin Coolidge

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle."  -George William Curtis

"True Patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."  -Clarence Darrow

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned.  When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him.  For then it costs nothing to be a patriot."  -Mark Twain

"A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works."  -Bill Vaughn

"We stand for freedom.  That is our conviction for ourselves;  that is our only commitment to others."  -John F. Kennedy

"He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland."  -Harry Emerson Fosdick

"Are you a politician who says to himself, 'I will use my country for my own benefit?'  Or are you a devoted patriot, who whispers in the ear of his inner self, 'I love to serve my country as a faithful servant?"  - Kahil Gibran

"A politician will do anything to keep his job, even become a patriot."  William Randolph Hearst

"Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.  You cannot shirk this and be a man.  To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may."  -Mark Twain

"What we need are critical lovers of America.  Patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it."  -Hubert H. Humphrey

Wikipedia describes Patriotism as, "Patriotism is, generally speaking, cultural attachment to one's homeland or devotion to one's country, although interpretations of the term vary with contest, geography and political ideology.  It is a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism."  

How would you describe it?

70 Years Since Anne Franks Last Diary Entry

This month is the 70th anniversary of the last diary entry of Anne Frank.  For me, she has been the number one reflection of all that is good and evil in this world.  Anne herself being the good and pure of heart in the world, and the Nazis' and all others who, through their hatred, wish to destroy anyone who is not just like them being the pure evil in the world.

In her last entry Anne wrote, "I'm afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side.  I'm afraid they'll mock me, think I'm ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously.  I'm used to being taken seriously, but only the 'lighthearted' Anne is used to it and can put up with it. The 'deeper' Anne is too weak."  Three days later on Aug. 4, 1944 she and all eight who were hiding with her were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Below is the blog I wrote about her on Aug. 8, 2012.  Nothing much has changed in the world.  Two years later the fighting continues in Syria and has spread through out the Middle East.

Aug. 8, 2012

Watching the news on the Syrian Civil War, or Syrian Uprising as they prefer to refer to it, makes me think back to news of World War II and what Hitler did to the Jews and any other class of people he felt were inferior.  All world leaders, religions, and the everyday people on the streets said never would such heinous acts be allowed to be perpetrated on man again.  Then I look at the news and what do I see?  A government slaughtering its own people, men women and children, to the tune of over 10,000 killed, 1.5 million displaced internally, and with several thousand fleeing into neighboring countries.

I would like to pay homage by putting a brief story about Anne Frank on our blog.  We do not have the stories of the innocents being murdered in Syria yet, but one day those stories will come out.   Will we help or once again look back and say, never again?  Is history just going to repeat itself?

-Acting on a tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captured 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the "secret annex" working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on June 12, 1929. She was the second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander, both of Jewish families that had lived in Germany for centuries. With the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1933, Otto moved his family to Amsterdam to escape the escalating Nazi persecution of Jews. In Holland, he ran a successful spice and jam business. Anne attended a Montessori school with other middle-class Dutch children, but with the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 she was forced to transfer to a Jewish school. In 1942, Otto began arranging a hiding place in an annex of his warehouse on the Prinsengracht Canal in Amsterdam.

On her 13th birthday in 1942, Anne began a diary relating her everyday experiences, her relationship with her family and friends, and observations about the increasingly dangerous world around her. Less than a month later, Anne's older sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to report to a Nazi "work camp." Fearing deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, the Frank family took shelter in the secret annex the next day. One week later, they were joined by Otto Frank's business partner and his family. In November, a Jewish dentist, the eighth occupant of the hiding place, joined the group.

For two years, Anne kept a diary about her life in hiding that is marked with poignancy, humor, and insight. The entrance to the secret annex was hidden by a hinged bookcase, and former employees of Otto and other Dutch friends delivered them food and supplies procured at high risk. Anne and the others lived in rooms with blacked-out windows, and never flushed the toilet during the day out of fear that their presence would be detected. In June 1944, Anne's spirits were raised by the Allied landing at Normandy, and she was hopeful that the long-awaited liberation of Holland would soon begin.

On August 1, 1944, Anne made her last entry in her diary. Three days later, 25 months of seclusion ended with the arrival of the Nazi Gestapo. Anne and the others had been given away by an unknown informer, and they were arrested along with two of the Christians who had helped shelter them. They were sent to a concentration camp in Holland, and in September Anne and most of the others were shipped to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. In the fall of 1944, with the Soviet liberation of Poland underway, Anne was moved with her sister Margot to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Suffering under the deplorable conditions of the camp, the two sisters caught typhus and died in early March 1945. The camp was liberated by the British less than two months later.

Otto Frank was the only one of the 10 to survive the Nazi death camps. After the war, he returned to Amsterdam via Russia, and was reunited with Miep Gies, one of his former employees who had helped shelter him. She handed him Anne's diary, which she had found undisturbed after the Nazi raid. In 1947, Anne's diary was published by Otto in its original Dutch as Diary of a Young Girl. An instant best-seller and eventually translated into more than 50 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank has served as a literary testament to the nearly six million Jews, including Anne herself, who were silenced in the Holocaust.

The Draft and Vietnam

In January of 1977, President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.

In total 100,000 draft aged Americans went abroad in the late 1960's and early 70's to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.  Ninety percent went to Canada.  Others hide out in the US and Europe.  In addition to those who were "draft-dodgers," a relatively small number of about 1,000 were deserters.  Others were labeled "Conscientious Objectors."

A total of 209,517 men were formally accused of violating draft laws, while government officials estimate another 360,000 were never formally accused.  If they returned home they would have faced prison sentences or forced military service.

President Carter's decision generated a great amount of controversy.  He was heavily criticized by veterans' groups and others for allowing "unpatriotic lawbreakers" to get off scot-free.  The pardon and companion relief plan came under fire from amnesty groups for not addressing deserters, soldiers who were dishonorably discharged or civilian anti-war demonstrators who had been prosecuted for their resistance.

Although today, when reaching the age of 18 all males must register with the Selective Service, many people born after 1975 are not familiar with the draft and what it meant to young men and their lives.  From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and war, only men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary service.  All men between the ages of 18 and 26 had to sign up with the Selective Service, also known as, the"United States Draft Board".

A lottery drawing, the first since 1942, was held on December 1, 1969 at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  This event determined the order of call for the induction year of 1970. All registrants born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950 were in the drawing.  This lottery differed from the 1942 lottery as the oldest were not called up first.  It was determined by the order that the dates were pulled.

With radio, film and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from a jar.  The first capsule drawn was the date of September 14, so all men born on that date in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1.  The drawing continued until all days of the year had been batched to lottery numbers.  If you were number 1 you were going.  Number 365 would probably never see service.  The lowest numbers were drafted first.

If the draft were held today, it would be dramatically different from the one held during the Vietnam War.  A series of reforms during the latter part of the Vietnam conflict changed the way the draft operated to make it more fair.  If a draft were held today there would be fewer reasons to excuse a man from service.

Before Congress made the changes to the draft in 1971, a man could qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a full time student making satisfactory progress toward a degree.  Under the current draft law, a college student can have his induction postponed only until the end of the current semester.  A senior can be postponed until the end of the academic year.  Today a man would spend only one year in the first priority for draft, either the calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended.  Each year after that he would be placed in a succeedingly lower priority group, and his liability for the draft would lessen accordingly.

Women are still not required to register with the Selective Service, but this could change with the new policy of allowing women to serve in combat arms specialties.

New Beginnings And Wrapping Up Old Ones

The New Year is the time for new beginnings and wrapping up old ones.

The New Year was 1789, and the first election for President of the United States was held from Monday, December 15, 1788 to Saturday, January 10, 1789.  It was the only election to take place partially in a year that was not a multiple of four.

On January 7, 1789 the first President of The United States was elected.  At the time there were no real political parties.  Candidates were either Federalists, meaning they supported the ratification of the Constitution, or Anti-Federalists, meaning they opposed ratification.  In reality both sides were united in supporting George Washington as president.  The only real issue to be decided was who would be chosen as vice president.  Under the system then in place, each elector cast two votes.  If a person received a vote from a majority of the electors, that person became president and the runner up became vice president.  All 69 electors cast one vote each for Washington.  Their other votes were divided among the other eleven candidates.  The candidates were:  George Washington, Independent; John Adams, Federalist; John Jay, Federalist; Robert H. Harrison, Federalist; John Rutledge, Federalist; John Hancock, Federalist; George Clinton, Anti-Federalist; Samuel Huntington, Federalist; John Milton, Federalist; James Armstrong, Federalist; Benjamin Lincoln, Federalist; and Edward Telfair, Anti-Federalist.  John Adams received the most votes of the eleven candidates and became George Washington's vice president.

In 1804 the Twelfth Amendment was ratified requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice president.

With the thought of new beginnings and wrapping up old ones, here are a couple of quotes to start the New Year.

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."  Carl Bard

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover." Mark Twain

Proof Of The First Thanksgiving

Before the arrival of the Pilgrims and Puritans the Wampanoag people gave thanks, feasts, and ceremonies for the Creator's gifts of a successful harvest, hope for a good growing season in the spring, and for other good fortune such as the birth of a child.

In 1621, after a year of sickness and scarcity the Pilgrims along with the Wampanoag tribe, gave thanks to God and celebrated His bounty with feasting and celebration.  To these people of strong Christian faith this was not merely a feast, but a joyous outpouring of gratitude.  E.W. Winslow, a Pilgrim and later Governor of New England who had lost his wife to the elements in the new land, wrote a letter to his friend in England saying, "Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.  At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming among us, and among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation, and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty...These things I thought good to let you understand that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favourable with us."

In 1622, Winslow's letter was printed in a pamphlet that historians commonly call Mourt's Relation. Winslow's and William Bradford's accounts were written between November 1620 and November 1621. They described in detail what happened from the landing of the Pilgrims at Cape Cod, their exploring and eventual settling at Plymouth, to their relations with the surrounding Indians, up to the first Thanksgiving and the arrival of the ship Fortune.  Mourt's Relations was first published in London in 1622 by George Morton. This publication of the first Thanksgiving was lost during the Colonial period and rediscovered in Philadelphia around 1820.  Because of Winslow's letter historians have long contended that it was the first Thanksgiving celebrated in America.

The holiday changed as the strictly held customs of the Puritans of the 17th century evolved into the 18th century's more cosmopolitan New Englander.  By the 1700's the emotional significance of family united around a dinner table over shadowed the civil and religious importance of Thanksgiving.  As the people began to migrate westward New England's holiday traditions spread to the rest of the nation.  It was not until 1941, under the leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Congress established the 4th Thursday of November as the national Thanksgiving holiday.

We at National Write Your Congressman wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving 2013.

Dignity

I found this article from September of 2012.  It seemed timely with all the wars, hate, and attacks on innocent people that are growing daily in our world. The last paragraph sums it all up. We are, after all, human beings, and everyone should be treated with dignity regardless of their beliefs, nationalities, station in life, or religion.  

More than 69 years after they crashed in Germany, the remains of five British airmen have been recovered and will receive a proper burial. The Royal Air Force members disappeared in April 1943 during a raid on a weapons factory in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.

The remains of five British airmen who crashed in Germany during World War II have been discovered near Mannheim, researchers announced on Friday. Their bomber went down with seven men aboard during a raid on a Czech arms factory in April 1943. German soldiers recovered two of the bodies from the wreckage shortly thereafter, but five of the Royal Air Force members remained missing until last week. The British Air Ministry, which conducted an exhaustive search for the men after the war, had concluded that they likely ditched in the sea.

Pilot Alex Bone and his crewmates took off from Lincolnshire, England, 69 years ago in an Avro Lancaster, the heavy bomber used by the RAF in the skies over Europe during World War II. Of the 327 bombers that set out in April 1943 to attack a munitions plant in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, 36 would never make it back to their base—including Bone’s plane. It is believed that he and his crew battled German antiaircraft fire before plunging into a field outside Laumersheim in southwestern Germany.

As it searched in vain for the missing crew in the years following World War II, the British Air Ministry had no idea that German troops had already buried two of the men in Mannheim. Meanwhile, a local teenager named Peter Menges had witnessed the fiery crash and knew the exact whereabouts of the wrecked Lancaster. Decades later, Menges, now 83, joined forces with Uwe Benkel, a health insurance clerk who moonlights as a military history researcher and has helped recover more than 100 planes. Last year, for instance, Benkel unearthed the remains of another British crew near the German village of Schwanheim.

After using metal detectors and ground-penetrating radar to confirm the crash site near Laumersheim, Benkel and his team uncovered the Lancaster bomber’s engine and landing gear, along with hundreds of bone fragments thought to be the remains of the missing men. Relatives have been notified and plans are being made to bury the men in a shared coffin at Germany’s Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery.

Benkel told British news sources that area residents wondered why he was searching for former enemies who had bombed German cities. “It doesn’t make a difference if they are German or British,” he told The Telegraph. “They were young men who fought and died for their country for which they deserve a proper burial in a cemetery.”

Labor Day-The Celebraton of Workers and Their Achievements

Labor Day, an annual celebration of workers and their achievements, originated during American labor's worst times.  In the late 1800s at the height of the Industrial Revolution and a series of depressions that had affected the American economy throughout the 19th Century, the average American worked 12 hour days and seven days a week to barely eke out a basic living.  Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as 5 and 6 worked in mills, factories and mines across the country earning a fraction of their adult counterparts wages.  People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks.

In order to understand how Americans reached this point you need to see what the economy was experiencing at the time.  This is a brief history of the economy of the 1800s.

Panic of 1819

• The first major American depression, the Panic of 1819 was rooted to some extent in economic problems reaching back to the war of 1812.
• It was triggered by a collapse in cotton prices. A contraction in credit coincided with the problems in the cotton market, and the young American economy was severely affected.
• Banks were forced to call in loans, and foreclosures of farms and bank failures resulted.
• The Panic of 1819 lasted until 1821.
• The effects were felt most in the west and south. Bitterness about the economic hardships resonated for years and led to the resentment that helped Andrew Jackson solidify his political base throughout the 1820s.
• Besides exacerbating sectional animosity, the Panic of 1819 also made many Americans realize the importance of politics and government policy in their lives. 

  Panic of 1837

• The Panic of 1837 was triggered by a combination of factors including the failure of a wheat crop, a collapse in cotton prices, economic problems in Britain, rapid speculation in land, and problems resulting from the variety of currency in circulation.
• It was the second-longest American depression, with effects lasting roughly six years, until 1843.
• The panic had a devastating impact. A number of brokerage firms in New York failed, and at least one New York City bank president committed suicide. As the effect rippled across the nation, a number of state-chartered banks also failed. The nascent labor union movement was effectively stopped, as the price of labor plummeted.
• The depression caused the collapse of real estate prices. The price of food also collapsed, which was ruinous to farmers and planters who couldn’t get a decent price for their crops. People who lived through the depression following 1837 told stories that would be echoed a century later during The Great Depression.
• The aftermath of the panic of 1837 led to Martin Van Burens’s failure to secure a second term in the election of 1840. Many blamed the economic hardships on the policies of Andrew Jackson.  Van Buren, who had been Jackson’s vice president, paid the political price.

  Panic of 1857

• The Panic of 1857 was triggered by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, which actually did much of its business as a bank headquartered in New York City. Reckless speculation in railroads led the company into trouble, and the company’s collapse led to a literal panic in the financial district, as crowds of frantic investors clogged the streets around Wall Street.
• Stock prices plummeted, and more than 900 mercantile firms in New York had to cease operation. By the end of the year the American economy was a shambles.
• One victim of the Panic of 1857 was a future Civil War hero and US president, Ulysses S. Grant, who was bankrupted and had to pawn his gold watch to buy Christmas presents.
• Recovery from the depression began in early 1859.

Panic of 1873

• The investment firm of Jay Cooke and Company went bankrupt in September 1873 as a result of rampant speculation in railroads. The stock market dropped sharply and caused numerous businesses to fail.
• The depression caused approximately three million Americans to lose their jobs.
• The collapse in food prices impacted America's farm economy, causing great poverty in rural America.
• The depression lasted for five years, until 1878.
• The Panic of 1873 led to a populist movement that saw the creation of the Greenback Party.

Panic of 1893

• The depression set off by the Panic of 1893 was the greatest depression America had known, and was only surpassed by the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• In early May 1893 the New York stock market dropped sharply, and in late June panic selling caused the stock market to crash.
• A severe credit crisis resulted, and more than 16,000 businesses had failed by the end of 1893. Included in the failed businesses were 156 railroads and nearly 500 banks.
• Unemployment spread until one in six American men lost their jobs.
• The depression inspired "Coxey's Army," a march on Washington of unemployed men. The protesters demanded that the government provide public works jobs. Their leader, Jacob Coxey, was imprisoned for 20 days.
• The depression caused by the Panic of 1893 lasted for about four years, ending in 1897. 

On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. History.  The idea of a "workingmen's holiday," celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial centers across the country, and many states passed legislation recognizing it.  It was not until 1894 that Labor Day became a federal holiday.

The Amazing Nellie Bly - Part Four

What next for this amazing woman...

After a few years of enjoying her celebrity Nellie went back to doing what she did best, championing the downtrodden.  The United States was experiencing an economic crisis that became the depression of 1893.  Nellie covered the stories where strikers were fighting their companies nationwide.  She got the stories from both sides, but firmly backed the strikers.

In 1895, at the age of 31, Nellie married millionaire manufacturer Robert Seaman, who was 40 years older than she.  The company manufactured containers such as milk cans and boilers.  In 1904 Nellie's husband passed away, and she became the President of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company.  That same year Nellie took a trip to Europe where she saw glycerin containers made of steel.  "I determined to make steel containers for the American trade."  Within a year Nellie patented her own metal barrel.

After returning to the U.S. Nellie went to work on her new idea.  "My first experiment leaked and the second was defective because the solder gave way, and then I brazed them with the result that the liquid inside was ruined by the brazing metal.  I finally worked out the steel package to perfection, patented the design, put it on the market and taught the American public to use the steel barrel."  Nellie proudly claimed, "I am the only manufacturer in the country who can produce a certain type of steel barrel for which there is an immense demand at present for the transportation of oil, gasoline, and other liquids."  Nellie's 40-gallon barrel was the model for the 55-gallon oil drum still in use today.

Nellie's company experienced huge success employing 1,500 and could produce 1,000 steel barrels daily, but then, because of embezzlement by employees and charges of fraud on their part,  it all ended in a bitterly contested bankruptcy. 

World War I had broken out, and Nellie returned to her roots.  She signed on as a reporter covering the war in Europe.  She went to the front lines and was the first female reporter to do so.  In on-the-spot news stories she wrote, "One motionless creature had his cap on his head.  Great black circles were around his sunken eyes.  Black hollows were around his nose and his ears were black.  Near him, completely covered by his coat, was a form.  Occasionally it shivered convulsively.  That was all.  Nearest us was another lying on his face.  He never moved.  Perhaps he was dead.  The soldier was in a shed with other cholera victims.  Human creatures they were, lying there in a manner our health authorities would prohibit for hogs or the meanest beasts.  I staggered out into the muddy road.  I would rather look on guns and hear the cutting of the air by a shot that brought kinder death."

While covering the war in Hungary a policeman mistook Nellie for a British spy.  The police ignored her claims that she was an American reporter until a translator arrived.  "I am Dr. Friedman", he announced. "You are English, they say."  "I am Nellie Bly of New York," I answered.  Both hands flew up above his head.  'My God!  Nellie Bly,' he cried excitedly.  "The police had cleared a space around us.  Their mouths were not open but their eyes were.  They were speechless, dumbfounded.  My new friend began to talk rapidly to them.  They listened aghast.  'I have told them every child seven years old in America knows Nellie Bly,' he said aside to me."

Safely back in the United States the year was 1913.  Nellie went straight to work covering the Woman's Suffrage Parade.  Her headline for the parade story was "Suffragists Are Men's Superiors," but she also correctly predicted in the story that it would be 1920 before women would win the vote.

In 1916 Nellie was given a baby boy whose mother requested Nellie look after him and see that he was adopted.   The child, being illegitimate and half Japanese, made him difficult to place.  He spent the next six years in an orphanage run by the Church For All Nations in Manhattan.  The plight of orphaned children became part of her ongoing efforts to improve the social organizations of the day.

In 1922 Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman, at the age of 57 was admitted to St. Mark's Hospital in New York City where she died of pneumonia.  The World wrote, "Nellie Bly was THE BEST REPORTER IN AMERICA and that is saying a good deal."  She is buried in a modest grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

I will end where I began, in complete awe of this woman and her accomplishments during a time when a woman's place was at home and not even allowed to vote.  Where did she find the courage and unyielding demand to be seen as an equal, a person rather than a woman?

The Amazing Nellie Bly - Part Three

"In spite of the assurance that I would be released in a few days, my heart gave a sharp twinge.  Pronounced insane by four expert doctors and shut up behind the unmerciful bolts of a madhouse was an uncomfortable position."  In spite of what she had experienced, or in her case, because of the rush she experienced, Nellie was eager for her next exciting story.

In 1873, Jules Verne published a novel called Around the World in 80 Days.  In his book a fictional hero named Phileas Fogg circled the world on a bet.  No real person had attempted this huge and dangerous feat.  The year was now 1889 and Nellie was bored and seeking adventure, so she proposed that she attempt it as a publicity stunt for the The World.  The paper's business manager told her that it would be better to send a man because he would not need a chaperon or as much luggage.  Incensed, Nellie shot back, "Very well.  Start the man, and I will start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him."  She got the assignment.

At 9:40 a.m. on November 14, 1889, and with two days notice, Nellie now only 25 years old boarded the Augusta Victoria, a steamer of the Hamburg America Line, and began her 24,899 mile journey.  All she brought with her was the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several changes of underwear and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry essentials.  She carried most of her money in a bag tied around her neck.

Communications in 1889 were made possible by efficient submarine cable networks and the electric telegraph.  Only short messages could be sent.  Her entire stories of her progress and adventures still had to be mailed which took several weeks.  The World, in order to keep interest up between reports, organized a "Nellie Bly Guessing Match" in which readers were asked to estimate her arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize being a free trip to Europe and spending money for the trip.  Newspaper sales soared while people in New York and the rest of the country were keeping track of Nellie Bly's whereabouts.

Nellie went through England, France, Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo (Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.  While in France Nellie met Jules Verne and his wife.  His wife commented afterwards, "She is trim, energetic, and strong.  I believe, Jules, that she will make your heroes look foolish."  It is said that Jules agreed and laughed.

During her travels using steamships and existing railroad systems, she experienced some setbacks particularly in Asia .  During these stops she visited a leper colony in China and bought a monkey in Singapore.

On the returning trip headed for San Francisco on the White Star Line ship Oceanic she was two days behind the schedule she had set for herself because of rough weather while crossing the Pacific.  The World owner, Joseph Pulitzer, chartered a private train to bring her home, and she arrived back in New Jersey on January 25, 1890, at 3:51 p.m.  Nellie had circled the world in seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds! 

Nellie Bly was back in New York and a hero.  She had not only set the first record to beat, but the year was 1890, and she did it almost completely unchaperoned.  The overcoat she had worn during the trip became her trademark.  Nellie was now not only a celebrated journalist, but a celebrated adventurer.

What next for this amazing woman?