11 hours ago
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Got your's yet?
BLACKFIVE, one of the best - and unquestionably one of the good guys - has his book out and running. If you are a MilBlogger, or MilBlogg'n fan - you should buy and read. I've ordered mine (even with the snarky PubWeAkly below.
From Publishers Weekly:
A torrent of Internet blogs has poured from U.S. forces overseas, providing a unique view of our wars. Retired officer and blogger Burden does not claim this collection of extracts represents a cross section of what's available, nor does he disguise his biases. All the officers in the book are competent; all the enlisted men and women are brave; and all the husbands love their wives and vice versa. Every writer supports America's war aims, admires the President, despises enemy fighters (generally referred to as terrorists) and holds a low opinion of Americans who oppose the war (generally referred to as liberals). The best (if sometimes troublesome) selections relate personal experiences: a woman trucker is severely wounded; a tanker fights his way into Fallujah, enthusiastically describing the men he kills; a base commander fires an obstreperous Iraqi employee. More literary efforts are less successful, with several wince-inducing attempts at poetic battlefield imagery. Tributes to fallen comrades often fall into mawkishness. Burden warns that unfettered war blogging may soon disappear under the heavy hand of military censorship, but if our leaders are worried about criticism of their policies, Burden's book will reassure them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Late Summer of '42
As Jeffrey Lord tells us in The American Spectator; there is such a thing as a loyal opposition.
After more than a decade of losing elections to Democrats, after three straight presidential losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt -- the man conservative Republicans loved to hate -- the scent of victory was at last in the air for the GOP.Why did they do it? Anyone can tell you....and the reason remains the same.
But there was a problem, and a big one at that. The previous December 7th America had been attacked at Pearl Harbor. The attack was a disaster, killing 2,471 military and civilians and destroying a considerable portion of the U.S. Navy. For the second time in just over twenty years the country was now at war. Not only were we fighting the Japanese but the Germans and the Italians too.
In the partisan camps of the Republican Party there was considerable feeling that the fault for this lay personally with FDR. Some were convinced he either knew the attack was coming and let it happen to plunge the country into the war, or that he should have known and was simply incompetent. The man, they believed, was neither very bright nor very honest. Battlefields were now erupting in strange countries literally all over the world -- in Europe, Africa, Asia. So in circumstances like this, how does a political opposition approach the upcoming election?
Savage FDR? Run on a campaign of "Roosevelt lied and people died"? Should they go out and tell the American people just how dangerously incompetent the man was, that the best thing to do was make peace with Hitler and Japan's Hirohito, then elect Republicans who would simply force FDR to bring home the boys and let the rest of the world cope with chaos? After all, a few years earlier FDR himself had turned back an ocean liner filled with 937 Jews escaping the looming Holocaust. The idea of not making Hitler, Hirohito or Mussolini any angrier than they were was certainly one approach.
The Republicans did none of the above. Instead, with the President on the political ropes at last, with a burgeoning team of attractive GOP candidates all over the country they did something else.
They rallied to FDR.
...
Running for Governor of Connecticut Raymond Baldwin stated flatly that "[t]he President of the United States is our Commander in Chief. Because we are Americans before we are Republicans, we will back him in the conduct of the war. His success is our success and we want him to succeed." At the Republican National Committee, Chairman Joseph Martin pledged "100 percent support of the war effort." And on it went with campaigning Republicans across the country.
And the Nazis and the Japanese? The so-called Axis Powers? What was their response? The New York Times editorial page trumpeted "an admission from Berlin that it would be 'harboring an illusion' to expect the Republican victory to bring any change whatever in the policy of the United States." Focusing on the silence of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the paper concluded: "His silence is proof of the fact that we have made the unity of our purpose apparent to our enemies."And what happened to the Republicans in the '42 election? Did they sacrifice their political gain by supporting the nation at war?
The Republicans won the election, gaining 44 new House seats and 10 in the Senate, not quite a majority, but erasing FDR's control. Dewey won in New York and was instantly bannered as a presidential sure thing. GOP gubernatorial candidates won across the country....and people wonder why I feel disgust now and then.
The ripening is done
It’s started. Hard to pin down a date, but I think the veil lifted this winter. Lex is seeing something similar, but from a slightly different angle – like we are seeing the same animal from different sides.
From the start of this blog, one of the themes I have tried to hit on now and then is the nature of the Left, the hard core Left, and their pathological self-hate of this nation. I am not talking about Republicans or Democrats. No, nothing like that. Would I rather have Lieberman or Chafee as SECDEF? Lieberman, unquestionably – though that is none of my business.
The core Boomer Left has been in the wilderness for a very long time. The early 70s were their heyday. The world was run by the WWII generation, but they saw themselves, just by their numbers and dedicated core, as in the ascendancy. Socially and politically, everything was going in the direction of their worldview. Something nasty happened though. Urban renewal brought Cabrini Green. The sexual revolution brought herpes, HIV, HPV, sterility, divorce, single income supporting day care, and lonely weekends interrupted by a sad series of inadequate relationships. By the late 70s political progress was stymied by the economic backwash from the ’73 Arab Israeli War, a geo-political swamp infested with aggressive Soviets in Afghanistan, and the strange rise of radical Islam in Iran. They all ganged up on the beautifully opportunity of the Carter Administration that just wasn’t able to get those nasty distractions off the plate so the march could continue. Then Reagan happened, and the ‘80s voided itself on the scene.
The core has nurtured a tender wound of frustration, hate, disgust; all wrapped with a conceit of their own sense of self-importance, unique intellectual clarity, and natural right to rule, control, and shape the future of lesser citizens.
Some people who in the 60-80’s were Communists or their Useful Idiots, saw evil in the world only with an American face. There was no evil in Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Nicaragua, or El Salvador; only the evil hand of American against the will of the people to develop a progressive society. America didn’t have enemies – only people who opposed its imperialism.
Then as now, America is the problem. In AF, IQ, IR, and the Levant; anywhere America or her allies is threatened, the instinct of the Left is to see America as the problem.
They simmered through the ‘80s. Sure, there was the “Homeless Crisis” and “Trickledown Reaganomics” to harp about at home. There were anti-cruise missile and Pershing II marches in Europe. There was the El Salvador and Sandinista Kabuki dance in Central America….but that just wasn’t working. They couldn't gain power with their lame technocrat in 88, but Bush 41 wasn’t Reagan. After all, he did manage to ban some guns, raise some taxes and tried to talk Ukraine into not parting with the Russian Federation as the beautiful loser of the Soviet Union faded, but then Poppy did the unthinkable. He ran what was seen then as a perfect war that brought the Left’s boogieman out of the closet; the U.S. military could once again march with pride. Service members now had no problem wearing their uniform in public without fear.
But there was still hope. The man from Hope. The glorious dawning of a new day took place in ’92 when the last of the WWII generation turned over power at last to the Better Generation; Bill Clinton and the Boomers now were in power. Looking at WJC’s CV, they drooled – and his wife was a known quantity. Aquarius was back. And even better, that military would now have to answer to them.
Well, that didn’t work out as well as they wanted. Sure, the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” fiasco was a bit of progress, but it still smelt of defeat. Tailhook was a gift from the goddess. The military’s best and brightest were gibbeted all around the ramparts – knocking them back down a bit closer to where they belonged. Little steps here and there we brought them to heel. Scare their leaders into eating their own. Transplant the most corrosive of our theories in the belly of the beast - to grow and grow. But yet, not enough.
The ‘90s were of great frustration. The inner circle festered in frustration as the outer rings grew rich in the .com boom, and compromised their way through the halls of power. ’94 was a nightmare – an opening festering wound. Strong guerrilla warfare took out some of the enemy's leadership, but no power. WJC teased them into thinking they could at last bring taste the fruit of the tree they planted so long ago – but nothing came of it.
Then 2000. Florida. Family connections. By just hundreds of votes, they lost. To the son of 41. A Texan. Gore served on active duty in Vietnam. Shrub was a TANG guy. Florida (to its shame) was a low tax state with a lot of military bases. A large percentage of military personnel who at one point or another go through FL, especially if they come from a state with an income tax (if they waive it or not) change their residency to FL so they don’t have to fiddle with State income taxes. They take their FL residency with them when they leave. The military pushed voting for its service members, and has an active program every election to get them to vote. The vast majority of military members in national elections vote for Republicans. Thousands of military members who are stationed overseas, Virginia, California, Hawaii, Texas and elsewhere fill out a FL absentee ballot, because that is the only way to vote. Gore lost Florida because of the greedy, right-wing, lazy, military that doesn’t want to pay their fair share.
Frustration is an exceptionally powerful emotion. Mixed in with envy, and you can have otherwise intelligent, nice people becoming an angry, incoherent mob. In 2000, the Boomer Left saw that its long march through the education industry, university, press, and entertainment halls of power was stymied.
Then we were attacked. An attack worse than Pearl Harbor. With a right-wing Republican in the White House. A war was started. Not a boutique war of choice like Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia or some other Blue Helmet OP; no, a real war. This was a threat, a horrible threat – a threat to their proper place – in power.
This is what it is all about; power. Pure and simple – power. The Looney Left, and those who use them as shock troops, see this all in the frame of about how they get back in power. Where they belong. Power at any cost. The growing Long War was/is seen as a huge block in their playbook back to power. The war was too popular, and everything about it was strengthening those institutions that were in their way.
Undermine, frame the issue, fight any potential for victory on the Republican’s watch. Wallowing in the afterbirth of an engineered self-defeat or re-defined defeat; they will emerge with no institution that can question their moral authority. Defunct, disgraced, humbled and weak; in disarray the Left’s opponents will not be able to block their mission to reshape this nation and the world order closer in line with their wisdom. They were so close 25 years ago. As they start to hit 60, the Boomer left knows that they are at the peak of their power. They know they have to press their advantage. Now.
How does the military play into this? Well, the smart ones on the Left know that we are just a tool in many ways. Only as a symbol do we have any impact on domestic politics. Though a considerably right-of-center group, with significant exceptions, the military is, thankfully, by tradition and law toothless domestically. On the right though, the military and the concepts it represents are a foundation stone. To significantly weaken the moral power of the right in this country, you have to weaken the one institution where the majority of its members are on balance right-of-center and of high standing with the public – that is the military. The only way you undermine the moral standing of the military is through scandal and defeat, especially when the scandal and defeat come from a war when the Executive Branch is in Republican hands.
The reason for the war is not important. What is important is how you prevent victory – a victory that helps the right – and assist a saleable defeat that empowers the Left.
That is the end-state for this operation. The mission statement involves the ascendancy of the Left back to a position of power in the Executive and Legislative Branches of government., and as a result, through appointments bring the Judicial Branch back towards the Left as well.
The war, and preventing a victory, is simply a domestic political tactic. The attacks on the moral standing of the military isn’t personal; it is just politics. Easy politics too, because they know that in the end, the military will do what we have always done; “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States…”
BT
And so, it starts again. There are hopes that this will just be an election year fever that will fade. No, I’m sorry. This will go on and through ’08. Ironically, if by some string of luck the Republicans keep one or both Legislative Branches in the fall, it will get much worse in the run up to ’08. Even if the Republicans loose both, the Left won’t be sated – it is going to get nasty.
Remember, to the Left the military is between themselves and power. The Left is angry and frustrated. Not about the war, but from being out of power. Get a thick skin and an iron stomach. This is going to be a rough ride – again. Don’t know where it will end this time.
From the start of this blog, one of the themes I have tried to hit on now and then is the nature of the Left, the hard core Left, and their pathological self-hate of this nation. I am not talking about Republicans or Democrats. No, nothing like that. Would I rather have Lieberman or Chafee as SECDEF? Lieberman, unquestionably – though that is none of my business.
The core Boomer Left has been in the wilderness for a very long time. The early 70s were their heyday. The world was run by the WWII generation, but they saw themselves, just by their numbers and dedicated core, as in the ascendancy. Socially and politically, everything was going in the direction of their worldview. Something nasty happened though. Urban renewal brought Cabrini Green. The sexual revolution brought herpes, HIV, HPV, sterility, divorce, single income supporting day care, and lonely weekends interrupted by a sad series of inadequate relationships. By the late 70s political progress was stymied by the economic backwash from the ’73 Arab Israeli War, a geo-political swamp infested with aggressive Soviets in Afghanistan, and the strange rise of radical Islam in Iran. They all ganged up on the beautifully opportunity of the Carter Administration that just wasn’t able to get those nasty distractions off the plate so the march could continue. Then Reagan happened, and the ‘80s voided itself on the scene.
The core has nurtured a tender wound of frustration, hate, disgust; all wrapped with a conceit of their own sense of self-importance, unique intellectual clarity, and natural right to rule, control, and shape the future of lesser citizens.
Some people who in the 60-80’s were Communists or their Useful Idiots, saw evil in the world only with an American face. There was no evil in Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Nicaragua, or El Salvador; only the evil hand of American against the will of the people to develop a progressive society. America didn’t have enemies – only people who opposed its imperialism.
Then as now, America is the problem. In AF, IQ, IR, and the Levant; anywhere America or her allies is threatened, the instinct of the Left is to see America as the problem.
They simmered through the ‘80s. Sure, there was the “Homeless Crisis” and “Trickledown Reaganomics” to harp about at home. There were anti-cruise missile and Pershing II marches in Europe. There was the El Salvador and Sandinista Kabuki dance in Central America….but that just wasn’t working. They couldn't gain power with their lame technocrat in 88, but Bush 41 wasn’t Reagan. After all, he did manage to ban some guns, raise some taxes and tried to talk Ukraine into not parting with the Russian Federation as the beautiful loser of the Soviet Union faded, but then Poppy did the unthinkable. He ran what was seen then as a perfect war that brought the Left’s boogieman out of the closet; the U.S. military could once again march with pride. Service members now had no problem wearing their uniform in public without fear.
But there was still hope. The man from Hope. The glorious dawning of a new day took place in ’92 when the last of the WWII generation turned over power at last to the Better Generation; Bill Clinton and the Boomers now were in power. Looking at WJC’s CV, they drooled – and his wife was a known quantity. Aquarius was back. And even better, that military would now have to answer to them.
Well, that didn’t work out as well as they wanted. Sure, the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” fiasco was a bit of progress, but it still smelt of defeat. Tailhook was a gift from the goddess. The military’s best and brightest were gibbeted all around the ramparts – knocking them back down a bit closer to where they belonged. Little steps here and there we brought them to heel. Scare their leaders into eating their own. Transplant the most corrosive of our theories in the belly of the beast - to grow and grow. But yet, not enough.
The ‘90s were of great frustration. The inner circle festered in frustration as the outer rings grew rich in the .com boom, and compromised their way through the halls of power. ’94 was a nightmare – an opening festering wound. Strong guerrilla warfare took out some of the enemy's leadership, but no power. WJC teased them into thinking they could at last bring taste the fruit of the tree they planted so long ago – but nothing came of it.
Then 2000. Florida. Family connections. By just hundreds of votes, they lost. To the son of 41. A Texan. Gore served on active duty in Vietnam. Shrub was a TANG guy. Florida (to its shame) was a low tax state with a lot of military bases. A large percentage of military personnel who at one point or another go through FL, especially if they come from a state with an income tax (if they waive it or not) change their residency to FL so they don’t have to fiddle with State income taxes. They take their FL residency with them when they leave. The military pushed voting for its service members, and has an active program every election to get them to vote. The vast majority of military members in national elections vote for Republicans. Thousands of military members who are stationed overseas, Virginia, California, Hawaii, Texas and elsewhere fill out a FL absentee ballot, because that is the only way to vote. Gore lost Florida because of the greedy, right-wing, lazy, military that doesn’t want to pay their fair share.
Frustration is an exceptionally powerful emotion. Mixed in with envy, and you can have otherwise intelligent, nice people becoming an angry, incoherent mob. In 2000, the Boomer Left saw that its long march through the education industry, university, press, and entertainment halls of power was stymied.
Then we were attacked. An attack worse than Pearl Harbor. With a right-wing Republican in the White House. A war was started. Not a boutique war of choice like Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia or some other Blue Helmet OP; no, a real war. This was a threat, a horrible threat – a threat to their proper place – in power.
This is what it is all about; power. Pure and simple – power. The Looney Left, and those who use them as shock troops, see this all in the frame of about how they get back in power. Where they belong. Power at any cost. The growing Long War was/is seen as a huge block in their playbook back to power. The war was too popular, and everything about it was strengthening those institutions that were in their way.
Undermine, frame the issue, fight any potential for victory on the Republican’s watch. Wallowing in the afterbirth of an engineered self-defeat or re-defined defeat; they will emerge with no institution that can question their moral authority. Defunct, disgraced, humbled and weak; in disarray the Left’s opponents will not be able to block their mission to reshape this nation and the world order closer in line with their wisdom. They were so close 25 years ago. As they start to hit 60, the Boomer left knows that they are at the peak of their power. They know they have to press their advantage. Now.
How does the military play into this? Well, the smart ones on the Left know that we are just a tool in many ways. Only as a symbol do we have any impact on domestic politics. Though a considerably right-of-center group, with significant exceptions, the military is, thankfully, by tradition and law toothless domestically. On the right though, the military and the concepts it represents are a foundation stone. To significantly weaken the moral power of the right in this country, you have to weaken the one institution where the majority of its members are on balance right-of-center and of high standing with the public – that is the military. The only way you undermine the moral standing of the military is through scandal and defeat, especially when the scandal and defeat come from a war when the Executive Branch is in Republican hands.
The reason for the war is not important. What is important is how you prevent victory – a victory that helps the right – and assist a saleable defeat that empowers the Left.
That is the end-state for this operation. The mission statement involves the ascendancy of the Left back to a position of power in the Executive and Legislative Branches of government., and as a result, through appointments bring the Judicial Branch back towards the Left as well.
The war, and preventing a victory, is simply a domestic political tactic. The attacks on the moral standing of the military isn’t personal; it is just politics. Easy politics too, because they know that in the end, the military will do what we have always done; “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States…”
BT
And so, it starts again. There are hopes that this will just be an election year fever that will fade. No, I’m sorry. This will go on and through ’08. Ironically, if by some string of luck the Republicans keep one or both Legislative Branches in the fall, it will get much worse in the run up to ’08. Even if the Republicans loose both, the Left won’t be sated – it is going to get nasty.
Remember, to the Left the military is between themselves and power. The Left is angry and frustrated. Not about the war, but from being out of power. Get a thick skin and an iron stomach. This is going to be a rough ride – again. Don’t know where it will end this time.
Labels:
Boomers,
Culture Wars,
Long War
Friday, September 01, 2006
A great day for a NPLOR
Remember the saga of LT Bryan Black being taken to Courts Martial for having a potty-mouth? (review the balance of my other posts here, here, and here - Lex's post here, and the one that started the ball rolling from Skippy-san).
Well, the Navy decided to stop digging today. The Countervailing Force has the best details, but here is the Executive Summary: after nine months of subjecting this Lieutenant to the public eye and costing the Navy and LT Black untold tens of thousands of dollars and unimaginable hours of staff work - the Navy blinked. They decided not to take him to Courts Martial and instead sent him over to another Flag Officer at the Washington Navy Yard for Admiral's Mast. Annapolis punted.
If people didn't feel the need to make a political statement through the public humiliation of an officer, this would have ended without the blow-back we have seen.
Never underestimate the courage and motivations of your people. I think someone underestimated what was of importance to this LT. It wasn't his career, it wasn't trying to find the quick and easy way out, it wasn't meekly extending his neck; it was his honor and his name.
You don't have to approve of a mistake to approve of the man. His mote is nothing compared to my beam.
He stood tall. He stood for what he thought was right. He would not have others define him. He was ready for whatever came his way - but on his terms.
LT Black can serve with me anyday; I just won't let him take my wife on a tour of a battleship.
UPDATE:Notice if you will, that this came out on a Friday afternoon...going into what is for many a holiday weedend. That is about the slowest news cycle you can pick. If you think that is by accident, I have a "career enhancing" billet I would like for you to consider. It will look real good in front of a board.....
Well, the Navy decided to stop digging today. The Countervailing Force has the best details, but here is the Executive Summary: after nine months of subjecting this Lieutenant to the public eye and costing the Navy and LT Black untold tens of thousands of dollars and unimaginable hours of staff work - the Navy blinked. They decided not to take him to Courts Martial and instead sent him over to another Flag Officer at the Washington Navy Yard for Admiral's Mast. Annapolis punted.
“Lt. Black went to NJP this morning and received no NJP,” said Gittins, who specializes in military cases.Now, let's let that LT go serve his country. We are at war you know. For my $.02: LT Black made a goof, a significant lapse of judgement at a distinct moment in time, but one far more benign than those I have seen Flag Officers make when they were CDRs when I was a wee Ensign/LTjg. Smaller that a lot of what I see now. On par with errors of judgement solid junior officers make because they are imperfect humans in a zero defect organization.
He said Black received a “non-punitive” letter that amounts to “counseling”.
The Naval Academy declined to comment due to privacy considerations of an administrative matter.
According to Navy regulations, a “non-punitive letter” is not considered punishment but intended to “remedy a noted deficiency” and does not stay in an officer’s service jacket.
At a preliminary hearing in August, Gittins told Navy Times that Black has not been teaching at the Academy for the past year, despite orders to Bahrain. According to Naval Academy spokeswoman Judy Campbell, Black has been performing “non-instructional duties.”
If people didn't feel the need to make a political statement through the public humiliation of an officer, this would have ended without the blow-back we have seen.
Never underestimate the courage and motivations of your people. I think someone underestimated what was of importance to this LT. It wasn't his career, it wasn't trying to find the quick and easy way out, it wasn't meekly extending his neck; it was his honor and his name.
You don't have to approve of a mistake to approve of the man. His mote is nothing compared to my beam.
He stood tall. He stood for what he thought was right. He would not have others define him. He was ready for whatever came his way - but on his terms.
LT Black can serve with me anyday; I just won't let him take my wife on a tour of a battleship.
UPDATE:Notice if you will, that this came out on a Friday afternoon...going into what is for many a holiday weedend. That is about the slowest news cycle you can pick. If you think that is by accident, I have a "career enhancing" billet I would like for you to consider. It will look real good in front of a board.....
Fullbore Friday
Talk about retro. Let's go WAY BACK for the 1st of SEP. Monitors. South American Monitors. How cool is that? I offer you the Huascar of Chile (after being captured by Peru). This is a ship with a record.Huáscar participated in the Peruvian Civil War of 1877. Seized at port in Callao by rebels led by retired Captain Germán Astete, she was used to harass, sabotage and disrupt government forces and shipping lanes. During these actions foreign shipping was also affected, leading to British intervention.Best of all, she is still afloat. Give her a visit next time you are in Chile. She is the last of her kind.
On May 29, 1877, she fought the inconclusive Battle of Pacocha against two British vessels, frigate HMS Shah and corvette HMS Amethyst, commanded by Admiral de Horsey. This battle saw the first use in anger of the newly-invented self-propelled torpedo which, at the time, had just entered limited service with the Royal Navy.
...
Huáscar participated in the War of the Pacific, initially in the service of Peru. Once again under the command of Captain Miguel Grau, she became famous for daring harassment raids on Chilean ports and transports. As a result, during the opening months of the war, the ground invasion was delayed for almost six months until the Chilean fleet could find and stop Huáscar.
The Battle of Iquique
Enlarge
The Battle of Iquique
In May 21, 1879, Huáscar led the lifting of the Chilean blockade of Iquique. During the battle, Chilean Captain Arturo Prat was killed on Huáscar's deck while leading a boarding party from the corvette Esmeralda. Notably, after sinking the corvette by repeated ramming, Huáscar then rescued the survivors before continuing pursuit of a fleeing enemy ship.
Huáscar went on with its mission and in the following months accomplished the following:
* Damaged ports of Cobija, Tocopilla, Platillos and Mejillones, Huanillos, Punta de Lobo, Chañaral, Huasco, Caldera, Coquimbo and Taltal
* Sank 16 Chilean vessels, including ships and boats
* Damaged Chilean ships Blanco Encalada, Abtao, Magallanes and Matías Cousiño
* Captured Chilean vessels Emilia, Adelaida Rojas, E. Saucy Jack, Adriana Lucía, Rímac and Coquimbo
* Aboard Rímac, captured 260 men from an elite Chilean cavalry regiment, along with horses, weapons, munitions and supplies
* Recovered Peruvian vessels Clorinda and Caquetá
* Destroyed artillery batteries of Antofagasta
* Cut the Antofagasta-Valparaíso communications cable
Collectively, these actions became known as "Las correrías del Huáscar" ("Huáscar's exploits") and held up a Chilean ground invasion for almost six months. As a result, the Peruvian Navy promoted Captain Grau to Rear Admiral while the Chilean Navy replaced its own chief of staff.
On October 8, 1879, Huáscar was captured by the Chilean Navy at the Battle of Angamos, during which most of Huáscar's crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Grau.
Huáscar then entered the service of the Chilean Navy. At Arica she fought an inconclusive duel with the Peruvian monitor Manco Cápac (formerly USS Oneota) while participating in the bombardment of the city –where her new commander Manuel Thomson was killed– and she also aided in the blockade of Callao.
The French at Yorktown
If you ever walk around the battlefield of Yorktown, you feel a bad that we never properly honored the French dead. We don't know exactly where they are buried, or who they all were. We should at least remember that without them we could not have won our freedom.
Around this time in 1781 the American and French armies arrived at Yorktown for the beginning of the end. The names of the French fallen here.
Around this time in 1781 the American and French armies arrived at Yorktown for the beginning of the end. The names of the French fallen here.
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