Daniel Penny in handcuffs on the way to court. DA Alvin Bragg is charging him with 2nd degree involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in New York if convicted.
Disgraceful. This is in all in moment for the country and everyone who claims to support it. If this man is allowed to be lynched, everyone else may as well wait for their own trip to the gulag, it will be inevitable.
The BIGGEST picture is often so big, it’s easier to run quickly, avoid glancing, look away, pretend it’s not right there on your shoulder; shadowed and constantly, annoyingly, painfully, making sure you stay within reach..
True thing. You can overpower it, while on your knees!
KASH PATEL: “What the Democrats and Soros and company do better than us is impanel grand juries across jurisdictions from East Coast to West Coast and one or two of them pop with a criminal conviction… Our Republican DAs and AGs are FAILING across the board.”
The Most Important Monologe Tucker Has Ever Delivered:
“The trans movement is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they’re God can’t stand to be reminded that they’re not. The Christian and Trans movement https://t.co/yVa1398BuD…
Lab Leak Theory Proves War On Information The Greatest Domestic Threat: Bobby Burack
by Bobby Burack February 28, 2023, 11:58 am 3
The Covid-19 pandemic affirmed arrays of suspicions, from government collusion with Big Tech to a compromised relationship with China to the influence of Big Pharma. Most notably, the virus hallmarked the war of information.
A pandemic of untruths.
But not from the so-called conspiracy theorists and right-wing grifters. Rather, Covid confirmed it was the handlers of information, from “experts” to “journalists,” who intercepted the spread of accurate information.
Sunday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the U.S. Energy Department recently concluded that a laboratory leak in Wuhan likely caused SARS-CoV-2.
The news is quite simple to fathom. A coronavirus originated inside a lab where Chinese scientists studied coronavirus and practiced gain-of-function research some 400 yards from where China allegedly first discovered the specific coronavirus.
Yet it wasn’t such common sense to those who claim to uphold the truth. NPR called the lab leak hypothesis a “baseless conspiracy.” Vox declared the idea simply “wrong.” The World Socialist Website called the lab argument the “greatest falsehood in human history.” Dr. Fauci dismissed the possibility entirely, as he helped fund the research.
In Aug. 2021, a chief New York Times editor instructed staffers not to investigate the origins of Covid. Instead, the editor ordered them to push only a zoonotic origin.
Do not be a journalist, The Times warned staffers. Print what the government tells you. That the staff did. The outlet’s resident “Covid Reporter” Apoorva Mandavilli called anyone pondering the lab leak theory a “racist“.
The Science™ and the press conspired to diminish anyone who dared to question the idea that a hungry exotic-eating Chinese person caused the pandemic by the transmission of bat to pangolin to human. The duo sought to destroy anyone who wondered aloud if the Chinese government is responsible for 6.9 million deaths worldwide.
And Joe Biden called white supremacy “the most lethal threat in the homeland,” not lies about the origins of a virus that upended the lives of virtually every American.
Still, burying the origin is a mere bullet point in the tale of the past three years.
Covid-19 exposed our press and government as deceivers of information — as either accomplices to the greatest crime in human history or grossly incompetent. They were wrong. Wrong about it all.
Masks did not stop the spread. The vaccine did not prevent infection. Plexiglass barriers did not work. School closures did not protect children from harm and, in fact, did great harm. Business closures did not serve the best interest of the community. The experts did not accurately count the national fatality rate and still do not.
And now, everyone knows what any clear-thinking person deduced from the start: the virus did not originate from a wet market.
Those were The Big Lie(s). Ruses of the century.
And unfortunately, much of society abided by the commands of their leaders. They had no choice. The average news consumer did not have access to accurate information.
Those who sought and reported on the truth often had to do so on the fringes, as censorship cost them access to the proverbial megaphone.
In 2020, Twitter banned Dr. Li-Meng Yan for publicizing clues that the pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan. Big Tech punished her for questioning the U.S. and Chinese governments.
Messaging becomes perception and perception becomes reality. And those who controlled the messaging on Covid deceived those who receive.
Experts and politicians turned citizens into political pawns as they gained unusual control over society. Big Pharma turned patients into guinea pigs for an experimental vaccine as Pfizer executives bought yachts.
Journalists neglected the core principles of their field: to ask questions, seek the truth, be skeptical, and hold those in power accountable. The pinheads in the newsrooms merely parroted the talking points of the Democratic Party.
The consequences of the #CovidLies exceed the escalation of the mail-in ballots that led to the ascension of Joe Biden. Local businesses have not recovered from the government locking down their lives and work. Students cannot undo the lost years of quality education and time spent away from their peers. The appalling rise in suicide rates, alcoholism, and drug addiction is irreversible.
The consequences of Covid messaging are ongoing. Answers remain scarce.
Earlier this month, a Mayo Clinic study found that heart attacks in people ages 25 to 44 increased by 30 percent compared to the expected number over the first two years of the pandemic.
Why is that? We can’t say for certain.
However, the very group that dismissed the lab leak theory and demanded the masking of children says the rise is absolutely, definitely not the result of the experimental vaccine known to cause myocarditis, the inflammation of the heart muscle.
Dr. Fauci told CBS that even asking the question is a form of disinformation, and it makes you a propagandist.
“Isn’t [this conversation] horrifying?” was actually a question CBS asked.
“It is horrifying,” responded Fauci.
That guy put forth the greatest display of anti-science failure on record.
Through censorship and dutiful media outlets, Facui and his ilk browbeat citizens into acquiescing with their orders. Conflicting opinions rarely crept into the mainstream during the pandemic.
The spread of faulty and unchallenged information culminated with school years of masked children, repeated jabs in the arm, the censorship of the dialogue, atypical rates of heart inflammation among young adults, and a grave imbalance between state and man.
Most Americans didn’t learn they were duped until they were already triple-vaxxed and taking their masks off between bites at a half-filled diner. The New York Times admitted just last week that mask mandates proved useless, almost three years later.
Perhaps the U.S. can now investigate China as it has had ample time to cover up creating a global pandemic that killed millions of obese and elderly persons.
Limiting access to the truth is the first step toward a modern dystopia. Persecuting the curious is a precursor to a diminished democracy.
Information is empowering. Yet, the truth is scarce. You have to claw for it. And the lapdogs in the media might assassinate your character if you uncover the most inconvenient of truths.
Covid proved the war of information to be the most lethal threat to the homeland –– a pandemic to which, unlike Covid, all demographics are susceptible.
By Michael Washburn February 24, 2023Updated: February 26, 2023
The Biden administration’s efforts to revise and extend radical policies affecting the culture of the U.S. military and the status of certain service members may make 2023 one of the most transformative years in the history of this nation’s armed services, changing the institution beyond recognition, policy analysts and commentators have told The Epoch Times.
President Biden tends to rely on executive orders and revisions to past instructions to force through far-reaching changes and remake the military, especially with regard to official policy on transgender service members. These orders and their consequences are not always widely reported, hence the changes do not always undergo extensive public scrutiny or debate, the experts say.
The changes affect everything from the ease with which a male service member may choose to identify as female and thereby gain access to women’s facilities and sports teams, to the etiquette that commanders must use when referring to transgender persons or issues.
“The public pays little attention to the internal activities in federal agencies, even the Defense Department. When these stories pop up, they are quickly overwhelmed by bigger events,” Keith Naughton, the principal of Silent Majority Strategies, a Germantown, Maryland-based think tank, told The Epoch Times.
“It is a stark reminder of the power of the president and the executive branch, the relatively low power of the courts, and the importance of winning elections,” Naughton added.
In agreement with this judgment is Susan Katz Keating, the publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine and a commentator on military policy.
“A lot of this goes under the radar because the public doesn’t really watch for it. So many changes are ‘stealth directives’ that don’t get noticed while the public pays attention to other issues,” Keating told The Epoch Times.
Furtive Actions
The administration has not waited for public attention to catch up with its plans to remake the military according to a highly specific set of criteria, the experts say. While changes have been underway for years in policies concerning race and gender diversity, and have gained momentum under President Joe Biden, the administration’s resolve to refashion the military into what it considers a more inclusive and representative institution is especially evident in the area of transgender policy.
Recent revisions to Department of Defense (DoD) rules originally issued under the administration of President Barack Obama are indicative of the aggressive stance of the current administration, according to a new policy analysis prepared by the Center for Military Readiness (CMR), a Livonia, Michigan-based nonprofit. The analysis is entitled “Biden Pentagon Quietly Expands Woke Transgender Policies in the Military.”
The CMR’s analysis compares the Obama-era directive, DoD Instruction 1300.28—InService Transition for Transgender Service Members, with the new version incorporating alterations made at Biden’s behest on Dec. 20, 2022.
The analysis cites significant differences, namely, changes to approved DoD vocabulary to foster a supposedly more inclusive environment for transgender persons; extending official transgender policies to apply to Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs and military service academies; holding commanders personally liable for any “biases against transgender individuals”; permitting cross-dressing and other activities that fall under the rubric of “transitioning,” not only off-base but even on military installations; approving “de-transitioning” procedures in certain circumstances; and imposing restrictions on the gathering and disclosure of data concerning “incidents of harmful behavior” that involve transgender personnel and/or sexual orientation.
None of these changes serve the purpose of military readiness, combat effectiveness, the minimization of U.S. casualties, or any of the other criteria that have guided military policy in the past, the analysis contends. Rather, they serve a highly specific political and social agenda more in line with the ideological bent of people outside the armed forces.
“These mandates are prime examples of woke-ism in the military, defined as policies that impose progressive ideology and take them to extremes with enforced compliance, even if it hurts the institution,” the CMR’s analysis states.
‘Woke’ Newspeak
The analysis details a number of examples of a new jargon regarding transgender persons and their status that DoD Instruction 1300.28, incorporating Biden’s changes, now makes part of official military lingo. For instance, the term “self-identified gender” has replaced the phrase “preferred gender,” a change that the CMR takes to indicate a new way of looking at the question of gender identity.
“The nuance suggests that if a person ‘self-identifies’ as a person of the opposite sex, they must be treated as such, even though changes in appearance cannot change biological sex,” the CMR analysis states.
“The DoD Instruction rests on the false premise that a different ‘gender role,’ if recognized by a bureaucratic change in a person’s ‘gender marker,’ is the same as or equivalent to a change in biological sex. Therefore, a man claiming to be a woman must be treated as a woman, and vice versa,” the analysis continues.
The CMR views one potential consequence of extending Obama-era and current transgender policies to the civilian ROTC and service academies as the very real possibility that male cadets or midshipmen may join women’s athletic teams or even end up with assignments to live in female quarters. The analysis notes that male athletes who chose to “self-identify” as women have won scholarships and prevailed in championships where the contestants in theory were all women. It argues that enrollment in service academies may continue to decline as a consequence of such abuses.
The problems and controversies are likely to continue to escalate given the ease with which male cadets can obtain official classification as women without having undergone sex-change surgery, the analysis continues. A male cadet can get approval from a doctor to change his gender classification within the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) and thereby become eligible to use female restrooms, locker rooms, and living quarters. The CMR’s analysis quotes a phrase that recurs in the DoD Instruction: “For facilities subject to regulation by the military, service members will use those berthing, bathroom, or shower facilities associated with their gender marker in DEERS.”
In such a scenario, the possibilities for widespread violations of privacy and sexual misconduct are obvious, the CMR policy analysis suggests.
The net effect of the Biden administration’s active remaking of the military in accordance with progressive principles is a rapid decline in respect for and trust in the institution among those who made the commitment to serve. The CMR’s policy analysis cites a Heritage Foundation study which found that 68 percent of active-duty personnel have concerns about the increasing politicization of the military, and that the same percentage said these concerns would lead them to have doubts about encouraging their offspring to pursue a military career.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the DoD for comment.
For years, SNL & almost all televised “comedy” has been a mouthpiece for corporations, elite opinion & powerful institutions—the antithesis of comedy & satire. That’s what made the below so remarkable. Imagine if comics actually mocked our ruling class instead of worshipping it.
Woody Harrelson hosting SNL: “The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartel’s https://t.co/2pemSdPzE2…
CLICK ON RIGHT TAB FOR: “OPEN FRAME IN NEW TAB.” THEN USE LEFT TAB FOR THE NEW TAB.
CLICK ON RIGHT TAB FOR: “OPEN FRAME IN NEW TAB.” THEN USE LEFT TAB FOR THE NEW TAB.
It's funny, Democrats are the party of guilty till proven innocent until it happens to them. Their silence, along with Azs MSM, @katiehobbs sudden disappearance regarding this particular story is quite telling IMO. #ArrestKatieHobbs#CartelKatie
The nation is worried about serious national security threats, including Chinese spy aircraft, but the Department of Defense seems pre-occupied with misplaced priorities. “Woke” policies are taking progressive ideologies to extremes with enforced compliance, even if it hurts the institution.
Since January 2021, Defense Department officials have expanded woke transgender mandates in significant ways. A comprehensive CMR Policy Analysis titled Biden Pentagon Quietly Expands Woke Transgender Policies in the Military, summarized here, compares Joe Biden/Lloyd Austin directives to the 2016 transgender policies of Barack Obama and Ashton Carter.
As in the Obama years, the Biden/Austin policy fully embraces the idea that individuals can change their “sex assigned at birth to a different gender role.” Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28, updated on December 20, 2022, has changed the official vocabulary of this pseudo-science, using the phrase “self-identified gender” instead of “preferred gender” throughout.
The DoD Instruction stipulates that if a person “self-identifies” as a person of the opposite sex, and if the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) changes a person’s bureaucratic “gender marker,” a man claiming to be a woman must be treated as a woman, and vice versa.
Military commanders, doctors and nurses, chaplains, and military men and women at all levels must endorse and act on this ideological belief or suffer career penalties if they don’t. Alleged “biases against transgender individuals,” which are prohibited, could include anything from “misgendering” people with the wrong pronouns to expressions of concern about medically questionable hormone treatments or surgeries for adults or military dependent children.
Individuals who are confused about gender identity deserve compassionate counseling, competent medical care, and complete information about serious risks and irreversible consequences of “gender affirming” treatments that do not change biological sex. Instead, a self-diagnosis of gender dysphoria permits only one course of treatment, pushing the servicemember toward life-changing, often-irreversible transgender “transition,” without an independent “second opinion.”
Commanders are directed to consult with designated “experts,” called Service Central Coordination Cells. The SCCCs have no responsibility for military operations or any obligation to put the needs of the patient first.
Biden’s regulations do not protect or even mention rights of religious liberty for chaplains and people of faith. Nor do they provide options for doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel who object to transgender ideology on moral or ethical grounds.
Once a military doctor approves, transgender transition can be deemed “complete” with or without surgical alteration of healthy body parts. At that point, as the DoD Instruction states several times: “[S]ervice members will use those berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities associated with their gender marker in DEERS.”
This policy denies human biological realities and violates minimal expectations of personal privacy and modesty between men and women. Human dilemmas are discussed in PowerPoint training slide “vignettes,” such as a “female to male” soldier announcing a pregnancy.
Vignette 8 portrays a soldier transitioned from male to female, without “sex-reassignment surgery,” who wants to use female-designated showers. Another scenario describes a female soldier who is experiencing tension with a “transgender female” roommate.
This is a trick question, since both the discomforted female soldier and a commander who tries to find a solution likely would be accused of “biases against transgender individuals.” Why should a tank commander at Fort Hood have to deal with pronoun etiquette and sticky scenarios instead of training his troops to fight an enemy force?
The latest DoD Instruction admits that some service members who have “completed a gender transition” may not have “resolved the gender dysphoria.” Without any estimate of costs or consequences, additional medical procedures are authorized “If a return to their previous gender is medically required.”
Biden/Austin directives specifically involve the military service academies and ROTC (contract) programs, inviting controversies like those affecting civilian female athletes who have lost competitions against biological men.
Revised rules also permit cross-dressing and other “transitioning” behaviors while in “on-duty status.” Previously, time off for “real life experience” (RLE) living as a person of the opposite sex could only occur off-base and off-duty, often for weeks or months.
Whether intended or not, the revised policy’s approval of on-base cross-dressing likely will increase “LGBT Pride” celebrations featuring drag queen performances and “family friendly” story hours for children at military bases worldwide.
When problems ensue, how will we know? In 2018, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis testified that problems with transgender policies were not being reported up the chain of command because they were considered “personal and private.”
Doubling down in December 2022, the DoD released a new instruction, DoDI 6400.11, which restricts (without high-level permission) release of information about “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” “transgender-related information,” and “incidents of harmful behaviors.”
Every year, the Pentagon releases non-personal statistics on sexual assaults, in excruciating detail. Why are officials restricting access to data on “incidents of harmful behaviors” and “transgender-related information.” Congress needs to find out.
A recent independent, high-tech survey on politicization of the military done by the Heritage Foundation found that among active-duty respondents, 80% said the “changing of policy to allow unrestricted service by transgender individuals” has decreased their trust in the military.
Sixty-eight percent of active-duty responses reported seeing a “growing politicization,” which is affecting their decision to encourage their children to join the military.
In view of recruiting problems, the 118th Congress should renew previous demands for information on woke policies. Congress also should consider mandating that all Defense Department agencies and educational institutions return to recognizing scientific realities of biological sex, not “self-identified gender.”
That idea and more are incorporated in legislation just proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. James Banks (R-IN), called the Ensuring Military Readiness Act of 2023.
Servicemen and women deserve reality-based health care programs, with protection of the rights of doctors and nurses whose medical ethics or religious convictions differ from transgender ideology. Women also deserve separate-sex athletic teams and reasonable privacy in female-only living facilities.
White House and Pentagon leaders who try to deny, dissemble, or withhold information on the existence or results of woke policies in the military are undermining their own credibility. Americans are awake and aware, and they will hold lawmakers accountable for woke-ism that weakens our military in an increasingly dangerous world.
Elaine Donnelly is the founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness. CMR is an independent, non-partisan, public policy organization, founded in 1993, which reports on and analyzes military/social issues. More information is available at http://www.cmrlink.org.
National | Steven Ertelt | Feb 22, 2023 | 5:40PM | Washington, DC
FBI Charges 8 Pro-Life Advocates, They Could Face Decade in Prison for Saving Babies
Just weeks after taking a loss in federal court against Mark Houck, the FBI is back trying to put peaceful pro-life Americans in prison for protesting abortion.
Amid accusations that it is targeting pro-lifers to silence and intimidate, the Justice Department has charged 8 pro-life activists with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in 2020.
As LifeNews reported, a Philadelphia jury found pro-life father Mark Houck not guilty on both counts in the case of the bogus charges the Biden administration filed against him. Houck’s case involved an incident where an abortion faciltiy escort bullied him and his minor son.
That situation is different from the blockade that a handful of pro-life advocates engaghed in at a Michigan abortion facility that the FBI alleges violated the FACE Act. In a statement, federal prosecutors announced indictments against activists Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, Justin Phillips, Heather Idoni, Chester Gallagher, Eva Edl, Caroline Davis and Joel Curry for holding an August 2020 blockade of an abortion business in Sterling Heights.
“The indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges that on Aug. 27, 2020, all eight defendants engaged in a conspiracy to prevent the Sterling Heights clinic from providing, and patients there from receiving reproductive health services,: the Department of Justice contends. The indictment claims the grouo of pro-life advcoates broke federal law by actively prohibiting access to the abortion center.
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According to the indictment, Gallagher advertised the Sterling Heights clinic blockade on social media, and he and Curry livestreamed the incident. The defendants convened at a location near the Sterling Heights clinic, where an uncharged co-conspirator who recorded the incident announced that the defendants were “going over to stand in front of the door” and “interpose.”
This is the second case in which these pro-life advocates have faced federal charges.
Last year, 11 activists were charged with FACE Act violations stemming from their 2021 “blockade” of an abortion clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This blockade was peaceful, pro-life activist AJ Hurley told The Daily Signal on Wednesday evening.
Several of the activists were arrested on the day of the blockade, after reportedly successfully preventing abortions from taking place at the clinic for most of the day, but police reportedly released these activists later in the day after they posted bail for misdemeanor charges, the pro-life news outlet Live Action reported.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee announced that Chester Gallagher, 73, of Lebanon, Tennessee; Heather Idoni, 58, of Michigan; Calvin Zastrow, 57, of Michigan; Caroline Davis, 24, of Michigan; Coleman Boyd, 51, of Bolton, Mississippi; Dennis Green, 56, of Cumberland, Virginia; and Paul Vaughn, 55, of Centerville, Tennessee, are charged with “conspiracy against rights secured by the FACE Act, and committing FACE Act violations.”
Hurley, a pro-life activist who is friends with many of those charged, told The Daily Signal that the FBI raided Gallagher’s home on Wednesday morning with “guns drawn.” Hurley was not physically present but said he was alerted to the alleged raid by his friends.
Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken South Carolina; Eva Zastro, 24, of Dover, Arkansas; James Zastro, 25, of Eldon, Missouri; and Paul Place, 24, of Centerville, Tennessee, are all charged with committing FACE Act violations as well, the DOJ release said.
Gallagher reportedly used social media to promote pro-life events scheduled for March 2021 in the Nashville area. His fellow pro-life activists, which the Justice Department release calls “co-conspirators,” used “Facebook to coordinate travel and logistics and to identify other participants for the blockade.”
If the pro-life activists are convicted, those charged with conspiracy could spend 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000, while the others face up to a year in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
Despite our inept, corrupt, and illegitimate “leaders”, we still have the best military in the world primarily made up of working class family members.
Despite our inept, corrupt, and illegitimate “leaders”, we still have the best military in the world primarily made up of working class family members.
ABOVE: CLICK ON RIGHT CLICKER FOR “OPEN FRAME IN NEW TAB.” THEN, USING LEFT CLICKER, GO TO NEW TAB AND OPEN.
🚨BREAKING: New BOMBSHELL evidence may prove the US sabotaged EXPLOSION of Nord Stream 2 Pipeline— Tucker drops receipts pic.twitter.com/KMdSZF1EDV
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 9, 2023
URGENT ALERT: U.S. Government Issues Level 4 Travel Advisory – Americans Told To Leave Russia Immediately! Start Of WWIII?
2023 02 13 08 47 11 breaking us government issues travel advisory warns all us citizens to leave
By USSA
Written by Steve Cannon for USSA News.
The U.S. State Department has issued its highest level of travel advisory, Level 4, urging American citizens to immediately leave Russia due to the ongoing war with neighboring Ukraine and the risks of harassment and wrongful detention for U.S. citizens.
Key Takeaways:
U.S. government issues Level 4 travel advisory for Russia American citizens advised to leave Russia immediately Risks of harassment and wrongful detention cited as reasons for the advisory The situation in Russia remains unpredictable and dangerous for American citizens, and the U.S. government is urging them to leave the country as soon as possible.
ussanews.com The United States government has issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Russia, advising all American citizens to immediately depart the country. The advisory cites the ongoing war with neighboring Ukraine and the potential for harassment and wrongful detention of U.S. citizens as the main reasons for the warning.
The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory system ranges from Level 1, which advises caution, to Level 4, which advises against all travel. The current advisory for Russia marks the highest level of alert issued by the State Department.
The Russia-Ukraine war is nearing its first anniversary on February 24th, and there are concerns that Moscow may be amassing troops for a new offensive. This, combined with the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces and the possibility of terrorism, has led the U.S. government to issue this advisory.
ussanews.com The U.S. has previously issued a similar warning to its citizens just days after the invasion and again in September, when Moscow ordered a call-up of reservist forces. Despite this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the U.S. warning, saying it is “not a new thing.”
The recent prisoner swap of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has only added to the heightened tensions between the two countries. Griner’s trial and sentencing were decried by the U.S., and it has elevated the plight of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held by Moscow on suspicion of spying.
It is important for American citizens in Russia to exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions and to depart the country as soon as possible.
FAQ:
Q: Why has the U.S. government issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Russia? A: The U.S. government has issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Russia due to the ongoing war with neighboring Ukraine and the potential for harassment and wrongful detention of U.S. citizens.
Q: What is the State Department’s travel advisory system? A: The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory system ranges from Level 1, which advises caution, to Level 4, which advises against all travel.
Q: What should American citizens in Russia do? A: American citizens in Russia are advised to immediately depart the country and exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions.
Biden’s Bombing The deeper meaning of the American attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.
Josiah Lippincott
AMERICAN GREATNESS
February 12, 2023
On September 26, 2022 Joe Biden unilaterally declared war on both Russia and Germany. This, at least, is the only logical conclusion if the allegations by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh last week are true. Hersh maintains, based on claims from an anonymous source within the White House, that Joe Biden skirted congressional notification while ordering the U.S. Navy to plant remote-controlled explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic last year.
The Nord Stream undersea pipelines, when fully operational, could supply over a third of Europe’s energy needs by shipping cheap Russian natural gas from the Arctic into the heart of Europe. The mysterious explosions that ripped through both pipelines last fall, forcibly cut off Germany from cheap Russian natural gas—an outcome openly favored by the United States for years. As long as Europe remained dependent on Russian natural gas, the major continental powers had a powerful reason to maintain relatively cordial relations with the Russian government. Nord Stream had been one of Putin’s most potent diplomatic bargaining chips with Europe during his war in Ukraine.
The American foreign policy complex well understood this dynamic. In February 2022, just weeks before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Joe Biden told a journalist at the White House that if Russia were to invade, it would mean the “end” of the Nord Stream pipeline. When pressed on how he would accomplish this, Biden simply stated that he “promised” the pipeline would no longer be operable.
Hersh argues that Biden kept his word. The U.S. Navy, working with its Norwegian allies, was able to identify the ideal spots for detonation and then planted explosives under the cover of a large-scale NATO sea exercise in the summer of 2022.
Western journalists in the immediate aftermath of the explosion speculated that it had been the product of a Russian attack. According to this theory, the Russians had, for unknown reasons, blown up their own pipeline. This claim always rang hollow. Why would Moscow destroy its own infrastructure when it could just as easily turn off the flow of natural gas at will while pursuing a strategy of geopolitical flexibility?
The United States, on the other hand, had the motive, the opportunity, and the capability to carry out the attack. Biden and his lackeys openly displayed hostility to the pipeline’s continued existence. Hersh’s reporting simply validates what any common-sense observer could already see: the ostensibly “neutral” United States had launched an economically destructive attack against a geopolitical rival and a major European ally.
The sheer hubris of the alleged assault boggles the mind. If, as seems clear, Joe Biden followed through on his word and had the Nord Stream pipelines disabled, it puts the lie to all the high-minded talk about defending “democracy” in the West. No American voted for conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia. Congress did not declare war, as the Constitution mandates. Nor did the United States make any bones of consulting with its ostensible European allies.
Germany, it turns out, is not a sovereign country. Seymour Hersh alleges that Biden browbeat German Chancellor Olaf Scholz into accepting the destruction of Nord Stream. No self-respecting national leader could accept such terms. Certainly not one who values independence and freedom of action.
There is a deeper truth at the bottom of the Batlic, amidst the Nord Stream wreckage. It isn’t just Germany that is no longer a sovereign power—in fact, the very concept of the nation-state has been destroyed. All of Europe is an American satrapy. France, England, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg—these petty powers have no real existence as independent entities. They are neither economically nor militarily self-reliant. They cannot even secure their needed energy requirements without outside intervention.
Africa and South America, as a whole, are little better. Will anyone pretend Nigeria or Peru are independent nations that could stand up to a concerted American assault? In Asia, the Gulf States are little more than American-sanctioned outposts. Would Bahrain exist without America? Would Kuwait? In the Far East, Japan is still occupied by American forces. India has no meaningful modern military tradition worth mentioning. China became the manufacturing capital of the world because of explicit policy choices made in Washington, D.C.
This is not a new development. The nation-state died in 1945. The mid-20th century Anglo-American-Soviet alliance made sure of it. American liberals and Soviet communists at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam marched in complete lockstep on the future of the world order. There were tensions, of course, but there was no doubt in the minds of either Franklin Roosevelt or Josef Stalin that the postwar order would be fundamentally leftist.
Both liberals and communists could agree that the highest human aim was the satisfaction of man’s material needs (filling his stomach) and the elevation of the oppressed. For the communists, such a world would come into being with the global revolution of the proletariat. Liberals, on the other hand, thought it could come into being by exporting McDonald’s, blue jeans, and rap music on a global scale.
In our own time, even this difference has disappeared. The American Left now openly encourages the “marginalized” and “oppressed” to fight back against “systemic racism” on a global scale. American embassies across the planet fly the pride flag and display Black Lives Matter signs. The economic proletariat under communism transformed into a racial proletariat under liberalism.
The modern American state, just like the USSR, engages in widespread censorship, surveillance, and economic central planning. The COVID lockdowns showed that paeons to freedom in the West are an utter farce. In a state of emergency our rulers will seize whatever of our rights they want to seize.
The nation-state definitionally relies on the premise of a fundamental equality between countries. The Declaration of Independence, for instance, asserts that the “powers of the earth” exist in a “separate and equal station.”
Moreover, the Declaration holds that “free and independent states” have “full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce” among other authorities. This was the old order. It doesn’t exist anymore. Russia, in the eyes of the United States government, has no right to “levy war” against Ukraine. Germany has no right to “establish commerce” in natural gas with Russia. In modern liberal eyes, there are aggressors (the bad guys) and the victims (the good guys).
In this Marvel-movie understanding of foreign policy, the United States is always the hero and the villains are anyone who steps out of line with “liberal democracy,” which just means gay rights, feminism, antiracism, and, as of five minutes ago, transgenderism. Russia is not a sovereign power but an aggressor state. In this framework, Putin and Hitler are equivalent. In this great cosmic battle between good and evil there is no option for America simply to stand aside.
The destruction of the nation-state meant the death of neutrality, the older laws of war, and the distinction between civilians and soldiers. During World War II, American bombers hammered cities full of women and children with conventional and atomic weapons in the name of defeating tyranny. The Soviet Red Army, for its part, engaged in a campaign of mass rape and ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe as it pushed into the heart of Western civilization. FDR put tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans into camps. Stalin murdered 10 million of his own citizens with starvation policies and forced labor.
This is the spiritual core of the “rules-based international order.” This is what it is.
Today, a transnational ruling “elite” centered in Washington, D.C. exerts quasi-planetary rule in the name of “human rights.” It is wrong to call this arrangement in any way American. Ordinary middle-class voters in the heartland have zero say in the methods and ends of this system. Americans, of course, are forced to pay, in blood and treasure, to keep this framework in place.
There are cracks in the system, however. Despite the West’s attempt to “destroy” Russia’s economy—a move that, if successful, would result in the mass killing of civilians—Putin remains in power. Despite the uniparty D.C. regime’s best efforts, Donald Trump managed to attain the heights of the presidency in 2016, breaking the foreign policy consensus on immigration, trade, and war in the process. The Afghanistan debacle in 2021 revealed just how limited American military force really is.
The Nord Stream bombing displays enormous chutzpah from the American ruling elite. But it is also a clarion call for all those with eyes to see and ears to hear: A world dominated by D.C. is a world without freedom and real political life. Europe will never again be a heart of culture and civilization as long as it remains in the thrall of D.C.’s power. Until that yoke is thrown off, Europe will remain a medieval history theme park, its churches empty, its militaries laughable, and its people morally and spiritually degraded. Americans outside the hallowed halls of financial and political power in New York, D.C., and Silicon Valley are little better off.
For those who dream of a better world, the path is clear: The postwar international order needs to die. Only after its demise can men of high vision begin the process of carving out a new, more free, more noble, world order.
Emails Show National Archives Secretly Coordinated with Biden’s Lawyers to Retrieve Classified Docs from Penn Biden Center Before Midterm Elections Wendell Husebø11 Feb 2023 biden documents Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Tetra images none 3:46
The National Archives on Friday released 74 pages of emails showing an Archives lawyer coordinating with President Joe Biden’s attorneys to secretly retrieve classified materials from the Penn Biden Center before the 2022 midterm elections.
According to House oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY), the Archives was previously instructed by either the White House or the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hide initial revelations of the Biden classified document scandal from the American people.
In addition, the establishment media reported at least three times that Biden and the DOJ agreed to hide the scandal from public view with likely no plans to disclose it until the scandal was leaked to CBS News on January 9, weeks after the initial trove was found by Biden’s personal lawyers November 2.
The emails released Friday due to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Bloomberg, show the Archives secretly coordinating with and accommodating Biden’s personal attorneys to retrieve classified records. The emails also show questions were raised about whether classified materials were also stored in Boston and Philadelphia.
The initial reason or cause for the search at the Penn Biden Center by Biden’s attorneys remains unknown.
The emails indicate Biden’s personal attorneys and Archives lawyer Gary Stern had a “conversation” as early as November 4 about the classified scandal.
On November 7, one day before the midterm elections, Stern emailed Biden’s personal lawyers Bob Bauer and Pat Moore to arrange a time to secretly collect materials in a “US Gov van” from the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC.
“Bob/Pat, following our conversation on Friday, we would like to make arrangements for our staff to come back to the DC PennBiden Center space to assess the remaining boxes and take custody of whichever ones we deem appropriate for further review,” Stern wrote Bauer and Moore.
A second email from November 7 shows more accommodation from the Archives. Stern asked Biden’s lawyers if personnel from the Archives could return to the Penn Biden Center “to assess the remaining boxes and take custody of whichever ones we deem appropriate for further review.”
Bauer said the Archives could return and pick up more documents the next day, and noted that he was “also currently checking to determine whether there are any similar materials in the Pennsylvania Penn-Biden space, and we will report back to you today.”
Stern also told Moore to ensure the boxes of materials were kept in a secure location. “Please ensure that the boxes in your office in Boston remain secure in a locked space and are not accessed by anyone,” he said in relation to the Boston location.
The emails come after the Archives failed to provide information about the document scandal to Comer before the January 24 deadline. Comer called the missed deadline “very disappointing.”
Comer has also said the Archives was previously instructed by either the White House or the DOJ to hide initial revelations of the Biden classified document scandal from the American people.
“There are only two people that could have given those orders, and that’s either the Department of Justice with [Attorney General] Merrick Garland or the White House with Joe Biden,” Comer told Fox News.
“I don’t think we would know about these documents had it not been for investigative reporting, so we want to know why the administration wasn’t transparent sooner,” Comer said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Seymour Hersh, one of the most decorated and impactful journalists of all time, is now on Substack. And he’s out with a scoop: the inside story of how the US government blew up Nord Stream 2, the pipelines built to transmit cheap Russian energy to Germany and other European states.
Hersh reports that planning for the covert operation began in late 2021. It was undertaken at the behest of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was said to be “delivering on the desires of the President.” Last June, Navy divers operating under the cover of a NATO exercise, BALTOPS 22, planted the deap-sea bombs. The explosives were triggered three months later, in September.
As Hersh notes, the destruction of the pipeline fulfilled a major geopolitical US aim. If brought online, Nordstream 2 would “double the amount of cheap gas that would be available to Germany and Western Europe,” and “provide enough gas for more than 50 percent of Germany’s annual consumption.” Accordingly, “Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.”
It is noteworthy that this plan was formulated in late 2021 — not only when Russian troops were massing on Ukraine’s border, but also when Russia proposed extensive draft treaties to the US and NATO for resolving its security concerns in Ukraine and other surrounding European states. Now we learn that when the US rejected Russia’s core demands — refusing to even discuss the issue of NATO expansion — it was moving ahead with a plan to blow up two pipelines that, if operational, would deepen ties between Russia and the rest of Europe, thereby making a proxy war in Ukraine more difficult.
This explains why, as Hersh notes, senior Biden administration officials could not conceal their glee when the pipelines exploded last September. The bombing of Nord Stream 2, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared, was a “tremendous strategic opportunity.”
Senior State Department official Victoria Nuland recently followed suit by telling Sen. Ted Cruz that she, along with the White House, is “very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now… a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”
In all likelihood, Hersh’s story will be shunned or dismissed by an establishment media that has promoted the notion that Russia was somehow responsible for bombing its own pipeline (though, as Hersh notes, some have recently, albeit meekly, tried to walk that back). As I wrote in October:
An illustrative New York Times report on the Nord Stream bombing declares that “much of the speculation about responsibility has focused on Russia.” According to the Times’ established standards, the notion that Moscow would detonate its own $20 billion pipeline is perfectly consistent: one week earlier, the Times reportedthat the shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhians nuclear power plant was carried out “apparently by Russian forces.” Which means that in the Times’ apparent view, Russia shelled the nuclear plant while also occupying it.
The “Russia-did-it” narrative was echoed by former CIA Director John Brennan, who declared that “Russia certainly is the most likely suspect,” in the Nord Stream attack. Brennan has maintained his confidence in accusing Russia of consequential acts despite previously signing on to a claim, alongside dozens of fellow retired intelligence officials, that the Hunter Biden laptop was also likely the product of a Russian disinformation operation.
One of the few attempts to leak any claim of substance was given to CNN. Citing the now-routine “Western intelligence officials”, a trio of CNN reporters wrote that “European security officials observed Russian Navy ships in vicinity of Nord Stream pipeline leaks,” thus casting “further suspicion on Russia,” which is seen by “European and US officials as the only actor in the region believed to have both the capability and motivation to deliberately damage the pipelines.”
As for the motivation, that can only be the case if one ignores the multi-year US-led campaign — endorsed by both major political parties and pursued with concerted economic warfare — to kill the pipelines.
Now Seymour Hersh, a journalism legend, has given us the details on an international act of sabotage that US media outlets reliably obscured.
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Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response Famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a star reporter writing for The New York Times and New Yorker, on Wednesday published a new bombshell as his first Substack post, prompting a quick White House response
After conducting his own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines via a series of underwater blasts on Sept. 26, Hersh has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise.
Famous investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, Image: Institute for Policy Studies
Hersh, relying on unnamed national security sources, describes months of discussions and back-and-forth involving the Biden White House, CIA, and Pentagon. The report says planning was in the works all the way back to December 2021, with a special task force formed under the aegis of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes,” the report, entitled How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline reads.
“The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022,” it continues.
As momentum gained to proceed with a covert sabotage attack, “Over the next few weeks, members of the CIA’s working group began to craft a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the pipeline,” Hersh writes.
But there was significant push back within the intelligence community, but any reservations were overcome in the lead-up and aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the investigative report:
Throughout “all of this scheming,” the source said, “some working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, ‘Don’t do this. It’s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out.’”
Nevertheless, in early 2022, the CIA working group reported back to Sullivan’s interagency group: “We have a way to blow up the pipelines.”
What came next was stunning. On February 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met in his White House office with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after some wobbling, was now firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland had delivered essentially the same message at a State Department briefing, with little press coverage. “I want to be very clear to you today,” she said in response to a question. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 8, 2023 As for Washington motives in such a risky covert sabotage mission, Hersh writes, “As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.”
Biden in February of last year: “There will be no longer a Nord Stream 2, we will bring an end to it.”
Norway played a significant logistics and intelligence role in assisting an elite US Navy deep-diving team of divers based out of Panama City to carry out the operation:
Sometime in March, a few members of the team flew to Norway to meet with the Norwegian Secret Service and Navy. One of the key questions was where exactly in the Baltic Sea was the best place to plant the explosives. Nord Stream 1 and 2, each with two sets of pipelines, were separated much of the way by little more than a mile as they made their run to the port of Greifswald in the far northeast of Germany.
The Norwegian navy was quick to find the right spot, in the shallow waters of the Baltic sea a few miles off Denmark’s Bornholm Island. The pipelines ran more than a mile apart along a seafloor that was only 260 feet deep. That would be well within the range of the divers, who, operating from a Norwegian Alta class mine hunter, would dive with a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and helium streaming from their tanks, and plant shaped C4 charges on the four pipelines with concrete protective covers. It would be tedious, time consuming and dangerous work, but the waters off Bornholm had another advantage: there were no major tidal currents, which would have made the task of diving much more difficult.
Hersh’s sources underscore that the order came directly from President Biden’s office:
The C4 attached to the pipelines would be triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by a plane on short notice, but the procedure involved the most advanced signal processing technology. Once in place, the delayed timing devices attached to any of the four pipelines could be accidentally triggered by the complex mix of ocean background noises throughout the heavily trafficked Baltic Sea—from near and distant ships, underwater drilling, seismic events, waves and even sea creatures. To avoid this, the sonar buoy, once in place, would emit a sequence of unique low frequency tonal sounds—much like those emitted by a flute or a piano—that would be recognized by the timing device and, after a pre-set hours of delay, trigger the explosives.
…On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water’s surface and the world learned that something irreversible had taken place.
Given that it was Hersh – who broke such well-known stories as the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib scandal and has long been known for impeccable insider sources – behind the new bombshell ‘whodunnit’ report, mainstream media couldn’t ignore it this time (in the way MSM ignored Jeffrey Sachs and others).
The mainstream news media is the main source of disinformation today pic.twitter.com/QreqONGS7h
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 8, 2023 The allegations were quickly picked up by The Times (UK), Reuters, and others – including Russian state media, prompting the White House to swiftly issue a rebuttal:
The White House said on Wednesday that a blog post by a U.S. investigative journalist alleging the United States was behind explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines “is utterly false and complete fiction.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the Hersh report reveals new facts that must be answered to, however, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressing, “We have repeatedly stated Russia’s position on the involvement of the United States and NATO, noting that they did not hide it, bragging to the whole world about their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources.”
She added: “We have also regularly underscored the reluctance of Denmark, Germany and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and the opposition to Russia’s participation in it. And this is despite the fact that our country has suffered huge costs. Now, the White House should comment on all these facts.”
Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, JR., Captain, Medical Corps, United States Navy
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WASHINGTON
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION to the
UNITED STATES SHIP COLE
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:
“For outstanding performance as guide for the first wave of landing boats in the attack on Safi, French Morocco, November 8, 1942. Under crossfire from enemy coast defense batteries and machine gun emplacements, the COLE, proceeding through a narrow harbor entrance in total darkness, effectively countered hostile opposition, disembarked a company of U. S. Army assault troops, and supported their attack by accurate fire from her main battery. Her distinctive fulfillment of a difficult and hazardous mission contributed materially to the victorious achievement of the Southern Attack Group.”
For the President
/s/ Frank Knox Secretary of the Navy
FROM THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
Monday, 9 November 1942
The biggest surprise came from Mr. Van Daan when at one o’clock, he announced that the British had landed in Tunis, Algiers, Casablanca, and Oran. “This is the beginning of the end,” everyone was saying, but Churchill the British Prime Minister, who had probably heard the same thing in England, said: “this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps the end of the beginning.”
“CASABLANCA, which was rushed out several months before its originally planned 1943 release, premiered in New York City on Thanksgiving Day, 1942. The Hollywood reporter raved: ‘Here is a drama that lifts you right out of your seat.’ The New York Times called it ‘highly entertaining and inspiring…a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart leap.’
“As near and dear to the heart asCASABLANCA is today, audiences in ’42 had an especially unique perspective. The world was embroiled in desperate conflict as the Nazi regime spread its savage poison across Europe, and the events on the screen mirrored events on the global stage. As Variety noted: ‘By curious quirk of fortune, history-making caught up to this picture set against a background of French Morocco, and its timeliness assures big box-office reception. Only a few days ago, world interest rested in the town of Casablanca, with the landing of Allied forces there and bare mention of the name still excites the imagination.’ “
(Courtesy of MGM and Turner Entertainment)
26 November 1942 Thanksgiving Day Menu aboard
USS AUGUSTA (CA – 31)
(Assigned to OPERATION TORCH with USS COLE and USS BERNADOU)
Cream of Tomato Soup a la Casablanca
Fruit Cocktail Saltines
Chicken and Turkey en Casserole a la Hewitt
Baked Spiced Spam a la Capitaine de Vaisseau
Giblet Gravy Cherry Dressing
Buttered Asparagus Tips a la Fedala
Chantilly Potatoes a la Patton
Buttered June Peas de Safi Scalloped Tomatoes
Cranberry Sauce
Hot Parker Rolls du Lyautey
Butter Jam
Apple Pie a la Michelier Strawberry Ice Cream
Mixed Nuts du Jean Bart
Sweet Pickles Ripe Olives
Cigars Cigarettes
Cafe Noir
One sailor in USS COLE was shot through the lungs during the assault. My dad stitched up and treated his wounded shipmate who survived to enjoy his 1942 Thanksgiving dinner. The man reported to full shipboard duty a month later.
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander George Goldston Palmer (NSN: 0-63369), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Destroyer U.S.S. COLE (DD-155), during the occupation of the harbor Safi, French Morocco, 8 November 1942. Before daylight on 8 November 1942, Lieutenant Commander Palmer in the COLE led the first wave of assault boats to the assigned over beaches off Safi and then entered the harbor in support of the U.S.S. BERNADOU. With gallantry and intrepidity at grave risk to his own life, the lives of his crew and the embarked assault troops, he navigated his ship successfully through the unknown waters and the narrow entrance in the face of heavy gunfire from three shore batteries and several machine gun emplacements. While thus engaged he laid his ship alongside a dock and landed the assault troops. Lieutenant Commander Palmer thereafter greatly assisted the successful action of the assault troops by the accurate support fire of the COLE’s main battery. The fact that this exceptional feat was accomplished in almost total darkness without loss of life and disabling damage to the COLE are testimonials to the valor, intelligence and seamanship of this gallant officer, and reflect great credit upon the United States Naval Service.”
My dad was awarded the Bronze Star with with a Combat “V” for valor. This is the highest combination for valor awarded to medical officers performing as doctors under fire while engaged with an enemy force.
–
MEN OF U.S. DESTROYER COLE (DD – 155
NORTH ATLANTIC PATROL CONVOY DUTY
1941 – 1942
–
AFRICA, WE TOOK IT
AND WE LIKED IT
By ROBERT WALLACE, ENSIGN, U.S.N.R.
In Collaboration With PARKER MORELL
(Reprinted from THE SATURDAY EVENING POST January 23, 1943, pgs. 16, 17, 76 & 78
Editors note—This is the second of two articles by Ensign Wallace and Mr. Morrell)
One of our African Invasion force describes the perfection of American planning—tells how out boys learned to outbargain the natives, frustrate cheerful Arabs bent on larceny.
Even after we had landed a good many thousand American troops on the beaches at Safi, French Morocco, the city was not yet ours. That landing, successful as it was, still had to be converted into a full-scale invasion. The surrounding countryside had to be brought under our control, protecting airfields had to be captured and large-scale reinforcements kept from joining the defenders. It was a job calling for tremendous skill and organization, and it was here that all the long months of scheming and planning for this attack began to bear fruit.
Photo credit: Volume II of Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II : OPERATIONS IN NORTH AFRICAN WATERS October 1942 – June 1943
The big guns from the battleships offshore had silenced the coast defenses; our infantry, with hand grenades, rifles and mortar fire, had knocked out the machine-gun nests around the harbor, but Safi’s narrow, winding streets were still bitterly dominated by a garrison of French Foreign Legion troops. Confronted by superior numbers and fire power, they retreated slowly, fighting doggedly for every inch of ground.
Our troops had spent months training for just this kind of fighting, and they loved it. That was another thing about the invasion which gave us so much confidence—almost everything that happened seemed to have been anticipated by the high command and preparations made to take care of it.
For instance, just before we first went over the side of the transport, they told us that we were already thoroughly familiar with this landing. The commanding officer mentioned a certain maneuver we’d practiced a lot at our training school back in America. Then we remembered. At the time, we’d thought of it as just a peculiar type of night landing problem. Now that we recognized it for exactly the job we were to do in Africa, it didn’t seem nearly so difficult.
The infantry reacted the same way. Our troops, having been thoroughly trained in the art of street fighting, went about the job with coolness and precision. By noon, they had the Foreign Legionnaires holed up in a stone barracks in the middle of the city. From then on, it was just a question of wearing them down and smashing them up. When enough heavy tanks had been landed from the tank carriers we’d brought with us, the job was quickly finished. Shells from the tanks’ big guns smashed those stone walls as if they’d been paper. Naturally, the Legionnaires surrendered.
But even after this, there were still a lot of Legionnaires and native troops who hadn’t taken refuge in that barracks building and who, consequently hadn’t surrendered. They hid out in houses and buildings all over town and, by continual sniping made things very uncomfortable, particularly on the beaches.
This action of the snipers was not so foolhardy as it seems. At Marrakeech, a city about 100 miles inland, there was another large garrison of Legionnaires. These, it was believed, were still loyal to Vichy and would arrive in time to be able to keep the Americans from entering permanently. Until those forces arrived, the snipers were resolved to do everything possible to keep us from settling down.
I suppose that inland branch of the Foreign Legion was loyal, but it never had much chance to prove it. A strong force left Marrakech the day after we landed at Safi [November 9th, 1942], but didn’t get very far. Dive bombers from our carriers met and strafed them heavily. Then our light tanks and antitank units caught up with them and finished the job.
Perhaps the story might have been a little different if they’d had air support. But here again, the adage of a house divided proved itself. The commandant of the airfield at Marrakech, when told the Americans were in Safi, had looked up into a cloudless sky and announced it unthinkable for his planes to take off in such a blinding storm. For three days he continued to find excuses until, finally, one bomber—either with or without his permission—came over and dripped a few incendiaries.
We got the plane, of course. I sat the action out on the water. A thousand machine guns seemed to be firing at it. Line of tracer bullets converged into its fuselage from every angle. It bounced around on top of them for a moment like a ball bouncing on top of a fountain of water. Then it burst into flames and fell into the sea.
There was little trouble from the natives themselves. The loyal French greeted us with open arms, the Jews were cautious but hopeful, and the Arabs, who made up by far the largest part of the city’s population, accepted everything quite impassively.
There may have been a good reason for this Arab attitude. We landed on November eighth, and two days later a new Moslem month began during which it was illegal for true believers to start a war or to engage in fighting. On the other hand, they had only recently finished observing a month during which it was forbidden to eat food throughout the daylight hours. Consequently, when we arrived they were still in a rather weakened condition and, [pg. 17] even if inclined to fight, couldn’t have offered much resistance.
Ashore, we told everyone that we had no interest in internal politics. We intended to leave the native government strictly alone. Our only purpose, President Roosevelt had made clear in his broadcast, was to get at the Germans. When we had finished this job, we were going to get out. The Arabs mulled this over for a while. Coming in from the transports, we could see hundreds of them sitting motionless on the cliffs, presumably making up their minds. At first, they looked like a row of tree stumps.
There was something awfully grim and ominous about that scene. While those Arabs sat debating on the cliffs, buzzards soared and wheeled overhead. Now and then, one would suddenly swoop down, and you knew it had spotted another nest of knocked-out French machine gunners. It wasn’t pleasant to imagine what happened after that. Finally, the Arabs decided we didn’t plan to conquer them; that we meant what we said about wanting only to drive the Germans and Vichy French out of Africa. From then on, hostilities were over, so far as they were concerned.
One by one they, they started coming down to the beaches and, before long, most of them were helping load our boats.
This brought up another delicate point. The Army was anxious to avoid offending the natives. Every soldier carried a booklet of African do’s and don’ts.
On shipboard, an Army intelligence man who had traveled extensively in North Africa had spent hours lecturing the troops.
“Never speak to or look at a native woman on the streets,” he told them. “If you don’t do anything else, for God’s sake, observe this rule. Your life and the life of every American in Morocco depends upon it.”
Other vital, though amusing, advice was:
“Never approach an Arab mosque. Respect the other fellow’s religion and he’ll respect yours.
“If Arabs offer you coffee, drink it. If an Arab engages you in conversation for any length of time and offers you three glasses of coffee, get out! That third glass is his polite way of telling you the interview is ended.
“Ninety-five per cent of the natives are Moslems. Bread is holy to Moslems. Never cut it with a knife. Always eat it with your right hand. Never drop it on the ground.”
But the pay-off was this little gem:
“If invited out to dinner with a native family, always leave something on your plate. This goes to the women and children who eat after you are finished.”
Nothing had been said, however, about what to do when the Arabs started to steal our supplies and equipment. And that was what they were doing. Apparently, when they decided to accept us, they also decided to accept all our belongings they could lay their hands on.
I saw one Arab eating powdered coffee from an Army breakfast ration that he’d broken into. He seemed to like it.
The children were worse than the grownups. Of course, since they all looked alike, it was futile to try to pursue them. [page 76]
All our landing-boat men were equipped with foul-weather gear—yellow oilskin coats and pants large enough to be worn over a regular uniform.
These were lying in the bottom of our boats during the day, and the Arabs started to steal them. One Arab from whom a full set was taken by soldiers wailed loudly. He thought those oilskins were American pajamas and he was planning to cut a fine figure before his wives that evening.
The unloading of food and equipment continued throughout most of the first week. Because only a few big boats could be docked in Safi harbor at one time, the rest had to be emptied by landing boats and whatever craft we could commandeer.
Photo credit: Volume II of Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II : OPERATIONS IN NORTH AFRICAN WATERS October 1942 – June 1943
The Navy had brought along a lot of highly trained machinist’s mates for this purpose. As soon as Safi surrendered, these fellows were put aboard the various boats in the harbor, with orders to get them started. The job sounds easier than it was. Some of those old tubs must have been launched shortly after the Ark. None was in good condition. Yet, somehow, those machinist’s mates got the engines going. Being French-made, all nuts and bolts were cut to the metric scale and none of our equipment would fit them. Where the men got tools to do the job, I don’t know. But within a day they had nearly everything working and, though breakdowns were frequent, they always manage to patch things up.
For five days and nights we hardly got out of our boats. The endurance of the enlisted men was amazing. At night, when too tired to go any longer, we’d tie up alongside a transport and lie down in the bottom of the cockpit for forty winks. We never tried to sleep in our landing boats on the beach. There was always danger of an air raid. Out on the water, if one came, we had a chance to disperse. Lined up on the beach—particularly if the tide was out and we were some distance up on the sand—we’d have been setups for a strafing party.
When we arrived, everyone saw the end of rationing in sight. The Americans were bringing their own food; officers had announced that we had no intention of living off the country, and our conquest of Africa automatically precluded further export of agricultural products to France and Germany. One week after we took over North Africa—although most natives didn’t know it at the time—American Lend-Lease had purchased more than $5,000,000 [five million] worth of supplies and equipment for these French colonies.
Vichy had bled the country dry. For more than two years the Fascists had commandeered everything in sight. Morocco, normally a fertile agricultural country, was like a land upon which a blight had fallen. The Germans had been taking 80 per cent of all the vegetables, meat, wine, ore, leather, fruit, and eggs. Gasoline was an almost forgotten commodity and the few trucks we did see ran on charcoal gas. There hadn’t been any cloth shipped into Morocco in more than two years. Nearly everyone was ragged and dirty. Even the so-called white-collar class wore shirts which were considerably darker than tattletale gray. That the people were hungry goes without saying, for the only staple they’d had to exist on since the fall of France was fish, which the natives caught in the ocean and bootlegged.
The tobacco situation was even worse. Cigarettes were rationed at thirty packages a year, and it is doubtful how much real tobacco even these contained. The Arabs, of course, are inveterate smokers, and nearly went crazy with joy when they found that America had not got around to rationing cigarettes. They’d work all day for a package of our smokes, and the only English phrase they picked up was “Packie schmook?”
To offer them a cigarette from a package was fatal. Instead of taking one, they’d snatch the lot and run off without tossing so much as a hurried thank you over their shoulder. Even children from five on up were old habitués and I was amused to see husky Americans, who had killed Morroccans in the morning without turning a hair, register shock and amazement when they saw the soldiers’ orphans happily smoking in the afternoon.
One touching example of native faith in America was displayed by a Safi innkeeper. The only liquor in the city was a weak domestic red wine that had been strictly rationed. Only the biggest café in Safe sold it. In two days this place completely exhausted its month’s supply. Then the proprietor began to work on the next month’s stock, saying that if he couldn’t sell it, at least there was nothing in the regulations to prevent his giving it away. He actually did give it away—to the officers, at least. But, we discovered, he’d made so much profit on what he’d already sold us that he was far ahead of the game anyhow.
The sniping continued for three days. During this time a number of our men were wounded or killed. Those snipers were good, make no mistake about that. We all went pretty carefully when they were about, and our troops had their hands full trying to eliminate them.
Casualties would have been a lot heavier without sulpha drugs which all our men carry. Of course, the complete story of the wonders of sulphanilamide can’t be told until the war is over. But the things we all saw there in Safi convinced us that in this war a lot fewer wounded men will die than in any other war.
Every American soldier carries a package of sulphanilamide powder to pour into his would when he is hit. If he can’t do it, a buddy will take care of the matter for him. Besides this, certain picked men in each platoon are also given little tubes of morphine which they can inject into the most seriously wounded.
I saw one man hit by a sniper’s bullet. It struck his cartridge belt, which exploded, tearing a tremendous hole in his stomach. No sooner had the man gone down than two other soldiers were at his side, with their own packages of sulpha powder torn open and ready to be poured into him. After doing this, they rushed him down to the beach, where there were special first-aid stations. Here [DoctorandNavyLieutenant Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, Jr., Medical Corps, ship’s medical officer assigned to USS COLE (DD – 155)] took two handfuls of sulpha powder and threw it into the wound, made some hasty emergency repairs and rushed the wounded man into a landing boat out to our transport, where here was an operating room.
Dr. Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, Jr., Medical Corps, USN wearing the Bronze Star with “V” for valor for his performance of duty during OPERATION TORCH, 8 November 1942
Coming back to America a few days later, not even the doctors who had operated gave that man much of a chance to live. In fact, they even ordered the ship’s carpenter to make a coffin for him. But the soldier and the sulpha drugs fooled everyone. By the time we had sighted land, he was well enough to be demanding his coffin to keep for a souvenir.
During all the days of sniping, the Arabs would disappear like a flash just before each new wave broke out. When it died down again, they’d come straggling back. They always knew when some action was going to take place. When there were few Arabs around, or when those present looked worried, you knew a sniper was setting his sights somewhere. In the end, we figured out their system. They had wives and children strung out all around the beach to act as sniper spotters. Thereafter, when the Arabs started to fade away, so did we.
This Fascist resistance inconvenienced the loyal French as well as ourselves. One day, on the beach, I noticed a man who seemed to be tearing his hair out by the handful. He was a Frenchman who owned a big white house up on a cliff. It had been taken over by snipers. A destroyer in the harbor [USS COLE (DD – 155)] was trying to drive them out. It hit a corner of the house with a 3-inch (page 78) shell and the little Frenchman jumped up and down, howling with rage. The snipers refused to surrender, so the [USS COLE] let fly with another shell, which tool off the roof. At this, the Frenchman moaned and started to tear his hat to pieces. When the snipers still refused to give up, a light tank rolled over to finish off the house at close range. I left before Frenchman died of apoplexy.
Another time, about fourteen snipers were rounded up in a building and just as our infantry was about to blow them up with mortar shells, they waved a white flag. When they were brought down to the detention pen, it was discovered that two of the snipers were Vichy-French civilians. Instead of shooting them, the Army commander pardoned them and gave them the status of prisoners of war. This made our men very mad, but when the word of the action got to the right quarters, the sniping decreased noticeably.
As a matter of fact, we were pretty surprised to find even two Vichy-Frenchmen among the snipers. The death rate for Fascists was running high those days. People who, prior to our arrival, had been known Axis sympathizers, or who had swanked around as Vichy officials, seem to have been taken care of pretty quickly by the loyal French. I don’t know how true it is, but I heard later that during our landing operations—as soon as it could be seen that the Americans were entering the harbor in force enough to decide the issue—the French themselves beat or killed all the Fascists they could find. None of the prisoners showed any hatred for us. All said they had fought because they were loyal to their officers, and the officers had told them to fight. No one regarded the affair as an international incident at all. It did seem to me—and a lot of other fellows as well—that during the height of the fighting many machine guns and coast-defense cannon could have been aimed to do much more damage than they did.
One prisoner—a communications man who had been in charge of a field telephone and at a coast-defense battery—said his instrument never seemed to work. Of course, he smiled, the fact that he didn’t bother to plug it in most of the time may have had something to do with this.
Debunking Hollywood
Our Foreign Legion captives didn’t look anything like the Hollywood version. There were no comedy characters, no handsome officers, and definitely no dancing girls. They were Belgians, Frenchmen, Spaniards and Italians. There had been a lot of German noncoms too. But when they discovered the Americans had landed, the stole an auto truck and fled inland. I asked one prisoner about those Germans’ deserting, and he shrugged his shoulders expressively. “Monsieur,” he answered, “what would you?” It was no more than we expected. They were pigs anyway!” He spat as he ground out the word cochons.
The Legionnaires’ uniforms were patched and ragged. The Germans hadn’t allowed Vichy to send them any decent military equipment since the fall of France. It was pretty obvious the Germans were planning to go into Africa themselves before long, and didn’t want much opposition. A great many of these men, particularly the natives, had no shoes. Those who did have shoes had worn and patched ones. A Legionnaire told me that the soles of his boots were so thin he could step on a piece of chewing gum and tell its flavor. The native troops were puttees and walked in bare feet so dirty that, at first glance, it looked as if they were wearing shoes.
A lot of our men were quite impressed, at first, by having fought and beaten the Legion. They’d seen so many movies they thought it was invincible, I guess. In the flesh, though, these soldiers weren’t so formidable. They were much smaller than I thought they were going to be. I guess you’d call them short and wiry. They were very tanned; their skin was like leather. Mostly, they were quite young—from twenty-three to thirty, I’d say. Some of the noncoms were veterans of about forty-five. But not many.
They wore khaki uniforms, but it was a much different color khaki from ours. There seemed to be more green and brown in it. I saw only two with kepis—those flat-topped hats with a towel down the back of the neck. The others had steel helmet with a ridge down the middle. These had a shield with the initials RF—République Français—on it. If they’d been new issue, those shields would have read EF—for Vichy’s Êtat Français.
The men carried long thin bayonets on World-War-I-vintage rifles. The noncoms had their ratings indicated by slanting stripes, like our Navy hash marks. The officers’ ranks were indicated by horizontal stripes and elaborate gold-braided hats.
The Legionnaires’ teeth were brown and discolored. Toothbrushes seem to be nonexistent all over Africa. Even if there were any, there still wouldn’t be any tooth powder or paste. In fact, the only cleansing agent we ever saw was a dirty, black greaseless soap that left its user dirtier than ever. Our soldiers soon found that the way to a Frenchman’s heart was to give him a bar of soap for his wife. Even strong laundry soap was gratefully accepted.
The prisoners’ big stock in trade was their uniform buttons. Every American tried to get some for his girl back home. The words stamped on them—Légion Êtrangère—were irresistible. When I left Africa, the current rate of exchange was two packages of American cigarettes for one Legion button.
Because I could speak French, I was made an interpreter for the prisoners working on the docks during the last day or two. I talked to a goon many of these men, trying to discover why, if they hated the Germans so much as they said they did, they had not tried to join General De Gaulle and the Fighting French. They told me that some of their comrades had deserted to the De Gaullists in Libya, but that most of them preferred to remain in Morocco, where up to the time we came, it had been safe. I saw only one captured officer, a captain. All he said was that his glad it was over and was sorry there had ever been any fighting.
I talked to a civilian who had been a lieutenant in General Corap’s army at Sedan, in 1940. He was a French Jew who had managed to escape to North Africa during the armistice negotiations. He was wildly excited about the coming of the Americans and was all steamed up about the prospect of being able to fight the Germans again. He was leaving to join General Giraud’s new African army that same afternoon.
This seemed to be the general attitude of all the Jews in Morocco. A number of them had settled here after the fall of France, and life under Vichy domination had not been too easy for them. When we first arrived, they were worried that we’d treat them the same way the Fascists had. Everywhere we went we were asked, “What are you going to do about the Jews?” Finally, one American private with a long hooked nose was asked this question once too often.
“I’ll tell yuh, bid,” he said. “It ain’t the Jews we hate, it’s everybody with green hair. Whenever we find a guy with green hair, we got orders to shoot him immediately.”
When the shooting was over and the troops started to roam around the city, there were constant squabbles between the Arabs and Americans over money changing. In less than a week, the franc rose from eighty-five to the dollar to less than thirty. When an American officer was called to settle a financial argument, he always gave the Arab the best of the deal. Once our men caught on to this fact, they stopped calling on their officers for assistance.
The Arabs were great bargainers whenever they ran into an old horse trader from the Midwest, they took to him like a long-lost brother. The Arabs wanted cloth, chocolate and cigarettes. The Americans wanted gold-embroidered slippers and belts for their girls, pottery for their folks, and silver rings and cigarette boxes for themselves. Everywhere you went in the bazaars, you’d see Arabs and Americans sitting on the ground and haggling by the hour. They used sign language and high-school French, and seemed to do all right.
The French, including those who were political and racial refugees from Vichy, having been saved from a fate worse than death, still were not averse to making dishonest dollar or two. In their ships, price tickets were pasted on all articles for sale. After the first day of landing operations, prices jumped about 500 per cent. We quickly learned to pull off half a dozen or price tags and pay only the amount called for on the bottom one. The French expected to dicker with us even on this, but there were so many souvenir-hunting doughboys that there wasn’t enough stock in any of the stores to go around. Some of the more progressive merchants, having disposed of everything on their shelves, presently took to selling old French newspapers brought up from their cellars.
One Frenchman was even smarter, and skinned the pants off almost the entire expeditionary force. The only bank in town was closed until the occupation had been completed. We didn’t know this, however, so it gave the Frenchman his chance. He set up a kitchen table and chair in the doorway of the bank and proceeded to change American greenbacks into francs from dawn until dusk. His rate of exchange seemed to be any old figure that came into his head. Greenbacks were falling out of his pockets; I actually saw some stuffed into his shoes. For a couple of days even the officers were taken in by this fellow. Then somebody caught on to what was happening and that Frenchman went out of business very suddenly. It was the one phase of the expedition where Army Intelligence seemed to have slipped up.
The Test of War
The Arabs, in their own way, had a similar racket. They changed money by weight. It took us quite a while to realize that two handfuls of heavy copper coins still didn’t equal one American dime.
But in spite of all our difficulties with the money-changers, we didn’t make out too badly. We landing-boat men were the only Navy representatives who could go ashore. On the ships, there were still hundreds of officers and sailors anxious for souvenirs from Safi. Coming back from a bout in the bazaars, we’d figure out how badly the French and Arabs has gypped us, and then we’d pass on our losses—with a slight added profit—to the men on the boat. They, in their turn, probably gypped someone else. In the Navy, everything seems to even up sooner or later.
Since I’ve been back in America, the one question people have asked more than any other concerns the quality and quantity of the troops’ equipment. It’s a pleasure to answer that, and I’d like to repeat here what I’ve told them.
Everyone—our own men as well as the Europeans—was amazed at the way our supplies and equipment stood up. I’ve heard a lot of stories about the poor materials American soldiers have had to use in other wars, but this time, I can assure you, it’s different.
Our motors ran at top speed for days on end with never a breakdown. We dropped tons of material into the water and sand at one time or another, and when they were recovered and put to use, everything from ammunitions to packaged field rations was still in prime condition. I heard many soldiers comment amazedly on the fact that the bullets in their machine-gun belts had been so carefully inspected and sorted that they never had to stop to clear a bad cartridge out of the gun. We lived and thrived for days on field rations and, though it is true that they weren’t always as desirable as hot food, no one ever complained about either the taste or their ability to satisfy our hunger.
Having superior equipment to us in action gives a fellow an awfully grateful feeling toward the folks back home. Soldiers like grousing better than anything else except eating, and when you hear not one but hundreds of men praise the quality of their weapons and their grub, the winning of this war doesn’t seem uncertain at all.
“SPECIAL ARTICLE FROM AFRICAN FRONT DESCRIBING AMERICAN ASSAULT LAST SUNDAY. EDITORS NOTE: WRITTEN BY WALTER LOGAN WITH U.S. TASK FORCES IN SAFI, FRENCH MOROCCO. NOVEMBER 9TH (DELAYED).
“A squadron of destroyers on a suicide mission paved the way for capture of this strategic port 140 miles down the coast from the French port of Casablanca. They raced into the harbor in the predawn yesterday [Sunday, 8 November 1942] and took over the docks before the French knew what hit them. Then they held off counterattacks until wave of our assault troops established beachheads; “I watched action from the signal bridge of a transport anchored a few miles offshore with my heavily armed bodyguard Lieut John H Wheldon of the army public relations. Our men crowded the starboard rail waiting for gunfire or the vertical searchlight signals indicating the docks were captured. The suicide ships [USS BERNADOU (DD – 153) and USS COLE (DD – 155)] began moving at four am and through the dark and calm sea. The first destroyer [ USS BERNADOU] began moving at fullspeed and went through Minefields without detection. It rounded the Safi breakwater before the shore batteries detected it.
“Searchlights flashed and tracer bullets began arching toward the destroyers. They fired back with all guns blazing as it headed directly for the beach. Huddled below decks were 150 assault troops. The Captain maneuvered the first destroyer [USS BERNADOU] full astern as they closed to shore where it struck some rocks. Assault troops began climbing down the nets. Other destroyers followed close behind the lead ship. French fire was heavy but American troops drove forward silencing nearby batteries on the cliffs overlooking the tiny harbor. I could see flashes lighting up the sky and red tracer floating toward us. Another destroyer meanwhile [USS COLE] wheeled into the docks and the men climbed ashore and began pushing inland.”
Chart credit: Volume II of Samuel Eliot Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II : OPERATIONS IN NORTH AFRICAN WATERS October 1942 – June 1943
Major Cole received the Navy Cross and Army Distinguished Service Cross for heroism during the Battle of Belleau Wood (10 June 1918) in which he was mortally wounded. He died 18 June 1918 and is buried at Mouroux Cemetery, France. His decorations included the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross; as well as the French Légion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre. Cole’s Navy Cross citation reads: “In the Bois de Belleau, France, in June 10, 1918, his unusual heroism in leading his company under heavy fire enabled it to fight with exceptional effectiveness. He personally worked fearlessly until he was mortally wounded”. His Distinguished Service Cross citation reads: “In the Bois de Belleau, on June 10th 1918, displayed extraordinary heroism in organizing positions, rallying his men and disposing of his guns, continuing to expose himself fearlessly until he fell. He suffered the loss of his right hand and received wounds in upper arm and both thighs.”
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The Lone Sailor
Troubled as the restless sea...
Psalm 107:23-25
English Standard Version (ESV)
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
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