Thursday, November 30, 2017

Courage Kits


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             Courage Kits
Each kit will be filled with a "comfort letter," and photos of family and nonperishable food. Donations of cases of bottled water, flashlights, batteries, duct tape, and Clorox wipes are needed.

These kits are for elementary school children, to be used incase of a nuclear attack from North Korea. Hawaii will do its best to be prepared for such an event.       When the attack siren sounds you have only 12 minutes to find a place to shelter. But Hawaii has no public shelters. We have been told to" shelter in place."

Kids at Kaimuki Middle School were told to get to certain classrooms, close the windows, and turn off the air conditioning. They had also been told about the "pee buckets" they would be using. A directive was sent to teachers to use plastic sheeting, wet cloth and duct tape to seal windows to minimize air contamination.

All of this reminds me too much of the Cold War. Imagine a young teacher trying to tell her students about something you cannot taste,touch,see,or smell. And the temperature outside is 85 degrees,and inside the sealed classroom it would be unbearable

At the beginning of each month a siren sounds, testing the Tsunami Alert System. This coming Friday, December 1st a wailing tone will be added.

   Aloha
   Grant  

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Remember Wake Island


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        Remember Wake Island
Living here in Hawaii we are constantly reminded of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But  how many under the age of fifty, remember the battle for Wake Island? Five hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island also underwent an attack by the Japanese.

Wake Island is located in the far-Western part of the Pacific. Over 2000 miles due west of Honolulu. The island became important because Pan American Airway developed it as a refueling and rest stop for its wealthy clients. The aircrafts were huge flying boats, landing and taking off on water. Pan American built a hotel for their  wealthy guests.

The American military also had plans for the island. Fearing the increasing friction between the U.S. and Japan, contractors were busy building an air strip, hospital, and other buildings. Over 1,100 civilian construction workers were trapped on Wake when the war broke out.

Wake Island is an atoll made- up of three small islands grouped around a shallow lagoon that was once the crater of extinct volcano. Wake,the largest of the three, is separated by narrow channels from Wilkes and Peale islands, just to the west. Together they form a rough horseshoe shape. The islands had swarms of rats, but no fresh water. The interior of the islands contained masses of trees and brush. Wake was next in importance to Midway as a base for aircraft, submarines, land-based forces, and fleet facilities. And it was not far from Japan.

Wake was garrisoned by  a force of 510 Marines equipped with three three-inch antiaircraft batteries of four guns each, three five-inch shore batteries of two guns each, two dozen .50 caliber machine guns, and two dozen .30 caliber machine guns. Also, a few old Springfield rifles. And that was all. The arrival of twelve brand-new Grumman F4F  Wildcatfighter planes were a welcome addition to the island's defense.

The attack began with a flight of eighteen bombers which destroyed eight of the Wildcats. When they had finished, the only thing left intact was the runway itself.
Many of the visible structures were in ruins. There were only three flyable planes left.
In spite of bombs from the air, strafing runs, and two landings, this handful of Marines with some of the construction workers, lasted two days longer than did the defenders of the Alamo.

Back in Pearl Harbor Admiral Kimmel dispatched a relief fleet to Wake, but the fleet was ordered back to Pearl as there was a change of command. In other words, the defenders of Wake were screwed. No help would be sent to them.

The commanding officer of Wake Island was Commander Winfield Scott Cunningham USN, and Major James Devereux was commander of the Marine detachment.

During the fourteen day siege the Marines sank one major Japanese ship, heavily damaged several others, and repelled a Japanese invasion. Commander Cunningham,  realizing that there was little hope left, ordered a surrender. The Marines were mad as hell.

The Japanese were so angry having lost so many men, and that there were no women to rape. The captives were harshly treated, and then taken aboard a ship which would carry them to both Japan and China. Some few civilians were kept to rebuild, and then were executed. On the ship five men were selected, blindfolded, and beheaded as a symbolic revenge for having killed so many Japanese soldiers.

The prisoners were to spend the next three and a half years as prisoners and slave laborers. It all came to an end with the Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese surrender.

The construction company that had hired these civilians, paid wages to those who had managed to survive. Commander Cunningham and Major Devereaux were both promoted. Each man later wrote books about their experience.

Wake Island today maintains the airstrip, but there are no commercial flights and it is simply there for emergencies. The population today is 120 civilians. They have a nine hole golf course, cocktail bar, and  nice housing. Visitors to the island just have government authorization. They are geologists, oceanographers, bureaucrats, film makers, and some of the survivors of the battle. Marine and Navy retirees may travel there free of charge on military aircraft.

What I have written is from the most excellent "Given Up for Dead," by Bill Sloan. Bantam hardcover edition published 2003.

    Aloha
    Grant


Thursday, November 9, 2017

Out of this World


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         Out of this World
Information is easily available about the time and direction of the International Space Station, and where it can be seen. We have seen it from our lanai several times.

I recently purchased a new book "Endurance,A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery," by Scott Kelly. In his book he tells all about life  while floating in space. His companions were from Russia,Japan and other European countries.

One of the many problems is physical exercise. It was mandatory to exercise on a treadmill six days a week and at least a couple hours every day. Bone loss is about one per cent per month. Spacemen returning to earth often had broken hip bones.

Another more urgent problem was to keep the two "Seedra" machines working. These machines soak up the CO 2 given off by the crew. If the CO2 levels reach too high, it results in  the difficulty of performing many tasks, and making bad choices. Better to breathe clean air. These machines were often broken, needing repair.

Hand holds are located throughout the station, when a person wants to remain in place. A foot placed around a hand hold, while eating or drinking coffee with a straw from a plastic bag. Scott writes that sleeping while floating is very  nice indeed. And all the urine collected is processed, and becomes drinking water.

The American Space Shuttle was retired some time ago due to a lack of funding. The vehicle taking a three man crew to the space station is aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. This has been safely used many times. The craft has no extra room for anything else. Supplies to the station are carried by a ship called a "Dragon,"built by an American company  called "Space X." A single trip would carry 4,300 lbs.of supplies. Fresh fruit and vegetables (which go bad more quickly than on earth.) Oxygen,spare parts, health care products,experiments, items from home, and so forth.

It is nice to read how everyone all got along. They shared food, celebrate birthdays and holidays while in space. So far over 200 people have visited the space station.

A couple of other things that need to be mentioned. The most dangerous task is a walk in space. A leak-proof clumsy space suit, with gloves like a baseball mitt, requiring delicate working space while traveling at a speed of 17,500 mph. Hand holds required, and a tether to the station. Hours are spent just preparing for the space walk.

Then there is the problem of docking the supply ship to the station requiring the use of a long arm developed by a Canadian company.   Have we become so blasé about space travel? Have we forgotten the moon landing, and the lives that were lost in that historic quest? The International Space Station is working on problems faced by a trip to the planet Mars.

In the nineteen sixties a book "Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth, written by Buckminster Fuller, University of Illinois, created quite a stir. He warned that our planet is a spaceship with limited supplies of food and water. How we used these supplies would determine our fate.
And recently Dr. Stephen Hawking remarked that we may have to travel to Mars, because we are ruining our planet.

Some dark night look up in the sky and you may find something different from all the surrounding stars,shining brightly, it is the International Space Station.

     Aloha
     Grant

Thoroughly Thoreau


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           Throughly Thoreau
For more years than I care to count, I have been a huge fan of the American writer Henry David Thoreau. While I was in the Navy I went with a friend from our ship to try and find the site of Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond. I returned many years later with my youngest daughter Jessica, to find that a replica of his cabin had been built.

Every American literature book has a section devoted to this writer. Much attention is paid to his book "Walden," which contains his essay on "Civil Disobedience." Both Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King read and were greatly influenced by this essay. But what I feel is often overlooked is Thoreau's contribution to understanding nature, and his work for the abolition of slavery. He understood ecology before the word was invented. He kept many journals which were left unpublished until now. He was friends of Emerson,Hawthorne,Louisa May Alcott, and William Lloyd Garrison,publisher of the anti-slavery paper "The Liberator." He was also friends with the ex-slave Frederick Douglas, and John Brown. And he met Walt Whitman while he was doing some survey work in New York.

American literature began with these writers in and around Concord, Massachusetts.This small town was also a hot bed of abolitionists. Thoreau delivered a plea to a large crowd,in support of John Brown,following his attack on Harper's Ferry. Thoreau had helped drive one of the the men involved in the attack, to escape into Canada. Also, when the government passed the Fugitive Slave Act, Thoreau's family hid and helped runaway slaves to escape to Canada.

Thoreau graduated from Harvard with understanding of both ancient Greek and Latin. I don't think it did much for him  in his study of Botany. Few know that his father had a pencil making factory, and that Thoreau made his living after Harvard by surveying. He also made paid lecture tours.  He tried his hand at teaching, but quit after refusing to cane students.

A new book "Thoreau, a life " written by Laura Dassow Walls, published 2017 by The University of Chicago Press, is most excellent. I think this is the book for people who really want to know more about     Thoreau. The author provides us with a complete picture of the man. Thoreau died in 1862, at the age of 44, never having seen the end of slavery.

    Aloha  
    Grant

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

They Were All Young Girls


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      They Were All Young Girls
Most Americans know that women served as nurses in WWI and WWII. But few people know that during WWII, Soviet girls served in all branches of the military. When Hitler's army invaded Russia in 1941, every patriotic Russian quickly ran to recruiting offices. This included girls as young as 16 years of age. Many lied about their age and were accepted. A whole trainload of girls came from faraway Siberia.

Their introduction into military life was swift, and sometimes brutal. Russian girls all wore their hair in long braids. These were cut off and replaced by a short man's haircut. Shirts,pants, coats, hats, long men's underwear, and American-made boots way too large. Size 10 for a girl's foot requiring a size 5. No feminine  products either.
 
After a few months of training, they became drivers of trucks and tanks,  Some became nurse aids and snipers. During the four years of war, many girls were killed in combat. One 17 year girl received the "Florence Nightingale " award for dragging 147 wounded men to safety. Another young girl sniper was awarded the "Red Star" for having killed 75 Germans.

Tank girls wore canvas pants with padded knees and a helmet. When a tank was hit, the crew was most often on  fire, and the girls pulled them out of the burning tank.

When victory came at long last, the men who had fought, received all the credit. The role played by the female fighters was forgotten. Young girls returning home had a tough time. Young men refused to date them as they had soiled themselves by living with men. They were seen as having lost their feminism charm. They were often called whores.

Things began to change when  a book The "Unwomanly Face of War," by Svetlana Alexievich  was published in 1985. She went on to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in  2015. She spent years with her tape recorder talking with the old women who were once young girls. The book was translated into English and published  in 2017. Many women had waited years to tell their stories. Others had tried to forget. Many women refused to either wear or have the color red in their homes. It reminded them of so much blood. Some few married younger men, while others lived alone in apartment houses.

The Russians suffered greatly in WWII. One out of every eight people died in the war. See the battles for Leningrad and Stalingrad for examples. How did these young girls find the strength and courage to fight as they did? We may never know the answer.

    Aloha
    Grant    

Thursday, October 19, 2017

I Like Hats


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             I Like Hats
I like wearing a hat, and that is not just because I am now bald. The sun here in Hawaii can cause skin cancer. I grew up in Northern Michigan where wearing a hat was necessary in winter, covering your ears too. In summer the hat worn, was a baseball hat. You could shape the bill to a curve of your liking. And this leads me to the fact that I firmly believe that only welders,umpires, and catchers should wear their hat backwards. Otherwise for others to do so, there must be a connection with low I Q.
Here in Hawaii hats are sold having a flat plastic bill. Stupid looking and again I suspect low IQ.

As an enlisted man in the Navy we all(except Chief Petty Officers) wore round white hats. These hats could be shaped by sailors to suit their individual tastes. It bothers me when actors in plays such as "South Pacific," wear their hats simply round and stupid looking. The last hat from my years in the Navy, was eaten by Lake Erie during an afternoon sail.

I mentioned to Teena that I would like to have a soft hat that would protect my ears, and could be rolled up and carried in a pocket. The visiting men and women from Australia who have come to our club to bowl, have just that kind of hat. And low and behold, she returned home recently with just such a hat. The hat also has a lanyard with a wood toggle to help keep it on in the sometimes brisk Trade Winds. She warned me that I should not be wearing it when meeting anybody important.

In Dearborn Michigan there was a small supper club called "Toppers." The club featured good food and a small dance floor with a trio of musicians. The walls were all covered with pictures of people wearing hats. Some famous people and others not at all famous. Alas,"Toppers" was bought by some rich hockey player and the pictures were all replaced by mirrors. Teena and I have fond memories of the place.

    Aloha
    Grant

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Rat Lungworm Disease


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        Rat Lungworm Disease
There are a host of diseases found in this part of the Pacific. The most recent disease being talked about is rat lungworm disease. State-wide there are l7 cases so far. It is very hard to diagnose. The symptoms are : severe headache, stiffness of the neck, tingling or painful feeling in the skin or extremities, fever, nausea and vomiting,temporary paralysis of the face, and sensitivity to light.

The disease is carried by rats, snails, and slugs. When larvae carried by slugs and snails get into a person's system, they travel to the brain and form worms that shed antigens, or toxins according to the Hawaii Health Department. When it molts, it sheds antigens and that go into the spinal fluid. There is no known cure. The farmer here who contracted the disease reported that an MRI showed that chunks of his brain had been eaten. He is currently living on painkillers and anti seizure medications.
According to John McHugh, of the Department of Agriculture's Plant Industry Division,
" Rats are the main host for this thing, and the state doesn't have enough resources to control rats throughout the entire state. They are are everywhere on these islands."

People are told to not eat freshwater shrimp, land crabs, frogs, or undercooked snails. Inspect and rinse produce, especially leafy greens in potable water. Boil snails, prawns, crabs and frogs for at least three to five minutes.

I feel that it is also very important to choose eating in a restaurant where the lettuce has been carefully washed. Or better yet, avoid eating salads when dining out. As for me, I am being very careful.

All the above information I stole from our local paper "Star Advertiser" Sunday 10/8/17

   Aloha
   Grant

Essex Disaster


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           Essex Disaster            
Generations have read and enjoyed the novel "Moby Dick," by Herman Melville. It is a tale about a mad man named Ahab, captain of  of a whale ship in  search of a giant whale that had taken one of his legs on an earlier voyage. Readers may remember that when when the giant whale Moby Dick was found, a battle ensued, and the whale ship was sunk by the whale. Fiction? sure, but I bet that few people know that the idea of a whale sinking a ship was used by Melville in writing "Moby Dick." The ship's name was the Essex,and in 1819 it set sail for a voyage to hunt whales. Fifteen months later in the South Pacific it was rammed twice by an enraged bull whale, and in spite of its four inch thick oak sides, was sunk.The 20-man crew set sail for South America 3,000 miles away in three small boats. Three months later only eight were left alive, the survivors having been forced to eat the bodies of their dead shipmates. The drawing of lots in a survival situation had long been an  accepted custom of the sea.

But all of what I have written could easily been gleaned by a search on the internet. However, if you are really interested you should obtain a copy of "In the Heart of the Sea," by Nathaniel Phrilbrick, published by  Penguin Books. I have neither the time nor the desire to summarize the book. It is a fantastic story.

Whales are not fish, they are among the largest mammals on earth. They have brains five times larger than man. The female whales give birth to their young, nurse and guide them to maturity. Why were these great creatures of the sea hunted? The answer is "oil." Whale oil was used to light homes, street lights, and lubricate machinery. Whale hunting continued until the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania.Today, whale hunting is outlawed by international treaties. But the Japanese continue to hunt, ignoring the ban, under the guise of "research."

Whale hunting was a dangerous, stinking business. Voyages of two or even three years were not uncommon. The ships would not return to port until their ships were filled with barrels of oil.

When a whale was sighted by a man on the top of the mainmast, four boats containing harpoons, lances and yards of rope, were lowered over the ships' side. Men rowed to the whale, and if it went into a dive, they waited until it ran out of air and surfaced, and threw harpoons into the whale. The whale caught by the harpoons began dragging the boats in what was called a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride." When exhausted, the whale fought for its life, and boats were often smashed, with men thrown into the sea. At last when the whale had been killed by lances, the  dead whale was towed back to the ship. Once alongside, large blankets of whale fat were poised aboard and put into large pots where the fat was boiled for its oil.

A sperm whale was most favored, as the head of the whale contained up to five hundred gallons of spermaceti,a clear, high-quality oil that partially solidifies on contact with air. The whale's intestinal tract was searched for a fatty substance called ambergris, which was used to  make perfume and was worth more than its weight in gold.

The deck of the ship would be slippery with oil, blood and vomit. It was said you could smell a whale ship before you could see it. After the whale was stripped of all it s blubber it was cast adrift.

Sailors on these long voyages without seeing whales, would sometimes scratch pictures on whale teeth or bones, than fill in the scratches with ink, which are called "scrimshaw." Very artistic, and much sought after by collectors.

Living here in Hawaii we see Humpback whales every year. They mate, rear their young and then leave for the long trip to Alaska. And by April they are gone. During the time the whales are here, whale watching trips take place daily. Teena and I have made many such trips.

On our neighboring island of Maui there is a place called "Whaler's Village." Go directly up to the second floor where there is a small museum devoted to whaling. All of the items used in hunting are displayed. But of particular interest are the open books kept by ship captains, containing details such as the type of whale and even ink drawings.

I learned not long ago that Melville, who had served on a whaleship, worked in a store here in Honolulu. I plan to see what I can find about this,if there is any information.

I am filled with information but too tired to continue. Search the internet, or even better, read the book I mentioned earlier.

   Aloha,
   Grant

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Swastika


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              Swastika
The hated Nazi symbol is  now often seen among groups of extreme right-wing people and members of the Ku Klux Clan. But free of its Nazi past, the swastika has been used by the Native Americans for centuries. I learned in an archaeology class, its use by ancient Greek pottery makers. During the so-called Geometric period you see swastika bands around the neck of an amphora (storage jar).

My grandfather Beal was an inventor. He invented a vending machine, thermostat, and as he was fond of playing cards, a card game. He named the deck of cards "Swastika." This was before WWII. But with Hitler and its use of the swastika, grandpa changed the name of the game to "Cheyenne." I am looking at a deck of his cards. The deck of cards show the profile of a Native American with a feather headdress. Below there is a tomahawk,arrows, and a string of beads. And below is a swastika. Above and below the name "Cheyenne" is the fact that the game   is a registered trade mark.

The back of the red colored deck we read the words"The Great Home and Social Game" Price 50 Cents Cheyenne Game Co. Adrian,Mich.

Sliding the cards from the pack a swastika is printed on the back of each card, and a sheet of instructions is included. These cards must be very rare. I think I am probably the only person in the family to own a deck. I never learned if grandpa made any money from this invention. I rather doubt it.

Aloha
Grant

 

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Navy Blue


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             Navy Blue        
I am afraid that anyone having read "My Old Ship" was led to believe that my entire time spent in the Navy was aboard a ship. Not so, as the following will clearly show.

I enlisted in the Navy twice, the first time was when I was a junior in high school.The summer of 1954, I attended boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, not far from Chicago. At the end of summer, my parents separated, and following graduation, I tried to go on active duty. I was told that I had a heart murmur, so I was given an Honorable Discharge.

But it just so happened that one Navy recruiter lived next door to us, and the other Navy recruiter rented an apartment from my grandmother. And guess what? I enlisted for the second time and spent the next four years in the Navy. I think the recruiters had a quota to fill. So I went to boot camp again, this time in the winter.

Following boot camp I was ordered to Naval Air Station Norman, Oklahoma. It was a school for men who were to serve in  Naval aviation. I fabricated an aluminum wing, safety wired a carburetor on an engine, drew weather maps, and a whole lot more.One of the most interesting aspects of the school was when I was wearing a parachute harness, and climbed a tower, only to be dropped into the middle of a swimming pool. The idea was to get out, and swim to a life raft. One other event is that I was taught to start up a F4U Corsair. That type of plane had a huge propeller and a gull-shaped wing which you had to lean out to see anything unless the plane was up and running. This was the carrier based fighter plane used in the Pacific War.

There were locker clubs in Norman where you could change into civilian clothes. For weekend liberty we went to Oklahoma City, which at that time was very dry, only 3.2 alcohol served in bars,unless you belonged to a club, or knew a bootlegger. One time while going up in an elevator in the Hotel Black,the operator (no self-service back then) asked if we sailors would like a drink. We quickly replied and he opened his double breasted jacket and disclosed several brands of booze seen in pockets. Five bucks would get you a half-pint.

My next stop was photo school located in Pensacola, Florida. Naval photographers belong to the aviation branch of the Navy and are often called "airdales." Photo school was a mixture of sailors and marines of both sexes. It made for some great parties. The school was very easy for me as I had worked at two photo studios while still in high school. Interesting assignments and use of various cameras. Pensacola is where Navy pilots train, and is home of the famous stunt flyers the "Blue Angels."

Following graduation from photo school we were able to choose where we would go next. I chose to go to Panama. Why? Simply because how many people go there?

Another sailor and I were the only passengers on a DC6 which was also carrying an airplane engine and cans of hydraulic fluid. We landed at U.S. Naval Station, Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone. I became the newest member of Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 105, or simply Fasron 105. This was a company of men who worked everything relating to Naval aircraft. There were two photographers, a guy named Gene Leach from Philadelphia, and me.

Our barracks had screens for walls and parking below. Every night a fog jeep would fill the interior with DDT so dense that you could see a light bulb glow. The chow hall was in the building also. I should mention that of all the branches of military service the Navy chow is noted as being the best. The best food I had in the Navy was at Coco Solo. For example Sunday morning breakfast. "How do you want your steak,"a cook calls ahead of the line.

The photo lab was located with weather men in the control tower. Part of the photo lab was air conditioned. It is hot and humid in Panama, leather would grow mold, and shoes were kept in a hot locker with a light bulb burning.

Our major task was to photograph every ship that was going to transit the canal from the Atlantic. The lab would receive a call telling us the name of the ship and its location, either docked or anchored out in the bay. If it was my turn I would go  to the boathouse and get a boat and a crew. We used all kinds of small boats including PT boats. What a fast wild ride they made. And it was me who told them where they should go for my photos. I felt very important. We were to shoot pictures of each side of the ship and a three-quarter bow and stern shot. As this was the "Cold War," we always took a lot of pictures if it was a Russian ship. I will always remember one British ship loaded with only women heading to Australia and New Zealand seeking husbands. Both world wars had greatly reduced their chances of getting a husband. We circled the ship many times after taking my pictures, and they called, waved, and threw kisses at us. It was all so very sad. We wished them good luck.

One other interesting event was when I went with my boss and a couple of  F.B.I. agents to an Italian cruise ship that was docked in Colon, Panama's largest city on the Atlantic coast. We wore civilian clothes and carried a suitcase containing a tripod and camera. We went to an empty stateroom where the camera was set up and I was given address books and some other stuff. I laid on the floor and turned pages as the photos were taken. When we finished taking our pictures one agent took the film from us and departed. After a time we also left the ship, and the agent took us out for dinner.

Another event which comes to mind is a wedding. My boss knew that I had worked for two wedding studios before I joined the Navy. So I guess that is why he asked me to go with a friend of his and take pictures of a wedding. I agreed to do so, as it meant a trip to a little village in the jungle where the wedding would take place. We had the only car in the village, and it was used to take the bride and groom to the church. People came to the wedding barefoot or on horseback. Women carried jars on their heads. I took a lot of pictures. Music came from guitars and large throwing drums. There were lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling in each one of the four rooms of the little house. Platters of roast pig were served. I remember a picture I took of a  man chewing on a leg of the pig. The father of the bride had managed to buy a case of scotch, and there was a lot of chichi fierce (strong corn) to drink. I got good and drunk and fell asleep to the sound of drumming. My high school Spanish was put to good use as I managed order breakfast the following morning. I no longer have those wedding pictures as they failed to make the trip to Hawaii.

I was having a splendid time in Panama, when somebody way up in the chain of command decided to transfer our squadron to Puerto Rico. We sailed aboard the a WWII Liberty ship  George Goethals (the man who built the Panama Canal.) I think it was a three or four day sail and squadron sailors with families were kept to the forward of the ship. We docked in San Juan and were taken to our new home, Roosevelt Roads, a forlorn base sixty miles from San Juan, consisting of one huge hangar, a couple of barracks, one for a company of Marines, and a small sheet metal sided photo lab. There was also a chow hall, and a single juke box playing the same tunes for two years, and a single pinball machine. Five miles away was the enlisted men's club reached by a bus every so often. You were able to buy a horse for $25.00. These horses had been used to test for malaria. One guy got so drunk one night that he rode his horse into the barracks and tied it up to his bunk.

This was quite a come down from Panama. Boredom and drink became the order of the day. Most times a square table would be filled with bottles before chow time. The only escape was to take a Publico (long distance taxi) into San Juan.

But we did have some things to do. We would develop 16mm film from fighter planes. They would shoot at a target towed by a plane, and wanted to see how well they had been shooting. Our method was as primitive as laughable. The film would be unreeled in the darkroom and thrust into a bucket of developer, and then into another bucket of hypo. a quick rinse and then taken outside and hung by clothes pins on a line. When dry the film would be wound on a reel for showing. We called it the "spaghetti method." We had a bunk with a mosquito net where each night one of us would spend the night just in case of a crash. One night the guy on duty in the hangar sat in a chair and smoked three or four cigarettes and then blew his brains out with his 45 colt revolver. Many pictures taken. There were also plane crashes to cover as well as showing damaged airplane parts. We had a cable across the end of one runway held up by car tires cut in half and attached at each end by long lengths of heavy anchor chain. If a carrier plane  arrived without ability to stop, his tail hook would do the job.

I have failed to mention that the base was built during WWII to house people from England in case of invasion by Hitler's armies. There were many underground bunkers  and the Sea Bees (construction branch of the Navy) were kept busy sprucing up the  base. This was also where the Navy trained its "Frog men," known today as "Seals."

Well, that was pretty much it. I could write about the whore houses in Panama and Puerto Rico but I think I will save it for a novel sometime. My story ends here when I was ordered to report to my ship.

    Aloha
    Grant      
                                 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Remembering My Ship


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       Remembering My Ship
All of this happened some sixty years ago, and this is how I remember it.

My orders read that I was to report to the U.S.S. Tarawa CV 40 (Essex Class), built in 1945, an aircraft carrier berthed at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. The ship was named for the famous bloody battle fought by the Marines in the Pacific during WWII.

Lugging my seabag I climbed the tower stairs and,  as custom dictates, requested permission to come aboard. When granted, I handed the duty  officer my orders. A sailor from the photo lab was sent for, to escort me to where I would berth and stow my uniforms. Photographers shared a compartment on the 02 or 03 deck in the Island with Xerographers (weathermen). The compartment had a single porthole. Small square lockers for uniforms,  and all around were racks reaching from deck to the overhead. These were canvas sheets laced to pipe frames. Each sleeping place had a thin pad with a white cotton cover that sailors called a "fart sack." These racks were all chained up during the day and were only brought down when the ship's work for the day had ended. I was assigned the top bunk which made me happy as I had to climb over those below me. I soon discovered that the steel beam above me was a perfect place for my wallet and cigarettes. During rough weather you could wrap your arms around one of the chains holding up the rack. In the compartment were a couple of large canvas bags in which everyone tossed his dirty uniforms. Every item of clothing a sailor owned was stenciled with his service number. My number was 4553595. So the clothing returned from the laundry was easily sorted.
 
Next to the sleeping compartment were the showers and toilet. A Navy shower at sea consisted of rules. First turn on  the shower and get wet, then turn it off and soap down. Then rinse, and turn the shower off. While in port you could use as much fresh water as you wanted.

The toilet consisted of a long stainless steel trough about two feet deep with divided seats set above a constantly running stream of water. I was to learn that sometimes as a joke, a wad of paper would be set blazing and sent down the rushing water under those seated. Or as the divided seats were set on pegs, it was easy to lift the seat off the pegs unknown to the guy when trying to sit down.

The photo lab was located on the hanger deck just below the flight deck where planes with their folded wings were tied down to rings in the deck. Sometimes movies would be shown on the hanger deck. During night operations when only red lights were allowed, sometimes a guy would fall into the elevator pit and get hurt. All doors leading outside had a trip lever that shut off all flights when the door was opened. After the door closed the lights again came on. Pilots landing in the dark must only see a row of landing lights. No other lights must be seen.

One other thing before I discuss the photo lab and what it was we did. This was the "Mail Buoy." A really dumb sailor would be convinced that there was a mail buoy way out here in the sea that would have mail that would have to be picked up. The victim  was taken to the fantail (end of the ship) and given a steel helmet, lifejacket, and a long boat hook. He was told that it was his job to hook the mail bag as we passed. Good for a few laughs.

The photo lab as I have said was located on the hanger deck. Inside was an office with desk and chair. And all along one side ran a counter under which guys could put their personal stuff. Above the counter were two port holes. Across the deck on the other side was a refrigerator in which to keep film. Ha! More often it was filled with blocks of cheese, gallon cans of strawberries  and such. The Engineering Officer who wanted his film developed would stop  by for a snack. A couple of other officers did so too. We made a deal with the with the cooks and  bakers, while  guys in the pipe shop made doughnuts with a blowtorch and shared with us. Some bakers wanted to play poker or shoot craps would use one of our darkrooms to play where they wouldn't get caught. Imagine a fresh loaf of bread with a pound of melting butter inside.
But life aboard was not all tea and cookies. The Tarawa was a war ship, at this period of history  called the "Cold War." An American U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Russians, the Russians were placing guided missiles in Cuba, and children in schools were being taught how to duck and cover under their desks in case of a nuclear attack.

The role played by my ship and a sister ship the U.S.S. Wasp was to protect the east coast of America. We would stay out 200 miles which is our territorial limit, and patrol from Halifax Nova Scotia to Mayport, Florida. A period of patrol was thirty days or more, until relieved by the U.S.S. Wasp.

Our task was to discover Russian submarines and if ordered, destroy them. The Tarawa carried a number of S-2F anti-submarine aircraft. These were twin-engine planes carrying sonar buoys and depth charge bombs. When a submarine was located, a pilot would release a number of long sonar buoys. When each buoy landed in the sea, a paper tape would break, holding a spring-loaded antenna that would pop up, and a microphone would descend into the ocean depth. A pattern could surround a sub and then a depth charge would be dropped to kill it.

Pictures of men on the flight deck of a carrier show that men are dressed in different colors. This is so   the captain and flight deck officer always know what is going on. Those wearing yellow are  plane captains and the flight deck officer,  responsible for each aircraft being launched. The color red is fuel and men with black means ordnance. Green is worn by catapult crew with the words "CAT" on the back. They hook the plane to the catapult that will sling the plane to the sky. And those also wearing green are photographers. With the words "PHOTO" on the back.  Depending the weather, both sweaters and tee shirts are worn, with color matching cloth helmets and tight-fitting goggles.

The flight deck and surrounding area was a dangerous place to be. We had a guy new to the photo lab and was assigned to one of our three positions, on the catwalk aft to cover the landings. A catwalk is a steel walkway three feet wide alongside the flight deck with a couple of strands of wire on the side. One plane landing caught a  cable causing it to break and whip around and cut  our guy in the head. He was very lucky, as   some accidents on other ships were very much worse. We visited him in sickbay and he recovered.

The one favored and safe position for photographers was on the 08 level in  a gun tub on the island. One day it was my turn to cover launches. Things were proceeding as usual when all of a sudden there was a huge noise behind me and I watched as a jet (sometimes we carried a few) flew past and went between two other jets making ready to launch, and then went over the side. My camera was a bulky K-20 which carried a roll of film 4 x5 inches wide. To take the picture you had to throw a lever forward and back to cock the camera. Then  pull the trigger to capture the picture. All I remember is cocking and pulling the trigger. The Angel (a helicopter kept ready ) picked  up the pilot, and as there was a hole in the wood flight deck, nothing was left to do. When I returned to the photo lab the chief asked if I got the picture, I said that I thought so. When developed and delivered to the captain, it showed that I had taken four pictures in the excitement of the moment. Everyone was well pleased and it showed why we were there.

And so it was, day after day, on patrol, launching aircraft and bringing them safely aboard. We had just returned from our time at sea when our sister ship the U.S.S. Wasp  berthed across from us, had a large fire in its hangar deck. We watched as body bags were carried ashore. And so just having ended our patrol, it was out to sea again.      
One final note about the different colors worn on the flight deck, The men who wore blue were the ones who with brute strength, pushed the planes into position so the pilot could taxi down the flight deck to the catapult. We called them "plane pushers." Not very nice of us, but accurate.

I have said a lot about launching aircraft, but what about bringing them home? This was the most dangerous job on the flight deck, when planes returning to the ship hope for a safe landing. Rising up from the deck were eleven cables and two barriers of nylon webbing and steel cables. In a normal situation, the plane landing with its tail hook would catch a cable and be brought to a complete stop. If not, the barriers would do the job. When planes were being taken aboard, the arresting gear men, also dressed in green, operated the cables from their place on the catwalk. On the port side on the very edge above the fantail was where the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) stood with two large paddles, threaded with bright ribbons, one for each hand. It was his job to guide the plane in for landing. He would move his paddles to tell the pilot the angle of his plane. If the plane was level, the LSO moved his paddles sharply down telling the pilot he is in position to land. If not, the pilot is waved off and has to go around and try again. The pilot of the plane trusts the LSO's signals because he is also a pilot. If the plane comes too close to him he can dive to a canvas platform and get out of the way.

An aircraft carrier is a floating city with a barber shop, dentist, doctors, ship's store stocked with wristwatches, razors, zippo lighters, candy, and cartons of cigarettes, a buck a carton. The ship is so large that below decks there are arrows on the bulkhead to tell you that you are either going forward or aft. The galley and large mess hall for the crew was located below decks, as well as sleeping compartments for crew. The quarters for the officers was known as "officer's country." The crew of my ship would have numbered 2000, whereas today the larger carriers carry twice as many men.

I was discharged in 1959, and requested permission to go ashore forever. I was a member of the last crew, as it was soon headed to Philadelphia to be scrapped.
History and literature have often shown, that a time spent at sea helped to make a man. And so it was with me.
   Aloha
   Grant

   
     

Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Sport of Kings


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         The Sport of Kings
Polo the sport of kings originated in Persia some 2000 years ago, and later spread to India and the rest of the world. The sport evolved as a training aid for mounted calvary. Polo revealed  the character of the players and their courage.  Players mounted on horses with mallets fought for a small ball which would lead to a victory goal at the end of the playing field.

Polo today remains pretty much as it always had. Trained horses,riders with a mallet chasing a small boll towards a goal. But remember I called this the "Sport of Kings?"
This year the Oak Brook Polo Club in Oak Brook, Illinois, traveled to Deli India to play polo, and visited many sites including the Taj Mahal. Also, The Polo Gold Cup series was played this year in Dubai at the Habtoor Polo Resort and Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

But polo is also played and enjoyed by people of more modest means. Polo is played here in Hawaii at two polo clubs. And I should note that the famous WWII General George Patton played polo here.

The Honolulu Polo Club is located at Waimanalo, one of the most beautiful spots on the island of Oahu. But this was not always so. Club President Allen Hoe told me that years ago if a car was stolen, it could often be found stripped and burned on what later became the polo playing field. The land is leased from the State of Hawaii as it is located on a flood plane and not considered valuable.

The Honolulu Polo Club boasts a covered seating area for members, and seating below for visitors. A converted shipping container houses tools,generator,and a restroom for women.There is also a tall booth reached by stairs for the public sound system. Across the field are the stables for the many horses.

Club President Allen Hoe was recently honored in the June 2017 edition of Players Edition of "Polo" magazine. The U.S. Polo Association presented the George S. Patton Jr. award to Allen Hoe in appreciation of his efforts to create opportunities for military members and their families to become involved in the sport of polo.

A combat medic in  the Vietnam War he is the recipient of the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Medics Badge. He is a lawyer, judge, and one of the founders of the Honolulu Polo Club. He has been training solders of the 25th Infantry Division in the rudiments of horsemanship and polo at famous Schofield Barracks. For all his work with veterans, the Department of the Army made him a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army, which carries a three-star rank. And so the Honolulu Polo Club is being well led.    The gates at the Honolulu Polo Club open at 1/pm and the match begins at 3pm. Entry fee is only $5.00 but the fee is waved for military families and members.

When the British ruled India, the game of polo was divided into a  period of play called a  "chukka." A normal game consists of four chukkers, although sometimes five or even six are not unusual. Each chukker lasts just seven minutes, and a horn blasts warning that only 30 seconds of play remain until the sound of a bell ends play. This is so civilized. While the riders leave the field and mount fresh horses there is time to eat, drink and gossip.                                                                

A beautiful Sunday afternoon well spent with polo and friends, is something not to be missed when you are visiting Hawaii during the polo season.
                                                  Aloha
     Grant                                      

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Witch Doctor


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           Witch Doctor
I met Neal last night. He was stopping here on his way to Seattle, where he hopes to sell his 48 foot sailboat. He said that he was from South Africa, but that he lived in Sidney Australia. He had just returned from spending several days in Tahiti and Bora Bora. While talking with him he seemed pleased that I knew so very much about South Africa. We talked about the Transvaal and the Boer War. I asked him to tell me a story about South Africa.

He said that the factory where he worked  employed members of the Zulu tribe. One day a very delicate precision instrument was stolen. It was used to measure the thickness of paint. In order to have it returned he went to see the local witch doctor.

He stated the problem of the theft and ask what he could to about it. The witch doctor said that for 50 Rand (currency) he could have it returned in one month. And the instrument would be returned for 100 Rand in one week. But if he wanted it returned in one day it would cost 150 Rand. Neal needed the instrument and agreed to pay the 150 Rand.

The following day the Witch doctor arrived dressed in all of his fancy dress. He asked that all the workers be brought together. He then began to dance around,looking at each man and throwing some powder about. Then he departed and the men went back to work. The following morning behind a box on Neal's desk was the missing instrument.

     Aloha
     Grant

Down and Dirty


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          Down and Dirty
When I was a boy we played a game called "Marbles." We didn't invent the game, and I am sure that some sort of a game played by boys in the dirt with marbles, has been played for centuries,if not thousands of years.

All the equipment we needed was a stick, a smooth patch of dirt, and a bag of marbles. Using the stick a circle was drawn in the dirt, and each boy would put an equal number of marbles deep inside the circle. The object of the game was to hit the marbles out of the the circle and  became the property of the shooter. Each boy had a large size marble or boulder which was his shooter. The boy whose turn it was, kneeled in the dirt and took aim. The shooter was driven by the thumb of your hand and released by the index finger. Just like releasing a spring. It was a game that even poor boys could play.

I doubt that this game is played by boys today. Technology sometimes kills even simple fun. I record this game so that it will be remembered, and not lost to the dust of history.

     Aloha
     Grant

Friday, June 30, 2017

Navajo Notes


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            Navajo Notes
The Navajo Nation Police Department patrols approximately 27,000 square miles of the Navajo Nation. The police responds to over 200,000 calls for service and conducts over 25,000 arrests every year. This is a huge amount of work for approximately 200 officers on patrol duty.
The Navajo Nation's Department of Corrections is in need of 75 facilities. The average daily population is roughly 199 individuals per day at the six facilities.
Major crimes like murder is handled by the F.B.I. "Navajo Times" Thursday,April27, 2017.
Much of what I know about the Navajo people  has come from the detective novels of Tony Hillerman, which all take place on the reservation.

The Navajo Nation is about the size of West Virginia. It is located primarily in Arizona, but also extends into Utah and in  New Mexico. In addition there is much Navajo country in New Mexico which is outside the nation.

The Navajo call themselves "Dine"-"The People." They have been living there for more than four hundred years. But no discussion of the Navajo would be complete without telling of the terrible trials they were forced to endure.

In 1863 the U.S. Army under the command of Colonel Kit Carson, began a systematic campaign of destroying all means of livelihood of the Navaho. Thousands of sheep and livestock were slaughtered, and crops burned.

The winter of 1863 and faced with starvation, thousands of Navajo surrendered to a forced removal policy known as the "Long Walk."  More than 9,000 Navajo walked more than 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to a reservation called Bosque Redondo. In 1868 and after many hardships, the Navajo under treaty were allowed to return to their homelands.      

The focus of the Navajo economy, culture and weaving is the the Churro breed of sheep. This breed was the first breed of domesticated sheep imported by the Spanish explorers. During the 1930s and 1940s the federal government called for the reduction of the sheep on Navajo land.Tens of thousands of sheep were killed. By the 1970s fewer than 450 Churro sheep were left. Today there are organizations that promote the restoration and development of the Churro sheep. The wool is highly valued by hand spinners and weavers.

The Navajo Nation is divided into sections like townships, called chapters. Each chapter hosts a clan group, often a house called a hogan surrounded by house trailers. These clusters are to be found all across the wide space of the Nation.

There is a story of how a group of white men were trying to build a Navajo hogan but they were undecided  how many sides the building  would require. A Navajo man seated nearby watching them,left and returned giving them a stop sign!

One important story concerning the Navajo is the newly de-classified role played by  Navajo code talkers in the Pacific during World War II. All six U.S. Marine Divisions used Navajo speaking code talkers which the Japanese were unable to break. The town of Kayenta on the reservation has a small museum located in a fast food restaurant run by the son of one of the famous code talkers.

The reservation has its share of problems,   alcoholism, domestic abuse, and unemployment. And to make matters worse hills of tailings from uranium mines  dot some of the landscape. Children playing in these tailings debris are poisoned. The Federal Government built a hospital and surrounding outbuildings only to find out that the well water was poisoned by uranium. The hospital remains empty.

One source of income for the Navajo has been a coal mine. Coals sent by rail to Laughlin, Nevada where several casinos are located. But now with the emphasis on cleaner forms of energy such as solar and natural gas, I wonder what will happen to this source of income, and the employment of a thousand miners.

In reading the novels of Tony Hillman, there is frequent mention of Navajo tacos.A Navajo taco is nothing like its cousin. The  Navajo taco is only made from Blue Bird flour grown in Colorado. The flour provides greater elasticity, which creates a high rim around the taco. The taco is then covered with the usual fixings. A Navajo taco is the size of a dinner plate and will feed two people easily.

The Navajo are famous for their hand loomed wool blankets, and beautiful silver jewelry. Recordings of Navajo flute music are hauntingly beautiful. I have a hand-crafted cedar flute and a song book. The flute is called a"Love Flute," as young men play the flute when courting. I find that there is a steep learning curve.

As I write these sentences the television reports that temperatures in the Southwest are 117 to 120 degrees. I pity the Navajo, without even a tree for shade.

    Aloha
    Grant    

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

The Goldwater Rule


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         The Goldwater Rule
The year 1964 was a big one for me. I had just graduated from the University of Michigan, and landed my first teaching job. I was assigned to teach American government and history to 47 senior students. This was also a presidential election year. The incumbent President Johnson who had been J.F.Kennedy's Vice President, was being challenged by the Republican  Senator Barry Goldwater.

The election took place on Tuesday November 3. I passed out an outline map of the U.S. and urged students to fill in each state as  soon as the results were known.

I should not have even bothered, as this election is the most lop-sided election in history. Johnson received 90.3 percent of the popular vote and Goldwater 9.7 percent.
Johnson carried 44 of the 50 states.

In addition to Goldwater's extreme conservative views, there was another factor which might have helped to cause him defeat. That year, "Fact" magazine published a petition signed by more than a thousand psychiatrists declaring that Goldwater was "psychologically unfit" to be President. Goldwater won a libel suit against the magazine.

This leads us to the erratic behavior of President Trump. Serious questions have been raised about his mental health and his control of nuclear weapons. We will just have to wait and see if this "Goldwater rule will be ignored. For more information see The New Yorker magazine May 22, 2017.

Also, I want to mention that two of my senior students that year, Vince Larocca and Bob Perry, following graduation enlisted in the Army, and were later killed in Vietnam.

    Aloha
    Grant

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Buck v. Bell


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             Buck v. Bell

The U.S. Supreme Court has sometimes made some very bad rulings. Readers may remember for instance Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Korematsu v. United States, as prime examples. But one terrible ruling which is seldom mentioned is Buck v. Bell.

When Charles Darwin wrote about evolution and the survival of the fittest, he had no notion of what would follow. The question asked was "If this was true in the animal kingdom,must it also be true of humans as well?"The science of human improvement developed into an intellectual movement called "eugenics" from the Greek "eu" for "good" and "genes" for born. The science for improving stock.

The eugenics movement found support from the medical profession, lawyers, and journalists. Women supported the movement.
Magazines carried stories about eugenics. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald even wrote a playful song about eugenics.

All of this took place as the Immigration Act of 1924 favored immigrants from Northern Europe and greatly reduced the number of Jews and Italians. The fear was that they would dilute our superior gene pool.

Some state institutions were already sterilizing inmates, but the State of Virginia hesitated until sterilization was proven to be lawful. A test case was needed. For the sake of brevity here, the lower courts rulings led to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The poor unlucky person for this test case was Carrie Buck, a seventeen year old girl who had born a child out of wedlock. She had been raped by the nephew of the couple she had worked for. They wanted her out of the way and in an institution where her mother was, being judged as "feeble minded." Carrie was judged a a moron and as such was placed in the same institution for epileptics and feeble-minded. Where her mother was located. Evidence of her grades in school were average and that she was promoted every year until the sixth grade when she became employed in housework. These facts never were heard in court.

Room does not permit me to relate all the details of the case but I will have to say something about the Supreme Court at that time. The Chief Justice was William Howard Taft, who had once served as President. Another well-known justice was Louis Bandeis,but the one outstanding member of the court was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Homes was a Boston Brahmin-a member of the most rarefied social caste. His father father was a doctor and had written the famous poem "Old Ironsides," credited to saving the USS Constitution from being scrapped. Holmes attended Harvard, and through family connections, including Teddy Roosevelt, was appointed to the Supreme Court.

Holmes was admired for his wisdom and his service during the Civil War. Praise was showered upon him. But his public persona was far different from his private one.

Holmes's support for eugenics was notable for the extremity of his views. He was not a supporter of causes. He was indifferent to laws concerning child labor, antitrust laws, and other progressive goals.

As Wold War I approached Holmes supported the war, and wrote the majority opinion, upholding the ten year conviction of E  gene V. Debs, a socialist leader for giving an antiwar, anti draft speech.

Holmes wrote the majority opinion for the court declaring that Carrie Buck should be sterilized-and that "three generations of imbeciles are enough." The one dissent to the ruling came from Pierce Butler, and he wrote no dissenting opinion.

Virginia had won the case. Carrie was sterilized, as were others. She was released from the colony, later was twice married and found that she could not conceive and discovered what she thought was for an appendix operation. Her later life was one of hardship, but people who knew her said that she was highly intelligent and loved reading the daily paper, and doing crossword puzzles.

The effect of the court's ruling was felt beyond the United States. Sweden,Norway, Iceland,Estonia, and of course Germany. Following the defeat of the Nazis, and the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the defense cited Buck v, Bell arguing that the sterilizing was proper. Estimates are that Nazi leaders sterilized 375,000 people.    

Buck v. Bell is little remembered today and has never been over-turned. Of all the cases I learned about in college, this was never discussed. And it is one of the great miscarriages of justice. The pendulum has swung against eugenic sterilization, but will it swing back?

I owe a huge debt to Adam Cohen, author of
"Imbeciles, The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck." Penguin Books 2016.

     Aloha
     Grant

Nascar 101


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           NASCAR 101
I never paid much attention to NASCAR races. I figured they were a bunch of Hillbillies dressed in overalls, chugging beer while being surrounded by pretty girls with low-cut blouses, watching cars go rapidly around a track.

The reality of NASCAR is much different. Teena and I listened as her cousin Don Collins explained this racing world to us. We were watching a race at Talladega,Alabama. The oval track he explained, is two and a -half long, and the race cars run at speeds of 195 to 212 miles an hour for a distance of 500 miles. Each car has a spotter located high in the grandstands connected to the driver by a radio. The spotters job is to tell the driver if the way to the left of the car is open or to the right, so that he can move forward. This is because the driver's head is only able to move slightly, and he is unable to see either right or left without his spotter.

The driver is enclosed in a cage of steel bars for protection, and steel panels on each sides of the car. Also, cool air is fed to the driver from behind his seat. As Don continued to explain, I began to wonder about getting the driver out of the car as the only entry and exit is through the window on the driver's side. This is so different than the Formula One cars where the driver sit upright and exposed.

Don told us that there are two flaps to the rear of the driver which like flaps on an airplane, help to prevent the car from turning over.

One other very interesting fact we learned   was that a piece of paper on the track and stuck to the air intake of the car must be removed, because if not, the engine will overheat and be ruined. Another driver on the same team will pull in front of the affected car and create a draft which will cause the paper to fly away.

In the course of the 500 mile race there are frequent pit stops for the car, not the driver. The pit crew in seven seconds change tires, pour in 20 gallons of fuel, and pull away one of the plastic windshields, revealing a clear one underneath. And away goes the car.

I must admit that the race can get boring at times, it is after all 500 miles on a two and-a-half mile track. But there are crashes. Don said that near the end of the race there are often crashes, some hitting the 15 degree wall, others spinning out of control, or flipping upside down. When that happens the race stops, as the cars with their drivers are removed. Then the race resumes. Pretty damn exciting.

Thanks to Don's teaching we now have a better understanding of what NASCAR is all about. As for me in order to become a fan I already have a pretty girl, all I need now is a cold beer.

     Aloha
     Grant

Friday, April 7, 2017

Three Came Home


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          Three Came Home
Sometime after World War II, I recall seeing a motion picture titled "Three Came Home." The film told the true story of Agnes, Harry Keith, and their two year-old son George who spent over three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. I was recently given a copy of the book published in 1947, from which the movie was made.

The author Agnes Newton Keith was from Hollywood California, and married Harry Keith, a British civil servant Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture of North Borneo. Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world, and is located southeast of the Malay Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. The island rich in timber,palm oil,rubber and minerals.

The Japanese captives included civil servants,civilians, priests, nuns, doctors, and others. They were soon taught to bow correctly to their captors. Feet together, bowing at a 15 degrees from the waist, and not rising until a count of five.

Mrs. Keith was well-known to her captors as the author of "The Land Below the Wind," in a Japanese translation, very much admired.  During her captivity she took notes on scraps of paper and hid them in tin cans under the barrack, in the latrine, stuffed inside her son's teddy bear, a false bottom of her son's chair.

The men and women were kept apart in separate barracks behind barbed wire. Their diet consisted of five tablespoons of rice,a cup of rice gruel, greens, and salt per day. The need for some protein was acute. Smuggling food obtained by bartering from those outside the camp was widely practiced. An egg was better than gold, rotting fish a luxury,and a banana a treasure. When the camp was liberated in 1945, she weighed only 80 pounds.

In addition to starvation,Mrs. Keith fought off a Japanese soldier who tried to rape her. When she reported the event, she refused to sign a confession that the event never took place. She was beaten, her arm pulled out of its socket and ribs broken.

The Japanese also made some of the prisoners to dress their best and appear in propaganda films.

In spite of starvation, dysentery, malaria,  and torture, Mrs.Keith went to great lengths to see that her son remained alive.

When the camp was liberated September 11,1945, the family was at last reunited. She wrote at the end of the book "I believe that:
While we have more than we need on the continent, and others die for want of it, there can be no lasting peace.
When we work as hard in peacetime to make this world decent to live in, as in wartime we work to kill, the world will be decent, and the causes for which men fight will be gone. "

     Aloha
     Grant

Screeching In


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           Screeching In
If you are old enough to be reading this, you must remember as we all do, what took place on September 11,2001. The tragedy unfolded on television and in newspapers for all to see. But what was not seen or talked about was the rerouting of thirty-eight jets to Gander, Newfoundland stranding seven thousand passengers for up to five days.

Gander had been a refueling stop in the days before long-range jet travel. When the airport opened in 1938, it was one of the largest in the world. The town had less than a population of thirteen thousand,and five hundred hotel rooms.

The town's mayor Claude Elliot declared a state of emergency. Elementary schools housed the newcomers. the Salvation Army and the Red Cross made lunches. The hockey rink became a walk-in refrigerator. They ran out of underwear and so more came from St. John's two hundred and seven miles away. People on the planes came from ninety-five countries. Kosher meals were required, and a place for Muslim passengers to pray. The town's vet took care of animals carried on the planes.

The Royal Canadian Legion Hall initiated the passengers as honorary Newfoundlanders in a ritual named "screeching in." Visitors were made to wear yellow sou'westers, eat hard bread and pickled bologna, kiss a cod on the lips, then drink the local rum, called screech, while on-lookers banged an "ugly stick" covered in bottle-beer caps. the mayor recorded that they "began with seven-thousand strangers and finished with seven-thousand family members."

This event is now a new Broadway musical, "Come from Away." The information for this article is from the New Yorker magazine March 27, 2017 written by Michael Schulman.

    Aloha
    Grant

On the Road with Harry


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         On the Road With Harry
When President Franklin Roosevelt died while in office, he left some mighty large shoes to fill. His Vice-President Harry Truman was up to the job. While he was in office he had to decide to use the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to end WWII. He saw to it that our armed forces became integrated. He fired the popular hero General MacArthur for wanting to carry the Korean War into mainland China. And he stood up to Stalin and the Russians.

All of the above is well known, but few Americans realized that when Harry left office,there was no fanfare, no Secret Service protection, office staff, and above all,no pension. (This was later changed.) He and his wife Bess simply jumped into their car and drove to their home in Independence. Missouri. He was the last president to return quietly to public life.

Today ex-presidents get retirement packages  that can be worth more than a million dollars a year. Harry was broke. He had taken out a loan from a Washington bank in order to make ends meet. When he took office his salary was seventy-five-thousand dollars a year, and he had to pay for all White House expenses. But before leaving office he had made a deal with Doubleday Publishers for an advance of six hundred thousand dollars on his memoirs, a huge sum in 1953, when the average worker barely made more than four thousand dollars a year. But there was a catch. The advance would be taxed as income at a rate of 67 per-cent. He said later that he gained just thirty-seven thousand dollars.

Still, Harry had enough money to take Bess on a vacation to Hawaii, and to buy a new car. His choice was a Chrysler New Yorker, and it was offered to him for free, but he chose to pay for it himself as a private citizen. Nobody knows what the car cost. It was a black four-door sedan with chrome wire wheels and whitewall tires.

 Harry planned to take a road trip from Independence to New York city. Harry packed eleven suitcases, and off they went.

Harry loved to drive fast, but his wife Bess forced him to drive at a top speed of 55mph. One time Harry was driving in the left lane of the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a string of car behind him. A state trooper ordered him to turn off the road and when he bent down to look inside he got a shock, it was Harry Truman and his wife. The trooper thought to himself "Shit, what was I gonna do now?"

Harry and Bess stopped at hotels and diners where he had eaten when he was a member of the U.S. Senate. Sometimes he was recognized and forced to pose for pictures.  He and Bess went unnoticed. They were simply having a great time.

The above information is taken from a great book "Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure," by Matthew Algeo, published in 2009 by Chicago Review Press. Mr. Algeo and his wife traced Harry's trip, staying where he had stayed, and eating in diners where Harry and Bess had eaten. It is a really fun ride for the reader.

I feel that I must insert here that while Harry was buying his Chrysler New Yorker in 1953, my father bought a new Chevrolet Bel-Air. As I was a teen driver, I was very careful with his new car. I also have a connection with Harry Truman.

Truman was known as a letter writer, and that he answered every letter sent to him. I was teaching a high school government class of 47 students, and I wrote a letter to him and he replied. He wished me well on my new career. I no longer have the letter, as one of my daughters has it.

     Aloha
     Grant
   

Monday, March 6, 2017

Good Eating


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            Good Eating

The Sunday New York Times (February 26, 2017) carried a story I thought you readers of my blog would enjoy. "Cannilbalism, A Perfectly Natural History," by Bill Schutt.

His research has revealed that people have long been eating other people. And it  is often whom you choose to eat.

I am sure that some of you remember the story of the ill-fated Donner party, snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains for five months in 1846. And after eating the family dogs,hides and twigs,resorted to cannibalism.

In more recent times there was the case of the soccer team whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains, and they too were forced to cannibalism in order to survive.

The author who is a biologist, drew upon ancient texts,interviews with anthropologists, and scholarly journals to provide him with fact that cannibalism has long been practiced and accepted.

In China during the Yuan or Mongol dynasty (1271-1368), royalty and upper-class citizens dined on people. So much so that the various methods of preparing human flesh-baking, roasting, broiling and smoke drying are careful noted. Children were considered the tastiest, followed by women and men.

Here in Hawaii it is a  well-known fact that the English Captain Cook was killed and eaten by the Hawaiians. The event took place on Kealakekua Bay on February 14, 1779, on the Big Island of Hawaii. A parcel was returned to his ship" Resolution," contain  a portion of partly burned flesh from one of Cook's hips.

Now skipping many years, back to China again during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960's, when the practice was widespread.

Hawaiians today no longer eat people, and the practice of cremation followed by scattering of ashes in the sea, is much more common.
 
     Aloha
     Grant  

Friday, February 10, 2017

Zero


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                Zero
One of the little-known stories about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is the following.

A Zero fighter plane piloted by Naval Airman 1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi, crash landed on the island of Niihau. He had been told that in case of an emergency, one of the attack submarines was assigned to rescue downed pilots. It  never arrived.

He had already shot down an American plane,  and he had six holes in his plane and was leaking gas.

The island he chose to land on is privately owned by the Robinson family. An ancestor had purchased the island in 1863,from King Kamehameha IV for $10,000 in gold.The island is eighteen miles long and six miles wide.   Sheep and cattle had been brought to the island from New Zealand. At the time of purchase there were only 600 natives on the island. None of whom knew English. The Robinson family guarded their fief from the rest of the Hawaiian Islands then, and do so to this day. The only way to visit the island is by invitation only. All the tourists know about the island is that it is private, and that beautiful very tiny expensive shell leis come from Niihau.

Nishikaichi's plane struck a fence and landed on its nose. He was pulled from the plane by Howard Kaleohano, who  managed the island, as the Robinson family had moved to the nearby island of Kauai. The pilot was given food, and the inhabitants learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese.

Another person in the story is Yoshio Harada, whose family had been brought to the island keep bees. The story now becomes too complicated to cite here, but simply put, Harada and the pilot as Japanese, and thinking that the Japanese would invade, began to terrorize the natives. Another important figure enters the picture. He is Ben Kanahele. When the pilot pulled his pistol from his boot and fired three times at Ben, and though wounded, Ben picked the pilot up and dashed him against a stone wall. The pilot was dazed, Ben's wife beat in his head with a rock, and Ben drew his hunting knife, and cut Ishikaichi's throat. Harada, seeing that all was lost, shot himself in the stomach. And so ended the affair which had begun when the Zero landed.

To make a long story short, the bodies were later removed from their graves and cremated. It was some time before the pilot's fate was known. In Japan a memorial in his name had been erected. His parents later learned of his fate. Ben Kanahele survived his wounds, and received two citations by President  Roosevelt.

The national press picked up the story and was printed in Reader's Digest and a book  "Remember Pearl Harbor" by Blake Clark. Life magazine also wrote the story but it remained unpublished as the war ran on. There was also a song "They Couldn't Take Niihau Nohow."

What I have written here is a poor account of what happend on the island. There is so much more to the story. The information I used is from the excellent book "The Niihau Incident" by Allan Beekman.

     Aloha
     Grant

Some Odds and Ends

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          Some Odds and Ends
Randy, who has been known to tip a few, until he was at last fired from his job with the airline, where he worked as a mechanic. He is happy, now as he can draw Social Security and his pension. And nothing is required of him.

But he was not always a drinker. Take for instance the following.

Randy was was wearing a coat and tie while seated in the tourist class of a plane waiting to take-off. Seated next to him was a woman who was upset as the plane had failed to take off as promised. The plane's door opened and two men made their way up to the pilot of the plane. Some discussion took place and they left, followed by Randy. The woman passenger looked out the window to see Randy standing on the wing of the plane with a a dipstick in his hand measuring the gas in the wing. When he came back, the woman said, "I just asked you what was wrong with the plane, not fix it!"

Gene, who had been a fighter pilot and later flew for Pan American Airlines, was flying to a reunion of his fighter squadron. Seated next to him was a good-looking woman with a child. She noticed the insignia on his hat, and asked if he was going to a reunion. He replied that he was. She then said that she was also a fighter pilot, flying F15 fighter jets. She was returning from maternity leave. She told him that in war games she was the aggressor, and that visiting Asian pilots, when learning that they had been shot down by a woman, became very upset.

     Aloha
     Grant

Some Odds and Ends

      More Letters From Paradise
          Some Odds and Ends
Randy, who has been known to tip a few, until he was at last fired from his job with the airline, where he worked as a mechanic. He is happy, now as he can draw Social Security and his pension. And nothing is required of him.

But he was not always a drinker. Take for instance the following.

Randy was was wearing a coat and tie while seated in the tourist class of a plane waiting to take-off. Seated next to him was a woman who was upset as the plane had failed to take off as promised. The plane's door opened and two men made their way up to the pilot of the plane. Some discussion took place and they left, followed by Randy. The woman passenger looked out the window to see Randy standing on the wing of the plane with a a dipstick in his hand measuring the gas in the wing. When he came back, the woman said, "I just asked you what was wrong with the plane, not fix it!"

Gene, who had been a fighter pilot and later flew for Pan American Airlines, was flying to a reunion of his fighter squadron. Seated next to him was a good-looking woman with a child. She noticed the insignia on his hat, and asked if he was going to a reunion. He replied that he was. She then said that she was also a fighter pilot, flying F15 fighter jets. She was returning from maternity leave. She told him that in war games she was the aggressor, and that visiting Asian pilots, when learning that they had been shot down by a woman, became very upset.

     Aloha
     Grant

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Dear Mr. President


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          Dear Mr. President
The President of the United States receives a ton of letters each day. It all began when Washington received just five letters a day, and he answered them all. And as time went on, later Presidents began to receive more and more letters. When McKinley became President he was being sent one hundred letters a day. It was just too much. And so the mailroom was born.

Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to Americans on his radio "Fireside Chats" during the Great Depression. He urged people to write to him with their troubles. A half-million letters arrived the first week after his talk. The White House mail room became a fire hazard.

The Office of Presidential Correspondence called "O.P.C." by those who work there.
It consists of 50 staff members,36 interns and a rotating roster of 300 volunteers to keep up with about 10,000 letters and messages every day.

In the White House mailroom 10 young well-dressed young men and women interns would reach into the pile of letters and begin to read. Choosing which letters made it to President Obama. When President Obama came into office he wanted to read his mail. He said he would like to read 10 letters a day. These final 10 letters were put in a purple folder and added to the back of the briefing book he took with him to the residence on the second floor of the White House each night. He liked to read them after dinner. "Back from the OVAL" was what the stamp said on the letters Obama had read. They were returned in batches to O.P.C., and most had some kind of notation in the margins. Some letters he stewed over. Some letters he answered with his own hand.

Nixon refused to read anything bad said about him. Reagan answered dozens of letters on weekends. He enjoyed reading letters from kids. Clinton wanted to see a representative stack every few weeks. George W. Bush liked to get a pile of 10 already-answered letters on occasion.The question now is, what will President Trump do about the White House mail?
I am deeply in debt to Jeanne Marie Laskas  for her wonderful article "The Mailroom," in the New York times Magazine, January 22,2017

      Aloha
      Grant

Circus Era Ends


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              Circus Era Ends
This Spring will see the end of an era, with the closing of Ringling Brothers Circus. For 146 years, millions of Americans thrilled to the events of this circus, but times change and people's tastes change. In its heyday wire walkers, elephants, trapeze artists, were unique forms of entertainment. But not so today. Also, there are critics of animal treatment and housing.

The closing of the circus will put five hundred people out of work, and will require housing for them. Also, homes have to be found for all the animals. There is already a retirement home in Florida for the elephants. But what about the railroad cars that used to occupy over a mile of track? Homes on wheels, animal pens, not to mention foodstuffs for both people and animals. Maybe some European circus will buy these specialized cars.

I remember going to the Ringling Brothers
Circus when I was a kid living in Texas. The huge tent with something going on in  each of the three rings at the same time.It's a good memory.

There also were small carnivals to be found in the 1950's. One was located outside of my town for a week. Kids rushed to help unroll the heavy canvas tent and do other jobs in hopes of getting a free ticket. The carnival boss  also employed a few high school kids to work ticket booths. My job was at the ride called the "Loop a Plane." It consisted of a tall tower with an arm and a cab at each end,that would whirl the riders around  vertical at high speed. When there were no customers, a search of the area under the ride would often turn up a number of coins lost by riders.

One of the carnival workers used to hide his whiskey bottle in my booth, and he warned me to watch out for "spotters," men who would tell the boss. He taught me a couple of tricks.  First, when the customer, handed him his ticket he would make like he was tearing the ticket up and then return it to me to be resold. I don't remember if I participated in this activity or not. But I don't think I did. One other thing I learned was to slide the customer's change just slightly back under the booth's thick wood window which blocked the customer"s view of some coins.

Many years ago I read in a part of a book by John Steinbeck, in which  the character is also taught the same tricks I was taught. l

The era of the Ringling Brothers Circus is now history, and has been replaced by many small carnivals which travel across America. We have these carnivals even here in Hawaii.
    Aloha
    Grant

   

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Packers


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              Packers
I never played football in school, because of a heart condition. But, I always was at   every game. Later, at the University of Michigan, there were some great football games. And now living here in Hawaii, due to the time difference,we can watch games at breakfast, and have the rest of the day to do other things. But, don't get me wrong,we watch only important games. I am not a fanatic, and neither is my wife. This brings me to some football fanatics, the Green Bay Packers.

If you are a football fanatic, you may want to skip all the following information about the Green Bay Packers. You probably know about all this anyway. But for people who are only mildly interested in football, you will find this information very interesting.

The Packers were founded in 1919. Curly Lambeau, an outstanding player for Notre Dame, and George W. Calhoun, the sports editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, decided to form a football team. Lambda worked as a shipping clerk at the Indian Packing Company-hence the name of the new team. The Packers won ten games that first year. But it was difficult to find funds to keep the team solvent. In the end, aid came from stock sales, the first stock sale came in 1923. Shares were sold for $5.00 each, and required shareholders to buy six season tickets in order to see the bleachers filled.

Today the Packers are the only professional sports team in the United States that is owned by shareholders-363,948 of them representing 5,020,523 shares. I met a woman who was able to buy a single share for her husband's Christmas gift. It cost $250.  There are no dividends for shares, only bragging rights and a framed certificate proving that he is one of the team's 363,948 owners.

The only way to get tickets to a game at Lambeau Field is to inherit them. Tickets could not be transferred to anybody outside the ticket holder's immediate family. Nowadays, however, you can put your name on a waiting list-which currently numbers more than 81,000. The wait to get tickets is estimated to be around thirty years. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote that the wait would be more like 955 years. Some couples, on having a baby, put the child's name on the list.

A couple of other facts about the Packers. When  a Packer scores a touchdown, it is expected that he will jump into the stands.  In this way, the leap is a symbolic embrace of the team with the crowd. Also, the Packer fans travel, and are to be found everywhere. We have them here in Honolulu at Snapper's bar, which is always filled to over-flowing for a Packer game.

All of the information for this brief story of the Packers came from a most wonderful essay by Austin Smith, in Harper's magazine.

     Aloha
     Grant

Scooter People


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            Scooter People

The Nevada desert on a December night was very cold, and silent. But here and there one could see small groups of people making their way to the blazing lights of a casino. The same way moths seek the light of a candle. Some arrive from nearby Arizona and California, where gambling is illegal.
Were they coming to the casino because they were tired of watching t.v., reading, or knitting? Or more likely,the promise of riches. We may never know for sure, but I suspect the latter motive.

Inside the casino I found something very disturbing. There were a number of very heavy people making their way through the crowds of people on their scooters. They seemed to me, to be somehow out of place. I feel sorry for anyone who has lost the movement of their legs, and are confined to a wheelchair. But, why should their disability prevent them from having some entertainment?

Their scooters made it so that they could reach and operate slot machines. I thought  that crap tables, black jack, and  other games of chance were out of their reach.

However,sometime later my pity for those heavy people, bound to their scooters evaporated. I saw a row of scooters parked outside a lounge, while their owners were inside stuffing their faces with free food and drink. I turned away in disgust. These scooter people were not as infirm as they pretended to be. But, I may be wrong, who knows?

     Aloha
     Grant