Showing posts with label Conscription. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conscription. Show all posts

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Monday, January 28, 1924. Plaintiff Shoeless Joe Jackson, Petition for release, Teapot fallout, Federals seek to retake Vera Cruz, Lenin boxed and warehoused, Far Right Figure gives extreme speech about election, the last King of Sine

Shoeless Joe Jackson's suit against the Chicago White Sox for back pay went to trial on this day in 1924.  The trial was held in Milwaukee.

A delegation headed by Illinois Sen. William B. McKinley and former servicemen present spooled petition to Otto Wiedfeldt, the German Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. to release Hooven Griffis.


Hooven Griffis?

Yes, he was part of a party of men that had sought to kidnap Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, notorious WWI slacker, from a hotel in Germany, take him to Paris and turn him over to authorities so he could be court-martialed for desertion.

The party was caught.



The headlines all speak for themselves.

Mussolini addressed 10,000 Blackshirts in the Palazzo Venezia predicting a complete election victory and stating that they were "ready to kill or die".

Vanity Fair, December 1923.

Hmmm. . . sort of a lot like what we're hearing now.


Mahecor Joof was crowned as the last King of Sine in Senegal, where he'd be allowed limited power until his death in 1969.

Monday, December 11, 2023

Saturday, December 11, 1943. Dawn of the drones.

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, head of OKW, ordered that V1 rocket attacks commence on London on January 15, 1944, a remarkable order in that the V1 was not yet in production.


The "buzz bomb" was a jet engined drone in modern terms and frankly a fairly brilliant, if imprecise, and therefore immoral, weapon.

In Italy, the US 5th Army offensive was grinding down ineffectively.

Sylvester and Tweety appeared in a new release:

The meaning of some things has changed over time.

Sinatra on Armed Forces Radio Network in 1944.

Frank Sinatra was classified as 4F in the draft ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") due to his perforated eardrum. Army records, however, reveal that Sinatra was actually rejected as "not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint" due this emotional instability, but this was kept private in that more gentle era as to not cause him public distress.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Friday, December 10, 1923. Fathers no longer get a conscription pass.


President Roosevelt ended the long-running debate on conscription of men who had been fathers prior to December 7, 1941. Their exemption was ended on this date, effective tomorrow.

Largely forgotten now, the topic of whether fathers could be conscripted was termed the "Father Crisis" and drew sharp views on both sides.  It was a topic of a bill called the "Wheeler Bill" which attempted to write the exemption into law.  The bill exempted fathers who had been fathers prior to December 7, 1941, as noted.  The military had been heavily opposed to the parental deferment, as had Secretary of War Henry Stimson.

Up until this date, fatherhood had been a Class III-A exemption.  The exemption would be reestablished on November 15, 1945, during the brief period of immediate post-war conscription that the US retained.

Exemptions for dependency and occupation had already been eliminated n April, save for agricultural employment, so some element of it remained. Another one that remained was for hardship and dependency.

While exempting for parenthood may seem inherently unfair, and perhaps is in someways, this was still an era in which men were the principal breadwinners and society was geared in all sorts of ways towards keeping individual responsibilities intact, rather than passing them off on the public.

At this point, only the Army took conscripts, which is also where they were needed.  Members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard were all volunteers.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Pandora,  December 10, 1943.


Tullio Tamburini, Chief of Police of the Italian Social Republic, exempted Italian Jews over 70 years old, or who were grievously ill, or who were married to a non Jew, from detention, allowing about 40% of the detained to temporarily return to their homes.

Tamburini would retain his office until April 1944, at which time he'd be dismissed by the Germans and then interned in Dachau in February 1945.  After the war, he immigrated to Argentina.

The Mediterranean Air Command was disbanded and reorganized as the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF) with Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder as Air Commander-in-Chief.

The British 8th Army crossed the Moro.

Torokina airstrip.

American aircraft arrive at Cape Torokina, Bougainville.

The Red Army took Znamenka.

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Thursday, December 2, 1943. The Mustard Gas release at Bari.

The Luftwaffe attacked the Italian port of Bari in a surprise raid, hitting the SS John Harvey which had a cargo that included 2,000 M-47A1 mustard gas aerial bombs being brought into Italy secretly in case the Germans started using chemical weapons.   The contents of the ship were known only to those on the ship, who were killed when it exploded.

83 people were killed due to the mustard gas release, and a further 545 injured.  The cause of the deaths and injury could not be determined until a British diver discovered a shell casing.

The treatment of the victims lead to a medical advance which, ironically, lead to the introduction of Mustine, the first drug developed that could fight cancer with minimal harm to healthy cells.  It was the effective birth of chemotherapy.

The incident was covered up at the time for obvious reasons.

The British announced the conscription of 10% of men from ages 18 to 25 for work in British coal mines.


Thursday, October 26, 2023

Tuesday, October 26, 1943. Extending Conscription.


President Roosevelt extended registration for the draft beyond the 48 states to the territories of Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Residents of those territories had until the end of the year to register.

Today in World War II History—October 26, 1943: US Thirteenth Air Force and US Navy bombers and fighters attack Japanese-occupied Bougainville in the Solomon Islands in advance of the Allied invasion.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.

They'd been arriving at various locations in the US this week as well.

The Polish Home Political Representation created Social Anticommunist Committee to combat activities of the Polish Workers (Communist) Party.

Today was the first flight of the Dornier Do 335 of which a mere 37 were built.

The U-420 was sunk by a Canadian B-24.  She was one of 15 ships lost on this day.

The 1943 Hurricane Season came to an end when the last storm dissipated.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Saturday, October 2, 1943. Japan extends conscription to university students.


The Japanese government ended the student deferment for conscription.

I am surprised to learn, frankly, that they had been deferred.

Japan had 45 universities and other additional institutions of higher education at the start of the war, and the number actually expanded during it.  The university system itself only extended back to 1877, to this was quite an expansion over a short period of time.

The Second Battle of Smolensk ended in a victory for the Red Army.

The Soviets gave Romanian POWs the choice of joining a Soviet formed Romanian division or remaining POWs.

Sweden issued a proclamation welcoming Danish refugees.  Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:

Today in World War II History—October 2, 1943: During the night of Oct. 1-2, the Nazis arrest Danish Jews, but most are in hiding, and only 284 are arrested.

The German governor of Poland Hans Frank created a court staffed by the Gestapo, which was authorized to carry out sentences immediately.  

The Australians took Finschafen, New Guinea.

The U.S. 6th Corps took Benevento, Italy.  The British 78th Division crossed the Biferno.  British commandos occupied Termoli.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Monday, September 20, 1943. Sort of airborne at Kaiapit, Holocaust expands into Belgium, Gold moved, Midget submarines deployed against the Tirpitz, Coast stand down, Consript the dads.

The Battle of Kaiapit in the  Markham and Ramu Valley – Finisterre Range Campaign was fought between the Japanese and Australian armies.


The battle saw the Australian 2/6th Independent Company flown into the Markham Valley by the United States Army Air Force, which then attacked the village the prior day.  The village was reinforced by the Japanese, unbeknownst to the Australians, who then held out against strong counter-attacks against a more numerous foe, allowing the Australian 7th Division to be flown into the upper Markham Valley.

The entire Allied strategy in the battles provided an interesting example of the use of air power for transport, making the units types of airborne units, while neither paratroopers nor glider infantry were deployed.  Insertion by C-47 is something that the US Army had experimented with prior to the US entering the war, briefly considering creating units that would fly in, and land, and then go into combat.  This was abandoned before the war, but it's exactly what occured here.

American forces on Sagekarasa in the Solomons discover that the Japanese forces have evacuated the island.  The Japanese were proving adept at withdrawing from locations undetected.

Sarah Sundin notes on her blog that the U.S. 5th Army and the British 8th Army linked in Italy on this day.

General Marshal and Admiral King testify in front of a Senate Committee that failing to conscript fathers of families stood to prolong the war.

Germany began the mass deportation of Belgian Jews to Auschwitz. 

The Germans demanded that Italy's gold reserves be placed in German custody in Milan.

Crew of the midget submarine X-5. All were killed by counter fire from the Tirpitz during the raid when their vessel was hit and sank.

Six Commonwealth midget submarines, of which five were lost, raided the German Kriegsmarine in Norway, damaging the Tirpitz.  The raid, Operation Source, was heroic, but of debatable utility given the heavy loss of life.

The crews were made up of members of the Australian, New Zealand and British navies.

The first flight of the De Havilland Vampire took place.


The fighters were ordered into production in 1944 with the first deliveries coming in April 1945, too late to be used during it.  It would go on to be a successful post-war British fighter, but was already obsolete by the early 1950s.

Sarah Sundin notes that the U.S. stood down its coast observation posts, the threat of invasion having ceased.

 USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), September 20, 1943.

Friday, August 18, 2023

Wednesday, August 18, 1943. Air Space.


President Roosevelt, via Executive Order, revoked deferments for striking defense plant workers.

The RAF hit Peenemünde with three waves of bombers in Operation Hydra.  Damage was so extensive that Luftwaffe General Jeschonnek, charged with defense of the Reich's airspace and well ware of his failings in that regard, and further having an inwardly timid personalty masked by a harden affectation, killed himself the following day, leaving a note that stated; „Mit dem Reichsmarschall kann ich nicht mehr zusammenarbeiten. Es lebe der Führer!“ ("I can no longer work together with the Reichsmarschall. Long live the Führer!").  He left a further note excluding Ulrich Dieseing and Bernd von Brauchitsche from his funeral.  A memorandum he left called upon Hitler to change leadership in the Luftwaffe, but was confiscated by Göring.

Ultimately, in some way, Jeschonnek was a victim of his personality, knowing internally that the air war was lost, but lacking the will to do something about it.

Sarah Sundin noted Jeschonnek's fate on her blog, and also noted the following:

Today in World War II History—August 18, 1943: Army Air Force barrage balloon battalions are inactivated in the US. Betty Smith’s bestselling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published.

The U.S. Navy bombarded Palmi and Gioai Taura in Italy.

The Allies prevailed in the Battle of Mount Tambu.

46,000 mostly Jewish Greeks arrived at Auschwitz.

Monday, August 14, 2023

Saturday, August 14, 1943. Rome declared an open city.

Rome was declared an open city by the Italian government.  The Italian government offered to remove its defenses under the supervision of the Allies. This followed the second major bombing strike on the city.

Allied troops had not even touched foot yet on the Italian mainland.  Suffice it to say, this made it clear that Italy would exit the war soon.

On Sicily, the Allies captured Rondazzo.

The U.S. Army Air Force raided Borneo with B-24s that were based in Australia, making a record 2,500 bombing run.  The target was oil reserves at Balikpapan.

U.S. aviation insignia changed again, albeit slightly.

By NiD.29 - Bell, Dana (1995) Air Force Colors Volume 1 1926–1942, Carrollton: Squadron Signal Publications ISBN: 0-89747-316-7.US Navy F6F Hellcat USMC F4U Corsairaccording to Section 40.1.1.2 Color of MIL-STD-2161A (AS), the colors of this insignia are established as FED-STD-595 red 11136 white 17925 blue 15044. The visualization of the colors comes from this siteElliot, John M. (1989) The Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide Vol 2 1940–1949, Sturbridge, MA: Monogram Aviation Publications ISBN: 0-914144-32-4., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3330877

The Allies won the battle of Roosevelt Ridge.  The Soviets prevailed in the Battle of Belgorod.

The US revised its conscription regulations with a revised list of reserved occupations and providing that dependents were a deciding factor in deferments.

The movie This Is The Army premiered.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Thursday, July 29, 1943 Coca-Cola to the front.

June 29, 1943 – During WWII General Eisenhower Requisitions Ten Portable Coca-Cola Bottling Plants

Bringing a taste of home, I guess.

The Japanese evacuated Kiska.  This was made possible by the U.S. Navy being diverted by a radar signal that appeared to be a relief convoy for the island.

The United Kingdom announced that women under the age of 50 were required to register for war work.

Boeing B-17F  “Alice from Dallas” returning from a raid on Warnemunde on this day in 1943.


Monday, April 10, 2023

Saturday, April 10, 1943. Sfax taken.

The Tunisian port of Sfax was captured by the British 8th Army.  It would later be the staging point for the invasion of Sicily.

It was also used as a POW camp, holding German Prisoners of War through the rest of, and after, the war.

Foreshadowing that later event, perhaps, the Italian cruiser Trieste was sunk by B-24s in the port of La Maddealena, Sardinia.

Tom Harmon, well known collegic football star, a halfback, now a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force, disappeared when a bomber he was flying cracked up in a storm over Surinam. The only survivor of the plant, he'd emerge several days later with the assistance of natives, who escorted him out of the jungle.

Harmon as a football player for the University of Michigan.

Harmon had been drafted by the Chicago Bears but had declined to take up professional football, which was not as lucrative or as followed as it now is. Instead, he intended to pursue a career in acting and radio, although he ended up joining the American Football League in 1941 for a $1,500 per game salary, a large sum at the time.  

Harmon had resisted being drafted, something we don't think of as occurring much during World War Two, but which was in fact much more common than might be supposed.  He received a 1-B classification in May 1941 as he was a student and then given a 60-day extension on the basis that he was the sole support for his parents.  He asked for a permanent extension thereafter, but was denied and classified as 1-A, which he appealed.  Losing the appeal, he was ordered to report by November 1941, and he thereafter enlisted as an Air Corps cadet.

Following the bomber disaster, he became a P-38 pilot and flew in combat missions over China, being shot down in 1943.  He was returned to the US following evading the Japanese, having been shot down behind enemy lines, and was released from the service in January 1945.  In 1944, he married actress Elyse Knox.  Actor Mark Harmon was one of their three children.

He played for the Los Angeles Rams for a while after the war, and then returned to sports broadcasting.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—April 10, 1943: US Department of Agriculture establishes Women’s Land Army: during WWII, 1.5 million women from non-farming backgrounds will serve on farms.

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Thursday, April 8, 1943. Roosevelt freezes wages, prices, and jobs. The law of unintended consequences.

USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) steaming at high speed through heavy seas off Cape Hatteras, April 8, 1943.

Franklin Roosevelt instituted wage and price controls in an effort to combat inflation, and froze employment in place.  The move, of questionable constitutionality, had a permeant, unintended impact on the U.S. economy.

While wages and prices were frozen, benefits, including health insurance, were not. That's because many employers didn't offer it until this time.  Unable to induce workers to switch from one employer to another, they switched to offering benefits, such as health insurance, although Roosevelt's order also precluded workers from switching jobs.  Employees required permission to move employment, and unions lost the ability to bargain for higher wages in an era when wages were rising, but the benefit inducements came in none the less.

We pick that story up here, from a prior thread:













Now, expenses have reached the point where many cannot afford to pay themselves and health insurance has gone from being a workplace benefit to a near necessity for most.  People actually keep jobs just for the insurance.  I've known, for example, of one person who kept a job she wanted to leave to return to school for just that reason.  As a practical matter, the government has become the insurer of last resort for many who have no insurance and who end up using the hospital, in emergencies, as their health care provider.  Increased private medical competition, in the meantime, has become an increasingly common feature of health care as the large dollar amounts that are present in the industry naturally has resulted in private competition.  County and state facilities, therefore, end up in competition with each other, with the practical result of that often being that county and state facilities end up becoming more and more in the nature of public clinics in some ways.

And people have an expectation of health care, which is not abnormal, nor greedy, in a generally affluent society.  That's true of our views on a lot of various things, and its particularly true of health care.  People generally feel that anyone ought to, and even should, seek the health care that they need, when they need it, and there's a feeling of distress when a certain percentage of the population cannot afford it.  Put another way, back in the 1940s if a person was afflicted with a stroke died, it was probably the case that this would have occurred no matter what.  If they were unable to secure health care for some reason for that condition, the result probably would have been the same as if they did.  This would not be true, of course, for every sort of condition, but what that does mean is that there was an overall greater acceptance that if economic conditions prevented treatment, that this was part of the nature of life, rather than being something that would be regarded as deeply unfair. And, for that matter, the medical community made a dedicated effort to include those who could not pay in their practices. They still do, but the nature of that society wide had become different.

Preventing workers from moving from one job to another was frankly a shocking move, in the modern context.  It effectively imposed a type of conscription, or even darned near slavery, upon the civilian population during the war.   Employees could move jobs if they secured permission, but it required that.

The 1943 NFL draft was held.

French actor Harry Baur died shortly after being released by German authorities, having been tortured by the Gestapo after his arrest which stemmed from his efforts to secure the release of his wife, Rika Radifé.  A Turkish actress, she had been arrested on charges of espionage and would survive the war.

I guess on this one, I should ponder what this meant for my family.  My grandfather owned his own business, a meat packing business, so the order wouldn't really apply to him, save for the fact that it did for his employees, which must have been an odd experience.

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Thursday, March 11, 1943. The Holocaust and Yugoslavia, The French and Royal Navies and the Battle of the Atlantic, German failures in North Africa, Lend Lease renewed, Evading the Draft

The Jewish population of the Yugoslavian (Macedonian) cities of Skopje, Štip and Bitolawas deported to Treblinka by the German SS with the assistance of Bulgarian soldiers.

The day prior, Yugoslavian Communists had warned the Jewish residents of  Bitola of the impending German plans, although only a few managed to escape them.

The Harvester. which had been built for the Braizlian Navy just prior to World War Two, with the Royal Navy taking over the contract.

The U-433 sunk the HMS Harvester which was damaged and dead in the war.  The U-432 in turned rammed by the French corvette Aconit.  The Aconit turned to rescue the survivors of both sinkings.  The Harvester had sunk the U-444 the day prior, which went down with the loss 41 men, two men surviving.  26 went down on the U-432, with 20 being picked up by the Aconit.  145 went down on the Harvester.

The Aconit on March 14, 1943.  She'd been built by the British to be lent to the Free French.

The U-432 was on its eighth war patrol. The U444 on its second.

The SS Panzer Corps entered Kharkov and penetrated to the center of the city.  The Red Army, for its part, advanced to fifteen miles from Vyazma, near the Russian border with Byelorussia.

In North Africa, the Afrika Korps, now in clear decline and withdrawing toward the Mediterranean, made three unsuccessful attacks on the British west of Sejanane, Tunisia.

News of the disaster at Kasserine was beginning to filter home.


Lend Lease was extended for another year with an 82-0 vote by the Senate and a 407-6 vote in the House.

In the current U.S. House, if current events are any measure, it'd have significant opposition.  Tucker Carlson would no doubt call it into question.

Rodney Wooster, age 27, was arrested in Lewis County, Washington, for draft evasion.  He was hiding in the woods in a cabin at the time, having taken up residence in the cabin the prior year.

You don't hear much about draft evasion during World War Two, but it was a big story at the time.  12,000 U.S. residents were imprisoned for evading the draft, nearly a division's worth of men, but most arrested men were simply funneled into what they were seeking to avoid, military service.

Wooster, a Washington native, seems to have been a lumberjack before the war and have dropped out of school in 8th Grade, something not uncommon for the time.  Following World War Two, he married and lived in Washington the rest of his life, passing away in 2006.  Whether he was truly evading, or knew the full implications of it, are not known, but the subsequent history of spending the rest of his life in the same community would suggest that whatever was the case, he probably entered the military in 1943.

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Friday January 29, 1943. Japanese assaults, German conscription.

The Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro broadcast on German radio that all men from 16 to 65 years of age and all women from 17 to 45 years of age were to be conscripted for labor.  

Adolf Hitler had been Chancellor for nine years and 364 days. 1

The Battle of Rennell Island saw the Japanese commit significant air assets against the U.S. Navy in an effort to protect the Japanese withdrawal from Guadalcanal.  The heavy cruiser USS Chicago was sunk in the action.


The Battle of Wau also began on New Guinea where the Japanese outflanked the Allies to land at Lae and advance on the Australian base at Wau.


The Marine Corps Women's Reserve was created.


Thursday, December 29, 2022

Friday, December 29, 1972. Life Magazine's final issue.

Life magazine's final cover issue date (it came out the week before.) ran.  The cover was "The Year in Pictures, 1972".

My father subscribed to Life, and also at one time to Look. Look really declined in its final years, Life not so much.  I can recall discussion on the last issue.

Edward Lorenz proposed The Butterfly Effect in his paper  "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" 

A takeover of Israel's embassy in Thailand, by Palestinian terrorists, ended after intervention by Egypt's ambassador and Thai officials. Before everyone left, they all had dinner together, including the terrorists.

Most of the last cycle of conscripts to the U.S. Army reported for induction.

The tragic crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 killed 101 of 176 on board as it went down in the Everglades.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Thursday, December 7, 1972. The last to be drafted, Apollo 17.

Apollo 17 was launched.


It was the last of the Apollo missions and accordingly the last manned mission to the Moon.

This seems like something I should recall, but I don't.  I would have been in 4th Grade at the time, and moon missions were a big deal, but as noted, this was the last one and the 17th Apollo Mission. Fifty years later, I can't recall having paid too much attention to this one, although it seems to me I dimly recall it.

On the same day, the last conscription induction call in U.S. history occurred.  The call was to have been one of two to occur in 1972, but the second one was suspended due to a national day of mourning called by President Nixon in honor of Harry S. Truman, who died on December 26, 1972.  The conscription call would have occurred on December 28. 

The men who were chosen in the draft lottery on this day did not, I believe, immediately but in 1973. This was, after all, in December.  Having said that, I'm not completely certain.  49,514 men were inducted into the service via conscription in 1972.  646 were inducted in 1973, with the final induction occurring on June 30, 1973,  The height of the Vietnam War era induction occurred in 1966, when 382,010 men were inducted.

On January 27, 1973, President Nixon suspended conscription. In part this recognized the impending end of the Vietnam War, but the move was also clearly political and designed to address increasing civil unrest in spite of the obvious coming end of the war.  Conscription had been resumed in 1948 and the Cold War was far from over, but moral in the U.S. military was disintegrating to the crisis level, which provided another, albeit unstated, reason for suspending the draft.  The Army started rebuilding itself as an all volunteer force in 1973, but it would really take until the Reagan Administration for a new, effective Army to form.

Congressional authority to induct expired on June 30, 1973, although oddly lottery drawing continued until March 12, 1975.  Registration for conscription terminated on April 1, 1975, which I can recall occurring.  Registration would resume, however, a mere five years later, in 1980, and it remains a legal obligation for men.

Men drafted on this day would have found themselves in the odd situation of having to serve in the U.S. Army until late 1974, according to The New York Times, which ran a headline on November 23, 1974, that the last conscripts had been discharged.  If that is correct, they must have been let go slightly ahead of schedule, which likely would have reflected the end of the Vietnam War and a drawdown that sought to eliminate men who didn't want to be there.  Otherwise, the June 30, 1973, inductee should have served until June 1975.  The last pool applied only to men born in 1952 or later, so it applied only to men in their early 20s, for practical purposes.

The end of the draft really returned the U.S. military to its historical norm. The Army had not conscripted at all until the Civil War, and then did not do it again until World War One.  Militia service, of course, was mandatory in the US up until around the Civil War, when it started to slowly die off as a observed state requirement.  The World War One and World War Two drafts had been enormous, with the US drafting 2,294,084 in 1918 alone, and 3,323,970 in 1943.  Following 1940, there'd only been one year, 1947, in which there had been no inductions, up until 1974.

The last man inducted was Dwight Elliot Stone.  He was a married plumbers apprentice living in Sacramento who was 24 years old at the time and had two kids.  He tried to avoid to hide induction before finally turning himself in.  He served in the Army for 17 months (which would make the NYT article at least a bit inaccurate) before being discharged early for reasons he wasn't aware of, but which were probably due to the fact that by 1975 the Army didn't really want unwilling soldiers around.

Stone went to basic training at Ft. Polk, at which the press followed him around a bit.  He was trained as an electronic technician, after which he was stationed at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey.  Upon his discharged he was quoted as saying "I wouldn't have joined.  It wasn't the place to be. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone. I didn't like it. It was poorly run.''

In the early 70s, it was in fact poorly run.

Stone went back to work as a plumber/pipe fitter in Sacramento, but over time his view changed, as it did for many who had been conscripted in the same period.  He later stated that while he didn't like being in the Army, he'd had a lot of fun while in it, and he used his service benefits to attend two years of college.  His oldest son enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Monday, December 5, 2022

Friday, November 18, 2022

Wednesday, November 18, 1942. Cyrene.

The 8th Army, on this day in 42, reached Cyrene, Libya.


That Libyan city was founded in 631 BC.  It is likely most well known to people in the west for the reason that it was the place of origin of Simon of Cyrene.  At the time, it had a large Jewish population of approximately 100,000, due to a forcible settlement there during the Egyptian reign of Greek general Ptolemy Soter.  It would become, like many Libyan coastal cities, an important center of early Christianity.

Marshal Pétain granted Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval the authority to rule by decree.  Vichy was had already become a rump state and had, for all practical purposes, lost its legitimacy at this point.

President Roosevelt ordered the registration for Selective Service of all men who had turned 18 years of age after July 1, 1942, thereby increasing the conscription pool by 500,000 men.

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Thursday, November 12, 1942. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal commences.

The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal commenced.

Smoke from downed Japanese aircraft, 11/12/42.

The Japanese attacked US Task Force 67 headed towards Guadalcanal, commencing four days of hard fought naval engagements.  The Task Force was bringing reinforcements to the island.

One thing this serves to remind us of is how, already, the wars in the Pacific and Europe were remarkably different.  In Europe, or rather North Africa, the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy had just pulled off a massive seaborne invasion of North Africa.  Here, however, a pitched battle between the Axis, in the form of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Allies, in the form of the U.S. Navy, was just beginning.

Congress lowered the age of conscription to 18.

This was no small matter.  At the time, much like when I was in high school, senior classes had a wide range of teen ages ranging from 17 to nearly 19.  I was 17 when I graduated, as was my father, but I've known men who were nearly 19 at the time. This meant that the government was reaching down, basically, into high school and in fact, while a deferment was possible, there were men who simply reported right out of school for the draft.

Eddie Rickenbacker and five other men rescued after having been adrift in the Pacific for three weeks.

Guatemala broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

Silent screen actress Laura Hope Crews died at age 62.

Crews in 1910.


Sunday, October 2, 2022

Monday, September 10, 1922. UW "kidnapping"

The Soviet Union introduced universal male conscription, starting at age 20.

The Reserve Officers Association was formed in the US.  Originally an organization made up of reserve officers who had served in World War One, it's now an association that includes reservists of all ranks.

Lithuania introduced the Lita as its currency, replacing German currency it had been used.

1922 10 Lita banknote.

A now passed UW tradition was practiced.