"Don't know much about history". . . The historical inaccuracy thread

Sick of ongoing and continual historical inaccuracies, this new ongoing thread will catalog them.

First installment, from the Daily Beast regarding Governor DeSantis to join those states that have a State Guard.

Here's the quote:

Back at the start of World War II, the federal government authorized the states to form military units to fill in for the National Guard, which had been incorporated into the U.S military to fight in Europe and the Pacific. 

First of all, allow me to note that I think this effort to form a 200-man Florida State Guard is silly, so I'm not commenting on that.

But state guards weren't "authorized" by the Federal Government during World War Two. They had existed long before that.  Their actual origin is World War One.

Prior to World War One there was a Federally inspired controversy over whether National Guardsmen could be deployed overseas. The thought has always been that they could be, and in fact during the Spanish American War they were.  The problem originated in Woodrow Wilson's pacifistic administration in which the Attorney General of the United States came up with the opinion out of the blue that the National Guard could not be deployed outside of the United States when it was mustered. That's why the Guard, while Federalized, did not go into Mexico during the Punitive Expedition.

This, of course, caused an immediate crisis when World War One came as half of the American military strength was found in the Guard.  This was solved by simply conscripting the entire National Guard in mass.

Be that as it may, it also caused some states to form State Guards which they expressly formed as being state militia's outside of the National Guard system.  It was a serious move as some of the units were very good ones.  Massachusetts and Rhode Island were notable in this effort.  Texas, which retain a real border crisis with Mexico during the Great War, did as well.

During the war, however, State Guard units started to pop up to take the place of the then conscripted National Guardsmen for the duration of the war.  Most were disbanded after the war, but some, like Massachusetts and Rhode Islands, kept on keeping on.  During the Second World War almost every, nad perhaps every, state looked back to this example and formed State Guard units once again.  Most were, quite frankly, fairly sad affairs and at least one ended up taking its military mission and the fear of the Germans too seriously and ended up killing a fellow at a guarded bridge.

Be that as it may, following the war most states, seeing no point in the maintaining these units any further now that the Guard was back home, disbanded them. But some kept them.  In recent years, in some places, notably places with notably right wing politics, there's been a minor effort to recreate them.

And also, the National Guard wasn't "incorporated into the U.S. military" during World War Two.  Since the Dick Act of 1906, it's been part of the U.S. military, with it officially being a reserve of its respective branches.

Pandemic Part 6. The Delta Surge

 July 30, 2021

Ready or not, and probably not, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has entered the state and infections are rapidly rising, concentrated among those who have not received a vaccination.

The state health officer has asked for Wyomingites to mask back up indoors in areas of  moderate to high transmission, which includes Laramie and Natrona Counties.

In Colorado, certain counties have been pointed out as areas of rapidly rising infections as well, including Denver County, where the recent Major League Baseball game and a concert are now regarded as superspreader events.

As a background to all of this, it's very clear that the global population is nowhere near the "herd immunity" level which is necessary to render COVID 19 extinct.  Perhaps this isn't too surprising, given the monumental nature of the effort necessary to achieve it, but what is surprising is that the developed world hasn't achieved it and the United States is clearly lagging far behind. This, too, comes at a point in time at which it nearly looked as if success had been achieved.

In the US a strong feature of the ongoing pandemic is a refusal of a certain part of the population to receive the vaccination that prevents it, this making the disease cross over from one which lurks ready to strike anyone to one which at this point is a preventable disease. Preventable disease itself has become the hallmark of modern American medical situations, in that most of the diseases that are real killers in the US are actually ones that are preventable.

Future historians and sociologist will study this in depth to attempt to determine what happened here.  We'll leave that for the time being, but what we would note is that the culture of the pandemic has really changed.  For the vaccinated the refusal to get the vaccine is absolutely baffling.  Many of those not vaccinated cite personal freedom as the basis of their views, but personal freedoms have always yielded in the United States to public emergencies with examples simply too numerous to mention.  Given this, at this point, many public entities are simply done with allowing for personal choice and have determined to make life difficult for those not getting vaccinated, up to and including firing those who refuse to receive vaccines.  The Federal Government is an all out effort to vaccinate its servants who remain unvaccinated, and President Biden is about to order the military to be fully vaccinated, something it amazingly has not implemented yet.

While it's a grim prognostication, in my view it's too late.  Whatever the hesitancy is caused by, we're going to be in for a third wave of the pandemic.  Many of the victims this time, indeed most of them, will be vaccination hold outs.  If the US achieves herd immunity, which is unlikely, it'll be through the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the disease among that population, which would be a tragic and lethal way to achieve it.  Having said that, and seemingly unnoticed by the unvaccinated, a growing bitter resentment against them by the vaccinated is really building with the distinct view that the unvaccinated are being lethally selfish.  With that being the case, there are now open comments in some quarters about simply letting the unvaccinated go ahead and risk death without sympathy from anyone else.  There is also building support for private employers to require vaccinations of employees.

The great added problem all of this is creating is that there is now a very real risk that the disease will evolve a vaccine resistant strain, setting everything back.  If that occurs, and my guess is that this is now inevitable, all the progress to date will be lost, and we'll return to the strict restrictions, and stricter, that were only recently lifted.  There will be enormous resistance to doing so, but a disease that's now killed 600,000 Americans will be in the gate to double that death toll, potentially, and the next public health crisis that results will be at least as severe as the current one.  My guess is we're mere weeks away from such a strain emerging somewhere.

In terms of the "somewhere", there are still vast reaches of the globe were very few are vaccinated and wish to be.  This is also a massive problem. Whereas in the United States the disease is circulating among those who, for the most part, could avoid it if they wished to, in the Third World it's circulating at a largely unknown rate among those who would avoid it if they could, but can't.

As noted, this will be a source for a great amount of study in the future.  How did a country which was a scientific and medical leader in the mid 20th Century end up one in which medicine was so disregarded?  Reading about it will be fascinating for future students of human behavior and history.  Living it, however, and seeing those dying in it, is quite a bit different.

August 1, 2021

The producers of a Clifford The Big Red Dog movie have pulled its release due to the Delta variant surge.

August 2, 2021

Dr. Fauci warned of more pain and suffering ahead, but didn't foresee shutdowns on the basis that there were sufficient numbers of vaccinated people to avoid them.

Senator Barrasso argued the CDC should be sued and found liable for malpractice, and urged people to get vaccinated.

August 3, 2021

And here we have a current, sobering, look at how the globe is doing in terms of vaccination progress.

Senator Lindsay Graham reports he has a break through case of COVID 19.

As can be seen, the US, in spite of vaccine resistance, is doing pretty well. It needs to do better.  Canada, which was having problems with vaccination rates for a while, has pulled head of the pack in terms of major nations.  Not noted on this chart, some small countries and ones with very unified governmental structures have achieved 100% vaccination.  The US, given the amount of vaccine it has, could rank right up there with Canada, but the curious political season, etc., has frustrated that.  Nonetheless, the US just hit 70% initial vaccination, so it's getting there, and the recent outbreak of the Delta variant has seemed to spark an increase in first time vaccinations.

In the Third World, however, vaccination rates are a disaster due to lack of vaccine. And given that, new variants of the disease are undoubtedly evolving.

August 4, 2021

As posted on another thread, the CDC has reimposed the moratorium on evictions.

August 5, 2021

Governor Gordon announced that he will not impose a mask requirement on schools this upcoming school year, leaving any such move to local districts.

Outside perhaps of Teton County, there is no political will for such a requirement, and therefore it will not occur.

Local hospitalizations have climbed back to the rate they were at this past January.

Japan is expanding its Covid restrictions.  China is reimposing its Draconian closures on some areas within its borders.

August 11, 2021

The University of Wyoming has reinstated a mask mandate.

Hawaii has reinstated restrictions.  Oregon is imposing indoor mask requirements.

August 17, 2021

Governor Gordon has indicated Wyoming will not being intervening in COVID in any fashion in spite of the increased numbers.

While not put this way, the politics of events are such that the state simply isn't going to act no matter how bad the spread of the Delta variant becomes.  While there's a chance one or two counties might, it's only a chance.

The Governor's office itself was shut down recently due to a COVID  infection.  The question does remain on whether some agencies with a high degree of independence might act on their own, but so far there is no hint that they shall.

In contrast, a single case has sent New Zealand back into a lockdown.

August 18, 2021

Wyoming's COVID death rate returned to the level it was in February.

New Mexico has put a mask mandate in place.

Pope Francis urged the unvaccinated to get vaccinations.  This came in the form of an advertisement for the US Ad Council backing vaccines.

Given this, perhaps it should be noted that Cardinal Raymond Burke, a highly respected and conservative Catholic Bishop, has been hospitalized for COVID 19. Cardinal Burke has been a critic of the vaccination efforts for various reasons and has somewhat gone from a respected critic of Pope Francis to a slightly sidelined critic whose views on some things bordered on becoming extreme.

August 21, 2021

Vaccination rates in Wyoming are now dramatically rising. So are infections, but this seems to have gotten the message through to a lot of people on vaccination.

August 28, 2021

Teton County has imposed a mask mandate.

September 1, 2021

Hot Springs County's schools are going virtual for thirteen days due to a COVID spike.

The National Guard is assisting clinics in Billings, Montana, due to a spike there.  The Idaho National Guard has been called out in that state for the same purpose.

Anti-vaxxers shut down a mobile vaccination clinic in Georgia.

September 2, 2021

Governor Gordon indicated Wyoming will not impose a mask mandate.

As a practical matter, there simply exists no political will to do this in the state at this point in time.

On a personal note, I now know one (unvaccinated) individual who has died of the Delta variant and another (unvaccinated) person who is going to, ages 60 and 40 respectively.

September 3, 2021

30% of the patients at Casper's Wyoming Medical Center are in the hospital due to COVID 19.  Most are under 65.

The school district will require individuals out of work due to COVID to take the time from their sick leave.

September 5, 2021

The hospital in Sweetwater County opened an additional wing to handle the influx of COVID 19 patients.

September 9, 2021

President Biden has asked OSHA to mandate that employers with over 100 employees be mandated to require those employees to have COVID 19 vaccinations.  He's also signed an executive order which will require Federal contractors to have COVID 19 vaccinations.

Over 100,000,000 Americans will be covered by the orders.

Governor Gordon, probably sensing more the wind where he lives than giving expression to his own opinions, or at least I suspect, noted the following:

Governor Gordon Statement Opposing Biden Administration's Vaccine Mandates

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon has issued the following statement in response to today's announcement by the Biden Administration mandating COVID-19 vaccinations: 

“The Biden Administration’s announcement to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for private businesses is an egregious example of big government overreach.

Our Constitution was written and fought for to protect our liberties as American citizens. This administration’s latest pronouncement demonstrates its complete disregard for the rule of law and the freedoms individuals and private companies enjoy under our Constitution. In Wyoming, we believe that government must be held in check.

I have asked the Attorney General to stand prepared to take all actions to oppose this administration’s unconstitutional overreach of executive power. It has no place in America. Not now, and not ever.”

This puts Attorney General Bridget Hill in the position of filing doomed litigation, or litgation that will be moot by the time it is taken up, but as a posturing matter, this no doubt really doesn't matter.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe, taking the opposite approach, is mandating that its employees be vaccinated.

Los Angeles' school district, the second largest in the nation, is requiring vaccinations for indivdiuals age 12 and up.

September 10, 2021

Laramie County's school district has mandated that students wear masks indoors.

September 11, 2021

France has banned unvaccinated U.S. tourists from entering the country.

The CDC released a study that the unvaccinated were 4.5 times more likely to get COVID 19 and 11 times more likely to die.

September 15, 2021

The legislature is apparently considering a special session to consider the Administration's COVID 19 mandates.

This would really be an odd exercise as the one that the legislature would be likely to be the most upset about, the OSHA entry into vaccination requirements, hasn't come into effect yet and is extremely likely to be tested in court before it does. Anything the legislature does will come up against the Supremecy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and therefore be ineffective, if it goes into effect, and put the state into a fight with the Administration where it can't win, but where it can end up spending money that it doesn't have.  It'll also serve to really fire up polarization in an area, and era, in which everything is already extremely polarized.

September 17, 2021

The University of Wyoming is extending its mask mandate through the fall.

The 2021 Wyoming Special Legislative Session.

September 21, 2021

The Pfizer accounted that its vaccination is safe for children 5 through 11 years of age.

The number of Americans who have died of COVID 19 has supassed the number who died from the 1918 Influenza, a number which must be tempered i consideration if we take into account that the country had about 1/3d of its current population at the time, meaning that the 1918 flu was still far more devestating, at least so far.

The school nurse in the Pine Bluffs school district resigned after that district's board determined to continue to allow children exposed to COVID 19 to attend school, as long as they wore masks. Citing the act and its impact on her professionally and personally, she resigned.

September 22, 2021

Governor Activates Wyoming National Guard to Provide Hospital Assistance

September 21, 2021

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Wyoming’s hospitals have sought additional support to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in hospitalized patients. There are approximately 200 people with COVID-19 in Wyoming hospitals today, which is near the peak number the state has seen during the pandemic. Governor Mark Gordon has activated guardsmen who have stepped forward to provide temporary assistance to hospitals throughout the state.

Governor Gordon has called approximately 95 Soldiers and Airmen to State Active Duty orders, assigned to hospital locations at 24 different sites within 17 Wyoming cities. They will serve to augment current hospital and Wyoming Department of Health staff to help ease workloads imposed upon them due to large numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

“I am grateful to the members of our Wyoming National Guard for once again answering the call to provide assistance in our hospitals during this surge,” Governor Gordon said. “Our Guard members truly are Wyoming’s sword and shield, and their commitment to our state is something for which every Wyoming citizen can be thankful.”

Guard members’ responsibilities will include: assisting in environmental cleanup in hospital facilities; food and nutrition service; COVID-19 screening; managing personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies; and other support tasks. Some will also be trained to administer COVID-19 tests.

“The Delta variant has overwhelmed the medical institutions of states across this country. Our state is no different with most hospitals at or near capacity,” said Col. David Pritchett, director of the joint staff for the Wyoming National Guard. “The Soldiers and Airmen of the Wyoming National Guard are proud to jump back in to provide much needed assistance to our communities as we continue to battle the effects of COVID-19.”

The orders for guardsmen will be 14-30 day rotations, with the potential to extend beyond that, up until Dec. 31. The numbers and locations of guardsmen may change based on hospital needs.

--END--

September 24, 2021

In the reverse of the seeming norm, a lawsuit has been filed in Montana seeking to overturn a law there which probhibits employers from mandating vaccinations and masks.

October 8, 2021

120 American children have lost at least one parent due to a COVID 19 death.

October 9, 2021

Casper's ICU is full.

More Americans have died in 2021 of COVID 19 than in 2021 at this point.

A female student in Laramie was suspended for refusing to wear a mask and then arrested as she refused to leave school grounds.

News anchor Cheryl Hackett was terminated from KCWY for refusing to adhere to her employer, Gray Media's, vaccine mandate.  She is the second person in a Wyoming Gray Media outlet to be terminated for this reason in a week.

October 13, 2021

October 13, 2021

Governor Gordon Further Prepares Legal Challenge of Federal Overreach on Vaccine Mandates

 

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon is taking action to oppose President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The Governor and the Attorney General continue to prepare the State’s legal challenge to the threat of the Biden Administration’s proposed vaccine mandates, when they are finalized. It should be noted that the Biden Administration has yet to issue any specific policies that can be challenged in court.

“Four weeks ago, when the President issued his announcement regarding vaccine mandates, I immediately instructed Attorney General Hill to prepare for legal action to oppose this unconstitutional overreach,” Governor Gordon said. “Attorney General Hill has begun that mission and is continuing to strengthen alliances, improve potential arguments, and consider appropriate strategies.”

Governor Gordon noted that a joint letter from 24 attorneys general explained that the President’s edict is broad, inexact, and utilizes a rarely-used provision in Federal law that allows it to be effective immediately.

“This coalition of Attorneys General is well-prepared to fight the Biden Administration in courts when the time is right, and I am committed to using every tool available to us to oppose federal rules, regulations, and standards whenever they overreach. We are prepared to act promptly once these mandates are finally issued,” the Governor said. “Wyoming will not stand idly by to see any erosion of the constitutional rights afforded our citizens and their industries.” 

As the state prepares for its legal battle with the federal government, Governor Gordon stressed that as a conservative Republican, he continues to stand for smaller government that is closest to the people. Governor Gordon reiterated, “Government must resist the temptation to intrude in private sector interests.”

“It is neither conservative nor Republican to replace one form of tyranny with another,” he added. “Doing so is antithetical to our American form of government, even if it is for something we like. I will stand firm against unconstrained governmental overreach regardless of where or when it occurs.”

-END-

Politically Governor Gordon has nearly no choice but to take this approach, and of course he's faced with a special session of the legislature as well, something he may be trying to avoid. But the legal prospects for such a suit are small.

October 22, 2021

Russia is experiencing a record COVID surge.

More Wyomingites are presently hospitalized due to COVID 19 than at any prior point in the pandemic.  Deaths have also hit an all time weekly high. Almost all of the new victims are unvaccinated.

One in five of the prisoners in the Wyoming State Prison presently are infected with the disease.

October 24, 2021

The unvaccinated can expect to get COVID 19 every sixteen months, according to a recent study.

October 30, 2021

Wyoming has joined ten other states in a doomed effort to litigate the question of whether the Federal Government can require employees of its contractors to be vaccinated.

The rule hasn't gone into effect  It will in December.  It's unlikely this issue will be resolved by December, but when it is, it'll be resolved in favor of the Federal government.

Prior Threads:

Pandemic Part 6.

Worried.

Pandemic, Part 5

Pandemic, Part 4

Wow. Modern Medicine

Pandemic, Part 3.

Pandemic, Part Two

Pandemic

"Do you personally know anyone who has had COVID 19?"

Scenes of August. Michigan National Guard at Camp Grayling

 

Shining shoes.

A video on "fire shining" boots.

Does anyone even do this anymore?

Shine their shoes to a  high polish, that is.

Maybe they do.  I still see shoe shine stands in places like airports, for example, and I see people getting their shoes shined there.  But It's certainly not like it once was.

When I was a kid, my father wore wingtips down to his office nearly every day.  He has a black pair and an oxblood pair.  I associated those sorts of shoes with adult work, as a result. 

He didn't keep them shined to a high polish, but he did polish them relatively regularly.  

Later, when I was a CAP cadet in my mid-teens, I was issued a pair of the then current black Corcoran jump boots, which are I'd note a fine boot.  I'm surprised that we were issued something of such quality, frankly, but we were, which may have been as the USAF issued jump boots to their MPs at the time (they might still, I don't know) and our feet were small.  In retrospect, they had a surprising amount of stuff for small sized servicemen that was issued to the CAP, including Tiger Stripe jungle combat trousers that, if you look it up, were never "official" issue to anyone. Well, be that it may, they had a lot of them and I had several pairs as a result.  

Now, by the way, they're worth a fortune.

I wore mine duck hunting and then, when I grew too big for them (they were really small) I gave them away.

Anyhow, once I had black jump boots I had to learn how to shine them, which I did.

That's the first I'd ever heard of fire shining, as some of the CAP cadet officers were big on stuff like that.  I never did it, and still haven't, as I don't like playing with fire.

I did learn, however, how to polish jump boots to a high shine, something that proved useful when I joined the National Guard, as we were issued black combat boots and the Army was big on shining shoes at the time.

When I mustered out of the Guard I more or less mustered out of regularly shining shoes.  I occasionally shine my cowboy boots and I also will occasionally shine my dress shoes.  I really ought to more often than I do.  I don't shine my boots, i.e., my boots that aren't cowboy boots, ever.  I will occasionally water proof them, however.

Of course, really formal dress shoes are simply worn less often than they once were.  I don't wear mine every day, although I'm sure a week hardly ever goes by when I don't wear them.  Still, I'm not very good about polishing them.

Fire shine?  Well, hardly necessary.  Simply using shoe polishing and buffering gets all the shine you really need.

Friday July 23, 1921. Standing Inspection.

 The Virginia National Guard stood for inspection on this date at Camp (now Fort) Meade.

The Virginia National Guard wasn't the only group of men, and they were all men at the time, tenting, or at least camping of a sort.

President Harding, Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone also were on this day in 21.

The men had been a camping circle for years, styling themselves the Vagabonds.  It gave them a chance to get away, and discuss stuff.

On this day the Chinese Communist Party met for the first time.  It had 57 members and adjourned from a room meeting to one on a boat, which was safer.  The meeting was in the Chinese French Concession in Shanghai, which remains an area of China that features French architecture.

On the same day, also in China, Sun Yat-sen announced that his self-declared government was ceasing relations with the government in Beijing.

Monday July 21, 1941. National Emergency.

President Roosevelt sent to a message to Congress asking it to declare a national emergency in order that military reservists could be retained.

The message read:

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

Last year the Congress of the United States recognizing the gravity of the world situation held that common prudence required that American defence, at that time relatively very weak, be strengthened in its two aspects. The first called for the production of munitions of all kinds. The second called for the training and service of personnel. The Selective Training and Service Act authorized the annual induction into military service of a maximum of 900,000 men for this training and service, of whom 600,000 are now in the army. The Congress also authorized the induction into service of the National Guard, the reserve officers, and other reserve components of the Army of the United States.

In the absence of further action by the Congress, all of those involved must be released from active service on the expiration of twelve months. This means that beginning this Autumn about two-thirds of the Army of the United States will begin a demobilization.

The action taken last year was appropriate to the international situation at that time. It took into consideration the small size and the undeveloped state of our armed forces. The National Guard, which then formed the bulk of these forces, had to be seasoned; its technical training and general efficiency greatly improved. The ranks of the National Guard and the Regular Army had to be brought to full strength; and, in addition, the army required for its tremendous expansion the services of approximately 50,000 reserve officers.

In effect, two steps were taken for the security of the nation. First, the Selective Service Act initiated annual military training as a prime duty of citizenship. Second, the organization and training of field armies was begun-training in team-work-company by company, battalion by battalion, regiment by regiment, and division by division. The objective was to have ready at short notice an organized and integrated personnel of over 1,000,000 men.

I need scarcely emphasize the fact that if and when an organized and integrated company, battalion, regiment or division is compelled to send two-thirds of its members home, those who return to civil life, if called to the colors later on, would have to go through a new period of organization and integration before the new unit to which they were assigned could be depended on for service. The risks and the weaknesses caused by dissolving a trained army in times of national peril were pointed out by George Washington over and over again in his Messages to the Continental Congress.

It is, therefore, obvious that if two-thirds of our present army return to civilian life, it will be almost a year before the effective army strength again reaches one million men.

Today it is imperative that I should officially report to the Congress what the Congress undoubtedly knows: that the international situation is not less grave but is far more grave than it was a year ago. It is so grave, in my opinion, and in the opinion of all who are conversant with the facts, that the army should be maintained in effective strength and without diminution of its effective numbers in a complete state of readiness. Small as it is in comparison with other armies, it should not suffer any form of disorganization or disintegration.

Therefore, we would be taking a grave national risk unless the Congress were to make it possible for us to maintain our present full effective strength and during the coming year give training to as many additional Americans as we can, when immediate readiness for service becomes more and more a vital precautionary measure, the elimination of approximately two-thirds of our trained soldiers, and about three-fourths of the total officer personnel, would be a tragic error.

Occasional individuals, basing their opinions on unsupported evidence or on no evidence at all, may with honest intent assert that the United States need fear no attack on its own territory or on the other nations of this hemisphere by aggressors from without.

Nevertheless, it is the well-nigh unanimous opinion of those who are daily cognizant, as military and naval officers and as government servants in the field of international relations, that schemes and plans of aggressor nations against American security are so evident that the United States and the rest of the Americas are definitely imperiled in their national interests. That is why reluctantly, and only after a careful weighing of all facts and all events, I recently proclaimed that an unlimited national emergency exists.

It is not surprising that millions of patriotic Americans find it difficult in the pursuit of their daily occupations and in the normal lives of their families to give constant thought to the implications of happenings many thousand of miles away. It is hard for most of us to bring such events into focus with our own readily accepted and normal democratic ways of living.

That is why I must refer again to the sequence of conquests-German conquests or attacks-which have continued uninterruptedly throughout several years-all the way from the coup against Austria to the present campaign against Russia.

Every move up and down and across Europe, and into Asia, and into Africa has been conducted according to a time schedule utilizing in every case an overwhelming superiority not only in materiel but in trained men as well. Each campaign has been based on a preliminary assurance of safety or non-aggression to the intended victim. Each campaign has been based on disarming fear and gaining time until the German Government was fully ready to throw treaties and pacts to the winds and simultaneously to launch an attack in overwhelming force.

Each elimination of a victim has brought the issue of Nazi domination closer to this hemisphere, while month by month their intrigues of propaganda and conspiracy have sought to weaken every link in the community of interests that should bind the Americas into a great western family.

I do not think that any branch of the Government of the United States will be willing to let America risk the fate which has destroyed the independence of other nations.

We Americans cannot afford to speculate with the security of America.

Furthermore, we have a definite responsibility to every country in the Western Hemisphere-to aid each and every one of them against attack from without the Hemisphere. I do not believe that any branch of the American Government would desire today to abrogate our Pan-American pacts or to discard a policy which we have maintained for nearly a century and a quarter.

If we do not reverse this historic policy, then it is our duty to maintain it. To weaken our army at this particular time would be, in my judgment, an act of bad faith toward our neighbors.

I realize that personal sacrifices are involved in extending the period of service for selectees, the National Guard and other reserve components of our army. I believe that provision now can and will be made in such an extension to relieve individual cases of undue hardship, and also to relieve older men who should, in justice, be allowed to resume their civilian occupations as quickly as their services can be spared.

Nevertheless, I am confident that the men now in the ranks of the army realize far better than does the general public, the disastrous effect which would result from permitting the present army, only now approaching an acceptable state of efficiency, to melt away and set us back at least six months while new units are being reconstituted from the bottom up and from the top down with new drafts of officers and men.

The legislation of last year provided definitely that if national danger later existed, the one year period of training could be extended by action of the Congress.

I do not believe that the danger to American safety is less than it was one year ago when, so far as the army was concerned, the United States was in a woefully weak position. I do not believe that the danger to our national safety is only about the same as it was a year ago.

I do believe-I know-that the danger today is infinitely greater. I do believe-I know-that in all truth we are in the midst of a national emergency.

I am not asking the Congress for specific language in a specific bill. But I can say frankly that I hope the Congress will acknowledge this national emergency either for a specific period or until revocation by the Congress or the President.

The objective is, of course, the all important issue. It is to authorize continuance in service of selectees, National Guard and reserve components of the army and the retired personnel of the Regular Army, with the understanding that, should the exigencies of the situation permit, early return to civil pursuits will follow in due course.

Because of the swiftness of modern events, I think the Congress should also remove the restrictions in regard to the numbers of selectees inducted each year for training and service.

And, in order to reduce individual hardships to a minimum, I urge that the Congress provide that employers be asked to continue to keen jobs open for their employees who have been held in the army. For my part I will direct the return to civil life of officers and men whose retention on active duty would impose undue hardship and that selectees and enlisted men of the National Guard, who have reached the age of twenty-eight, be transferred from active service to a reserve component as rapidly as possible.

At great cost to the nation, and at increasing dislocation of private buying, we are accepting the material burdens necessary for our security. In such matters we accept the fact of a crisis in our history.

It is true that in modern war men without machines are of little value. It is equally true that machines without men are of no value at all. Let us consolidate the whole of our defense-the whole of our preparation against attack by those enemies of democracy who are the enemies of all that we hold dear.

One final word: time counts. Within two months disintegration, which would follow failure to take Congressional action, will commence in the armies of the United States. Time counts. The responsibility rests solely with the Congress.

Roosevelt's obvious concern was that a failure of Congress to authorize the emergency would result in the release of hundreds of thousands of National Guardsmen and large numbers of reservists, something that would have been crippling to the build up of the U.S. military in anticipation of war.

The address also illustrates the difference between the Regular armed forces and the Reserves.  President Roosevelt noted the numerous reserve commissions in the Army system.  It's often not appreciated that most of the military in really big build-ups is officered by men who are commissioned as reservists, not regulars.  In World War Two the reserve officers vastly outnumbered the regular officers in the Navy and the Army.  This distinction doesn't exist for enlisted men, but for officers in wartime, or even in large peacetime buildups, it very much does.  For example, most of the officers in the service during the Cold War, up until the elimination of conscription, were reservists.

The opposition to the President's request, and it did exist, was focused on the obvious fact that the US was so deep into preparing for war, imagining the country avoiding it was becoming very difficult to do.

The following photos, taken at Ft. Benning on this day in 1941, show some of that build up.

They also demonstrate the nature of the Army at the time, and it as a mirror on American society. These troops are African Americans going to new permanent billets. The Army was, of course, segregated.

It would remain mostly segregated throughout the war, something that was the topic of criticism even at the time.

Some significant and very interesting entries on the Today In World War II History blog for this date:

Today in World War II History—July 21, 1941

Among these are the expansion of the Concentration Camp system in Poland and the Luftwaffe commencing bombing of Moscow.

Also very interesting is the start of an aluminum salvage drive in the U.S., which of course wasn't yet at war as noted.  Material shortages were already a concern.

On the same day the Luftwaffe commenced nighttime bombing over Moscow, Hitler visited his officers on the Eastern Front.

Wedesday, June 22, 1921. Reducing the Army, Hope for Ireland.

President Harding signed a bill reducing the size of the U.S. Army from 220,000 to 150,000 men.

Virginia National Guard being inspected at Camp Meade, July 23, 1921.

Given the events that would occur twenty years later, the reduction of the size of the inter bellum army has often been criticized, but it's frankly highly unwarranted.  You will often hear things like "In 1939 the U.S. Army was smaller than that of Romania.

Well, sure it was.  The US in 39 was a giant democracy with a large militia establishment bordered to the north by the world's most polite people and to the south by a nation that troubled us, but which was unlikely to attack us.

The US had always maintained a very small peacetime Army and that had, frankly, been conducive to its development as a stable democracy.

Indeed, the traditional military structure of the United States had been based on a professional Navy, a large militia establishment controlled principally by the states, and a small standing army.  Very early on the standing army had been so small it basically didn't exist at all, but that had proven impractical so a tiny professional army became the rule.  After the War of 1812 the peacetime army slightly expanded in size and continued to do so after the Army obtained a frontier policing role following the Mexican War, but it was never overall very large.  

It also lacked any sort of foreign deployment application prior to the Spanish American War.  The Army was thought of as mostly defensive in nature, in case of a foreign invasion, save for the potentiality of trouble with our immediate neighbors.  When the need to deploy ground troops overseas occurred prior to the 1890s, which it occasionally did, it was the Marines, a small force that was part of the Navy, and not the Army, that was used.

Large mobilizations did come during times of war and the size of the Federal Army was always expanded during them by necessity. The use of large numbers of mobilized militia were also a feature of such wars.  Really large mobilizations were very rare, and occurred only during wartime, with the Civil War being the outstanding example prior to World War One.

World War One had been a test of a major reorganization of the Army in the early 20th Century when Congress officially made the National Guard the organized reserve of the Army.  The Army itself had been enormously opposed to what became known as the "Dick  Act" after its sponsor, Congressman Dick, who himself was a longtime member of the National Guard.  For years before World War One the National Guard had sought this status while, simultaneously finding itself frequently used as state police.  Perhaps the defining moment in that is when the Colorado National Guard found itself being called out for that purpose to break a strike at Ludlow, Colorado, a use that ended up being bloody and which necessitated the deployment of the U.S. Army as a result.

 Colorado National Guardsmen at Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914.

That event came a good decade after the Dick Act, but it symbolized what Guardsmen hoped to avoid.  In 1916 things began to change for good when the crisis on the Mexican border necessitated the mobilization, in stages, of the entire National Guard, followed by its demobilization just weeks before the U.S. declaration of war on Germany.  

The start of the Great War none the less saw a resumption of the struggle with some in the Regular Army actually arguing that the Guard should not be deployed, a biased, and frankly stupid, argument.  In the end, the Guard basically saved the American involvement in World War One and rendered it effective as the Regular Army was far too small to provide any immediate assistance anywhere.  While the Regular Army remained biased against the Guard, and would all the way into the early 1980s, the direction was set.  Following World War One a major reorganization of the National Guard commenced with state units for the first time starting to be assigned roles by the U.S. Army that contemplated full mobilization in time of war.

In 1921 that full mobilization was something that was regarded as possible, but not immediately likely. Already by that time some visionaries worried themselves about a resurgent Germany, although Germany in 1921 was on the floor.  Many in the military establishment were worried about Japan, which was beginning to flex its naval muscles in a fashion that clearly demonstrated its resentment at not being accorded great power status by other nations.  It is not true that American thought no future war was possible, they did, but they thought that a large militia establishment, a strong navy, and a small army, could rise to any challenge.  In that they were prove correct.

On this day in 1921, John Garfield Emery, the head of the American Legion, had his portrait taken.

The American Legion was a very powerful institution at the time, far more so than now.  The voice of Great War veterans, it represented a group that had come out of the Great War determined not to be forgotten, and not to be silent.

King George V opened the new Parliament of Northern Ireland with a speech calling for Irish reconciliation.

King George V.

His speech stated:

Members of the Senate and of the House of Commons 

For all who love Ireland, as I do with all my heart, this is a profoundly moving occasion in Irish history. My memories of the Irish people date back to the time when I spent many happy days in Ireland as a midshipman. My affection for the Irish people has been deepened by the successive visits since that time, and I have watched with constant sympathy the course of their affairs. 

I could not have allowed myself to give Ireland by deputy alone My earnest prayers and good wishes in the new era which opens with this ceremony, and I have therefore come in person, as the Head of the Empire, to inaugurate this Parliament on Irish soil. 

I inaugurate it with deep-felt hope, and I feel assured that you will do your utmost to make it an instrument of happiness and good government for all parts of the community which you represent. 

This is a great and critical occasion in the history of the Six Counties, but not for the Six Counties alone, for everything which interests them touches Ireland, and everything which touches Ireland finds an echo in the remotest parts of the Empire. 

Few things are more earnestly desired throughout the English speaking world than a satisfactory solution of the age long Irish problems, which for generations embarrassed our forefathers, as they now weigh heavily upon us. 

Most certainly there is no wish nearer My own heart than that every man of Irish birth, whatever be his creed and wherever be his home, should work in loyal co-operation with the free communities on which the British Empire is based. 

I am confident that the important matters entrusted to the control and guidance of the Northern Parliament will be managed with wisdom and with moderation, with fairness and due regard to every faith and interest, and with no abatement of that patriotic devotion to the Empire which you proved so gallantly in the Great War. 

Full partnership in the United Kingdom and religious freedom Ireland has long enjoyed. She now has conferred upon her the duty of dealing with all the essential tasks of domestic legislation and government; and I feel no misgiving as to the spirit in which you who stand here to-day will carry out the all important functions entrusted to your care. 

My hope is broader still. The eyes of the whole Empire are on Ireland to-day, that Empire in which so many nations and races have come together in spite of ancient feuds, and in which new nations have come to birth within the lifetime of the youngest in this Hall.

I am emboldened by that thought to look beyond the sorrow and the anxiety which have clouded of late My vision of Irish affairs. I speak from a full heart when I pray that My coming to Ireland to-day may prove to be the first step towards an end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race or creed. In that hope, I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.

It is My earnest desire that in Southern Ireland, too, there may ere long take place a parallel to what is now passing in this Hall; that there a similar occasion may present itself and a similar ceremony be performed. 

For this the Parliament of the United Kingdom has in the fullest measure provided the powers; for this the Parliament of Ulster is pointing the way. The future lies in the hands of My Irish people themselves. 

May this historic gathering be the prelude of a day in which the Irish people, North and South, under one Parliament or two, as those Parliaments may themselves decide, shall work together in common love for Ireland upon the sure foundations of mutual justice and respect.

His speech came at least a decade too late. By 1921 Ireland was irrevocably on the path of independence, save for a massive British military crackdown that the British, to their credit, did not have the stomach to make.

The United Kingdom was, it might be noted, not only about to endure defeat in Ireland, it endured defeat at the International Polo Cup on this day in 1921, with the victory going to the United States in a game that could hardly be regarded as an American forte.

President Harding was photographed with what were termed a group of "Georgia Peaches".

The photograph was no doubt completely innocent, but based on what we now know about Harding, it's hard not to get a certain icky feeling with photos of this type.

Mid Week At Work: Realities of the marketplace. Discrimination, the Old Law, Circumstances and Nature

I had one item here I was going to cautiously blog about, and then a second came up by surprise.  I'll start with the second and take it first.

I ought to note that these are both items that figure into the "fools rush in" category of things.

Dissing the Guard

National Guard M88, South Korea, 1987.

A friend of mine called me up mad.

He and I had been National Guardsmen together at about the same time.

"Yeoman, you and I both took basic and advanced training at the same time and you know that we were at Ft. Sill so long that we received discharges from the Regular Army".

"Um, yeah. . .?"

"Then why aren't we veterans?"

"Um, well Phil, we are. . . "

Phil went on. What he meant was that while we are both veterans, with honorable discharges from the U.S. Army, we don't qualify as veterans for Federal employment consideration.

Phil is correct. According to an online Guard publication that's supposed to be in the nature of good news for former Guard members:

ARLINGTON, Va. – A recently signed law gives official veteran status to National Guard members who served 20 years or more. Previously, Guard members were considered veterans only if they served 180 days or more in a federal status outside of training.

Twenty years or more. . . 

Phil lost his job in the oil slide that's been going on over the past year and he's been looking for a new one.  He's not out of work actually, he's a handy guy and one of those people who seems to pick up employment even with things are in the dumps.  Having worked at the same place for now 30+ years I'm not a handy guy, that way, and even though I can do a lot of things, I know that if the same thing happened to me, I'd be doomed.

"Thirty years as a lawyer?  Go apply at the U.S. Attorney's office. . ."

"But sir, I'm the only living person who knows how to plow a field with a California Plow and a mule named Sparky and. . ."

"U.S. Attorney's office. . . "

You get the picture.

California plow.

Or so I suppose.  I haven't seen any job openings for plowmen and for that matter, while I know what a California Plow is, I don't actually know how to plow with one with any sort of equine, let alone a mule named Sparky.

Which raises another point, one touched on below, but I'll get back to that.

I loved being in the National Guard and was in it for six years.  So was Phil.  That is, he was in for six years.  I don't know if he loved the Guard but he didn't complain about it.  Anyhow, we were in during the Cold War, which is significant here as it means that during our six years of service we were trained in, and told to expect, fighting the Red Menace.

It wasn't really obvious at the time that the Red Menace was having serious problems.  Reddit Marxists would claim that's because "real" Socialism has never been tried, but the experiment wasn't working well and Poland left the orbit, followed by the collapse of the USSR.  China was still a menace at the time, of course, but it wasn't acting like Wilhelmian Germany yet and was mostly a menace in its own neighborhood.  Of course there was North Korea, like now, which makes a theme out of menacing.

Anyhow, during the Cold War era reservists didn't see much activation for small wars as, for one reason, there weren't very many small wars that the U.S. directly got into, as once it did, they turned into big wars.  So, while the US messed around in central Africa and in Central America, it mostly did it in the late Cold War stage through proxies or clandestinely.  

Once the USSR collapsed, that changed.  In 1980 going into a war in Iraq would have been dicey with the USSR so near.  In 1990, with the Soviet Union folding up, not so much.

So we drilled and trained and went to war games.  But we never shot at Ivan, or Lee, or Chan.  

Which is just fine.

But apparently that's not good enough for the Federal Government if you are seeking employment.

Cold War reservists can't claim veterans status of Federal employment forms.

My supposition is that post Cold War ones called into active service for various wars we've fought since 1990 can, because they were activated and therefore qualify.

Which is odd as Phil and I are veterans for other things.  Indeed, it was once suggested to me that for some sort of vaccination I ought to go to the VA, which wouldn't have occurred to me otherwise.

Is Phil right that this is unfair?

Well, my instinct is that he's right.  We served for six years in a climate which actually was dangerous to some degree.  If there'd been the war we were training for, we would have had to go, and there's a good chance a lot of us wouldn't have come back.  Our combat rating was as high as the Regular Armies, and just because we were also training from home doesn't really make an intrinsic difference in that.  Sgt. Smith serving in the RA at Ft. Sill and Sgt. Smith working at Haliburton in Wyoming both would have seen the same combat experience.  But only one of them is eligible to claim veterans status for Federal employment.

Without knowing for sure, I suspect that some of this is a legacy of really long prejudice in the active military against the Guard, and some of it is lingering prejudice from the Vietnam War.  Thanks to Robert Strange McNamara and his bad of deluded technocrats combined with the bumbling of Lyndon Johnson the Guard was not deployed to the Vietnam War until late.  The irony is that the US used the Guard in every major war of the 20th Century and couldn't have fought any of them, save for Vietnam, without the Guard.

The mishandling of the Army, including its reserve components, during the Vietnam War nearly destroyed the entire Army during the war and didn't lasting damage to the Guard's reputation.  Often missed in the story is that by end of the Vietnam War the U.S. Army was in such bad shape that it was rapidly reaching the point of combat ineffectiveness in the war and it was in a very sorry situation everywhere else.  The Guard had declined during the war as well as it became a haven for those trying to evade active service, although following the war it rapidly became a haven for combat vets that weren't able to adjust back to civilian life, meaning that it had an inordinate number of combat veterans.  By the late 1970s both forces were rebounding and today they're both excellent.

Be that as it may, the intentional decision not to deploy the Guard during the Vietnam War in order to avoid community discontent by removing a large number of men from any one town lead to some prejudice against it that lingered really until the Gulf War.  Never mind that those soldiers who served in it during the Cold War would have been just as likely to die in any major conflict as a soldier of the Regular Army, and also never mind that by and large the US avoided the small wars that its fought since the collapse of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, out of a fear that they'd turn into big wars.  And, as noted, the Regular military has had a prejudice against the Guard that runs back to the 19th Century, even though time and time again its proven unmerited.

So, while I don't know this for certain, I suspect that Guardsmen and Reservists whose Regular service was for training, no matter how long, are dissed in Federal employment due to a legacy of this prejudice.

Or maybe because I was a Guardsmen who holds an Honorable Discharge from the Regular Army, I just think its unfair as Phil does.  A personal connection with things will do that.

I'll note by the way that for some of us, that six years meant a lot more than "drills on weekends and two weeks in the summer".  For one thing, some summer ATs actually run three, not two, weeks in length.  Be that as it may if I include time in which I was simply employed at the armory by the unit in the summer, it's add about eight months of service to my original RA three, which would give me element months.  Add to that actual drill times and training periods outside of the summer, I'm up over that.  I figured once that I had about two years of time, cumulative, serving.

No matter, it wasn't twenty reserve time.  So you can't claim the status for Federal employment purposes.  It doesn't matter if your job was combat arms and the guy you are competing against manned the soft serve ice-cream machine in San Diego. . .he's getting the status and you are not.

Oorah.

The Old Rules on Male/Female Employment remain more than people imagine.

It's really common for articles to appear once per year decrying, and legitimately so, the inequality between the pay of men and women.

It's not that easy of a story, however, as often men's pay is due to their being in occupations that men gravitate towards and women do not, and often they're hard, physical and dangerous jobs.  In Wyoming, where the income inequality is huge, lots of men have in recent decades worked as oilfield roughnecks.

Very few women have.

But it's a well paying job.

Statistics report that women still make less in truly equal positions, such as, supposedly, female lawyers making less then men, but I somewhat doubt those figures and if that was true, it's rapidly ceasing to be true.

The point may be that, in spite of the efforts of the Woke to compel people to believe that all occupations are gender neutral, in reality they aren't, and men and women tend to gravitate towards certain types of employment.

And one of those areas is the home, for women.

I don't mean to suggest that this is a poor choice in any fashion whatsoever, but rather note that this is a reality.

The reason that this came to mind, although I've thought about posting on it before, is also due to a discussion with a friend. The friend just turned 50 years of age and is now really focused on retirement.

It's an odd focus in his case as he has five children and none of them are out of school yet.  None. That means that he has years and years to go in which they'll be in school, and then in university.  I don't know the ages of his younger kids so I don't really know how that plays out, but it would mean that he'd be at least 60.

I'd also note that his wife opted to stay home to raise the five.

In our conversation, he mentioned age 55, but that's not realistic in his case at all  Be that as it may, it turns out to be the case that at age 55, or maybe 55.5, a person can start drawing on their 401K in some fashion.

Now, this isn't retirement advice as I haven't studied this and I don't know what the parameters are, but I hit 55.5 over two years ago and that therefore was an interesting fact.  It was an interesting fact right up until it dawned on me, which was pretty quickly, that my long suffering spouse is a little over ten years younger than I am.

That's significant as when people look at retirement they ought to be looking at the burn rate of their retirement savings.  Will you have enough, that is, to last until you die? 

Nobody really knows when they're going to die, of course, but a person retiring at age 55 probably ought to expect to live at least to their point of life expectancy, if not longer, even though they very will might not.  It'd be the pits to burn through retirement by 65 and then be waiting for the Social Security check to arrive to buy groceries.  Of course, that may well mean that a person in that position may die by 57 and never have retired.  That may sound extreme but my father died at age 62 and he never retired.  For that matter, his father was in his 40s when he died, and my long lived mother's father was 58 when he died.  He was medically retired, however, at the time, not a pleasant situation either.

Anyhow, if you are happily figuring "hey, I'll have enough to retire at 55 if I plan on living until 80, when the last drop of my savings runs out", but your wife is 45. . . . , well perhaps you better rethink that.

And here's where the basic nature of the sexes comes back in.

At least in my generational cohort, a lot of women aren't as well educated as men, and their employment choices are therefore much more limited. They aren't absent, but they're limited.  My wife's a good example.  She has some post high school education, but not at the same level that I do.  

Now, lots of professional men I know have a wife that's also a member of the same profession. They probably met at school or work.  But here's where the difference comes back in again.  I've known a fare number of women who have dropped out of their professional employment in order to stay home with children.  I've known exactly one man, and only one, who has done the same.

Why is that?

Well, that's because its a feature of The Old Law.  It may be the case that society holds that men and women should each have equal employment, but in reality, biology makes this a different matter.  Men can father children, but they can't give birth to them, they aren't physically equipped to feed them when they are infants, and they aren't really emotionally equipped to nurture them when they are young.  They just aren't.  Women are.

Which is an application of biological reality and therefore, fine.

It also means, however that the iron law of male employment is always at work.  

Men have fewer options on employment than women, in existential terms.  Sure, by nature men can be roughnecks and by biology and temperament they're suited to be soldiers, which women are not, in my view.  But they can't just drop out of the work force and stay at home like their wives can.  They cannot.

They also at some point are not only pulling the freight, but for a lot of them are pulling it after they probably shouldn't be, as they have no choice.

Is that unfair?  Well, probably some people reading this, if anyone does, are assuming I'm endorsing unfairness.  Rather, what I'm doing is noting the way of the world.  We may deem it personally unfair in all sorts of ways, but that's the way of the world.  The fact that I have to wear glasses may strike me as unfair, or that the prior two generations of my male ancestors died young and diverted the agricultural directions of our family into the office, twice, may strike me as unfair. But universal fairness isn't part of the deal.

Basic biological reality, i.e., the difference between the sexes, isn't unfair, however.  It just is.  The fact that we ignore this to the extent that we do is because; 1) in an a period of unprecedented societal wealth we can get away with ignoring that to some extent, and 2) in the advance stage of the industrial revolution we live in, we've forced, for a bunch of reasons (many just societal) women into the work force full scale the way we did with men in the late 20th Century and 3) with really advanced technology and outsized industrial might, we haven't had to fight and evenly matched wars or quasi evenly matched wars since the end of the Vietnam War (which was evenly matched in part due to the competence of the NVA, and in part due to the fact that we also had to worry about full scale wars in Europe and South Korea, and elsewhere, the entire time).

So what of that?  Well, not much.  Just that the old existential laws are never far from the surface, no matter how much we might imagine that we're exempt from them.