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Crew of the U.S. Navy PC 558
My Uncle is one of the crew pictured here on the US Navy PC 558. His name was Gerald Griffin. I’m not sure which one is him though. If anyone knows, contact me and let me know. Here is a list of the PC 558′s crew members.
According to this link about the sinking of the PC 558, she was sunk by the German submarine, U-230, 28 miles northeast of Palermo, Sicily. Here is an account from the book History of United States Naval Operations in World War II by Samuel Eliot Morison. The PC 558 had sank 2 lethal mini-subs and discovered that they were easy to spot and easy to destroy if were looking for the small domes in the water.
Here is a photo of the crew.
Crew Of The US Navy PC 558.
Obama’s Firsts
Obama has been the first to do many things other than his most famous obvious first.
Here is a great list that marks all of Obama’s historic first accomplishments.
SOPA, More Problem, Reaction, Solution.
I’ve been trying to get a grasp on SOPA. I haven’t said much about it for lack of a full understanding. Then, I seen the video below. As annoying as this guy is, he’s got it right. It’s the same routine that I see so often of “Problem, Reaction, Solution”. Here’s how SOPA works.
- Major media players support, promote, and distribute file sharing software through their websites like C|Net. They did this for many years. There’s the problem.
- They cry foul that their content is being distributed on the software that they promoted in the first place. Here’s their victim status reaction.
- Then for the solution, the lobby for SOPA that will destroy the competition on the web that is currently scaring the bejesus out of them. Nearly every form of major media has lost many of their audience.
Now that all major media outlets are consolidated and controlled, it’s time to put a stop to their competition. They think they’ve given us all enough rope that they can now hang us with some new laws and return to their former monopolized greatness.
The only good that I can see from all of this is that maybe, must maybe, people can see that the “Problem, creation, solution” business is not just a conspiracy theory, it happens over and over again. Look at Penn State for example. Look at Obamacare! Health insurance companies are the most heavily regulated business there is, yet government is going to fix the problems that they create? Maybe SOPA will get people streetwise to what is being done to their freedoms.
Watch and share this video.
Possum Living. An Interesting Old Book About Living Cheap.
I recently found a book called Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money
It’s a detailed how-to book where an 18 year old lady writes about how to survive without a real job. Considering it’s from an 18 year old’s perspective, the book is very insightful. It covers how her and her father lived on the cheap and survived with very little income. They raised their own food, created their own heat, owned their home, and managed fairly well.
In my opinion, the book doesn’t live up to the title for the average person. Most are not willing to go to the extremes that Dolly and her father did. In some cases, they were breaking the law. What this book does do is make you ask the question, “What would I do with no job?”. Could you raise your own food? Do you have the basic skills to survive? Could stay away from government dependency? Dolly provides some ways that they did it in in a rural area in 1973, but what would you do in a modern suburban environment. Are you using your resources wisely that you have now? Are you using your skills to save money now?
After reading the book, I’ve reconsidered my lifestyle. No, I’m not planning on getting off the grid, but I do think that the more capabilities one has to do without it, the better off they are in general. When you consider that our entire lifestyle is tied to a system of wires and pipes and that system is tied to an complex grid that few of us understand, I don’t think it’s out or the realm of a reasonable person to consider wise alternatives. Not only does it explain how to live off of the grid, there are some ideas about health, education, cooking, and how nearly every area of life can be simplified when the desire or need is there.
It’s a great book for the money and it’s sure to spark some ideas. The first idea it sparked with me was that I needed to get organized. I actually have some of things that are mentioned in the book, but I can’t even find them. In the process of cleaning the house up, I’ve been throwing out some things that I could have done without and that’s money that could still be sitting in my bank account. Lesson learned and onto a simpler way of life.
A Marine Who Couldn’t Forget the Sacrifice of Another
I received an e-mail alerting me that an ex-Marine would like to speak with anyone who was a relative of Corporal Harry Lawrence Spearman, U.S.M.C who died in Korea on Oct. 23, 1951. They stated that my Uncle had saved the life of Glen Finley while serving with Easy Company 2-7 and that he would like to express his gratitude for the sacrifice made.
Most of my young life, Sunday was the day we went to see Grandpa. There were pictures of an Uncle I never met. They told me he was killed in a war. They explained war to me. Of course, that led to how? What was the exact situation? What was he doing? Was he a hero? Nobody really knew the answers. War is chaotic and many times there isn’t time to write the long detailed letters explaining what happened.
When I turned 18, I joined. I admired the sacrifices of my many uncles, the ones who died and who didn’t. I couldn’t think of anything more honorable to do than to serve your country. What were the alternatives? Setting in a classroom going stir crazy in hopes of landing a job, delivering pizzas? I knew that wasn’t going to cut it. Off I went to join the ranks of so many others. I did my thing, but those who went before us always had a place of honor in my heart and mind. The honor and traditions they passed down ran deep and allowed me to participate in the greatest armed forces ever. The history of what happened with them should be just as important as anyone else’s in our country’s history, but there are just far to many stories for the historians to keep track of.
Finding the exact accounts of one of my uncle Bud Griffin when the PC-558 was sank led me to believe that I could find accounts for all of the others. The Army and Marines didn’t keep good records though. All that you really have to go on is the accounts of the men that were with them. In Lawrence’s case, there wasn’t anything.
I was excited to hear from Glenn Finley. Minutes after returning the e-mail with my information, I had a phone call from him. He said that he’d lived with the guilt all of his life that Spearman guarded him from the shrapnel from a mortar round. He said that their platoon sighted Chinese troops and rushed to get into a position to kill them. He and Lawrence were both lean and fast and the rest of the platoon could not keep up with them. They got into position with a BAR machine gun and started to take the Chinese out. He said they counted 20 dead in the area that they fired on. All of their firing at night gave away their position and mortar fire started to zero in on them. Lawrence covered him as a round hit and the shrapnel killed Lawrence, but left Mr. Finley with only minor wounds.
Finley said it took himself and 2 other men to carry Lawrence to the ambulance as he was such a tall and big man. My Uncle had only been in their unit for 3 days, but Finley remembered everything about him all of this time. He knew that he was from Sunbury, Ohio and verified that when he came across a classmate of Lawrence’s and found him in their high school yearbook.
Finley said that after he came home, he had a rough time. He had caught malaria and nobody could find the problem. Doctors here didn’t know that they had to take blood while the fever was high in order to diagnose it. They kept taking his after the fever had left. He had numerous wounds. Even with all of this, he managed to find a doctor that would ok him for service with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Finley said his proudest moment with The Highway Patrol was an incident where a car was stolen with a baby inside it while the mother had went into a bar. He spotted the car and followed the drivers to their home. He asked the men to step out of the house and questioned them about the car and they denied knowing how it got there. He and another trooper convinced them through unorthodox methods that they would show them where the baby was. It was November and they convinced the thieves to take them to the baby where they had placed it in a dumpster in an alley. I asked him if he got an award for that and he said that another trooper got shot that month and stole the spotlight, so no award.
He went on to become a federal agent for the U.S. Treasury. After that, he got a job with a large insurance agency based in Akron, Ohio. He was proud of the agency that he ran in Indianapolis and said that he worked with some fine people there.
We talked about many things in a short period. We both agreed Obama has placed our nation in a grave situation and neither of us are happy with it at all. He said that he fears for young voters that would choose Obama for the reasons that they did. He said Gingerich was our best bet as far as he could tell, but wasn’t sure. I think I got him converted to Ron Paul now though. It didn’t take long for us to make friends. I hope our talk helped his soul rest easier. Imagine feeling guilty for actions like he had to go through! Thinking maybe it would have been best if you took that lethal hit?
I’m sure our family suffered the loss of a great man. I never knew him of course, but Uncle Lawrence had served and survived World War 2. He volunteered to go to Korea. I’m certain that he understood the dangers. There’s no doubt. It is great to know that his sacrifice went to a man that was deserving of it. Mr. Finley took drunks off the road, saved a baby’s life, went after thieves while working for the government, and then served his community and employees as a businessman. He raised a son too. My uncle’s simple protective move allowed all of that to happen. There probably wasn’t even time to think about it, just an instinctive move. Who knows really? All we need to know is that both of them were the type of men to charge ahead and take to the fight.
It causes me to pause and think about the people that have sacrified for all of us. I’m honored to know that one of my family members acted with such heroism. It reminds me of John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”. This is true, but how do we live up to their sacrifice? It’s a question that Glenn Finley has been searching for answers to all his life. At 79, 60 years after this incident, he’s still expressing his gratitude for that sacrifice. God bless you Mr. Finley, I’m sure you were worthy of it.
Ron Paul Makes His Stand on Chicken Hawks
This is one of the most important charges Ron Paul has made and it’s a point that pissed me off ever since I can remember paying attention to politics.
Ron Paul discusses Chicken Hawks. Image via Wikipedia
Chicken Hawks are a nasty breed of animals. They do not serve themselves and make all sorts of excuses for why the didn’t. That’s not so bad. Lots of people don’t serve for one reason or another. What makes Chicken Hawks bad is that they take it a step further by not even bothering to demand a Declaration of War before sending troops to die. They are willing to hang everyone else’s ass out on the line to satisfy their whims, but they wouldn’t dream of doing it themselves. They don’t take the careful considerations required and abide by the Constitution to put others in harms way because they have no idea of the gravity of their actions. They don’t understand the sacrifices others will make on both sides of the conflict. When you trace the money, they are always invested or have deep interest in the companies profiting from the actions too.
We need to root out these folks and Ron Paul did a fine job with Newt Gingerich. His logic applies to Obama, Santorum, Romney, and every other politician that is much more than willing to send troops to battle in undeclared actions that they themselves would never do.
And by the way, Iraq was not a declared war. It was a resolution by Congress that authorized the use of force in Iraq. It was severely limited and those limitations drew out the war for many years and caused the needless deaths of many Americans. In a declared war, the government is required to apply full efforts to winning the war.
It’s clear that this really gets Ron Paul flustered and rightfully so. I’ve been doing some research on Chicken Hawks and I found that Donald Trump received 5 deferments, so that’s probably who Paul is referring to with 5. This post explains Gingrich’s position. He had deferments by default being a student and children, but that doesn’t mean he could not have been called up(I don’t know of any record showing he was) and he certainly could have joined BEFORE he had children. Ron Paul isn’t faulting him for the deferments, he’s faulting him for supporting undeclared wars when he himself wouldn’t fight in one when he had the opportunity.
So, who am I rooting for? Certainly not any Chicken Hawks. Rick Perry isn’t a Chicken Hawk, he served, but he lacks the experience and knowledge of The Constitution that Ron Paul has.
Related articles
- Ron Paul: Newt ‘Chickened Out’ (huffingtonpost.com)
- Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich Tangle on Foreign Policy (thehollywoodgossip.com)
- CHOICE = Ron Paul !!! (2012patriot.wordpress.com)
- The Ron Paul effect: How he is altering Republican primary calculus (barbaradiamond.blogspot.com)
Go Anywhere Motorcycles
Here’s a look at 3 big bore dual sport motorcycles that can go anywhere or do anything.
- BMW R1200 GS – Best On Road at about $18,000
- KTM 990 – Best Off Road at about $14,000
- Yamaha Tenere – An even split for road/off-road at about $14,000
Google+, I’m Starting to Get It
Image by Aray Chen via Flickr
I’m starting to realize what Google+ is good for and it’s a great social tool once you realize it. The number one thing I’ve realized is that it’s not a competitor with Facebook. I was trying to look at it that way and this view will ruin your experience with Google+. Facebook is for checking to see what you’re friends are up to, Google+ is for your interests and passions your following.
Google+ is better because it’s searchable. Facebook’s search is lacking. The only thing Facebook’s search was good for was typing in a name and finding who you were looking for. It would just act weird for anything else. With Google+, you actually find posts and profiles that relate to your search! Using this, you find other users with the same interests that you have.
With Facebook, you get the sense that you should know the people in your friends list. Everything posted goes out to everyone on the list. Sure, there are privacy concerns, but what if it’s not about privacy? For example, I like motorcycles and photography, but there are many on my Facebook list that could care less about it. If I’m posting about these interests all of the time, they’re going to see it in their feed. If they see them to much, they’ll just ignore or delete me because I’m jamming their feed with things they don’t care about. Google+ solved this problem with Circles.
Circles allow me to organize post coming in and going out. Let’s say someone likes spouting off drama and posting photos of cats. I like the person, but I could care less about their marriage problems or their cats most of the time. However, just in case I really need to see one of these posts, I can place them in a rarely checked drama circle and a cat photo circle. Also, this person can create a drama and cat circle if they want and post these only to the friends they know will appreciate drama and cats.
With circles, you can limit the amount of personal interaction. With Facebook, there is a feeling that someone is actually a friend, with Google+, adding them to a Circle is just showing that you have some of the same interests.
To get the most out of Google+, search your interests, circle many people that have that interest, then your incoming feeds will start to turn into a worthwhile look. There really isn’t that much of a learning curve and if you do it wrong, circles are easy to correct. Some areas of interest are taking off much faster than others with photography being an example of an interest with a huge amount of followers.
Related articles
- Find Out Who Removed You on Google Plus Circles (madrasgeek.com)
- Why Google+ is Not the Facebook Killer it Wanted to Be (geeknewscentral.com)
- How To Use Google+ (readwriteweb.com)
