I have just completed a selection of MANY photos that help to represent our path in 2023. Maybe you will enjoy Perusing the album here.
Friday, January 12, 2024
Family Update 2023
I have just completed a selection of MANY photos that help to represent our path in 2023. Maybe you will enjoy Perusing the album here.
Friday, October 13, 2023
the GENERIC VETERAN
ENJOY SOME HISTORY IN VETERAN'S CHALLENGE CARDS
Monday, August 28, 2023
US Civil War Naval Warfare
The Naval Order of the United States
Ask vic for meeting id and passcode vic@buzzcreek.com
NAVAL ORDER OF THE UNITED STATES
presents
Dwight Hughes
“The Naval Civil War in Theaters Near and Far”
13 September 2023: 2000 EDT
In his classic treatise of strategy, On War, Carl von Clausewitz discussed “different factors of space, mass, and time” related to battle, one of which is “theater of operations.” He defined an operational theater as: “A sector of the total war area which has protected boundaries and so a certain degree of independence.” Protected boundaries might consist of fortifications, natural barriers, or simply distance. Combat theaters of the Civil War are identified as the Eastern, the Western, and the Trans-Mississippi with subordinate campaign theaters in each.
The naval side of the conflict also can be defined in terms of theaters, which interacted with but are distinct from military counterparts. These naval theaters warrant independent consideration as: the Offshore Blockade, Littoral Coasts and Harbors, Heartland Rivers, and the Wide Oceans.
Bounded primarily by land-water interfaces, some wet theaters overlapped terrestrial sectors and extended into the continental core while others stretched beyond familiar battlefields to the far side of the world. Each exhibited unique characteristics and posed exceptional challenges to the United States and Confederate States navies and to their command authorities. Each employed unprecedented technologies, strategies, tactics, and command procedures.
The blockade was a bold and contentious strategy for a novice commander in chief, the largest military campaign of the war. In the littoral, titanic clashes erupted against powerful defenses while the U.S. Navy and Army began to envision joint operations leading to massive amphibious invasions. Naval and military operations converged most thoroughly in the heartland where riverine warfare was invented blending maritime mobility and firepower with hard fighting on land.
More successful than should have been expected, the Confederate Navy focused on underdog strategies: commerce raiding and blockade running at sea, with defense of key fortified positions along interior lines ashore bolstered by asymmetric new technologies including ironclads, torpedoes (mines), and submarines. On the oceans, swift Rebel commerce raiders blended the ancient technology of sail with revolutionary machine propulsion causing immense damage to powerful Yankee shipping and whaling interests.
This presentation introduces naval theaters and discusses their unique strategic, tactical, technological, and command characteristics. Based on an essay in The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War (Savas Beatie, 2023).
About the Speaker: Dwight Hughes is a public historian, author, and speaker in Civil War naval history (www.CivilWarNavyHistory.com). Dwight graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967 and served twenty years as a surface warfare officer including with river forces in Vietnam. He holds an MA in Political Science and an MS in Information Systems Management. Dwight authored A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah (Naval Institute Press, 2015) and Unlike Anything that Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862 (Savas Beatie, 2021). He edited and contributed to The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War (Savas Beatie, 2023). Dwight is a contributing author at the Emerging Civil War blog and has presented at numerous roundtables, historical conferences, and other venues.
Watch this Naval Order History Presentation Zoom Meeting!
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81241470593?pwd=bEVtR1I4RFZNZ3BmWDBtR1dMWG15QT09
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Christmas Letter 2022..
Thursday, September 15, 2022
SENTENCING UNCLE VIC ... (resources)
of local interest as well as the occasional obscure or even popular book from the past if it holds some interest to Uncle Vic (and maybe you). Will attempt to highlight only one or maybe a few sentences. Where possible - links will accompany the mention of these books in the blog here at IN COUNTRY WITH UNCLE VIC ..
Thursday, August 04, 2022
CRUDDS - a tank of thinkers
CRUDDS PAGE ..
CRUDDS
Chumuckla.com
Chumuckla Reprobates Utopian Debate and Discussion Society
SATURDAYS
0800-1000
(usually at Vic's house - Martin Road)
Sometimes we meet at Jay Historical
or other places.
Sponsored By CHUMUCKLA.COM
5-10 is a usual group for coffee
Some of our regulars --
Vic Campbell, Jim Campbell, Richard Youtes, Winston Burnham, Wayne Pannell, James Kilcrease, Diane VanLeer, Dick Miller, Stuart Pooley, Tommy Nichols, John Koch….We avoid politics but sometimes a politician may show up. Discussions on politics might be taken aside from the group but not necessarily. We just have a lot of things that come up to talk about without getting into politics -- much. We have NO AGENDA . We endorse no candidates . We just have a good time and learn things. Local things. Sometimes world things. …………………
Some random CRUDDS-- not all CRUDDS are listed. Guests are welcome .. Text and come on.
James Kilcrease, Richard Youtes, Richard Wood, Emmie Lou Tucker, David Driver, Dom Tascarella, Susan Hornsby, Wesley Roberts, Wayne Pannell, Richard Miller, Vic Campbell, Jim Campbell, Stephen Howell, Paul Campbell, Richard Youtes, Winston Burnham, Wayne Pannell, James Kilcrease, Diane VanLeer, Dick Miller, Stuart Pooley, Emmie Lou Tucker, Dot Germann, Sandra Davis Neal, Dana Doty, Greg Scott, Jeff Bohannon, Tommy Nichols, Norman Chapman, Michele Baxley Hines, Stuart Pooley,
Community Center
Near the SCHOOL
Some of the old timers often have great networks you might tap into. We learned Mr. Pennington and Richard Griner found out both were interested in coming up with a SONG ABOUT CHUMUCKLA. They met and enjoyed some music a couple of years back. The memory of Jim Pennington's song lives on. He passed away in 2023.
The usual folks and anybody else is very welcome.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Blackwater Heritage Trail - The Making Of
On February 1, 1996, the Blackwater Heritage State Trail was officially begun. It remains today, over 25 years later, one of the treasures of Santa Rosa County, used by residents and visitors alike to reach back in time and into nature for a refreshing connection to the land.
Richard Collins, of Chumuckla, was the driving force to achieve this wonderful asset for the citizens of our region. In 1995 he was still a relatively recent Air Force retiree and was looking for a way to serve the people. Over a number of community meetings he found talk of the old railroad bed running North through Milton to be fascinating. He discovered documents regarding grants with the Federal Government and began a quest to find the funding to transform this unused rail bed into a “Rails to Trails” tourism asset.
In 1995 Richard Collins attended a Meeting of Greenway Corridor Connections in Clearwater Florida. Enticing information from maps by Fred Ayer, Director of the Office of Greenways and Trails, encouraged action. These were maps by Gene Ingles, a cartographer out of St Petersburg ,who had a company called Mapquest. The company is still a major player in online maps. The Chumuckla School is now in possession of a laminated color map of Santa Rosa County, prepared by Gene Ingles and presented in 2020. In 2021 and 2022 the Park was enhanced by over a dozen rest points with benches and with 4 stations for bike repair.
The excitement of the project led Richard Collins to a dedication of several years that envelop the trail development in five phases. Richard contributed 8000 volunteer hours on behalf of the Blackwater Heritage Trail. This life contribution was the equivalent of 200 40 hour work weeks … or FOUR YEARS of a typical career.
In May, 1996, William T. Spitzer, Assistant Director National Recreation and Conservation Programs of the Department of the Interior, recognized Richard in Washington DC as a Conservation Hero.
In Richard's career in the Air Force, he visited Texas, Mississippi, Idaho, Newfoundland, Idaho, Massachusetts, Thailand, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Korea, Thailand, Okinawa, Philippines, New York, Vietnam, Thailand, Texas, Massachusetts, England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi.
In 1979, Richard married his Pen Pal. In 1986, he retired and settled in Chumuckla in Santa Rosa County. He put his free time into a heartfelt desire to conserve a legacy. We thank him.
REFERENCES --
FLORIDA PARKS- Blackwater Heritage Trail
PHOTO ALBUM of the TRAIL and HISTORY Documents
REFERENCE PAGE with links to documents.
THE LAND BEFORE
In the rainy months of 1917 the path between the schoolhouse at the Roeville timber camp filled with mud. It was not a great result to the limited conservative wardrobe of the school marm to be exposed to the red and brown hues of the natural wet earth. Dessie, who was a widow woman with a recent teaching certificate from the Florida State College for Women, stepped up onto the log train rails to make her way to the schoolhouse.
The widow Dessie received funding from the Brock family in Pine Log Florida. Their son, Thomas, who was a teacher, died of pneumonia before many years of marriage passed. So, they funded an education to provide Dessie a livelihood. In a letter dated October 1917, Dessie wrote to an admirer in Chumuckla to describe some of the rain issues and the use of the rails to avoid the mud. She would, in late 1918, marry the admirer who was to become the writer's Grandfather.
Jim Campbell and Dessie Lee Howell (Brock) Campbell celebrated the birth of their children in the 1920's in Pace, Florida. From there, another logging rail ran North into the pine forests to transport raw materials for the Pace Lumber Mill, where Jim was a millwright. They lived in a manager's style company house that stood behind what is now Alyssa's Emporium of shops.
The muddy road adventures faded from memory but the letter survived in a box discovered by Kittye Campbell Norris some 35 years since the death of Dessie. That railroad ran from the Bagdad Land and Lumber Company, north through Milton and several logging camps (including Roeville) up to Munson. All these main rails had branches that fed logs of Yellow Pine out of the entire landscape.
That Bagdad Land and Lumber Rail is now the base of the Blackwater Heritage Trail. But, before it became the scenic trail it is today, it served another roll. To meet the demand for Naval Aviators in WWII, Whiting Field was established.
The rail was then rebuilt from an unused base to handle larger cars and freight. It became the main route to deliver aviation gasoline and supplies to Whiting Field. It was a roll the rail accomplished well for decades, until more efficient deliveries by truck became practical. Then, the rail again fell to disuse. It lay unattended and bare of any traffic. The vigor of Florida vegetation was fast erasing all traces of the once critical lifeline to aviation excellence.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Richard Wood tells about Ben Henry Pooley
judgingshaddows.blogspot.com . The story reflects some on the friendship between Wilson and Pooley that deteriorated to a mortally flawed association in later year.
Monday, October 25, 2021
USS FRANKLIN Survival with Sam Rhodes
O'CALLAHAN (DE/FF 1051) have modified our "IRISH BLESSING" to include (if appropriate) following the prayer for those in need (veterans, active or others who need a prayer) a shot of whiskey may be consumed.
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Baseball with Richard Wood and Dick Miller
Richard Wood is a dictionary of sports, especially baseball - whose career went from Air Force to ship captain for offshore service ships for oil rigs. With economic fluctuations in oil, he took on Truck Driving for survival. More recently he has retired from the rigors of the sea and road and uses his time in wise pursuit of fascinating explorations of history.
His blog -- judgingshaddows.blogspot.com is a thriller collection of the wayward lives in our region - mostly before 1950. His facebook posts mirror much of the blog at Panhandle Mysteries and Mayhem. These are great reading materials ... all well researched from the archives of ancient news. .... ENJOY THIS TRIP DOWN MEMORY ROAD for baseball.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
The MULAT map of 1930 and Chapman
Norman Chapman - Vietnam 1965-66 |
Dick Miller - Korea 1950-52 |
Saturday, July 31, 2021
CRUDDS 7/31/21
Friday, June 25, 2021
A Cross for Pace Assembly
Henderson's project began over the past three years, beginning as a project, supplying wood to help his father-in-law honor God and his departed wife with handcrafted crosses.
You can learn more about him (and the crosses) at riverloggers dot com. The special service to present the cross is online at the church website.
Things are looking up for Mr. Henderson. A number of primary contracts and timber related projects are about to show fruit. We wish him well.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
CRUDDS Advanced Provisional Podcasts
CRUDDS -- Chumuckla Reprobate's Utiopian Debate and Discussion Society ...
FEB 20 - 2021 (length 03:14:00)
FEB 13 2021 (Length 03:09:20)
FEB 06 2021 (Length - 02:45 )
JAN 30 2021 (Length - 02:20 )
PODCAST on PODBEAN -- Click. USE the slider to skip to various parts. It is a LONG random discussion of random topics. Be the fly on the wall and sit with us. Get a cup of coffee. Chill out.
AUDIO FILE for this podcast (for now this may be a good way to download and play on your computer. The PODBEAN above may be best for now.
.................. secret handshake waived for the privileged
......................
CRUDDS Participants this date -- Vic Campbell (opinion formulator), Dick Miller Korean War Marine and Inventor, Richard Wood Retired sea captain and writer.
This link opens an AUDIO FILE for this podcast. It is on Google drive. You should be able to play it from your timeline. Use the play-bar to skip along. It may be easier to just download from the podbean site.
Other Podcasts from recent months. Note - some of these discussions last from an hour to two or even three hours in length. Plan of a long listen -- or just skip along and see if something interesting pops up. Topics range from Sports, to business, to unsolved murders in our region (Wood), to a bit (but not much) of politics, to general observations on life -- and more.... Get a cup of coffee and sit back - enjoy the visit with us.
ADDING PODCAST LINKS HERE -- (audio) These will be sorted in time with a brief description of content. ... They will also be edited to take out empty space and irrelevant chatter..... But - for the patient, the content is interesting in the raw form.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Friday, August 07, 2020
Papaw's Corner Post: Upheaval
Papaw's Corner Post: Upheaval: Storms can uproot the strongest of trees. The torrent of rain can weaken what is usually solid ground. Upheaval happens. Period. Unexpecte...
A visit with Marine Legend in Milton - Red James
Veterans Day with some Corpsmen and a Marine
Insight to Dick Miller - Facebook post
Coffee time and checking on the wounded.
Young Marines share with Old Marine
The Shooting Range with Miller
CHOSIN Battle Documentary Night with Dick FB POST
Wednesday, August 05, 2020
CHUMUCKLA NOW: Living Life in the time of Covid - CRUDDS and More
Al Piser and Dick Miller |
Packing for Down Range |
News Clip with Rogene Kilpatrick |
Free PDF copy ... see bottom of page at 12ponder.com