Florida - Georgia Football -and WWII Vet

I interviewed Bill in my documentary on uss houston (buzzcreek.com) .

Bill is one of the very few survivors left from this episode of WWII.

1941 - The Asiatic Fleet - led by the USS Houston - was to take the first hit from the Japanese attacks since they
 were in China and Philippine waters. This was the plan. Then the US Pacific Fleet out of Pearl Harbor would rush out to their aid.

  Well, the Japanese did not read our war plans and they did it all wrong.  So - the Asiatic Fleet and eventually the Combined (what was left) fleet of Allies - faught and died for 3 months until they were all on the bottom of the sea.  A few survived. Most of the Houston crew ended up with "The Bridge on The River Kwai".   A third of those captured died in captivity. 

Since making the documentary years ago - I remain in touch with them.  Their website has been upgraded recently. The one I made for them with the help of a county college class in NJ did yeoman service for years. 

Look up www.usshouston.org   or www.buzzcreek.com and find more references to the Houston and the Asiatic Fleet.   Some of my interviews on my youtube website have survivors from the Asiatic Fleet too ... www. me3tv.org (see the veterans collection).

I hope you'll notice Bill as he is honored along with his long gone shipmates at the GA / FL games.

USS Houston (CA-30) Survivors Association

And Next Generations

www.usshouston.org

From the organization:  "We’ve received word that USS Houston (CA-30) Survivor Bill Ingram, USN will be honored during the pregame activities of the upcoming University of Florida vs. University of Georgia football game. The game will be televised, on Saturday, November 2, 2013.  (a friend t spoke with Bill l and he said he was so excited that he didn’t think he would be able to sleep.Our best wishes to Bill…!)"

Senate and House Majorities over time

This chart is VERY instructive. When Democrats have held the majority for most of last 80 years - they have had reasonably large to modest margins of control. When Republicans held the majorities, their margins were very slim. It only takes a few "liberal" Republicans to erase the advantage of a majority. The Senate had a famous "gang of five" liberal Republicans that weakened the value of the majority under Bush. The result was continuing heavy domestic spending and liberal public policy - much of which lead to the massive financial crash (which of course is blamed on Bush - along with the wars that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks - masterminded by a terrorist who Clinton felt was not important enough to capture when he had the chance). Republicans consistently fail to support their party in off year elections or when candidates fail to meet single issue demands of large voter blocks.

Combined--Control_of_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives_-_Control_of_the_U.S._Senate.png (1399�706)

The dead in SAND ART - D-DAY

A tribute to the fallen of June 6, 1944 - D-DAY.
http://coastalcare.org/2013/09/artists-pay-beach-art-tribute-to-wwii-fallen-in-normandy/

MORE HERE

Route 66 Photo Gallery And Essay

Martin Mathis' Route 66 Photo Gallery And Essay

We are travelling Route 66 in October and wish we could catch all the great shots this fan did !

1972 News and Combat - Navy

In late 1972 and early 1973, the USS O'Callahan was often in combat up and down the Vietnam coast in support of ground troops or air combat elements. The primary location was near the DMZ (between the two Vietnams) usually supporting South Vietnamese Marines or dueling with shore based counter battery.  This AUDIO collection (with a few supporting pictures) is about 40 minutes long. The first HALF is essentially news from the period - a lot of it prior to Chrismas, 1972. The last HALF is a collection of audio recordings taken with a portable recorder tucked in my jacket in the pilot house of the ship where I stood my combat watches.  IF you can make out the gravely radio talk you'll hear call for fire and damage assessment reports. I did not record ALL the gunfire - so if you hear a call for ten rounds and only hear one or two it is because I was stopping the recorder to conserve battery juice. Other ship call signs are heard. Ours is IRISH SONG. I think SKIP ROPE is the overall boss of the gunfire for the five ships on the gunline. At the very end is a GQ alarm and also a sonar whistle just for reference. Typical chatter and noises from a ship underway. Enjoy.

Why I read the newspapers

http://imgur.com/a/DzX0x (click link to see more)

That is one BIG star ! The size of the universe is astounding.

by nihokrauss.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Kilpatrick Collection

1. Here is a photo collection from my cousins, the Kilpatricks of Chumuckla, FL. One of my favorites, here, shows a young Rodney Kilpatrick holding a chicken for slaughter. It is a classic. Rodney was a much loved and appreciated young family man in our town, who died of a heart attack at a young age.

Why Russians have Dashcams

Второй день рождения - YouTube
Looks like nearly everyone here survived and you wonder how.

Iwo Jima - Air Base

Iwo Jima - Mark - Picasa Web Albums
Pictures of Fighter squadrons at Iwo Jima - WWII

AMAZING WW2 pics Navy/Marines

AMAZING WW2 pics Navy/Marines - AR15.Com Archive

Images from WWII that are forever a memory.

Last Days of Vietnam War

WARTIME AUDIO with PHOTOS -- Some of my shipmates taped the news broadcast off Armed Forces Radio as we carried out various war related tasks at the end of the Vietnam War. The broadcast preserved here is like a microcosm of 20th Century history.  Plus Christmas music. And then - Gunfire. I sneaked a microphone in my jacket in the pilothouse and surreptitiously taped the voices on the bridge and from over the radio and sound powered phones.  It is a bit haunting now - 40 years later. I remember talking to WWII veterans 40 years after that war and thinking -- man ... these guys are really OLD! (Into the gunfire missions - note: there are numerous little blip sounds -- these are when I turned off the tape recorder to preserve battery or to avoid discovery - ) ( I am sure it was illegal with the secret radio voice traffic). Most of our missions at this time were gunfire support off the DMZ region - and mainly supporting South Vietnamese Marines -as nearly all US troops were out of this area by then. We had a week or so North around Haiphong Harbor to assist with B-52 bombers that were shot down in those Christmas bombing raids. (the news segment fills in some blanks there ). None of those bombers made it to "feet wet" so they could be rescued.

Chevy Billboards in Detroit, Michigan

Chevy Billboards in Detroit, Michigan
Check this blog out. Great memories from old cars.

Lambrecht Chevrolet collection

Video: Mother of all barn finds — the Lambrecht Chevrolet collection | Mac's Motor City Garage
Here is a real treat - a LOST COLLECTION of cars goes to auction. Watch the video from the link.

Chloe Channel - Wows With Cover of Carrie Underwood's "American Girl" - ...

a Genuine HOMETOWN girl from CHUMUCKLA, Florida. (well, Pace, but 12 mile up the road is where she was a big hit at the Farmer's Opry from age 7.

Ebbing, a poem by Caroline Spencer

Ebbing, a poem by Caroline Spencer
Was sent by an old sailor. Seems to fit

Joel Paris: Vietnam Veteran

Joel Paris: Vietnam Veteran
This video is offered by HISTORICAL TRUTH 101.
This man is a submarine veteran and a Vietnam Veteran

Photo of my Mother In Law - ca 1940

3x5 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

I played some with this picture in photoshop. The original was blurry but it has great composition. This is my mother-in-law - about age 16 at her home in Atlanta. She was raised there but all her family roots are here near Milton, FL and she taught school here and retired and was a Methodist minister in the region and retired. She is now 89. "Here I come world !"

WWII Aircraft Photo's

Mission4Today › ForumsPro › R & R Forums › Photo Galleries › WWII Aircraft Photo's › USA
You can spend hours just admiring the planes here - and the photography.

A Father's War Stories

My Father's War Stories from World War II: Part One | BobMcCarty.com
A blog containing one soldiers's documentation of WWII. I thought I would pass this along from my friend, Richard Simms whose dad was killed in a bomb attack on USS Franklin near the end of the war.  Richard has a comedy Banjo act that he often puts on for soldiers in transit at Dallas FW Airport.

The Path of the Warrior

Memorial Day

Sweeney Bayou Song

The Milton Sunrise Kiwanis Club had a hayride in April on a farm in Chumuckla. Don Sweeney was the entertainment, providing a number of country and folk songs on the ride and afterward.  Most of his songs are written and arranged by himself.  He bills himself as a singer, songwriter and storyteller. His phone number is 850-554-5154.  The Sunrise Kiwanis has breakfast at 7AM every Wednesday a Tanglewood Golf Course in Milton. Consider being involved with a community minded group like this.
PS - Uncle Vic got to be the tractor driver !

RuralSWAlabama's photostream

RuralSWAlabama's photostream on Flickr.

Someone posted a photo from this page on Facebook and I found it very interesting. This is a region very important to the initial US development of NW Florida because so many of the American colonizers moved through or settled in this region first. I hope we can develop such a good collection of historic rural NW Florida homes.

Apalachicola, At LAST (Pay attention Hernando)

.... ... (click HERE for the full series, read bottom post first)

The very next day, we drove over to Apalachicola where the bay of wonder oysters are soaking up the

somewhat massive flow of  fresh water out of Georgia and Alabama. The Flint and Chattahoochee rivers join up nearBainbridge Georgia and form the Apalachicola. DeSoto found this path and followed it as far as reasonable up North. As it turns out – to this very day, the Indians of that area, who were called the Apalachee and the Apalachicola, live on as the name for the whole water basin and mountain chain that knifes its way all the way to Maine. DeSoto sent his Captain of Infantry, Maldonado, by ship to the bay of Achusi (Pensacola - probably on Mulat Bayou) to meet him with a resupply of provisions at some later date. He came close - but after a battle with the Tuscaluza  at  Movila (Mobile) he turned his party North (again)  toward Tennessee and West to the Mississippi River.So, DeSoto totally missed Maldonado's camp by only a few days march, and later ran into mortal disaster further West. The Indian deaths in this and the prior Naravez expedition were horrific but inconsequential when you consider the likely millions in the Americas who died over the next 50 years from contagious pathogens unwittingly spread among a population with zero resistance.

 DeSoto never got much further North than the base of the Appalachian foothills before he headed West but the name stuck. A lot of people walk the trail every year and have no clue that way down South where the streams flow into the Gulf, is a town and a bay anchoring their Appalachian path.

I mentioned earlier (in this blog)  about the Chattahoochee River, bordering Georgia and Alabama. The idyllic Town of Eufala, Alabama is bordered by those waters that flow to an oyster paradise. 
The headwaters of the Chattahoochee begin North of Gainesville, Georgia and form Lake Lanier. When a drought condition exists, Lake Lanier has to dump all its water out to help feed the oysters in Florida. Sometimes the cotton 

and cattle in Georgia take priority and the oysters get only a half glass, which is probably seen as half full by the Cattlemen in Georgia (and Alabama).

I can see a time coming when the Oyster Wars break out along the Tri-State borders for Florida, Alabama and Georgia. It will be like the old wild west Sheep wars of the 19^th century, with a battle of Oyster-men vs Cotton Farmers vs Cattlemen – and maybe sail boat enthusiasts from Lake Lanier and Bass fishermen from Lake Walter George. Bring your own oyster knife.

This is only the start of THE OLD FLORIDA tour and I will cover more of Apalachicola in the next post. Be sure to follow the links in the blog - it may become habitually entertaining. Scroll down the blog for earlier posts.

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