Archive for June, 2020
FRIDAY FOTO (June 26, 2020)
The Stars of Africa.
( U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Shawn White)
Even in a strife-riven place like the Horn of Africa, the stars at night are beautiful, humbling.
This photo of a soldier providing security for an Air Force C-130J Super Hercules in Somalia, was taken June 10, 2020.
SHAKO: The First Junteenth
How the Jubilee Came to Be.
It’s June 19, or Juneteenth, – the holiday marking the last gasp of legal slavery in the United States. What started out as a holiday in Texas has been gaining recognition and popularity — especially in this very troubled time of police shootings, protest marches and the still evolving reckoning about the place of race in American history.
At 4GWAR, we thought we’d take a look at the events that led to the Juneteenth tradition in the waning days of the Civil War — harking back to a posting we created in 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865 did not end the Civil War. There were still two active rebel armies, one in North Carolina commanded by Joseph Johnston and another in the West commanded by Edmund Kirby Smith. Johnston surrendered in North Carolina n April 26 and Kirby Smith surrendered on May 26 in Texas.
Statue honoring the 62nd and 65th U.S. Colored Infantry regiments at Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri. The 62nd USCI fought at Palmito Ranch.
The last battle of the Civil War was fought at Palmito Ranch on the Rio Grande in Texas on May 12-13. By the way, the Confederates won that battle.
But that still didn’t end slavery in Texas, the seventh of 11 states to secede from the Union. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 when U.S. Major General Gordon Granger sailed across Galveston Bay with 1,800 Union troops and announced his General Order No. 3, that slavery was abolished in the farthest reaches of the Southwest.
It informed the people of Texas, that “in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States (President Lincoln), all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”
Until then, the estimated 250,000 slaves in Texas did not know that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed them — and all the other slaves in states in open rebellion against Washington, as of January 1863. It’s important to note that the Emancipation Proclamation couldn’t be enforced until Union troops gained control of each state that had left the Union. The last major Union thrust west of the Mississippi River from Louisiana had ended in failure in May 1864.
The date, June 19th — or Juneteenth — has grown into a significant holiday for African-Americans to celebrate freedom and it may in future years become national celebration of freedom,
FRIDAY FOTO (June 19, 2020)
Wind Beneath My Wings.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Emerson Nuñez)
A U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle flies over an offshore wind farm after aerial refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker near the English coastline on April 23, 2020.
The fighter is assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF (Royal Air Force) Lakenheath, United Kingdom.
We’re not sure where this offshore wind farm is located — there are more than 30 around the island of Great Britain — but from the number of rows in the photo, it could be this one.
FRIDAY FOTO (June 12, 2020)
Back at Work Again.
F/A-18 Super Hornets fly in formation over the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during operations in the Philippine Sea on June 9, 2020.
The TR, as the Nimitz-class, nuclear powered carrier is known, was the first U.S. Navy warship to endure an outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 while at sea.
After several Sailors tested positive for the virus, the ship pulled into Guam on March 27 and was sidelined there for more than two months. Most of the nearly 5,000 crew members were transferred off the ship — either to hospitals for treatment, or isolation in barracks and hotels on the island.
Before the ordeal was over, more than 1,100 Sailors were sickened and one died. A political firestorm sprang up when the skipper’s letter to Navy leaders seeking a quicker response to the crisis was leaked to the press. That led to the captain being relieved of command and the resignation of the acting Navy Secretary who fired him.
The TR returned to sea May 21 with a partial crew for a shakedown cruise to re-certify the carrier’s air wing and flight deck operations. After returning to pick up the rest of the crew, who now tested negative for COVID-19, the TR departed Guam on June 4 to resume its mission in the Asia-Pacific region.
FRIDAY FOTO (June 5, 2020)
A Flock of Ospreys.
MV-22B Ospreys, from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268, participate in a training exercise over the island of Oahu, Hawaii on May 28, 2020.
The flight allowed Marines of VMM-268 — part of Marine Aircraft Group 24 — the opportunity to train in mission essential tasks, increasing proficiency and ensuring overall readiness for the unit.
The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft that can take off and land in a confined space like a helicopter, but once aloft, the engines tilt horizontally allowing the Osprey to fly like a turboprop airplane, at speeds and range greater than a helicopter.
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