Archive for November, 2022
FRIDAY FOTO (November 25, 2022)
HORSELESS HORSEMEN.
(U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Gavin K. Ching)
Soldiers from the British Army’s Royal Horse Artillery and the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division call for fire support during a live fire exercise with NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Poland. Despite their storied histories dating back to the days of horse-drawn cannon and boots and saddles bugle calls, there was nary a horse in sight at Toruń, Poland when this photo was taken on November 3, 2022.
The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide mobile artillery support to the fast moving cavalry units. It served in the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as in the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Anglo-Zulu War, Boer War and the First and Second World Wars. Horses are still in service for ceremonial purposes, but were phased out from operational deployment in the 1930s.
The 1st Cavalry Division is a combined arms division based at Fort Hood, Texas. It was formed in 1921 largely from horse cavalry regiments and other units dating back to the Indian Wars of the America West. The division served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the Stabilization Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan and in Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. A horseback cavalry division until 1943, the 1st Cav has since been an infantry division, an air assault division and an armored division. A black horse head above a diagonal black stripe continues to adorn the division’s uniform shoulder patch. While its troops operate battle tanks and armored vehicles now, the 1st Cavalry Division also has a mounted ceremonial unit.
Pictured in this photo are soldiers assigned to the 1st Platoon, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division; United Kingdom soldiers assigned to N Battery, Eagle Troop, Royal Horse Artillery.
The United States and allies in NATO have made reinforcing Poland and the nearby Baltic states a focal point since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, U.S. tanks from units rotating overseas have been a consistent forward presence in Poland, home to the Army’s V Corps at Camp Kościuszko.
SHAKO: How Thanksgiving Started In the Midst of a Terrible War
THANKGIVING: THEN AND NOW.
Thanksgiving Day 1863 as envisioned in Harper’s Weekly.
Maybe you’ve already read or heard some of the annual Thanksgiving Day news pieces about the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts or about what they really ate at that first thanksgiving meal — and who was or wasn’t there — or how President Franklin D. Roosevelt was persuaded by the retail industry to move the holiday up a week in 1939 — to extend the Christmas shopping season and bolster the economic recovery from the Great Depression.
But here at the 4GWAR blog, we’re mindful that the first official national day of Thanksgiving came in the midst of a terrible Civil War that had cost thousands of lives and, in 1863, was still far from over. It seems remarkable that President Abraham Lincoln decided what the country needed to do was pause and consider what it did have to be thankful for despite all the carnage.
As we have done on previous Thanksgiving mornings, we present what Mr. Lincoln had to say about all that 159 years ago.
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
“Peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union,” not a bad goal to pray for this Thanksgiving.
U.S. Army drill sergeants serve an early Thanksgiving meal to trainees of Company B, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on November 23, 2022. (U.S. Army photo by Robert Timmons.)
By the way, it’s important to note the call for a day of national thanksgiving was first raised by prominent writer and editor, Sarah Josepha Hale.
Happy Thanksgiving — and safe travels — from 4GWAR!
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
FRIDAY FOTO (NOVEMBER 18, 2022)
BEGINNING THE NIGHT SHIFT.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Dhruv Gopinath)
A U.S. Air Force pilot performs preflight checks on an F-15E Strike Eagle prior to night flying exercises at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England on November 9, 2022.
An array of avionics and electronics systems gives the F-15E has the capability to fight at low altitude, day or night and in all weather.
The pilot is assigned to the 492nd Fighter Squadron, nicknamed “the Bolars” and “the Madhatters”, is part of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath.
FRIDAY FOTO (November 11, 2022)
INTO THE STORM.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nolan Pennington) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Sailors assigned to the newest U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, prepare for flight operations while transiting through a storm on October 18, 2022.
The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (CSG) joined six NATO allies for exercise Silent Wolverine in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean on November 8, 2022. Exercise participants include Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, as well as the United States.
“Silent Wolverine demonstrates our commitment to deepening interoperability with our allies and partners, while testing the advanced, cutting-edge warfighting capabilities of the Ford-class aircraft carrier in a highly relevant operational environment,” says Admiral Stuart Munsch, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa. Munsch also heads Allied Joint Force Command Naples.
The Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the first of the eponymous Ford-class, is an advanced carrier incorporating 23 new technologies demonstrating significant advances in propulsion, power generation, ordnance handling, and aircraft launch systems. The Ford-class aircraft carrier generates an increased aircraft launch and recovery capability with a 20 percent smaller crew than the 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The Silent Wolverine deployment will test Ford’s operational readiness and future ability to support the requirements of combatant commands, like European Command (EUCOM) and Africa Command (AFRICOM).
The Ford strike group includes the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60), and Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS McFaul (DDG 74), and USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116). The Ford strike group is conducting its first deployment to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.
The U.S. Navy increased its presence in European waters late last year when Russia began massing troops on Ukraine’s border, even before the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
VETERANS DAY/ARMISTICE DAY (November 11, 2022)
BIG FLAG, BIG CROWD, BIG DAY.
A previous Veteran’s Day Parade in New York City (Defense Department photo) Click on all of the photos to enlarge the images.
In late May, on Memorial Day, America remembers the honored dead, those who gave their lives in this country’s wars since 1775.
On Veteran’s Day every November, Americans honor the living who served or continue to serve in uniform. November 11 is the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I – the “War to End All Wars” in 1918. Unfortunately, history has proven that was an overly optimistic term for what turned out to be just the First World War.
Crowd in Philadelphia celebrates first word of peace on November 11, 1918. (Photo: Library of Philadelphia via Wikipedia)
In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.
On May 13, 1938, Congress made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day,” primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I. But veterans of World War II and the Korean War urged Congress to change the holiday’s name to recognize their service. And on June, 1954 Congress amended the 1938 law, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans” and making November 11th a day to honor American veterans of all wars, according to the U.S. Veterans Administration.
After years of bloodshed in the 20th and early 21st centuries, we’d like to pause and remember the sacrifice of all those who serve their country in both war and peace. Even far from a combat zone, many of them have risky jobs on aircraft carrier decks, in fast moving Humvees and high flying aircraft. There is hard work, as well as danger, in airplane hangars and ships at sea. Depots and warehouses are stuffed with equipment and supplies that, improperly stored or transported, can blow up, burn, sicken or maim the humans working nearby.
It’s also a time to reflect on the sacrifices of veterans’ families who, like the people in the photos below, suffer the absence of a loved one for months — or longer.
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Yvette Knoepke is greeted by family members at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, after returning from a six-month deployment, October 2, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jacquelin Frost)
An Air Force captain reunites with his family at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina on October 15, 2022, after an overseas deployment (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kevin Holloway)
A sailor assigned to the USS Harry S. Truman greets family upon returning to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia September 12, 2022 from deployment overseas with the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleets. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan T. Beard)
SHAKO: U.S. Marine Corps Turns 247
HAPPY BIRTHDAY USMC
On this day, November 10, 247 years ago the Congress of Britain’s 13 American colonies decided it was time to start looking for a “a few good men” who could fight on land and sea.
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia. The memorial was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since 1775. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Master Sergeant Adrian Cadiz) Click on photo to enlarge image
The Marine Corps was created by the Second Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 and since 1921, Marines around the world have celebrated the Corps’ founding under Marine Corps Order No. 47, Series 1921, issued by then-Commandant Major General John LeJeune. His order summarized the history, tradition and mission of the Marine Corps and directed that the order be read to every command on every subsequent November 10, the Marine Corps Birthday.
Since the 1950s, the Marines have marked the occasion with a birthday celebration and a cake cutting ceremony, where a senior Marine Corps officer slices the cake — usually with the traditional Mameluke officer’s sword, commemorating the Marines’ first overseas action near the shores of Tripoli in 1805. The first slice of cake is handed to the oldest Marine present. That senior Leatherneck then hands the slice to the youngest Marine on site.
In the photo below, retired Marine Colonel Frank Harris III, representing the oldest Marine during the ceremony at Marine Corps Base Quantico (MCBQ), receives a piece of cake from the base commander, Colonel Michael Brooks, at at MCBQ’s Butler Stadium on November 9, 2022.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Eric Huynh) Click on photo to enlarge.
After Congress ordered the establishment of two battalions of Marines in late 1775, Captain (later Major) Samuel Nichols — considered the Corps’ first commandant — advertised in and around Philadelphia for “a few good men” and signed them up at Tun Tavern in that city. Those early Marines first saw action in the Bahamas in a March 3, 1776 raid
Three days before this year’s birthday celebration, General David Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps, advised his troops to “prepare for uncertainty.”
“When called, we will fight and we will win — today, tomorrow, and in the future,” Berger said in a video message released on YouTube and elsewhere. “These victories are not won by our technology or our equipment, but because of all of you, because of everything you do every day to remain the best trained, the most professional, most ready force in the world. That has not changed.”
The Marine Corps has made drastic changes in force size, composition and weapons to meet emerging threats in the coming decade, primarily from China. With his Force Design 2030 plan, Berger seeks to reshape the Corps so it can operate and survive inside the area of operations of a peer competitor equipped with advanced manned and unmanned aerial systems and cruise missiles.
Critics have questioned Berger’s decision to eliminate all of the Marines’ battle tanks and most of their towed artillery in favor of highly mobile rocket and missile launchers to control maritime choke points. He and other Marine Corps leaders have noted Ukraine’s success against Russian tanks, armored vehicles and distant command and supply centers, using kamikaze drones and the truck-mounted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HiMARS) shows the vulnerability of tanks and the importance of logistics and reconnaissance, which are a key focus of Marine Corps planning.
Marines with 2nd battalion, 14th Marines regiment, 4th Marine division load rockets into a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System in California in 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal AaronJames B. Vinculado)
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
FRIDAY FOTO (November 4, 2022)
Rocky Mountain High.
(U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sergeant 1st Class Zach Sheely) Click on photo to enlarge the image.
An LUH-72 Lakota helicopter flies above mountainous terrain near Gypsum, Colorado on October 16, 2022. Gypsum is home of the Colorado National Guard’s High-altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, or HAATS.
Run by full-time Colorado Army National Guard pilots, HAATS caters to rotory-wing military pilots from all over the world, including Slovenia, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and the Republic of Georgia.
During the week-long course, pilots spend one day training in the classroom — learning the intricacies of power management in high-altitude mountainous terrain. On the other four days, they fly in and around the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, at altitudes ranging from 6,500 feet at the airport to 14,000 feet.
“They teach hoist operations, how to land in small areas, how to operate at altitude, and how to take advantage of the winds and terrain to get more performance out of your helicopter than you might normally be able to,” said Army General Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, during a recent visit to the school. Hokanson is also the Army Guard’s senior aviator.
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November being National American Indian Heritage Month, it’s worth noting that since the late 1940s, many U.S. Army helicopter models have been named for Native American tribes or nations. They range from the very large Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift transport helicopter to the smaller Bell OH-58 Kiowa armed reconnaissance helicopter.
Other helos carrying Native American names include the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse light observation/utility helicopter and the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk medium-lift utility helicopter, named for a Sauk war leader who resisted the forced removal of Midwest Indian tribes to lands across the Mississippi River.
Even the venerable Bell UH-1 utility chopper of Vietnam War fame — nicknamed the “Huey” because its original Army designation was HU-1 — was officially known as the Iroquois.
SHAKO: Native American Heritage Month
THE LAST CROW WAR CHIEF.
Updates with new White House photo and more information on Medicine Crow’s life.
November 1 marks the beginning of National American Indian Heritage Month. Since a law passed by Congress in 1990, November is designated to honor American Indians/Native Americans “for their respect for natural resources and the Earth, having served with valor in our nation’s conflicts and for their many distinct and important contributions to the United States,” according to the Pentagon’s Equal Opportunity Management Institute.
(Joseph Medicine Crow Image: U.S. Defense Department)
This year’s poster for the month-long recognition is focused on the late U.S. Army Technician 5th Grade Joseph Medicine Crow, the last Crow War Chief.
How Medicine Crow earned that distinction is quite a story.
While serving as an Army scout in the 103rd Infantry Division during World War II, Medicine Crow went into battle wearing war paint under his uniform and a sacred eagle feather under his helmet, according to the University of Southern California (USC), where Medicine Crow earned a master’s degree before the war and an honorary doctorate in humane letters years later.
Medicine Crow had to accomplish four essential tasks — traditionally insults or defiance aimed at an enemy force — to become a war chief:
* counting coup (touching an enemy without killing him)
* taking an enemy’s weapon
* leading a successful war party, without the loss of a Crow life, and
* stealing an enemy’s horse.
During a combat operation, Medicine Crow ran into a young German soldier, knocking him to the ground. Because the German lost his weapon in the collision, Medicine Crow dropped his own weapon and they fought hand-to-hand. As Medicine Crow was choking the German, the enemy soldier cried out for his mother. The 20th century Crow warrior released the German and let him go. In a later action, Medicine Crow led a successful war party and stole 50 horses from a German Nazi SS Camp. As he rode off, he sang a traditional Crow war song.
For his actions in WWII, Crow received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, multiple service ribbons, including the Bronze Star medal, and from France, the Legion of Honor. In 2009, Medicine Crow received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for his academic work as well as his community leadership in war and peace. At the ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Barack Obama had a little difficulty reaching around Medicine Crow’s large traditional Crow headdress to attach the presidential medal around his neck. The President introduced him as “a good man” in the Crow language. In English, Obama said, “Dr. Medicine Crow’s life reflects not only the warrior spirit of the Crow people, but America’s highest ideals.”
Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last War Chief of the Crow Nation, speaks with President Barack Obama at White House Medal of Freedom award ceremony in 2009. (White House photo by Pete Souza, via wikipedia)
“His contributions to the preservation of the culture and history of the First Americans are matched only by his importance as a role model to young Native Americans across the country,” the White House noted.
Medicine Crow was in some heady company at the 2009 awards ceremony. Other recipients of the medal that year included Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, physicist Stephen Hawking, actor Sidney Poitier, human rights and peace activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Medicine Crow was 95, the tribal historian and oldest member of the Crow Tribe when he received the Medal of Freedom. His master’s degree in anthropology from USC in 1939 represented the first postgraduate degree earned by a male from his tribe. He stayed on at USC to pursue a doctorate and had completed all his coursework when he was called to duty in World War II.
His oft-cited USC thesis was on “The Effects of European Culture Upon the Economic, Social and Religious Life of the Crow Indians.” It was truly original research and contained no references or footnotes, as there was almost no prior research on the topic, the university said. At 72, Medicine Crow wrote his first book, From the Heart of Crow Country: The Crow Indians’ Own Stories. Even in old age, he continued to lecture at universities and notable institutions like the United Nations.
Former US Army Crow Scouts at the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana, circa 1913. (Left to right) White Man Runs Him, Hairy Moccasin, Curly and Goes Ahead. (U.S. Army photo)
In his historian’s role, Medicine Crow lectured extensively on the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand), where his grandfather, White Man Runs Him, served as a scout for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry.
The Crow people, also called the Absaroka or Apsáalookey in their language (People of the of the large-beaked bird) migrated from the Eastern woodlands to the Northern Great Plains in the early 18th century, where they adopted the lifestyle of Plains Indians, hunting bison and living in tipis in Montana and Wyoming. They were fierce warriors and renowned for their horses. During the Indian Wars they supported the U.S. military, providing scouts and protecting travelers on the Bozeman Trail. Despite their assistance, the Crow — like the other plains tribes — were forced onto a reservation, located on part of their traditional homeland in Montana.
The last member of the Crow tribe to be designated a war chief, Medicine Crow died in 2016 at the age of 102.
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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
4GWAR 
