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Max lll

8/31/2020

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A day late, but here is the third blog in response to recent stories located on the internet and calling out for my attention.
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The story came from the  short piece done by journalist, author and womens' advocate Mika  Brzezinski on 21 August. It appeared on the popular TV news show called
"Morning Joe". She is the co-host with husband Joe Scarborough. (both shown above)

Mika titled her piece...What a Remarkable Week For Women. It noted that the week began with former First Lady Michelle Obama had headed the speakers list on the first night  of the Democratic National Convention.

The viewing audience was then told that Tuesday marked the celebration of the 100th year since the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed, granting women the right to vote. Mika then noted that on Wednesday of that week, Kamala Harris became the first black woman and first with native heritage, to be nominated by a national party, as a Vice Presidential candidate.

Mika then went on to tell the story of an incredibly unique way a New York City park was honouring women on the 100th anniversary of their being finally granted the right to vote.

Beyond Mika's coverage, I have looked into the park to be soon introduced. One that has links to much earlier developments. And one that has a direct connection to a NY state born woman by the name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Elizabeth received her formal education in Troy NY at it's female seminary. It was apparently the first school in the country that taught the girls from a curriculum equal to that of the boys studies of the day.

No doubt her formal training had something to do with her growing interest and soon involvement in the feminist movements of the day. Evident in her very marriage vow to her lawyer fiance when she refused to use the word OBEY at their 1840 wedding.

That same year she and husband attending the Worlds' Anti Slavery Convention whilst on their honeymoon in London England. But the women of that day were not allowed to be heard or participate in any of the proceedings. They could sit and listen and not much more.

Elizabeth had met several other US woman at the event and returned to the US vowing to continue working on womens' suffrage matters at home.


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Elizabeth (shown above  possibly in the  1880's,) working with some of the US women met in London, joined in  forming a group and in 1848 they held the Womens' Rights Convention at Seneca Falls NY. From that came a formalized Declaration of Sentiments outlining some 18 grievances, one of which demanded that the women be granted the right to vote. Within 3 years she would meet with, and spend the next 50 years plus, working with Susan B Anthony  on feminist issues. You met Susan in the last blog.

Elizabeth, Susan and so many others played key roles in the women's suffrage movement. The efforts of these women would be celebrated in part, with the above mentioned park on Roosevelt Island in New York city.

Some 79 years ago, on 6 Jan., 1941 President Roosevelt gave his state of the Union address. In this he outlined four freedoms. These being the freedom of speech and expression,  freedom of worship,  freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Almost 3 dozen years later... in 1973 an Island in New York was designated as Roosevelt's Island. On 12 October  2012 FDR's Four Freedoms Park was officially declared opened on the island and a week later opened for the public.

Its entrance was by way on a monstrous staircase probably rising some 12 ft. and at least 100 feet wide. After the short climb you face a very long flat field or park, leading up to the end. And here you find a life-like bust  weighing some 1050 pounds. It is the face of FDR. On its reverse are engraved the four freedoms.

The park is a living history of the monumental tasks woman had to perform to get the vote, after several failed attempts and a partial victory, but only for the white women by way of the 19th amendment  noted in last blog. The coloured men in most cases and all coloured women had to wait till 1965 before this injustice was ended. 

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Here we see the steps leading up to the monument.
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Here we see the bust of FDR and on reverse the four freedoms displayed.

From the Mika Bezezinski news account I learned that the park mounted a display in honor of the women and their suffrage by the use of a massive field of sunflowers painted onto those steps. Actual each step had applied onto their surfaces a long strip of the flowers.

It tool a group over a year of planing and less than an hour to finally apply the images  to these steps for the short period they would be displayed. The purpose of the display is to remind all of the suffrage still ongoing, and also to give remembrance to the fact that it was 100 years ago, on 18 August 1920 that the 19th amendment was passed granting women the right to vote.

An amendment pushed for by Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and so many others.

Efforts that occurred in Kansas as far back as 1867. And the state flower of Kansas was... you guessed it... the sunflower.

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And here we see those same 25 steps, turned into a giant bill board noting the hard fought battle and final success gained by US women for the right to vote.

I will return on Wednesday with an important blog.

Hope you will join me then.

Bart

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Max...ll

8/23/2020

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As noted in my last blog, three stories have come my way through the internet that were timely.

That being said, I advised last week that I would put my planned blogs on hold so that I can bring these stories to you. The first was last week. Today I bring the second and the third will appear next week.

Let me introduce you to Susan Brownell. She was born a few years  after the War of 1812. Her home was in the North West corner of Massachusetts at a place called Adams, population about 4,000. 

Susan was obviously gifted as a child. She could apparently read and write by age three. By age 6 the family had relocated to New York where she had attended a district school for a short period. But was pulled out of school when they insisted she learned how to needle-point. What she wanted to learn was long division. Soon she was sent off to a Pa. boarding school. By age 26 she was teaching at a female academy in NY.


Internet stories tell of her earliest days and often recalling  about the abuses of women, and of the black men, women and children and their horrid conditions in the slave trade.

She learned first hand how the women of the day would have to work at jobs for  $1.50 per week, at the very time that the men doing the same jobs were being paid $10 per week. Susan would also hear that in many cases the women never even got their wages. These were often being sent back home to the worker's husband or father.

At about that time Susan had had enough of the stories about blacks being denied the vote. Same for the women of the day. But brighter news was on the horizon, though not without still more grief.

On 9 July 1868 the United States Constitution was amended with what was called the 14th Amendment. Here it is... 

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Section 1 clearly states that citizens shall not have any of their rights abridged by creating laws inconsistent with this act.

To test this point Susan and 14 other women banded together and went to the voting station to cast their ballots in the Presidential race between incumbent President   Grant and his contestant. Grant won. But Susan lost. 

When she arrived to vote she was asked if she was a US citizen, if she lived in the district and if she had accepted a bribe. She affirmed on the first two and denied the third count.  She was then allowed to vote.

About a week later Susan and the 14 other women, and three poll workers were all arrested, tried and found guilty of "knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully voting". (A net article says that the judge's decision was not only made but issued to the court before the case was even heard.)

After the trial she sought a pardon for the 14 women and 3 workers, BUT NOT FOR HERSELF. The president granted all pardons sought.

Susan Brownell was fined $100, and in response she said that she would never pay a dollar of the fine, nor would she seek a pardon, which comes from one being guilty of something. She insisted she had no guilt, and in fact noted to the court and in subsequent public appearances in about 3 dozen locations that "Resistance to Tyranny is obedience  to God."

A further amendment to the constitution, numbered # 15. dealt specifically with the plight of the coloured citizens. Here it is.... 


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But foot dragging by introductions of poll taxes, literacy tests and other shenanigans made the rights of many of the coloured men and women very elusive for decades to follow.

The plight of women and the coloured  citizens were matters of great importance to Susan Brownell up until her death in 1906.

Much to her credit and many others, the US Constitution would get yet a third Amendment on issue in 1920. Here is this important document...



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The United States Congress passed this on 4 June 1919 and ratified it on 18 August 1920. It  was then 14 years since Susan had passed away and after so many years of efforts on many fronts to get women's rights to vote.

While the text seems quit clear, somehow those in authority managed to create grief for the American  men and women of colour, until the passing some 45 years later of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

By now you must be saying that this woman Susan Brownell sure sounds like someone else you have heard from in American History.

Well perhaps you are right!

Susan and  Brownell are the first and second given names of Susan Anthony ... Susan B Anthony, one of America's most well known woman's advocates.

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Here she is in her late teens and many, many years later.
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And here she is honoured with the US one dollar coin. It cost the government  3 cents to make each coin. Just as well, as they made some 500 MILLION of them.

Way back in 1863 Tad Lincoln pleaded with his father not to kill a turkey, and as the saying goes, the first pardon was issued. Many have  also been given since then. Earlier this year the press had coverage of President Trump and a turkey. One of them was getting a pardon!

Today's story came to me when I saw the recent announcement that President Trump had given a posthumous pardon to Susan B Anthony for the conviction of so many years earlier. A pardon that she specifically asked President Grant not to grant her, while she advocated that all the rest should get one.

Her view was that she had not broken any laws and the acceptance of a pardon was an acknowledgment that she broke the law and was later being forgiven... and Susan B Anthony had no intention whatsoever acknowledging that she broke the law.

All this for you in August... the very  month that has been designated by the US Government to be National Women's Suffrage Month.

See you on the 30th for the 3rd story.

Bart

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MAX FLEX...

8/19/2020

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Like most jobs, my almost two decades with the military started at the bottom of the rung. For just over the first decade as a Private, them Corporal, and then Sergeant I and my fellow service members were taught, and re-taught,  and practiced in what in those days was called "MAX FLEX,"  an acronym  for Maximum Flexibility.

Max Flex teaches you that most plans often have parts that seem to always go wrong. When they occur, you should have backup plans to go another route to get the job done.

A scenario helps to explain this. As a Cpl and at the time a section commander in the infantry, (which these days is now commanded by a Sergeant,) you are given the task to advance and make contact. You expect the enemy to be in position X. They are on the move and should arrive at such and such a time, and will get settled in waiting for you to attack.

But en-route information comes your way and you plan to use this to your benefit. You decide, using Max Flex, to catch them on the move... an easier target. You decide to circle around and sneak up at their backs and then start the battle which would give you an advantage. Doing the circling, you camouflage your position and allow them to pass.. and then start the battle BEFORE they have time to dig in and prepare for battle. The outcome now is hopefully a much better scenario  in your favour.

Because you used Max Flex!


Now that I have trained you on Max Flex, and before you head off to war, I must tell you that my plan for today's blog, now several days late, has to be put on hold. This is so that I can bring you the first of three recent news items that I think you would will find most interesting and would like to hear about.

So, using max flex,  that's what I will bring you now. On Sunday next, I will bring you probably the 2nd and third of these updates and the following week I will return to the story originally planned for today.

So here we go with story number 1...

In early August, news releases reminded us that Purple Heart (PH) Day was coming up on August 7th.  It was on that date back 238 years ago that General George Washington signed the order that created what he called the... "Badge of Military Merit.

This badge took the form of a purple piece of clothe, hand stitched and containing the word MERIT. The clothe was purple in colour.  It was only awarded to three, and some now say 6 soldiers. But I believe a handful of others, including one soldier from Montreal may have also been so awarded. The Montreal soldier's documentation seems to suggest that he too, was a Badge of Military Merit recipient.

The Washington order had three provisions. The first two dealt with what the famous General called "service strips" of clothe to be worn on the sleeve for varying lengths of service. Today these service strips have become known as service stripes and are very much still in use, and have been since the days of Washington. But the Badge of Military Merit fell out of use after the Revolutionary War.

So we can see that out of the three badges, two have been in use continuously and the third disappeared.

Yet most articles mentioning the Purple Heart say it is the oldest medal in continuous use. Truth be told it was the junior of the three in the Washington order and was the only one that in fact was NO LONGER IN USE, and remained so until  WWll, when recreated as the Purple Heart and backdated to some actions in WWl.

There are at least 3 stories of being the first to get the Purple Heart when created by an Order in 1942. The first being General MacArthur whose efforts after others earlier tried, were more successful in getting the medal created.  

He claimed, and was/is supported in most stories on the subject, to be the first to  get the Medal. This in fact is not the whole story.

Whilst probably the first to be so presented with the medal, it was the second in line, by date of action. And that recipient was a nurse, a woman nurse who lost and eye when the German's bombed the hospital she was working in back in WW1. Her medal predated MacArthur's, and her story has been featured here a number of times in this space. She was not even American, but Canadian and from PEI.

Use the search engine in upper right to pull up numerous mentions of her work. Search for her by name... Beatrice MacDonald.

I believe MacArthur got a Purple Heart for actions also in the Philippines. But again this was after the MacDonald action.

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Here we see the current Purple Heart at the right and two of the three original Badges of Military Merit. A close look at them clearly shows that they were hand stitched and possibly by 2 different individuals.

A 3rd claim of being the first has found a home on the internet. It has the story about a female nurse by the name of Major Annie Fox being the first recipient. Her actions occurred  during the bombing of Pearl Harbour in October 1942.

Beatrice MacDonald's actions happened on 4 Jan., 1936. more than 6 1/2 years earlier.

See you with the 2nd story on Sunday next.

Bart

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Blog Deferred till Wednesday

8/16/2020

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Still double checking a few points. Hopes of resolving same tacking longer that I thought. But I want to try to clarify before publishing.

The blog should appear on Wednesday.
Bart

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It's Foolish and Wrong... Part VIl

8/12/2020

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Continuing along with last blog in this space, today I want to share with you one of the recent stories I found on the net. One having nothing to do with what I was researching at the time, but still on a topic mentioned several times in past blogs. It involved the Congressional Gold Medal.

This story really started back on 7 December 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and the US entered WWll. It also involved women who came to the fore to serve as well. And most readers of these blogs know of my deep interest in women who have served in Canadian and American uniforms in times of need... and more.

Rossie's grandparents (not her real name,) like so many Americans, came from far away lands, arriving from Austria.

This is not unusual throughout North America. Back in US Civil War days, thousands if not millions also served  and had lineage going back to countries from all over the world. Making the point, not widely know is the fact that one in 4 of the CW Medal of Honor recipients were in fact born outside of the US.  One in four!  The numbers would be one in five in the medal's total history.

But Rosie was born in North Dakota. And as a teen she quickly came to realize that all the eligible boys, were now MEN and  off at war. She was only 17 and wanted to meet boys, have some fun and adventure for the summer of 1943. So she took off with a sister and another friend and headed to the big city of Seattle. Surely there would be some boys there!

Picking were slim as most had quickly became men and were themselves also off to war. So taking on a summer job that would soon become much more, she got a few weeks training and then started a job at the Seattle Boeing Plant that was  producing major supplies for the war effort.

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This is a picture of "Rosie" in late teens or possibly early 20's.

Having been trained as a Buffer Riveteer She and so many other women started to work on building B17 airplanes. She and the others would be given various tasks and the very few men on site were there to keep an eye on their work and give ongoing trained as the days went on and on and on.

In later life she would remark that one of her jobs was  working inside the wings of the plane in a very noisy environment. She  would have a partner outside at the same location driving a rivet in and she had developed a code with one loud bang to  move on to the next rivet, or with 2 knocks to pull out the last one out and redo it.

She did not mind the work though not excited about the whopping 93 cents she got for each hour worked. Half that that any males got. But having heard that Hitler had made a derogatory comment about the women of American, she got even more strength to carry on.

Apparently  at some point he had stated that he was not too worried about battling the American men, as their women back home were spending too much time  on..."cosmetics and silk stockings and frivolous things."

Here are some pictures of their frivolous adventures...

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While there seem to be  no accurate figures I have seen numbers of these woman  working for the war effort across the US in numbers between 8 and 12 MILLION doing their bit.

It has been said that these efforts produced 297,000 airplanes, 88,000 war ships, 372,000 artillery guns, 102,000 tanks, 44 BILLION rounds of artillery ammunition and small arms. Of the airplanes, some 6,000  B 17 bombers and even more B 29's were manufactured by these women. 

The source of above gave no numbers for runs in their nylons, no doubt to Hitler's chagrin.

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This is one of "Rosie's B17 planes. She is in the picture but according to the source, she can not remember where she is in the crowd of workers who actual built what they called... the  Grand Five, it being the 5,000th plane built.

The reference also said that each of the women actually got to sign their names somewhere on the body of the craft, and even more impressive many got to participate in actually pushing it out of the factory onto the tarmac.

A very careful look at the plane shows many of the worker's signatures.

More of this story on Sunday.
Hope you will join me then Rosa, oops I mean Rosie.
Bart

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"It is Foolish and Wrong...  PartVI"

8/8/2020

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I'm not sure if other bloggers will agree with this statement, and if they share the same feelings, but most of the time when I take a stab at doing more research, I seem to get overwhelmed.

Trouble is, I guess this curse comes my way because I have been at this so long that I can see some sort of a Canadian connection on so many fronts when researching. This, even though the new tidbit has nothing to do with what I am looking for that day.

This of course results in running off in another direction, and another and yet more, gaining lots of info but zip on the topic of the day. Thus a loss of time and getting yet further behind in my work and items that I promise to bring you in a timely fashion.

Couple this with the usual sillyness on the net about so-and so winning a medal, when such are not won but earned, and calling it the Medal of Honor went in fact the medal being awarded is the Congressional Gold Medal, or as often called...the Presidential Gold Medal, despite the fact that such does not exist.

These mistakes are far too often made by the press, who seem to send out the message that they are little interested in often doing sufficient research. Instead, they continue to mislead the public who pick up their wrong nomenclature. 

In the earlier days of these blogs I too, made the mistakes several times when calling the Congressional Gold Medal the Presidential Gold Medal.

In summary, there are two types of medals that are often misnamed.

The first is the Medal of Honor, given for bravery usually in the face of the enemy. But in  much earlier days also for lower standards of deeds on many occasions. It is this medal that is the primary subject of  the blogs on this site. It is often called the Presidential Medal of Honor or the Congressional Medal of Honor. Both terms are wrong.

The second medal is not a military medal. It is called the Congressional Gold Medal,  and is awarded by CONGRESS, but usually actually PRESENTED by the President. Another Medal... called the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in fact awarded and presented by the President.

Both of these two later medals are usually for civilians or groups and are the highest civilian awards that can be presented to Americans and others so qualifying. 

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Here we see the Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) above and the most current army version of the Medal of Honor below.

The CGM is specifically designed for the individual or group. An original is made and presented to the recipient. When a group is awarded the medal, the group gets one  original, and often members of the group can obtain a duplicate of this original.

The CGM shown above was designed in honour of the joint US/Canada WWll unit called the First Special Service Force. It's soldiers  were also known as the Devils Brigade and their fame, ferociousness, and tactics became the forerunners of many specialist  forces in the US military. They have been written about often in past blogs in this space. Therein you can read about specific connections to Victoria BC. One being quite significant!

The lower medal, shown above,  is the only current  design of the US Army's Medal of Honor. With exception of personal details, ie name, date and location of deed being inscribed on the reverse, all MOH's currently awarded to soldiers are the same model shown above.

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This is the current Navy, Marine and Coast Guard Medal of Honor.
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The third type of Medal of Honor in use is the one for the Air Force, shown above.

Moving on, regarding the constant misuse of names for these medals, here are some of the recent news accounts of recipients, and the use of wrong terminology. A quick search of the net will show many, many others.
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Having sorted all the above out,  on Wednesday I will return with one of the great finds I discovered over past few weeks. I will continue with that blog on Sunday with 2 more great finds that should be of interest for those reading these blogs.

Hope to see you then,
Bart

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    Author;
    Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
    Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers 

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