The American Eagle.... Charles A. Lindbergh

   As a young boy growing up in the 1940's I had plenty of heroes to look up to, but after reading a book on Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic Ocean, he went to the top of my list. I could easily have gone into aviation because of him, but poor eyesight and a heart murmur put an end to any flying career on my part.
  Even in the 1960's I still carried an admiration for Lindbergh. In 1967 I visited the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC with the sole reason being a chance to see Lindbergh's plane, which has been on display there since 1928. I looked from one end of the museum to the other with no success. Finally I asked a security guard where the plane was and he simply pointed straight up. There it was,...suspended just about ten feet above my head.

    
                            C h a r l e s  A. L i n d b e r g h 

      Man's first attempt to free himself from gravity's hold began just after the turn of the century in 1900. A couple of guys named Wright closed down their bicycle shop in Ohio to journey to a place in North Carolina where the wind always blew.. it was named Kitty Hawk. From that beginning man was always attempting to push the frontier of flying. By the time World War One broke out the airplane had become an instrument of conflict, able to not only bomb the enemy but to engagement him thousands of feet in the air in what became known as dog fights.
    In the 1920's no plane had ever flown across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1926 New York hotel magnet Joseph Orteig offered a purse of $25,000 to anyone who could fly from New York to Paris, France. Many accepted the challenge, but by 1927 it was still just a dream.
   French flying ace Rene Fonck attempted the feat but crashed on takeoff and barely survived with his life. Another French war hero, Captain Charles Nungesser, took off from Paris attempting to fly west to New York. Radio contact with Nungesser was lost over Iceland and he was never heard from again.
   By the time Lindbergh was ready to make his attempt six aviators had lost their lives trying to achieve this feat and collect the 25 Gs. Lindbergh had put up one thousand dollars of his own money and borrowed another fifteen thousand from the State Bank of St Louis to build his plane. Ryan Flying Company of New York built the plane and wanted to put their own pilot in the plane until Lindbergh asserted his own plan.

    He named the plane 'The Spirit of St Louis' to thank his financial backers for having faith in him. The Spirit carried a fuel tank of 450 gallons of very flammable aviation gas which weighed 2,710 pounds. Others attempting this flight had carried a navigator along with the pilot, but Lindbergh said he couldn't have the extra weight, so he flew solo. In the early hours of May 20, 1927 The Spirit fought off a muddy Roosevelt Field and just did clear the power lines at the end of the runway... He was on his way.
   The flight took thirty-three and a half hours, and his only sound was the constant hum of the plane's J-5C radial engine. Lindy was having to adjust between three fuel tanks to keep them balanced and keep The Spirit on an even keel. To avoid storms and icing, he varied the altitude from ten thousand feet down to a mere ten feet above the black waters of the Atlantic. Using only a compass and dead reckoning, he made it. First across Ireland,..the English Channel,..and then the coastline of France.
  Paris' LeBourget Airport was not even on the map Lindbergh was using, but he followed a steady stream of headlights to the air field where over 150,000 people turned out to welcome him to France. He landed at 10:22 on the night of May 21st. At that moment, the former air mail pilot had suddenly become world famous.

     But the fame would also bring heartache. In 1932 the twenty month old son of Lindbergh would be kidnapped and held for ransom. A sum of ten thousand dollars was paid but six weeks later the body of Charles A. Lindbergh, Junior was found in a New Jersey ditch. Richard Hauptmann was found guilty of the crime and put to death. One month later the U.S. Congress passed the Lindbergh Law which makes kidnapping a federal crime.

     Lindbergh would lose a lot of his esteem during the early years of World War II for his comments glorifying the German military and frequent visits to Berlin. In speeches he said Britain and France were outclassed by the Germans. He was also a prominent anti-war speaker here in America, but after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor he volunteered to President Roosevelt to help any way he could. He flew over fifty missions in the Pacific as a civilian consultant to the American war effort. 
   Lindbergh spent his latter years in the Hawaiian Islands. He died there August 26, 1974 and is buried near his home on Maui. The cause of death was lymphoma. His headstone has only his name and the dates of his birth and death.  
 

D-Day...June 6, 1944 (A Repeat)

     To post anything else on this day would be a travesty... This is the single most important day of the 20th century and should be drilled in school so future Americans will never forget it. I may be a little more hardcore than most, but I had a father and six uncles who fought in World War II. I am among those who stand in total admiration of this 'greatest generation of Americans.'
    The late 1930's and early 1940's were some of the gloomiest days in world history. Germany, Italy, and Japan had created an Axis of Evil that tried to dominate the entire world. Beginning in 1942 the allied countries started to battle back, but it was a slow process.
Japan ruled most of Southeast Asia...Italy was a power over North Africa..and the Germans dominated most of western Europe.

    Everyone knew an invasion was coming,...but the Germans thought it would come in the region around Calais, France. There a mere 28 miles separate England from France, and it is the most direct way to Paris and Berlin. The allies conducted one of the most secret and deceptive operations in history when they decided on the beaches of Normandy. Over six thousand ships would transport 125,000 combat troops the one-hundred miles to Normandy under the cover of darkness and begin the invasion on a Tuesday morning, June 6, 1944.
    Actually the assault began the night before. Overall Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower met with paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division to wish them well and told them 'to kick some ass' until the invasion forces could re-enforce them. 

     The invasion beaches between Cherbourge and LeHavre would be divided into five fronts.. Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha, and Utah were the secret code names for the beaches. Gold would find Australian and Norwegian troops coming ashore. Sword and Juno would be the responsibility of English and Canadian forces, and American assault troops would storm ashore at Utah and Omaha beaches.
The 101st Airborne Division and the 82nd Airborne Division would drop behind Utah and Omaha beaches and keep German reinforcement troops from reaching the beach emplacements.

      While the airborne troops began their actions around 1:30 in the morning of June 6th, the invasion forces assault on the beaches began at 6:30. The German's had concrete fortifications for artillery and machine gun emplacements and the initial allied forces took a heavy toll in casualties. By eleven o' clock that morning they had broken through the wall and began the massive push eastward. Because of the uncertainty of where the invasion would occur, the Germans held back their armored units until the last moment. It would be a fatal mistake.

     Most of the German armor losses came at the hands of Allied aircraft as over thirteen thousand American and British planes ruled the battlefield. Infantry units would be forced to deal with the German tanks with bazookas, satchel charges, and hand grenades. After capturing the port city of Cherbourg, supplies started to come ashore quickly supplying the combat troops more ammunition, food, and reinforcements.

     It would be a town to town, city to city, push all the way across France, Belgium, and into Germany. The famed German Luftwaffe was a no-show in the Normandy Campaign as they were forced into a defensive posture around the capital city of Berlin. On April 29, 1945 Adolf Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered to end the European conflict. Four months later two atomic bombs dropped on Japan ended the Pacific conflict.
    Growing up in a free country, we have no idea what it was like to have no freedom of religion...no freedom of speech...no freedom to work any place you chose...no freedom to criticize our form of government. Remember that you have those freedoms because someone paid the price for you..

     This is only one of many cemeteries across France, Belgium, and Norway. On the first day of the invasion of Normandy, America lost over ten thousand troops. At one time the battle was going so badly American General Omar Bradley considered abandoning the invasion and calling for ships to recall the troops. Luckily, the tide turned within the hour and success was ours. If you have a member of your family that was lost in World War II, you have my deepest sympathy...but you also have my thanks for the great effort it took to battle the world's most advanced forces at the time. The World War II generation is now dieing off at the rate of one-thousand per day. The next time you meet one of these gallant men or women, give them a smile and thank them for giving you all that you have today..