Saving Private Aceves

The last few weeks has taken me on a incredible journey from the streets of El Paso Texas, to the mountains of France, to a tiny village in southern Germany named Moosburg.  My mission was to locate a missing 26 year old resident of El Paso who was serving as a Private in the 141 Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division.  His name is Noel Montestruc Aceves and he is my Grandfather.  

         In December 1944, my Grandmother was living in a small apartment on Virginia Street in El Paso where she, like most women of that time, was adjusting to the realities running a home, caring for her 3 year old son, Arturo, and her 1 and a half year old daughter, Velia, while her husband was fighting the Germans in France.  One chilly December day, there came an unexpected knock on the door.  She found a man standing before her with a telegram from the War Department......and in 1944.....a telegram from the War Department was a sure harbinger of sorrow.  I've never asked her what went through her mind at that moment, but I can only imagine that her heart sank...her blood ran cold...and certainly her mind struggled to deal with the flood of emotions that this telegram would certainly bring.

          The message was phrased in the standard format of the time and stated in effect:

"The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Private Noel M. Aceves has been reported as Missing In Action since 28 November in France.  If further details or other information are received you will be promptly notified.  Signed Provost Marshal General."

 The man read the telegram, handed it to her, informed her that she could expect to receive an update in about three months, and then departed to continue on his sad duties.  That was it, nothing more.  There was no Internet, no 24-hour news cycle, and no support groups...nothing.  All there was to do was wait, just like every one else.  

         Two months later, in February, my Grandmother was washing and folding diapers around 8 PM, when there was another unexpected knock on the door.  Once again there was a sudden rush of emotions as a man from the War Department stood in the doorway.  The moments must have seemed like hours as he confirmed that he had the correct address and recipient.  He then read aloud:

         "A report has been received through the International Red Cross that your husband, Private Noel M. Aceves, is a prisoner of the Germans.  A letter of further information from the Provost Marshal General to follow."  

Grandpa was alive...a prisoner of the Germans, but alive.  It was a telegram with a far better outcome than what most households of that time received.

         My Grandpa died at the young age of 52, two years before I was born. Unfortunately only 3 of his grandchildren had to chance to know and remember him to any extent.  He rarely spoke about his experience in the war or his time as a POW.  What little I know has been passed on from the few things he told my Grandmother, my Mother, and my Uncles.  All I knew was that he had been in France, was captured, and spent some time at a prison in Germany.  I later learned that he was a part of the famed "arrowhead" 36th Infantry Division, and this is was where my search began.  A few days ago I found a period film that narrated an account of the 36th invasion of southern France and their push towards Germany.  This spurred my interest and I began an online research to find all that I could about their operations, and hopefully find more about what happened to PVT Aceves.    My big break came when I found his POW registration in the National Archives and from there it was if PVT Aceves began to leave telltale clues of what happened him.  This is his story.

          In 1944, work in the rail yards in El Paso began to slacken and steady employment was hard to find. The United States was well into its third year in the global war against the Axis and able-bodied men were in demand.  With the knowledge that the military offered a steady paycheck that could support his family, Noel Aceves decided to volunteer and enlisted in the Army on April 25, 1944 at Fort Bliss Texas.  He completed his basic training there and emerged as Private Noel M. Aceves, Serial Number 38580671, assigned to the 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division.  It was a venerable unit that traced its origins back to a detachment of the original Army of Texas that perished at the Alamo, thus giving the unit its motto: Remember the Alamo.  

         After a very brief time with his family, he departed on a train bound for the east coast of the US and from there he crossed the Atlantic (possibly on the Queen Mary) and arrived in Naples Italy.  From there he traveled south to Salerno, where he joined his unit.  He was part of a massive wave of replacements for the 141st, which had been bloodied during the Italian campaign and was now preparing to invade the southern coast of France to act in concert with the US forces that had stormed the beaches of Normandy a month before.  Once those forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead and moved towards eastern France and Belgium, the 36th Division would invade from the south and shove the Wehrmacht forces north and east back into Germany.

         The end of July 1944 was spent practicing amphibious operations and loading equipment and men onto troop transports.  By the first of August, PVT Aceves began his second overseas excursion, bound for the European Continent.  On the morning of 15 August 1944, the US 7th Army initiated Operation "Dragoon", the invasion of southern France.  Around 0515, PVT Aceves downed the traditional "last breakfast" of steak and eggs and then went up on deck to be loaded into an assault boat.  At 0650, the USS TEXAS and USS ARKANSAS along with a host of cruisers and destroyers opened up in a pre-invasion barrage of the beaches around St Raphael.  By 0800, he was on his way towards a high, rocky beachhead to the east of St Raphael.  His unit landed near the village of Antheor with few casualties.  Resistance was sporadic and they quickly moved inland.  Throughout the month of August and September he followed his unit through the Rhone Valley, chasing the 19th German Army northward.  Their advance was rapid and assisted along the way by elements of the French resistance.  However, he had his first real taste of combat when the Germans made a determined stand near Montelimar.

         The 19th Army broke away from Montelimar on 30 August and continued its dash northward.  The 141 continued its pursuit, often engaging in brief but sharp clashes with German units fighting a delaying action.  He participated in the taking of the villages and towns of Flancy, Maileroncourt, Faverney, Fougerolles, Luxeuil Les Bains, and Corbenay before reaching the Moselle River on 21 September.  From that point on, the 141st was engaged in a series of fierce battles in the approaches to the Vosges Mountain range.  Their objective was to push into and through the range and then break into the Alsace Plain where they were to secure a crossing over the Rhine River into Germany.  

         Throughout October and most of November, the 141st slowly pushed its way into the Vosges, encountering determined resistance from the 19th German Army including several SS Panzer units.  By this time, PVT Aceves had seen more violence than any man should have ever experienced in two life times.  There included moments of sheer horror, such as when he discovered the decapitated body of a soldier inside and abandon home......a scene forever seared into his memory.  He pressed on.  Late November found his unit on the western bank of the Meurthe River.  Unbeknownst to PVT Aceves, the veteran 198th German Infantry Division, which had been holding the mountain passes ahead of him, had been pulled out in preparation for the planned winter offensive into the Ardennes, the famed Battle of the Bulge.  In its place was the inexperienced 16th Volksgrenadier.  Although untested and poorly equipped, they occupied a strong defensive positions left behind by the 198th.


         On 20th November, the 141 began taking artillery fire from the eastern bank of the river.  They moved north and found a weak spot near Anould and forced a crossing of the river.  The 16th Volksgrenadier put up a sporadic, but determined resistance as they fell back into the heights of the Vosges.  Following route D415, they pushed the Germans out of the village of Clefcy on the 24th, and Fraize on the 26th.  They paused briefly to enjoy a small Thanksgiving Day meal before pushing on down the road towards the village of Bonhemme and the ridgeline of the Vosges.  On the 27th they began moving down road D415 towards the critical juncture at Col De Bonhomme and the village just beyond.  

         The morning of 28 November found PVT Aceves on patrol with a new 2nd LT.  Their objective was to probe forward to a point along a ravine of that ran off of the Meurthe River and down the Fraize Valley.   His company's overall objective was to move to the southeast of road D415 road and attempt to flank a German roadblock that had been set up there.  They reached the ravine without incident, and the lack of enemy contact gave the LT enough confidence to push on to a second objective.  If they could move uphill towards the roadblock and use the forest as cover, then they might be able to take the Germans by surprise and clear the way for the rest of the 141 to take Col De Bonhomme.

         Suddenly, the patrol began to take fire from a nearby house. They returned fire and within a few minutes, suppressed the German assault.  PVT Aceves and the rest of the patrol carefully approached the house, believing they had either killed the Germans inside or forced them to retreat.  They entered and found themselves face to face with a group of German Grenadiers.  A scuffle ensued....to close for either side to use their weapons.  After a brief struggle, PVT Aceves, along with the rest of the patrol, broke free of their adversaries and burst out into the open only to find themselves surrounded.  The Germans were in sad shape, but it was clear that they had the upper hand.  They had only two options available to them....resist and die or surrender and pray for the best.  PVT Aceves looked at his comrades for a long moment...and then he, along with every one else, slowly placed their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.

         PVT Aceves was now a POW.  He was gripped with fear at the thought that he might be killed, or worse tortured and then killed.  He had seen several examples of this already and the very thought of it was almost too much to bear. Those feeling slowly began to subside as he was shuffled further and further behind enemy lines, though the thought never truly left him.  In fact, he was quite lucky, as Hitler himself would sign an order two weeks later that required the German Army to kill all prisoners taken in during the Ardennes offensive.  

         He was shocked to see that the Germans were in far worse shape than he had been led to believe.  They had little in the way of food or comforts, but they treated him fairly well as he was moved farther from the Voges.  He was eventually taken to a railway head where he was put onboard a crowded boxcar and shipped east.  His journey would take him deep into the German interior to a small village named Moosburg in the southeastern part of the country.  There he was ushered behind the barbed wire gates of Stalag 7A.  His first stop would have been at the registration office, which still stands to this day.  It must have been some consolation to him to know that at least now his whereabouts would now be reported and hopefully would reach his family.  

         He owned only what he was wearing the day that he was captured, and new clothes were scarce.  Luckily, he had been dressed for winter and thus was in better shape than other men there.  The camp was fairly large and had been in service since the beginning of the war.  The guards were older, as most able-bodied men were being shipped to one of the two fronts.  There had been some instances of mistreatment prior to his arrival, but since mid 1944, the prison was becoming over-crowded and such acts began to trail off.  However, this also meant that food and other such comforts were in short supply.

         The camp was packed with a variety of men from all over the world.  There were Americans and British of course, but there was also a very large population of Russians, whom the Germans seemed to reserve all of their spite for.  There were smaller groups of French, Italians, Pols, and even Indians and native Africans captured during Erwin Rommel's North African campaign.  Americans were housed in a set of open bay 400 men barracks.  They were very sparse, lit by windows, and warmed by two to three cast iron stoves.  Behind the barracks was a set of latrines, which frequently over-flowed and without any lime or chloride present, caused a constant stench to hang over the camp.  

         Medical supplies were in very short supply and a man was lucky to take a very short shower once every 15 days or so.  The day would start around 0600 when men were roused and marched to a kitchen area where they would get a few biscuits and maybe some coffee.  They would muster at 0800 for a head count and then around 1130 they would eat lunch, which consisted of a few boiled potatoes.  Dinner was a similar affair, occasionally supplemented by a some sort of barley soup, and sometimes a little bit of spinach or bread.  Their limited diet was also supplemented by pooling food sent in Red Cross packages received from Argentina.

         After the each meal, the men either returned to the barracks or were selected for work details.  Details could take a man on a 3.5-hour railroad trip west to Munich, where they would clear debris left by Allied air raids.  More often than not though, men would be sent to work on neighboring farms to tend to gardens and livestock that helped feed both the staff and prisoners of the camp.  PVT Aceves was no stranger to hard work or hardship.  Growing up in the harsh conditions of the Great Depression, he was very used to going with out and doing whatever needed to be done to get by.  He was a tough man and this would serve him well in this environment.  

         He frequently volunteered for work details, often taking the place of men who were too sick or weak to leave the barracks.  The work was hard, but it afforded him an opportunity to get outside the camp and enjoy the beauty of the surrounding forests, which must have been a stark contrast to the desert mountains of El Paso.  In later years, he would occasionally remark that Germany was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen.  Work details also gave him the chance to trade some of the Red Cross rations for bread, which was far more filling than the usual food available.  The German guards were also suffering from a lack of food as well, and bread could be traded with them in exchange for certain favors or privileges.  It is possible that he traded some of these rations for a pair of small plastic toys that he intended to give to his son upon his return.

         December turned to January, January to February, February into March and March to April.  The days were long, the nights cold.  A man would find inventive ways to relieve the boredom and to pass the hours keeping their mind going, lest depression or worse set in.  Occasionally, they would hear the roar of Allied bombers overhead and feel the distant thumps of bombs exploding.  PVT Aceves got used to this and would automatically roll off of his cot and then roll under it.  It would be an action that would often plague him in later life when he would hear a plane pass overhead.  

         Then in late April, rumors began to spread that US forces were nearby.  The rumors were true.  US Combat Team Alpha of the 14th Armored Division began to discover some of the outlying work farms and POWs who led them towards Moosburg.  On the morning of 27 April 1945, an officer of the regional SS command, along with a Swiss, British, and American representative drove to the US lines and were met by two tanks.  The US Colonel in charge brought the group to the units Commanding General and talks ensued.  However after a few hours, the US General made it clear that no deal would be struck.  German forces would surrender unconditionally and all of the POWs of the camp would be released.  The SS officer refused and returned to the camp.  

         At 10:00 AM, the tanks of the Alpha combat team rolled forward and engaged the German units scattered around the base.  The battle raged for two and a half hours, during which one shell landed inside the camp, wounding some guards and killing one.  By 1230, it was over and Sherman tanks rolled to the gates of Stalag 7A and demanded the surrender of all the guards.   They complied, and a spontaneous burst of joy swept the POW's out of their barracks and into the arms of their countryman.

         A film taken that day shows smiling former prisoners enjoying the first good meal that they had had in months or years.  Water was available to wash clothes, and more importantly, stores of winter clothing were distributed.  PVT Aceves most certainly partook in the joys that swept the camp that day.  He could expect better treatment, warmer clothes, and far better food, even if was still just rations. But more importantly, he could expect to leave Moosburg soon, and that his family would be informed that he was alive and had been liberated.  For him, the war was over, though the deep scares that it made would remain with him for the rest of his life.  

         Despite those scares, he had a full life to look forward to that was full of promise.  Far more promise than the defeated men he saw around him.  He never harbored any animosity towards his German captors.  In his mind, they had suffered as a result of their nations leaders, and they had more suffering and want ahead of them as they tried to rebuild what Hitler had destroyed.  He walked out of the gates of Stalag 7A shortly afterwards and on 14 June 1945 was recorded as having been officially repatriated to US control.  All that remained now would be his third and final ocean voyage and home.  Private Noel M. Aceves had seen the horror of the war, had endured the hardship and fear of being captured and imprisoned, but that was all over now....Private Aceves had been saved.

"I bombed Pearl Harbor, but you forced me to"

  So the next time you have the opportunity to travel to Hawaii and you visit Pearl Harbor and the USS ARIZONA Memorial, remember whose fault it was.  NO, not Tojo and Yamamoto.......it was all the United States and its misguided leadership under FDR.  Shocking as that statement and the title of this blog may seem, it serves to illustrate a point that is often overlooked.  History is many different things to many different people, however there are some things that history is not, namely black and white, good versus evil.  Instead it is a variation of a million shades of gray.

  The impetus of this post was my recent trip to the Yasukuni Shrine and museum.  It was my second trip, and like the first, it proved to be an enlightening view on how the Japanese understand the history of WWII.  For those who don't know, Yasukuni Jinga is a major Shinto shrine located in central Tokyo.  Unlike other Shinto Shrines, it is dedicated to the spirits of all the Soldiers, Sailors, and Airman who died in the service of Japan and the Emperor.  It is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery.  Most shrines are considered the home of a particular spirit or "Kami", and as such, the men and women enshrined at Yakakuni are considered to be a "Kami'".  A "Kami" can be roughly translated as either divine, a divine spirit, or divine entity, however this is a bit of a misnomer as it really has no clear cut comparison from a Christian, Muslim, or Jewish framework.  The shrine is also considered to be a political flashpoint for nations such as China and the Korea's since Japan has enshrined all of the men/women who have died in the service of the nation...to include those convicted and executed as war criminals after WWII.

  Controversy aside, the accompanying museum highlights the military history of Japan from feudal times through to the end of WWII.  Each section has at least one or two signs in English which describe the major theme of the display, while artifacts are commented on in Japanese.  Luckily, I know just enough about their history to know what Im looking at and what is being conveyed.  Most of the displays are fairly balanced in terms of the Western view of the same time period, that is until you get to the 1930s.  China is where things get a little, shall we say, glossy.  For instance, when you read any western work on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, you are sure to find at least a chapter describing the atrocities committed during the taking of Nanking, more commonly known as the "rape of Nanking".  However, at Yasukuni, Nanking is not much more than a footnote.  They took it after a brief struggle...nothing more.  Again, the need to save face rears its head, and those events which would make one look bad should be skimmed over if not outright omitted.  I would go on about this section, however that would constitute writing a book, so on to Pearl Harbor.

  This section begins with a timeline (with each event in english) describing the diplomatic, economic, and world events that took place between January-December 1941.  What this timeline makes clear is that Japan was trying its best to restore the rule of Asia back to Asians and that their expansion was simply an attempt to bring stability to the vacuum of authority left when a colonial power departed.  The timeline says as much with regards to the invasion of French-Indo China (Vietnam).  They were just spreading freedom....which sounds somewhat familiar, but I digress. Anyway, the US wasn't going to stand for this and began slapping embargoes on Japan, which threatened their capacity to continue the liberation of Asia.  What was worse, it threatened the very economic life of the Empire.  No matter how much they pleaded with that mad man FDR, he wasn't going to relent unless Japan did as he dictated.  Thus Japan was left with no choice....with its economic survival threatened by the US, their commitment to ousting colonial rule in Asia, and the unwillingness of Britain and the US to see the situation from their point of view, what could Japan do?  They would have to take the resources of the Dutch East Indies, but to do so would risk war with the US and Britain.  While most Japanese agreed that their superior spirit would win the day, there were a few who knew that such a conflict would be an enormous gamble.

  The solution to this conundrum?  Strike first and strike hard.  Crush the US Pacific Fleet at its base in Pearl Harbor and the US Army in the Philippines would be isolated.  Once the Philippines were taken, there would be nothing to stop the Empire from steamrolling south into the Dutch East Indies, the Malaysian peninsula, Singapore and so on.  The colonial powers of the Dutch and British would be ousted, freedom restored to those areas, a vast new pool of resources would be available to the Empire, and the crippled US would be unable to do anything about it.  Once their gains were consolidated and a defensive parameter established, then Japan would be able to negotiate a peace with the US from a position of strength and the tables would be turned.  Now FDR would have to listen because his economic bag of tricks would be empty and his Pacific fleet and army smashed.  Of course, none of this need have happened had FDR not interfered with Japan in the first place.  Had he listened to reason, there would be no attack on Pearl Harbor.

  All this sounds like revisionist history, but this is how the Japanese thought at the time, and this is how it is portrayed by the nations premiere military history museum.  Of course, our point of view is 180 out.  We were trying to stop Japanese aggression and atrocities and sought to do so by non-military means.  However, instead of choosing to solve things in a peaceful manner, Japan started a war by launching a "sneak attack" at Pearl.  Most Americans would see the Yasukuni version of WWII as utter nonsense.  Nothing more that the losing side trying to rationalize their actions, while "We" know the truth of the matter.....or do we?  Ask someone from South Carolina about that war that occurred in the US between 1861-1865 and then ask someone from New York about it.  I suspect that the only thing they will agree upon is the fact that a war took place on the North American Continent between 1861-1865.  150 years on, and we still cannot agree on the name of the battles that took place: was it Shiloh or Pittsburgh Landing?  Sharpsburg or Antietam?  Bull Run or Manassas?  While we are at it, what about those 19th Century Indian Wars?  Well, they needed to get out of the way of progress and stop attacking settlers along the frontier, but we will skim over that...casting such things as atrocities doesn't reflect too well on us.

  So my day with Japan's war dead served to reinforce my believe that there are no definitives in history.  One may find some facts, but the truth is elusive.  Perhaps this point is best illustrated by Star War's Obi Wan Kenobi (oddly enough a character based on aspects of the Japanese Samurai). When confronted by Luke Skywalker with the revelation that Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker, and Darth Vader are one in the same, Kenobi explains how Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader, thus killing the good man that he knew.    His statement is most revealing and relevant to our treatment of history: "So what I have told you is true...from a certain point of view."

Saving face at Midway

  The need to save face is a very interesting facet of the Japanese culture, and one that has led to a multitude of misunderstandings....and conflicts.  It was the agenda of the militarists to invade China and stay the course even though the situation rapidly deteriorated.  However, it was the need to save face that kept them there and would eventually result in the development of the plan to take the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies.  To the casual observer, it seems incredible that Japan would rather enter into an suicidal war with the United States rather than enter into negotiations and also extract itself from the quagmire that China had become, but the need to save face dictated otherwise.

 The same was true when Commander Mitsuo Fuchida presented his post-battle analysis of the Midway operation, which would eventually be incorporated into his book "Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan".  This work was used extensively by U.S. historians, movie makers, and documentarians over the next 40 years resulting in a very blurred and incorrect view of the events of June 4 1942.  Read almost any book or watch any movie/documentary produced between 1950 to 2006 and you will find our dive bombers hurdling out of the sky to hit Japanese Carriers whose decks were filled with planes being fueled and armed and moments away from launching a strike upon U.S. Carriers.  The resulting carnage saved the day and secured a incredible victory for the U.S. Navy.

  Fuchida began his report with a simple phrase that roughly translates to "it happened this way", and the story above is what followed.  However in recent years, historians reviewing the Japanese records have found that "what happened" was somewhat different.  Yes, the strike forces was being rearmed and refueled, but they were all below deck in the hanger bays of the AKAGI, KAGA, and SORYU.  Their flight decks were clear, save for a few Combat Air Patrol (CAP) fighters that were either preparing to launch or had just landed.  This may look like a small oversight, however Fuchida made it seem as though an a massive strike force was on deck and moments away from being launched.  The reality was that the carriers had been dodging attacks all morning long while simultaneously  arming/rearming planes to first re-attack Midway and then strike the recently discovered U.S. Carriers.  On top of all of that, they also had to keep the decks clear to recover the planes that had bombed Midway earlier that morning.

  The bottom line is that at no point during the morning of 4 June did the Japanese aircrews have the opportunity to fully fuel and rearm the planes, get them to the flight deck, spot them, and warm up their engines.  Therefore, there was no strike force ready on deck to attack the U.S. Carriers.  This begs the question of why would Fuchida say that they were ready to strike, when in fact, they were never even close?  The answer:  To Save Face.  Ask yourself which version makes a defeated Navy sound better?  Unorganized, struggling to respond to a fluid battle situation and then getting caught in the open by American bombers resulting in the loss of 4 Carriers.  Or a well honed naval strike force, surprised by the discovery of U.S. Carriers and valiantly fighting off attacks and being moments away from launching a victory assuring air assault when suddenly....the fickle Gods of war allow a small handful of American bombers to snatch it away at the last moment.   My choice, as well as Fuchidas' was the latter.

11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Happy Veterans day to all those who have and currently wear the cloth of the nation.  On a personal note, Im very grateful to my Uncle Arthur, my Uncle Alex, my Grandfather, my Cousin Alex, and my Great Uncle for their service.  November 11 has a great deal of meaning to me for quite a number of reasons.  It is, of course, Veterans Day, it is a day off work, it is the birthday of General George S. Patton, and of greatest importance in my home, it is the birthday of my wife, Rebecca.  On another note, I don't think that it is coincidence that she shares her birthday with General Patton and I share my birthday with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

  On this Veterans day weekend, I think it is important that we pause for a moment and reflect upon what this day really means.  It's usually draped in flags and sales, news and movie specials, and ceremonies held to thank those who have worn the uniform.  But lets take a look beyond all of that for a moment.  When did this day start and why?  Its meaning and evolution is an amazing story in of itself and sadly, its meaning is lost on the younger generations of today.  Its origins begin with the end of a global nightmare.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice between Germany and the Allied powers went into effect.  The guns of the western front fell silent for the first time in four long and bloody years.  It is difficult now to truly imagine what this day was like for those men and women.  WWI was nothing short of the most horrific and bloody conflict that the world had ever seen up to that point.  Think about it in these terms:  the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has forever scarred an entire generation of Americans, however they represent only 1% of our population as a whole.  WWI nearly wiped out an entire generation of men women and children across all of Europe, and not just 1% either.  England, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Austria all lost anywhere from 1% to 4% of their population.  Think about that for a moment.....the Global War on Terror has IMPACTED, only the 1% of the population of the United States that has been engaged in it.  WWI  KILLED...Not Impacted....KILLED 1-4% of the population of Europe.

  So in the beginning, 11 November was a day of joy which evolved into a day of reverence and remembrance of the estimated 65,000,000 people who died in "The War to End All Wars".  Back then, it was simply known as "Armistice Day".  Sadly, 11 November did not settle all of the differences between the combatants, and instead planted the seeds that would later explode into WWII.  That conflict would kill another estimated 85,000,000 people world wide.  It also introduced a new and more ominous threat to mankind unlike any of the instruments of destruction first used in WWI.  The tools of that war were reserved for combatants, but the atomic bomb hung the sword of Damocles above all of our heads.

  This fact was not lost on WWII Vet Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Alabama.  He knew that this new threat would mean that generations of Americans would need to continue to answer the call of duty to protect our nation.  Furthermore, the United States already had a specific day set aside to honor all of its war dead.  Thus, on 11 November 1945, Mr. Weeks organized the first commemoration dedicated to the recognition and celebration of all of our veterans.  The idea would continue to grow and gain support until May 1954, when President Eisenhower would sign into law, an official declaration changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

  This Veterans Day, 11 November 2014, carries with it a very special significance as it falls on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI.  That war, as noted above, was so terrible that people became convinced that when it was over, man would never take up arms again.  That has not been the case, and one simply need turn on the TV news to find proof.  We have been at war, or conflict, or whatever semantic term one chooses for 13 years now and each day brings new threats in different parts of the globe which threatens to expand the conflict further.  I heard a preacher on TV the other day who said that these new conflicts were the work of the Devil and that mankind continues to suffer from war because we fell for the trick of the Satan convincing man to think that he (Satan) doesn't exist.   I don't subscribe to this particular line of thought.  Rather, I think Satan played a much greater trick when he looked at all the evil that he had wrought and then convinced himself that he wasn't responsible for all of this.....rather it was the work of a separate evil being named Satan.  But regardless of what that preacher or I think, the only thing that stands between us and the evil that war would visit upon us is the VETERAN.....and I'm thankful for them.

Standby for a word from the Admiral

  Crew of His Imperial Japanese Majesties Ship  AKAGI,

  Welcome to my foray into the world of blogging.  Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that Im often prone to go off on a tangent on a variety of historical, social, political, and naval matters, often peppered with a bit of off the wall stuff as well.  Too often, my posts there are of such length that they are truncated, which can result in someone missing it.  Of course, if what I have to say is really worth note, it should just reach out and grab you, but sometimes you must dig a little deeper to find the meat of the matter at hand.

  Though FB has been a great outlet, I don't think that it really is a format for some of the things that I would like to have a dialogue  about with you the reader.  Too often it will devolve into a mudslinging match of likes, " I wish there was an unlike button", or arguments between commentators.  My wife is of the opinion that what I have to say and the vast storehouse of useless information that I have stored in my head should be shared with others.  She encouraged me to take up this new format and for that I am most grateful.  Im even more grateful, and perplexed that she feels that what I have to say may be of some value to others.  I thought that any troupe of chimpanzees with a bucket of crack cocaine could easily come up with the thoughts and opinions that I hold, but she says otherwise.....and being married for almost 18 years, I've learned that, more often than not, it is best to defer to her judgement.

  So, I invite you onboard my favorite ship of the Japanese Imperial Navy, HIJMS AKAGI.  Feel free to wonder the flight deck when not in operation.  There will be free A6M Zero Fighter, B5N Kate Bomber, and D3A Val Dive Bomber rides.  We will embark on occasional strikes upon a wide range of targets, and once the air wing is recovered there will be sushi and sake for all hands.

  As commander of this Task Force, I will set my standing orders as need be and will convey my intentions from the bridge of this wonderful bejeweled Katana and flagship of the Combined Fleet.  So sit back and enjoy....or don't.....either way.......Underway...shift colors.