James S. Robbins over at NRO has an excellent report about our troops on July 4th:

For America’s fighting forces overseas, Independence Day can be a difficult holiday. Back home it means family and friends, cookouts, ball games, and fireworks. In the war zone some of these may be hard to come by. Maybe not fireworks; many troops have already seen plenty. And compared to heavy weapons, the crackle of fireworks just doesn’t compare. Charles H. Norris, an anti-tank gunner about to leave for France in July 1944 wrote to his girl, “They had fireworks at the park last night and they were the prettiest ones I have ever seen. But after firing the anti-tank gun, fireworks seem pretty quiet.”

Independence Day is a work holiday for most of us, but there are no days off in war. On July 4, 1944, Navy air and sea forces attacked Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands, in preparation for the invasion to come. The Japanese fought back tenaciously, and the attack saw the first use of the kamikaze suicide tactics that would later become well known and feared. Seaman Dennis Latham of the destroyer USS Brown wrote, “This has been the most fireworks I have seen on the Fourth in my life. We bombarded the Island of Chichi Jima, in the Bonin Group, five hundred miles off Japan… These islands are very beautiful. At the ends of each big island, there are huge volcanic mountains, towering into the sky. It is a shame they are to be destroyed.” Navy pilot Lieutenant Adolph Mencin wrote of the engagement, “This was our toughest fight; we were out numbered, and the Jap pilots and planes were the best we ever encountered. The Japs flew like something out of a circus, but the Hellcats were too much for them. While they were doing acrobatics, we were shooting.” Lt. Mencin was credited with three aerial victories that day and was awarded the Silver Star.

Meanwhile in Europe, 1,100 American guns fired a “salute” into German positions in Normandy, as U.S. troops fought doggedly towards the French town of St. Lo. Private John Ausland wrote his parents, “Dear folks, Today, just to celebrate independence day we loaded every gun — as did all battalions in the army - and fired them simultaneously at 1200.” It was not the first such demonstration in the Army’s history. At noon on July 4, 1864, Union guns around Richmond fired a “national salute” towards the Confederate defenses. But as one correspondent noted, other than that, “Independence Day came and went with few outward signs to mark it from many others.”

Read the whole thing - and remember the magnificent men and women we have out there laying it all on the line for us.

Posted by Mark Noonan at July 4, 2006 12:43 PM

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Comments

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND KEEP YOU SAFE!! YOU ARE IN OUR PRAYERS EACH AND EVERYDAY!

Posted by: Xango Annie at July 4, 2006 08:26 PM

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