Vignettes from the WWII, Holocaust, and Post-War Era

                         June 2026: Cherokee Month of the Green Corn Moon “One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous A kind word to one in trouble is often like a switch in a railroad track  . .  . an inch between           a wreck and smooth sailing.                               - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) At the end of the war, close to 400,000 troops, along with vehicles, armaments, field hospitals,  equipment, rations, and other implements on European soil, were awaiting transport home. Gear was  crated and taken to ships bound across the Atlantic or to the Pacific Theater for replacements. The most  recent troops sent to Europe became soldiers to fight the Japanese. Army camps were named after  cigarettes: Pall Mall, Lucky Strike, Philip Morris, Old Gold, Twenty Grand . The...

   June 2026: Cherokee Month of the Green Corn Moon “One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous A kind word to one in trouble is often like a switch in a railroad track  . .  . an inch between           a wreck and smooth sailing.                               - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) Flaming lava balls pierced the plexiglass and ruined the control panels of over 80 U.S. airplanes at a  cost of $25 million dollars. The Army didn’t have 80 pilots and fuel to move the planes nor another  airfield close enough to accept them. The eruption left 24 inches of volcanic ash in the streets and  surrounding villages. U.S Army soldiers and their front-end loaders helped Italian civilians to reclaim  their homes. The Nazis were tough enough without natural disasters compounding logistics. Find Your Own,          ...

June 2026: Cherokee Month of the Green Corn Moon “One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous A kind word to one in trouble is often like a switch in a railroad track  . .  . an inch between           a wreck and smooth sailing.                               - Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) In August of 1946, WWII veterans staged an armed revolt against the local political machine. Officials  made illegal arrests, charged huge fines for speeding, and were corrupt in their financial practices. The  war-savvy veterans used weapons from the National Guard armory. Officials barricaded themselves in the  jail with ballot boxes from their fraudulent election. The elections were rigged so the veterans’ reform  candidates weren’t elected. Armed with guns and dynamite, the GI’s surrounded the jail in McMinn  County. It ended in a standoff. No veterans wer...

June 2026: Cherokee Month of the Green Corn Moon “One day . . . or day one.” -- Anonymous A kind word to one in trouble is often like a switch in a railroad track  . .  . an inch between           a wreck and smooth sailing.                               -  Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) For 800 years, the pastures and fields of France, behind the Normandy beaches, were  divided by earthen mounds topped with hedgerows. The roots and dirt were so dense in  places troops could not get through. Jeeps and tanks were stalled. Army personnel  welded blades to the front of tanks, like the ones used on U.S. farms to till dirt, and  broke  through enough for armored vehicles to pass. These Rhino-Tanks made all the  difference.  They used the metal for the blades from D-Day beach-barricades left by the  Germans. Recon scouts played a vita...