by | September 18, 2013 · 12:00 am

Sunday’s Article


I grew up in the South in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The world I grew up in was still pockmarked with the scars from the Civil War (or The War of Northern Aggression, as we call it). The scars were not obvious, but they were not hidden either. The indentations left from horseshoes on the altar of an Episcopal church. A union officer rode his horse down the aisle up on the altar and took over the church as his headquarters. Then there were scorch marks on the baptismal brazier, union soldiers used it to cook chicken in.

Then there are the people too, a sharecropper trying to eke out a living for his family on another man’s land. When he did not produce enough crops for the landowner, he and his family were kicked off the land and out of the house that went with the land. What happened to the little farm? The landowner’s slaves replaced the sharecropper, and life went on. Yet, when the war started this man, this poor sharecropper, donned a grey coat and left his family to fight the Yankees. I knew this man did not fight to protect slavery; he had to compete against slave labor to feed his family.

Our schoolbooks were written in the north. Schoolteachers who were born in the north (most of them) told us no atrocities were committed against Southerners and the war had been fought to end slavery and for no other reason. So, as a boy I learned to doubt the accepted version of Southern history, I adopted the Missouri motto “show me.” I had to verify for myself what was factual and what was not. I learned the old adage “the victor writes the history books.”

As I became a man and moved north, I began to wonder if what I learned about Southern history applied to all history. Was Napoleon really the megalomaniac we were taught, the anti-Christ Nostradamus predicted? About this time, I began to read about a French doctor, a simple family physician, who left his field of chosen endeavor to stand up for his country and defend it with arms. What this man taught me was that the victor does write the history books, and that even a simple family doctor is capable of extraordinary things in extraordinary times.

This simple doctor who changed my approach to history is the man I want to introduce you to next.

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by | September 15, 2013 · 11:48 pm

The beginning of love. » I Love My LSI


The beginning of love. » I Love My LSI.

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by | September 15, 2013 · 11:23 pm

Thank YOU !


At the end of August I had more hits on my page than I did in all of 2012, and we still have four more months to go. You did that and I really appreciate you for that. You put a smile on my face and a happy tune in my heart.

Thank You !

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by | September 15, 2013 · 12:00 am

The End of an Era


USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) flying over southern Ma...

USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) flying over southern Manhattan Island, New York City (USA), 1930. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The last two rigid airships in the US Navy’s arsenal were the Los Angeles ZR-3 and the Akron ZRS-4 (click here to read the early articles on the Shenandoah ZR-1 www.wp.me/p1MLkF-19V and the Macon ZRS-5 www.wp.me/p1MLkF-17G). There was a ZR-3 but it was crashed during construction in Britain the majority of the crew were killed, including 16 men in the United States Navy who were training to fly the airship back to New Jersey. ZMC-2 is listed as rigid airship, but it was not really, what we think of as a rigid airship. ZMC-2 was a blimp with a metal skin instead of a fabric skin. ZMC-2 was the only metal skin airship ever made.

The Los Angeles was the only German built rigid airship in the United States Navy. This airship was built in 1923-24 and was turned over to the United States as war reparations.

Once the Los Angeles was turned over to the United States it was converted from hydrogen to helium, this reduced the payload but increased safety. During its service life, it flew 4,398 hours for 172,400 nautical miles. The navy used it as a flying observatory, a training ship for airship crews, and experimental platform; this was because the terms of the agreement which gave the Los Angeles to the United States the airship was only allowed to be used as a commercial and experimental platform. The United States asked and received the permission of the Allied Control Commission to use the Los Angeles in fleet exercises in 1931 and 1932.

The Los Angeles has many notable first including the testing of the trapeze system the United States used to launch and recover airplanes from an airship. The most unique experiment occurred on 25 May 1925 when the crew of the Los Angeles had an on-air conversation with a radio announcer on WGY using a photo-phone. This technology used a beam of light to transmit sound.

The Los Angeles was decommissioned in 1932 because of the depression, re-commissioned after the Akron accident in 1933. Then in 1939, the Los Angeles was decommission and disassembled in its hangar. The end of a long and grand life.

The Akron was built in 1929 through 1931, and went through four accidents; the last resulted in the loss of the airship with a great loss of life. The Akron had a unique feature similar to its German sister ships, a weather station on a cable that could be lowered from the airship while in fog to look for clear air below. The weather information was transmitted via radio back to the Akron.

The first accident happened in February 1932 while the airship was being removed from its hangar. The tail section of the airship came loose from its moorings and struck the ground causing heavy damage.

Airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in a near-verti...

Airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in a near-vertical position, after her tail rose out-of-control while she was moored at the high mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The second accident happened after the Akron finished its first trans-continental voyage. Attempting to moor with untrained ground crews took longer than expected in the hot sun. The Akron began to float upwards during the mooring and the mooring cable was cut to avoid a nose-stand. Most of the ground crew let go of their lines. One man held on until he was 15 feet in the air and broke an arm on landing. Two other men were carried up much further and eventually fell to their deaths. A third man tied himself to his line and was hoisted aboard the Akron an hour later.

The third accident saw the tail of the Akron entangled in a beam in its hangar as it was being attempted to be removed from the hangar.

The Akron spent quite a bit of time as a flying aircraft carrier as did its sister ship the Macon (see Macon article). Another experiment was a “spy basket.” The idea was for the Akron to stay in the clouds and lower an observation station below. The “spy basket” was tested with sand bags instead of crew, but unstable swinging from side to side. The idea was scrapped and never used. The Akron also conducted numerous fleet exercises.

The fourth accident of the Akron was the death of the Akron and the ultimate death of the US Navy rigid airship program. On 3 April 1933, the Akron went through a severe storm. At 12:30 am on the 4th the Akron was caught in a wind-shear. The airship began to rise and then was almost immediately caught in the downdraft of the backside of the wind-shear. The airship was taken to full speed ahead and ballast was dropped. The airship was nose up (12 to 25 degrees) trying to gain altitude when the tail section struck the ocean off the New Jersey coast. All of this with continuing violent wind gusts. The low fin of the tail section was ripped from the airship and it began breaking up over the ocean.

Three men were recovered, one died later. A total of 73 men died with the loss of the airship, including civilian VIP’s and Admiral Moffett (Moffett field is named after him). Admiral Moffett was the rigid airship program in the United States Navy.

President Roosevelt said of the disaster, “The loss of the Akron with its crew of gallant officers and men is a national disaster. I grieve with the nation and especially with the wives and families of the men who were lost. Ships can be replaced, but the nation can ill afford to lose such men as Rear Admiral William A. Moffett and his shipmates who died with him upholding to the end the finest traditions of the United States Navy.”

USS Akron (ZRS-4) in flight, 1931.

USS Akron (ZRS-4) in flight, 1931. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Without Admiral Moffett to sing the praises of airship and fight the battles to keep the service active, it was only a matter of time. It is a shame to see skies void of airships. They are majestic workhorses of the sky, with just a twinge of romance thrown in for good measure. I believe the airships fill an important space between expensive fixed-wing aircraft and slow moving, ocean-going ships. Less expensive than planes and faster than ships. Maybe one day we will see a return to their use to fill this void.

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by | September 8, 2013 · 12:00 am

We Pre-empt Your Normally Scheduled Article ( The Ugly, The Beautiful, & The Barrier) …


This week was going to be the last in my rigid airship series. However, last week while on my private Facebook page (I guess I should say personal as nothing on FB is private) a friend of mine sent a “personal” message asking why “so-and-so” was one of my friends. Though most of my facebook friends are veterans, writers, or people I went to school with, they are as different from one another as night and day. And I value each and everyone of them. I started to send my friend an answer, not my first on this subject. The answer became statement of my view on the world. I have decided to share it with you. As always, I do not discuss religion, politics, or money (my grandfather always said it was in poor taste to discuss these things in front of company), but I do mention my own personal beliefs towards the end. If you agree with me … fine, if you don’t … fine. Our friendship is not dependent on our personal beliefs of the after life. I accept you as you are and only ask that you accept me as I am. I hope you find something useful below, but if nothing else you will understand who I am a little better.

The Ugly, the Beautiful & the Barrier

There are really only three types of people in the world; you are the ugly, the beautiful or the barrier. The barrier stands between the ugly and the beautiful, protecting the beautiful from the ugly. The beautiful spread hope by showing others that hope, beauty, joy and love reside within us all and that no person is an exception. The ugly destroys hope, exalts surface beauty over inner beauty, suppresses joy and spreads hate not love.

There are sub-types of beauty and barrier too. They are easy to spot if you know what to look for. The first two believe that one day the ugly will be defeated and then all will be beauty. Then one day they realize that ugly will not be totally defeated and they become embittered and disillusioned. They decide that the ugly could be defeated if we just forced people to do what they should do.

The Embittered barrier turns on the beauty at first and then on the barrier that does not support change by coercion. The Embittered beauty turns on the barrier at first and then on the beauty that does not support change by coercion. Both stop blaming the ugly for all the ugliness in the world and instead blame the barrier and the beauty.

Another sub-type of barrier and beauty are those who realize that ugly has always existed and always will, but they are content to help just one person on this one day. Today they will help just one, and that will be enough for today. The war will never end, but today will be victory for one person. Today a person who is in despair, cold, hungry, or sick; someone who can longer see the light will once again feel hope within their breast, love will caress their soul, joy will light their path and once again they will see the beauty that surrounds us all. These two realize you cannot force an outcome. They realize that when you try to force people to do something, they will do the opposite. Can you force someone to be happy or to love you? Of course not, but the embittered and disillusioned will not be deterred.

There are no sub-types of ugly, but ugly is very good at getting the disillusioned and embittered among the beautiful and the barrier to do their work for them. The ugly takes great joy from this.

The second sub-type of the barrier willing sacrifices themselves in the path of the ugly to protect the beauty, both literally and figuratively. It is written, “No greater love has a man than he lay down his life for another.” This sacrifice is not without its price and leaves both seen and unseen scars on those of the barrier. The pain of these scars are with those of the barrier always and rob them of the beauty, joy and love they once had. But not the hope, their hope is that their sacrifice will protect the beauty from the ugly. They mourn the loss of those who sacrificed themselves before, and this is the most painful scar of all. These are the people I respect, these are people I honor, these are the people who are my heroes.

The second type of the beauty are often undervalued and underrated by the rest of us. People see the joy and love that burst forth from them, as if from a wellspring, and think “it is easy for them to be happy they know nothing of pain.” But, the beauty are the most scarred of us all. They remember the pain, but they do not carry it like an albatross around their necks. They change the things they can change and accept the things they cannot. Fortunately, for us they have the wisdom to know the difference. They have not forgotten the pain, but they do not dwell in a past that cannot be changed. They focus on today; this focus is what allows them to spread beauty to us all, if we will only let them. We have to let them, for they will not attempt to force beauty on us. The beautiful know that by attempting to force beauty on others they will only spread ugly. Often these are the people we see as the weakest and most naive among us, but they are the strongest and wisest among us. Of all the types and sub-types they are the most rare.

I was raised in the Southern Baptist church and taught on a regular basis, “money is the root of all evil.” Money is not the root of all evil. Let me say that again, “money is not the root of all evil.” The lust for power is the root of all evil. The ugly use money to increase their own power for their own gratification. But the ugly do not need money to exert power over others. Have you ever seen the face of a man, woman, or child who is under the power of the ugly? The ugly constantly berates them, “You are worthless, you are so lucky to have me because no one else would ever love you!” The ugly constantly berate them with this because it is the only way their victims will believe the lie. This lie is the tool the ugly wields over the victim, the tool that controls the victim and robs them of everything that is precious in life.  The victims fear the ugly. This fear is the goal of the ugly because it gives them their power over their victims. What the ugly do not know is that eventually fear exhausts the fearful to the point of apathy towards the tormentor.

Hate consumes all around it and eventually even consumes the hater as well. Love grows to encompass all with its light and joy, the more we embrace it the more light and joy grow and expand. The embittered and disillusioned barrier and beauty are not lost. They can return to where they once were. But, it has to be a decision each one makes on his or her own, this decision cannot be forced by others.

I do believe in a God. I do believe in life after death. I do not concern myself with the ugly, I leave those to God. I do believe the barrier and the beauty are doing the work God has set before them, they work on His account. I also believe:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God

Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

These are the gifts God has for the beauty and the barrier. They are His gifts to give; we cannot take these gifts or force them for ourselves or others.

Love will triumph over hate. Eventually, the war will end and ugly will lose. All of their power will not save them, they will lose and they do not even know it.

Each of us has our own belief system. A truth, if you will, that we have arrived at for ourselves. A truth that has been revealed to us by our experiences over the course of our lives. As our life continues we modify it, but it is our own truth. This is my truth. I do not know the journey you must travel, discard or accept (in whole or part) any part of this as it suites your needs, but this is my truth.

May you always know peace, joy and love.

P.S. Next week will be the last of my airship articles for the summer … I promise. Then the following week I’ll introduce you to a remarkable man, a man responsible for my view of history and the reason behind my style of historical research and writing.

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