"A NAVAL ACADEMY RING---IT'S JOURNEY"

The USS Houston (CA-30), built in 1929, became FDR's favorite ship.  When he traveled from coast to coast it was aboard the Houston, through the Canal to Hawaii to the west coast and back again the same way.
The Houston was part of the Asian Fleet and among the first ships to be lost in the battle with the Japanese fleet.  She was sunk in March 1942, beginning the forty-two month ordeal for her survivors.
Lt. (jg) Francis B. Weiler, of the Houston, died of his wounds in a small Dutch hospital in Pandeglang March 26, 1942.  A nurse gave his Naval Academy ring to a doctor who surrendered the ring to a Japanese officer.  Eight months later on Guadalcanal a stretcher bearer, taking the ring from a dead Japanese, gave it to a Marine Captain Gordon Gayle thinking he would know what to do with the keepsake.  Later Gayle looked inside the ring and read the name of his classmate.  Gayle gave it to an artillery officer, Captain Swisher who was headed back to Henderson Field , with instructions to see that the Div Quartermaster got the ring so it could be returned to the states.
Before Swisher left his orders were changed and he was sent to the front to spot for artillery, where he was killed by a mortar round.
The ring passed to an Army private who was mortally wounded on November 23, 1942. His dying wish was for his personal effects, including the ring,  be sent to his parents in North Dakota.  That is how the ring finally was returned, in March, 1943 to Fran Weiler's parents in Philadelphia after passing through nine different hands......Medicineman!

ZERO TOLERENCE? OR NOT!

We are a nation of laws!  Everyone says so, well almost everyone.  Every night the TV News Media shows heart breaking shots of children crying because mom and dad, or just mom, or just dad are taken away.  We are, of course, supposed to agree that this is OUR fault they are being treated this way.  Wait just a minute.......didn't we just agree that we are a nation of laws?  If so, then they must be sent back to where they came from.  THOSE FOLKS ARE NOT OUR PROBLEM!
Now we are seeing a crowd of people carrying signs to stop enforcing the law and have a little "heart".  OK, here is what I propose.  Each of those folks with the signs take a child or two home with them and feed and care for them until mom and dad get through processing and come to pick them up on the way back to where they came from.  Problem solved!.....Medicineman!

WOMEN AT WAR!

Women in combat roles (which I disfavor) have been accepted for some time now.  And they do a very good job as a rule.  Some will call me old because I served in the Korean War when women were in service doing the desk jobs, etc.  I still remain against women in combat roles.
That being said, women have been involved in our wars all the way back to the Revolution.  Case in point:  Margaret Corbin followed her husband when he joined the First Pennsylvania Artillery.  In the midst of the battle  of Fort Washington (1776) her husband was killed.  Margaret took his place and loaded and sponged the cannon until she was severely wounded.  Congress voted her one-half the monthly pay drawn by a soldier for the rest of her life and a set of clothes.
Another Revolutionary heroine was Mary Hays, serving beside her husband at the battle on Monmouth (1778).  In the heat of the June day Mary made trip after trip lugging buckets of water to the exhausted and wounded.  When her husband collapsed from the heat she took his place beside the cannon as an artilleryman and did so heroically for the rest of the fight.  Tradition tells us the Washington dubbed her "Molly Pitcher"!.............Medicineman!

KOREA-REVISITED!

For 65 years we have maintained troops in Korea, on the border between the two Koreas.  We like to call it "The Demilitarized Zone", the DMZ.  There is very little reason to call it such because it is anything BUT that.
Now we have a President who has taken this bull by the horns and to the dismay of those on the left, those who hate his guts, and decry often his use of social media to get around the press, has actually met with this "fat boy" and came to some kind of settlement.  We will see the results very soon.  We may be very surprised (or not).  There may even be a Nobel Peace Prize awarded (very likely not Trump). Either way the world has seen what this President can do at the table!....Medicineman!  

JUNE 6......D-DAY!

June 6, 1944-----D-Day, Invasion of Europe, an arrow straight to the heart of Hitler!  If you want to understand what happened that day and the cost of the ultimate victory in Europe, view the movie, "Saving private Ryan".  Take a look at the rows and rows of crosses in the cemeteries in Belgium and France.  Talk to a Vet who was there (if you know one).  They are few in number but not forgotten.
For just this day put aside the petty , selfish and foolish ideas that flood the major networks today and focus on those who gave their all to save us............Medicineman! 

THE BIG SHELL GAME!

Entitlements.  That is the big word Washington uses nowadays to lump all the State giveaways Congress can come up with.  There is medicaid, food stamps, farm subsidies, school lunches, state aid, and on and on.
My gripe is that what used to be a Trust where monies taken from the employer and the worker were secure until one retired and drew that monthly check, are now in the General Fund.  Congress in all it's wisdom decided that it was a great source of ready cash for them to spend and they have really spent it. Now they are calling those Social Security checks "Entitlements".
Think about this---when you are working, monies are withheld from your pay and matched with funds from your employer and sent to Washington to be used for paying the retired folks.  So, you can see that to call your Social Security check an entitlement is foolish and down right insulting to the working man as well as the retiree sense half of it is yours anyway!....Medicineman!