From the Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. Some remaining crew members of the World War II light cruiser USS Columbia will gather in South Carolina's capital city this week.

The State reported about two dozen veterans and about 100 family members are expected in Columbia for the reunion Thursday.

The USS Columbia participated in most of the sea battles in the Pacific, surviving three kamikaze attacks and losing 60 sailors.

FACIST TIES TO POLITICS AND BUSINESS IN THE US,  REDACTED HISTORY

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Editors note:  Read about how this book was suppressed.

In recent days, there has been much confusion with terms like "Fascism" and "Socialism" being tossed around as one in the same, mostly in reference to President Obama and his war against the insurance monopoly in America.  Years ago, Americans seemed to have gone into a state of confusion over poltical labels.

by Randall Ark, Staff Writer

My wife and I planned a trip to New City, New York for a long-overdue visit with her cousin and her cousin's husband. Her cousin emailed me before we left and asked if I would mind spending one afternoon of our visit with a friend of theirs, as he was a WWII veteran and had had some interesting experiences that I might like to hear about.

She said that when she mentioned to him that I was a WWII history buff and that I had spoken with and written about many WWII veterans, he perked up and told her that he needed to get some things together so he would be ready. She said, "He gained new life!"

Here is a video about the Battle of Los Angeles, a very strange part of the early days of World War II.  It is interesting to watch.

The video link is here.

Here is a story of great historical significance, if true.

The Daily Mail online, a British newspaper, has reported as of yesterday that Americans have tested the supposed skull of Adolf Hitler held by the Soviets at the end of the war and found it to belong to a woman of less than 40 years of age.

Wow!

I go through the New York Times and the Washington Post every morning to look for items that veterans can ponder that day.  Uncharacteristic for me is a sort of traditional, "patriotic" glow that every now and then comes over me and I have to share this story from the Times today.  It concerns a Jewish American soldier who acted as Cantor at the first Jewish service in Germany since the rise of Hitler's pogroms as he was waiting to throw himself into battle at Aachen Germany on OCtober 29th, 1944.  American GIs who were Jewish held the service.  The story will make you proud.  The GI is still alive.

I distrust the American view of "patriotism".  It is too close to jingoism, bellicosity and a simple desire for revenge.  We can be quite brutal in our vision of what it means to be patriotic.  Any veteran reading this site who has ever been in action anywhere knows how brutal and unforgiving that can be.  Patriots make me nervous most of the time. While they are singing "America the Beautiful" I am often hearing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles". But this article is worth your time, it will warm you up.

Now, onto other things to ponder today.  Veterans should always ponder their nation's business every day.  They have earned the right to lead more than any other citizen, period.  And they must lead.  That is their sacred duty.

September the first, 1939, marks the start of Nazi Germanys invasion of Poland and the beginning of the Second World War.

Without a declaration of war, German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire from Danzig harbor on the Polish garrison in the Westerplatte.

The assault on Poland unleashed a new form of warfare called the "blitzkrieg, (pron. Bleetzkreeg) or "lightning war".

Tens of thousands of German troops streamed across the borders backed up by squadrons of dive-bombers and other advanced aircraft.

Within days, Poland's allies, France and Britain, declared war on Adolf Hitler's Germany. Meanwhile U.S. President Roosevelt appealed to all European powers not to bomb civilians.

The Polish forces were overwhelmed in both numbers and firepower, and atrocities were soon reported. Hospitals and schools were attacked, refugee trains deliberately bombed, and whole villages wiped out.

New Web site features art of Warner Sallman

Anderson University and Warner Press have launched a new Web site, www.warnersallman.org, featuring the Warner Sallman Collection, a set of original artwork by Warner Sallman, who created some of the most widely recognized and cherished images of Christ produced in the 20th century, including Head of Christ, which was widely distributed to U.S. service men and women during World War II.

The collection, housed at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, contains about 200 works by Sallman, including Head of Christ and several other well-known paintings by the artist: Christ in Gethsemane, Christ at Heart's Door, and Christ our Pilot. The collection also includes pastels, watercolors, pen and ink drawings, and typography produced by Sallman.

Former army officer, 90, found guilty in 1944 deaths of Italian civilians

The Munich state court convicted Josef Scheungraber on 10 counts of murder and also found him guilty of attempted murder.

Scheungraber was a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant at the time of the June 1944 killings in Falzano di Cortona, near the Tuscan town of Arezzo. The killings came after partisans killed two German soldiers.

The following quote is from the New York Times online frontpage section entitled ON THIS DAY:

"On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters. "

Most of these American sailors were eaten alive by sharks when they got into the water after the order to abandon ship had been given.  May they rest in peace.  The horrors that they faced in order to protect their country's interests were beyond description.

by Stephen Stanziano      

“This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” When President Franklin D. Roosevelt made this statement he was referring to the soldiers of World War II; soldiers that fought not for the fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do.  And to quote reporter Tom Brokaw, “this is the greatest generation any society has produced.”

Today our World War II veterans are dying at the rate of 1500 per day.  Now more than ever, it's time to acknowledge their sacrifices and make payment towards the debt of gratitude that is truly owed them.  We need to say "thank you" while there's still time for them to hear those words; not just to Manchester Township's veterans, but to ALL veterans of the Second World War.

Honoring a personal World War II hero

by Mark Potter

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – While growing up here many years ago, my brother, Alan, and I idolized Paul Rosasco, the World War II veteran who lived on the corner of our street. With rapt attention, we'd thrill to hear his stories of danger and high adventure in the South Pacific and would pester him to tell us more.

Left Image: Paul Rosasco as a young soldier during World War II. Courtesy of the Rosasco family

Now that Alan and I are much older, we understand that those stories back then were softened for young ears and actually came from tough memories of a brutal war.  We've since heard the unvarnished version and have learned more about the injuries our neighbor suffered and about all the friends he lost. For that reason, and because of the life he lived in recent years, we actually came to admire him even more.

Here is an article from a British news organization about the present day true to life recreation of a Nazi jet that had close to stealth technology.  It could have changed the course of the war.  The article is here: 

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5773358/Nazis-were-close-to-building-stealth-bomber-that-could-have-changed-course-of-history.html

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)

President Obama Signs Bill Awarding Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots

First women to fly American military aircraft served courageously, blazed trails during WWII

WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed into law S. 614, a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).  WASP was established during World War II with the primary mission of flying non-combat military missions in the United States thus freeing their male counterparts for combat missions.  Its pilots were the first women ever to fly American military aircraft and flew almost every type of aircraft operated by the United States Army Air Force during World War II on a wide range of missions.

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON Helena Independent Record

HELENA - A band of riders from the Patriot Guard will join members of the Missing in America Project when they inter two forgotten World War II veterans next month, laying the men to rest some 20 years after they were cremated and placed away on a mortuary shelf.

The group will also begin an earnest search for other veterans who were never claimed by family members after their death and have spent years resting in obscurity.

“To let a veteran who served his county, an America hero, sit on a shelf in a cardboard box is a crime,” said Marty Malone, state coordinator for the Missing in America Project. “I'm sure we'll find more. When we do, we'll give them the honors they deserve.”

By Lucy Ballinger

Some were able to march, others needed walking sticks or wheelchairs. But all held their heads high as they paraded proudly in Whitehall to remember their fallen comrades. Many of the veterans shed a tear yesterday as they attended the last memorial service the Normandy Veterans' Association will organise in London.

The History of the Manhattan Project

(Nashville, TN) - At 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945 the age of the atom bomb began with the explosion of “the Gadget” and has since been a topic of fascination and fear. With fact-filled photo captions and chapter introductions written by Timothy Joseph, a senior scientist and project manager for the U.S. Department of Energy in Chicago, Historic Photos of the Manhattan Project showcases the efforts of thousands of Americans to forge a weapon that could end World War II.

Watch the human story unfold in this rare collection of 200 photographs culled from the National Archives, the Oak Ridge Public Library, the United States Department of Energy, the Argonne National Laboratory, the archives of George Kerr, and the Library of Congress.

"Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 480 pages, $30), by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman: A new account of the Bataan Death March, in which more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were victims of appalling barbarism - a particularly grim episode of World War II following Japan's invasion of the Philippines.

Driven from Manila into the hills of the Bataan peninsula, the combined Allied forces fought without hope of reinforcement or escape until they had no choice but to capitulate. The largest surrender in U.S. military annals was followed by a forced 60-mile march along Luzon's main highway during which more than 10,000 of the POWs were summarily murdered or died from torture, wounds and disease.

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Normandy, France
3:53 P.M. (Local)

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon.  Thank you, President Sarkozy, Prime Minister Brown, Prime Minister Harper, and Prince Charles for being here today.  Thank you to our Secretary of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, for making the trip out here to join us.  Thanks also to Susan Eisenhower, whose grandfather began this mission 65 years ago with a simple charge: "Ok, let's go."  And to a World War II veteran who returned home from this war to serve a proud and distinguished career as a United States Senator and a national leader:  Bob Dole.  (Applause.)

Weimar, Germany, 3:58 P.M. (Local)

CHANCELLOR MERKEL:  (As translated.)  Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen.  Here in this place a concentration camp was established in 1937.  Not far from here lies Lima, a place where Germans created wonderful works of art, thereby contributing to European culture and civilization.  Not far from that place where once artists, poets, and great minds met, terror, violence, and tyranny reigned over this camp.

At the beginning of our joint visit to the Buchenwald memorial the American President and I stood in front of a plaque commemorating all the victims.  When you put your hand on the memorial you can feel that it has warmed up -- it is kept at a temperature of 37 degrees, the body temperature of a living human being.  This, however, was not a place for living, but a place for dying.

New Zealand Defence Force
Te Ope Kaatua O Aotearoa

New Zealand and British veterans who took part in the Normandy landings will attend a commemorative service to mark the 65th anniversary of D-Day at the National War Memorial in Wellington at 11.00am on Sunday 7 June.

Honorary Life President of the Normandy Veterans Association of New Zealand (NVANZ) David Christison will lay a commemorative wreath on behalf of all past and present members of the Wellington NVANZ.

US President Barack Obama is trying to secure an invitation for the Queen to attend the official D-Day commemorations in France on Saturday.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "We are working with those involved to see that it happens."

Mr Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will mark the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings alongside the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Buckingham Palace said the Queen will not attend as she has not been invited. Neither the Queen nor any other member of the Royal Family has received an invitation to the commemorations.

by Richard Khavkine/For The Star-Ledger

It has been 65 years since Staff Sgt. Lawrence Grasha and a crew of five others clambered aboard their B-24 Liberator at Waller Airfield in Trinidad, bound for Belem in northern Brazil.

Cruising about 200 mph on that early March day in 1944, the roughly 1,050-nautical-mile trek should have taken the Army Air Forces crew and their two passengers about five hours.

Malibu resident Marjorie Dukatz recalls her service with the Marines; Sharon Sawyer talks about her late husband's, Dick Sawyer, time flying a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II.

By Melonie Magruder

While any people may value Memorial Day primarily as the culmination of a three-day holiday, there are plenty of war veterans around to remind U.S. citizens of the true significance of the national holiday and what the sacrifice of their military colleagues means to America today.

"Dick's plane was named 'Free Delivery' by its crew," Sawyer's wife, Sharon, said in an interview with The Malibu Times. "On his 27th combat mission on Dec. 31, 1944, he was shot down near Hamburg. After he parachuted out, he saw his plane crash into eight houses."

"As former prime ministers of Japan have repeatedly stated: The Japanese people should bear in mind that we must look into the past and to learn from the lessons of history," Ichiro Fujisaki said at the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

He said his country was extending a heartfelt apology for "having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences."