Listen

We can't control what is in our heart.
But what we hear can make use wonder.

War on the Beaches (WWII)

Walking on the beach during the early days of World War II and seeing Coast Guardsmen on patrol amidst the debris of torpedoed ships. I think of those men often when I walk the beach, especially at night, when it’s easier to imagine the cold, loneliness, and boredom they endured as part of their contribution to the war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard continued its pre-war beach patrols – usually one man armed only with flares – to spot enemy submarines and watch for saboteurs who might be landing from those subs. All of that changed after June 13, 1942, when Seaman 2nd Class John C. Cullen was approached by a stranger on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island. The men and his companions were Nazi agents ( an extremely incompetent group, fortunately) freshly landed from the German sub U-584. Their discovery and subsequent capture turned the Coast Guard beach patrol into

Spending time at the Jersey shore, as I have since I was a kid, always conjures up my parents and the things they talked about back then. For example, they remembered walking on the beach during the early days of World War II and seeing Coast Guardsmen on patrol amidst the debris of torpedoed ships. I think of those men often when I walk the beach, especially at night, when it’s easier to imagine the cold, loneliness, and boredom they endured as part of their contribution to the war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard continued its pre-war beach patrols – usually one man armed only with flares – to spot enemy submarines and watch for saboteurs who might be landing from those subs. All 

of that changed after June 13, 1942, when Seaman 2nd Class John C. Cullen was approached by a stranger on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island. The men and his companions were Nazi agents ( an extremely incompetent group, fortunately) freshly landed from the German sub U-584. Their discovery and subsequent capture turned the Coast Guard beach patrol into an armed force that used men, dogs and horses (above) to patrol America’s shoreline for the balance of the war.

an armed force that used men, dogs and horses (left) to patrol America’s shoreline for the balance of the war.

US Coast Guard WWII

The Beach Patrol and Corsair Fleet, one of a number of booklets produced by the Coast Guard to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, tells the little-known story of this aspect of the war. Although saboteurs never amounted to much of a problem, the patrol performed its most important service in its traditional role of lifesaving. A particularly dramatic rescue occurred off the sheer cliffs of Washington State in 1943, when the Soviet freighter Lamut struck the rocky ground below a sheer cliff near Teahwhit Beach. Guardsmen hurled a makeshift heaving line from the cliff top to the freighter so the crewmen could ascend hand over hand, “Hanging between the black clouds above and the snarling, crashing breakers below…One slip on the wet line would have meant instant death.” Wow!

The Corsair Fleet, complete with a Donald Duck logo (above), was a motley conglomeration of yachts and smaller craft offered to the U.S. Navy by the Cruising Club of America for emergency U-Boat spotting off the East Coast in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The Navy refused the offer until an avalanche of bad publicity forced its hand and it gave the Coast Guard permission to organize the Coastal Picket Patrol, more commonly known as the Corsair Fleet. During much of 1942, these ships and their amateur crews patrolled in all kinds of weather and spotted a few U-Boats before being eliminated as an economy measure in 1943. Shades of Ernest Hemingway’s private submarine patrols off Key West!
You can read this fascinating little booklet here or find it in a library here.

Be a Philosopher

A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, without limits, follow his inclinations within the aims of his religious beliefs if he soes so discretly

Remember, even a rebel grows old, and sometimes wiser. He finds the things be rebelled against are now the things he must defend against newer rebels. Aging bones creak in the cold. Seek warmth, be descreet, but follow your own mind. When you have obtained position you will have influence. Otherwise you will tear at the bars until your strength is gone, and you will have accomplished nothing but to rant and rave.

Compromise is and evil word, but just think, we compromise and without it there would be no progress, nor could men live together. You may think a man a fool, but if he is an agreeable fool you say nothing. Isn't that compromise?

Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.

A man should not compromise his principles, but he need not flaunt them, as a banner. There is a time to talk and  a time to be still. If a wrong is being done, then is the time to speak out.

Study, gain prestige, and people will ask you solemnly for advice about things of which you know nothing.

There are many ways of fighting. Many a man or woman has waged a good war for truth, honor and freedom, who did not shed blood in the process. Beware of those who would use violence, too often it is the violence they   want and neither truth or freedom.

The important thing is to know where you stand and what you believe, Then be true to yourself in all things. Moreover, ikt is foolish to waste time in arguing questions with those who have no power to change.

Water

Water is needed by all living things.
Water is a basic need for our well being.
Why do some people insist on polluting our water?

My Families History

As my real last name is Featherstone, I have been researching my family history and have come up with some connections that include a history of the Featherstone Castle and the haunting of of it. To read about it see http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/northumberland/hauntings/featherstone-castle.html. I also have two sites where I have been trying to find all the information I can about my family tree.

With My Heritage site you can see it at: http://www.myheritage.com.pt/site-119057661/savanah-featherstone

With Ancestry.com you can see them at: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/19621879/family/pedigree?fpid=830563179

If you are interested in finding your family history/background, I have no fear in advising you to use either of these two sites. They also have programs that you can use on your computer and update those on the site when you are able so that you do not have to be on the internet all of the time.

I am also a member of the Featherstone Society which has just started on Facebook, but is by invitation only. So if you want to meet more of those people around the world who have the common ancestors you could join or create your own society and get to know who your real family is and how large.

Have fun researching your family history.

What is love?

"Perhaps when a man has held a woman in his arms, there is a little of her with him forever. Who is to say?

A ruined castle, and ancient garden, a moon rising over a fountain . . . love comes easily at such a time. Perhaps we loved each other then; perhaps we do not love each other now, but we each have a memory.

Love is a moment of stillness that sometimes a word can shatter to fragments, or love can be a thing that endures, a rich deep current that flows unending dow the years.

I do not think one should demand that love be forever. Perhaps it is better that it not be forever. How can one answer for more than the moment? Who knows what strange tides may sweep us away? What depts there may be or twists and turns and shallows? Each life sails a separate course, although sometimes, and this is the best of times, two lives may move along together until the end of time?

Listen to the music out there. Is the song less beautiful because it has an end? I believe each of us wishes to find the song that does not end, but for me that time is not now.

I have nothing. I have no home, no land, no position. I am an empty gourd that must fill itself.

I owe no debts to destiny, nor could I exist on the bounty of another. I am not a lopdog to be kept by a woman. I do not know what awaits me out there beyond the tim of things, but destiny calls, and I must go. For you and me, today is all we have; tomorrow is a mirage that my never become reality."

The above was taken from a novel by Louis L'Amour called "The Walking Drum". He was more famous for his westerns, a number of which were made into movies, but this shows the depth and beauty that he could write.

The American Dream

America is going through a tough time in our history right now, but what I
see is an America that is waking up. Americans have taken their freedoms
for granted for far too long.

Now, with the talk of socialism sweeping through our government, the
government getting so much bigger, and with the Government debt that too
large for America to sustain, average Americans who have been a sleep for


so many years, seem to be waking up to what we all have to lose – The
American Dream

Our Founding Fathers gave us a gift, unfortunately schools in America no
longer teach about our Founding Fathers and that gift. Parents are no longer
teaching it to their children. I have been studying our Founding Fathers for
about 20 years and I will say this: How can a country know where it is
headed, if doesn't know from where it came? It can’t!