Charles Henry Noll, Requiescat in pace.

We have lost a great Catholic gentleman, teacher, citizen, and leader who only happened to be the greatest pro football coach of all time. Don't worry if you know nothing about Chuck Noll other than his four Super Bowl wins...it really is a Pittsburgh thing.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Legendary Steelers coach Chuck Noll dies 

Charles Henry Noll, who lifted the Steelers from the depths of the National Football League and coached them to four-time Super Bowl champions by adhering to simple, long-held principles, died Friday in his home in Sewickley.

Noll, who had been under a doctor's care for an undisclosed illness, was 82.

His wife, Marianne, found him unresponsive at 9:45 p.m. and called 911. Paramedics pronounced him dead 10 minutes later. 

In recent years, Noll suffered from severe back pain that limited his mobility and forced him to walk with two canes. 

Noll served as Steelers head coach for 23 seasons from 1969-91, winning Super Bowls after the 1974, '75, '78 and '79 seasons and guiding what is considered one of the greatest sports dynasties ever. 

His 209-156-1 record and record four Super Bowl titles earned him induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, his first year of eligibility. 

“Chuck Noll is the best thing to happen to the Rooneys since they got on the boat in Ireland,” said Art Rooney Jr., the oldest son of Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr.

Noll was known for choosing his words carefully. His oft-repeated remark, “Whatever it takes,” was short and succinct. It became the slogan for his coaching career. 

Noll inherited a franchise that had won 18 total games the previous five seasons, and his first team finished 1-13. 

But by the end of Noll's fourth season, the Steelers had advanced to the AFC championship game. Two years later, they were Super Bowl champions. 

Steelers Hall of Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann said Noll “never gets the credit he deserves for managing one of the great teams in NFL history.”

Noll was a perfectionist and loved to teach, those who worked with him said. 

“He was really knowledgeable about any and all things,” said Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, who hired Noll in 1966 to be member of his staff with the Baltimore Colts. “We used to kiddingly call him Knute Knowledge,” a nod to former Notre Dame great Knute Rockne, considered one of the greatest football coaches of all time. 

Rooney Jr., who headed the Steelers' scouting department from 1971-86, likened Noll to “the toughest professor you ever had.” 

“He was not a pizzazz guy. He knew where he was, where he was going and where he wanted to go and how to do it,” Rooney Jr. said. “He had a very, very strong moral compass. ... My dad respected that.” 

Noll was a reluctant celebrity and turned down only one interview request, longtime Steelers publicist Joe Gordon said. That came from Howard Cosell.

“He never really considered Cosell a serious journalist,” Gordon said. “Any other time, regardless of the circumstances, he was always accommodating.” 

Noll rejected many offers to appear in commercials, some of which could have been financially lucrative, Gordon said. 

“He preferred to be a football coach and not a celebrity,” Gordon said. “After a while, they stopped calling because they knew he wasn't interested. If he would have had his way, after the game on Sunday, he would have just picked up his briefcase and gone home.” 

Noll was loyal to his assistants and those who worked around the team at Three Rivers Stadium, said former defensive assistant coach George Perles. 

“He always took the grounds crew people on the plane to away games and the families to the championship games,” he said. 

Born in Cleveland on Jan. 5, 1932, Noll attended Benedictine High School, where he played running back and tackle before earning all-state honors and a football scholarship to the University of Dayton. 

At Dayton, he played tackle and linebacker before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 20th round in 1953. Chosen as a linebacker, Noll was converted into a messenger guard by legendary coach Paul Brown. Noll alternated with another player at running plays into the huddle. 

“After a while,” Brown once said, “Chuck could have called the plays himself without any help from the bench. He was that kind of football student.” 

Noll played through 1959, when he decided to retire at age 28 to pursue a job opening on the Dayton coaching staff. 

Before Noll could accept the job, however, he was hired by coach Sid Gillman, and he spent six seasons with the Chargers through five AFL Western Division championships. 

Noll, a food and wine connoisseur who flew his own plane and sailed his own boat, separated his personal life from football. 

His family lived in Upper St. Clair for many years, and Noll's son, Chris, played football and soccer at the high school. Noll seldom attended the games, but his son said it was not from lack of interest. 

“They were trying to give me my space,” Chris Noll said. “They would sneak in once in a while. They made a decision not to put that kind of pressure on me.” 

The younger Noll remembers coming home from football practice as a freshman and telling his father the team needed a long snapper. 

“He took me out in the driveway and showed me how to do it,” he said. 

Chris Noll, director of communications at Miss Porter's School, a private, all-girls institution in Farmington, Conn., where he also has been a teacher, soccer coach and computer specialist, said his father seldom talked football at home. 

“After (Steelers) games, we would stop someplace to get something to eat, and we didn't talk about the games at all,” he said. “It was a pretty clear separation.” 

Longtime assistant coach and former Steelers running back Dick Hoak said Noll maintained certain values, and family came first. 

“That came before football, and football was after that,” Hoak said. 

Many times, when the NFL Draft lasted until late into the night, Noll ended the day by bringing out his favorite bottles of wine and sharing them with team officials and reporters. He also enjoyed discussing politics and loved classical music and photography. 

“He was very intelligent,” Hoak said. “He knew a lot about a lot of things.”

One year at training camp, he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony during a live performance. 

“He relished the opportunity,” Gordon said. “I never saw him so happy as when he was conducting the symphony.” 

In addition to his wife, Marianne, Noll is survived by his son, Chris; and two grandchildren, Katie, and Connor. John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc. on Centre Avenue in Shadyside is handling funeral arrangements.

Under Noll, Steelers enjoyed unparalleled success

By Jerry Dipaola

Photo gallery — Chuck Noll: 1932-2014

By Tribune-Review

 

Noll influence extended to Guild for the Blind

By Megan Harris
Shortly after Chuck Noll retired as Steelers coach, former Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese Bishop Donald Wuerl recruited him to join the board of directors for the former Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind. Noll served as the board chair from 1997 … 

Noll the ultimate winner

By Joe Starkey
Where do you start? You are attempting to write a meaningful piece about iconic Steelers coach Chuck Noll, who died in his sleep Friday at …

Fans, city enjoyed connection with Noll

By Megan Harris
Everyone has a Chuck Noll story. There’s the time he dropped off Christmas goodies to a Catholic high school. And when he visited ailing fans … 

Noll’s team-first approach helped to make Steelers winners

By Alan Robinson
To understand how good of a coach Chuck Noll was, it is necessary to comprehend how bad the Steelers were before he arrived.

Noll made us all Steelers

By Dejan Kovacevic

Former Steelers laud Hall of Fame coach Noll during public viewing

By Bob Cohn
Chuck Noll knew a great deal about many things, Jon Kolb was saying, from wine to the best place to vacation to how to identify … 

Roethlisberger: Noll should be remembered as ‘greatest coach of all time’

By Alan Robinson

Steelers legends, NFL luminaries arrive for Noll funeral mass

By Alan Robinson 10:11 a.m.
Scores of his former players, team officials and even former coaching rivals of Chuck Noll attended the funeral mass for the former Steelers coach Tuesday morning at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland. Long before the service began at 10 a.m., …

And yet, life goes on. A bit less brightly, perhaps, but it does go on...

Steelers might switch away from their 3-4 defense in coming years

By Alan Robinson

This widow needs 80 grand for two propellers.

Why should we bother restoring a P-61 night fighter to flying condition?

Forget history. Forget the fact she'll be the only one in the world capable of flight. Forget that your humble narrator is dying to see her take off.

Let's do it because she is an incredibly beautiful thing to behold!

Here's a view of the Black Widow's fine backside from the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's World War II Weekend June 7, 2014:

From MAAM.org:

For more than forty years Black Widow 239445 had lain neglected on a foreign mountainside.   The aircraft was all but forgotten, were it not for the single-minded determination displayed by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's co-founder Gene Strine in finding, recovering, and restoring this one-of-a-kind World War II combat aircraft.

Although recovery and restoration costs will represent an estimated 2.2 million dollars, monetary worth cannot be placed on this historic and valuable aircraft. Its worth can be attributed to the value we place on the men and women who designed and built this unique fighter, and to those brave men who flew and maintained this great aircraft.

 

The Mid Atlantic Air Museum requests your support through one of the following donation categories:

$50 - You will receive a P-61 Black Widow Recovery and Restoration Team Certificate, suitable for framing as our thank-you gift.

$100 - In addition to the certificate, you will get a souvenir piece of P-61 aircraft skin from P-61B "42-39445". This skin, approximately 4 inches square, was removed during restoration and is certified by the Museum to be a piece original to the aircraft.  In addition, your name will be engraved on the P-61 "Sponsor's Wall" in the Museum.

$500 - In addition to all of the above, you will receive a resin-cast and hand-detailed 1/72 model of a P-61B.

$1,000 or more - You will receive all the items above, plus a limited-edition P-61 print by David Lee Sample.

Even if you can not afford to donate at one of these levels, every dollar counts and we will be grateful for any support you can give. 

You may donate as little as $5 by credit card on our  MAAM Online Store.  Thank-you.

Please send your donations to :

Mid Atlantic Air Museum
11 Museum Drive
Reading, PA 19605

call:
(610) 372-7333

or visit the online store to use your credit card to donate.

Here's what she looked like when she was pulled out of the Indonesian jungle:












Here's the remarkable story of this beauty's recovery from The Widow's Web:

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum was formed in 1980 for the purpose of acquiring the right to recover P-61B # 42-39445 from its mountaintop crash site.  The museum's ultimate goal was to return the plane to its facility in Reading, Pennsylvania and restore it to flying condition.

Conquering Cyclops

 By: Bob Chubb

EXCERPT REPRINTED FROM WARBIRDS JOURNAL - WINTER 2003 ISSUE
with illustrations from the MAAM files

On 10 January 1945, shortly before noon, with the temperature nearing 100 degrees at the Hollandia airfield, New Guinea, a pilot, radar operator and two passengers climbed aboard their newly acquired P-61B Black Widow in order to perform a proficiency flight.  The two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines both roared to life, the wheel chocks were pulled away and the almost 15 ton aircraft began to taxi to the end of the main runway.  After the crew completed their preflight checklist the brakes were released and the aircraft began its takeoff roll down the runway and then lifted off for its flight.

At a mere two miles off the end of the Hollandia runway the summit of Mount Cyclops rose abruptly to 7000 feet above sea level.  On this day the crew would put the vertical climbing performance of their new aircraft to the test.  The pilot made two high speed passes low over the flat coral airstrip and then attempted to pull up and clear the 7000 foot summit of the Cyclops.  With each pass the P-61 failed to clear the summit, but the pilot successfully turned away, abandoning both attempts.  Upon failing to clear the summit for a second time, the pilot decided that he had to climb and gain altitude, which could be traded off for airspeed.  After flying off completely out of sight for several minutes, the pilot pushed the P-61 into a full-speed dive and then reappeared for a third attempt flying by at maximum speed, whistling as it passed low over the airstrip, nearly cutting off the tops of the six foot tall kuni grass.  He then pulled up and began to climb and to climb and to climb.  Suddenly the twin 2000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney engines were silenced as the Black Widow stalled, clipping the tops of several trees and then pan-caking on to the side of the mountain, coming to rest on top of a large outcrop of rocks at a very precarious 55 degree angle.  Surprisingly enough, only the radar operator sustained a rather severe forehead laceration.  The remaining crewmembers were all lucky enough to escape the crash without major injuries.

 The members of the 550th Night Fighter Squadron based at  the Hollandia airfield stood helplessly and watched as the P-61 nested itself high atop the mountainside like a big black bird.  There was no smoke or fire emitting from the crash site.  For that reason everyone had hoped that there would be survivors aboard the plane.  The Squadron Operations Officer immediately jumped into a L-5 "Sentinel" and began to gain altitude.   After climbing for quite a while he was finally able to make a pass over the crash site, confirming that their were indeed survivors.  Within hours two rescue teams manned with medical personal were on their way up the mountain.  The rescue teams plotted their course, which pointed them directly up the steep slopes of Mt. Cyclops, then the two teams split up in an attempt to find the most accessible way to the crash site.  Night soon fell and both rescue teams were forced to make camp for the evening.  At first light the rescue teams continued on, with one of the teams finding that they were completely cut off do to the impassable cliffs, they were then forced to turn back.  The Japanese infantry was recently forced out of the Hollandia area and evacuated, however it was suspected that some of them might have been left behind and were now roaming the mountainside.  For that reason  locating flares were not used at that time.  After traversing up the rigorous mountainside for nearly two days, one of the rescue teams was nearing the suspected crash site.  At that time they finally fired a white flare and immediately a green flare came down from the mountainside.  From that point the rescue team knew that there were still survivors!

 Shortly after the crash, with his radar operator bleeding profusely from his forehead, the pilot panicked and began running back down the mountain in an attempt to get help.  In his haste he slipped and fell down a steep drop off, breaking his back and bones in both of his feet.  Although now seriously injured, the pilot continued on and was finally picked up by medical personal at the base of the mountain late the very same day.

After the rescue team found the three remaining crewmembers near the plane, it once again was nearing nightfall so they were forced to make camp for the second evening.  At first light rescuers placed the survivors on stretchers and began to descend back down the mountain, switching off every few minutes along the way.  After nearly eight hours of hiking, they finally reached a point where the Army ambulance could take them back to the base hospital.  Nearly three full days had elapsed by the time all of the survivors finally made it back to the base hospital.

 In 1976 Russ Strine purchased the assets from a small Fixed Based Operator (FBO) and formed his own FBO.   Eugene Strine, Russ's father, accepted  the position of Service Manager and soon thereafter the business outgrew its small grass strip in Hanover, Pennsylvania.  The following year they relocated to the former Middletown Air Depot (now Harrisburg International Airport) in Middletown, Pennsylvania.  In the spring of 1978 the newly formed Mid-Atlantic Wing of the formerly known Confederate Air Force (CAF) approached the Strines for help.  The two men agreed to sponsor the Wing and before long there were several new airplanes based at their facility.  The Strines became quite involved in the CAF activities, participating in many air shows and getting to know their fellow warbird enthusiasts.  During an air show a CAF member told Gene Strine the story of a P-61 Black Widow that was lost 12,000 miles away from home and nearly forgotten about for thirty-five years.  The aircraft sat elevated on a pile of rocks deep within the towering jungle high atop Mt.  Cyclops, just 300 feet short of its summit in New Guinea.  He then stated that he had offered the information to the CAF for recovery purposes, but they had showed no interest in the aircraft, however Gene Strine did!   At a later air show the same CAF member showed Gene photographs and hand written letters from a missionary who had seen the aircraft perched atop Mt.  Cyclops in what was now Irian Jaya, Indonesia, no longer part of New Guinea.

After discussing the aircraft thoroughly with Russ, Gene felt there was enough interest in the aircraft to initiate permission for recovery since their were only three other P-61's known to still exist throughout the world and this particular aircraft only had 10 hours of total flight time logged prior to its crash.  When the CAF member was asked if he would release the information to the Strines, he said he would after offering it one last time to the CAF Headquarters.  He did so but the CAF didn't foresee that any serious effort would be made to obtain the aircraft.  At that time everything was turned over to Gene who very quietly put his plans into motion by initiating a long series of contacts and talks with various Indonesian authorities.  Streams of letters were written in the ensuing year with very little progress.  The major obstacle seemed to be from officials in Indonesia who wanted to know who these Americans were and why they should be the ones to recover the P-61.  The Indonesians listened, but were very cautious, with much communication between the Strines, the Indonesian Embassy, and with Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.  Meanwhile, in December 1980 the Strines organized and incorporated the Mid Atlantic Air Museum (MAAM) as a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit educational organization.  The incorporation allowed the Museum to act as a legitimate body to request salvage rights for the P-61 from the Indonesians.

 Finally, in 1983 the United States Air Force officially signed off in writing any interest they had in the aircraft, officially stating that the P-61 was considered one of the "spoils of war" under treaties signed ending World War II.  The aircraft was thus owned by the country upon whose soil it rested.  Continual contact was made with the Indonesian government and in 1984 it was agreed that some type of trade would be made between the two parties as basis for a deal.  Permission was granted for museum personnel to travel to Irian Jaya, Indonesia to locate and inspect the P-61, to determine if it was worth recovering.

1984 was a very pivotal year for MAAM.  Membership passed 500 and late that year it was publicly announced that MAAM had received written permission to recover the very rare aircraft.  In November, Gene Strine led an exploratory expedition to assess the condition of the aircraft.  Though it took jumping through the many bureaucratic hoops and tons of paper work the four man expedition group was in Sentani by Thanksgiving welcomed by their new friends from the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, the flying arm of Wycliffe Bible Translators, whose generous help would aid the expedition team enormously throughout the recovery.

 The expedition team struggled on their way up the mountain, climbing up inclines as steep as 85 degrees.   After nearly nine hours of hiking and through a near Herculean effort, expedition sponsor AI Wenger and the late famed historian and aviation author Jeffery Ethell were the only inspection team members to make it all the way to the aircraft with the aid of local Dani tribesmen acting as guides.  Incredibly the aircraft, although banged up when stalling through the trees, appeared to be structurally sound.  The low humidity that was present at this high elevation and jungle vegetation that quickly engulfed the aircraft covering it with moss and vines, helped to prevent the onset of corrosion.   Aiding to the further protection of the aircraft was the large elevated mountainside rock pile on which it was perched, thus protecting it from contact against the jungle floor.  Upon closer inspection of the aircraft, some of the moss was scraped away and the aluminum below glistened, air remained in the tires, hydraulic fluid remained in the lines, gas remained in the fuel tanks and oil remained in the engines.  The exploratory expedition team was elated and plans were immediately made to start the recovery efforts.

 On New Year's Day 1985 Gene Strine led the first six- man recovery team back to Irian Jaya, Indonesia to begin the disassembly of the aircraft.  The late Jeffery Ethell once again accompanied the first recovery team, documenting each phase of the salvage process.  The first recovery expedition lasted three weeks, which included five days high atop Mt.  Cyclops living in huts built for them by the local tribesmen.  The first recovery team was there on top of the mountain 10 January 1985, forty-years to the day when the aircraft originally went down.  The recovery team had only made minimal progress with the disassembly of the aircraft.  Foremost, the team quickly learned how remote this area was and just how difficult the task would be.  Second was just how extremely expensive it would be to carry out each and every expedition.  Most importantly during the first recovery effort they were able to better assess the disassembly process and just how much of the jungle that would need to be cleared in order to safely helicopter the larger sections out.  A second recovery team replaced the first shortly after they left the site, bringing with them many needed tools and supplies that were not locally available.

 The Indonesian bureaucracy was responsible for so much wasted time and effort, as the recovery team would spend days waiting for permission to work from the Indonesian government.  Requests would be passed from one level of government to the next and on countless occasions the requested authorization to proceed did not return.  This meant that the team would have to once again initiate the very same request from the beginning and continue waiting until the proper permission was received.  The team would have to address each and every request in the very same manner.  This problem occurred during each and every visit to the country.

 Work on the mountain was painstakingly slow.  Frustrations ran very high since forty-year-old bolts would not turn and, due to the precarious 55-degree angle in which the aircraft was laying on the mountainside, compression on the wing and nacelle attachment bolts prevented them from being removed.  At times recovery workers had to tie ropes around their waist in order to prevent them from sliding off of the aircraft and over an extremely steep cliff located only 100 feet behind the crash site.

 At the very same time that MAAM was attempting to secure ownership of the P-61 from the USAAF and the Indonesian government an individual from Stockton, California, had a crew on Mt.  Cyclops attempting to recover the aircraft and remove it from the country.  After the leader of that expedition suffered a heart attack while atop the mountain the attempt was finally abandoned.  This crew actually did end up helping the museum's recovery efforts by removing the aircraft's tail booms, flaps, exhaust pipes, elevator, rudders, a fin, 20mm cannons and many other smaller parts.

 Additional MAAM recovery crews were sent again as funding permitted in 1986 and 1988.  During that time the local tribesmen carried all of the smaller parts back down the mountain.  In 1989 arrangements were made with the Indonesian government to provide a helicopter to airlift the remaining larger P-61 components back to the Sentani Airport below.  The coordination of the airlift was one of near mammoth proportion, which took months to orchestrate.   It consisted of eight weeks of difficult negotiations and waiting, a week's worth of the traveling for the helicopter, which came from 3200 miles away and, finally, a week's worth of cliff hanging airlifts.

 At last the P-61 was finally off the mountain.  Now the recovery team was faced with enormous task of constructing custom, hand-made crates, large enough to carry and protect all of the valuable P-61 components.

 The parts were now crated and readied for shipment back to MAAM in Reading, Pennsylvania, but first there was the matter of a trade that needed to be consummated.  The Indonesian government had finally agreed to accept a fully operational Boeing Stearman PT -13 primary trainer for display within their Air Force Museum in trade for the needed export permits.  But, first the Stearman had to be disassembled, packed and shipped to Indonesia.  Upon the arrival of the Stearman in Indonesia the export paper work for the P-61 was finally in hand and shipping arrangements were made with a US importer.

 A final trip was made in February 1991 to hand-carry the appropriate shipping documents back to Indonesia, and to arrange the movement of fifteen crates which contained the components for the entire P-61.  By anyone's measure, movement of the crates in itself proved to be no small task.  The twelve-foot by fifteen-foot inner wing nacelle crates and the eight-foot by twenty-eight-foot long fuselage crate required procurement of the largest truck on the island.  Once loaded onto the truck the fuselage crate hung off the back nearly thirteen-feet.  To the astonishment of all who watched, a local native rode atop the crates lifting overhead electrical wires with his bare hands, so that the crates could safely pass underneath!

The crates were moved by truck some thirty miles down the original twisting and winding road that General MacArthur had constructed during World War II, to the port of Jayapura.  The two Strines, father and son, stood side-by-side on the dock and watched as the ship sailed from the Jayapura harbor.  For both men it was a strange but very satisfying feeling, which completed the first phase of their twelve-year quest.  Acquisition and recovery was finally complete, but both men knew that an entirely new set of challenges lay ahead of them.  The P-61 arrived in Baltimore, Maryland on schedule, during the first week of April 1991.

 Even before the P- 61 returned to the museum, volunteer aircraft draftsmen were hard at work producing full-scale drawings so that parts could be made.  MAAM acquired copies of the original P-61 construction drawings on 17 rolls of microfilm.  Before the aircraft came home it was necessary to design, manufacture and prepare special manufacturing fixtures which would hold the fuselage, left and right inner wing nacelles, stabilizer, fin, tail booms, and outer wing panels for rebuild and repairs.  The manufacture of these fixtures, which were constructed to extremely close tolerances, took hundreds of man-hours to produce and cost more than $5000.

 Once news that the P-61 had been recovered and was now in the museum's possession reached the general public the individual from Stockton, California who had tried to recover the aircraft contacted the museum and offered the cache of P-61 parts he had acquired in preparation for his restoration of the aircraft.  The inventory consisted of some 584 parts, including landing gear doors, gun bay doors, flaps, wing tips, a tail boom, engine mounts, nose landing gear, spinners, etc., all of which were collected by a California Firebombing outfit which operated the last flying P-61 and F-15 Reporter photo-recon version prior to 1968.  The complete inventory of parts were purchased and delivered to the museum in a totally filled forty-five-foot long tractor-trailer.  In Fargo, North Dakota, an additional stock of brand-new parts were located and purchased which included an entire Pratt & Whitney R2800- 65 Quick Engine Change assembly, complete with engine, mount, transmitters, cowl flaps, cowling, etc. 


With the safe arrival of the P-61 at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's home base in Reading, the recovery project had been successfully completed.  A tremendous amount of work and expense had been expended to bring the P-61 home.  Much more still lies ahead before this magnificent piece of history comes to life.  Recovery was only the prelude.

Chester Nez, Requiescat in pace.

Chester Nez, last of the original Navajo code talkers, dies   - arstechnica.com

On Wednesday Chester Nez, one of the 29 original Navajo code talkers who worked for the US during WWII sending secret messages in their native language, died in his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nez was 93, and his death was confirmed by Judy Avila, who helped him write his memoirs, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Nez was one of the first code talkers recruited for the job in 1942, while the US was seeing its codes broken over and over again by Japanese code breakers. According to AZCentral, he was in tenth grade when he was recruited by US Marines, who came to his boarding school in Arizona looking for native Navajo speakers.

Navajo has a complex grammar, and at the time there were few, if any, written records of the language. CNN notes that Nez and his peers were forbidden to speak Navajo growing up—until, of course, they were needed to devise a code based on the language. The 29 Navajo men attended boot camp at Camp Pendelton in California and there devised a dictionary with special words for military terms that did not exist in Navajo. They then memorized that dictionary, as the Naval History and Heritage Command recounts:

When a Navajo code talker received a message, what he heard was a string of seemingly unrelated Navajo words. The code talker first had to translate each Navajo word into its English equivalent. Then he used only the first letter of the English equivalent in spelling an English word. Thus, the Navajo words "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-la-sana" (apple) and "tse-nill" (axe) all stood for the letter "a." One way to say the word "Navy" in Navajo code would be "tsah (needle) wol-la-chee (ant) ah-keh-di- glini (victor) tsah-ah-dzoh (yucca)."

Most letters had more than one Navajo word representing them. Not all words had to be spelled out letter by letter. The developers of the original code assigned Navajo words to represent about 450 frequently used military terms that did not exist in the Navajo language. Several examples: "besh- lo" (iron fish) meant "submarine," "dah-he- tih-hi" (hummingbird) meant "fighter plane" and "debeh-li-zine" (black street) meant "squad."

The Navajo code talkers were primarily employed in the Pacific Theater of Operations, and Nez himself served in the thick of fighting in Guadalcanal, Guam, Peleliu, and Bougainville.

“In developing our code, we were careful to use everyday Navajo words, so that we could memorize and retain the words easily,” Nez told CNN in 2011. “I think that made our job easier, and I think it helped us to be successful in the heat of battle. Still, I worried every day that I might make an error that cost American lives. But our code was the only code in modern warfare that was never broken. The Japanese tried, but they couldn’t decipher it. Not even another Navajo could decipher it if he wasn’t a code talker.”

The US Marines eventually recruited more Navajo speakers, and by 1945 somewhere between 375 to 420 were working as code talkers. The code talkers were forbidden from discussing their work until 1968, when the program was declassified.

This day will always be D-Day.

After Dwight Eisenhower left the White House, he asked to be reinstated in the US Army because, he said, five hundred years from now nobody will remember he was President of the United States but they will always remember he led Our Boys into Normandy.

The shade of Leonidas, King of Sparta, heartily agrees.






















What have you done to keep America free?

Let's impeach the first black Clinton, too!

Nothing short of execution for treason would be just, but what the heck, let's give it a shot.

From Daily Mail:

Taliban prisoner swap was ILLEGAL and could lead to Obama's IMPEACHMENT

The swap of Bowe Bergdahl for five Guantanamo detainees 'violates the law against material support to terrorism,' argues an author who once put Islamist terrorists behind bars.

 From the Sun Sentinel:

Allen West calls for Obama impeachment, cites prisoner swap

A couple of We Are Crutch nazis try to have a mass without a priest and discover...protestantism!

From National Catholic Reporter:

Head of We Are Church excommunicated for celebrating Mass without priest

 Martha Heizer, the head of the reform international movement We Are Church in Austria, and her husband, Gert Heizer, have been excommunicated by the Vatican for celebrating Mass without a priest present, according to a statement from the diocese of Innsbruck, Austria.

Bishop Manfred Scheuer said in the statement that "publicizing their practice of having 'private Eucharistic celebrations without the presence of a priest' " forced the bishop "to initiate legal action."

On Wednesday, the bishop read the final decree issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith to the Heizers at the diocesan court in Innsbruck in the presence of two judges of the diocese, according to a statement from the Heizers.
"This does not mean that we are not part of the church anymore," the Heizers said in the statement, published Thursday in Austrian daily Tiroler Tageszeitung and translated for NCR by Bernie Aurin. "By virtue of our baptism we remain part of the church as long as we ourselves do not choose to leave her."

Wrong. You have chosen to leave the Church by virtue of your defective will and who knows what else.

The diocesan statement, sent by email Thursday from diocesan spokesperson Michael Gstaltmeyr and also translated for NCR by Aurin, stated that the Heizers may apply within 10 days with the bishop for the "nullification or for a change in the stipulations of this decree, including a temporary stay."

Scheuer also said that "it was very clear to them what their actions would mean to the church. For me it is a defeat that we did not manage to get the couple to change their minds and avoid legal proceedings. Determining self-excommunication is never a victory, but always a defeat for the church."

The Heizers said they were expecting to be punished and that Scheuer had told the couple that their personal conscience should "not allow us to break church laws."
Celebrating the Eucharist unauthorized by the church is one of the "three most grave offenses," the statement from the Heizers said. "The other two offenses are breaking the confidentiality of the confessional and sexual abuse."

The Heizers said they are "appalled to find ourselves put into the same category as those priests that sexually abused minors. This is especially bitter for us because we are not aware of a single perpetrator of sexual abuse that was excommunicated."

Obfuscation.

The diocesan statement stated there is "hope that those persons responsible for holding 'private Eucharistic celebrations' will come to realize what they are doing, see the damage that they are causing to the church and change their ways."
However, the Heizers aren't backing down.

"We have not accepted the decree," their statement said. "We have refused it. ... We will continue to commit ourselves to the reform of the Catholic church. These proceedings illustrate very clearly how urgent the church needs to be renewed."

The We Are Church international movement was founded in Rome in 1996, according to the organization's website, and it is committed to the renewal of the church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council. We Are Church evolved from the Church Referendum in Austria in 1995 that was started after the child sexual abuse scandal surrounding Austrian Cardinal Hans Gröer.

It takes a cabal to cover up four murders.

Hitlery Schicklgruber, the once and future cow, prepares to mount the throne.

But "What difference at this point does it make?”

 

From the Atlantic Wire via Yahoo News:

What's in the Benghazi Chapter of Hillary Clinton's New Book?

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

A 34-page chapter of Hillary Clinton's upcoming book, Hard Choices, is all about the Benghazi attacks. According to a copy of the chapter obtained by Politico, a substantial portion is clearly meant to address ongoing committee hearings convened by the GOP-led House of Representatives, who believe that Clinton was part of a conspiracy to cover up government knowledge of the attack. There's been a "regrettable amount of misinformation, speculation, and flat-out deceit by some in politics and the media,” Clinton writes. 

The former Secretary of State goes on to say that she "will not be part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans," adding, "it's just plain wrong, and it's unworthy of our great country. Those who insist of politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me." 

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

Clinton has already given testimony at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi in 2013, but that line is probably directed at the next step in the Republican investigation into the attacks: a big special committee, announced earlier this spring, that could keep the show going through the fall and into the final stretch of the midterm season. That committee is already working to establish their timeline of the events leading up to the attack, which the Republican leadership believes is incomplete, even after a Senate report and a State Department review. 

Politico's Maggie Haberman explains that the book is already being used to help Democrats to address Clinton's participation in the government response to the attacks. She writes: 

The section was obtained and reviewed by POLITICO on the eve of a meeting in which members of Democratic-leaning groups will be briefed by Clinton’s team about how she addresses the attacks in the book.

And in a sign of the concerted effort to rebut the ongoing controversy in a cohesive way, Clinton’s camp has brought on former National Security Council spokesman and longtime President Barack Obama hand Tommy Vietor to assist in the response to the book, a source familiar with the plan said.

And, Clinton herself will sit down with Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren for a lengthy interview to air June 17. The interview is part of her book tour, but the network's history of being very, very interested in Benghazi conspiracy theories (along with Clinton devoting an entire chapter to it) suggests that the attacks will be a topic of focus. 

  

"What difference at this point does it make?”

The chapter will address a number of specific points about the attacks: 

On the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in the attack: 

 Stevens's death was “a punch in the gut,” Clinton writes, adding, that the death of "fearless public servants in the line of duty was a crushing blow... as Secretary I was the one ultimately responsible for my people’s safety, and I never felt that responsibility more deeply than I did that day.”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

The role of an anti-Islamic video in the Benghazi attacks:  

Citing "later investigation and reporting" (see: here) on the attacks, Clinton writes that the video was "indeed a factor." She adds that those at the consulate on that night had "different motives": "“It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video. It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were. Both assertions defy not only the evidence but logic as well.”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

How Obama and the military responded to the attacks: 

 “[Obama] gave the order to do whatever was necessary to support our people in Libya. It was imperative that all possible resources be mobilized immediately. … When Americans are under fire, that is not an order the Commander in Chief has to give twice. Our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives — and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

Whether she personally saw cables before the attacks requiring additional security:

 "That’s not how it works. It shouldn’t. And it didn’t," Clinton writes, noting that the cables bore her name as a "procedural quirk” and not because they went directly to her. 

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

Why she wasn't interviewed for the Accountability Review Board investigation, and whether that's proof that she rigged the entire investigation as part of the massive cover-up for Obama:  

"[the board] had unfettered access to anyone and anything they thought relevant to their investigation, including me if they had chosen to do so.”

 

"What difference at this point does it make?”

On Susan Rice's early statements to the press after the attacks: 

"Early", eh? Interesting adjective.  Fog of war and all that, no doubt. But ...

"What difference at this point does it make?”

  “Susan stated what the intelligence community believed, rightly or wrongly, at the time...That was the best she or anyone could do. Every step of the way, whenever something new was learned, it was quickly shared with Congress and the American people. There is a difference between getting something wrong, and committing wrong. A big difference that some have blurred to the point of casting those who made a mistake as intentionally deceitful.”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

 Why she didn't go on the Sunday morning shows herself: 

 Some, she writes, "fixate on the question of why I didn’t go on TV that morning, as if appearing on a talk show is the equivalent of jury duty, where one has to have a compelling reason to get out of it. I don’t see appearing on Sunday-morning television as any more of a responsibility than appearing on late-night TV. Only in Washington is the definition of talking to Americans confined to 9 A.M. on Sunday mornings.”

 

"What difference at this point does it make?”

 

On why she said "what difference at this point does it make?” about the motivations behind the attacks: 

 "In yet another example of the terrible politicization of this tragedy, many have conveniently chosen to interpret [it] to mean that I was somehow minimizing the tragedy of Benghazi. Of course that’s not what I said...My point was simple: If someone breaks into your home and takes your family hostage, how much time are you going to spend focused on how the intruder spent his day as opposed to how best to rescue your loved ones and then prevent it from happening again?”

  

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

Hard Choices comes out on June 10. Read more on the Benghazi chapter at Politico.

  

"What difference at this point does it make?”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

 "What difference at this point does it make?”

 

What do you get when you cross a jug-eared commie, a coward [at best!], and a prison full of mass murderers?

From the Atlantic wire via Yahoo News:

Obama Stands by the Bergdahl Deal, Says He 'Consulted With Congress'

It's possible President Obama thought the Bowe Bergdahl deal would be the triumphant, feel-good story of the week. Instead members of Congress have promised to hold hearings on the prisoner trade, arguing that they were not properly notified beforehand. Obama, during a press conference in Poland, defended the deal, arguing that retrieving prisoners of war is a "sacred" American rule...

Obama defends decision to trade 5 Guantanamo detainees for Bergdahl - Washington Post   

The president, in Warsaw, acknowledged that some released detainees could pose threats.

• Bergdahl Deal Didn't Break Law, White House Insists - CQ Politics
• White House defends swap of Bowe Bergdahl for 5 Taliban ... - Washington Examiner

Shinehead O'Connor is still an ignorant cow.

From Yahoo Music:

O'Connor debuts glam makeover 

 If she's the boss, you better get to work! A little more than two months before releasing her 10th studio album, Sinéad O'Connor unveiled its surprising cover featuring a nearly unrecognizable snapshot of the music legend.

Sporting a jet-black bob with dramatic bangs, smoky eye makeup, and a skintight black PVC leather dress (complete with a high neck and long sleeves), the singer looks like a heroine from a Quentin Tarantino film... who could do some serious damage with that glittered guitar.

Obviously, the whole sexy, futuristic superhero look for I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss is a major departure from her standard style, which is defined by a shaved head, light makeup, and relatively unfussy clothes. So what inspired such a dramatic about-face in the icon?

 Typical dumbass left-fascism. Words don't kill, commies kill. [And abortion mills!]

It was Sheryl Sandberg, or, rather, the women's empowerment movement Sandberg created. O'Connor took to her personal website to explain her change of heart.

"Originally I had a different title, The Vishnu Room, but a few months back when I saw the phrase 'I’m not bossy, I'm the boss' and became aware of the Ban Bossy campaign, I wished I could re-name the album, since indeed it can be tricky being a female boss and I think Sheryl’s campaign is a terribly important one."

 In fact, this power struggle is something the star has been dealing with for decades. Back in February, she explained that her iconic anti-glam image was an intentional act of rebellion against record executives when she was first starting out in the '80s.

"I got put into the record business at a time when record executives were a little frisky. Put it that way," O'Connor said. "You had to protect yourself straight off. You'd be better to have a bag on your head, really." But the execs had other ideas in mind.

"They wanted me to grow my hair really long and wear miniskirts and all that kind of stuff because they reckoned I'd look much prettier," O'Connor shared. "So I went straight around to the barber and shaved the rest of my hair off … to make myself as unattractive as I possibly could."

   
Silly bunt. All she had to do was start talking. That would be enough to sabotage any erection.

But even though there's no doubt that O'Connor is now the boss (and has been for a long time), changing the title of her latest album at first seemed impossible.

"At the stage I became aware of the Ban Bossy campaign, it was too late to change the album title because the sleeve was already in print," the star lamented in her blog post before explaining a fortunate turn of events. "Last week, when the record company received the promo shots, which included the cover shot you now see, they asked could they change the planned cover to the current one, and that allowed me the opportunity of changing the title."

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

Originally from May 2012:

It appears that "Mohammed" was a creation of Arab kings seeking earthly power and its consolidation.

One would be better off following Harry Potter...

Here's a review from FaithFreedom.org: 

Did Mohammed Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins

by Robert Spencer

In 2008 Professor Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a convert to Islam since the age of 15 and practicing Muslim who taught Islamic Theology at Munster University in Germany announced that he no longer believes that Muhammad existed. According to his own testimony in German, Kalisch made the following statement:

“My position with regard to the historical existence of Muhammad is that I believe neither his existence nor his non-existence can be proven. I, however, lean towards the non-existence but I don’t think it can be proven either. It is my impression that, unless there are some sensational archeological discoveries – i.e. an Islamic “Qumran” or “Nag Hammadi” — the question of Muhammad’s existence will probably never be finally clarified.”

Instant Translation: There are no mohammedan Dead Sea Scrolls, et cetera.

Kalisch began his essay as follows:

“Up to some time ago I was convinced that Muhammad was a historical figure. Although I always based my thinking on the assumption that the Islamic historical narrative regarding Muhammad was very unreliable, I had no doubts that at least the basic lines of his biography were historically correct.

I have now moved away from this position and will soon publish a book in which I will, among other things, comment on this question and explain my arguments in more detail. This essay is only a short summary of my most important arguments.”

The book was never written probably due to outrage in the Muslim community, declarations of apostasy from radical Clerics and a genuine fear for his life. While Kalisch never published his thesis, now in 2012, famed critic and bestselling author Robert Spencer has published his own investigative work on the question at hand. Spencer is a Christian who is more interested in exposing Islam then preaching Christianity, has rightfully entitled his publication “Did Muhammad Exist, An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins”.

Muslims will immediately jump on the bandwagon of Spencer simply being an opportunist and hatemonger hoping to make some money through a proactive title. Quite to the contrary this book promotes legitimate investigation to the question it posits.

Spencer argues that for the first sixty years, between the 630’s to 690 AD, there is no mention of the Qur’an or Muhammad by either the Arab conquerors or those who were conquered. He argues that such an omission and “extraordinary silence” is absolutely strange from a historian’s perspective. Spencer does say that he believes that a man by the name of Muhammad may have existed in the same way that a Robin Hood may have existed, but all of the stories and legends about him were likely made up by competing factions who are documented by Muslim scholars themselves as fabricating stories for political reasons and/or to support their beliefs and practices.

The book goes into further fascinating details about the possibility of the name ‘Muhammad’ which is mentioned in the Qur’an no more than four times without any details about a historical figure, could have simply been an attribute given to Jesus by certain Unitarian Christians. A coin which was minted during the early parts of the Muslim era shows one side of the coin with a man holding a cross and on the other side the name of Muhammad.

Regardless of whether Muhammad existed or not, Spencer makes a valid point that such an investigation and inquiry is necessary and that while scholars such as Bart Ehrman are able to produce material to question the existence of Jesus (others such as Richard Carrier and Acharya S / DM Murdock have also questioned the existence of Jesus)  or for that matter investigation into the existence of any other historical figure, why should Muhammad be exempt? Perhaps the right of inquiry and investigation of this sort is more valuable than the conclusion itself.

 *Huh? Look here.

Speaking of mohammedan crimes against humanity...

...have you noticed how the ChristLast media ignores the Christianity of their victims?

Nations unify in hunt for Nigerian girls - CNN

Nigeria and four neighboring countries will share intelligence and border surveillance in the hunt for more than 200 Nigerian girls still held by Boko Haram, and Western nations will provide technical expertise and training to the new regional African effort against the extreme Islamists.

• Chibok Abductions: Borno State To Spend N150m In Support of The ... - Sahara Reporters
• Boko Haram Could Release Kidnapped Nigerian '... - IB Times via Yahoo! Singapore News
• Boko Haram leader: Abducted girls converted - KHBS - KHOG Fort Smith - Fayetteville
• all 308 news articles...

And you thought Kevin Bacon had it rough in "Footloose"...

This may be the saddest and most beautiful and most joyful thing seen in years.




     If these kids are lucky, they'll just be "re-educated" by the totalitarian theocracy that infests their once fair land. If not, they'll end up in shallow desert graves. Either way, we should pray for their immortal souls.
     It is time, mohammedan kiddies, to rethink your allegiance to the murderous evildoers who rule over you and to the religion that dares to criminalize the human spirit.

Jack's back, baby, and the bodies they are a droppin'!

24 is back on the air kiddies, if only for half a "day". Sadly, it seems Right Wing Nuthouse isn't going to keep a running count of the body bags needed. 

Chloe is back as a goth ex-con Snowden-like traitor [or should that be freedom-fighter?] as is Heller - now the senile US prez along with his now un-catatonic daughter who is married to his power-mad chief of staff [ALWAYS the most accurate part of the show, that].

The hot blonde chick from "Chuck" provides some eye candy as she pursues our hero through London, but the most inspired casting is that of Prime Minister Jeeves.  Let us hope he survives the inevitable carnage to come and gets his own series where he battles mohammedan birthrates and angry sodomites to preserve the Empire.

When the conservatives' favorite serial adulterer and the ChristLast media agree that the Pope's a commie...

 Once again, kiddies, you must be wary of the ChristLast Media when they "report" something about Christ's Church. You must remember that Pope Francis is from Argentina [I was going to type "not from here", but the foreign kiddies might be offended.] and wouldn't know wealth creation and economic freedom if they knelt and kissed his ring [as they should].

Not to worry, all ye totalitarians, America is well on her way to becoming a third world hell-hole complete with a fascist dictator and no jobs except for "government work" which is code for, as the last two popes saw in their homelands,  killing your neighbor to keep your other neighbors in line. 

"Redistribution" is code for...well, you'll see.

From the Detroit News:

Pope Francis demands 'legitimate redistribution' of wealth

Vatican City — Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the 'economy of exclusion' that is taking hold today.

• Pope Francis to World: Redistribute The Wealth - Time Magazine
• Pope Francis calls for 'legitimate redistribution' of wealth - UPI
• Pope urges states on 'legitimate redistribution' of wealth to poor - Fox News
• all 51 news articles…