Cindy Claveau

I did better than that. After re-reading S.E. Morrison's History of the US Navy last year, I used Google Earth to go see for myself

The fascinating part was that the old Henderson Field has been enlarged and looks to be in pretty common usage as an airstrip now, probably by surveyors, hunters and plantation owners. This isn't your father's Cactus Air Force

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Sooz Pascale

Wow!! Thanks Cindy. Dad wasn't a flyer though, although he was scheduled to go to flight school, just prior to the end of the war. He would have, no doubt, been involved in the invasion of Japan.

During the Solomons campaign he was on the USS Buchannan, a fast new destroyer. After the defeat at Savo, the aircraft carriers pulled out, followed by many of the transports, leaving the Marines and the badly shot up Cruiser/Destroyer force to fend for themselves for a long period of time.

Sooz

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Cindy Claveau

I remember reading that General Vandegrift, in command of the ground forces, was pretty upset over the withdrawal of the carriers. It was one of those moments in history where the course of much larger events hung by a single, narrow thread. Fascinating story.

Lo Jacobs

What a pretty, pretty picture

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Sooz Pascale

If you enjoy history Cindy, io or anyone else, a VERY good read is Guadalcanal by Richard Frank. I may have the first name wrong, but I know his last name is Frank. Both Vandegrift and R.Adm. Norman Scott certainly deserved the Medals of Honor they recieved. Scott's was awarded posthumously.

The book also goes into quite some detail, not only of the suffering and heroism of US Marine, Navy and Army personnel, but is equally eloquent on the suffering and heroism of the Japanese soldiers and sailors, the Australian Coast Watchers and the native Scouts.

One big regret that I have is that Dad and Mother weren't able to go the 50th anniversary of the Guadalcanal campaign. In the summer of 1992 they had plans to fly to Australia and take a special cruise to the Solomons with other veterans of that campaign, American, Australian and Japanese, but Mother was too ill to go. Dad had no particualr desire to ever see Guadalcanal or the Solomons ever again, but he wanted to show Mother where he was at, while she was waiting for him to come home. Mother quite naturally wanted to see it too.

Ok enough, before we derail this into a military history thread.

Sooz

Edav Nomad

I've been registered since 1986 and haven't missed a vote, yet.

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Ramonna Villota

Yes

Also have my NRA voting guide along with my Pat Robertson voting guide

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Ramonna
Enginn er verri þótt hann sé perri.

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Redhead

Ramonna, I love you and I wish the best for you, but...

If you are seriously about this, well...Sorry, but I hope a bus hits you within the next 26 days.

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Maddie Blaustein: the very definition of wit.

Briar Bing

I am registered and have voted in every presidential election since '84.

My very first one ended up like this:



Poor Walter

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~Mark Twain

Ramonna Villota

Walter was not as much as a lib as Obama is

Surreal

I don't know if you meant this as a joke, but even if you did - it's not funny.

I know you're passionate about Obama, nonetheless, by expressing sentiments like these you are IMO playing into the very hands of the parties that created and manipulated these divisions for their own gain.

Regardless of who gets elected, if a super-majority of Americans of all political stripes don't come together to work on the enormous problems facing us, we will fail... miserably and expensively.

So find ways to reach out to Ramona and find common ground instead of hoping for a bus.

Envoy Costagravas

So you have to sit yourself down, in a nice quiet place, and ask yourself: "Is it possible that after the last eight years, maybe what the country wants actually is a more liberal viewpoint?"

I'm not saying that is the case, and I'm certainly not saying that you'd be comfortable with that. But I am certain about one thing: the poor showing that John McCain is building, and shows no signs of abating, can NOT be laid just at the feet of his inept campaign or his own less-than-compelling presence to a populace.

Something is at work here, Ramonna. One thing I did, when Bush won not once, but twice, was to try and understand how this could happen. If what I think is going to happen in a few short weeks does indeed occur, everyone might do well by thinking about it for a while, and trying to come to grips with just how it came about.

And I'm thinking it isn't going to be a close one, like Bush's two elections.

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and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin

Redhead

I'm sorry Surreal, I debated about posting that because while I KNEW that Ramonna would get my joke, I worried that others wouldn't. I sincerely apologize to any who were offended.

Ramonna and I have had LONG convos in yahoo about politics and religion and have come to a sort of understanding. That being, in a nutshell, that while we both like each other as people, we HATE each others stand on politics and religion.

One of the reasons I support Obama so much is that over and over again he has talked about the need to work together as a Nation, not as Dems and Repubs.

Eight years of "screw you, WE won!" is enough. It's time to be a Nation again.

Edav Nomad

I think its not just here that being black is hurting Obama. There are even some white Democrats in this country who probably aren't going to vote for him because of it. Racism isn't just something that is in the South. I believe that if he were white he'd be wiping the floor with McCain in the polls and there wouldn't be any talk about there might be a tie.

These were from two weeks ago:

Hot Air » Blog Archive » AP poll: Racism among white Democrats could cost Obama the election

Earl Ofari Hutchinson: White Democrats are Bigger Threat to Obama than McCain

Biggest Threat to Obama's Candidacy -- White Democrats - NAM

Richie Waves

I never had to register.. when I hit 18 I started receiving my polling cards in the post :/

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Sooz Pascale

I'm a NRA member too. I am often a one issue voter and tend to support those who GET the Second Amendment. However, these times are so critical and the issues before those of us who vote in the US, I am suppressing my natural tendancies to vote for someone with a good record on the Second Amendment as well as a vp candidate who is not only a fellow NRA member but who just...has...FABULOUS...fashion...sense, in order to what I believe is right for us at this time.

We need a course correction, now!! Sure I worry about Obama taking us too far left but if we stay on the course we've been on for the last 7 1/2 years we're in DEEP kimchi.

IF Obama starts the usual demo/liberal gun grabbing routine I will FIGHT him tooth and nail. But I will cross THAT bridge IF and WHEN we come to it.

Sooz

Surreal

Smiley woman, Smiley!!