This would explain why we always had about 15 dogs when I was growing up...
It's really, really, really a massive relief to find out that your dad wasn't a racist in 1956. Racism was never anything he modeled when I was growing up, but it's good to see it in his letters that he is disgusted with the actions of white southerners while he's at UNC
When my dad wrote, sarcastically, "The south is on the move" and put an arrow pointing to "south" with the caption "not worth capitalizing" he was commenting on the actions of students at the University of Alabama on Feb 7, '56 re: Autherine Lucy, a Black coed
The above image is from the student terrorism that happened when Lucy attempted to go to classes.
Heritage, not hate, tho, right?
ok so i know it's been a hot minute since i yeeted this meme into the internet but i've only just now had enough bourbon to explain it in its full glory
right, so this whole story revolves around my dude clarence ransom edwards from the great STATE OF OHIO. Born in the Land of Cleve, he's a bit of an irascible SOB, so I guess that's why he runs of to West Point to do whatever it is that they do there to make ossifers
My boi doesn't go great at the point of west. Like, not great at all. Fully last in his class. And not gonna lie, kinda respect him for that
the reason? Dude has a tongue sharper than a razor and isn't cray about the rules. Which yeah, would make time at WP pretty tough
Looking forward to reenacting 1986 when states who didn't want to their troops deployed outside the US suddenly discovered that the DOD was very willing to let them do whatever they wanted...minus, you know, all the federal equipment and money that the states relief on
Weirdly, states backed down when they realized, "oh, yeah, we'd actually have to pay for stuff if we went rogue"
Not sure how many people realize that since legislation in 1903, 1916, & 1920, states don't really pay much towards their National Guard
Court cases followed, namely Perpich vs DOD, but the states kept losing. Also, Congress passed the Montgomery Act that said governors didn't have a say in the deployment of their troops under federal authorities, since all Guard troops have dual status under the law
Okay, bear with me, I'm about to get super sentimental about doughboys, Y-girls, Red Cross workers, Hello Girls, and all those of that incredible generation who answered the call. These amazing men and women - ordinary kids, so many of them - who did extraordinary things
Sure, we can look at stats: how the US Army surged from just over 200,000 regulars and Guardsmen in 1917 to nearly 4 million in a year and a half. How women volunteered in numbers never seen before in this nation.
But that doesn't show the humanity of these people
Doughboys are one of the funniest, most sardonic groups in US Army history. Engaged in one of the deadliest wars in human history, they spent their spare hours teasing each other, playing pranks on each other, and just, well, being goofs
in THIS house we celebrate Armistice Day - "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace" - and what could be more peaceful than the animals that Doughboys befriended, rescued, or otherwise glommed on to during WWI because, well, animals are just terrific
Thread incoming
Hi Mutt! Mutt's a YMCA cigarette delivery dog because hey, what's good when you've just survived a gas attack? Giving those scarred lungs a smoke delivered by a delightful French bulldog who only desires head scritches in payment
Aaaaaaand there goes Mutt, off with another delivery. What a little master of logistics, 12/10, would get on that LOGPAC
Well, well, what have we here: a Georgia militia brigade in 1874...parading under rebel colors.
Apparently not the first time they did this, either, notes the Army-Navy Journal of 1874
Oh, this is FIRE. Pointing out that, yo, these people are armed and equipped by the United States, according to the laws of the US, which they seem to be having difficulty following
The absolute SHADE thrown by Ben Butler in this 1871 Congressional hearing on some disciplinary cases at West Point. Like, DAMN. I aspire to this level.
The "disciplinary cases" are also worth mentioning, for the batshitness of their nature. So, some plebes manage to lie their way off campus and bring a bottle of booze to a waterfall, where they proceed to get drunk. I mean, disciplined initiative, really
But that's not the scandal. The scandal is that 3 upperclassmen find out, kidnap the plebes, escort them off campus, order them into their civilian clothes, and then kick them out of West Point. You know, with all the authority they have.