Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 77
July 23, 2018
Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin at the caves of Qumran in Jordan. Although written before the Christian gospels, the scrolls contained many similarities, but also some differences from the traditional Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible.
Scroll dates range from the third century BCE to the first century of the Common Era. While mostly written in Hebrew, about 15% of the scrolls were written in Aramaic and several in Greek.
The Scrolls are mainly parchment, with some papyrus, and one was engraved on copper.
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain two types of texts: parts of the Hebrew Old Testament and sectarian works written by small groups of Jews who lived at Qumran. The scrolls date from the mid-third century B.C.E. until the mid-first century C.E.
While the Dead Sea Scrolls do not shed light on the person or ministry of Jesus, they do illuminate practices and beliefs of ancient Judaism.
A multitude of books have been written about the Dead Sea Scrolls – some contest the dates cited, others the circumstances around their origin: Dead Sea Scrolls: Selected full-text books and articles
Here is a list compiled by the Gnostic Society Library representative of both traditional and dissenting views.
Essenes – Biblical Archaeology Society
Dead Sea Scrolls studies are polarized by debate over whether or not an Essene community dwelling at Qumran wrote them.
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July 19, 2018
Breaking the Sound Barrier
In October 1947, 24 year-old Air Force test pilot Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager flew an experimental Bell X-XS-1 rocket-propelled aircraft out of Edwards Air Force Base (then called Muroc Army Air Field) in California to break the sound barrier at a speed of Mach 1.07.
At 10:25 AM, at an altitude 20,000 feet, Yeager’s aircraft (named Glamorous Glennis) was released from the belly of a Boeing B-29 over Roger’s Lake (the largest dry bed in the world).
Blasting four, paired rocket motor chambers, Yeager broke through the sound barrier as he increased airspeed to almost 700 mph and soared to an altitude of 43,000 feet. The XS-1 remained at supersonic speeds for 20.5 seconds, with none of the buffeting that characterized high-speed subsonic flight. The Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the forerunner of NASA) did not make the event public until Jun 10, 1948.
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July 16, 2018
Voice of America Calls USSR
Established in 1942 for Allied propaganda broadcasts during WWII, the Voice of America (VOA) continued broadcasts after the war aimed mostly at Western Europe.
In September 1947, VOA began broadcasts aimed at the Soviet Union with: “Hello! This is New York calling.”
U.S. State Dept announcers – VOA News
Initiation of programs directed at the USSR was intended to provide the Russian audience “pure and unadulterated truth” about life outside the USSR… to “broaden the bases of understanding and friendship between the Russian and American people.”
Initial VOA Russian programs provided summaries of current events, discussions of U.S. economic and political systems and an eclectic selection of American music (square dance to Cole Porter). Because of frequent poor audio reception in the USSR (due to weather and technical issues), early VOA broadcasts were not highly rated.
However, VOA popularity increased over the years as it began to emphasize modern America music (the Russians were particularly fond of jazz).
In 1955, Willis Conover, host of the Voice of America America Jazz Hour, became extremely popular in Communist-bloc countries.
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July 12, 2018
Back in Time
These images seem reflective of the sense of hope and prosperity of post-WWII middle-America.
I was only five years old at the time – yet many of these images seem familiar to me.
How about you?
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July 9, 2018
UFO
In July1947, an unidentified disc-shaped object, apparently crashed from the air, was found near Roswell, New Mexico. Although there was initial widespread interest in the possibility it was an extra-terrestrial craft, the US military claimed it was merely a conventional weather balloon. After interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) was rekindled in the 1970s, and it was rumored that alien occupants had secretly been recovered by the military, the US military published two reports in the 1990s stating the crashed object was in fact a nuclear test surveillance balloon from Project Mogul.
An interesting summary of the topic entitled UFO Sightings & News was published in Live Science – December 20, 2017.
An intriguing review of the Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program was published in the New York Times in 2017
A comprehensive statistical summary of 121,036 eyewitness accounts was published in 2017 with the title UFO Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015
The issue does not seem to be closed. Despite Pentagon denials of credible UFO sightings, many seemingly-responsible military and commercial pilots have related impressive details of close encounters with highly-maneuverable UFOs.
UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On The Record by Leslie Kean contains first-person accounts of over a dozen high-ranking military and government officials, including generals from five countries.
Although skeptical of most reports, I was particularly impressed by the quality of the last book mentioned (UFOs:Generals…)
What do you think?
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July 5, 2018
Don’t Be a Sucker
This interesting War Department film from 1947, with anti-racist and anti-fascist themes, warns Americans not to let let fanaticism and hatred turn them into suckers.
However, with the emerging Cold War, this rhetoric seems oddly out of synch..
In August 2017, the film went viral on the internet in the aftermath of the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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July 4, 2018
4th of July 1947
Things were looking up in 1947
Cost of Living 1947
Average Cost of new house $6,600.00
Average wages per year $2,850.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 15 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,300.00
Loaf of Bread 13 cents
United States Postage Stamp 3 cents
Men’s Sweater $8.50
Bulova Men’s Watch $52.50
Couple of examples of houses for sale this year Harlingen , Texas New Brick House 5 room house with all furniture included $7,100
Long Beach , California Mediterranean style Home with Most beautiful 2 story modern home overlooking the ocean well cared for grounds $37,500
Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup 23 cents for 2 cans
Leg O Lamb 59 cents per pound
Loaf Marvel Enriched Bread 13 cents per loaf
Oranges 49 cents per dozen
Below are some Prices for UK guides in Pounds Sterling
Average House Price 1,824
Ann Arbor District Library
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July 3, 2018
U-Boat off New York Coast
– Kapitainleutnant Reinhard Hardegen of the U-123 sailing undetected off the coast of Long Island in January 1942
This is a fascinating 2010 interview with famed U-Boat captain Reinhard Hardegen who died June 19 at age 105.
What follows is a summary of Reinhard Hardegen’s career culled from the truly excellent website uboat.net.
Captain of the U-147 and U-123 German U-Boats, Reinhard Hardegen was credited with sinking 22 ships weighing 115,656 gross registered tons (GRT) in the Atlantic Ocean from 1940-1942.
Hardegen is best known for his striking success in 1942 during Operation Drumbeat (Unternehmen Paukenschlag) off the East Coast of America. On his first Drumbeat patrol in January 1942 he sank nine ships (53,173 GRT) over a two-week period. On his return to base at Lorient France, Hardegen received a telegram from the U-Boat forces commander Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz:
An den Paukenschläger Hardegen. Bravo! Gut gepaukt! Dönitz (For the drum beater Hardegen. Bravo! Good beating!)
During his second Drumbeat patrol March-May 1942, Hardegen sank ten ships (57,170 GRT).
In January 1942 Hardegen received Germany’s highest military honor the Knight’s Cross (Ritterkreuz). In May 1942 oak leaves were added to his Ritterkreuz.
Plagued with some chronic medical problems, Hardegen retired from active combat in July 1942 and became a U-Boat instructor in Gotenhafen Germany. In 1943 he became chief of U-Boat training at the torpedo school in Mürwik Germany. In 1945 he became a batallion commander in the 2nd Naval Infantry Division.
At the end of WWII, Hardegen was briefly a POW in British captivity before returning home to Bremen Germany in November 1946. Subsequently he became a successful oil trader and parliamentary representative for 20 years.
Perhaps most important, Reinhard Hardegen has become a symbol of the noble enemy warrior, revered by U-Boat enthusiasts the world over. As an American author of history-inspired fiction, I find myself a bit conflicted. I understand the mystique and charisma of the U-Boat saga that today is almost mythologized. Yet I also realize that U-Boats were powerful killing machines responsible for the death of many Allied sailors.
Indeed, Reinhard Hardegen seems to have been a noble warrior who was not averse (contrary to Kriegsmarine orders) to aiding the survival of enemy sailors after he sank their ships. And he was a patriot (albeit apparently not a Nazi sympathizer) who fought valiantly for his country.
In short, he was the perfect role model for the U-Boat captain protagonist in my new novel The Osprey and the Sea Wolf~ The Battle of the Atlantic 1942 – a family man and career naval officer who fought for his country but was also aware of the dark side of Nazi Germany.
___________________
In 1942, German U-Boats send over 300 ships and 5000 seamen to the bottom of the ocean off the coast of North America. In the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, a seasoned U-boat commander and a young Mexican-American B-25 pilot engage in a deadly dance of war at sea and struggle with issues of love, honor, betrayal and racism on the home front.
Researching this history-inspired novel involved visits to Washington state, SW Texas, Jacksonville Florida, Mérida Yucatan, Camagüey Cuba, Hamburg Germany and Lübeck Germany.
Images I gathered while creating the story line for the novel can be viewed on my Pinterest board
The Osprey and the Sea Wolf ~ The Battle of the Atlantic 1942 is available now on Amazon, Kindle or independent bookstores.
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July 2, 2018
Mexican-Americans in WWII
Ethnic and racial discrimination in WWII-era America was a powerful social force. Just as the civil rights of African-Americans were restricted in the South, similar discrimination weighed heavily against many “Tejanos” of Mexican descent in the Southwest.
Breaking through the dark force of ethnic discrimination takes a lot of effort. This is why I have chosen Ramón Morales y García, a young Tejano who rises by his own academic and athletic prowess to become a United Sates Army Air Force B-25 pilot in my novel The Osprey and the Sea Wolf ~ The Battle of the Atlantic 1942.
North American B-25 Mitchell bomber
Excerpt from The Osprey and the Sea Wolf ~ The Battle of the Atlantic 1942
Shortly after midnight, Bam! Bam! Bam! Ramón was wrested from deep, dreamless sleep by pounding like a sledgehammer on a steel door. “Alert, sirs!” An airman called out. “Report to the ready room.”
“We’re on our way!” Ramón shouted as he threw off the covers and jumped out of bed before he was fully awake. Fumbling in the dark, a stream of excitement surged through his body, clearing the fog of sleep and focusing his mind. Erik snapped on the overhead light and they both dressed quickly. Moonlight filtering through a cloud bank cast flickering shadows against the wall as they clambered down the stairwell to Base Ops.
A musty odor of mold and cigarette smoke pervaded the air in the ready room where the major on duty wasted no time. “A blimp has picked up a U-Boat on radar,” he said, handing Ramón a yellow sheet of paper with a decoded Morse message from the naval air station.
031542 2350 hrs. TO: USAAF JAX From: NAS JAX
At 2345 NZNO2 blimp sighted U-Boat on attack course six nautical miles south of unescorted northbound freighter. Lat 31 deg 3 min 29 sec N. Long 80 deg 16 min 25 sec W. Navy PBY and Coast Guard cutter dispatched. Request assistance.
The major pointed to a red pin already placed on the wall map of the Atlantic coast. “It’s about 48 nautical miles off the coast, 72 from here. The blimp has orders to continue tracking but avoid engagement. Good hunting, boys.”
_________________
Many Mexican-Americans served America with honor and valor during WWII.
________________
The Osprey and the Sea Wolf ~ The Battle of the Atlantic 1942 available on Amazon, Kindle and independent bookstores.
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June 28, 2018
Mickey Spillaine
Mickey Spillaine – Wikipedia
Frank Morrison Spillane (March 9, 1918 – July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American cartoonist turned crime novelist, who wrote from the point of view of a private detective named Mike Hammer.
“Bestselling writer of shoot-em-up crime novels” is how the Guardian described him in a 2006 obituary.
“…The most popular of those books, of course, feature Spillane’s hard-boiled gumshoe/avenger Mike Hammer, the New York eye whose every case turned into a personal vendetta that — following a suitable number of trysts with beautiful and generally willing babes and raw scenes of brutality — inevitably ended with Hammer serving up his own kind of justice, usually out of the smoking barrel of a .45.” – The Thrilling Detective Web Site
I, the Jury, published in 1947, launched Mickey Spillane’s crime-writer career. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally.
“Hammer is less a detective than an ultra-violent vigilante. I, the Jury lays down the formula. Mike’s marine “buddy” Jack, who lost an arm saving Hammer’s life in the Pacific, is sadistically murdered. Hammer sets out to avenge him, skirting the niceties of the law, vowing to his friend’s corpse: “I’m going to get the louse that killed you. He won’t sit in the [electric] chair. He won’t hang. He will die exactly as you died, with a .45 slug in the gut, just a little below the belly button.” – The Guardian
Mike Hammer TV series
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