huntergeorge01

[huntergeorge01]

Kilroy Was Here!

He’s engraved in stone in the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC – back in a small alcove where very few people have seen it. For the WWII generation, this will bring back memories. For younger folks, it’s a bit of trivia that is an intrinsic part of American history and legend.

Anyone born between 1913 to about 1950, is very familiar with Kilroy. No one knew why he was so well known….but everybody seemed to get into it. It was the fad of its time!

          At the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC

So who was Kilroy?

In 1946 the American Transit Association, through its radio program, “Speak to America,” sponsored a nationwide contest to find the real Kilroy….now a larger-than-life legend of just-ended World War II….offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article.

Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim, but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts, had credible and verifiable evidence of his identity.

“Kilroy” was a 46-year old shipyard worker during World War II (1941-1945) who worked as a quality assurance checker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts (a major shipbuilder for the United States Navy for a century until the 1980s).  

His job was to go around and check on the number of rivets completed. (Rivets held ships together before the advent of modern welding techniques.) Riveters were on piece work wages….so they got paid by the rivet. He would count a block of rivets and put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk (similar to crayon), so the rivets wouldn’t be counted more than once.

                                     A warship hull with rivets

When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would surreptitiously erase the mark. Later, an off-shift inspector would come through and count the rivets a second time, resulting in double pay for the riveters!

One day Kilroy’s boss called him into his office. The foreman was upset about unusually high wages being “earned” by riveters, and asked him to investigate. It was then he realized what had been going on. 

The tight spaces he had to crawl in to check the rivets didn’t lend themselves to lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to stick with the waxy chalk. He continued to put his check mark on each job he inspected, but added ”KILROY WAS HERE!“ in king-sized letters next to the check….and eventually added the sketch of the guy with the long nose peering over the fence….and that became part of the Kilroy message.

   Kilroy’s original shipyard inspection “trademark” during World War II

Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe away his marks.

Ordinarily the rivets and chalk marks would have been covered up with paint. With World War II on in full swing, however, ships were leaving the Quincy Yard so fast that there wasn’t time to paint them. As a result, Kilroy’s inspection “trademark” was seen by thousands of servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.

His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen, because they picked it up and spread it all over the European and the Pacific war zones.

Before war’s end, “Kilroy” had been here, there, and everywhere on the long hauls to Berlin and Tokyo. 

To the troops outbound in those ships, however, he was a complete mystery; all they knew for sure was that someone named Kilroy had “been there first.” As a joke, U.S. servicemen began placing the graffiti wherever they landed, claiming it was already there when they arrived.

As the World War II wore on, the legend grew. Underwater demolition teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific to map the terrain for coming invasions by U.S. troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI’s there). On one occasion, however, they reported seeing enemy troops painting over the Kilroy logo!

Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI who had always “already been” wherever GIs went. It became a challenge to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable. (It is said to now be atop Mt. Everest, the Statue of Liberty, the underside of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and even scrawled in the dust on the moon by the American astronauts who walked there between 1969 and 1972.

In 1945, as World War II was ending, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Allied leaders Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference. It’s first occupant was Stalin, who emerged and asked his aide (in Russian), “Who is Kilroy?”

To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy brought along officials from the shipyard and some of the riveters. He won the trolley car….which he attached to the Kilroy home and used to provide living quarters for six of the family’s nine children….thereby solving what had become an acute housing crisis for the Kilroys.

                     The new addition to the Kilroy family home.

                                        *          *          *          *

And the tradition continues into the 21st century…

In 2011 outside the now-late-Osama Bin Laden’s hideaway house in Abbottabad, Pakistan….shortly after the al-Qaida-terrorist was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs. 

>>Note: The Kilroy graffiti on the southwest wall of the Bin Laden compound pictured above was real (not digitally altered with Microsoft Paint, as postulated by some). The entire compound was leveled in 2012 for redevelopment by a Pakistani company as an amusement park….and to avoid it becoming a shrine to Bin Laden’s nefarious memory.

                                         *          *          *          *

A personal note….

My Dad’s trademark signature on cards, letters and notes to my sisters and I for the first 50 or so years of our lives (until we lost him to cancer) was to add the image of “Kilroy” at the end. We kids never ceased to get a thrill out of this….even as we evolved into adulthood. 

To this day, the “Kilroy” image brings back a vivid image of my awesome Dad into my head….and my heart!

Dad: This one’s for you!

[huntergeorge01]

VENEZUELA. Caracas. July 30, 2017. A demonstrator wears a rosary while holding chunks of concrete as clashes broke out as the Constituent Assembly election was being carried out.

Photograph: Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters

[huntergeorge01]

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. Potocari. July 9 & 11, 2017.

The remains of 71 victims of the bloodshed, which has been ruled genocide by international courts, were laid to rest in a joint funeral at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica.

They included a 33-year-old woman and seven people who were under 18 when they were killed.

Adela Efendic said she had come to “finally say goodbye” to her father Senaid, who was 35 when he was killed.

“His remains were found nine years ago in a common grave, but only a few bones,” the 22-year-old said, her head covered with a violet veil and tears streaming down her cheeks.

“We were waiting, hoping to find more, but nothing turned up… We decided to bury him now so his bones find peace,” said Efendic, who was just 20 days old when her father died.

“I have only one photo of him, a small one, like for an ID card. But my mother told me a lot about him… it allows me to imagine him.”

Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern Bosnian town, a UN-protected enclave at the time, on July 11, 1995, five months before the end of Bosnia’s inter-ethnic war.

In the following days they summarily killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

(1) (4) (7) (9) Bosnian Muslims pray among gravestones during a funeral ceremony for dozens of newly identified victims of the 1995 massacre, at the memorial centre near Srebrenica, 150 kms north east of Sarajevo. Amel Emric/AP

(2) People carry the coffin during a funeral ceremony of newly identified 71 Srebrenica genocide victims, to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Mustafa Ozturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

(3) Bosnian Muslims, survivors of the Srebrenica 1995 massacre, as well as other visitors, carry one of many caskets containing the remains of their relatives, before final burial at a memorial cemetery. Elvis Barukcic/AFP/Getty Images

(5) A woman mourns near coffins of her relatives, who are newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

(6) A Bosnian girl reads a name tag on a coffin among 71 caskets displayed at the memorial centre. Amel Emric/AP

(8) A red carnation is placed on a monument containing the names of victims during a funeral ceremony. Talha Ozturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

[huntergeorge01]

Iraqi Christians Return as Islamic State Retreats

Priest David Dosha inspects the damage to his church’s compound on Oct. 24, 2016, after Iraqi forces retook Bartella, a Christian town east of Mosul, from Islamic State. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty

By Yaroslav Trofimov for The Wall Street Journal. Published: October 28, 2016 [x]

Near Mosul, displaced minorities may struggle to coexist with the area’s Sunni Arab majority

As Iraqi and Kurdish forces advance toward the Islamic State-held metropolis of Mosul, they are battling through a ring of booby-trapped ghost towns like Bartella. There is a dark reason why these ancient towns and villages in the fertile Nineveh Plain, the cradle of Mesopotamian civilization, are now devoid of inhabitants.

Before Islamic State took over the area in the summer of 2014, it was home to a kaleidoscope of ethnic and religious minorities—a reminder of the extraordinary diversity that once characterized much of the Middle East. But the Sunni extremists of Islamic State branded these Iraqis as infidels or heretics, and several hundred thousand members of these communities fled the group’s clutches, abandoning their property and homes.

These days, these displaced Iraqis are no longer just victims. Many minority refugees from the Nineveh Plain are fighting alongside Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers to retake their hometowns. How—and whether—they coexist with the area’s Sunni Arab majority is one of the crucial questions that Iraq and the wider Middle East will face once Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate finally crumbles.

“Today we have the right to determine the future of these areas because we are participating in their liberation,” said Yaqoub Gorgees, political coordinator of the Nineveh Plain Protection Unit, a U.S.-trained force of some 500 men drawn from the Assyrian Christian minority.

Before Islamic State took over Bartella, which is first mentioned in Assyrian chronicles nearly a millennium ago, it was a bustling Christian town of 30,000 people. It straddles a major highway and, before 2014, was just a 25-minute drive from central Mosul.

Islamic State offered Christians an unenviable choice: leave their homes or stay on as dhimmis, second-class citizens who must pay a special tax known as jizya. Except for six families in Mosul, who still pay a monthly jizya tax of 75,000 dinars ($64) a person, all of the area’s Christians preferred to flee, mostly to Iraq’s nearby Kurdish autonomous region, said Mr. Gorgees.

“Everyone escaped the same night, except for a few Sunnis who were living in town,” said Matty Bahnam, a 58-year-old teacher from Bartella. Iraqi troops allowed him to return to his home for a brief visit Thursday. “I was born here. All my memories are here. Nothing can replace this house and this place for me,” he said. “I will move back the day they let me.”

The nature of Islamic State’s rule is clearly visible in Bartella. Stately villas on its main street are stenciled with the words “Property of Islamic State” and the Arabic letter nun, for Nazarene—a sign that these homes were confiscated from their Christian owners.

The few houses spared from such seizure are clearly marked with the words “Sunni Muslim.” They too stand empty. The area’s Sunni Arabs have generally fled toward Mosul as Islamic State has retreated; they fear that their returning Christian neighbors may see them as having collaborated with the ousted jihadists.

Inside Bartella’s main church, the remains of burned Christian books litter the floor. The stone cross atop the church was broken into pieces, the altar gutted. The jihadists had turned the church’s cultural center into an indoor soccer pitch. New black signs renamed Bartella’s streets after fallen Islamic State fighters.

A church in Bartella, Iraq, that was partially destroyed by Islamic State. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty

Other minorities near Mosul fared even worse than the Christians. Islamic State considered Shiites (whether of Arab, Turkmen or Shobak ethnicity) as heretics who must convert or die. And other ancient Middle Eastern minorities that follow their own esoteric faiths—including Yazidis and Kakais—were declared fair game for Islamic State’s modern-day slave trade.

None of these minority groups is ready to settle for the pre-2014 status quo once Mosul is liberated. Christian leaders such as Mr. Gorgees are already pressing to create a separate Nineveh Plains province as a homeland for non-Sunni minorities. Yazidi leaders want a separate province for their own community around Mount Sinjar, west of Mosul.

“Sunni Arabs supported ISIS. Sunni Arabs participated in ISIS,” said Hajji Kendor al-Sheikh, a Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament from Nineveh, using another term for Islamic State. “It is impossible for the Yazidis to live together with the Arabs whose hands are stained with blood.”

Few here have illusions about what lies ahead. “If we manage to maintain security without exacting revenge, our future will be bright,” said Nineveh Governor Nofal Hammadi.

Asked whether he believes that Nineveh’s many communities would be able to live in peace together again, he inhaled and replied: “It will take time.”

[huntergeorge01]

IRAQ. Diyala governorate. Near Baquba. March 24, 2007. U.S. soldiers shield a wounded comrade from debris kicked up by a rescue helicopter descending. Fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents erupted at dawn, when U.S. troops stormed the city and began house-to-house searches for guerrilla fighters. Two U.S. troops were wounded in the clashes. Sixteen suspected insurgents were​ killed. 

Photograph: Yuri Kozyrev/Noor for TIME

[huntergeorge01]

This is why.

LIBERIA. Tubmanburg. June 2003. LURD child soldier during the Siege of Monrovia (2003). Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003).

Photograph: Tim Hetherington/Magnum Photos

[huntergeorge01]

Sarbi is an Australian special forces explosives detection dog that spent almost 14 months missing in action (MIA) in Afghanistan after disappearing during the Battle of Khaz Oruzgan in September 2008. It is thought that a rocket explosion had scared her off after her leash was broken. She was rediscovered alive in late 2009 when an American soldier noticed Sarbi accompanying a local man. She was later flown back to the Australian base in Tarin Kowt where they confirmed it was indeed Sarbi. Her rediscovery generated world-wide news and was mentioned by Kevin Rudd, and General Stanley McChrystal.

On 5 April 2011 Sarbi was awarded an RSPCA Purple Cross Award at the Australian War Memorial. The RSPCA Australia Purple Cross Award recognises the deeds of animals that have shown outstanding service to humans, particularly if they showed exceptional courage in risking their own safety or life to save a person from injury or death.

(Fact Source) for more facts, follow Ultrafacts

[huntergeorge01]

LIBERIA. Monrovia. June 25, 2003. Civilian looters flee as LURD rebels fire on them to stop them from looting during the Siege of Monrovia (2003). Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003).

Photograph: Tim Hetherington/Magnum Photos

[huntergeorge01]

IRAQ. Baghdad governorate. Baghdad. 2008. Weapons seized from a cache after the end of the Siege of Sadr City. 

The Siege of Sadr City was a blockade of the Shi'a district of northeastern Baghdad carried out by U.S. and Iraqi government forces in an attempt to destroy the main power base of the insurgent Mahdi Army. The siege began in April 2004.

By May 21, 2008, after a major operation, Iraqi Army Units had secured or captured all of Sadr City, receiving little resistance as the 10,000 man force backed by tanks rolled past barricades and into the centre of the city. However, Mahdi Army fighters remained, blended in the civilian population.

During the four-year siege, several thousand Iraqi civilians were killed in street clashes, by roadside bombs, snipers and suicide bombers, in military raids and in constant U.S. military air strikes. Some also died due to the lack of food, water and a rising threat from the lack of sanitation services. Over 1,000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed along with at least 500 members of the Iraqi security forces and less than 300 U.S. soldiers.

Photograph: Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

[huntergeorge01]

De Oppressso Liber; rest easy brother

[huntergeorge01]

U.S. Army soldier Sgt. Matt Krumwiede was on patrol in Afghanistan in June of 2012 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). The explosion tore away both his legs, damaged his left arm, and ripped open his abdominal cavity. The 22-year-old has since undergone around 40 surgeries and is learning to walk with prosthetic legs. He is keen to re-join the infantry as soon as his injuries allow.

[huntergeorge01]

SOMALIA. Mogadishu. January 22, 2016. A soldier patrols on Lido beach following an attack at beach-front restaurant Beach View Cafe.

Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters

[huntergeorge01]

Part of a 99 page manifesto put out by ISIS where they admit to funneling terror cells into Europe and elsewhere with the refugees. At least one of the above pictured individuals is not an ISIS fighter but IS linked to an equally brutal extremist group in Syria. So ISIS affiliates or not a horde of extremist combatants have and continue to flood into the world under the guise of refugees.

[huntergeorge01]

Smash this LIKE button for them!

[huntergeorge01]

And they'll remember each other forever.

Never fall asleep when I’m around.

This guy calls me his little buddha

[huntergeorge01]

Few understand what it is like to be 19 and have your brother die right beside you.

[huntergeorge01]