Fort Washington Is Captured on November 16, 1776

Fort Washington Is Captured: On this day in 1776, Hessian Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen and a force of 3,000 Hessian mercenaries and 5,000 Redcoats lay siege to Fort Washington at the northern end and highest point of Manhattan Island.

Throughout the morning, Knyphausen met stiff resistance from the Patriot riflemen inside the fort, but by afternoon, the Patriots were overwhelmed, and the garrison commander, Colonel Robert Magaw, surrendered. Nearly 3,000 Patriots were taken prisoner, and valuable ammunition and supplies were lost to the Hessians. The prisoners faced a particularly grim fate: Many later died from deprivation and disease aboard British prison ships anchored in New York Harbor.

Among the 53 dead and 96 wounded Patriots were John and Margaret Corbin of Virginia. When John died in action, his wife Margaret took over his cannon, cleaning, loading and firing the gun until she too was severely wounded. The first woman known to have fought for the Continental Army, Margaret survived, but lost the use of her left arm.

Two weeks earlier, one of Magaw’s officers, William Demont, had deserted the Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion and given British intelligence agents information about the Patriot defense of New York, including details about the location and defense of Fort Washington. Demont was the first traitor to the Patriot cause, and his treason contributed significantly to Knyphausen’s victory.

Fort Washington stood at the current location of Bennet Park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, near the George Washington Bridge, at the corner of Fort Washington Avenue and 183rd Street. Fort Washington Park and Fort Washington Point lay beneath the site along the Hudson River.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica /Civil War.org / British Battles / Battle of Fort Washington (YouTube search)

“Kristallnacht” (“Night of Crystal” ), or “The Night of Broken Glass” on November 09, 1938

The Night of Broken Glass: This day in 1938 saw the organized destruction of Jewish businesses and homes in Munich, as well as the beating and murder of Jewish men, women, and children.

It was an exercise in terror that would be called “Kristallnacht”, or “the Night of Broken Glass”, because of the cost of broken glass in looted Jewish shops.

After the countless smashed windows of Jewish-owned establishments, left approximately 100 Jews dead, 7,500 Jewish businesses damaged and hundreds of synagogues, homes, schools and graveyards vandalized. An estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of whom were then sent to concentration camps for several months; they were released when they promised to leave Germany. Kristallnacht represented a dramatic escalation of the campaign started by Adolf Hitler in 1933 when he became chancellor to purge Germany of its Jewish population.

The Nazis used the murder of a low-level German diplomat in Paris by a 17-year-old Polish Jew as an excuse to carry out the Kristallnacht attacks. On November 7, 1938, Ernst vom Rath was shot outside the German embassy by Herschel Grynszpan, who wanted revenge for his parents’ sudden deportation from Germany to Poland, along with tens of thousands of other Polish Jews. Following vom Rath’s death, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered German storm troopers to carry out violent riots disguised as “spontaneous demonstrations” against Jewish citizens. Local police and fire departments were told not to interfere. In the face of all the devastation, some Jews, including entire families, committed suicide.

In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Nazis blamed the Jews and fined them 1 billion marks (or $400 million in 1938 dollars) for vom Rath’s death. As repayment, the government seized Jewish property and kept insurance money owed to Jewish people. In its quest to create a master Aryan race, the Nazi government enacted further discriminatory policies that essentially excluded Jews from all aspects of public life.

Over 100,000 Jews fled Germany for other countries after Kristallnacht. The international community was outraged by the violent events of November 9 and 10. Some countries broke off diplomatic relations in protest, but the Nazis suffered no serious consequences, leading them to believe they could get away with the mass murder that was the Holocaust, in which an estimated 6 million European Jews died.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica /United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.org / Kristallnacht: Night Of Broken Glass (YouTube search)

USSR attacks Finland on November 30, 1939

USSR attacks Finland:On this day in 1939, the Red Army crosses the Soviet-Finnish border with 465,000 men and 1,000 aircraft. Helsinki was bombed, and 61 Finns were killed in an air raid that steeled the Finns for resistance, not capitulation.

The overwhelming forces arrayed against Finland convinced most Western nations, as well as the Soviets themselves, that the invasion of Finland would be a cakewalk. The Soviet soldiers even wore summer uniforms, despite the onset of the Scandinavian winter; it was simply assumed that no outdoor activity, such as fighting, would be taking place. But the Helsinki raid had produced many casualties-and many photographs, including those of mothers holding dead babies, and preteen girls crippled by the bombing. Those photos were hung up everywhere to spur on Finn resistance. Although that resistance consisted of only small numbers of trained soldiers-on skis and bicycles!–fighting it out in the forests, and partisans throwing Molotov cocktails into the turrets of Soviet tanks, the refusal to submit made headlines around the world.

President Roosevelt quickly extended $10 million in credit to Finland, while also noting that the Finns were the only people to pay back their World War I war debt to the United States in full. But by the time the Soviets had a chance to regroup, and send in massive reinforcements, the Finnish resistance was spent. By March 1940, negotiations with the Soviets began, and Finland soon lost the Karelian Isthmus, the land bridge that gave access to Leningrad, which the Soviets wanted to control.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica /Uralica / The Atlantic / Finland WWII in color 1939 (YouTube search)

Understanding Military Terminology

Request For Assistance

(DOD) Any suspected or alleged violation of Department of Defense policy or of other related orders, policies, procedures or applicable law, for which there is credible information.

Joint Publications (JP 3-63) Detainee Operations - Intelligence Resource Program

Request For Information

(DOD) 1.Any specific time-sensitive ad hoc requirement for intelligence information or products to support an ongoing crisis or operation not necessarily related to standing requirements or scheduled intelligence production.

2. A term used by the National Security Agency/Central Security Service to state ad hoc signals intelligence requirements.

Also called RFI.

See also Intelligence.

Joint Publications (JP 2-0) Joint Intelligence

Required Delivery Date

(DOD) The date that a force must arrive at the destination and complete unloading.

Also called RDD.

Joint Publications (JP 5-0) Joint Planning

Joint Publication - Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Ghost Ship Omen”

Scientists say it’s just a mirage,

but sailors claim the ghost ship floats

in air, with stormy seas below.

Again he tries to round Cape Hope.

Captain van der Decken angered God

one savage 18th Century night.

Vowed he’d sail till “Judgment Day”,

to cross the Table Bay, he’d fight.

The Flying Dutchman disappeared

sank deep in foggy, wind-swept sea,

but the captain’s doomed to walk the deck

each night in perpetuity.

King George the Fifth, the Prince of Wales

are two who saw the Dutchman.

Although these royal heirs survived,

most meet death - the captain’s omen.

His curse prevails in Wagner’s Opera

and Washington Irving’s story;

crews tremble, ghost ship emerges

Dutchman floats in frightening glory.

So many sailors and their ships

still meet demise on starless nights,

when demons steer the Dutchman

and a vengeful God reads last rites.

Till this day the Flying Dutchman

looms threatening on a ravaged sea.

For Judgment Day the captain waits,

luring crews to their destiny.

~ Carolyn Devonshire

“Thought for the Day”

“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

“A place for everything, everything in its place.”

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.”

“He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain,

except death and taxes.”

“Without freedom of thought,

there can be no such thing as wisdom -

and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”

“We must, indeed,

“all hang together or, most assuredly,

we shall all hang separately.”

“Be at war with your vices,

at peace with your neighbors,

and let every new year find you a better man.”

“Tell me and I forget.

Teach me and I remember.

Involve me and I learn.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Thanksgiving 2023

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States, and Thanksgiving 2022 occurs on Thursday, November 24. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Did you know? Lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving” - although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

Thanksgiving Becomes an Official Holiday

Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well. During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their

In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving Traditions

In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird - whether roasted, baked or deep-fried - on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.

Beginning in the mid-20th century and perhaps even earlier, the president of the United States has “pardoned” one or two Thanksgiving turkeys each year, sparing the birds from slaughter and sending them to a farm for retirement. A number of U.S. governors also perform the annual turkey pardoning ritual.

Thanksgiving Controversies

For some scholars, the jury is still out on whether the feast at Plymouth really constituted the first Thanksgiving in the United States. Indeed, historians have recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America that predate the Pilgrims’ celebration. In 1565, for instance, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilé invited members of the local Timucua tribe to a dinner in St. Augustine, Florida, after holding a mass to thank God for his crew’s safe arrival. On December 4, 1619, when 38 British settlers reached a site known as Berkeley Hundred on the banks of Virginia’s James River, they read a proclamation designating the date as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God”.

Some Native Americans and others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, and especially to schoolchildren. In their view, the traditional narrative paints a deceptively sunny portrait of relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, masking the long and bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European settlers that resulted in the deaths of millions. Since 1970, protesters have gathered on the day designated as Thanksgiving at the top of Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a “National Day of Mourning”. Similar events are held in other parts of the country.

Thanksgiving’s Ancient Origins

Although the American concept of Thanksgiving developed in the colonies of New England, its roots can be traced back to the other side of the Atlantic. Both the Separatists who came over on the Mayflower and the Puritans who arrived soon after brought with them a tradition of providential holidays - days of fasting during difficult or pivotal moments and days of feasting and celebration to thank God in times of plenty.

As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that spans cultures, continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores.

History Channel • National Geographic • Quara • Thanksgiving • Wikipedia

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

AW: The enlisted rating previously known as Aviation Anti-submarine Warfare Operator, now known as Aviation Warfare Operator; sometimes preceded by the adjective “fuckin'” by non-aircrew sailors.

AWOL: Absent Without Official Leave; this is a U.S. Army and USAF term, not a Navy term, see UA.

AX: The enlisted rating Aviation Anti-Submarine Warfare Technician; since merged into AT rating.

Aye: Yes (I understand).

Aye, Aye: Yes (I heard the order, I understand the order, and I intend to obey/carry out the order). “I understand and I will comply.”

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

Aviation Units: See also active squadrons, decommissioned squadrons, & aviation support units

HAMS: Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron, also H&MS

HMA: Marine Attack Helicopter Squadron

HMH: Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron

HMHT: Marine Heavy Helicopter Training Squadron

HML: Marine Light Helicopter Squadrons

HMLA: Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron, also H&MS

HMLAT: Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron

HMM: Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (formerly HMR)

HMMT: Marine Medium Helicopter Training Squadron

HMR: Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron

HMT: Marine Helicopter Training Squadron (General designation prior to specific communities (i.e. HMHT(CH-53), HMLAT(H-1))

HMX-1: Marine Helicopter Squadron One (divided into operational test & Executive transport support)

LAAD Bn: Low-altitude Air Defense Battalion

MABS: Marine Air Base Squadron

MACG: Marine Air Command Group

MACS: Marine Air Control Squadron

MAMS: Marine Aircraft Maintenance Squadron

MASS: Marine Air Support Squadronn

MALS: Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron

MATCS: Marine Air Traffic Control Squadron

MCAS: Marine Corps Air Station

MOTS: Marine Operational Training Squadrons

MTACS: Marine Tactical Air Command Squadron

MWSS: Marine Wing Support Squadron

MWCS: Marine Wing Communications Squadron

MWHS: Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron

MWSG: Marine Wing Support Group

SOES: Station Operations and Engineer Squadron

VMAQ: Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron

VMA: Marine Attack Squadron

VMAT: Marine Attack Training Squadron

VMB: Marine Bombing Squadron

VMC: Marine Composite Squadron

VMCJ: Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron

VMD: Marine Photographic Squadron

VMF: Marine Fighter Squadron

VMF:Marine Night Fighter Squadron

VMFA: Marine Fighter Attack Squadron

VMFA(AW): Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron

VMFAT: Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron

VMFP: Marine Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron

VMGR: Marine Aerial Refueler/Transport Squadron

VMGRT: Marine Aerial Refueler/Transport Training Squadron

VMJ: Marine Reconnaissance Squadron / Marine Target Towing Detachments

VML: Marine Glider Squadron

VMM: Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (formerly HMM, HMH & VMFA)

VMMT: Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron (formerly HMMT)

VMO: Marine Observation Squadro

VMP: Marine Patrol Squadron

VMR: Marine Transport Squadron

VMS: Marine Scouting Squadron

VMSB: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron

VMTB: Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron

VMTD: Marine Target Towing Detachment

VMU: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron

VMX: Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron

WES:Wing Engineer Squadron

WTS: Wing Transport Squadron

ZMQ: Marine Barrage Balloon Squadrons

Aye, Aye: Nautical term used as a response to orders meaning “I understand the orders I have received and will carry them out”; aye (descended from Middle English yai) dialectical for “yes”, once common in the regions from which the Royal Navy drew its sailors.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130) - nicknamed the “Zappers”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound, Washington.

List of United States Navy aircraft squadrons - Wikipedia.org

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Let your hair down”  Meaning: To relax or be at ease. Behave in a free or uninhibited manner.

Origin: Parisian nobles risked condemnation from their peers if they appeared in public without an elaborate hairdo. Some of the more intricate styles required hours of work, so of course it was a relaxing ritual for these aristocrats to come home at the end of a long day and let their hair down.

Letting one's hair down was a commonplace part of womens' daily activities in the 17th century. The hair was normally pinned up and was let down for brushing or washing. The term used for this at the time was dishevelling. Anyone who is unkempt and generally untidy might now be described as dishevelled but then it applied specifically to hair which was unpinned. The first reference I can find which refers specifically to this is John Cotgrave's, The English treasury of wit and language, 1655:

“Descheveler, to discheuell; to pull the haire about the eares.”

Phrases.org UK

Science & Technology

FEATURE: New study suggests cyclones in the Arctic are forming more often and getting stronger • Astronomers discover new almost dark galaxy

A new formula to calculate the strength of thin conical structures • Unlocking pathways to break down problem proteins presents new treatment opportunities • Rider on the storm: Shearwater seabird catches an 11-hour ride over 1,000 kilometers in a typhoon

Scientists isolate early-warning tremor pattern in lab-made earthquakes • Sabotage tool takes on AI image scrapers • Air pollution linked to postpartum depression in large Southern California cohort

A robot that can detect subtle noises in its surroundings and use them to localize nearby humans • Pottery becomes water treatment device for Navajo nation • Political rhetoric changes views on democratic principles, study finds Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

FEATURE: Volcanic eruptions found to dampen Indian Ocean El Niño events for up to 8 years • Scientists demonstrate electric control of atomic spin transitions

Earliest evidence of flip flops in the Middle Stone Age • Meltwater flowing beneath Antarctic glaciers may be accelerating their retreat • Underwater robot finds new circulation pattern in Antarctic ice shelf

Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours: Baboons wily cooperators • New analysis in Science explores artificial intelligence and interspecific law • Mechanics of breast cancer metastasis discovered, offering target for treatment

Your smart speaker data is used in ways you might not expect • Applying a neuroscientific lens to the feasibility of artificial consciousness • Bringing a shark to a knife fight: 7,000-year-old shark-tooth knives discovered in Indonesia Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore