Jackie Robinson

Brooklyn, NY. Visited April 2011

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born Jan. 13, 1919 in Cairo, GA. His early life was in many ways quintessentially reflective of racial inequality and segregation in the early 20th century. He was born into a family of sharecroppers in the rural south, but his family moved to the city for a better life, settling in an impoverished part of Pasadena, California.

Jackie excelled in multiple scholastic sports, encouraged by his brother Mack, who won a silver medal in track and field in the 1936 Olympic Games. His own prodigious talents came fully into view as a collegiate athlete at UCLA, where he became the first athlete at the school to letter in four sports. His greatest achievement as a collegiate athlete was winning the 1940 NCAA championship in the long jump. At this time Robinson also met his future wife Rachel who was a nursing student at UCLA.

Jackie Robinson - running back for the
UCLA Bruins

While succeeding on the athletic field as a black man in a white world, Robinson had a strong internal sense of justice which would not let him take racial prejudice lightly. During his college years Jackie interceded for a black friend who was being arrested by white police officers. He too was arrested and received a two year suspended sentence for his involvement in the altercation.

After college Robinson played semi-pro football until being drafted into the army in 1942. Assigned to a segregated tank battalion he passed officer training school but never saw combat due to another racial confrontation. Riding a non-segregated military bus, Robinson refused the bus driver’s demand that he move to the back, and was subsequently arrested and underwent court martial for the action. By the time Jackie was acquitted of all charges related to the incident the war was effectively over and he was honorably discharged.

Stealing home.  Love this picture!

Following his discharge, Robinson signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. Jackie didn’t realize that at the same time Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey was on a personal crusade to integrate Major League Baseball. Rickey, a devout Christian, had come to the conviction that to deny black ballplayers the opportunity to compete at a major league level was unjust. His logic: "Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game." Rickey was looking for a player whom he believed had both the talent and the character to withstand the extraordinary scrutiny and inevitable racial abuse he would take as a black man in a ‘white man’s world’. In Jackie Robinson he found that man.

Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers prior to the 1946 season. He spent his first year in the minor leagues, where he was well received in his home park in Montreal but regularly experienced racial derision on the road. Jackie was able to both withstand the withering discrimination of the minor leagues and succeed in the field, winning the league MVP award. He entered the Major Leagues in 1947 as the first black player in league history at the age of 28. Jackie Robinson was Rookie of the Year for 1947, hitting .297 and leading the league in stolen bases.

Statue of Jackie and his friend Pee Wee
Reese erected at Coney Island

As the man who broke the baseball color barrier, Jackie Robinson lived every game as the center of attention. To black America he was a symbol of hope in a society where race was a definer and limiter of opportunity. To many white players in the league (and some on his team), despite his proven skills, he had no place in the game. To a country still struggling to live out the ideals of its Constitution Jackie Robinson was a universal symbol of change – a cultural revolution that would never turn back. And Robinson willingly embraced the daunting role he was called to play. He played the game with singular excellence over a ten year career – was named an all star six times and league MVP in 1949. He led the Brooklyn Dodgers to a World Series championship in 1954 and finished his ten year career in 1956 with a .311 lifetime batting average. It is a testimony to Robinson’s national impact in crossing racial lines that in 1947 he was voted second most popular American, behind only Bing Crosby. In 1950, at the height of his career Jackie Robinson played himself in a full length Hollywood bio-picture.  You can check out the original trailer for The Jackie Robinson Story.

Jackie Robinson’s impact as a ballplayer proved to the baseball establishment that bringing black players into the league made competitive sense. This resulted in the most dramatic change in the history of the game. But it was his dignity, intelligent resolve and character in the almost impossible task of representing an entire race that elevated Jackie Robinson to symbol of racial change in this country.



Jackie Robinson at his induction to the Hall of Fame
with Branch Rickey and his wife Rachel

Robinson retired at the end of the 1956 season, having already made a deal to become vice president of Chock Full o Nuts coffee - the first black executive in a major American company. Within a year he was diagnosed with diabetes, an illness that would have a deteriorating impact on his post baseball life. Nevertheless these were extremely productive years for Robinson. Jackie became more than just a symbol of racial change, he used his stature as a sports legend to continue to break barriers. He became the first black ballplayer elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility in 1962 and the first black sports commentator on a major network in 1965. Robinson was active in the civil rights movement in the Sixties, participating in the March on Washington with Martin Luther King in 1963 and serving on the board of the NAACP for most of the decade. Independent regarding party affiliation, committed to racial equality but conservative in many of his ideals, Robinson was one of the few national figures in that era whose voice mattered across racial lines.

The diabetes and heart disease that increasingly sapped his vitality finally took his life and Jackie Robinson died October 24, 1972. He was only 53 years old. Robinson was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn. This sprawling cemetery is an appropriate final resting place for Jackie Robinson not only because it is just a few miles east of the site of old Ebbets Field, but it holds many prominent New York civil rights figures from the past two centuries.

Jackie and Martin Luther King.  Click here for a short
excerpt from a documentary on Jackie Robinson the player and the man

Jackie is buried at a high point in the cemetery. I visited there when I was in Brooklyn with my friend David Sacks.  His grave is surrounded by hedges. As the accompanying picture below shows, his tombstone is covered by stones. I think I have found out why. In his eulogy of Robinson, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said the following,

"When Jackie took the field, something within us reminded us of our birthright to be free. And somebody without reminded us that it could be attained. There was strength and pride and power when the big rock hit the water, and concentric circles came forth and ripples of new possibility spread throughout the nation."

If you ever go there, bring a rock with you. We are a better country because of the ripples
of new possibility that came through the life impact of Jackie Robinson.

Woodrow Wilson

Washington, DC. Visited July 1998

To me, Woodrow Wilson has always been a boring president. This isn’t based on any research or personal awareness of the man, mostly just looking at photographs.  He seems like a college professor (which he was) more than a politician or statesman.  Although he did sport the top hat with class.  But, the truth is, he was in his time a remarkable president – passing sweeping legislation that still has significant impact on our nation today. Wilson was at the helm when the Age of Empires ended with World War I and the United States ascended to the forefront of international power. And he is at the center of one of the great mysteries of the American presidency.

Woodrow Wilson was born December 1856 in Staunton, VA – the son of a Presbyterian minister. Though originally from Ohio, Wilson’s father was a slave-owning southern-minded man who stood staunchly with the Confederate cause during the Civil War. For those interested in Presbyterian history, Joseph Wilson was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States.

Woodrow spent most of his childhood in Augusta, GA. He was prone to illness and apparently suffered from dyslexia and did not learn how to read until his teenage years. But he doggedly pursued education, eventually graduating from Princeton University in Political Science. Maturing intellectually, he was able to pass the Georgia Bar and practice law, but eventually returned to academics and received his PhD in political science from John’s Hopkins University. He taught at Bryn Mawr College and other schools before landing on the Princeton faculty, where he ascended to the office of President of the College in 1902.



Wilson statue on the University of Texas Campus.  Woodrow
Wilson is regularly ranked among the top ten U.S.
presidents in scholarly polls

Wilson’s formal political career began in an unusual way, moving straight from academics to politics – his first elected office was as governor of New Jersey in 1910. After just two years of increasing national prominence, Wilson ran for and won the presidential election, defeating incumbent William Howard Taft to become the 28th President of the United States.

Woodrow Wilson’s first term included a number of significant legislative triumphs that continue to shape our national economy, notably the creation of the graduated national income tax, the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission. Sadly, Wilson was a man of his times, a staunch supporter of segregation both in word and deed. His first term also brought the tragedy of the unexpected death of his wife from a stroke in 1914. About 18 months later he remarried, and this marriage to Edith Galt was to have significant implications for Wilson’s second term in office.
 

Wilson started a several presidential customs, including
press conferences and throwing out the first
pitch at baseball games

Here is some odd archival footage – almost like an early photo-op. Wilson signing things, talking on one of those new fangled telephones and watching sheep on the White House lawn.

Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 primarily on the basis of his efforts to keep the US out of the war in Europe. But early in his second term he became convinced that the US could not remain neutral after it was discovered that Germany was seeking to persuade Mexico to attack the United States. The war dominated Wilson’s second term, and the influx of US military might at this crucial time effectively guaranteed an Allied defeat of Germany.

 

21,000 troops form a portrait of Woodrow
Wilson at Camp Sherman Ohio in 1918

President Wilson brought to the end of the war a grand vision for international peace that centered around the creation of a global League of Nations. His efforts at peace won him the Nobel Prize. While this idea had international popularity, it was being significantly opposed at home. Wilson embarked on a national tour to garner support from the people. It was on this tour that Wilson suffered a massive stroke, leading to one of the most unusual and controversial situations in the history of the American Presidency. The stroke left him immediately debilitated, but this fact was fully known only to his wife and his doctor. For the remainder of his presidency Edith Wilson effectively served, according to Wilson historian John Milton Cooper, as presidential ‘regent’, shaping the national agenda through what she filtered through to her enfeebled husband. Cooper further states,

"This is the worst instance of presidential disability we've ever had," said John Milton Cooper, a Wilson scholar at the University of Wisconsin. "We stumbled along . . . without a fully functioning president" for a year and a half.” (Washington Post, 2.3.07)

On the 'Wilson Family Presidency' a historian notes that, "They were flying
by the seat of their pants, doing damage control.  It's fun to watch."

At the end of his second term Wilson retired from public office, and lived largely out of the public eye at his Washington townhouse until his death three years later, on February 3, 1924. He was buried in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The Episcopal rector of the new cathedral had envisioned it as an American Westminster Abbey, but Wilson and Helen Keller are the only people buried there who seem to rise to true national historic stature.



Something really funky at the Natl. Cathedral.  In a contest to select gargoyles,
school kids selected Darth Vader's head as a fitting sculpture for the Cathedral. 
I kid you not.

When we visited the Cathedral on a home school trip in 1998 I had no idea Woodrow Wilson was buried there. I was walking along one side of the sanctuary and passed by this simple stone box with his name on the top. When we later visited the impressive JFK gravesite at Arlington that day I was struck by how different the two presidents were memorialized. It is an interesting study in history.

On a homeschool trip stumbling across WW with my daughter Melissa
and nephew Craig cica 1998.

Victor Hugo

 Paris, France – Visited June 2009

Victor Hugo is known to most people as the author of two great novels of the Romantic era – Les Miserable’s and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But over 83 years of life he came to embody all of France in his passions and impact. Eliminating all people named Napoleon he was probably the greatest celebrity in 19th Century France.

Victor Hugo was born in 1802 in Eastern France. He was literally born into controversy – his father was an atheist officer in Napoleon’s army, his mother a devout Catholic royalist. What it got for Victor was a lot of travel and an ultimate settling in Paris with his mother. It was in Paris that Victor Hugo would remain for much of his life.

Statue of Victor Hugo in Guernsey
England where he spent his
exile

From early in life Victor Hugo showed himself to be an unusually gifted writer, publishing his first collection of poems at age 20, a collection that would receive royal accolades. In his mid-twenties he began to write fiction. His first full length novel was The Hunchback of Notre Dame, published when he was 29. The book was an immediate international hit and led to the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, which had fallen into great disrepair.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame also established Hugo as a spokesman for the underclass, a precursor of Charles Dickens in Victorian England.  It has been made into movies of all shapes and sizes.  Check out the trailers for the 1939 Charles Laughton classic and the 1996 Disney animated version to see how Hollywood has employed Hugo's tragedy for profit.  

Cosette from original illustration for Les Miserable's. 
Check out this two part '20/20' feature on the
original Broadway Opening of Les Miz,
Part One and Part Two

Following the completion of this work Victor Hugo turned his attention to what he felt would be a magnum opus. It took him seventeen years, but in 1862 Les Miserable’s, a sweeping story of social injustice and redemption, was published and immediately became an international sensation. To underscore how sweeping the effect of Les Miserable’s was, within a year it had been translated into English and Robert E. Lee had the novel given to all his senior officers in his army as an inspiration for the Confederate cause. Les Miserable’s has been universally recognized as a literary classic and has been translated into movies, plays and the world-renowned Broadway musical. Hugo published other novels throughout his life, as well as poetry, plays and other works. He also dabbled in visual art, with sufficient gifting that the great romantic painter Delacroix said that had he devoted himself to painting he could have been one of the greats of the century.

Victor Hugo’s public life was as extraordinary as his literary life. Though initially espousing the royalist Catholic sympathies of his mother, he gradually moved toward full embrace of Republicanism in post Napoleonic France and toward the atheistic rationalism (with a strain of spiritism) that swept through France in the 19th Century. A figure of enduring national prominence, Victor Hugo factored into all of the great political events in France in the century. Napoleon III’s imposition of the Third Empire in 1851 was publically denounced by Hugo, which led to his exile from France to England for nineteen years. With the fall of Napoleon III and the rebirth of the Republic, Victor Hugo returned to Paris a national hero and was elected to the National Assembly, where he played a short but largely symbolic role. He remained in Paris during the siege of 1870, rallying the desperate people in the beleaguered city by his sacrificial example.

A drawing by Victor Hugo

It probably speaks to Victor Hugo’s skepticism about the various political systems that swept through France in the turbulent years of his life when he commented,


Victor Hugo's funeral procession in Paris

I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

Victor Hugo spent his latter years in the role of statesman and national celebrity. He died in May 1885 at the age of 83. His last recorded words were ominous, considering his atheistic perspective: This is the fight of day and night. I see black light.

His funeral procession drew two million mourners to the streets of Paris. He was buried in the Pantheon, France’s version of Westminster Abbey. He is in a room with future two future blogees on this site, Emile Zola and Alexandre Dumas.

Victor Hugo's simple tomb in the Pantheon



The catacombs underneath the Pantheon in Paris

I visited the Pantheon when my wife Jill and I were in Paris for our 25th Anniversary. I actually didn’t know what it was, just this big building at the end of the street. We walked up to check it out. Jill wanted to take a rest so I walked in, and found out that there were all these famous French people buried in the basement. It took a while to find a way down, but when I got there it turns out there were all these catacombs (actually pretty nicely preserved) with caskets, statues and plaques throughout. I don’t have a picture of myself in front of any of them because you couldn’t actually get into the rooms. But it was pretty surreal down there, definitely worth wandering around.

Other notables who are that I've blogged on include Alexandre Dumas and Jean-Jacques Rousseau



Your blogger on the steps of the Pantheon

Other blog subjects buried at the Pantheon:

Rousseau

 

Betsy Ross

Philadelphia, PA –  Visited April 2011

In honor of Independence Day this is a blog on one of the great legends of the beginning of our country. In this case however the true story is actually more interesting than the legend.

First, here’s the legend. In June 1776 a committee of George Washington and two others from the Continental Congress was sent to the home of a well known seamstress named Betsy Ross. Washington asked Betsy Ross to create a flag with six point stars. But Betsy showed him that a five point star could be cut much easier, therefore allowing flags to be sown much quicker. With the committee’s approval, Betsy Ross created the flag that was eventually adopted by the new United States as the national flag. Though the first flag story has long been part of our national lore, historians have been unable to substantiate the claims of Betsy Ross’s primary role in the creation of Old Glory. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t a true patriot.

Betsy Ross was born Elizabeth Griscom to a Quaker family in New Jersey who eventually settled in a home at 4th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. She was one of seventeen children. Her father was one of the carpenters who helped build the bell tower at Independence Hall. Betsy apprenticed as a seamstress, where she met and fell in love with John Ross - the son of an Anglican minister of Christ Church in Philadelphia.  John's father George Ross (Betsy's father-in-law) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Her marriage to Ross led to her being expelled from the Society of Friends and the loss of relationship with her Quaker family. Just two years after their marriage the Revolutionary War broke out and John Ross joined the local militia. Tragically, John was killed in an explosion as he was guarding a munitions supply in the city. Betsy, now a widow at 24 with no family, continued to run the upholstery business she had started with her husband and aided in the war effort by sewing uniforms and other materials for the Continental Army.

"Birth of Our Nation's Flag" painted by Charles Weisgerber, who lived in
the Ross house around 1900 and became one of the principal
figures in its preservation and ultimate restoration

In 1777 Betsy married a seaman, Joseph Ashburn, who was likewise a patriot. They had a baby and Betsy was pregnant with her second child when Ashburn’s ship was captured by the British on a supply run for the Continental cause. He was taken to prison in England where he died of illness in jail, never seeing his wife again, or the child who was born while he was away. In addition to having two husbands sacrifice their lives for the cause, Betsy also had to endure the forced occupation of her home when the British captured Philadelphia during the war.


Betsy Ross house circa 1900...

In 1782 a man named John Claypoole, who became friends with Joseph Ashburn in the English jail, came to Philadelphia to pay his respects to Betsy. They fell in love and, at 30 years old, the twice widowed Betsy became Betsy Claypoole. She and her third husband enjoyed a 34 year marriage. Marriage to John Claypoole allowed Betsy to return to her Quaker heritage but, having been ardent supporters of the Revolution, they made their connection with a non-pacifist branch of the Society.

... and now

Betsy spent her later years caring for her husband, whose war wounds gradually incapacitated him and led to his death in 1817. He thus became the third husband of Elizabeth Griscom to die as a result of serving his country in the Revolutionary War. She continued to sew and care for family until going blind toward the end of her life. Betsy Ross died in 1836 at the age of 84 years old.

Betsy Ross is buried next to her house in the Old City section of Philadelphia; just a few blocks from Independence Hall. She was actually buried two other places before she came to her final resting place there.

The Betsy Ross House is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Philadelphia.  I visited there as we toured Old City Philadelphia with family from out of town in the Spring of 2011.

A father who built Independence Hall. Daugther in law of a Founding Father of our country.  A working class woman whose sacrifice included the loss of three husbands in the defense of freedom. An example of industry and patriotism in the forming of a new nation. Even if she never met George Washington and showed him the five point star, Betsy Griscom-Ross-Ashburn-Claypoole deserves honor as an America hero.  

If you want to be inspired with appreciation of what our flag stands for watch
this famous video of LA Dodger  Rick Monday stopping a flag burning

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Brooklyn, New York. Visited April 2011

This post focuses on mercurial 1980's artist Jean-Michel Basquiat  - a tragic story of remarkable gifts and a life struggling to live with them. I asked my friend, artist Jay Walker to talk about Basquiat’s life and art.

When I list the artists that influence my work, Jean-Michel Basquiat is always the one that is curious to people.


"Unquiet Mind"

Basquiat rose to notoriety at the young age of 20, coming out of the New York graffiti movement under the tag name “Samo”, in which he would spray paint Dadaistic truisms. After being reviewed in Artforum by Rene Ricard, who dubbed him the “Radiant Child”, and then being discovered by the booming 80s New York art scene, Basquiat was the youngest artist in recent history to take the art world by storm. Eventually being exhibited internationally, making more money than he knew what to do with, being featured on MTV, dating many starlets (Madonna included), and developing a close relationship with Andy Warhol (whom many thought was exploiting the young artist), the pressures of fame came crushing down on Basquiat. This led to a lagging career, increased drug use, and the eventual overdose at the age of 27 in August 1988
.

Basquiat’s work is classified as Neo-Expressionism and he is often compared to Van Gogh, due to his similar lack of formal training, troubled life, and out of the norm expressive work. Some make the case that the adulation of the art world for Basquiat was penance for its oversight of Van Gogh.

"Fallen Angel"

His work is a dichotomy of tribalism and refinement. Basquiat would point out that it was Europe meets Africa, a form of Creole, like being Haitian, which his father was (his mother was institutionalized most of his life). He avoided being a black mascot for the art world, but he did embrace his heritage of jazz and identified with fellow African-Americans who had risen above social barriers.


Why is Basquiat important to me? His style of work is not similar to mine, though I hope a more direct influence will happen. He made the work he wanted to, he tapped into something deep inside, was unafraid of what people thought of what he created, and reached the level that few are able to attain in a lifetime, all while being very young. He is also a cautionary tale. What happens when fame and the market play to heavily into an artist’s life? What happens with a meteoric rise? What happens when art is all that matters?

If you want to know more about him, watch my favorite movie – "Basquiat"  a film by the painter Julian Schnabel, which is a loose biography from Schnabel’s first hand account of Basquiat’s life.

"Self Portrait"

Personally speaking, as I’ve looked at Basquiat’s work, I’m not sure I can say I ‘like’ it. But I can’t seem to stop looking at it.  You can take a look at his paintings at a number of sites online.  Basquiat is also featured in alot of short video.  The one I found most interesting is "Painting Live - Downtown (1981)"

David and Zac on the hunt

The main reason I wanted to include Basquiat in this blog right now has to do the experience of finding his grave. I visited  Green-Wood Cemetery, a beautiful historic cemetery on one of the highest hills in Brooklyn overlooking downtown Manhattan, just a couple of months ago. I was there with my friends, photographer David Sacks and Zac Martin, pastor of Sovereign Grace City Church. While the cemetery office gave us a map showing the approximate location of Basquiat’s headstone, when we got to the section where he’s buried we couldn’t find it. After about fifteen minutes of wandering around among the graves we saw a small elderly gentleman approaching us. He said, ‘you looking for that artist? I’ll show you where he is. He’s buried behind my daughter.’

He walked us down a row of low symmetrical headstones, literally back to back with each other. ‘Here’s my daughter. He’s on the other side.’ He graciously allowed us to take the picture I’ve included here. And then he set to the sad dignity of clearing away leaves and weeds from his daughter's stone. We stood there for a few minutes, silent; looking down at the grave of a gifted man whose life was cut short in its prime. A few feet away a grieving father faithfully tended to the final resting place of a young woman whose gifts and story are unknown to the world.

As we turned to leave I wondered if this wasn’t an opportunity to offer him hope. So as I thanked him for helping us I said, ‘Sir what you’re doing speaks deeply to me – thank you…’ But before I could finish, he gently held up his hand; the tears in his eyes told me there was a line of interaction he didn’t want to cross. And he said, ‘You never want to do what I’m having to do’.

As the Bible says, death is a curse. It leaves gaping holes of grief in families. It silences the beauty of God-given creativity. But death has its own enemy. And someday it will be defeated – swallowed up in the victory of Christ (1 Cor. 15:34). As I pray for that faithful old man I pray that when that victory comes, he will be part of it.

Come Lord Jesus.

Omar Bradley

Arlington, Virginia. Visited September 2009

In honor of Memorial Day I’m doing a blog on my favorite World War II Commander, General Omar Bradley. Bradley’s combination of leadership skill, tactical innovation and personal integrity made him embody the best in military leadership. And it is characteristic of the man’s lack of self-promotion that he so seldom comes up in the conversation of great heroes of the Allied cause in World War II. But one would be hard pressed to find a story better suited to the American ideal of what a true soldier should embody. Known as the ‘soldier’s general’, Bradley rose through combat experience to command the largest Army group in history under one man; was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was the last soldier ever promoted to the rank of five star general.  You can see a brief Bradley Bio here.

His story is right out of Life Magazine. Omar Bradley was born to a poor family in a log cabin in rural Missouri in the year 1893. He worked hard to get a basic education, excelled at sports and was working with the railroad to make enough money to attend the University of Missouri when his Sunday School teacher suggested he apply to West Point. Bradley got an appointment based on outstanding test scores. While at West Point he excelled at extra-curriculars but was an average student, graduating in 1915 just as World War I was breaking out.

Much to his dismay, Bradley never made it to the European theater, doing stateside duty on the West Coast. Yet he began to distinquish himself as a skilled organizer and developed a keen understanding of battlefield tactics. In the decades between the wars he had several posts as a student and instructor at key military colleges which honed this knowledge base and which allowed him to advance in rank as a professional soldier. He came to the notice of George C. Marshall, who would go on to run the military during World War II.


As World War II broke out he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and given the responsibilty of ramping up two infantry divisions which would play significant roles in Europe. But as the North African front exposed the ill preparedness of the green American troops, Bradley’s organizational and leadership skills were called upon to reverse losses against the Germans and help prepare for an invasion of Sicily and Italy beyond. During this campaign he served under George Patton.

Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower
and George Patton

The Allied breakthrough in Italy created the opportunity to plan a large scale invasion of France and Omar Bradley was called into the center of Operation Overlord – the D Day invasion. In fact much of the eventual plan for the Normandy Invasion was the result of Bradley’s planning and tactical innovation. It fell to Bradley to command the US invasion of Omaha and Utah beaches. On November 6 1944 the Allies launched the D Day invasion and after significant struggle a beachhead on the mainland was secured. It is about this hardfought triumph that Bradley said, “Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.”



During the closing years of the war Omar Bradley became indispensable to the Allied command under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Almost alone among the top echelon of generals Bradley seemed impervious to politics and was the only commander able to effectively manage the combustible George Patton. Eventually the entire US force in Europe was placed under his command, meaning he personally oversaw a fighting force of 1.3 millions soldiers. It was his tactical plan in connection with the Soviet advance that ultimately led to the defeat of the German army and the end of the war in Europe.

Bradley Statue in Moberly, Missouri

After the war General Marshall personally requested Bradley to oversee the Veteran’s Administration. With the rapid downsizing of the wartime army, the VA was a backwards department unprepared to meet the needs of the fighting men it was created to serve. Within just a couple of years Omar Bradley’s leadership and organizational skills had transformed it into a agency that was a signficant force in allowing the ‘greatest generation’ find its way home from the war.

Omar Bradley receiving his fifth star
from President Harry Truman

In 1949 Omar Bradley became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During his tenure he received his fifth star, becoming the last “General of the Army” in US history. The last post in his long distinguished career was first chairman of the Military Staff Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Bradley retired in 1953, and began a long career in the private sector, while also serving all of the post war presidents with his counsel and experience in military matters. The soldier’s general emerged as one of the few top commanders from World War II to grasp the fundamental change in the nature of war that came with the atomic age. Reflecting on his experience as a warrior for freedom Bradley commented,

“We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.”

Omar Bradley funeral procession to Arlington
National Cemetery

Omar Bradley died in April 1981 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. My singular personal awareness of the general is when I watched the funeral of Dwight Eisenhower in 1969. The TV kept showing the aging general standing in full dress uniform honoring his former commander. Bradley was the last of a stellar generation of American commanders from World War II to pass from the scene.

There is a special reason this visit to Arlington National Cemetery where I saw Bradley also makes this Memorial Day blog meaningful. It was one of the last times I had the chance to spend an extended time with my dad. He had taken the train up to Philly so that I could drive with him down to Arlington to attend the memorial service of a cousin, Richard Allen. Vice Admiral Dick Allen had served as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War, had captained the USS America in the Libya bombing raid in 1986 and had been head of the North Atlantic Naval Air Wing at the end of a distinguished naval career. He had fought a heroic battle with cancer and had testified greatly in that battle to his trust in Jesus Christ. Along with my son Grant and my nephew Ben we had the priviledge of attending as family a full honors burial at Arlington, which was very moving.

Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the move in Iraq

So this blog is a chance to honor the soliders of over a century of service to our country. Omar Bradley, soldier and commander through two world wars, Jake Farmer, citizen soldier in post-war Europe and the Korean Conflict and Dick Allen, fighter pilot in Vietnam and Naval officer through the end of the Cold War and in the War on Terror.

On this Memorial Day let us salute the men and women who dedicate themselves to serve our country in the military with courage and fidelity and those who have given their lives in the cause.

Other blog subjects buried at Arlington Cemetery:

Joe Louis

Barbaro

Louisville, Kentucky. Visited August 2009



I’ve made a command decision. For as long as I’m doing this blog I’ve decided that each Triple Crown season I will feature a racehorse. You might say, ‘how long can he sustain that?’. Don’t worry, I’m well stocked with options. Perhaps you should worry….

Barbaro

I’ve already featured the great Secretariat in the Fall of 2010, so for this Triple Crown season I’m going to cover the tragic story of Barbaro.

Barbaro was foaled at Lael Stables in West Grove, PA, making him the third horse with Pennsylvania connections in a row to dominate the Triple Crown races (following Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex) – a very unusual trifecta for a sport ruled by Kentucky-bred colts. He was descended from the great Mr. Prospector, which made him a cousin to other recent Kentucky Derby winners Big Brown, Afleet Alex, Smarty Jones, Funny Cide and Fusaichi Pegasus. He was trained at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland by Michael Matz.

Riding to victory in the Kentucky Derby

Entering the Triple Crown season of 2006 Barbaro was undefeated and had been set in as a 6 to 1 second favorite in the Kentucky Derby on the basis of a strong Florida Derby win. Ridden by Edgar Prado, Barbaro dominated the Derby, winning by six and a half lengths over a 20 horse field – the largest margin of victory in a Kentucky Derby in 60 years. On the strength of that victory he seemed to poised to make a serious run at the Triple Crown.  View his thrilling Run for the Roses here.

Edgar Prado calming Barbaro after breaking
down at the Preakness

However, tragedy struck two weeks later at the Preakness Stakes when, shortly after breaking from the gate the horse veered sharply and pulled up lame. Prado immediately dismounted and supported the horse’s leg as track personnel rushed to the scene. Barbaro was able to be loaded onto an ambulance and carried from the track. Upon examination it was found that he had broken 20 bones in his right hind leg.

Barbaro receiving treatment at New Bolton Center

Eventually the horse was transferred to the University of Pennsylvania’s equine veterinary center in New Bolton, PA, where specialists tried to reset the leg and prevent further damage. For over six months veterinarians tried various means to heal Barbaro’s injuries, but the infections that are all too common with thoroughbred horse leg injuries eventually made it impossible for the horse to stand without pain. Medical remedies exhausted, it became obvious to the doctors that Barbaro’s condition would only worsen with time. Owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson stood in attendance as Barbaro was put down January 29, 2007.

It was decided that his remains would be buried at the entrance to Churchill Downs in Louisville. A statue marking his grave was unveiled at the site in April 2009.

Like many people I admired the beauty and power of the dark brown colt. His impressive Kentucky Derby win catapulted him to national attention, making his accident all the more tragic to racing fans and horse lovers. The nation kept remarkable vigil through the ups and downs of his treatment at New Bolton. I live just about 20 minutes from the stables where Barbaro was raised. The Equine Center is right on Route 926 heading from my house to my in-laws so I had the chance to drive by it while he was there a number of times. I always saw new get well wreaths and posters from well wishers covering the entrance.

While attending a counseling conference at Sojourn Church in Louisville I had the opportunity to tour Churchhill Downs and see Barbaro’s beautiful memorial just a few months after it was unveiled.