As a child, I was glad my birthday wasn’t on February 29th in a leap year. The thought of having a birthday only once every four years was sad, and I figured all of my friends would make fun of me for being only two, when they were eight.

As a young adult, I thought just the opposite. How cool would it be, if you were celebrating your sixth birthday, when all of your friends were turning twenty four? You just knew your actual birthday every four years would be a blowout.

And now? Now I don’t think about birthdays at all in regard to leap year. Instead, I think “What did I do with all of those extra days?” So far, I’ve experienced sixteen Leap Years, with sixteen February 29ths in my life. What did I do with those extra two weeks and two days? As far as I can tell, nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada… Which is kind of sad when you think about it. Hell, if the sixteen days were all in a row, what a great vacation you could have.

Of course, it’s not sixteen days in a row. Still, it’s an extra day, and this year it’s on a Saturday to boot. What are you planning to do, anything special?

A multitude of online sites are offering suggestions – everything from a great brunch, to reading a book, helping the environment, or about a thousand other ideas. My guess is you don’t need any advise on how to spend the extra day, and probably aren’t even thinking of it as an extra day. But maybe you should.

I’ve mulled it over a bit, and I’m now thinking of this day as a gift from God, that’s also ratified by Science. It seems a sin to waste it without a thought. I’ve promised myself, no matter what I do, I will make a conscious decision and won’t just float through the day as if it were one of the regular 365.

What am I going to do this year? I plan to…

.

Addendum:

A few Leap Day facts and stories:

⁃ Leap Year math is actually a bit fascinating. As most of us know, leap year has an extra day added to the calendar in February. The year is actually 365.242190 days long, so a leap year must be added roughly once every four years. However, in the long term the math doesn’t quite work out, so the actual formula is – there will be a leap year every year divisible by four, except for years which are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. Therefore, the year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not. How cool is that?

⁃ Historically Leap Day provided the “opportunity” for a woman to propose marriage to the man in her life. This evidently started in Ireland hundreds of years ago. Now days, women are of course capable of proposing at any time of the year.

⁃ The Leap Day Cocktail was invented by bartender Harry Craddock at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1928 (yes, a leap year). Craddock’s original recipe:

Combine over ice:

— 1 dash lemon juice

— 2/3 gin (2oz)

— 1/6 Grand Marnier (1/2 oz)

— 1/6 sweet vermouth (1/2 oz)

Shake, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon peel, and enjoy. I think it’s bette with just a bit more lemon juice, but that’s just me.

In February of 1976, Cathy and I met for a date in New York City. She took the train north from DC, while I left West Point on a southbound bus. It was the first trip either of us took to the City, and although we were just 20, we felt very adult about the whole thing. The weekend would lead to an inquiry from dad a couple months later.

The City was certainly grittier then, than it is now, but I don’t think either of us paid any attention. We linked up at Grand Central Station and caught a cab to The Essex House, right on Central Park. The Essex was one of those grand old hotels with plush chairs and couches in a big lobby, along with a classic bar. The Essex had a special cadet rate that I believe was $53/night. Just for reference, rooms at The Essex are currently $577/night, not including fees or taxes.

After checking in, we ordered drinks at the bar. It felt like the whole weekend was stretching out before us.

For dinner, we went to Mama Leone’s, a well known Italian restaurant on 48th Street. Although It’s closed now, you can still look it up online and get a feel for the place. The restaurant was a landmark for years and always had a long waiting line to get in. If you were a cadet, you could go to the front of the line, and they gave you the next available table. We worked our way through the five courses, washing it down with a straw covered bottle of Chianti – Cheeses and crudites, antipasti, then soup or salad, pasta or main, and finally dessert. We ate it all, like we’d been starving for a week.

After dinner, we walked the mile or so back to the Essex House following 7th Avenue. Paul Simon had it right with his lyrics in “The Boxer” – there was the occasional solicitation from a prostitute or strip club representative along the way. No one thought twice about soliciting, even though Cathy was with me. It seemed a bit funny at the time.

In our room at the hotel, I felt like John Hurt in the movie “Alien”. Surely my stomach was going to split open, after having eaten so much…. 😉

The next day, we visited all of the usual tourist sites, including Central Park, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The UN, and the Statue of Liberty. We also caught the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. It was all classic New York City stuff.

That night, we went to our first Broadway show, at the Broadhurst Theatre on 44th St. The play was “A Matter of Gravity”, starring Katherine Hepburn, and an up and coming actor by the name of Christopher Reeve. This was two years before the movie “Superman” came out – we had no clue who he was. Hepburn was awesome. Clive Barnes, The NY Times Theatre Critic wrote: “Miss Hepburn with her radiant beauty, her grace, and meticulous theatrical sensibility—shown in the jerk of an eyebrow, or the twitch of a corner of the mouth—is perfectly remarkable.” After the play, we again walked the gauntlet to our hotel, this time taking in the gaudiness of Time Square, while working our way up 7th Avenue. The prostitutes were again out in full force.

The time raced by and the next afternoon, we said our goodbyes. Cath took the train back to DC, while I returned to West Point. It was a perfect weekend, and we were perfectly in love.

A month or two passed and I was on a visit home during Spring Break from school. Dad and I were having a beer, when a conversation about the trip to New York started.

Dad – “I heard you went to New York City for a weekend – how was it?”

Me – “It was a super time. We saw a play, ate a couple of nice meals, and visited all the sites”.

Dad – “Cathy went too?”

Me – “Yea, she took the train up from DC, and we met in the City.”

Dad – “Where’d you stay?”

Me – “The Essex House. It’s this great hotel right on Central Park. They have a special rate for Cadets.”

Dad – “Where did Cathy stay?”

Me – “She stayed at The Essex House too.” (While thinking, “OK, where’s this conversation going?”)

Dad – “Did you get two rooms?”

Me – …pause… “Dad, the Cadet rate at the Hotel was good, but it wasn’t that good.”

Dad – …silence, while looking at me…

Me – …silence, while looking back at him…

Dad – …pause….“well, it sounds like a really fun time”…pause… “What do you think about the Cardinals this year, are they going to do anything?”

And that, was that. Cathy and I married a little over two years later. Forty four years later, we still remember that trip to New York City. We’ve been back several times, but we remember that first trip as the best. Maybe it’s just rose colored glasses, but we sure had fun.

Addendum:

⁃ New York City was gritty in the ‘70s. The TV Show “The Deuce” about 42d Street in the ‘70s, while taking some license with history, isn’t far off. The strip joints, run down hotels, bars, and general dirtiness in the show is fairly representative of the City at the time. As one New York Times article reminisced: “this was the era when the city was edgy and dangerous, when women carried Mace in their purses, when even men asked the taxi driver to wait until they’d crossed the 15 feet to the front door of their building, when a blackout plunged whole neighborhoods into frantic looting…..” Visitors to the City in the summer of ‘75 were greeted with a pamphlet that was titled “Welcome to Fear City”. Among other things, it warned people not to leave midtown Manhattan, and not to walk anywhere after six in the evening. Having said all that, people forget that the city was also vibrant with art, music, and a changing world. The downtown clean up would happen in the coming decades. Here’s a pic near Time Square at the time.

⁃ Mama Leone’s closed in ‘94 and never reopened. Reading online now, it became more touristy over the years, and less frequented by New Yorkers themselves. In retrospect, I can’t say how good it actually was back in the day, but to a hungry 20 year old from Illinois, it sure seemed excellent at the time.

⁃ Some of my West Point classmates and I have discussed whether the price of a room or a cadet at the Essex was $37 or $53. We couldn’t come to a conclusion, so I used the $53 price. You can find out more about the history of the Essex House at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JW_Marriott_Essex_House . It was originally built in 1931 and has an interesting past. Among other folk, Casey Stengel hung out there while a manager of the Yankees, and later the Mets.

– A few weeks ago, I wrote about a trip dad may have taken to New York City in 1945. ( https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/in-search-of-ernies-nightclub/ ). He would have been 21 at the time. As I’m now thinking about his line of questioning to me about my trip, I’m wondering if he was reminiscing some about his own trip near the end of the war. As a single, 21 year old GI in ’45, I’m sure his would have been the wilder trip, but we’ll never know. That’s a question I wish I could go back and ask him.

A random survey of squirrels, reveals they don’t like window blinds…

It was about 1130 when the phone rang. It was Billy from over on the Bay, who doesn’t usually call, so I answered.

Me: “Hello”

Billy: “Max, this is Billy. You had a squirrel in your house. I just got it out.”

Me: “What?”

Billy: “You had a squirrel in your house. I just got it out.”

Me:

Billy: “Can you hear me?”

Me: “I’m not sure, I thought I heard you say there was a squirrel in our house.”

Billy: “That’s what I said. The damage isn’t too bad, except for the blinds and a few broken glasses”.

We talked more, but the connection was bad. I then noticed I had a phone msg from another neighbor. I called them back.

Jim: “Max, you had a squirrel in the house. Billy got it out.”

Me: “Yea, I just talked to him. Do you know how much damage there was? The connection was really bad, so I couldn’t quite hear.”

Jim: “I don’t. We didn’t go in, but I think Eileen did. They had to get the key from her. Maybe the squirrel got in when the guys were doing work at the house a couple of days ago. They had a white van.”

Me: “We weren’t having any work done.”

Jim: “Hmmm. Maybe they were working next door, but parked in your drive. Kirk is who saw the damage. Your blinds were all ripped up and askew, so he looked in through the window and saw a squirrel sitting on your couch. ”

Me: “Damn. I’m glad he did. OK. Let me call Eileen”

The call with Eileen revealed that she had gone in, there was broken glass, the blinds were ripped down, and maybe a couple of kitchen cabinet doors were ripped off.

….shit…..

I decided I’d better drive over ASAP and see what the damage was. A two and a half hour drive gives you plenty of time to think and ask questions of yourself, some more preposterous than others.

How bad is the damage?

How’d the squirrel get in?

Does someone with a white van dislike us, and they secretly released a squirrel in the house to screw with us? Do I need to change the locks?

I talked to Billy on the way, and he insisted the damage wasn’t bad, except for the blinds. I told him I’d give him a call after I arrived.

2:45PM and I arrive. All looks normal outside. I go inside, and in the kitchen, there are 3 or 4 broken Martini glasses that were knocked off a shelf, but that’s it. The cabinet door Eileen thought was ripped off was actually one I’d previously taken down to fix. Into the front room, and….

Every single blind, except for one, is in some state of disrepair. Three are totally ripped down. Two are half torn apart. And, that’s it – a knocked over light, but nothing else is broken. Evidently, the squirrel kept trying to get out through the windows, and in the process, it tore down the blinds and chewed on one of the windows.

I start to clean up and call Billy. He get’s there about an hour later, and I’ve finished the clean up, so we have a beer. We’ve both independently looked at the exterior to the house and can find no “surprise” entry points.

We talk about other possibilities, but other than the squirrel following someone into the house, have no other plausible explanation. We finish the beers, and Billy is leaving, when I ask if he can replace the locks. No problem, he’ll get it done.

If either the squirrel, or the mystery guys in the white van have a spare key, we’ve outwitted them. All other scenarios remain open.

It’s always good when life throws a little humor in your direction….

Addendum:

Thanks to Billy, Kirk and Virginia, Jim and Trish, Eileen and Fritz, and Jim and Veronica for assistance in resolving the issue!

On further inspection, there is some (minor) evidence that it may have come down the chimney to gain entrance.

New York City was a crossroad of craziness during WWII and it appears Dad may have partied there in ‘44 or ‘45, after recovering from his war wounds. His WWII “little black book” has an entry for a place called Ernies Nightclub. After some research, I found Ernies. It was a jazz club, that also hosted the occasional burlesque dancer, comedian, or male impersonator. Mafioso Vito Genovese occasionally drank there, and oh by the way, it was a sometime lesbian hangout. Sure, why not?

Let me go back to the beginning. After dad passed away in 2010, mom found a WWII era “little black book” of dad’s. A couple of years later, she gave it to me, along with some of his other wartime mementos. The book was actually red, and contained addresses, phone numbers, and information about women, relatives, company mates in the Army, and others. It’s a fascinating look into the past.

The book has an entry for “Ernies Nightclub” with the note “Take 8th Ave Subway to 4th street. Walk 3 blocks east”. This particular entry intrigued me and I started doing some research.

Googling “Ernies Nightclub” produced immediate hits in New York City and I became excited. There were even some photos of the place in Greenwich Village! Unfortunately, as I investigated, it turns out this was describing a fictional “Ernies Nightclub” from the book, “Catcher in the Rye”, by JD Salinger. While interesting, this was a dead end for dad’s Red Book entry.

This started me thinking though. How many cities have “8th Avenue Subways”? Surely New York is at the top of the heap. I typed in “Ernie’s Nightclub New York City 1940s”. After more “Catcher in the Rye” references, an entry for “Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures” appeared. What? Clicking on the link, I found a reference to “Ernie’s Three Ring Circus, a gathering place for working class lesbians in New York City in the ‘40s.” Hmmmmmm.

My next step was to search on “Ernie’s Three Ring Circus” and boom, there were several entries, including the address: 76 West Third Street, New York City. I went to Google Maps and entered the address. Bringing the map up, the location was a block below 4th Street (progress!), but nowhere near 8th Avenue. More research, and there is a 4th Street subway station the 8th Avenue Subway runs through. A bit more sleuthing, and it turns out the “south entrance” of the 4th Street Station is on…wait for it…. Third Street. If you walk three blocks to the East from that entrance, you arrive at: 76 West Third Street, exactly like the instruction in Dad’s Red Book! We’ve found Ernies Nightclub, with the real name of Ernie’s Three Ring Circus.

What kind of place was Ernie’s? Online, there were several entries about it, including info in books and historical records. It appears Ernie’s was a jazz club that was “mostly heterosexual, but also attracted “working class” lesbians”. You have to remember this was the 1940s, and there were only limited places, even in New York City, that accepted gays or lesbians. Ernie’s was one of them. It’s mentioned in a New York City Landmarks document called “150 Years of LGBT History”.

I found records of many acts performing at Ernie’s. The singer and male impersonator, Ella Shields appeared in 1943. (Julie Andrews used Ella Shields as her role model for ‘Victor’ in the film “Victor/Victoria“). On another evening, in addition to a three piece band, “Tessie the Tassel Tosser” performed. Tessie evidently had certain “talents” with her chest that demonstrated excellent muscle control. Evelyn Nesbit also appeared at Ernie’s. Nesbit was the woman the film “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing”, starring Joan Collins and Ray Milland, was based on. She was a model and early film star, who’s husband murdered her lover.

Other interesting people frequented Ernie’s. In the book “Mafia Cop”, a woman, Tess, tells of the night she was married. They went to Ernie’s after their ceremony, and Vito Genovese was standing at the bar having a drink. When he found out they’d just married, “he closed the bar and ordered champagne drinks for everyone. We had an all night party”. For those who may not remember, Genovese was head of one of the five Mafia families in New York, and for a brief time, considered “the boss of bosses”.

So, did Dad ever make it to Ernies? Sadly, I don’t know. I’ve added it to a growing list of questions I wish I had asked him. It certainly sounds like the kind of place he loved. NYC was only a train ride away from North Carolina, and assuming he had some leave time, he could have gone pretty easily. What really makes me think he visited, was that my Uncle Mick was in the Navy and stationed in New York (also in Dad’s Red Book). Mick served on the SS John W Powell out of NYC, and with the Navy Armed Guard Center in Brooklyn. There’s also an entry below Mick’s name for “The Washington Hotel”, which is only a short walk front where Mick was stationed, when in port. I could easily see Dad visiting Mick, and the two of them wreaking havoc on the city. I’ve asked my cousins and sisters about it, and while we can remember stories of them partying together during the war, there’s no specific remembrance of New York City. For now, at least, it remains a mystery.

By the way, Ernie’s Closed in 1962. The space is currently occupied by a bar called “The Half Pint” that’s been there for twelve years. It still looks like the kind of joint Dad would enjoy. Cathy and I plan to stop by on our next trip to the City and see if we pick up any “Ghost of Bill” feelings.

Addendum:

– Uncle Mick (Born in ‘25) was two years younger than dad and joined the Navy at the age of 17. The SS John W Powell was a “Liberty Ship” (cargo ship) built for the Navy during WWII. You can find more about Liberty Ships at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship . The photo here shows the two entries for Uncle Mick in Dad’s book (Mick’s real name was Lee). Also note the entry for the Washington Hotel.

– The Lesbian and Gay scene in NYC in the 40s was discreet, but growing. This was well before the Stonewall Riots in 1969. If you want to learn more, you can get to various links from: http://lostwomynsspace.blogspot.com/2015/02/ernies-restaurantthree-ring-circus.html .

– The Vito Genovese story is interesting, although Tess may have her facts wrong. Other history books show Genovese in Italy at the time. He may have traveled back and forth.

– Evelyn Nesbit was fun to read about. She was in her 50s during WWII. Model, chorus girl, actress, she managed to attract trouble off and on through out her life. In real life, her millionaire husband, Harry Thaw, murdered her one time lover, Stanford White, in what was known at the time as “the crime of the century.” “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing” is one of those movies you might occasionally see on Turner Classic Movies.

– You can still find UTube videos of male impersonator, Ella Shields. Here’s one of them: https://youtu.be/2G2c47EtDT8

– You can read a bit of amusing information about “Tessie The Tassel Tosser” in the book: “Footprints”, by John Aicher – here’s an excerpt : https://books.google.com/books?id=8dvhAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA204&lpg=PA204&dq=tessie+the+tassel+tosser&source=bl&ots=-9iT9jLdwV&sig=ACfU3U2CoW9RxFHXhDbEhtL8cCK40HR3tg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj69u2EhLTnAhWGj3IEHd-oBcgQ6AEwCnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=tessie%20the%20tassel%20tosser&f=false

Grave 3346, in Section 27 at Arlington National Cemetery is simple, like those around it. The inscription? William H. Johnson, Citizen. William Johnson, a free African American, was Abraham Lincoln’s valet and and tended the sick president after his Gettysburg speech. This grave might, or might not be his final resting place. As with much of history, the details aren’t exactly clear, but it makes for an interesting story.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, he brought William H. Johnson with him to Washington DC in 1861. Johnson had worked as a freedman for Lincoln and his family at least since 1860. Originally employed at the White House as a valet, there was trouble between Johnson and the the other free African Americans who worked there. His skin color was quite dark and the other lighter skinned African Americans harassed him.

Lincoln tried to help solve the problem and wrote a “to whom it may concern” letter: “William Johnson, a colored boy, and bearer of this, has been with me about twelve months; and has been, so far, as I believe, honest, faithful, sober, industrious, and handy as a servant.” There were mixed results from the letter. Over the next three years, Johnson was listed as working for the Navy, a White House fireman, and a Treasury Department employee among other jobs. Throughout it all, he continued to work for Lincoln as a valet. He shaved Lincoln, shined his shoes, and took care of him in other ways, including carrying money for him.

In July of 1863, there was this little battle in Pennsylvania at a place called Gettysburg. You may have heard of it. Four months later, in November, Lincoln travelled by train to the battlefield for the dedication of the cemetery there, and took William with him. Lincoln went on to deliver his famed Gettysburg Address at the dedication. Those 272 words would become the most quoted of his entire presidency, although at the time, they weren’t particularly noticed. The address started – “ Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…”. Written almost one year after The Emancipation Proclamation took effect, the wording was not accidental.

Fate then intervened. On the return trip to Washington, Lincoln showed signs of Smallpox and was quite ill. William Johnson is the person who nursed him back to health. Unfortunately, Johnson also caught Smallpox. Was it from Lincoln, or someone else? We’ll never know for sure. What we do know is he continued to worsen, and eventually died around January 28th, 1864.

Lincoln himself settled Johnson’s estate. The president followed his valet’s instructions as to how his pay was to be distributed. As Lincoln explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter,

⁃ “This is something out of my usual line; but a President of the United States has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution or acts of Congress. This is one of them. This money belongs to a poor negro who is … very bad with the smallpox…. He is now in hospital, and could not draw his pay because he could not sign his name. I have been at considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty and get it for him, and have at length succeeded in cutting red tape….I am now dividing the money and putting by a portion labeled, in an envelope, with my own hands, according to his wishes.”

Lincoln also paid off a loan he co-signed with William, and took responsibility for Johnson’s funeral. In fact, he paid for his coffin, grave marker, and burial.

We know all of this because Lincoln recorded much of the above in his personal papers. The next part becomes a bit murkier. That is, where is William Johnson actually buried? There are at least three different possibilities.

First, most black smallpox victims were buried in the Columbian Harmony Cemetery, in Northeast DC. Unfortunately, the cemetery was razed half a century ago for development.

Second, he may have been buried at the Congressional Cemetery. Although there is no direct record of this, some historians believe it to be the case.

Finally, many believe he may be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Section 27 contains the graves of Civil War soldiers, a significant number of freedmen who resided in the District of Columbia, and probably formerly enslaved people from the Custis Lee Estate. There is the marker with the correct name and the man buried under the marker died in 1864. Despite this information, there are also doubts raised about the entire claim. The Custis Lee Estate (later Arlington National Cemetery) would not become an official cemetery for another few months. William Johnson was a common enough name at the time. Then there was the interesting epitaph “Citizen”. Was this Lincoln’s way of recognizing Johnson was a freedman? It turns out in the early days of burials at Arlington, civilians were also buried there. “Citizen” merely meant this was the grave for a person who was not a soldier.

I’m not sure why I have this mini-fascination with Mr Johnson, but I do. I first read about him a few years back in a book about the Gettysburg address. Since then, his name has popped up in a couple of other books about Lincoln. It’s always just a couple of paragraphs describing what he did for Lincoln, taking care of Lincoln when he contracted Smallpox, and then Lincoln settling Johnson’s estate when he died. He truly is just a minor footnote in history. And yet….. The Civil War still had well over a year to run. Here was Lincoln, during one of the worst times in our history, taking time out of his life and the national concerns to take care of this man and his affairs. Why? Did Lincoln do this because it was the right thing to do, or was there more to it?

Mary, a friend of mine helped some with my investigation. She is an amateur historian, particularly about slavery and the Civil War period (her ancestors owned enslaved people and she spends time trying to make amends for that). She found Lincoln’s census record for 1860.  There was a Johnson living in the Lincoln household, but it indicates a female, 18-years old, and no indication that she (or if mis-stated, he) was Black, and the initial appears to be “M” rather than “W.”  Nor was she able to find any William Johnsons in Springfield at that time. 

  Mary’s guess is that he was a fugitive from slavery and had renamed himself once he reached freedom in Illinois.  She also looked on Ancestry.com and cannot find a single person that claims a black William Johnson who worked for Abraham Lincoln as a relation.  Her words: “This is really, really strange.  I’ve never come across someone that NOBODY claimed in a family tree.”  

So, is Johnson buried at Arlington? Sometimes, we aren’t meant to solve mysteries, and I think this is one of those cases. The romantic in me hopes he is at Arlington. There would, perhaps, be some justice in that. No matter where he’s buried, I’m glad I learned about him, and his relationship with Mr. Lincoln.

Addendum:

• Virtually all references to William H. Johnson are from President Lincoln’s own comments, requests, or papers. There is little else known about him.

• Special thanks to my friend Mary Haak. Mary and I have had many thoughtful discussions about politics and race over the past year or two. She is a genuine human being, who quietly goes about doing the “right thing” in many ways. We should all be so dedicated.

• Lincoln gets credit for “freeing the enslaved people”, but he was also a product of his time, and by no means perfect. Here are three examples:

1. In August of 1858, in my home town of Ottawa, Illinois at the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, Lincoln said: “I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality…I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

1. In August of 1862, Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York Times, and famously stated: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union;”

1. In January of 1863, under The Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln did free enslaved people, but not all of them. The Proclamation only freed those slaves who were in States that had seceded from the Union. It did nothing about slaves in the border states that had not seceded. Those slaves were freed by state action, or by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in December 1865.

My friend Ed Meagher, a Vietnam Vet, recently told this story. I asked him if I could clean it up a bit, and post it here on my blog. He readily agreed. As tensions ratchet up between us and Iran, and around the world, I think it’s good to listen to personal stories from our past wars and not just the official histories, or news articles. The voices of those who were there are always worth hearing. Here’s Ed’s story in his own words.

Whenever I hear a helicopter, I stop what I am doing and lookup. Nothing too unusual about that, except I am also hit by a momentary shot of adrenalin, the hair on my arms and neck stand up, and a feeling arises in my chest and gut I have trouble describing. It is quick, and after all these years it fades rapidly. I cover it by trying to identify the type of helicopter and unless it is an old “Huey” or “Chinook”, the whole episode is over before anyone notices. If it is one of those, it is another matter and it brings back memories.

I arrived in Vietnam about 3AM on January 30th, 1968. By coincidence, or poor luck, it was the same day the Tet Offensive started. I was a recently promoted Air Force Staff Sergeant (E-5) radio operator. I was assigned to a Comm Squadron and detailed to a place called “Paris Control” where we coordinated air strikes up and down III Corps. I worked the night shift from 6 PM to 6 AM every day. We would eat breakfast or dinner, depending on your preference, about 6:30 AM and then try to sleep in the hot, noisy barracks before getting up and doing it all again.

During daytime, they often needed warm bodies for crap details like sandbag filling, or riding shotgun on convoys, or just about any gritty, shitty job you can imagine. They would send a runner to wake you and tell you where to go and when to be there. It was a royal pain in the ass. As an NCO, I usually had to lead the details.

One time around May of ‘68, after being woken, I show up at the head-shed and am told to simply load the assembled troops into two pickup trucks and take them to the mortuary at Ton Son Knut. It is a large aluminum Quonset hut at the end of a taxiway on the northside of the runways, and away from the main base. We arrive at the mortuary and it is hot and miserable and all I am told is to “standby”.

Time passes and a fire truck shows up and they know even less than we do. Finally, over the tower radio, we hear a helicopter being cleared to land near the Quonset hut. It is a big helicopter known as a Chinook. It is a twin-engined, tandem rotor, noisy beast, that throws up dirt, pebbles and small rocks in every direction.

Over the tower radio, we hear a request for the fire engine to move closer to the helicopter. After the fire truck moves, nothing happens for a while as the exhaust fumes from the JP4 fuel mixes with the hot humid air. It can overwhelm you, but strangely I have always loved that smell.

In the military, you learn to do a lot of standing around waiting for your orders. You learn patience and to deal with a lot of ambiguity. Time passes. Finally, and slowly, figures emerge from the Quonset hut a couple at a time. They are dressed in various colored medical scrubs and are all wearing scrub hats and masks. Some have rubber aprons and gloves on. They walk slowly, very slowly. They are not in any hurry to get to where they are going and are in fact meandering. I haven’t been told anything yet and the rest of my little detail knows better than to ask what is going on. We wait some more.

There are small conferences taking place, first with the crew chief, then the fire truck driver and then with the helicopter crew. Still not a clue. Then several of the folk from the Quonset hut wander back to the building at no better than a stroll. It is at least 100 degrees outside. We stand and wait for orders.

Finally, the folk reemerge from the hut pushing wagons and gurneys. The crew chief waves me over to the helicopter. I bend down even though the blades are 20 feet above my head. The noise up close is even worse and the crew chief screams in my ear. Something to do with my men and what is on the helicopter. I give him the classic palms up “what did you say” sign and he registers disgust and grabs me by the arm and takes me to the back of the helicopter.

The Chinook has a very large rear door/ramp. The crew chief is wearing a bulbous helmet and is tethered to the aircraft via a long cord plugged into the helicopter near the front access door. He keys his microphone and talks to the crew in the front, and suddenly the ramp starts to come down. He again grabs me by the arm and pulls me to the side.

I am not prepared for what happens next. Nothing could prepare anyone for what happens next. As the ramp touches the ground, multiple streams of liquid pour off the helicopter into the grass and dirt. I stare at it for a few seconds, before I realize the liquid is a dirty reddish-brown color. It still doesn’t register with me, when the crew chief grabs me again and pulls me further away from the aircraft. Two of the firemen, in full battle rattle, move in with a small hose and start to spray the ramp with a high-pressure stream of water.

The crew chief pantomimes to me to get my detail and bring them over. As I trot over to our pickup trucks, it begins to dawn on me what the red liquid might be. The troops are curious and have questions, but I put on my best “the NCO knows all, and does not need to explain himself to the troops” look, and tell them to just form up and follow me. When we get back, the firemen are exiting down the ramp from inside the helicopter and one of them takes a massive, both feet in the air, pratfall. We all instinctively laugh.

The crew chief grabs me again and screams directly into my ear, “Careful. It’s slippery in there. Just two guys to a bag, one bag at a time“. The guys in scrubs inch closer to the side of the helicopter with their gurneys and carts, but stop short of the back of the helicopter. I return to my waiting crew and not knowing what to say or how to give the order, I grab the first two guys and indicate to the rest to wait where they were. Again in an unneeded crouch, the three of us approach the ramp and start up. There are two corrugated metal tracks running up the ramp and they are wet. The first few steps make it clear there is no traction, so we step onto the inside of the fuselage and there it is only marginally better.

We make our way up the ramp grabbing hold of each other and anything else we can reach. It is comical and the crew chief calls us off and brings the firemen back. There is a long discussion and it is decided they are going to use a bigger hose and mix the water with some fire-retardant foam. There are pros and cons back and forth about the wisdom of this, but they decide to try it. The pressure from the larger hose is truly impressive and maybe the foam helps, or maybe it doesn’t. After 10 minutes, the fireman come out and we go back in.

We reach the top of the ramp and it takes several seconds for our eyes to adapt from the bright sunshine to the dark inside the ship. Then we see the body bags. They are piled like cords of wood on the deck and secured with brightly colored canvas straps connected to pinions in the deck. The crew chief brushes by us and begins to release the straps. The bags settle and spread out as each strap is released. There are probably six or seven bags to a pile, and there are multiple piles.

The three of us just stand there, staring with our mouths agape. The crew chief comes back to me and hits me on the shoulder and indicates I need to get started. My two guys grab the first bag and lift it. The body inside the bag is still warm and flexible and slides into more of a ball, which they have to lift higher. They raise their arms to near shoulder height for the bag to clear the ground. I watch as the two troops, who should have been asleep in bed, slither and stumble down the ramp. The crew chief hits me between the shoulder blades and indicates I am to take the other end of the next bag and we start out of the aircraft.

The first body is hoisted onto one of the gurneys and I get angry none of the folks in scrubs offer to help my guys. They just stand there. When we get close to the next gurney, I am ready to say something, then notice the look in their eyes. It dawns on me they are gearing up for the horror awaiting them, when they have to open these bags inside the Quonset hut. To us, they are still just messy bags, but to them, they would soon become bodies, soldiers, dead people.

I go over to my guys and tell them to follow me. We quickly set up an assembly line of sorts and it becomes clear we have to operate methodically so that every team takes the exact number of turns into the ship, grab the body bag, and then returns down the ramp. One trip for each of us and we became experts at this macabre parade. I wish I kept better track of how many bags we offloaded. My best guess is it was over thirty, but I can’t be sure. Some of the bags were suspiciously light. Was a small soldier inside, or was it just body parts? One of the guys later mentioned he thought one of the bags contained a dog.

It is all over in two hours. No one dismisses us, they all just leave. The firemen go back on the helicopter and spray the inside for a long time. When they are finished, the helicopter simply takes off. The firemen set out a canvas tub about 8 feet across and half-fill it with water and what looks like detergent. They step in it with their rubber boots and invited us to do the same. We step in and stomp around in our canvas jungle boots which immediately soaks our socks. After a few moments, one of the firemen releases a latch and the pool collapsed and empties. They throw it on the top of the truck and off they go.

We are now alone with no one to tell us what to do next. I’m 21 years old and the rest of the guys are about the same age, but I have one or two more stripes, so they looked to me for guidance, for direction, for orders. I have nothing.

We stand there for a few long seconds and then I say something like “who wants to go back to the barracks and who wants to go to the chow hall?”, and we split the two trucks up by destination.

The last thing I remember about the day is that as I prepared to go to work for my 6 PM shift, I took a shower and noticed my feet were pinkish. I had to wear those boots for quite a while before I could get a new pair and no matter how many times, I soaked them, they always seemed to have a stiffness to them.

–

I haven’t shared this story with too many people because it is normally not a place I want to go and it is still is a deep scar on my soul. But recently, because of my criticism of President Trump and my view that he wants to start a “wag the dog” war, a person questioned my love for my country and my unwillingness to support another war in the Middle East. All I know is someone has to stand up for all the PFC’s who will pay the price of old white men’s bloodlust, and who will end up in body bags.

Addendum:

Ed is the real deal. After his time in Vietnam, he eventually went to work for the VA, and helped his fellow veterans there for several years. After leaving the government, he continued to support veterans in other ways. 16 years ago, he and two other Vietnam vets started a charity to support veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. It eventually became the Aleethia Foundation. You can find out more about it, and it’s mission at: https://www.aleethia.org

Feel free to share this blog…… https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/after-his-patriotism-is-questioned-a-vietnam-vet-reflects-on-war/

I saw the pears in the grocery store a week ago, and on impulse, bought them. I don’t usually buy fruit out of season, but as I was looking at them, a phrase popped in my brain – “These are perfectly imperfect”, and I put them in my basket. They looked pretty good, although there were some blemishes on them.

At home, I started thinking about the phrase “perfectly imperfect” and what did I mean. And then I thought about “perfectly imperfect” and why did I use that instead of “imperfectly perfect”, and what was the difference. It was time for Google.

Google, of course, had an infinite number of things to say about perfectly imperfect as it pertains to pears, fruit, vegetables, lifestyles, and people. I explored a number of these rabbit holes. It turns out there are companies selling “perfectly imperfect” fruit, appealing to people against food waste, or people looking for a bargain, depending on the ad. There was another blog site titled “perfectlyImperfect”, with the goal of helping people with branding and home decor. These links didn’t seem to get at what I was thinking.

Then came links focused more on people. There was a HuffPost piece about “perfectly imperfect” and self acceptance. Several Psychology Today articles explored the idea, including – “We are designed to be perfectly imperfect.” Music explored the phrase, with John Legend singing “…Love your curves and all your edges, All your perfect imperfections…”. And finally, the Urban Dictionary provided: “when someone has feelings for you, they may tell you you’re “perfectly imperfect”, basically saying they accept your flaws, they like you enough that they see past your faults, a way of saying that you’re perfect to them.”

Now we were getting somewhere and I started thinking about perfectly imperfect more broadly.

I left the internet and looked back at my pears and realized what I really meant was the pears looked real, not artificial or plastic. They had experienced some bumps and bruises in their brief life. They may not look perfect, but they looked the way pears are suppose to look.

I sat there thinking about perfectly imperfect pears and people. I thought about how much time gets wasted looking for perfection, whether in food, friends, or ourselves. New Year’s Eve was almost here, and while I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions, three immediately popped in my head and I wrote them down.

• First, I will continue to look for the “real”, in life, and try to avoid the artificial.

• Second, I will strive to do better in accepting people as they are, rather than trying to project my view of what “perfection” is on them.

• And finally, I will try and do better in accepting myself the way I am, warts, spreadsheets, to-do lists, and all. I’ll still try to improve, but I’ll also cut myself a bit of slack here and there.

I don’t know how I’ll do with these resolutions, but I’m going to give it my best.

When I first looked at those pears at the supermarket, I didn’t realize they would take me on a small journey of self assessment and awareness, but they did. As we know, insight can come to you from any number of different sources. You just need to be open to it.

All the best for 2020….

Addendum:

I didn’t go into “perfectly imperfect” versus “imperfectly perfect” in this blog. There’s a whole other discussion there. If you have a couple of hours to wander around the internet on a rainy day, go for it.

My cousin, Janice Connell, shared this memory of Christmas love and joy with me. I helped clean up the writing, but it’s her own voice.

I moved to Arizona in October of 2013 to reunite with my father and my daughter. I didn’t have much in the way of furniture, dishes, or actually, anything I needed to set up a house. I’d left Illinois with a suitcase, my dog, Baby, who had lived with me eleven years, and the clothes on my back.

I was 53 years old and really wanted to live alone, something I had never had the chance to do over the course of my life. When I arrived, my dad and stepmom, Dorothy, took me under their wings. They set me up with a doctor and took care of me. They helped me find a place to live, and helped buy all I needed to live on my own. My dad and I went to rummage sales, where he and Dorothy bought me furniture, a bed, dishes, literally everything I needed for my own home. He would often stop by my new house with food and we would just sit and talk. It was nice.

I always remember that first Christmas in Arizona. I didn’t have much money and there would be no tree, or decorations in my new home. It was OK, as I was just happy to have a place of my own. I did have fun helping Dad and Dorothy decorate the Christmas Cactus they had outside their home, and that was enough for me.

It wasn’t enough for my Dad, who knew I loved Nativity Sets. One day, as Christmas neared, Dad stopped by the house with a Christmas present and said I should open it right then. He was like a kid in a candy store beaming ear to ear when he handed me the package. I slowly opened the gift …. and …. he’d bought me a large Nativity Set! In addition to Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus, it had a barn and all the animals. There were three wise men and shepherds watching their flock. We put the set up together that first Christmas and I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I was that day.

I have had the set for six years now. I have loved it more each year and display it every Christmas, no matter what. The barn broke during a subsequent move, but I still put Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus out, along with the wisemen and shepherds. Mary and Joseph don’t seem to mind the lack of shelter.

Dad passed away in March and this is my first Christmas without him. I love him and miss him every day. He made sure I had everything I needed and a lot of what I just wanted. No one needs a Nativity Set, but it was important to me to have one, and he knew it. I love this Nativity Set, and will always remember the look on his face when he gave it to me in 2013. He knew the meaning of Christmas and how to share it.

Addendum:

Janice Connell is my second cousin, the daughter of my cousin Pooch. Pooch was one of those people you always remember. Halfway between my age, and that of my own father, he provided some insights and stories about my dad I only learned later in life. If you want to read more about Pooch, here are a few other blogs about him.

June 1944. Dad and Pooch on D-Day. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/dad-and-pooch/

Pooch and Stickball in the ‘40s. – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/stickball%EF%BB%BF/

Pooch – A Eulogy. https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/pooch/

My friend Tim said, “I was in Ashkhabad (Ashgabat) in June 1979, wondering why there was such a heavy Red Army presence in a sleepy place like that on the Iranian border. It was put together for me later in December of that year.”

Forty years ago, on December 24th, 1979, our current problems in Afghanistan began, when the Soviet Union invaded that country. As midnight approached on Christmas Eve, the Soviets organized a massive military airlift into Kabul. Within a few days, the Soviets had secured Kabul, but over time, they met with fierce resistance whenever they ventured into the countryside. For the next decade, the Mujahideen mounted a continuous, effective guerrilla campaign against the Soviets.

The United States became covertly involved in the war in Afghanistan, and provided about $3 billion in military and economic assistance to the Mujahideen. In addition to weapons, we provided school books, which on the surface sounds pretty nice; unfortunately, not only were the books anti-Soviet, they encouraged a jihadist outlook, and used guns and soldiers as a part of the text. One lesson instructed that only Muslims can rule Kabul, and Russians, and indeed ALL invaders, are nonbelievers.

In the late ‘80s, Al-Qaeda, under Osama Bin Laden, was born and supported the Mujahideen against the Soviets. As their situation continued to worsen, Soviet forces started withdrawing in 1988 and the last Soviet soldier crossed back into the USSR on February 15, 1989. Fifteen thousand Soviet soldiers were killed in those ten years.

The US walked away from involvement in Afghanistan during the 1990s, and with both the US and the USSR gone, a governing vacuum was created. In that vacuum, the Taliban formed in 1994. As a part of their work, they used the US provided text books to preach continued Jihad. Al-Qaeda also continued to grow in the ‘90s and began exporting violence outside of Afghanistan, culminating in the September 11th attacks in America in 2001.

Most of us know the rest of the story. We are now in our 18th year of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history. More than 491,500 soldiers have served there, and at least 28,000 U.S. troops have deployed there five or more times, sometimes coming home with both wounds and PTSD. Approximately 2,400 US troops have died there, with another 20,000 wounded. This doesn’t include those who have committed suicide after they returned home. Presidents Bush, Obama and Trump have all said they “don’t want to be in the business of Nation building,”* and yet we remain in Afghanistan with no apparent end in sight. We’ve now spent $975 Billion on the war since 2001. How could those dollars have been better spent?

Although I said “most of us know the rest of the story” in the previous paragraph, it now turns out we didn’t know the whole story. The Washington Post recently published a series of articles about the war and how the American people were misled. The articles are based on “confidential government documents which … reveal that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”* While not quite The Pentagon Papers, the interviews are equally as damning about our involvement in Afghanistan, and again raise the question of what are we doing there? How long have we known we shouldn’t really be there? As a veteran, I’m saddened to see we have been given only half-truths. When I was at West Point, a part of the Cadet Prayer included “never be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.” Once again, we have fallen short as a country.

In addition to our country misleading us, the sad fact is, most Americans just don’t give a damn. With the average American having no skin in the game, their focus is elsewhere. We have no draft, no national service, and we’ve funded much of the war with deficit spending. There is no reason to care.

Afghanistan has long had a reputation as “The graveyard of empires”. Alexander the Great, the Arab Caliphate, and Genghis Khan all crossed that land in ancient history, without impact. Both the British and the Russians have tried their hands there and failed. After 18 years, 2,400 American deaths, the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops, and nearly one trillion dollars in spending, maybe, just maybe, it’s time to come home.

Merry Christmas to you, and to the over 12,000 troops who remain in Afghanistan.

Addendum:

• * Both sets of quotes come from the Washington Post.

• I know it’s a bit ridiculous to try and sum up 18-40 years of history in 1,000 words or so, but felt it was worth trying to do.  I realize what I’ve presented here is incomplete and doesn’t go into many aspects of either the Soviet war in Afghanistan, or our own.  Having said that, I feel the bottom line still prevails – what are we doing there, and when are we coming home? By the way, the $975B we’ve spent is only the DoD money. It doesn’t include money spent by the CIA, VA or other agencies.

• Special thanks to Tim Stouffer for providing both historical and current information for this blog.  I’ve know Tim since 1st Grade, and he is one of my oldest and best friends.  He is an amateur historian, and knows more about Russia and the Soviet Union than anyone I know. In the ’70s and early ’80s, he travelled to the USSR multiple times.  His additonal recollections from his trip to the USSR in 1979: “Ashkhabad was just part of the trip in ‘79. We flew in from Baku on an old 2 prop Ilyushin12/14 that was a copy of a DC 3. We flew across the Caspian Sea, and if that did not scare me nothing in the air has bothered me since. There were soldiers all over and the 20 of us stood out. Supposedly we were first US student group to visit and were treated like kings compared to other places. It is also where I rode the camel 🐪. “

• Ashkhabad was from 1924 to 1990 the capital of Turkmenistan, in the USSR.  When Turkmenistan became independent,  they officially adopted the Turkmen version of the city’s name, Ashgabat In 1992.  I kept the name as Ashkhabad for this blog, keeping it consistent with Tim’s telling of events in the 1979 timeframe.

• Thanks to my friends Michael McClary and Colleen Conroy for providing much needed editorial assistance on this blog.