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It Happened On A December 23 and Campaign 2016
Private Eddie Slovik
On this day, December 23, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of Eddie Slovik, who was tried for desertion, and authorized his execution, the first such sentence against a U.S. Army soldier since the Civil War, and the only man so punished during World War II.
Private Eddie Slovik was a draftee. Originally classified 4-F because of a prison record (grand theft auto), he was bumped up to a 1-A classification when draft standards were lowered to meet growing personnel needs. In January 1944, he was trained to be a rifleman, which was not to his liking, as he hated guns.
In August of the same year, Slovik was shipped to France to fight with the 28th Infantry Division, which had already suffered massive casualties in the fighting there and in Germany. Slovik was a replacement, a class of soldier not particular respected by officers. As he and a companion were on the way to the front lines, they became lost in the chaos of battle, only to stumble upon a Canadian unit that took them in.
Slovik stayed on with the Canadians until October 5, when they turned him and his buddy over to the American military police, who reunited them with the 28th Division, now in Elsenborn, Belgium. No charges were brought; replacements getting lost early on in their tours of duty were not unusual. But exactly one day after Slovik returned to his unit, he claimed he was “too scared and too nervous” to be a rifleman and threatened to run away if forced into combat. His admission was ignored-and Slovik took off. One day after that he returned, and Slovik signed a confession of desertion, claiming he would run away again if forced to fight, and submitted it to an officer of the 28th. The officer advised Slovik to take the confession back, as the consequences would be serious. Slovik refused, and he was confined to the stockade.
The 28th Division had seen many cases of soldiers wounding themselves or deserting in the hopes of a prison sentence that would at least protect them from the perils of combat. So a legal officer of the 28th offered Slovik a deal: Dive into combat immediately and avoid the court-martial. Slovik refused. He was tried on November 11 for desertion and was convicted in less than two hours. The nine-officer court-martial panel passed a unanimous sentence: execution-“to be shot to death with musketry.”
Slovik’s appeal failed. It was held that he “directly challenged the authority” of the United States and that “future discipline depends upon a resolute reply to this challenge.” Slovik was to pay for his recalcitrant attitude-and he was to be made an example. One last appeal was made-to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander. The timing was bad for mercy. The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest was issuing in literally thousands of American casualties, not to mention the second largest surrender of an American Army unit during the war. Eisenhower upheld the sentence.
Slovik would be shot to death by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France in January of 1945. None of the rifleman so much as flinched, believing Slovik had gotten what he deserved.
On this day in 1972, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua, kills more than 10,000 people and leaves 250,000 homeless.
The quake hit in the middle of the night and immediately destroyed nearly 75 percent of Managua. All electricity, gas, water, sewage and telephone lines were brought down so the only light for hours (during which the tremors continued non-stop) came from the many fires that broke out around the city. A later study revealed that the quake’s epicenter was quite shallow–only nine miles beneath the city–which combined with the relatively unstable soil on which the city was built and the shoddy construction practices of the day, resulted in widespread destruction. The city is right in the middle of a volcanic region and has four parallel faults that run directly beneath it. Previous quakes in 1885 and 1931 had done similar damage, but on a much smaller scale.
The following day, chaos reigned throughout the city. Although people remained trapped under the rubble, there were few rescue workers available to help them. President Anastasio Somoza was forced to order the entire city evacuated, although the order was ignored in many places. The government did not provide for the distribution of food and police were ordered to shoot looters on the spot. Four of the major hospitals in the city were also destroyed in the quake, making it difficult for the thousands of injured victims to receive medical care.
Costa Rica provided the first relief efforts from outside the country and other nations began to step forward during the week as the extent of the damage became known. Future Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente organized his own private relief effort, but the plane he filled with supplies crashed, killing him and four others.
For weeks following the earthquake, nearly half the city’s population remained homeless. Eventually, a significant portion of the city was just bulldozed without ever recovering bodies that may have been under the rubble. The entire nation was left reeling for years afterward, as half of the economy was based in Managua and virtually every business in the city was gravely affected.
Troubles ballooned for the Heene family
Richard Heene, carried out a hoax in which he told authorities his 6-year-old son Falcon has floated off in a runaway, saucer-shaped helium balloon. On December 23, Heene is sentenced to 90 days in jail in Fort Collins, Colorado. Heene’s wife Mayumi received 20 days of jail time for her role in the incident.
The so-called “Balloon Boy” saga riveted viewers around the globe two months earlier, on October 15, when it played out on live television. At around 11 a.m. that day, Richard Heene, a handyman, amateur scientist and father of three boys, called the Federal Aviation Administration to report that a large balloon in his family’s Fort Collins backyard had become untethered, and it was believed his son Falcon had crawled aboard the craft before it took flight. Minutes later, Heene phoned a local TV station, requesting a helicopter to track the balloon. A short time afterward, Mayumi Heene called 911.
The homemade silver craft was soon being tracked by search-and-rescue personnel, as well as reporters, on the ground and in the air. The Colorado National Guard launched two helicopters to follow the balloon, and a runway at Denver International Airport was briefly shut down as the balloon traveled into its flight path. At around 1:35 p.m., the craft touched down in a Colorado field after drifting a distance of some 50 miles from its starting location. Rescue officials soon discovered the balloon was empty, prompting fears that Falcon Heene had fallen from the craft during its flight. A massive ground search ensued, and later that afternoon it was announced the boy had been found safe at home, where he reportedly had been hiding.
Suspicions that the entire incident had been a hoax intensified that night, after Falcon Heene told his parents during a live interview on CNN: “You guys said we did this for the show.” Mayumi Heene later confessed to police the incident had been staged to help the family get a reality TV show. (The Heenes had previously appeared on the program “Wife Swap.”)
In November 2009, Richard Heene pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public official (“to initiate a search-and-rescue mission which in turn would attract media attention,” according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors), while Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of making a false report. Richard Heene later claimed he pleaded guilty only to placate authorities and prevent his wife from being deported to her native Japan. In addition to jail time, the Heenes were required to perform community service and Richard Heene was later ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution for the search effort.
In a horserace, the announcer would be saying “They are rounding the clubhouse turn.” Lindsey Graham dropped out this past week but the rest of the 13 13 Republican establishment candidates are locked in a mortal fight to win the state of New Hampshire – where failure, for some, could mark the end of their presidential ambitions.
This report is from England’s newspaper The Guardian. As the outsider Donald Trump widens his lead over the Republican field in national polls, with less than six weeks until the first nominating contests begin, the more traditional candidates are shuttling frenetically around the critical early state.
“The people of Iowa pick corn, the people of New Hampshire pick presidents,” the adage goes. And so four Republicans currently splitting the mainstream vote –Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich – crisscrossed the state ahead of the Christmas holiday seeking to distinguish themselves from a crowded field of 13 candidates.
Rubio vowed to be a unifying figure amid challenging times both at home and abroad, while acknowledging the disillusionment that has driven voters into the arms of outsider candidates who have never held elected office.
“I know that times are tough,” the Florida senator told voters at a town hall in the riverside city of Berlin on Tuesday. “I know that people are frustrated and that this is a time to be angry about the direction of our country. But not just to be angry. This is a time to act. This is a time of urgency,” he said.
A few hours later, at his own town hall just down the street, Bush also emphasized the necessity of the moment – but as part of an appeal to voters to reject candidates he dubbed as unserious.
Standing inside a garage classroom at a community college, the former Florida governor began with a confession that – from the very outset – he had served as a particular foil to the bombastic arrogance that has defined Trump’s candidacy.
“I don’t know everything. I’m not the biggest personality on stage,” Bush said. “We have a few candidates – I won’t mention their names, you all know who I’m talking about – that don’t pass the humility test.”
“Humility is a sign of strength, not weakness,” he added.
New Hampshire will not hold its primary, the first in the nation, until 9 February. But with its potential to significantly winnow the field, the sense of urgency among those who have placed nearly all of their bets on the Granite State was palpable.
“You are the most powerful people in America,” Christie, the New Jersey governor, told a crowd in Exeter. “You are going to take this race from 14 people to four or five. After you vote, 10 of us go home.”
The implications of a strong showing in New Hampshire are especially dire for candidates like Bush, Christie and Kasich, who have spent a disproportionate amount of time wooing the state’s pragmatic-minded voters in the hope that they will bring order to a dramatic race where conventional rules have thus far fallen flat.
The three governors all hoped to have distinguished themselves as Washington outsiders with a record of getting things done – in Florida, New Jersey and Ohio. Yet they are all averaging in single digits, trailing a national top tier that increasingly consists of Trump, Rubio and Texas senator Ted Cruz.
But the race remains unexpectedly open at this juncture, with most New Hampshire voters yet to firmly commit to a candidate.
Beverly Kempton, of Alton, said she was leaning toward Kasich after attending the Ohio governor’s town hall in Rochester on Monday. But in the next breath, she named Rubio and Bush as other contenders on her shortlist. She had but one criterion: anyone not named Trump.
“I don’t understand it. He is rude, he’s nasty,” Kempton said. “I don’t think he knows anything – except money.”
The real estate mogul nonetheless holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire, with numbers inching toward 30% despite a scarce presence on the campaign trail. It was a trend Bush appeared intent on reversing, fresh off the heels of a debate in Las Vegas where the two repeatedly sparred.
“He’s wrong,” Bush said of Trump – on the threat posed by the Islamic State, on banning Muslims from the United States, and on the merits of being praised by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “These are serious times. We need a serious leader.”
It was one of several times Bush brought up Trump unprompted, eventually drawing the former governor into a moment of self-awareness – in a race where Trump is sucking up most of the oxygen, candidates should at least bar him from their own events.
“I promise I won’t talk about Trump again,” Bush said, only to break the rule moments later.
Elsewhere, Christie zeroed in on a more immediate threat to his prospects: Rubio, the fresh-faced Florida senator who in recent months has steadily risen in the polls, ticked up in congressional endorsements and drawn the backing of influential high-dollar donors.
Christie, whose race was thought to be over when he was relegated to the undercard debate in November, has been given another look in large part due to his dogged campaigning in New Hampshire. The governor secured the endorsement of the influential New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, and has used his trademark personal style to positive effect.
A clip of Christie emotionally discussing substance abuse, a crisis that has torn its way across New Hampshire, went viral with millions of views. In the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, his reflections on his role as a US attorney in the aftermath of 9/11 have also carried more potency.
This week, Christie, on a four-day bus tour which took him from Al’s Automotive shop in Exeter to sports bars and town halls across the state, showed a more aggressive tone in taking on his opponents – with a marked focus on Rubio.
The governor launched into an attack on Rubio for missing a Senate vote last week on the $1.15 trillion dollar budget, a jibe he repeated in a pair of television interviews on Tuesday before going after Rubio’s style of campaigning.
“We’ve been looking for Marco, but we can’t find him,” Christie said on MSNBC. “We’ve had the bus all over New Hampshire. We haven’t been able to find him. We understand he did a very quick town hall here and then left to go back to Madison Avenue in New York.”
Rubio was, in fact, in the midst of a three-day swing of his own through New Hampshire when Christie made his comments. But the senator’s rivals have seized on a slew of press reports in recent weeks that have questioned his strategy of holding a lighter campaign schedule and ground operation in the early states compared with some of the other candidates.
Foreign policy experience takes on new significance for Iowa conservatives after the Paris attacks, as Rubio separates fears of Isis from being anti-Muslim
Rubio largely ignored the criticism while barnstorming the state with his wife and children in tow, choosing instead to stick with the familiar themes of his campaign. In a series of town halls before enthusiastic crowds, the senator placed an emphasis on national security and boosting defense, detailed his plans for higher education, and touted his efforts to dismantle Obamacare in the US Senate.
At each event, he fielded a wide range of questions from the audience for over an hour – on topics ranging from climate change to criminal justice and the refugee crisis – interspersing detailed discussions of policy with occasional humor.
After receiving two questions in the same day on the embargo against Cuba, for example, Rubio quipped, “This is a long way to travel to talk about Cuba!”&
He continued to take subtle shots at Cruz, with whom Rubio has locked horns of late on immigration and national security, although never mentioning the Texas senator by name. In particular, Rubio noted that a strategy against Isis must be more substantial than carpet bombing the terrorist group “until sand glows in the dark” – a reference to what Cruz has vowed to do as president.
He also made several retail stops – at a diner, a general store and a candy shop – taking questions from patrons, chatting up the owners about local business and competition, and keeping an eye on his young children.
Despite the fixation in the media on his commitment to the campaign trail, Rubio has risen to second place in New Hampshire behind Trump. Voters who came to see the senator indicated they were still shopping around, and an increased presence by Rubio in the coming weeks could be enough to persuade them in his direction.
“I have more interest in him now than I did before I came here,” said Troy Allen, of Conway, who was also impressed by Bush at a recent event. “I think he hit pretty much everything – I’m leaning toward Rubio, but I’ll make my decision on who are the top two or three standing when it’s time to vote.”
It Happened On A December 23 and Campaign 2016
It Happened On A December 23 and Campaign 2016