Category Archives: History

OREGON SAILS OUT OF THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PHILIPPINES

Posted on by
2

SECOND OREGON VOLUNTEERS GO TRANS-PACIFIC

Monument 2nd Oregon
Monument to the Second Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment who served in the Philippines – Lownsdale Square, downtown Portland, Oregon.

The Spanish-American War enjoyed ramped up emotions across the United States.  Oregon was by no means immune in the enthusiasm to teach Spain a lesson. The state’s National Guard – a part-time militia more trained in strike-breaking than actual warfare – consisted of a brigade of two regiments. President William McKinley requested the State to furnish the Army with one regiment in the war with Spain, so a little selecting had to be done initially. And with the distance involved between Oregon and Cuba, there was little chance of Oregon troops being involved in the main war there. Dewey’s 1 May victory at Manila Bay, however, gave the men from the Beaver State another opportunity, but instead of going transcontinental, the Second Oregon would need to go trans-Pacific to participate off to the Philippines.  

Continue reading →

PORTLAND, MEMORIES OF THE SECOND OREGON AND THE PHILIPPINES

Posted on by
4

THE SECOND OREGON VOLUNTEERS IN THE PHILIPPINES BY WAY OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

Soldiers Monument in River View Cemetery to men of the Second Oregon Volunteer Regiment.

You can tell important seminal moments in many American cities by some memorials and parks found within the city. Philadelphia has the Liberty Bell. San Antonio has the Alamo.  Indianapolis has the massive Soldiers and Sailors Monument from the Civil War. Portland has a leafy park across from the Federal Courthouse and the former Multnomah Courthouse where a statue stands proudly in the middle of the park. At first glance, someone might think the Civil War is being remembered in some way.  But the rest of the monument has nothing to do with the Civil War. It is a monument honoring the dead of the Second Oregon Volunteers who fought in the Spanish-American War. Surrounding the monument, a series of marble stumps resemble artillery shells. The battle names inscribed have nothing to do with Oregon in Cuba or Spain, but everything to do with the Philippines.

Continue reading →

MEUSE-ARGONNE CEMETERY – VALOR BUT NOT QUITE ENOUGH

Posted on by
1
Distinguished Service Cross – established in 1918 as a second rank for valor to the Medal of Honor.

Others beyond the golden dead (Medal of Honor winners have their names inscribed in gold at cemeteries administered by the American Battlefields and Monuments Commission (ABMC)) earned medals for valor. Their headstones are inscribed with their awards, as well, here at Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery, just not in gold. You have to look a little harder.

This is the second of a series looking at some of the men and women lying buried at America’s largest cemetery in Europe, Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery in Romagne, France. Here, we look at the award given out on the second rung of heroism in the pantheon of awards for heroism in the American military system – the Distinguished Service Cross.

Continue reading →

MEUSE-ARGONNE ABMC CEMETERY – AMERICA’S GREATEST TEST – THE MEDALS OF HONOR

Posted on by
1
Flags of the Allied Powers in the Chapel at Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery

THE CEMETERY

Meuse-Argonne ABMC Cemetery is by far the largest of the cemeteries administered by the American Battlefields and Monuments Commission from the First World War. In fact, the cemetery is the largest ABMC cemetery in Europe, second in size in the World only behind the giant cemetery on the south side of Manila.

Continue reading →

SOMME ABMC CEMETERY – AMERICANS FIGHT WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR

Posted on by
4
somme abmc chapel
The chapel at Somme ABMC cemetery.

General John J. Pershing resisted calls from the British and French to insert incoming American units as replacements for existing units. Pershing and President Woodrow Wilson both wanted American units to fight as an amalgamated unit on the Western Front. They wanted a true American army to provide a backbone for the future.

Continue reading →

AISNE-MARNE ABMC CEMETERY – AMERICA ENCOUNTERS THE GREAT WAR HEAD ON

Posted on by
4
Aisne-Marne ABMC Cemetery
1919 panorama of what would become the Aisne-Marne ABMC Cemetery from the US 2nd Division website.

The Spring Offensives of 1918 rocked the Allies to the core. For a moment, it appeared the Great War could actually be lost. Enter America and the American Expeditionary Force – AEF. General John J. Pershing had been pushing against the desires of his fellow Allies to insert American troops as they became available into the ranks of the French or British armies. In the emergency of spring 1918, Pershing finally relented, agreeing to allow American divisions already present into the front lines as needed. The Aisne-Marne ABMC – American Battlefield and Monuments Commission – Cemetery is a result of that decision. 

Continue reading →

OISE-AISNE ABMC CEMETERY – AMERICAN SPIRIT AT THE SECOND MARNE

Posted on by
1
Walking the cemetery with former Cemetery Superintendent Jeffrey Aarnio at Oise-Aisne ABMC.

People not acquainted well with the First World War might be surprised there was more than one Battle of the Marne. The first battle was by far the more famous, but the second proved to be as decisive, if not more, than the first. In this campaign, American units fought for lengthy periods of time in division sized units in a truly international campaign. The bulk of the effort was French, but there were British and Italian troops fighting alongside the Doughboys, throughout. The American efforts in the Second Marne are remembered in the ABMC – American Battlefields and Monuments Commission – Oise-Aisne Cemetery equidistant between the town of Fère-en-Tardenois to the west and Nesles to the east – about 1 kilometer either direction.

Continue reading →

ST MIHIEL ABMC CEMETERY – HISTORY RELIVES A HUNDRED YEARS ON

Posted on by
8
St Mihiel Cemetery
Taken from the postwar Michelin Guide to the Battlefields is a early photo of the cemetery at St Mihiel.

World War One was not the first time American soldiers died and were left on foreign soil. The Great War did leave by far the largest number of dead Americans outside the native country, however. To establish and maintain cemeteries outside the United States to honor the sacrifices made by so many, the American Battlefield and Monuments Commission was set up in 1923 headed by no other than General John Pershing. There are 28 cemeteries falling under the guise of the ABMC today. Here is the ABMC St Mihiel Cemetery filled with soldiers many falling during the first offensive campaign fought by the US Army as a cohesive unit – St Mihiel.

Continue reading →

BAD KREUZNACH – REMEMBER AND RETURN TO THE NAHETAL

Posted on by
3
Bad Kreuznach panorama Kauzenburg
This is a 2018 panorama over the city of Bad Kreuznach from the Kauzenburg. The Nahe Canyon leading to Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg is on the right.

Bad Kreuznach – Bad “K” or just “BK” to most former Americans living here – was and is a wonderful town to be introduced into culture beyond America. Who says you can’t go back?  I lived and worked here for three years back in the 1980’s, a time of strong US dollars and a last fling of Cold War uncertainty. 

Today’s blog is a simple chance to amble down through the mists of my time and a chance to update photographic memories of a part of Germany flying under the radar of the Viking longboat cruisers.

continue here

HINDU SANCTUARY IN THE TUALATIN MOUNTAINS FOCUS ON DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE SAME GOAL

Posted on by
2
Sunlight filters through the trees along the Shrine Path high among the Tualatin Mountains.

“BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME”

“Build it and he will come”. So, intones the voice of Shoeless Jackson to the Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The quote often remembered wrongly as “Build it and they will come”. The film was a version of W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Jackson. In this case, we will choose the more popular interpretation which better describes this Hindu sanctuary high in the Tualatin Mountains just north of Portland. A retreat pointing towards a universal message of different paths leading to the same goal.

Continue reading