Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister.

In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005, and served as the Times Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed to The New York Times staff entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.

Hedges produced a weekly column for Truthdig for 14 years until the outlet's hiatus in 2020. His books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007); Death of the Liberal Class (2010); and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), written with cartoonist Joe Sacco.

Hedges hosted the television program On Contact for RT America from 2016 to 2022.

Early life
Christopher Lynn Hedges was born on September 18, 1956, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. His father was a World War II veteran, Presbyterian minister, and anti-war activist. He was raised in rural Schoharie County, New York, southwest of Albany.

Education
Hedges received a scholarship to attend Loomis Chaffee School, a private boarding school in Windsor, Connecticut. Hedges founded an underground newspaper at the school that was banned by the administration and resulted in his being put on probation. He participated in track and graduated in 1975.

Hedges enrolled into Colgate University and, though heterosexual, helped found an LGBT student group. Hedges received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Colgate in 1979. He sought a postgraduate education at Harvard University's Divinity School where he studied under James Luther Adams in addition to studying classics and Classical Greek. While attending Harvard, Hedges lived in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, where he worked as a seminarian and ran a small church. He was also a member of the Greater Boston YMCA's boxing team, writing that the boxing gym was "the only place I felt safe."

Early career
Hedges gained an interest in pursuing journalism as a means of furthering ministry after a period of close communications with British journalist Robert Cox, who was at that time reporting on the Dirty War in Argentina. While having one year left before graduation, Hedges briefly dropped out of Harvard to study Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia with the support of the Catholic Maryknoll Fathers. Following Cox's recommendation, Hedges informally prepared for work as a reporter through studying a four-volume set of collected works by George Orwell. Hedges made some freelance contributions for The Washington Post, and later covered the Falklands War from Buenos Aires for National Public Radio using equipment given to him by NPR reporter William Buzenberg. Hedges returned to the United States to complete a Master of Divinity degree at Harvard in 1983.

Hedges continued his career as a freelance journalist in Latin America. From 1983 to 1984, he covered the conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala for The Christian Science Monitor and NPR. He was hired as the Central America Bureau Chief for The Dallas Morning News in 1984 and held this position until 1988. Noam Chomsky wrote of Hedges at the time that he was one of the "few US journalists in Central America who merit the title."

Hedges took a sabbatical to study Arabic in 1988. He was appointed the Middle East Bureau Chief for The Dallas Morning News in 1989. In one of his first stories for the paper he tracked down Robert Manning in the settlement of Kiryat Arba in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Manning, linked to the militant Jewish Defense League and allegedly behind several murders including the 1985 bombing death in California of Alex Odeh, was extradited to the United States in 1991 where he is serving a life sentence for a separate bombing incident.

The New York Times
In 1990, Hedges was hired by The New York Times. He covered the first Gulf War for the paper, where he refused to participate in the military pool system that restricted the movement and reporting of journalists. He was arrested by the United States Army and had his press credentials revoked, but continued to defy the military restrictions to report outside the pool system. Hedges subsequently entered Kuwait with U.S. Marine Corps members who were distrustful of the Army's press control. Within The New York Times, R.W. Apple Jr. supported Hedges' defiance of the pool system.

Hedges, along with Neal Conan, was taken prisoner in Basra after the war by the Iraqi Republican Guard during the Shiite uprising. He was freed after a week. Hedges was appointed the paper's Middle East Bureau Chief in 1991. His reporting on the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein in the Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq saw the Iraqi leader offer a bounty for anyone who killed Hedges, along with other western journalists and aid workers in the region. Several aid workers and journalists, including the German reporter Lissy Schmidt, were assassinated and others were severely wounded.

Yugoslav Wars (1995–2000)
In 1995, Hedges was named the Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He was based in Sarajevo when the city was being hit by over 300 shells a day by the surrounding Bosnia Serbs. He reported on the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 and shortly after the war uncovered what appeared to be one of the central collection points and hiding places for perhaps thousands of corpses at the large open pit Ljubija mine during the Bosnian Serbs' ethnic cleansing campaign. He and the photographer Wade Goddard were the first reporters to travel with armed units of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo. Hedges investigative piece was published in The New York Times in June 1999 detailing how Hashim Thaçi, leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (and later president of Kosovo), directed a campaign in which as many as half a dozen top rebel commanders were assassinated and many others were brutally purged to consolidate his power. Thaci, indicted by the special court in The Hague on 10 counts of war crimes, is in detention in The Hague awaiting trial.

Hedges was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University during the 1998–1999 academic year, and chose to study Latin because of his prior interest in the classics from studying Classical Greek.

Hedges ended his career of reporting in active conflicts in October 2000.

Terrorism coverage and Iraq War (2001–2005)
Hedges was based in Paris following the attacks of 9/11, covering Al Qaeda in Europe and the Middle East. He was a member of a New York Times investigative team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2002 for their coverage of Al Qaeda. Hedges also received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2002. Hedges' contribution to the Times award was an October 2001 article describing Al Qaeda's foiled bombing plot of the Embassy of the United States, Paris.

Reporting from coached defectors

In a collaboration between The New York Times and Frontline, Hedges authored three articles covering the claims of false Iraqi defectors. Hedges worked on behalf of Lowell Bergman of Frontline, who could not travel to Beirut to interview the purported defectors. The trip was organized by Ahmed Chalabi, whom Hedges considered to be unreliable. The first defector Hedges interviewed identified himself as Lt. General Jamal al-Ghurairy. Hedges consulted the U.S. Embassy in Turkey to confirm that identity, and the embassy falsely did so as the real al-Ghurairy had never left Iraq.

Hedges wrote a November 8, 2001 Times cover story about two former Iraqi military commanders who claimed to have trained foreign mujahedeen how to hijack planes and destroy vital American infrastructure. The two defectors also asserted there was a secret compound in Salman Pak facility where a German scientist was producing biological weapons. The Frontline report featured statements from American officials who doubted the claims of the defectors.

Conservative outlets referenced the articles in justifying the invasion of Iraq. In the aftermath of the revelations that the Iraqi defectors were not legitimate, Hedges defended his comportment since he had done the story as a favor to Lowell Bergman, adding that "There has to be a level of trust between reporters. We cover each other's sources when it's a good story because otherwise everyone would get hold of it."

Exit from the Times
In 2003, Hedges gave a commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for Rockford College in which he criticized the ongoing American invasion of Iraq. His speech was received with boos, and his microphone was shut off three minutes after he began speaking. Hedges had to end the commencement speech short because of the various student disruptions, which included an additional microphone cut, foghorns, and chants of "God Bless America."

The New York Times criticized Hedges' statements and issued him a formal reprimand for "public remarks that could undermine public trust in the paper's impartiality". Hedges cited this reprimand as a motivation for resigning from the Times in 2005. In 2013 he said "Either I muzzled myself to pay fealty to my career, which on a personal sense would be to betray my father, or I spoke out and realized that my relationship with my employer was terminal. And so at that point I left before they got rid of me. But I knew that, you know, I wasn't going to be able to stay".

During the uncertainty following the loss of employment, Hedges was looking for posts to teach high school English classes. In a 2008 interview, Hedges acknowledged that he ultimately had not struggled, adding that "every year since I left the Times, I've made at least twice the salary I made at the paper. So, in a way, I didn't pay for it. And I have maintained what is most valuable to me, which is my integrity and my voice."

Later career

In 2005, Hedges became a senior fellow at Type Media Center, and a columnist at Truthdig, in addition to writing books and teaching inmates at a New Jersey correctional institution.

In 2006, Hedges was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Nonfiction.

Truthdig (2006–2020)
Hedges produced a weekly column in Truthdig for 14 years. He was fired along with all of the editorial staff in March 2020. Hedges and the staff had gone on strike earlier in the month to protest the publisher's attempt to fire the Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer, demand an end to a series of unfair labor practices and the right to form a union. Hedges resumed work with Scheer after the launch of Scheerpost.

In June 2014, Christopher Ketcham published an article on The New Republic website accusing Hedges of improper citations in several Truthdig columns, alleging the offenses constituted plagiarism. In response, some formatting and reference errors were corrected on the implicated Truthdig posts. Additional accusations of plagiarism from Ketcham were countered by an independent investigation from the Type Media Center. The Washington Free Beacon reported that a spokesperson for The New York Times said it "did not have reason to believe Hedges plagiarized in his work for the paper" and had no plans to investigate Hedges for plagiarism.

Prison writing teacher
Hedges has worked for a decade teaching writing classes in prisons in New Jersey through a program offered by Princeton University and later Rutgers University. A class that Hedges taught at East Jersey State Prison in 2013 went on to collaborate in the creation of a play titled Caged.  Hedges has become a fierce critic of mass incarceration in the United States, and his experience as an educator in New Jersey prisons served as inspiration for his 2021 book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison.

Ordination and ministerial installation
On October 5, 2014, Hedges was ordained a minister within the Presbyterian Church. He was installed as Associate Pastor and Minister of Social Witness and Prison Ministry at the Second Presbyterian Church Elizabeth in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He mentioned being rejected for ordination 30 years earlier, saying that "going to El Salvador as a reporter was not something the Presbyterian Church at the time recognized as a valid ministry, and a committee rejected my 'call.'"

On Contact (2016–2022)
Hedges began hosting the television show On Contact for the Russian-government owned network RT America in June 2016. Hedges, initially unfamiliar with the network, was approached to make a show by RT America president Mikhail "Misha" Solodovnikov, who personally guaranteed Hedges' editorial independence.

On Contact provided commentary on social issues, often profiling nonfiction authors and their recently published works with Hedges aiming to follow the approach of former public television shows. On Contact was nominated for an Emmy in 2017, RT America's first significant award nomination, but the award was won by Steve.

On March 3, 2022, RT America ceased operations following the widespread deplatforming of Russian-sponsored media caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The run of On Contact ended. In a March 7, 2022 Scheerpost column (reprinted by Salon), Hedges contrasted the reprimand he received from The New York Times for his Iraq War opposition to RT America, who made no comment on Hedges' condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hedges said he "might have paid with" his job for making negative comments about the war in Ukraine, "but at least for those six days", after the invasion, he remained in post.

Hedges, in collaboration with The Real News Network, began production in April 2022 for a web series called The Chris Hedges Report.

Political views

Hedges has described himself as a socialist and an anarchist. His books Death of the Liberal Class and Empire of Illusion are strongly critical of American liberalism.

Hedges' 2007 book American Fascists describes the fundamentalist Christian right in the United States as a fascist movement. In March 2008, Hedges published the book I Don't Believe in Atheists, in which he argues that new atheism presents a danger that is similar to religious extremism.

Environmental views

On September 20, 2014, a day before the People's Climate March, Hedges joined Bernie Sanders, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, and Kshama Sawant on a panel moderated by WNYC's Brian Lehrer to discuss the issue of climate change.

Hedges has argued that the impact of population growth must be addressed, saying "all measures to thwart the degradation and destruction of our ecosystem will be useless if we do not cut population growth."

Occupy involvement
Hedges appeared as a guest on an October 2011 episode of the CBC News Network's Lang and O'Leary Exchange to discuss his support for the Occupy Wall Street protests; co-host Kevin O'Leary criticized him, saying that he sounded "like a left-wing nutbar". Hedges said "it will be the last time" he appears on the show, and compared the CBC to Fox News. CBC's ombudsman found O'Leary's heated remarks to be a violation of the public broadcaster's journalistic standards.

On November 3, 2011, Hedges was arrested with others in New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, during which the activists staged a "people's hearing" on the activities of the investment bank Goldman Sachs and blocked the entrance to their corporate headquarters.

NDAA lawsuit

In 2012, after the Obama administration signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Hedges sued members of the US government, asserting that Section 1021 of the law unconstitutionally allowed presidential authority for indefinite detention without habeas corpus. He was later joined in the suit, Hedges v. Obama, by activists including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg. In May 2012 Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York ruled that the counter-terrorism provision of the NDAA is unconstitutional. The Obama administration appealed the decision and it was overturned in July 2013 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Hedges petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but the Supreme Court denied certiorari in April 2014.

Hedges was previously a plaintiff in Clapper v. Amnesty International.

Campaigns
In the 2008 United States presidential campaign, Hedges was a speech writer for candidate Ralph Nader. Hedges supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 election.

On April 15, 2016, Hedges was arrested, along with 100 other protesters, during a sit-in outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., during Democracy Spring to protest corporate political influence.

On May 27, 2020, Hedges announced that he would run as a Green Party candidate in New Jersey's 12th congressional district for the 2020 elections.  After being informed the following day that running for office would conflict with FCC fairness doctrine rules because he was at that time hosting the nationally broadcast RT America television show On Contact, Hedges decided not to pursue office in order to keep hosting the show.

In September 2020, Hedges spoke at the Movement for a People's Party convention.

Later writings

Views on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

In a March 2022 piece for the Salon website, Hedges wrote that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was "a criminal war of aggression", but argued the likelihood of conflict was aggravated by NATO's expansion after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hedges called NATO's actions a "dangerous and sadly predictable provocation" that baited Russia to initiate a conflict. Hedges called for an immediate ceasefire and "a moratorium on arms shipments to Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country." He later stated that the invasion was "set to become a lengthy war of attrition, one funded and backed by an increasingly bellicose United States." Hedges was critical of the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in a May 2022 piece in Salon, which he says demonstrates that the United States is "trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism" as the country "rots, morally, politically, economically, and physically," with no real plans to address the epidemic of mass shootings, decaying infrastructure, lack of universal healthcare, ever rising inequality, student debt, child poverty and the opioid epidemic. In his 2022 book The Greatest Evil is War, Hedges wrote that "Russia has every right to feel threatened, betrayed, and angry. But to understand is not to condone. The invasion of Ukraine, under post-Nuremberg laws, is a criminal war of aggression."

Personal life
Hedges is married to the Canadian actress, writer, and vegan activist Eunice Wong. The couple has two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage. Hedges currently lives in Princeton, New Jersey. In November 2014, Hedges announced that he and his family had become vegan. He compared his decision to a vow of abstinence, adding that it is necessary "to make radical changes to save ourselves from ecological meltdown." Hedges authored an introduction to a vegan cookbook in 2015, The Anarchist Cookbook, written by Keith McHenry and Chaz Bufe.

Hedges has post-traumatic stress disorder from his experience reporting in war zones, and was once suicidal as a result of trauma. Hedges speaks Levantine Arabic, French, and Spanish in addition to his native English.

Books
 2002: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning ()
 2003: What Every Person Should Know About War ()
 2005: Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America ()
 2007: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America ()
 2008: I Don't Believe in Atheists ()
 2008: Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians, with Laila Al-Arian ()
 2009: When Atheism Becomes Religion: America's New Fundamentalists, (), a retitled edition of I Don't Believe in Atheists
 2009: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle ()
 2010: Death of the Liberal Class ()
 2010: The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress ()
 2012: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, with Joe Sacco ()
 2015: Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt ()
 2016: Unspeakable ()
 2018: America: The Farewell Tour ()
 2021 Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison ()
 2022 The Greatest Evil is War ()

See also

 Christian left
 Sacrifice zone

References

External links

 Chris Hedges columns at Scheerpost.
 "Capitalism's 'Sacrifice Zones Bill Moyers talks with Chris Hedges, and comic-journalist Joe Sacco talking about their collaboration and showing drawings for their book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, July 20, 2012

1956 births
Living people
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American anti-capitalists
American anti-fascists
American Christian socialists
American foreign policy writers
American male non-fiction writers
American political writers
American Presbyterians
American reporters and correspondents
American socialists
American war correspondents
Anti-consumerists
Anti-corporate activists
The Christian Science Monitor people
Colgate University alumni
Columbia University faculty
Critics of atheism
The Dallas Morning News people
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Loomis Chaffee School alumni
The Nation (U.S. magazine) people
The New York Times writers
Nieman Fellows
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners
People from Schoharie, New York
People from St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Presbyterian socialists
RT (TV network) people
War correspondents of the Iraq War
War correspondents of the Yugoslav Wars
Writers about religion and science
American anarchists

Chris Hedges


Gregory George Aghazarian (born September 10, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician from California. He is a Republican and former California State Assemblyman who represented the 26th district from 2002 until 2008.

Prior to his election, Aghazarian was a local businessman and attorney, working for his family's business, Aghazarian's of Stockton, which has been in Stockton for more than three decades. He was also an elected member of the Lincoln Unified School District Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2002, serving as president of the board for the 2001-02 year.

Assemblyman Aghazarian briefly considered running against freshman Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney in 2008; however, Aghazarian instead decided to pursue a run for the State Senate in the 5th district, which is one of the few competitive Senate seats in California.  He was defeated by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk.

One of the laws introduced by Assembly Member Aghazarian was permitting transport agencies to also obtain Disabled access license plates (AB 1910, Ch 203, Sections 5007 and 22511.56 of the California Vehicle Code). This new law which was "sponsored" ( or "suggested") by Manteca CAPS' Executive Director Emmanuel Serriere went into effect on January 1, 2007. It was explained at length in his regular bulletin The Aghazarian Alert.

In 2009 he was appointed to the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and served on the board until 2010. In 2010 Governor Schwarzenegger appointed him as Deputy Secretary for Legislation at the California Department of Food and Agriculture and served in that position until 2011.

A graduate of the University of Southern California and the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, Aghazarian lives in Stockton with his wife, Esther, and their three sons: Ben, Max and Sam.

References

Greg Aghazarian for Senate
Greg Aghazarian Voting Record

1964 births
Living people
American people of Armenian descent
Republican Party members of the California State Assembly
University of Southern California alumni
McGeorge School of Law alumni
Politicians from Stockton, California
21st-century American politicians
Ethnic Armenian politicians

Greg Aghazarian


The European Travel Commission (ETC) is an association of national tourism organisations (NTOs) based in Brussels. It was created in 1948 to promote Europe as a tourist destination to long-haul markets outside of Europe, originally the US and later Canada, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. ETC currently has 35 member NTOs and 12 associate members from the private industry. The association aims to raise awareness of the importance of tourism among national European authorities and the general public through sharing best practices and cooperation in market intelligence and promotion.

Members
ETC membership comprises 35 National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) from 34 European countries, 8 of which are from outside the EU. ETC member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.

In 2015, ETC launched an associate membership programme extending membership to private organisations and academia to seek cooperation, and support in strengthening the sustainable development of Europe as a tourist destination. As of 2023, ETC has 12 associate members: Airbnb, CrowdRiff Inc., Emirates Airline Company/Emirates Group, Eurail Group G.I.E., Expedia Inc., Global Blue S.A., HiSeas International, Sojern Ltd, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Google, The Bicester Collection, and MMGY Global.

History

1948–1952: early years of ETC
ETC was established in Stalheim, Norway, during an excursion of the 1948 Congress of the International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO). ETC became IUOTO's regional commission for Europe in line with the latter's aim "to promote, in a technical and entirely non-political manner, freedom of travel, so as to strengthen peace and mutual understanding between the nations of the world."

Committed to the freedom of travel and private enterprise, ETC did not escape the reality of the early Cold War and cultivated strong ties with the Western camp. The 17 original member countries were recipients of aid from the Marshall Plan, and in July 1948 ETC formalised its relationship with the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) to supply the OEEC with expert knowledge on tourism matters. Recognising the importance of tourism for the economic reconstruction of Europe, the OEEC Executive Committee established a Tourism Committee in February 1949.

1950s–1960s: joint publicity campaigns in the United States, facilitating travel
Under OEEC oversight, joint publicity campaigns in the US turned into the flagship activity of ETC. The first campaign took place from August to December 1949. The campaigns promoted Europe as one destination in the American market and encouraged off-season travel. The campaigns were realised by the ETC's New York Committee working closely with marketing firms (e.g. Donald N. Martin & Company, Inc.) and private partners in the transportation, travel, and energy industries. Additionally, ETC participated in travel fairs; published brochures and calendars of events; produced radio broadcasts, television advertising, short films, it also published advertisements in newspapers and magazines.

In May 1954, an ETC delegation met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  ETC praised Eisenhower for his strong support for international travel by Americans in the interest of rebuilding the European economies.  However, concerns in the American administration over the deficit in the country's balance of payments prompted the Kennedy administration to create the United States Travel Service in June 1961 to motivate foreign nationals to visit the US. At around the same time the reorganisation of the OEEC into the OECD ended its involvement in the publicity campaigns, which continued under the aegis of ETC alone from 1964. ETC continued to defend the freedom to travel when President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1968 State of the Union address asked Americans to reduce non-essential travel.  In response ETC published a Declaration on the Freedom to Travel in February 1968 that identified the freedom to travel as a fundamental human right, to be enjoyed without restriction or discrimination.

ETC also sought to facilitate travel and border crossings through abolishing visa requirements to travel to Europe and between European countries and by alleviating currency regulations, travel taxes, and customs formalities. By the mid-1950s, North American and Western European tourists could travel through Western Europe without major administrative formalities. Following the 1963 United Nations Conference on International Travel and Tourism, ETC pushed for discussions on the recommendations of the conference to remove obstacles (visas, customs rules, border-crossing requirements) and streamline tourism regulations, implementing those regulations within the IUOTO and the OECD Tourism Committee.

ETC and Eastern Europe during the Cold War
In 1951, ETC welcomed Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia to its membership. This decision was undoubtedly related to Cold War imperatives, and in the context of the rift caused by the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, Yugoslavia's membership of ETC was a steppingstone for the country's tourism policy, which aimed to attract more Western tourists. While Yugoslavia was the only socialist country to join the organisation, ETC initially viewed the application for membership from the Soviet Union and Poland after joining IUOTO in 1955 positively for their potential impact on the development of tourism before deciding their membership could be detrimental. Instead IUOTO created a Regional Commission for European Travel composed of national tourism boards from both Western and Eastern Europe while the joint publicity campaigns in the US continued under a separate organisation that kept the already well-known name of the "European Travel Commission.

1970s–1980s: from Transatlantic to global player
In the early 1970s ETC obtained a presidency supported by vice presidents and permanent secretariat at the same time  Malta (1971) and Cyprus (1973) became member countries. ETC added the preservation of cultural heritage to its mission in collaboration with Europa Nostra, a pan-European federation for cultural heritage. During the 1970s ETC capitalised on new technological opportunities from transportation to ICT technologies and facilitated the exchange of information and experiences among its members on these subjects. The creation of Operation Groups in Japan, Argentina, Canada, and Australia in the 1970s, and the ETC's increasing interest in Southeast Asian markets in the 1980s expanded ETC's geographic scope.

The 1970s also signalled the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with the European Economic Community (EEC). In the 1980s, the EEC engaged more directly with tourism and ETC with research initiatives and grant support. The European Parliament identified, for instance, "ETC as best placed for the coordination of overseas promotion of tourism to the EEC." In 1981, ETC also co-founded the European Tourism Action Group, a group of associations advocating for the importance of Europe as a tourist destination.

1990s–2000s: ETC in Europe after the Cold War
The Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the transformation of the European Economic Community (EEC) into the European Union in 1993 with the Treaty of Maastricht entailed a significant expansion of ETC's membership starting with Hungary in 1990, and a consolidation of the relationship with European institutions. Throughout the 1990s, ETC sought to give tourism broader recognition on the EU level. When the Treaty of Lisbon took effect in 2009, tourism was added as a policy domain in which the EU could intervene through article 195 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.  Meanwhile, ETC continued its research agenda in collaborations with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the European Tourism Association (ETOA).  It increasingly paid attention to travel-related computer technologies and online marketing strategies. ETC launched its first website in January 1996, which was fully revamped in 2006 with the help of European Commission funds. The VisitEurope.com website is currently ETC's main platform for the promotion of Destination Europe.

2000s-2020s
Between 2015 and May 2023, ETC held the Chairmanship and Secretariat of the European Tourism Manifesto, an alliance supported by over 50 public and private stakeholders from the tourism sector thathighlights the key EU policy priorities for the sector on topics ranging from skills and qualifications to sustainability and competitiveness of Europe's tourism.

In 2017, ETC was designated as the official strategic partner of the European Commission for the implementation of the promotional activities in the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year.

In 2019, ETC launched a new marketing strategy, Horizon 2022, moving from a traditional geographic segmentation to a cross-market thematic promotional approach. Instead of presenting Europe as a sum of destinations, the new strategy promotes the continent as a sum of experiences and interests in multiple destinations around the continent.

Current activities
The promotion of Europe as a tourist destination continues to be the ETC's flagship activity. In 2019, ETC launched a new marketing strategy, Horizon 2022, moving from a traditional geographic segmentation to a cross-market thematic promotional approach. Instead of presenting Europe as a sum of destinations, the new strategy promotes the continent as a sum of experiences and interests in multiple destinations around the continent.

Market intelligence underpins ETC's marketing strategies and services. ETC's analysis of tourism market trends and relevant outbound markets aim to help the organisation and its members to understand the business environment, detect growth opportunities and formulate suitable promotional strategies. In research ETC collaborates with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), European Tourism Association (ETOA), Eurail Group G.I.E, International Air Transport Association (IATA), TourMIS, Tourism Economics, STR, ForwardKeys, Amadeus, and others.

ETC continues to be an advocate for the freedom to travel and for the recognition of tourism as an essential sector of the economy. Sustainability, visa facilitation and connectivity currently constitute the triple focus of ETC's advocacy work.

ETC and the European Commission have established a long-term strategic partnership in promoting Destination Europe. In 2011, ETC and the European Commission agreed to work jointly to maintain Europe's position as the world's leading tourist destination by promoting the Destination Europe brand and supporting the sustainable competitive development of the sector. Since 2012, the European Commission has entrusted ETC with yearly ad hoc grants for the implementation of a programme of promotional actions aimed at bringing new visitors from targeted third countries to Europe. In 2017, ETC was designated as the official strategic partner of the European Commission for the implementation of the promotional activities in the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year. Additionally, ETC collaborates with other EU institutions such as the European Parliament in its efforts to further advance tourism policies at EU level.

There are two other relevant activities that ETC is currently implementing: the Climate Action Plan and the Rail Tourism Awards.

Climate Action Plan
ETC has launched its Climate Action Plan with the aim of addressing the urgency of climate action, halving emissions generated by ETC's operations, as well as supporting engagement in climate action among its member National Tourism Organisations (NTOs), and leading the way for tourism stakeholders in Europe.

As a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism since 2022, ETC is also committed to building a consistent carbon reduction strategy and amplifying climate action by actively supporting ETC member National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) to commit to Net Zero.

Rail Tourism Awards
Since 2021, ETC has been partnering up with Eurail to organise the yearly competition to award marketing campaigns which promote train travel as a sustainable tourism model across Europe.

Organisational aims and structure
The European Travel Commission is registered in Belgium as a non-profit international association. Its financial resources come from membership contributions. During past years, ETC was awarded EU funding on an ad hoc basis for the promotion of Destination Europe. ETC currently focuses its activities in the following areas:

 Marketing: ETC promotes Europe as a tourist destination in key third visitor markets on behalf of its member organisations. It undertakes regional trade and global consumer marketing campaigns to promote Destination Europe in key overseas markets.
 Research: ETC analyses tourism market trends to identify fast-growing outbound markets. ETC research activities aim to deliver the intelligence support necessary to keep a competitive edge in the global tourism market, detecting new growth opportunities and formulating suitable promotional strategies.
 Advocacy: In close collaboration with the travel industry, ETC raises awareness among public authorities and the wider public across Europe of the economic and broader importance of tourism.

ETC activities are implemented by the Executive Unit based in Brussels under the guidance of the Board of Directors, and with the support of a number of expert groups: the Market Intelligence Group, the Marketing Group, and the Overseas Chapters.

General meeting and board of directors
ETC organises a General Meeting twice a year to decide on the budget and the programme of work. The Board of Directors is the ETC's steering committee and consists of the President, up to three Vice-Presidents, the permanent members and maximum 7 non-permanent members. The permanent members are Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Non-permanent members rotate every 2 years and come from one of each of the 7 geographic groups. In 2017, the CEO of Visit Flanders (Belgium), Peter De Wilde, was re-elected as the ETC President for his 2nd term and was followed by the Presidency of Luís Araújo from Turismo de Portugal. In May 2023, Miguel Sanz, Director General of Tourspain, has been elected as the President of ETC for a 3 year term.

Executive Unit
The Executive Unit administers the organisation from its headquarters in Brussels under the leadership of the Executive Director. In 2012, Eduardo Santander was appointed as the Executive Director of ETC.

The Marketing Group and the Market Intelligence Group
The Marketing Group is the ETC's think tank for all issues related to the promotion of Europe as a destination and a platform for sharing information and best practices. The Market Intelligence Group consists of the research directors of the member NTOs and is responsible for the ETC's research programme.

Overseas Chapters
ETC has set up Overseas Chapters in its key markets. The first Overseas Chapter (previously called Operations Group) was set up, and continues to exist, in New York. The US Chapter also served the Canadian market until a separate chapter was set up in 1978. Other Overseas Chapters are currently active in Brazil, China, Australia and Japan. Each chapter is responsible for a joint programme of activities for the promotion of Destination Europe in their respective markets.

See also
 Association of Special Fares Agents
 European Distance and E-learning Network
 Vacation Saga

References

Non-profit organizations based in Europe
Organizations established in 1948
Tourism agencies
Tourism in Europe

European Travel Commission


Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image into another.

Traditional animation
Traditional inbetweening involves the use of a light table to draw a set of pencil and paper drawings.

The process of inbetweening in traditional animation starts with a primary artist, who draws key frames to define movement. After the testing and approval of a rough animation, the scene is passed down to assistants, who perform clean-up and add necessary inbetweening. In large studios, assistants usually add breakdowns, which define the movement in more detail. The scene is then passed down to another assistant, the inbetweener, who completes the animation. In small animation teams, animators will often carry out the full inbetweening process themselves.

Dick Huemer developed this system in the 1920s, and it has become widely used due to its efficiency. Art Davis is said to be the first Inbetweener.

Frame frequency

Typically, the key animator does not make drawings for all 24 frames required for one second of film length. In large studios, a specialized inbetweener artist fills in the gaps between the key drawings. Only very fast movements require 24 drawings per second, which is referred to as animating "on ones". Most movements can be done with 12 drawings per second—called animating "on twos", drawing one out of every two frames. When the number of in-betweens is too few, such as four drawings per second, an animation may begin to lose the illusion of the movement altogether. Computer-generated animation is usually animated "on ones." Frame frequency often varies depending on animation style and is an artistic choice. Animation "on twos" has been used for over 100 years; Fantasmagorie (1908), widely considered the first fully animated movie, was animated on twos.

Modern animation uses various techniques to adapt frame rates. Slow movements may be animated on threes or fours. Different components of a shot might be animated at different frame ratesfor example, a character in a panning shot might be animated "on twos", while everything in the shot is shifted every frame ("on ones") to accomplish a panning effect. Optical effects such as motion blur may be used to simulate the appearance of a higher frame rate.

Digital animation

When animating in a digital context, the shortened term tweening is commonly used, and the resulting sequence of frames is called a tween. Sophisticated animation software enables the animator to specify objects in an image and to define how they should move and change during the tweening process. The software may be used to manually render or adjust transitional frames by hand or may be used to automatically render transitional frames using interpolation of graphic parameters.

Some of the earliest software that utilises automatic interpolation in the realm of digital animation includes Adobe Flash and Animo (developed by Cambridge Animation Systems) in the late 90s, and Tweenmaker, released around 2006. The free software program Synfig specializes in automated tweening.

"Ease-in" and "ease-out" in digital animation typically refer to a mechanism for defining the physics of the transition between two animation states, i.e., the linearity of a tween.

The use of computers for inbetweening was enhanced by Nestor Burtnyk and Marceli Wein at the National Research Council of Canada. They received a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1997, for "pioneering work in the development of software techniques for computer-assisted keyframing for character animation".

See also
 Flicker fusion threshold
 Morphing
 Onion skinning
 Motion blur
 Smear frames
 Synfig, a free and open-source software (FOSS) tweener

References

External links

 Tweener (ActionScript) at GitHub

Computer animation
Computer graphic techniques
Animation techniques

Inbetweening


Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a Boston upper class abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Massachusetts) in the Northeast. Supporting the promised equal treatment for his troops, he encouraged the men to refuse their pay until it was equal to that of white troops' wage.

He led his regiment at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. They attacked a beachhead near Charleston, South Carolina, and Shaw was shot and killed while leading his men to the parapet of the Confederate-held fort. Although the regiment was overwhelmed by firing from the defenses and driven back, suffering many casualties, Shaw's leadership and the regiment became legendary. They inspired hundreds of thousands more African Americans to enlist for the Union, helping to turn the tide of the war to its ultimate victory. Shaw's efforts and that of the 54th Massachusetts regiment were dramatized in the 1989 Oscar-winning film Glory.

Early life and education
Shaw was born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to abolitionists Francis George and Sarah Blake (Sturgis) Shaw, well-known Unitarian philanthropists and intellectuals. The Shaws had the benefit of a large inheritance left by Shaw's merchant grandfather and namesake Robert Gould Shaw (1775–1853). Shaw had four sisters: Anna, Josephine (Effie), Susanna, and Ellen (Nellie).

When Shaw was five years old, the family moved to a large estate in West Roxbury, adjacent to Brook Farm, which he visited with his father. During his teens he traveled and studied for some years in Europe. In 1847, the family moved to Staten Island, New York, and settled among a community of literati and abolitionists while Shaw attended preparatory school at the Second Division of St. John's College (now Fordham Preparatory School at Fordham University). These studies were at the behest of his uncle Joseph Coolidge Shaw, who had been ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1847. He converted to Catholicism during a trip to Rome, in which he befriended several members of the Oxford Movement, which had begun in the Anglican Church. Robert began his high school-level education at St. John's in 1850, the same year that Joseph Shaw began studying there for entrance into the Jesuits.

In 1851, while Shaw was still at St. John's, his uncle died from tuberculosis. Aged 13, Shaw had a difficult time adjusting to his surroundings and wrote several despondent letters home to his mother. In one of his letters, he claimed to be so homesick that he often cried in front of his classmates. While at St. John's, he studied Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish, and practiced playing the violin, which he had begun as a young boy.

He left St. John's in late 1851 before graduation, as the Shaw family departed for an extended tour of Europe. Shaw entered a boarding school in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where he stayed for two years. Afterward, his father transferred him to a school with a less strict system of discipline in Hanover, Germany, hoping that it would better suit his restless temperament. While in Hanover, Shaw enjoyed the greater degree of personal freedom at his new school, on one occasion writing home to his mother, "It's almost impossible not to drink a good deal, because there is so much good wine here."

While Shaw was studying in Europe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist friend of his parents, published her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Shaw read the book multiple times and was moved by its plot and anti-slavery attitude. Around the same time, Shaw wrote that his patriotism was bolstered after encountering several instances of anti-Americanism among some Europeans. He expressed interest to his parents in attending West Point or joining the Navy. Because Shaw had a longstanding difficulty with taking orders and obeying authority figures, his parents did not view this ambition seriously.

Shaw returned to the United States in 1856. From 1856 until 1859 he attended Harvard University, joining the Porcellian Club, and the Hasty Pudding Club, but he withdrew before graduating. He had been a member of the class of 1860. Shaw found Harvard no easier to adjust to than any of his previous schools and wrote to his parents about his discontent.

After leaving Harvard in 1859, Shaw returned to Staten Island to work with one of his uncles at the mercantile firm Henry P. Sturgis and Company. He found work life at the company office as disagreeable as some of his other experiences.

American Civil War

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Shaw volunteered to serve with the 7th New York Militia. On April 19, 1861, Private Shaw marched down Broadway in Lower Manhattan as his unit traveled south to man the defense of Washington, D.C. Lincoln's initial call-up asked volunteers to make a 90-day commitment, and after three months Shaw's new regiment was dissolved. Following this, Shaw joined a newly forming regiment from his home state, the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry.

On May 28, 1861, Shaw was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the regiment's Company H. Over the next year and a half, he fought with his fellow Massachusetts soldiers in the first Battle of Winchester, the Battle of Cedar Mountain, and at the bloody Battle of Antietam. Shaw served both as a line officer in the field and as a staff officer for General George H Gordon. Twice wounded, by the fall of 1862 he was promoted to the rank of captain.

Since the start of the war, abolitionists such as Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew urged enlistment of African Americans as soldiers to fight the Confederacy. This proposal was broadly opposed. Many men believed that African American troops would lack discipline, be difficult to train, and would break and run in battle. The general attitude in the North was that African American troops would prove to be an embarrassment and hindrance to regular army units.

Andrew traveled to Washington, D.C., in early January 1863 to meet with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and repeat his argument for the use of African American troops in the Union army. Stanton was won to his side; on January 26, 1863, Stanton issued an order to Andrew to raise further volunteer regiments to fight for the Union, adding the new recruits "may include persons of African descent, organized into special corps." Andrew immediately set about doing so, and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry began to be formed.

For the unit's officers, Andrew sought a certain type of white gentleman,  Most importantly, he wanted men who understood the stakes, that the success or failure of the endeavor would elevate or depress the manner in which the character of African Americans were viewed throughout the world for many years to come. Andrew wrote to many individuals prominent in the abolitionist movement, including Morris Hallowell of Philadelphia and Francis Shaw of Boston.

To command the unit, Andrew already had Shaw's son in mind. Andrew wrote to Francis Shaw about the need to find a leader who would accept the responsibility of the command "with a full sense of its importance, with an earnest determination for its success." Included in Andrew's letter was a commission for Robert Shaw to take command of the new regiment.

Carrying the commission, Francis Shaw traveled to Virginia to speak with his son. Robert Shaw was hesitant to take the post, as he did not believe that authorities would send the unit to the front lines, and he did not want to leave his fellow soldiers. Finally he agreed to take the command. On February 6 he telegraphed his father with his decision. He was 25 years old. The command came with a colonelcy, the rank commensurate with the position of regimental commander.

Andrew had some difficulty finding enough African American volunteers in Massachusetts to form the regiment. Andrew assured recruits that they would receive the standard pay of 13 dollars a month, and that if they were captured, the government of the United States would insist they be treated as any other soldier. The Boston area provided enough recruits to form the regiment's "C" Company. The remainder of the regiment was formed with black recruits from all across the North. Few were former slaves from the South. Two sons of the prominent African-American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass volunteered to serve with the 54th.

Captain Shaw arrived in Boston on February 15, 1863, and immediately assumed his position. He was a strict disciplinarian, determined to train the men to high standards. On March 25, 1863, Shaw wrote to his father of his fledgling regiment:

Shaw was promoted to major on March 31, 1863, and two weeks later on April 17 was made full colonel. On April 30 the regiment drew 950 Enfield rifled muskets and swords for non-commissioned officers (NCOs). By May 11 more troops had arrived in Boston than were required to man the regiment. The 55th Massachusetts was begun with the next round of new recruits.

On May 28 Shaw led the men of the 54th through the streets of Boston to the docks, where the regiment boarded a transport steamer and sailed south. The regiment was to be used in a Union campaign against Charleston, South Carolina, a major port. The 54th arrived at Port Royal Island on June 4, and was placed under the overall command of Major General David Hunter. Initially the regiment was used to provide manual labor at the loading docks, but Colonel Shaw applied for action. Four days later his regiment boarded onto transport and was sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina. From there they moved further south to St. Simons Island, Georgia, which served as their base of operations.

On June 11, 1863, the 54th was sent with the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers (who were also of African-American descent) for a raid against the town of Darien, Georgia. Overall command of the force was with the senior officer, colonel James Montgomery of the 2nd South Carolina. Upon reaching the town, Montgomery set his troops to looting it. Shaw was outraged by this behavior by Union troops.

He ordered his troops to limit their seizures to those items that would be useful for the camp, and committed only one company to the task. After the town had been emptied of all valuables and livestock, Montgomery told Shaw, "I shall burn this town." To Shaw the burning of the town appeared to serve no military purpose, and he knew it would create a great hardship to its residents. In a letter to his family he recalled, "I told him I did not want to take the responsibility of it, and he was only too happy to take all of it on his own shoulders." Montgomery had the town burned to the ground.

After the regiment's return to camp, Shaw wrote to X Corps Assistant Adjutant General Lieutenant-Colonel Charles G. Halpine, seeking clarification of what was required of him. He asked if Montgomery was acting under orders from General Hunter, stating in part "I am perfectly willing to burn any place which resists, or gives some reason for such a proceeding; but it seems to me barbarous to turn women and children adrift in that way; and if I am only assisting Colonel Montgomery in a private enterprise of his own, it is very distasteful to me." It is not clear if Shaw ever received an answer from Halpine, but Montgomery was in fact carrying out a policy supported by Hunter.

Second Battle of Fort Wagner

Colonel Shaw and the 54th Regiment were placed under the command of General Quincy Adams Gillmore and sent to Charleston, South Carolina to take part in the second attempt to take Charleston. To do so, they would have to capture Fort Wagner, which defended the southern approach to the harbor. A significant Confederate garrison had been stationed there. The fort was well armed with an assortment of heavy guns. The overall strength of the defenders was underestimated by the Union command. The Union effort was supported by two other brigades, but the approach was narrow and only one regiment could attack at a time. At the battle on July 18, 1863, the 54th approached the fort in the late afternoon and then waited out of range for a night assault. After a heavy bombardment from the sea the 54th charged forward to take the Confederate batteries. Shaw led his men into battle, shouting "Forward, Fifty-Fourth, forward!" The 54th crossed the moat and scaled the muddy hill of the outer wall. With the cessation of the naval bombardment the largely intact Confederate garrison left their bomb-proofs and resumed their positions on the walls. In the face of heavy fire the 54th hesitated. Shaw mounted a parapet and urged his men forward, but was shot through the chest three times. By witness testimony of the unit's Color Sergeant, his death occurred early in the battle, and he fell on the outside of the fort. Some Confederate reports claim his body was hit as many as seven times. The fighting continued until 10 p.m. when the Union forces withdrew, having suffered heavy losses. Among the fatalities were Gen. George Crockett Strong, mortally wounded; Col. Haldimand S. Putnam shot and killed instantly; and Col. John Lyman Chatfield, mortally wounded. Shaw's 54th Regiment suffered the heaviest losses.

Two sons of Frederick Douglass, Lewis and Charles Douglass, were with the 54th regiment at the time of the attack. Lewis was wounded shortly after Shaw fell, and retreated with the rest when the force withdrew.

Following the battle, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw's where it was, for burial in a mass grave with the black soldiers. Hagood told a captured Union surgeon that "Had he [Shaw] been in command of white troops ..." he would have returned Shaw's body, as was customary for officers, instead of burying it with the fallen black soldiers.

Although the gesture was intended as an insult by Hagood, Shaw's friends and family believed it was an honor for him to be buried with his soldiers. Efforts had been made to recover Shaw's body (which had been stripped and robbed prior to burial). His father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son had been buried with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for emancipation.

In a letter to the regimental surgeon, Lincoln Stone, Frank Shaw wrote:

After the war, the Union Army disinterred and reburied all the remains—including, presumably, those of Col. Shaw—at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina. Their gravestones were marked as "unknown."

Shaw's sword had been stolen from the first gravesite but was recovered in 1865 and returned to his parents. It disappeared after being passed down within the family. In June 2017, it was discovered in a family attic of Mary Minturn Wood and brother Robert Shaw Wood, descendants of Shaw's sister Susanna. They donated it to the Massachusetts Historical Society. (See .)

Personal life
Shaw met Anna Kneeland Haggerty in New York at an opera party given in 1861 by his sister Susanna before the war began. The two became engaged just after Christmas in 1862. Despite misgivings by both sets of parents because of the war, they were married May 2, 1863, less than a month before Shaw's regiment moved out. The ceremony was in New York City. The pair spent a brief honeymoon at the Haggertys' home of Vent Fort, in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Two and half years older than Shaw, "Annie" Shaw was widowed at the age of 28. She spent many years after the war living abroad in Europe, returning in later years when her health failed. The Haggerty property had been sold to George and Sarah Morgan, who built a large mansion there. They also kept the Haggerty home, and allowed Anna to live there when she returned from Europe. She spent the last two years of her life living at her former family house, and died in 1907, never having remarried. She is buried at the cemetery of Church-on-the Hill in Lenox.

Memorials

 A cenotaph at the Mount Auburn Cemetery
 In 1864, American sculptor Edmonia Lewis created a bust of Shaw.
 The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial was unveiled on May 31, 1897, at its site on the Boston Common. The large sculptural monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens has a frieze of Shaw on horseback, accompanied by members of the 54th Regiment, as they marched through Boston to depart for the war. It was featured in the ending credits of the film Glory (1989).

 A patinated plaster cast of a slightly different design for the Shaw Memorial is now on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which also holds some drawings and plaster mock-ups of the sculpture.
 A monument to Shaw's memory was erected by his family in the plot at Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island, New York. An annual commemoration is held there on his birthday.
 Although Shaw did not graduate from Harvard College, his name is listed on the tablets of honor in the university's Memorial Transept.
 Fordham University likewise celebrates Shaw as an alumnus by honoring him in the University Hall of Honor, and separately in the Fordham University Military Hall of Fame.
The Robert Gould Shaw School, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a Boston Public School, opened in 1936 but is now closed.

Legacy and honors
 Augustus Saint-Gaudens was commissioned to create the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, erected on the Boston Common in May 1897. He created a large sculptural frieze of Shaw leading the troops of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, with the individuality of each man's face and figure expressed.
 The neighborhood of Shaw, Washington, D.C., which developed from encampments of freedmen, was named for him.
 G.A.R. Post #146, established on December 4, 1871, was named The R. G. Shaw Post in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was one of the first all African-American Grand Army of the Republic posts, made up of comrades from the 54th Massachusetts. The Shaw Post dissolved in 1881.
 In 2017, the sword that Shaw was carrying at his death was discovered in the attic of a family home in Hamilton, Massachusetts. The owners, siblings Robert Shaw Wood and Mary Minturn Wood, donated it to the Massachusetts Historical Society. It went on public display on July 18 that year, the anniversary of Shaw's death.
Shaw wrote more than 200 letters to his family and friends during the Civil War. These are held in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Digital facsimiles of this collection are publicly available. His mother edited an early selection of his letters, and worked to preserve a positive image of him as a martyr to the abolitionist cause.

The first scholarly collection of the letters, Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (1992), was edited by Russell Duncan. The book includes most of Shaw's letters and Duncan's brief biography of the officer, described as the best of those then current about him. Reid Mitchell notes Duncan "returns the historic Shaw" to readers, complete with his bias against the Irish and African Americans, both typical of his time. He wrote more frequently about his fellow officers than either the white or black soldiers who served with him, but expressed pride in the 54th.

There is an ongoing effort to recognize Shaw's valorous actions at Fort Wagner with the Medal of Honor, which was not awarded at the time due to racial discrimination. The Fordham University Department of Military Science is actively supporting this venture.

Gallery

Representation in other media

 African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "Robert Gould Shaw," includes the lines: "Since thou and those who with thee died for right/Have died, the Present teaches, but in vain!"
 African-American poet Benjamin Griffith Brawley wrote a memorial poem entitled "My Hero" in praise of Shaw.
 Shaw, the 54th regiment, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens's memorial are one of the subjects of Charles Ives's composition for orchestra, Three Places in New England.
 New England poet Robert Lowell referred to both Shaw and the Shaw Memorial in the poem "For the Union Dead", which Lowell published in his 1964 collection of the same name.
 The film Glory (1989), directed by Edward Zwick, is about Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, and their battles. Written by Kevin Jarre, it stars Matthew Broderick as Shaw, and Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, and Morgan Freeman as soldiers of the regiment.
Colm Toibin's novel The Master (2004), principally about writer Henry James, recounts the participation of his younger brother Wilkie James as an officer in the 54th Regiment.

See also

 Ventfort Hall
Bibliography of the American Civil War

References

Sources
  Dhalle, Kathy, A Biography of Robert Gould Shaw

 Foote, Lorien (2003). Seeking the One Great Remedy: Francis George Shaw and Nineteenth-century Reform. Ohio University Press.

 Simpson, Brooks (2013), The Civil War: The Third Year, The Library of America (2013)

 Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry history

Further reading
 Benson, Richard, Lay This Laurel: An Album on the Saint-Gaudens memorial on Boston Common, honoring black and white men together, who served the Union cause with Robert Gould Shaw and died with him July 18, 1863, Eakins Press, 1973.
 Cox, Clinton, Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, New York: Scholastic, 1991.
 Egerton, Douglas, Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America, New York: Basic Books, 2016.
 Emilio, Luis F., A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts, 1863–1865, Da Capo Press, 1894.

External links

 Robert Gould Shaw Letters to his Family and Other Papers (MS Am 1910) at Houghton Library, Harvard University

1837 births
1863 deaths
Union military personnel killed in the American Civil War
American Roman Catholics
American people of English descent
Appleton family
People from West Roxbury, Boston
People from Livingston, Staten Island
People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War
Union Army colonels
Fordham Preparatory School alumni
Harvard University alumni
Abolitionists from Boston
Burials at Beaufort National Cemetery
Deaths by firearm in South Carolina

Robert Gould Shaw


A kraakdoos or cracklebox is a custom-made instrument, in the form of a noise-making electronic device. It is a small box with six metal contacts on top, which generate various unusual sounds and tones when pressed by the performer's fingers. The human body becomes a part of the circuit and determines the range of sounds possible, thus different people–or the same person at different times–shall generate different results.

While there are certain configurations of one's digits that result in more or less recallable results the preferred way of playing it is led by listening to how the instrument responds to manipulation and then maintaining and modifying one's contact points. The player thus enters into a tactile and sonic dialogue with the instrument.

The concept was first conceived by Michel Waisvisz and Geert Hamelberg in the 1960s, and developed further in the 1970s when Waisvisz joined the STEIM foundation in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The kraakdoos is a simple device, based on a single operational amplifier (one of the earliest models to be produced) and a few transistors, and can be constructed with only a basic understanding of electronics.

The musician Andrew Levine plays the Cracklebox regularly as part of his setup, in which it is the only instrument not dependent on external amplification, and has also experimented with a four-Cracklebox-configuration.

See also
 Atari Punk Console
 Circuit bending

External links
 Archived Cracklebox page at STEIM
 Original shematics and DIY page
 The CrackleBox — includes a history
  De Kraakdoos
 The Cracklebox in various configurations

Experimental musical instruments
Electronic musical instruments
DIY culture
Dutch inventions

Kraakdoos


Isaac Snowman (1873 – 11 February 1947) was an Anglo-Jewish artist who made Jewish cultural themes his subject.

Early life
He was educated at the City of London School. In 1890 he entered the Royal Academy School, where he gained a free medal, and afterward a scholarship in the Institution of British Artists. He showed his interest in Jewish matters by his drawings A Difficult Passage in the Talmud and The Blessing of Sabbath Lights, as well as by his Early Morning Prayer in the Synagogue.

His older brother Jacob Snowman was a London medical doctor and prominent mohel, who circumcised Charles, Prince of Wales and possibly other members of the British Royal Family. His younger brother was Emanuel Snowman, the jeweller, politician and community leader.

Career

In that year, 1897, he formed a group of English Jews known as the Maccabaeans, including Israel Zangwill and Herbert Bentwich, which undertook a pilgrimage to Palestine in the same year.

Of his paintings, which were devoted mainly to portraits and domestic views, Children's Voices (1901) attracted a great deal of attention, and The Bride (1904) was very popular at the time. He also exhibited a study of Sardanapalus, as well as The Wailing-Place at Jerusalem and The Proclamation of Joseph as Ruler of Egypt.

Personal life
Isaac Snowman was married to Pearl Alexander at the North London Synagogue on 13 September 1898. According to the report in The Times the marriage was never a happy one for the wife owing to the husband's exaggerated views on the subject of "wifely obedience." They lived in Algiers and Hampstead, and after their son died they adopted a daughter.

In August 1907, Isaac Snowman left for Africa to execute a commission for the King of Dahomey. Subsequently, Pearl filed for divorce on grounds of statutory desertion and adultery, which was granted in June 1909.

Isaac meantime continued to build his career. He was commissioned to paint portraits of King George V and Queen Mary, and it was said he was one of the Queen's favourite artists. 21] Serious artworks enabled him to commission the first house on the now know Hocroft Estate to be built in Ranulf Road off Finchley Road. The house, now number 3, included dedicated artists work space: completed in about 1911, was for many years simply known as 'The Studio'. Isaac sent five works to the R.A. from this 3 Ranulf Road. This area would have been well known to him, as it was just a few minutes walk from his old home in Fortune Green Road.

Isaac Snowman moved to Jerusalem, where he had a studio over the Damascus Gate. In the riots that occurred in Jerusalem on 2 November 1921, Snowman encountered a mob and, while trying to make his way through with two friends, was stabbed.

Death
The outbreak of the Second World War found Snowman on a visit to England and his failing health prevented him from returning to his home in Jerusalem.

Isaac Snowman died peacefully on 11 February 1947, and his funeral was held the following day at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.

Bibliography
The New Era Illustrated Magazine, New York, Jan., 1905
Jewish Year Book, 5665 (1904-5).
The Palestine Post, Jerusalem, 17 March 1947 and 27 March 1949
The Times, London, 10 June 1909 and 12 February 1947.
The Jewish Chronicle, London, 28 November 1921

References

1873 births
1947 deaths
English artists
English Jews
People educated at the City of London School
Isaac
Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery

Isaac Snowman


The Battles of the Separation Corridor (, Kravot Retzu'at HaNituk) were a series of military engagements between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian army in Operation Yoav, and were the centerpiece of the operation. They took place throughout all of Yoav (October 15–22, 1948), in the strip of land between the Israeli-held Negev enclave and the rest of the country. This area is generally called the Separation Strip in Hebrew.

The battles saw the Israelis set up a permanent land connection with the enclave through the Junction (, HaTzomet, a strategic crossroads west of Negba), Kawkaba and Huleiqat. A wedge was set up at Khirbet Masara (between Fallujah and Bayt Jibrin), in accordance with Operation Yoav's strategy to create wedges to cut off large Egyptian units, however, the wedge was unsuccessful and the Egyptians bypassed it. Attacks on other positions in the corridor, including the Iraq Suwaydan police fort, were also unsuccessful.

The battles, having opened a safe supply route to the Negev, had both political and military significance. It strengthened the Israeli claim to the whole Negev Desert and allowing for much of Israel's conquest in Operation Horev and Operation Uvda in December 1948 – March 1949.

Background
The second truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War started on July 18, 1948, with an Israeli enclave in the Negev disconnected from the rest of the country. Military operations, including An-Far, Death to the Invader and GYS, to create a corridor between the two areas, failed. The United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte's second plan for Palestine became known on September 20, days after Bernadotte was assassinated by the Lehi. This plan envisioned the Israeli Negev enclave to be handed over to the Arab side.

Israel's military options were pondered by its leadership during the second truce, and the Bernadotte Plan prompted the government and army to decide to concentrate the next effort on the southern front. The Operation, codenamed The Ten Plagues, was meant to open a permanent ground connection to the Negev, and gradually encircle the Egyptian forces in the Majdal – Bayt Jibrin corridor by creating wedges that would deny the Egyptians free movements between their main troop concentrations. This was the approach favored by Yigal Allon, head of the Southern Command, which mostly won over the General Staff's proposals to directly assault the large Egyptian concentrations.

The Junction was an important crossroads between the Majdal – Bayt Jibrin road and the internal Negev road. It was overlooked by kibbutz Negba, the Iraq Suwaydan police fort, and Hills 100, 103 and 113.

Khirbet Masara wedge
On the night of October 15–16, Israeli forces from the Givati Brigade's 53rd Battalion occupied the site of Khirbet Masara and the adjacent Hill 224.9, positions on the road connecting Iraq al-Manshiyya to Bayt Jibrin. On October 17, the site of Khirbet 'Atalla to the northeast was also taken. However, as in the case of the Beit Hanoun wedge, this did not stop the Egyptians from moving from Fallujah and Iraq al-Manshiyya to Bayt Jibrin and Hebron, as they created an alternate path south of the wedge, through Qubeiba. However, the wedge served as a staging point for further Israeli territorial gains, eventually leading to the isolation of Fallujah and Iraq al-Manshiyya in what became known as the Fallujah Pocket.

Battle of Iraq al-Manshiyya
The plan of Operation Yoav called for the creation of a permanent land corridor to the Negev through Iraq al-Manshiyya. The attack was meant to be carried out on October 17, 1948. It was, however, brought forward 24 hours to October 16 after a recommendation by Yitzhak Sadeh, commander of the 8th Armored Brigade. The attack would mark the first time that tanks would be used by Israel in the southern front. The Israelis hoped that Egypt would concentrate its main defenses in Fallujah, the locality that overlooked the vital Junction position, and therefore leave Iraq al-Manshiyya lightly defended. The village's two main positions were a tell just north, and the village school.

At 06:20, the Israeli artillery began its barrage, and at 07:00, the Israeli tanks (Cromwell and Hotchkiss of the 82nd Battalion) set out to assist the infantry (Negev Brigade's 7th Battalion), which had already left their bases. At 07:40, the infantry reached the school and a report came in that the village itself was being abandoned. What followed was complete chaos on the Israeli side; a Cromwell tank broke down, a Hotchkiss tank drove into a trap, and others ran out of ammunition. As other tanks broke down, more were needed to take them back for repair. There was no clear communication between the infantry and armored forces, and in different sectors, infantry and armor acted separately.

When the unit attacking the school retreated, the one that was on its way to the tell suffered a severe morale blow. As the Egyptians opened fire from previously unknown positions, it completely surprised the Israelis who had about a third of their force killed or wounded. After the armored forces were all out of the fight, an order was given to withdraw. Only 15 soldiers made it back to the starting positions. Rescue efforts to return the wounded still in the field continued throughout the day. In all, the Israeli forces suffered over 100 casualties and four tanks were destroyed.

Capturing the Junction
After the failure to open up a permanent land corridor to the Negev through Iraq al-Manshiyya, the head of the Southern Command, Yigal Allon, decided to shift the major efforts to the west. On the night of October 16–17, the Givati Brigade's 51st Battalion set out from Julis to capture the Junction. It moved in three separate prongs—the 2nd Company in the west, the 3rd in the center and the 4th in the east. Another force set out from Negba to intercept possible Egyptian reinforcements from Iraq Suwaydan. The Egyptian forces in the area consisted of one battalion spread out through the hills north of the Junction, the Junction itself, and the positions of Kawkab and Huleiqat.

At 21:15, the 2nd Company noticed movement near the location on the road where it was supposed to set up its own blocking force to intercept reinforcements. It turned east and set up its block closer to the Junction. At 21:20, the Israelis began shelling hills 100, 103 and 113, just northwest of the junction, with 3" (81 mm) mortars. Meanwhile, an Egyptian Bren carrier ran into a mine on the eastern roadblock, killing the local Egyptian commander. At 22:50, Hill 103 was taken without resistance by the 4th Company, which proceeded to link up to the 3rd Company attacking Hill 113. Hills 100 and 113, joined by Egypt into one position, were captured by the two companies on October 17 at 01:15.

The Junction consisted of two major positions—one in the southwest and one in the northwest. The 2nd Company's commander decided to mount an assault on the southern position and at the same set up a roadblock just south. During the attack, communication with other Israeli forces was lost. Two soldiers were sent to the Israeli-held Hill 105 to renew it. Jeuda Wallach, the commander of the 51st Battalion, moved his HQ to Hill 113. The Givati forces took the southern position, and the Egyptians from the northern position counterattacked. The attack lasted 3 hours, during which the Israeli company commander recalled the force blocking the road to the south to help. Israelis suffered 30 casualties, but successfully repelled the assault. A Samson's Foxes force was sent to assist in the southern position, but encountered Egyptian Bren carriers and turned back. The Egyptians, finding themselves isolated, also decided to avoid another confrontation and the northern position retreated to Iraq Suwaydan, allowing Givati to complete the capture of the Junction.

Battles around Fallujah and Iraq Suwaydan
In the night of October 18–19, the Israelis attacked various positions on the Egyptian "Burma Road", a bypass road created during the second truce after Israel captured Hatta and Karatiyya in Operation Death to the Invader. An initial Yiftach Brigade attack on Huleiqat the previous night failed, and the southern command decided to use its reinforcements brought for Operation Yoav, the Oded Brigade, to take a number of positions just west of Fallujah. The brigade had just been brought from the Galilee and did not get sufficient practice in fighting in a flat topography. The plan was to take Position 2, followed by 1 and 4, and finally Position 3.

Oded attacked from Karatiyya with the strength of four companies, without artillery or armored support. At 21:00 on October 18, they breached the fence of the 2nd position, but met with heavy fire and the deputy battalion commander was killed in action. The company in the operational reserve was brought to assist, but failed to effect a difference. Meanwhile, another company assaulted the 4th position and also managed to breach the fence. Interpreted as a success, the final company was sent to attack the 3rd position. It stalled due to Egyptian artillery fire and withdrew. At 02:00 on October 19, the company attacking the 4th position, pinned down and unable to advance, retreated as well, and at 03:00, the Oded forces fighting at the 2nd position did the same.

Two more attempts were made to capture the Iraq Suwaydan police fort until October 22. On the night of October 19–20, Givati's 51st Battalion made its assault, under the assumption that the fort was manned by one demoralized Egyptian platoon. The fort was surrounded by three barbed wire fences, and bunkers were placed in between. The Givati force encountered one such bunker, and could not overcome it until Ben-Zion Leitner threw a grenade inside and clear it. Leitner was severely injured, and later awarded the Hero of Israel. Nevertheless, exhausted and suffering from problems with their munitions, the Israeli forces retreated.

The 51st Battalion attempted another takeover of the fort on October 21–22. After an artillery and aircraft barrage at 18:00, the Givati forces made their assault, employing a rigged armored vehicle which was meant to blow a hole through the fort's walls. It got trapped between the barbed wire fences, but its explosion destroyed them and allowed the infantry to advanced onto the fort itself. Four soldiers managed to infiltrate it, but were overwhelmed by Egyptian fire and withdrew. The final battle of the corridor in Operation Yoav also came on the night of October 21–22, when Givati's 53rd Battalion made an attempts at the Egyptian Burma Road, failing to take any positions and retreating.

Battles of Kawkaba and Huleiqat

As mentioned, the Yiftach Brigade failed to capture Huleiqat and its outlying position (Hill 138.5) on October 17–18. Givati, on the other hand, succeeded in capturing Kawkaba to the north, and on October 18–19—the adjacent Bayt Tima. No further attempts were made to attack Huleiqat from the south, and instead Givati set out to capture it from the north. The participating units were four companies from the 52nd Battalion and two from the 54th. The Egyptians were spread out in hills 114.1, 123.2, 120, 120a, 128.2, 138.5, 131.2 and in Huleiqat itself. Their force now consisted of three companies—two of Egyptian and one of Saudi origin.

At 21:30 on October 19, Israeli artillery began shelling the Egyptian positions. The attack began at 22:45; Hill 120a was the first to fall, at the hands of the 52nd Battalion's 3rd Company, with little resistance, but the Saudi troops who retreated from there reinforced the adjacent Hill 128.2 and counterattacked, dislodging the Israelis who had just captured the hill. On Hill 120a, the Egyptians and Saudis left many weapons, including 34 Vickers machine guns, which an Egyptian prisoner of war taught the Givati forces to use. The weapons were used in the final capture of Hill 128.2.

The 54th Battalion's company took part of Hill 123.2, but entered a stalemate with the Egyptians there. Next, the 52nd Battalion's 1st Company took hills 114.1 and 120 in the center, in two waves. They then repelled an Egyptian counterattack from Huleiqat. Meanwhile, the 52nd Battalion's 2nd Company retook Hill 128.2. After establishing itself on Hill 120, part of the 1st Company (52nd) took Hill 138.5, facing only light resistance. The 54th Battalion's 3rd Company meanwhile assisted the 1st in finishing the takeover of Hill 123.2. Finally, at 03:00 on October 20, the Saudi forces manning Hill 131.2 retreated and the position was taken by the 52nd Battalion's 4th Company, putting the entire Kawkaba–Huleiqat corridor under Israeli control. Givati suffered 28 dead and 70 wounded.

Significance
One of the main Israeli achievements of these battles, and indeed, Operation Yoav, was the creation of a permanent land corridor between the Israeli Negev enclave and the rest of the country, following the capture of Huleiqat on October 20. This allowed for the commencement of Operation Moshe on October 21, which saw the capture of Beersheba, the "capital of the Negev", by the Negev Brigade. Another point of significance was the creation of the basic guidelines for what would later become the Fallujah Pocket (the area of Fallujah – Iraq al-Manshuyya), and the general cutting off of the western wing of the Egyptian expeditionary force from its eastern wing.

References

Bibliography

Separation Corridor
October 1948 events in Asia
October 1948 events in Africa

Battles of the Separation Corridor


Louis Delâge (22 March 1874 – 14 December 1947) was a French pioneer automotive engineer and manufacturer.

Born Pierre Louis Delâge to a family of modest means in  Cognac. As an infant he lost the sight in one eye. At the age of 16 he went to study at Arts et Métiers ParisTech in Angers, graduating with an engineering degree in 1893. Delage then fulfilled his military obligation and was stationed in Algeria. Discharged in 1895, he found work with a railway company in southern France; in 1900 he moved to Paris. There he worked in the engineering and design department of a motor vehicle manufacturing concern until 1903 when he received an offer to join the fledgling Renault automobile company.

Delâge realized the enormous potential for the automobile as demand soon began to outstrip production. Filled with innovative ideas, in 1905 he raised enough money to open an assembly plant in a converted barn in Levallois at the outskirts of Paris. The Delage Automobile Company grew rapidly and their vehicles gained a reputation for stylish appearance and quality and as a dominant force in motor racing. The Great Depression of the 1930s took its toll and car sales plummeted. By 1935 his company was forced into liquidation, and the rights to the Delage name were auctioned to the Delahaye car company. The new owners unceremoniously dismissed Delâge with a penurious pension.

Louis Delâge was nearly 60 when he found himself in a financial crisis worsened by his divorce. He sought solace in his Roman Catholic faith, and because he was too poor to afford a car, he often made  the pilgrimage on foot or by bicycle to the sacred convent of Saint Thérèse in the city of Lisieux and to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1947, at the age of 73 and nearly impoverished, Louis Delâge died. He is interred in the cemetery in Le Pecq.

In 1990, in his hometown of Cognac, an industrial school was dedicated as the "Lycée professionnel Louis Delâge" in his memory.

References

External links
 Profile on Historic Racing

1874 births
1947 deaths
People from Cognac, France
French automotive pioneers
French founders of automobile manufacturers
Arts et Métiers ParisTech alumni

Louis Delâge


James Elms Swett (June 15, 1920 – January 18, 2009) was a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot and flying ace during World War II. He was awarded the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for actions while a division flight leader in VMF-221 over Guadalcanal on April 7, 1943. He downed a total of 15.5 enemy aircraft during the war, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and five Air Medals.

Early life
Born on June 15, 1920, in Seattle, Washington, James E. Swett graduated from San Mateo High School, San Mateo, California, and enrolled at the College of San Mateo in 1939. He earned a private pilot's license, which amounted to 450 more hours of flying than he received during his Navy flight training. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman second class on August 26, 1941, and started flight training in September.

Military career

Service in World War II

Swett completed flight training in early 1942, placing in the top ten percent of his class. He was given the option to choose between a commission in the Marine Corps or the Navy, and he chose the Marine Corps. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, on April 1, 1942. He continued his advanced flight training, first at Quantico, Virginia, then at Lake Michigan, became carrier qualified aboard the , and finally received his wings at San Diego, California. In December 1942, he shipped out to the Southwest Pacific, and when he arrived at Guadalcanal he was assigned to VMF-221, which was part of Marine Air Group 12.

Medal of Honor action

On April 7, 1943, on his first combat mission, Swett both became an ace and acted with such "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

His first mission was as a division leader on a combat air patrol over the Russell Islands early on the morning of April 7 in expectation of a large Japanese air attack. Landing to refuel, the four-plane division of Grumman F4F Wildcats he was leading was scrambled after other aircraft reported 150 planes approaching Ironbottom Sound, and intercepted a large formation of Japanese Aichi D3A dive bombers (Allied code name: "Val") attacking Tulagi harbor.

When the fight became a general melee, Swett pursued three Aichi D3A Vals diving on the harbor. After he had downed two, and while he was evading fire from the rear gunner of the third, the left wing of his F4F Wildcat was holed by U.S. antiaircraft fire. Despite this, he downed the third Val and turned toward a second formation of six Vals leaving the area.

Swett repeatedly attacked the line of dive bombers, downing each in turn with short bursts. He brought down four and was attacking a fifth when his ammunition was depleted and his cockpit was shot up by return fire. Wounded, he decided to ditch his damaged fighter off the coast of Florida Island, after it became clear that his oil cooler had been hit and he would not make it back to base. After a few seconds his engine seized, and despite initially being trapped in his cockpit underwater, Swett extricated himself and was rescued in Tulagi harbor after ditching his plane. This feat made the 22-year-old Marine aviator an ace on his first combat mission.

Further combat service
Swett returned to Guadalcanal after a short stay in a Naval hospital and learned that Admiral Marc Mitscher had nominated him for the Medal of Honor. After a short rest in Australia, Swett checked out in the Vought F4U Corsair to which VMF-221 was converting and moved to a new base in the Russells. Promoted to captain, Swett covered the Rendova landings on June 30, 1943, adding two Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers to his score and sharing the downing of a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Eleven days later, near the island of New Georgia, Swett downed two more Bettys. Seeing his wingman's Corsair under attack, he also shot down a Zero. However, he failed to see a second Zero and was himself shot down. He was rescued by indigenous tribal members in a canoe and traveled by ten-man canoe for several hours to an Australian coast watcher's location. A PBY flying boat returned Swett to the Russells. In October 1943, over the major Japanese airbase at Kahili, Bougainville, Swett added one confirmed Zero and one probable, but lost his wingman. In November, he added to his list of kills two more Vals and a possible Kawasaki Ki-61 Tony, a new Japanese fighter.

On December 11, Swett returned to the United States on a Dutch motor ship, arriving in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. After less than 24 hours, he shipped out to San Diego, where he was granted 30-days leave and married Lois Anderson, his longtime sweetheart. Swett was then transferred to NAS Santa Barbara, California, where he worked up a newly manned VMF 221 in the Corsair.

Now carrier-qualified and assigned to the , Swett flew two strikes over Japan and then supported the landings at Iwo Jima and the operations on Okinawa. On May 11, 1945, he shot down a Yokosuka D4Y Judy kamikaze, which he described as a "sitting duck". Swett watched from the air as the Bunker Hill was struck by two kamikazes, causing such damage that he was forced to land on another carrier.

Swett later returned to the States and was assigned to MCAS El Toro, California, where he began to train for Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan. At war's end, VMF 221 was second in aerial victories among Marine Corps squadrons with 185 enemy planes downed. Swett's combat record includes 103 combat missions, 15.5 confirmed victories and four probables. He earned the Purple Heart, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Medal of Honor.

Post-war service
After returning to the U.S. he served with VMF-221 at MCAS El Toro, California.

Swett commanded VMF-141 flying Corsairs at NAS Alameda, California, following the end of World War II. After the onset of the Korean War his squadron was deployed to Korea, but he was left behind because the Navy thought putting a Medal of Honor recipient in combat was too risky. Swett left active duty and continued service in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1970 at the rank of colonel.

Post-military life
Swett was married to Lois Anderson from January 20, 1944, till her death on December 5, 1999. They had two sons, James Jr. and John, both of whom went on to become Marine Corps officers. Swett later remarried to Verna Gale McPherson Miller in 2007.

Swett worked in his father's company in San Francisco, making marine pumps and turbines. In 1960, after his father's death, Swett took over the company and ran it for 23 years, before passing it on to his son. Swett moved to Trinity Center, California, in his retirement and became a frequent speaker at schools, where he shared his strong feelings about the values of respect and responsibility. He owned 13 Porsche cars during his lifetime.

In 2006, Swett's Medal of Honor action was recreated using computer graphics for The History Channel series Dogfights in episode Guadalcanal and Swett himself provided commentary. The episode first aired on November 24, 2006.

Swett moved to Redding, California, in 2007 where he died on January 18, 2009, in a Redding hospital from heart failure after a lengthy illness. He was buried with full military honors at Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo, California.

The airport in Trinity Center, California was named in his honor.

Awards and decorations
His awards and decorations include:

Medal of Honor citation

See also
List of Medal of Honor recipients
George C. Axtell
Jefferson J. DeBlanc
Archie G. Donahue
Jeremiah J. O'Keefe
John L. Smith

References
Inline

General

Further reading
Mersky, Commander Peter B. Time of the Aces: Marine Pilots in the Solomons, 1942–1944, Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, History and Museums Division, United States Marine Corps, 1993

External links

1920 births
2009 deaths
American World War II flying aces
Aviators from Washington (state)
Battle of Iwo Jima
United States Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients
Military personnel from Seattle
Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
United States Marine Corps colonels
United States Marine Corps pilots of World War II
United States Naval Aviators
World War II recipients of the Medal of Honor
United States Navy reservists
Recipients of the Air Medal
San Mateo High School alumni

James E. Swett


The Royal Netherlands Navy is part of the armed forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world and played an active role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Franco-Dutch War, and wars against Spain and several other European powers. The Batavian Navy of the later Batavian Republic (1795–1806) and the Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810) played an active role in the Napoleonic Wars.

In the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands, it served an important role in protecting Dutch colonial rule, especially in Southeast Asia. It played a minor role in World War II, especially against the Imperial Japanese Navy. Since World War II, the Royal Netherlands Navy has taken part in  peacekeeping expeditions.

The main naval base is in Den Helder, North Holland.

Organizations based in the Netherlands
Navies

Royal Netherlands Navy


The Jahrbuch für Romanische und Englische Literatur was an annual publication containing articles on literature in the Romance and English languages. The periodical was founded and edited by Adolf Ebert and Ferdinand Wolf.

The journal was founded by Ebert and Wolf in 1859. From 1865 it was edited by Ludwig Lemcke. Until 1871, twelve volumes were published; in 1874, Lemecke began publication anew with a "new series" numbering, now as Jahrbuch für Romanische und Englische Sprache und Literatur, until 1876.

References

Annual journals
Linguistics journals
German-language journals
Publications established in 1859
Publications disestablished in 1876
1859 establishments in Germany