Citation
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 9-10 June 1944, near Goville, France.
S/Sgt. Ehlers, always acting as the spearhead of the attack, repeatedly led his men against heavily defended enemy strong points exposing himself to deadly hostile fire whenever the situation required heroic and courageous leadership.
Without waiting for an order, S/Sgt. Ehlers, far ahead of his men, led his squad against a strongly defended enemy strong point, personally killing 4 of an enemy patrol who attacked him en route. Then crawling forward under withering machinegun fire, he pounced upon the guncrew and put it out of action.
Turning his attention to 2 mortars protected by the crossfire of 2 machineguns, S/Sgt. Ehlers led his men through this hail of bullets to kill or put to flight the enemy of the mortar section, killing 3 men himself.
After mopping up the mortar positions, he again advanced on a machinegun, his progress effectively covered by his squad. When he was almost on top of the gun he leaped to his feet and, although greatly outnumbered, he knocked out the position single-handed.
The next day, having advanced deep into enemy territory, the platoon of which S/Sgt. Ehlers was a member, finding itself in an untenable position as the enemy brought increased mortar, machinegun, and small arms fire to bear on it, was ordered to withdraw. S/Sgt. Ehlers, after his squad had covered the withdrawal of the remainder of the platoon, stood up and by continuous fire at the semicircle of enemy placements, diverted the bulk of the heavy hostile fire on himself, thus permitting the members of his own squad to withdraw.
At this point, though wounded himself, he carried his wounded automatic rifleman to safety and then returned fearlessly over the shell-swept field to retrieve the automatic rifle which he was unable to carry previously. After having his wound treated, he refused to be evacuated, and returned to lead his squad.
The intrepid leadership, indomitable courage, and fearless aggressiveness displayed by S/Sgt. Ehlers in the face of overwhelming enemy forces serve as an inspiration to others.
#1
The NYT writeup on his passing ended with following interesting bit:
His brother Roland and he were both in Co. K, 18th Regt, 1st Infantry Division & slated to hit Omaha Beach together. Their commander anticipated heavy casualties & split the brothers up. Walter was re-assigned to Co. L and went on to win multiple awards for heroism from D-Day onward. His brother Roland was killed by shellfire as he stepped onto Omaha Beach. From the article: "For all the plaudits Mr. Ehlers received, the loss of his brother haunted him.
I used to have nightmares every night, he told The Orange County Register after the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Nightmares about my brother coming home. He always showed up immaculately dressed, and he had that beautiful smile, and wed talk. Id go get something and come back, and hed be gone. Then, Id wake up.
What broke the cycle, he said, was when he spoke at Omaha Beach, telling of how he had waved to Roland as they prepared to board their ships to cross the English Channel. My knees were trembling when I stood before the audience that day, with 14,000 vets and 17 heads of state, he said. But after that, the nightmares went away. I came to grips with his death. They say when you talk about something you finally let it out.
His thoughts of Roland, and the distance between them at the shores of Omaha Beach, never left him, however.
I still cant talk about him without bringing tears to my eyes, he told The Register. I felt like if wed been together, that wouldnt have happened. But God sent us in different ways. "
#2
I travel today to attend the funeral of an 88 year old cousin and veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. My aunt got a telegram informing her that "he had been wounded in action the European Theater of Operation." His folks heard nothing more for another six weeks. His wounds were not life threatening and he finished out the war, returning home to get married and raise 4 children. He was married for 63 years. They are all leaving us now, those brave soldiers.
#3
Mr. B - your cousin's story is hauntingly similar to my uncle's. He landed at Utah and was wounded at Bastogne. Non-life threatening but medevac was not option anyway as he was inside the cordon. Stayed in the ETO until the end and lived a long happy life.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/25/2014 5:44 Comments ||
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#4
R.I.P. S/Sgt. Ehlers, you well deserve the peace.
[An Nahar] The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... on Monday denounced gangs in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... for carrying out murders of civilians, looting and burning down entire villages.
For several weeks the Masisi territory in mineral-rich Nord-Kivu province "has been the scene of a number of assaults on civilians", said the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in DR Congo, Moustapha Soumare, in a statement.
Soumare said he had received alarming reports of killings -- many based on ethnic origin -- by gangs in the south of the territory where nearly 40 people died and villages set ablaze.
The homes of displaced people were pillaged and health centers which temporarily suspended their activities after medics fled were also targeted, he said.
"Even humanitarian aid distributed by the United Nations and NGOs was looted in places."
Dozens of local and foreign gangs in Nord-Kivu have made the province particularly unstable -- some wreaking havoc for ethnic, territorial or economic reasons for nearly 20 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[REUTERS] The White House sharply criticized Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday for signing legislation that imposes harsh penalties for homosexuality, calling it a step backward. And, really, what's most important in the great scheme of things than that? Except for global warming. If only the White House had linked the 'War on Women' to their statement...
The new law strengthened existing punishments for anyone caught having gay sex, imposing jail terms of up to life for "aggravated homosexuality," including sex with a minor or while HIV positive.
"Instead of standing on the side of freedom, justice, and equal rights for its people, today, regrettably, Ugandan President Museveni took Uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation criminalizing homosexuality," White House front man Jay Carney said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#5
Not really imperialism. It's more of a domestic political pandering. Based on its agnosticism with other affairs-African, I highly doubt the White House cares what happens in Uganda.
[Dhaka Tribune] The gravity of offences committed by former BNP politician Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League ward-level leader Torab Ali in the BDR carnage warranted death penalty.
But the court awarded both of them life-term jail sentences considering Pintu's political status and Torab's old age.
The Third Additional Judge's Court of Dhaka found the duo guilty of being involved with the killing of 74 people including 57 army officers during the bloody mutiny at Pilkhana in 2009.
Pintu, a former president of BNP's student front Chhatra Dal, was also convicted for instigating the massacre while Torab for conspiring.
Torab Ali came to know about the mutiny conspiracy on the night of February 24 from Zakir Hossain, owner of Prime Coaching Centre. The BDR soldiers published their leaflets from that tuition home.
But despite the knowledge, Torab did not inform the law enforcers or the authorities concerned. Instead, the next day -- that is the first day of the mutiny -- he organised and brought out processions at gates no 1 and 5 of the Pilkhana headquarters.
The processions rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud such as "BDR, Janata bhai bhai," (the BDR soldiers and the people are brothers), said the court that handed down death sentences to 151 former members of the paramilitary border security force for killing 57 army officers and 17 civilians during the two-day mutiny.
"One of his [Torab's] associates said the BDR men held clandestine meetings at his residence. The BDR men also contacted Pintu before the mutiny. He instigated the rebel soldiers to bring out processions inside the BDR headquarters," the court said in its judgment.
The prosecution proved that both of them were involved with the conspiracy. But considering their political profile and old age, they had been given life term sentences instead death, the court said.
The court in its judgment on November 5, however, ordered for punitive departmental actions to be taken against CID Special Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akhand, investigation officer in the BDR carnage case, for conducting incomplete probe.
Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court also linked chief public prosecutor Anisul Huq and his deputy Mosharraf Hossain Kajal with the incomplete investigation.
Anisul Huq is now the law minister of the Awami League-led government. Kajal was one of the prosecutors of the Bangabandhu murder case as well.
"The investigator could not extract [any other] information from Torab apart from the confessional statement [that Torab had given]. He also told the court that none of the witnesses gave deposition against him. If nobody gave deposition, then why did he charge him [Torab]?" the judgment said.
The court suspected that the investigator did not record any witness account against Torab out of bias. The judgment against Torab was delivered on the basis of the confessional statement.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales... for Pintu, the court took two witness accounts into consideration. The court also said Pintu was a feared person, especially among witnesses, because of his power and influence in his area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The processions rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud
Children.
(Mentally, at lest.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/25/2014 10:43 Comments ||
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#2
..so I guess the get-out-of-jail card is not just a Kennedy "thing"..
That sound you're hearing are the Headhunters of PNG feeling sorry for the people of modern NOKOR + offering to send their best prize heads + bananas + fish + spiced monkey meats, ... ... + maybe brand-new carved canoes.
#4
The NORKS are fighting glowbull warming by turning off the lights.
Think how much energy we waste to light up the night. For what? No one goes out at night, except the criminals. Apparently, North Korea has no criminals to worry about!
Or no electricity to spare...
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/25/2014 8:18 Comments ||
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#5
Any question who won? All during the 60s a lot of vets mumbled how we weren't allowed to 'win' in Korea.
[An Nahar] The United States Monday stopped short of fully endorsing Ukraine's interim leader Oleksandr Turchynov as its legitimate ruler, but called for a technocratic government in Kiev to promote early elections.
White House front man Jay Carney noted that President Viktor Yanukovych was "not actively leading the country at present" and that Washington could not confirm where he was.
Carney said that the White House had seen that the Ukrainian parliament had "lawfully elected its new speaker" and supported efforts to get the political situation under control and "ensuring that the institutions of government are working."
Asked whether the United States therefore saw Turchynov as the legitimate leader of Ukraine, Carney simply repeated the phrase that Washington had seen he had been elected leader of parliament.
President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... 's front man said the United States was preoccupied with promoting a non violent process in Ukraine that resulted in a multiparty technocratic government that could help move towards early elections.
He also stressed that the United States believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... , with whom Obama spoke on the crisis on Friday, had an interest in ensuring a peaceful transition of power in Kiev.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Technocrat vs. whining, narcissistic layabout ?
#4
They can't afford a western-style technocracy if they're right next door to Vladimir Putin. We can only pretend to afford it because they've adopted a strategy of 'sacrifice an outer ring of countries to the barbarians' but Ukraine doesn't have any countries between them and the threat.
[An Nahar] Thousands of protesters thronged the streets of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik Monday to demand a referendum after the government said it was dropping its EU membership bid without a popular vote.
Police said around 3,500 protesters gathered outside the parliament in the biggest street demonstrations since the 2009 financial crisis to demand the government honor a May election pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership.
Iceland's euroskeptic government suspended EU accession talks indefinitely last September, following a promise made during the 2013 election campaign.
On Friday it announced a draft bill to "retract the application for membership of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... " which the island nation submitted in 2010.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... opposition parties complained that no time had been allocated to debate the issue and the motion was postponed. It is expected to be introduced again in the coming days.
The government move was hotly contested by Icelanders from both the pro- and anti-EU side who argued that Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson had back-tracked on previous promises.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly criticized the new Ukrainian leadership, saying it used dictatorial methods and discriminated against ethnic Russians. We seen dis movie...
"They have set a course to suppress those who do not agree in various regions of Ukraine using dictatorial and sometimes even terrorist methods," the ministry said in a statement. Moscow also slammed new legislation that it said aimed to "restrict the humanitarian rights of Russians". "Russia stands ready to lend fraternal assistance to oppressed brotherly peoples..."
Earlier in the day, Moscow questioned the legitimacy of Kiev's new leadership, "Bastards!"
accusing them of leading an 'armed mutiny' in Ukraine and revealing anti-Russian tendencies in the former Soviet republic. They have "anti-Russian tendencies" because they don't consider themselves to be Russian.
In the strongest reaction yet from Moscow to the transfer of power from Ukraine's disappeared President Viktor Yanukovych to the overwhelmingly pro-European opposition, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow cannot negotiate with rebels who "carry Kalashnikovs". "Unless we're the ones carrying them."
He said that Western countries who think otherwise must be deluded. "Strictly speaking, there is no one for us to communicate with there today," he told Russian news agencies. "So we'll probably send tanks."
To think the new leadership has legitimacy is "some kind of an aberration of perception when people call legitimate what is essentially the result of an armed mutiny," he added. "Even Imre Nagy wouldn't have stood for that!... Probably."
The Russian foreign ministry issued an even more hostile statement, saying that the Ukrainian parliament has "set a course to suppress those who do not agree in various regions of Ukraine using dictatorial and sometimes even terrorist methods". "You might call it 'Dubčekism."
"Militants are not disarmed, they refuse to leave the streets that they de-facto control, to go out of administrative buildings, they continue acts of violence," the ministry said. "Yep. We're just gonna have to step in to Restore Order."
It also accused "western partners" of a hidden agenda in Kiev, saying: "We see in the position of some of our western partners not concern for the fate of Ukraine but a one-sided geopolitical calculation."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Of course the "legitimacy" of the current Russian president [not to mention our own] is beyond question. Excellent in-lines and foto.
#3
To think the new leadership has legitimacy is "some kind of an aberration of perception when people call legitimate what is essentially the result of an armed mutiny," he added.
"This appears to not be an isolated move as the naval build up seems to be escalating. In a concurrent release, Izvestia Kiev reported that out of Kubinka, four ships carrying special forces, are being relocated to Anapa. From there, in four hours, they will depart fo Sevastopol at a speed of 10-15 knots, citing "Izvestia in Ukraine" as a source. According to the source, the redeployment is "qualitative, not quantitative" and that the Ukraine is following these developments."
Caution: ZeroHedge - Nervousness Alert
Under no scenario of which I'm aware does anyone think Russia will yield peacefully the Crimea and the naval bases therein to the Ukraine. Simply not happening.
#1
IMO Russia will secure Sevatopol + other key Ukrainian or Crimean RussBases, but nothing more than that unless somebody escalates by doing something beyond-stupid.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/25/2014 11:16 Comments ||
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#6
More than half the population of Autonomous Crimea is said to be ethnic Russian. And there are more than 22,000 Russiaan military at Savastopol. Thus, any "incident" -- foolish or contrived -- could lead the Russians to invoke "the Georgian solution."
[CNN] Ukraine's ousted President is a wanted man. He's also a missing man.
Viktor Yanukovych is not in Kiev. The mayor of Kharkiv, where Yanukovych was Saturday, says he hasn't seen him in a few days.
He's also apparently not hiding in a bunker in a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery, a church spokesman said, swatting down the latest speculation.
Ukraine's onetime -- and, by his account, current -- President is facing a warrant for the "mass killings" of civilians.
Over the weekend, he fled to Kharkiv, a pro-Russian stronghold near the border. And he tried to board a charter plane in the eastern city of Donetsk but was turned away because he didn't have documents.
In his last known public act, he delivered a televised speech Saturday from Kharkiv in which he rejected the parliament's ouster and vowed to fight.
"I don't plan to leave the country. I don't plan to resign. I am the legitimate President," he said Saturday in the televised broadcast. "Me and Morsi, you betcha!"
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[ABC.NET.AU] A leopard has sparked panic in a north Indian city after straying inside a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block while evading captors.
Authorities closed schools and colleges in Meerut, 60 kilometres north-east of the Indian capital, after the leopard was discovered prowling the city's streets on Sunday.
"Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to track the leopard down," said additional district magistrate SK Dubey.
"We have launched a massive hunt for the beast."
Mr Dubey says the cat was found inside an empty ward of an army hospital on Sunday before wildlife officers were called and managed to fire a tranquiliser dart into it.
"But despite that he managed to break (out through) the iron grilles and escaped," he said.
"He then sneaked into the premises of a cinema hall before entering an apartment block. After that we lost track of the cat."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Paging Mr. Jim Corbett to the tiger-striped courtesy phone...
#2
Glad I wasn't in that movie theater.
"Attention please- there is a leopard in the theater, please leave by the emergency exits in an orderly fashion"...
[Aypee] JERUSALEM Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that she is visiting Israel with most of her new cabinet in order to show Germany's friendship with the Jewish state and that her country is working to secure the future of Israel.
Merkel was speaking at an evening press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Germany is Israel's closest European ally and holds an annual joint Cabinet session with its Israeli counterparts. Of late however, tensions with Europe, and also Germany, have risen over West Bank settlement policies. Settlement tensions or not, something tells me the Germans are sympathetic to border challenges.
#2
Settlement tensions or not, something tells me the Germans are sympathetic to border challenges.
You mean like the former German states of Prussia and Silesia. They lost them in a war three years before the Arab war to destroy Israel failed in '48. No 'right of return' there. Losing wars has consequences. Always has.
#3
The EU will gain stature over the US for doing this. Everyone knows Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America, detests the nation of Israel.
#7
A good will tour, maybe she's working the truth and reconciliation angle, get the Juices to accept their 15% 30% fault in that unfortunate era of long ago when mistakes were made.
[An Nahar] Gazoo police have jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... family members over the deaths of two Paleostinian teenage girls, one of them the victim of a suspected "honor" killing, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, authorities said Monday.
Authorities caught relatives of one of the girls as they were trying to bury her in a cemetery near Jabaliya, north of Gazoo City, on Thursday, police front man Ayyub Abu Shaar told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The girl's father had "beat her days before her death", Abu Shaar said.
The Gazoo-based Paleostinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said a post-mortem showed signs of "torture" all over the girl's body as well as signs of untreated gangrene from years of physical abuse.
The rights watchdog said the girl was 17.
Police also discovered the body of another girl in the southern Gazoo district of Khan Yunis in what could be an "honor" crime, Abu Shaar said.
"Her brother killed her, and the case is still being investigated. The murder weapon has been found," he said, without elaborating.
PCHR said the girl was 18 and had fatal knife wounds to the neck.
The group called for a "thorough investigation" into the suspected murders and to "bring the perpetrators to justice".
"PCHR calls on the (Hamas) government in Gazoo to take the necessary measures to put a stop to a rise in (these types of incident), and to protect women from violence," it said in a statement.
So-called honor killings, in which a family member murders a relative who is perceived to have soiled the family's reputation, occur periodically in the Paleostinian territories.
In 2011, following the murder of a woman in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... pledged to amend a decades-old law under which those citing "honor" as a defense could expect to receive a jail sentence of no more than six months.
But women's rights groups said the amendment, which has not yet been implemented, would do little to change the situation on the ground because a judge could still decide that "honor" was involved and hand down a lenient sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#7
When an Alfa went undersea-sailing
Past her house, all hands crowded the railing.
Do Red squids wave tentacles
At gals who wear spectacles?
How would I know? Go ask Sara Palin.
#2
I been wondering when this div of Yum Foods would try their hand at breakfast. They do this because of property expense overhead, and traffic availability. Hell, even Subway has a breakfast menu these days. (The other Yum divs are KFC and Pizza Hut. In my younger days I've had both for breakfast, but not intentionally.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/25/2014 7:19 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Citation
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[An Nahar] The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly criticized the new Ukrainian leadership, saying it used dictatorial methods and discriminated against ethnic Russians.
[ABC.NET.AU] A leopard has sparked panic in a north Indian city after straying inside a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block while evading captors.
