BarnBuster
Virtually Unknown Member
Military leadership aside, ultimately it was our our seemingly "infinite" availability of raw material to produce the ships, tanks, planes and armaments that a multi-front war gobbled up at a prodigious rate.
Production!Military leadership aside, ultimately it was our our seemingly "infinite" availability of raw material to produce the ships, tanks, planes and armaments that a multi-front war gobbled up at a prodigious rate.
That always stuck out to me as brilliant growing up. You have an entire workforce at home, why not utilize it! It totally changed the landscape and culture of America and the rest of the world!Absolutely. My mom worked in the Bendix plant assembling instrument panel gauges for B-29's. I've heard them (the women) referred to as another of America's secret weapons when the automotive, refrigerator and typewriter factories retooled for war production.
found this:
Overview
By Penny Colman
One of the most dramatic changes during World War II was the number of women who went to work. As the armed forces filled its ranks with manpower, industry filled its jobs with womanpower. For the duration of the war, the U.S. government and industry wooed American women to work in the war effort. The title of a song, "Rosie the Riveter," quickly became the catchphrase that represented all women war workers.
During World War II, more than six million women joined the workforce. In August 1943, Newsweek magazine reported: "They [women] are in the shipyards, lumber mills, steel mills, foundries. They are welders, electricians, mechanics, and even boilermakers. They operate streetcars, buses, cranes, and tractors. Women engineers are working in the drafting rooms and women physicists and chemists in the great industrial laboratories." More than two million women joined the war effort as clerical workers, nearly one million of whom were hired by the federal government. Women also became police officers, taxicab drivers, lawyers, statisticians, journalists, and members of symphony orchestras, as men left for the armed forces. Women ran farms, planted crops, tended animals, and harvested tons of vegetables, fruits, and grains.
Volunteers for the Civilian Defense took classes on how to care for the wounded, like these women in a first aid class in New York City in 1941. Photo Credit: Library of Congress
In addition, three million women served as Red Cross volunteers. Millions of women worked for the Civilian Defense as air-raid wardens, fire watchers messengers, drivers, auxiliary police. Women volunteers also devoted hours to scanning the sky with binoculars, looking out for enemy planes. Thousands of women joined the military through organizations like the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), and the Women's Army Corps (WAC).
About the time World War II ended, American factories had produced 296,429 airplanes, 102,351 tanks and self-propelled guns, 372,431 artillery pieces, 47 million tons of artillery ammunitions, 87,620 warships, and 44 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition. Time magazine called America's wartime production a miracle. The "miracle" would not have happened without Rosie the Riveter.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwii/ahf/reilly/index.htm
So no TRUMP!?
The award known as the Purple Heart has a history that reaches back to the waning days of the American Revolution. The Continental Congress had forbidden General George Washington from granting commissions and promotions in rank to recognize merit. Yet Washington wanted to honor merit, particularly among the enlisted soldiers. On August 7, 1782, his general orders established the Badge of Military Merit:
"... The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit directs whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings, over his left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding."
This award was open only to enlisted men and granted them the distinction of being permitted to pass all guards and sentinels as could commissioned-officers. The names of the recipients were to have been kept in a "Book of Merit" (which has never been recovered). At the present time there are three known recipients of the Badge of Military Merit: Sergeant Elijah Churchill, 2nd Continental Dragoons; Sergeant William Brown, 5th and Sergeant Daniel Bissel, 2nd Connecticut Continental Line Infantry.
Washington stated that the award was to be a permanent one, but once the Revolution ended, the Badge of Merit was all but forgotten until the 20th century.
General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing suggested a need for an award for merit in 1918, but it was not until 1932 that the Purple Heart was created in recognition of Washington's ideals and for the bicentennial of his birth. General Order No.3 announced the establishment of the award:
"...By order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart, established by General George Washington at Newburgh, August 7, 1782, during the War of the Revolution is hereby revived out of respect to his memory and military achievements.
By order of the Secretary of War:
Douglas MacArthur
General, Chief of Staff
On May 28, 1932, 137 World War I veterans were conferred their Purple Hearts at Temple Hill, in New Windsor, NY. Temple Hill was the site of the New Windsor Cantonment, which was the final encampment of the Continental Army in the winter of 1782-1783. Today, the National Purple Heart continues the tradition begun here in 1932, of honoring those who have earned the Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart has undergone many changes with respect to the criteria for being awarded. At first, the Purple Heart was exclusively awarded to Army and Army Air Corps personnel and could not be awarded posthumously to the next of kin. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order allowing the Navy to award the Purple Heart to Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guard personnel. Also in that year, the Purple Heart was made available for posthumous award to any member of the military killed on or after December 7, 1941.
Originally the Purple Heart was awarded for meritorious service. Being wounded was considered to be one type of merit. With the creation of the Legion of Merit in 1942, the award of the Purple Heart for meritorious service became unnecessary and was therefore discontinued. The Purple Heart, per regulation is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917 has been wounded, killed, or has died after being wounded.
Following World War II, with the Cold War and the changing nature of warfare and military operations, additional criteria were specified to broaden availability for the Purple Heart.
November 12, 1952
Executive Order 10409 authorizes posthumous Purple Heart awards to Navy, Coast Guard or Marine Corps personnel killed on or after April 5, 1917. (The Army and the Air Force are not formally included until 1962)
April 25, 1962
Executive Order 11016 authorized civilian Purple Hearts for those under competent military authority; it also authorized posthumous awards to those killed on or after April 5, 1917 upon application by their next of kin.
February 23, 1984
Executive Order 12464 authorizes the Purple Heart to be awarded for acts of terror as well as for wounds or death resulting from US Armed Forces personnel acting as part of a peacekeeping force outside of the United States or its territories.
November 30, 1993
Purple Hearts may be awarded for wounds or death resulting from “friendly fire” (unless it from willful misconduct). US Code 10 section 1129, per PL 103-160
February 10, 1996
PL 104-106 Section 521 expands Purple Heart eligibility to POWs wounded during capture or during captivity prior to April 25, 1962. (Policy interpretations had considered, and awarded the Purple Heart, on case by case bases to POWs captured after April 25, 1962)
May 19, 1998
Effective this date, the Purple Heart is limited to American military personnel, and civilian awards are eliminated.
October 1, 2008
The Department of Defense authorizes the Purple Heart for POWs (after December 7, 1941) who subsequently die in captivity. Information is from the Memo this date to secretaries of the military departments
April 28, 2011
The Department of Defense announces a standard which allows for a more standard way to evaluate a wounded individual for a Purple Heart resulting from a "non-penetrating wound".
February 6, 2015
The Department of Defense announces that eligibility has been extended to those wounded or killed by certain kinds domestic terrorist activities
The Somme sucked. I was not there but I heard some shit.WWI - July 1, 1916 - The Battle of the Somme begins
"The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of upper reaches of the River Somme in France. It was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front; more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history."
Ever read All Quiet on the Western Front?The Somme sucked. I was not there but I heard some shit.