Mississippi Gulf Coast recovering slowly

Here is a draft of a story I wrote for this Sunday’s Gazette, based on some reporting I did when I was in Biloxi last month and some follow-up reporting by telephone after returning to Cedar Rapids. For more on the recovery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, check the coverage in the Sun Herald.

Biloxi, Miss. – Billboards along Interstate 10 tell the mixed story of a resort town fighting its way back. Most signs invite visitors to the casino shows of yesteryear’s stars (Johnny Mathis, Gladys Knight, Engelbert Humperdinck). But one billboard targets local residents, hundreds of whom still live in FEMA trailers. The sign informs the locals that new flood insurance maps are ready.

The communities of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast have spent nearly four years learning how difficult, demanding and slow disaster recovery can be.

Progress is most obvious in the glitzy hotels and their busy casinos – beeping, flashing and teeming with gamblers. Hurricane Katrina tossed Mississippi’s dockside casinos around like beach toys when it struck Aug. 29, 2005. State lawmakers quickly decided that gambling on solid land wouldn’t corrupt this state’s conservative folk any worse than floating casinos. So the new structures are built on sturdy, elevated concrete platforms, firmly rooted in the ground, even when they extend out over the water.

But drive west along Highway 90 from the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino and new buildings are outnumbered by bare foundations or once-magnificent homes where plywood windows block the views of the gulf.

“It’s dismal to see the slow pace that some of these homes are coming back,” said insurance agent Dave Treutel.

As vast as the devastation was in Eastern Iowa’s 2008 floods, it didn’t approach the magnitude of Katrina’s destruction. First-anniversary reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed 564 Iowa households needing temporary housing units as a result of the 2008 floods and tornadoes, compared to 48,000 Mississippi families. FEMA still had 632 trailers providing “temporary” quarters in Mississippi this July 2 and another 1,796 families using Mississippi Cottages provided by the state.

The disasters can’t compare, said Cedar Rapids politician and flood victim Kathy Potts, who grew up in Mississippi and spent 11 years living on the Gulf Coast. When Potts visited her old home a year after Katrina, she was unable to tell where she was. “It just wiped everything out.”

 Liz Joachim’s wholesale distribution business, Corso Inc., had not flooded in the 85 years since her father started the company, including 1969’s historic Hurricane Camille. Joachim didn’t have flood insurance, only wind insurance. Katrina destroyed one of her buildings and 26 trucks and left 18 inches of water in her warehouse, destroying $1.5 million worth of inventory. She lost $4 million, she says, but her wind insurance carrier blamed the losses on water, offering only $250,000 to cover wind damage.

That was a common lament for homeowners as well.

Treutel’s insurance-agency staff of 10 had 8,000 Katrina claims to process. In the hurricane’s aftermath, he learned that flood maps in the swiftly growing coastal area had not been updated in 20 years, meaning people were building in high-risk areas without knowing that they should have insurance. He is frustrated that Congress still has not passed legislation to modernize flood insurance.

While Congress rushed aid to Mississippi and Louisiana after Katrina much swifter than to Iowa, the struggle for federal money continues. “It does take a very, very long time to get that federal funding moving,” said Rhonda Rhodes, executive director of the Hancock Housing Resource Center in Bay St. Louis.

Two huge issues in Mississippi’s recovery pace have been building standards and getting insurance for new buildings. Some insurance companies have left the state; others have raised rates. The number of homeowners getting insurance from the state’s Wind Pool, which covers people who can’t get other insurance, has nearly tripled.

Mississippi Cottages will become permanent homes for about 1,100 families. The homes aren’t sturdy enough for the “velocity zones” close to the coast, but if you secure them to a foundation that’s high enough for current standards and find insurance, that can be your new home.

As housing stock is replenished, population is growing, but recent Census Bureau estimates show the towns of Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Long Beach each still with more than 3,000 fewer people than when Katrina hit.

Business recovery has been mixed, said Brian Sanderson, president of the Gulf Coast Business Council, who came to Des Moines last summer to brief government and business leaders on the recovery process. Manufacturing bounced back quickly and construction boomed. Retail sales actually rose as people bought new appliances and furniture. But many small businesses have struggled.

Snapper’s Seafood Restaurant, elevated on stilts with plenty of room underneath for parked cars or storm surge, stands out as one of the few non-casino businesses open along the beach. Katrina left a bare concrete slab where the business had operated since 1993.

Most of the 15 restaurants along the beach before Katrina reopened further inland if they came back at all, said David Mason, manager of the restaurant since 2002.

Before Snapper’s could rebuild, owner Mark Balius had to wait for new standards to be adopted (the restaurant is 20 feet above sea level, 8 feet higher than before). Because of overlapping jurisdictions, the restaurant needed to get city, county and state permits. The restaurant finally reopened in May.

Joachim, who supplies convenience stores and vending machines, once had 12 routes stocking vending machines. Now she has five. The mom-and-pop shops that were most of Corso’s wholesale customers “are slowly coming back,” Joachim said. “The ones that are open are doing well because there are so few of them.”

While casinos present the surest sign of progress, it’s been uneven. Gambling revenues in the first quarter of 2008 matched pre-Katrina levels, but 2009 revenues slumped with the economy. Construction at Harrah’s Margaritaville Casino stopped in the fall. It’s just a huge concrete platform on the beach, with colored banners bearing Jimmy Buffett lyrics and a promise of good times to come. While the project hasn’t been scrapped, Harrah’s has not said when construction will resume.

Real estate agent Mark Cumbest, an eighth-generation resident of the Gulf Coast and member of a state commission on recovery, said it’s more important to rebuild a community that can withstand the next hurricane than to rebuild fast. “We’ll have better planning, better construction, better zoning,” he said. “We’re going to be a much stronger Gulf Coast, a better-planned Gulf Coast.”

Though Rhodes is candid about the struggle the region faces, she isn’t discouraged. “It took 150 years to build this community,” she said. “We’ve only had four years to rebuild.”

My photos of the Gulf Coast: Tree trunks carved into sculptures, Snapper’s Seafood Restaurant, bare foundations with a gulf view.

Your digital profile tells people a lot

I have commiserated and shared advice recently with some friends who lost their jobs as the newspaper industry contracts. Other people who still have jobs are in the same situation I often find myself: trying to develop relationships with potential sources, partners, clients or vendors.

My first advice in either situation: Check out and update your digital profile. This is a good idea for any journalist (or workers in many other fields). Even if you’re not trying to find a job or develop business, someone may be checking you out: sources; people you just met at a conference; someone considering you for the fellowship you just applied for.

Whatever the context, if I want to learn about someone, I am going to pay more attention to what I can find about that person online by myself than to what he or she sends me or tells me. So you should investigate your online profile and see how you look to others.

The first thing most people are going to do if they check you out is Google you. What would they find on the first page? In this respect, I am fortunate that I have a distinctive last name. Google (or search Bing) “Steve Buttry” or “Stephen Buttry” and all 10 hits on the first page are me. If you have a more common name and don’t come up often or at all on the first page or two of a search by name alone, consider how a prospective employer (or someone else checking your digital profile) might narrow the search, possibly using the name(s) of the organization(s) and city(ies) where you have worked. See what shows up and what that says about you.

If you Google my name (either way), you don’t get just the top 10 hits by Google’s algorithm. You also see my Google profile at the bottom of the first page of results (not on Bing, of course; I haven’t heard whether Bing lets you make a profile). If you have a more common name, your profile still appears at the bottom of the first page, though you’ll have some company. I Googled a friend with a more common name and that first results page has four profiles at the bottom. Each listing has the name and then something about the person, city and/or employer. So if the first page normally doesn’t turn up something about you, the first thing someone will see about you in Googling you is the profile you have compiled.

To develop a Google profile, simply Google “me” and click the link that says ”create a Google profile.” You can post a photograph, link to other photos in Flickr or Picasa, fill in fields about your education, career, life and interests. You also can add links. My profile has links to my blog, to my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection, to  various writing by and about me, to my social network profiles, to blog pages about my journalism career in general or specifically about my journalism training career.

See how I have guided the search of a potential business partner considering whether to hire Gazette Communications and me for some consulting on innovation: On the first page of Google results, you see my profile. Click on that and you are just a click from links that tell you more about me or show my writing or show writing where other people are praising my company and me. Check out what’s online about you and guide your prospective employers, clients and partners to that material using your Google profile.

I also developed a Google map of my career, with further links to more stories, columns, blog posts and so on. In addition to whatever the content shows, the map shows that I know how to make a Google map. I’m not particularly adept at it, which people who know more than me about maps might be able to see pretty quickly. But those people will see that I’m learning and trying. And let’s face it, most people who look at that map have never even done a Google map. They don’t know how easy it is, so they might think I’m more skilled than I really am. I’m not going to oversell my skills, but I also don’t mind if people who are checking me out jump to exaggerated conclusions.

What digital skills can you show by links from your profile? If you have skills with interactive databases or video, make sure you link to them from your profile.

Another place you will be checked out is in your LinkedIn profile. How would you look to a prospective employer, partner or client who examined your LinkedIn profile? Most profiles I see appear as though the person just has a few business contacts and doesn’t use digital tools much. If your list of connections is pretty light, you can build it up pretty quickly by searching for current and former colleagues and classmates using tools on LinkedIn. As those people connect with you, check out their connections and you will usually find some mutual acquaintances to invite, expanding your circle further.

People checking you out on LinkedIn will also note whether anyone recommends you. You can ask people for recommendations. Or you can write some recommendations for people you respect. As I blogged when I was at the American Press Institute, when you write recommendations for people, they frequently reciprocate.

If you blog or use services such as SlideShare or TripIt, you can add applications so that recent posts or presentations or upcoming trips show on your LinkedIn profile. In addition to telling more about you, these applications show that you do more than kick the tires when you start using a new digital tool.

I should add that using these tools has other benefits. When I was visiting Reno recently for a presentation to editors of Swift Communcations, a friend from Washington who was working in a Maynard Institute program at the University of Nevada Reno saw my travel plans on LinkedIn. She emailed me and asked me to make a brief presentation for Maynard. And in the process I saw her and three other friends who were at UNR.

Facebook can be a troubling digital profile for young people who partied a lot in college with friends who had cameras. Yes, you can make Facebook private. But who wants to say no to a potential employer who wants to friend you? Take a look at your profile (and at photos elsewhere that have tagged you) and remove (or ask friends to remove the tags) any that aren’t part of the image you want to present to employers, sources or clients who are checking you out.

You also should consider what your blog tells someone about you and what it says if you’re not blogging. For instance, I should work on the vanilla appearance of my blog (that’s been on my next-week list for a long time).

The image you present online is not more important than the work you can do. But you may not get to show what you can do if you don’t show someone first in your digital profile.

 

Twitter tips for journalists

This is my handout for a workshop for Gazette staffers today. If you already read Leading your staff into the Twitterverse, some of this will look familiar. That was geared for top newsroom leaders. This is geared for front-line journalists. But much of the advice is the same. I also encourage you to check out two related posts, one with advice from another journalist and one with links you might find helpful.

Journalists need to use Twitter. I know it has a silly name and that makes it easy to make fun of. Jay Rosen suggests we think of it as mindcasting. Jill Geisler muses that journalists would have reacted better if it were named “teletype” or “wireservice.” Too bad. Bulldog editions had a silly name, too, and we still took them seriously.

I don’t know how long Twitter will remain important and useful for journalists in the swiftly changing digital world. But right now a journalist who doesn’t use Twitter is running a huge risk of missing something important.  

Journalists can use Twitter for a variety of uses:

• You can monitor the activities and discussions of people in your community or on your beat.
• You can connect with people who will provide you helpful tips and information.
• You can connect with colleagues and share ideas with them or get ideas from them.
• You can “crowdsource” stories by asking your followers for story ideas or information.
• You can quickly find people who witnessed or experienced an event.
• You can drive traffic to your content.
• You can improve your writing as you learn to make points directly in just 140 characters. (If a lead doesn’t fit in a tweet, it’s probably too long. It really helps me write better leads on my blog and columns.)

Some Twitter basics for journalists

I won’t bother in this handout to tell you how to get started on Twitter, because I think most who attend this workshop already have accounts. However, if you don’t have an account or haven’t done much with it, check out the “Getting started,” vocabulary or “Your first week on Twitter” sections in Leading your staff into the Twitterverse.

A few things journalists should keep in mind in starting and developing their accounts:

• If you can’t use some version of your own name for your username, be sure to identify yourself in your profile by real name, position, affiliation and city. Any journalist who is using Twitter professionally should be explicit in identification, even if you mix personal with professional in your Twitter profile.
• Add a picture to your profile, too. In addition to being transparent, this will make people more likely to follow you.
• Include your blog link in your profile, too, if you blog. If not, include a link to a company web site or to a site that tells more about you.
• Don’t protect your updates. Twitter works best when you are open and transparent.
• Post some updates before you start following people. You want to give them some reason to follow you back.

 Following people

 Choose some people to follow (this means their updates will show up on your Twitter home page).

• At the top of your home page, click “find people.” Click “find on other networks” and you can see whether any of your contacts on a gmail, hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL or MSN account are already on Twitter.  
• Under the “Find on Twitter” tab, look for people by name.
• Ask regular sources and new sources if they are on Twitter and exchange user names if they are.
• As you encounter new sources, search for them on Twitter if you don’t have a chance to ask them.
• At Twellow.com, you can check for people to follow in your community or for other journalists to follow.
• At NearbyTweets, you can check for people who are twittering now in your community (or a community you are writing about).
• At WeFollow.com, you can look for people who have chosen topical tags, ranked in order of their numbers of followers.
• As you follow people in your community or colleagues in the business, take a look at their followers and see if you see anyone there you want to follow.
• When someone follows you, check the profile and the recent tweets to see if this is someone you want to follow.
• When someone you enjoy following replies to someone else with an interesting tweet or “retweets” a link to something interesting, click on the username of the third party and decide whether that’s someone you want to follow.
• Don’t follow too many people too fast. 
• Consider using a Twitter app to help organize your tweets by kind of follower: officials on your beat, people in the community, other journalists, etc.
• If you’re not interested in someone’s tweets, you can stop following by clicking on the profile, clicking the arrow next to “following” and then clicking “remove.”

Linking

 One of Twitter’s best uses is to share links to interesting blogs and other web content with people who share your interests. (This blows away the argument that Twitter’s 140-character limit leads to shallowness. Your tweet may be little more than “read this,” but if the link takes someone to journalism of quality and depth, you share way beyond the 140 characters.)

• Compress links. Don’t waste your precious character limit on huge URLs. Cut and paste the URL you want to share into one of the web sites that compress URLs for you: tinyurl.com, is.gd, bit.ly or snurl.
• Write a headline. Tell people something about the link you’re passing along. Actually, 140 characters (maybe 120 without the link) gives you way more space than many headlines, so this kind of tweeting is right in a good editor’s sweet spot.
• Share links liberally. If you read a good blog or see something online that’s thought-provoking or funny, tweet a quick link to it. You will find that this sharing of links among colleagues is one of the best uses of Twitter.
• Consider Publish2. If you’re not already using Publish2, I recommend trying it to improve your link journalism. If you use Publish2, you can enter your Twitter information and with one application, save links to Publish2, Twitter and Delicious (and Facebook if you’re using the Twitter app there).
• Link to your content. When you have new content — story, blog, photo, video, multimedia — tweet a link to it, telling a little about it. If this is all you do, some followers will be annoyed. If you interact with your tweeps, some promotion of content is welcome and expected.
• Link to related content. Link to content by your colleagues or even your competitors or to content from distant media sources that may be of interest to people who share your interests.

What should you tweet about?

 As with any other writing format, each tweep develops a personal style. Find the right style for you. Some suggestions (reject any that don’t work for you):

• Don’t really answer the question. Twitter’s basic question “What are you doing?” isn’t really answered in most tweets. No one really cares that you’re eating breakfast, unless something funny happened or you read an interesting story at breakfast or found a great new place for breakfast. Mathew Ingram suggests not answering “What are you doing?” but rather “What am I thinking?” Or, I would add, “What do I want to know?”
• Tweet links to new posts on your blog (and then check to see how many page views come from Twitter – and Facebook if you’re using the Twitter app there).
• Retweet links when someone in the community tweets a link to something interesting or when a colleague tweets a link to a blog you found interesting.
• Reply to some people in your community, especially (but not only) when they are commenting on something in your paper or on your site.
• When you have something funny or insightful to say, tweet.
• Don’t tweet when you really don’t have anything to say.
• Don’t be too serious in your tweets. Twitter is a bright and breezy communication tool and you’re not going to fully understand it if you don’t experience it the way your tweeps do.

Using Twitter in news coverage

Twitter will be useful to reporters and other journalists in a variety of ways:

• Reporters should follow the feeds of any officials on their beats using Twitter. They may break news on Twitter, using it as a format for press releases or quotes. They may Twitter from closed meetings. 
• If people in the community follow a journalist you, they are a quick resource when you’re seeking sources, examples for a story, questions to ask in your reporting or even story ideas. A quick question to your tweeps will frequently bring a response that helps for a story. Keep in mind that you are crowdsourcing to a small segment of the population, so don’t use this as your only crowdsourcing tool. Take the steps to seek diversity in your sources. But Twitter is a good place to start (and Twitter may help diversify your sources, because the tweeps may be younger than your average news-story source and less likely to interact with the print edition). Also, be aware that competitors who follow you will be able to read and react to crowdsourcing tweets.
• Twitter is valuable for story ideas, either to ask people about a good angle to take on one of those routine or annual stories or simply to follow the community chatter on Twitter and be alert for tips and ideas as they pop up.
• Tweet live coverage of an event, either on Twitter alone or as a feed into CoverItLive.
• When you post to a blog or post a video, story, photo, slideshow, multimedia project or database online, tweet a link and, if you’ve been active enough to develop a lot of followers, you’ll see a bump in traffic coming directly from Twitter.

Using Twitter for breaking news

Breaking news is probably where Twitter shows its greatest value again and again. When news breaks in your community, you can connect with sources and gather information in a variety of ways:

• If you’re following lots of people in your community, you may see tweets from some eyewitnesses or some people feeling the impact.
• You can use Twitter Search to search for keywords that might be likely to pop up in tweets about the breaking story, such as “flood,” “tornado” or “crash.”
• You can use Twitter Search to find hashtag discussions already forming around the event, again trying different keywords.
• Search also for photos posted on Twitpic.
• Use NearbyTweets to see what people near the news site are tweeting.
• Feed a hashtag or some feeds of people witnessing the news into your blog or story.

Ethical issues

As you start using Twitter (and other social networks), keep journalism ethics in mind. The principles of journalism ethics – seek the truth and report it; minimize harm; act independently; be accountable – don’t change, but social networks present unfamiliar circumstances for making ethical decisions. Some matters to consider and discuss with your supervisors:

• Identification. If you might ever use a profile professionally, you should identify yourself by name, position and affiliation.
• Personal vs. professional. Decide whether you should maintain separate personal and professional Twitter accounts. Some journalists do and I respect their decisions. I don’t keep separate accounts. My view is that we need to learn how to use social media tools the way the world uses them and lots of people mix the personal and professional when using social media. So I use my Twitter account for personal and professional communications, but I do so knowing that people are always viewing me as a leader at Gazette Communications. So I conduct myself professionally on Twitter, even if it’s a more casual, personal and fun version of professional conduct than I’m used to. Personal communication helps build the connections that make Twitter a strong form of community connection. I don’t think I ever got more responses from tweeps than when I tweeted about my nephew’s leukemia treatment.
• Verification. Reporters should be as careful and skeptical about facts they learn and contacts they make through Twitter as they would be about facts or contacts encountered elsewhere.
• Language. The language of Twitter can get pretty casual and foul, with abbreviations such as WTF and BS thrown around casually. Journalists should be careful with the language they use on Twitter. If you use language that you would not use in print or on the air, consider how you would justify that to your supervisor. 
• Opinions. The Twitterverse can be pretty opinionated. Discuss with your supervisor whether opinions are acceptable in your tweets and whether any particular topics might be off-limits for opinionated tweets.

 The American Press Institute has a grant for a series of seminars on social networks and other ethical challenges of the digital age. Contact me if you are interested in bringing an Upholding and Updating Ethical Standards seminar to your newsroom (or to cosponsor a seminar hosted by a press association or university). Most of the costs of the seminar are subsidized by the grant.

I posted the handout, Journalism ethics in social networks, developed for the seminar, on this blog.

More resources

As noted above, I have two supplemental posts:

• Andria Krewson of the Charlotte Observer answered some questions I posed about using Twitter for journalism and I posted her advice separately.
• I also posted links you might find helpful as you are learning Twitter.

Here are the slides I used with the workshop.

Here is the liveblog in which I will seek advice from Twittering journalists during today’s workshop:
Twitter workshop

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s war diary, continued: “16 below. What a day to ride in a jeep!”

This is the fourth installment of excerpts from the World War II diary of Army Chaplain Frank M. Arnold, my uncle. My notes and translations (using Google) are in italics. Earlier installments told of assignments in the U.S. and England, of his first few weeks of combat in France and of continued fighting and a rest break. Now he returns to action late in 1944:

Frank Arnold in his chaplain's jeep

11/9 This is it! Started out rainy. Big tank battle. Then what a symphony! Thousands of heavy bombers. The air was full of them. What a beating the Krauts are going to take today! We hit a regular blizzard. The going is pretty tough. Ran into the ditch. Had a flat tire. Lots of P 47s. Spent the night in a “deserted village.”

11/11 Armistice Day. Visited CCB. A number of casualties came in today. Germans counter-attacking pretty hard — but not hard enough.

11/12 Moved out again early this morning. Everything is smashed and everything is German. Stopped quite a while in Lemhoff (Lemoncourt) where everything is “Caput.” Snowed for several hours. Getting cold. Snowed all night.

11/13 Getting in some dead ones in bad shape — but we are still pushing ahead. I think there is mail from home.

11/15 There are all kinds of farm animals around that the GIs are caring for. They milk the cows, feed the horses (and a little calf). Got a good GI bath. All we are getting in is frozen feet and Trench Foot cases. Got three letters from home.

11/18 Things change rapidly. CCB has moved to Courbesseaux, and 46-B to Drouville. Wonder what is in the wind now. The folks are fixing a little package for me of assorted edibles. Made rounds. Reterned to my “2nd family”  for the night.

11/21 Moved to Dieuze (Duss). Immediately after arrival found a young woman and one day old baby in indescribably dirty basement hole. I got Steve, and held the flashlight while he baptized the baby and administered the “last Sacrament” to the mother. Heresy! Found Reformed church in good shape. Doug D. played the organ for a little while.

11/26 Service in Luth. Ch. at Mittersheim. Big shell hole right over the altar. Two signs on either side of pulpit: “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen Herr Zabaoth.” (How lovely are thy dwellings, Mr. Zabaoth) and “Lasset das Wort Christi unter euch reichlich wohnen” (Let the Word of Christ dwell among you richly). Big picture of bro. M.L. (Martin Luther, I presume) beside altar. They use the crucifix. A few casualties drifted in all day. 53-A took a shellacking.

11/30 Returned to Fenetrange. Dick came over, and we sang a little.

12/1 Move to Wolfskirchen. Met the old pastor — Denzler. Took him to adjacent town to bury a young boy. Got shot at a little. Had good services in his church. Sang various German songs with our hosts. When we sang “Ein’ Feste Burg” (translation is “A Solid Castle.” It’s the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”) they wept. They had been singing it in the basement during the shelling.”

12/7 Pearl Harbor Day. Rumours all over the place.

12/11 No mail. Gen’l. Patton dropped in on CCB. Emmet, Steve and I took a ride. They spent night at the monastery; I at the Boulangerie. Took Noel paquets pour toute la famille (packages for the whole family). They almost wept. Swell folks all…

12/13 Church at Mittersheim. Here I discover a much more tolerant attitude between Evangelisch (Evangelical) and Katolisch (Catholic) than in the U.S. 

The Battle of the Bulge started Dec. 16 and lasted more than a month. Uncle Frank’s unit joined the battle.

12/19 0200 Started for 1st Army front to try to stop big German counter attack. Drove 151 miles into Belgium and Luxembourg. Cracked up twice.

12/20 Krauts are capturing hospitals, map depots and small tactical units wholesale. What now?… Retreated quickly about 15 miles.

12/21 Nazi tanks are in Bercheaux. We were yesterday. 78th is just No. of us now. I went back to Bercheaux with “Manny” because “Si” was afraid to. Nothing happened.

12/22 First thing I heard this morning was petite Colette: “Bonjours, Americaines.” We are advancing, but not fast.

12/23 We are taking some pretty heavy losses, but are stopping their advance. Germans are using American tanks, vehicles, uniforms, dog tags, gas, rations, etc… Saw my first “buzz bomb.”

12/24 Three services, incl. a candle light service at CCB in a Germ. beer hall. Three Germ. prisoners sitting in the corner joined in singing “Silent Night.”

12/25 Two services. Moved to Fauvillers.

12/26 Drove to Haraucourt to pick up my blouse and pinks, etc… Had a delightful time with family… Got lovely photo of Simone.

12/29 Visited Luxembourg with Joe Bowman. Krauts bombing us pretty much.

12/30 Germans counter attacking again with tanks and planes.

12/31 Two N.Y. services. Krauts bombed Arlon. B-17 dropped two 1000 lb bombs outside Wittry — I wasn’t far…

1/1/1945 New Years Day. Arlon got it again.

1/4 Krauts keep on counterattacking. Dick Cook hit.

1/5 Shelled from 2300 to 0200 last night. I slept through it all.

1/6 Dull day. Made rounds. Tried to find Dick Cook. He is in England already.

1/10 Four packages: cookies from Teregawas; coffee and candy from Helen; robe, peanut butter and candy from Florence…Very secret move…all insignia removed or covered. Spent night out of convoy — after sitting for six hours.

1/11 Found rest of units. Saved about 6 1/2 hours on the road. We are in Third Army reserve. Hope it means a rest.

It did mean a rest. Though the next couple weeks included a couple references to shells hitting nearby, Uncle Frank recorded no references to heavy combat action, writing mostly about religious services and visiting with natives. A couple times he wrote “lazed around.” Highlights:

1/17 Two services. Am falling in love with Annie, my five year old neighbor girl, who waits for me morning, noon and night.

1/21  Three worsh. services and three comm. services. Si sang at Bettembourg. George, Dick and I sang “Lead Kindly Light.” Col Olbon came to church “for the first time since being in the Army.”

1/25 Returned. Brrr! 16 below. What a day to ride in a jeep!

1/27 Made the rounds. Got a Bronze Star Medal.

1/28 Four services. Played a little chess in the evening.

1/30 Went back to Bettembourg on business. Nothing much…Two alcohol poisoning cases came in — one dead.

The next and final installment will take the diary to V-E Day and beyond, including the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp.

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s war diary continues: “This is the day Satan hath made”

 

 8/16 While sleeping blissfully smashed peep against prime mover. Am now being towed in by similar p.m… We seem to be well into France…

8/18 Gen’l. D. left to take over Div…Got Anniv. card from Florence. He maketh even the wrath of man to serve Him. Borrowed a Bible from Dick Irving!! From this something will follow! CCA took Orleans…Col. Bixby is new C.O. Off again! This part of France looks more like Midwest — wheat fields, gently rolling hills, etc. … Got Anniv. Card from Flo — citizens are throwing tomatoes, pears, apples. They are getting to be worse than the snipers!

8/21 Back to the wars…Made some fudge!! If I die, I’ll die happy…Slow dreary drive…Jerry is on the receiving end of a lot of 240 fire. How can they continue? Black as ink. Got lost. Hit an ambulance.

8/22. Travelling all day. Spent hr. with 8 y.o. boy who was at consid. pains to teach me the language. Sat on a dozen eggs…Progress seemeth slow. We are stopped 7 mi. short of our objective.

8/24 Quiet day. Had lovely eve. serv. at CCB with crimson sunset. Comm. serv. was very well rec’d.

8/25 Off again. Hope it won’t be long now. Hitler must be crazy. Our P47s strafed a column of Free French!!! Got a few bad m.g. cases in tonight.

8/26 First thing — we shot down a JU— (C-47) with 15 women and 7 men going from Bordeaux to Hamburg. Got a Silver Star award for the Pont Scorff affair (described in the last installment, Aug. 8, 1944). Germ column is trying to cut us off from the right. We shall see…

9/2 Five years ago today promised to love, honour and cherish the lady who is among humankind the dearest to my heart…Happy day! We have outrun our gas and other supplies…Waiting…CCA took quite a beating from rocket firing planes.

9/4 Am now Sr. CCB Chapl. A Fr. Cadonic rep’td. in as repl. for Ernst. Today is Labour Day. No School today. News is good via radio…Did lndry…took swim (cold!)…Got lovely package from Flo…Sent home presents to all but H (my mother, Harriet, his younger sister), and S (Frank’s youngest sister, Shirley) and the Hoels (his older sister, Helen Hoel, and her husband, Joel)…Weather is getting cold lately –

9/6 Service in 46C. Went “boating” in the Meuse, using shovels for paddles. Remains of Germ 19th Army being pushed onto our flank…Mortar and Art’y fire commencing.

9/8 Got 17 eggs from generous farmers. Had lovely “hilltop” service for 51st and 253d.

9/11 From the looks of things our prev. battles will prove to have been picnics…From now on there will be some bloody noses…Bridges all out across the Moselle…Women pushing baby buggies all along the road, trying to get away from the artillery fire…Stopped for several hours by Moselle river defences. Moved on again at 1900. Casualties pretty badly shot up coming in…Eng. having rough time getting three bridges in…A few planes over during the night. They couldn’t find us…

9/12 “One more river to cross…” Stiff tank battle going on across Moselle. We lost a few from the 8th. Got 4 letters from Flo, 2 others… Long Toms shelled them continuously all  night…

9/13 This is turning into quite a slug-fest…Jerry strafed a little this A.M. Spent an amusing 1/2 hr. with Bernadette (6 y.o.) who came thru this area mooching “gaton, bonbon, cigarette, shoogum, chocolate” etc. ad. inf. Elle est tres jolie aussi (It is also very nice)… Crossed the Moselle — over a bridge that cost a lot of lives… (Here Uncle Frank’s typed copy of the diary has a passage handwritten in another language that appears to be Greek; I have not translated.) Today we got in a bunch of French women and children — all shot up…”Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.” Germ. 6th Inf. Div. coming down from Nancy to try to stop us. We shelled them all night with long toms.

9/14 Steady stream of casualties all day long. Wish the war were as nearly over as the U.S. news commentators seem to make it!! Our artillery moving up, which we like to see…Good mail today. Today we got in prisoners who had been in the Wehrmacht for three days. They thought they were “going to a training camp.”

9/15 Cold, gray and misty. Moved c. 7 mi., got in a few nasty casualties, incl. G.I. hit in leg with phosporous shell. Wound smoked! And woman with breast cut off with shrapnel. A 6 y.o. boy and 6 y.o. girls both of whom lost arms in a booby trap, a very old woman with left eye shot out…I wonder if Hitler ever say anything like this..

9/17 Miserablest of all wet, cold days. Moved all day slowly, fighting as we went. CCA was attacked by 1550 Germans. They killed all but 12, who were wounded, and 600 whom they captured.

9/19 Met 4 y.o. Jeanette whose mama had recently been shot by Nazis. Fred got picture…Well, we didn’t get far this time either. Stopped by Maginot Line guns. G.S.P. Jr. (presumably Gen. George S. Patton Jr., with whom Uncle Frank served) is now travelling with us.

9/20 We may hit the border today…1600 hrs — we haven’t moved an inch. Have been shelled quite a bit…This compared with Raids. Diagram of 150 shell landing (the hand-drawn diagram shows a shell hitting 9 feet away)

9/21 Yesterday was a good day to live through. We seem to be up against pretty tough opposition. Expert opinion has it that the reason we are alive today is that we are in very soft, spongy soil. Shell penetrates too deeply before exploding. They let us have quite a bit of shelling again. Continual fog and mist helps them. Had to call off a service at CCB. Had a good one for 46-C, 126_B and 253-S.

9/22 They moved some mortars in on us under cover of heavy fog, and gave us a good going over this morning as we were finishing breakfast…Found much peace and joy in meditation on the 12th chapter of St. Luke this morning…large scale battle raging on our left flank. Heavier even than Raids…We missed our usual supper shelling — thanks to 16 “Thunderbolts” overhead. Good boys! Supper was good for a change…

9/23 Lots of mortar and art’y. exchange today in incessant, ceaseless rain…Rained all day…Nothing attempted, noting done…Shelled quite a bit…

9/24 This is the day that Satan hath made. A day to remember — or try to forget…Shelled continuously from 1530-1430 when we retreated. All this in a steady howling rain that soaked doctors, aid men and casualties. Don’t know what losses Jerry had, but this was a major set-back for us…About dark it began to get noisy again — but this time we were making the noise. 155s and 240s worked on them all night long. (Handwritten note says, “Got Bronze Star for this day.)

9/25 Cold, wet, dreary…all day…Had small service inside at CCB. Everyone — almost — went to sleep. Must have been good!

9/26 “Don’t know why — there’s no sun up in the sky — stormy weather…keeps rainin’ all the time…” (From lyrics to “Stormy Weather”)

9/27 Went to Nancy. Got home sick…Nice place…Got HOT SHOWER!!!! Bought stuff for all my ladies…

9/30 Cold and dreary. What will we do when Winter comes? Had meeting of Protestant chaplains at St. Nicholas. Enjoyed pleasant interlude with Josette and Yvette, both 12 years old.

Uncle Frank spent  most of October and early November behind the front lines, so he interacted more with the French and saw less military action than he had seen in August and September. He clearly had the family sweet tooth (as do I) as well as a fudge recipe that worked with ingredients you could find in a combat unit. He reported making fudge on Oct. 3, 11 (”made fudge in 5 gal. oil can, using tent pole for spoon”), 24 and 29 (for the Meuillets, a French family he befriended and visited frequently over a two-week stretch; they made him a cherry pie and “delicious hot bread”). A few highlights of that stretch:

10/5 Service at 37th Tank Bn. Went to Nancy and blew 2 months’ pay. The boys are all excited about the prospect of relief. This is our 81st consecutive day in the line.

10/7 Being relieved by 26th (Yankee) Div… our 83d day! Got Silver Star Medal…also small wall tent.

10/8 Was a bright sunny day — mirabile dictu (wonderful to relate)! No mail… Confidential report received today states that after crossing the Moselle River, from 9/12 to 9/29 inclusive the 4th Armored Div. met and defeated 3 Infantry Divisions, 1 armored division, 2 armored Brigades, 5 combat teams, 6 separate regiments and 12 separate battalions. They took 3009 prisoners, killed 3040 (known), knocked out over 100 tanks, 67 guns, 59 armored cards, and 514 other vehicles.

10/17 Good “4 preacher” meeting at the 10th Inf. Dined with l’Abbey, Capt. Irving, Steve, Crane, Fr. Cabret…Fr. Cabret says that 4 ft. of snow and 15 to 20 below zero is not uncommon here…

10/23 What a day! Was “Father Arnold” at the Redemptorist House in St. Nicholas. Had a little trouble explaining my wedding ring. Put on a feed for them that they will never forget. Made quite a hit with the 2nd in command.

11/8 Services for CCB, 8th, 24th, 22-S, 53-C, 489-C and 51st. Had a profitable talk with Dick. I must pray for him…Evening with family (the Meuillets). What a family! They all wept when I told them I was going. Simone: “Je vous embrasse pour Lynn.” (I kiss you to Lynn.) Oo la la la! God bless them all.

Combat resumed the next day. The next installment will describe the fighting and cold weather that ensued, including the Battle of the Bulge.

 Chaplain Frank M. Arnold, my uncle, kept a diary during World War II. I wrote in two previous posts about his preparation in the United States and England and then about his first few weeks in France, starting in July 1944. My notes and translations from Google are in italics. Uncle Frank used ellipses a lot. Those are his, not places where I have cut anything out. I am quoting entries in full, though I omit some entries to condense the story. We pick up the story in France in August 1944:

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s war diary, continued: “indescribable hell”

This continues my excerpts from the World War II diary of my uncle, Frank M. Arnold II, an Army chaplain, pictured here about a decade after the war with son Frankie, daughter Jean and wife Florence, right. The first installment told of his time in the United States, Scotland and England in 1943 and ‘44.

Where you see ellipses, they were part of his entries. I am not sure whether they signify breaks between multiple entries in a single day or whether he just used them a lot or whether he was not typing everything from his handwritten diaries (I doubt this). I will not use all the entries, but will publish entries that I use in full. I will not try to explain abbreviations unless I am pretty sure of them. My commentary will be in italics, but mostly this will be his actual entries, which speak well for themselves. Uncle Frank occasionally commented in French or German. I provide translation in italics using Google. We pick up the story in July 1944 as he prepares to cross the English Channel:

7/9 0415 wakened, loaded aboard LCT 614. Rain, wind, cold, wet. Pulled out at 1400. 1430 turned back — too rough. Left again 2230.

7/10 Rough and stormy all day.

7/11 Lying off St. Marie du Mer about 25 mi. from Cherbourg. Listening to big guns. Waiting for tide. Countless cargo and warships in bay. 1800 hrs landed and went to transit area “B.” Passed indescribable hell. Dug in. Quite a bit of noise during the night.

7/12 Moved to Port Baille, c. 7 mi. behind front. Can hear artillery constantly. Bivouaced in Normandy Apple orchard — no blossoms. Hiked to closest town where friendly natives produced cider and tried to teach us the language. Kids were friendly — as usual. Women doing family washing in primitive public troughs. Kids begging “shoo gum” and “bon bon.” Except for vegetables the country has obviously been bled white. Ragged clothing, makeshift shoes, etc… Fields still full of mines.

7/15 Made rounds to schedule services for tomorrow. Most of the French seem stunned and dazed. We have a lot of trigger happy Joes who are shooting everything in sight.

7/16 Five outdoor services: 1) under a camoflage net, with a tank for altar and pulpit; 2) at a machine gun outpost emplacement; 3) Under a 76 mm cannon of a TD; 4) in one of Normandy’s innumerable Apple orchards; 5) Ditto. Happy day! 14 letters and 5 other pieces of mail.

Chaplain Frank Arnold

7/18 Being shelled this morning by German time fire. Good old slit trench! Moved to For’d Collecting Point, just behind the doughboys. Ministered to my first casualty — shrapnel wounds in back. Ministered to a number of casualties. Small arms fire on three sides of us. What a night! Up all night. Sorta’ rought for our boys. But they are the greatest men in the world.

7/19 More aerial activity. Shot down ME 109 pilot who bailed out a few hundred yds from us. Very Super Man attitude. The Nazis are plenty good with their mortars, and use them heavily. We are attacking a very heavily fortified line — concrete dugouts, etc. Two hills in partic. are giving us trouble. We got shelled pretty heavily again last night. Goering SS Troops (Grenadiers) are opposing us.

7/20 What a day of living hell! Up all night. 1800-0600 145 casualties.

7/21 To bed at 0700. Woke at 1400. They say Joe Bowman relieved me. I don’t remember. 2200 — nicely bracketted by shell fire. If they are trying to miss us they are doing well.

7/22 Quiet. Our boys took Raids. Scheduled services for 8th, 35th and 37th.

7/23 First thing — Sgt. Albright and Cpl. Bruss killed by 88s. Frank Allen hit in both legs. Mahoney hid under a half-track filled with TNT and Dynamite!!! Shortly several hundred P47s dive-bombed something. Funny the way the normal functions of life go on at the front. You dive desperately into a slit trench, then you get out and continue with your laundry. How many times today have I dived? Our artillery pounded them all night.

7/27 0900 they took another tremendous art’y barrage. They must really be dug in. The seem to be surrounded. We are dropping leaflets urging them to surrender. Some are. Visited Monarch Cemetery — 6400 graves. PWs doing labour. This is one of the most beautiful evenings I have ever known. War just in front of us — but close your ears and look up — and what do you see? The bluest sky imaginable, lacy clouds so low you can almost touch them, drifiting out of the West right toward you. Brilliant golden sunset glowing through the trees and silhouetting them in slender beauty against the deep blue and gold… A pale white crescent of moon directly overhead. The clouds are many-tinted: yellow, purple, pink and white…The angry drone of many P47s brings me back to my senses. Subtract war and add Florence, and this is heaven. What an indescribably blue sky!

The next four entries tell of moving swiftly and taking German prisoners, for whom Uncle Frank acted as interpreter. “We are kicking Adolph’s Supermen around at a terrific rate,” he writes.

8/1/44 Wonder what this month will bring. Having a brief breathing spell. B24 pilot shot down in June rescued by our boys today. Had been hiding out from Germans. Again we took a lot of prisoners and Germ casualties. Germ M.D. who spoke good English helped us all day with Germ casualties; Hard workers, and good soldiers. Lots of Russians, Poles, Czechs, etc. in German Army. We (CCB) lost Callahan and Smith in a tank. This business of m.g. (machine gun) and small arms fire at all 16 pts of the compass is not so good. German prisoners all tell the same story: tired, hungry… I was uncharitable today. Asked a German officer, “Wo ist die Deutsche Luftwaffe?” (Where is the German Air Force?) Then it came — 20 of them.  They wagged their wings at us (aid station), and then strafed twice all around us. Didn’t land a bullet in our area, but the air sure whistled. Nun habe ich die Luftwaffe gesehen. (Now I have seen the Air Force.) They got several of our men. Wonder where our planes are. Luftwaffe had us in the ditches during the night. French: “Vive l’Amerique! Vive la France!”

8/2 It is good to see country not pulverized — and a whole church building again. Boy, O boy, the infantry was never like tis! We have no flanks — are surrounded by MG, mortar and small arms fire… We must have captured the whole Wehrmacht — 5000 in one day…all tired, hungry, poorly clothed… This is really beautiful here in Brittany. The battle has passed very fast, and wheat fields, orchards and homes are largely intact. Quite refreshing…It is a strange thing to be the first American troops in these towns. The people stay up all night to greet the passing parade…and what a greeting! ME 109s got us again today. They must have an agreement with our boys not to disturb each other…Got mail. Hallelujah! Germans are using horses to draw their artillery…Many Nazis are clutching moldy black bread. One can not help feeling sorry for them.

8/4 Up all night again — and on the move…Toujours move, jamais dormir (Always move, never sleep) … We took many prisoners, including 6 Russians whom we abandoned to their own devices when we found that thanks to three bridges being blown by Fr. civilians we ourselves were prisoners…We shall see…Well, we got out…What an emotional people these are…”Victoire!” I’m “beaucoup fatigue.”

This next day had to be multiple entries. Note the change in tone and activity:

8/7 War wouldn’t be so bad if it were always like this…The enemy runs so fast we never quite catch up All we are doing is touring the country and receiving the plaudits of the citizenry… Picked about a quart of black raspberries at one halt…Good! Had delightful interlude at Arzano to the tune of heavy bombing and strafing ahead…Quite a bit of Art’y. exchange…Many road blocks and tank traps bar entry to city. Naval C.O. wants to give up. Wehrmacht won’t…!!! This peaceful day suddenly turned into something. We pulled into a bivouac area that was  hot…4 1/2 hours later — I don’t think I could live thru that twice. Got a Purple Heart. Ernst and Keating both hit. My peep (cousin Frank, who provided me with his father’s diaries, says “peep” was Army slang for Jeep) burned up with all my belonging…Am blood all over (not my own)…2100 hrs got my first meal of the day.

8/8 Spent a good part of the day looking for and burying dead. We had 121-87-34 (I presume this means 121 casualties, with 87 and 34 being the breakdown between dead and wounded, though I don’t know which would come first). My peep and trailer are gone. Everything is burned to a pile of ashes. Sniper took a shot at me while I was burying dead. He was good — but not good enough.

8/9 Shelled again during the night. For every one that comes 20 go. Why doesn’t Jerry realize the futility of it all? Began to get in a few German casualties, which may be good. But we still seem to be pretty much stalemated. Wonder how the war is going in the rest of the world…1915 — we are preparing to withdraw several miles…Fr. Crane has joined me here…A few of our P47s sure raised a lot of flak…Got my peep and trailer back… 8 shrapnel holes in windshield, many more in vehicle…Moved to area adjacent to beautiful, swift-flowing stream where I got a bath. Paradise!

8/11 E.P.C. recommended Ernst, Keating and your humble servant for Silver Stars (for performance under fire on Aug. … General Dagar approved…Apparently another quiet day…

8/12 And a quiet night…I even undressed!! Made the rounds to schedule services. Held services for CCB and one Co. of the 24th. Bathed in the stream again…

That’s a little over a month of combat action. I hope to post the next installment later this week, including the chilling entry that begins: “This is the day that Satan hath made.” 

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s World War II diary

We laid my Uncle Frank to rest 44 years ago. But he was alive in my living room this weekend, speaking from the pages of a diary he wrote as an Army chaplain during World War II.

Frank Mitchell Arnold II was a hero in my family: idolized by my mother, his younger sister by 12 years, and admired by my father, who followed him into the Air Force as a chaplain. Chaplains aren’t normally viewed as war heroes, but Uncle Frank was a war hero in my family. He was awarded a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars (one of them with “V” for valor) and a Purple Heart. I didn’t know much more than that the medals had something to do with tending to casualties under enemy fire and that he had been in the Battle of the Bulge and had been appalled at Gen. George S. Patton’s profanity.

I was just 10 years old when Uncle Frank died, just weeks before Dad was to be transferred into his command in the Pacific, stationed at Wakkanai, Japan. We would have visited Uncle Frank in Hawaii on the way to Japan. But he died of a heart attack on a trip to Thailand. His was the first funeral I remember attending.

We visited Aunt Florence a few times in the years following his death, visits I enjoyed because his son, Frankie, was about my age and we shared a fondness for boyish and adolescent mischief. But Uncle Frank faded into a family legend, a vague memory from a few visits and from stories Mom would tell about his sense of humor, his love of baseball and opera, his gift for languages. And, of course, his heroism.

Three generations of Frank Arnolds: My grandfather, uncle and cousin.

In the way that families scatter and fail to keep in touch, Frankie and I pretty much lost track of each other. He became Frank (father of Frank Mitchell Arnold IV and grandfather of Frank Mitchell Arnold V) and served an Air Force career himself. We finally reconnected a few years ago when my brother Dan invited some extended family to a reunion in Illinois (he lives in the St. Louis area). We had a smaller gathering in May, when Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., asked Dan to speak at its commencement and awarded him an honorary doctoral degree. Over a barbecue dinner after church the next day, Frank said he had found his father’s diary from World War II and asked if Dan, our cousin Doug Worgul and I would be interested. We all answered enthusiastically.

It arrived this week. And finally I’m hearing (reading, actually, but I can almost hear his voice as I read) the war stories Uncle Frank never got to tell me.

The diary I have was typed on pages with three holes punched in them for keeping in a notebook. Frank says his mother, Florence (who this year celebrated her 90^th birthday in Muncie, Ind.), says that Uncle Frank had a portable typewriter as part of his chaplain’s equipment. (The diary indicates that he had the unpleasant duty of writing letters to family members of casualties.) However, it appears to me that the pages I have were typed by Uncle Frank sometime after the war, perhaps from a handwritten diary. Daily entries that were just a line or two appear to be exactly lined up with each other, which would have been hard to do without just leaving the paper in the typewriter for several days. In addition, the introduction covering his service up to February 1943 appears to have been written later, rather than when he started the diary.

The diary is a mix of mundane everyday life, ministry to men facing combat, actual combat experience, interaction with friendly Europeans and brushes with famous figures of the war. For nephews with only fleeting memories of the family’s war hero, they are glimpses that start to fill out a vague image. But they are only glimpses. No doubt weary after long days facing the stress of war, Uncle Frank made only brief entries into the diary. Though Twitter wouldn’t come along for another 60-plus years, many of his entries would have fit into tweets. But readers of this blog already know you can fit a lot into a tweet.

The diary starts Feb. 19, 1943, at Camp Butner, N.C., with this entry:

Showed “The Power of God,” an excellent 16 mm. sound film in chapel to a good crowd of men.

I was under the mistaken notion that chaplains didn’t handle firearms, but the March 7 entry says otherwise:

Fired M-1, Carbine and BAR today. Did quite well with Carbine and M-1, but can’t hit anything with BAR.

And five days later:

Fired on pistol range. Scored 46%! Not good.

This April 12 entry was like many in the diary, telling a lot about Uncle Frank but not telling the whole story:

Learned in a new way the meaning and power of the Holy Spirit. Yielded my life, thought, words, mind, actions, completely to Him. May He keep me faithful and defeat the adversary.

The next entry, May 1, had big news of a military kind:

Promoted! Am now a Captain for the duration.

June 10, 1943, he noted, “One year in the Army.” Apparently physicals were an annual event. His blood pressure was “120/80!!!”

The stateside assignment that year was mundane enough that Uncle Frank hadn’t written in the diary for four months until this Dec. 17 entry:

Second Army Hq. phoned Div. Hq today alerting me for overseas assignment.

In January, he met Florence in New York City for a four-day leave:

1/18 Met Florence in New York. Went to Radio City Music Hall and saw G. Garson and W. Pidgeon in “Madame Curie.”

1/19 Lazed around. Went to Calvary Baptist Church.

1/20 Took tour of city. Very interesting.

1/21 Heard “Norma” at the Met. F. Jagel, N. Cordon, T. Votipka, B. Castagna, Z. Milanov and A. DePaolis.

1/22 Florence returned to Chicago.

He set sail for Europe on Feb. 2:

Left U.S. Passed Statue of Liberty at 2:26 P.M. escorted by Navy blimps and planes. Smooth sea. Stiff and very cold wind. 23 chaplains aboard.

2/3 Met General Harrison aboard ship. Small world. Today the sea is rough, and some of the boys are reviewing the diet of the past week.

2/4 “Sailing, sailing …” Happy birthday, Flo!

2/5 More of the same.

They reached Greenock, Scotland, on Feb. 8 and unloaded the next day, greeted by a “bag pipe band, fully kilted.” His first few entries from Britain were upbeat (“Impressions of Scotland: Green hills, snow-capped mountains, flag waving, thumbs up, ‘V’ sign, good coffee at Carlisle.) He wired home and got his first mail. But the war encroaches: (Feb. 20, “Spent P.M. in town, where there is much evidence of bombing.” March 13, “Moved to Newbury. Sky dark and loud with B 26s and P 47s.”)

He got a chance to tour England, visiting Stonehenge, Devonshire and Cornwall (“Delightful scenery). On March 23 he saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “their majesties, and many lesser lights.”

The diary doesn’t say whether he was ill or assigned as a hospital chaplain, but twice he spent stretches at a hospital, each noted just with two entries. Looks to me like he was being treated for something:

2/25 To 10^th Station Hospital.

3/10 Discharged from Hospital.

4/13 Hospital again – 67^th General at Taunton.

4/23 Out again. Missed Excercise Tiger. 500 men killed by German action.

Whatever, if anything, was ailing him, he felt good enough by May 25 to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle (or perhaps it was Army-issued. The entry:

Practicing to be a circuit rider. Got a Harley Davidson today.

As D-Day approached, the anxiety and anticipation was reflected in Uncle Frank’s diary:

5/31 Had unusually good Midweek service. Most of the boys were from the 4^th Inf. Div… didn’t know when they’d take off. How they sang! “Jesus, Saviour, pilot me … Unknown waves before me roll …” (elipses are in Uncle Frank’s diary)

6/2 All loaded in all five areas. Boys seem cheerful and witty…camoflage … how long?

6/3 Waiting. Weather getting bad!

6/4 Had Staff Conf. this morning. Planning retrograde movement. Channel stormy. Build-up troops moving into Concentration Areas and Marshalling Camps.

6/5 This was to have been “D Day.” What now? Visited Crown Hill Cemetery. Saw 1000 prepared caskets.

6/6 This is it! “D Day.”

Uncle Frank wasn’t in the D-Day invasion, despite the obvious support role. But two days later, he learned he was being assigned to “a tank outfit.” On June 11 and 13 he led services for troops preparing to cross the English Channel into France. The June 13 entry reflects the segregated nature of the military then: “Services for 200 Negro replacements.” On June 16, Uncle Frank learned he was replacing a “Chaplain Bourke” who had been wounded, in the 4^th Armored Division. The chaplain’s “T5,” apparently an enlisted man assigned to assist the chaplain, had been killed. As Uncle Frank prepared to move on to his next assignment, his June 19 entry summarized his work in Operation Overlord (his first reference to that name): “My chaplains held 1416 services ministering to 70,252 men.”

His June 30 entry:

Reported to 4^th Armored Div. Assigned to Combat Command “B.”  

I’d like to post this on July 4 (oddly Uncle Frank didn’t have a July 4 entry any of the three years he kept the diary), so we’ll stop there. I will continue with another post soon on Uncle Frank’s combat experiences.

Tweeting wisdom of the ages

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Shakespeare wrote that. And no one said it was shallow because he said it in fewer than 140 characters (27, to be precise).

When people who don’t understand Twitter whine about it, a common implication is that you can’t say much in 140 characters. So everything on Twitter must be shallow, right? I received a job application recently that touted the other social media the applicant was using but dismissed Twitter, implying that the person’s big thoughts simply couldn’t be expressed in just 140 characters.

Setting aside the fact that one of Twitter’s best uses is to distribute links to pieces of greater depth, I want to dispute the myth that short equals shallow. I have done my share of lengthy writing. I once wrote a newspaper story that ran 200 inches and my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection ran 38 pages as a pdf. But I aspire to get to the point occasionally with a nugget of wit or wisdom.

So I rounded up some wisdom, insight and humor, much of which you will recognize immediately, all of it tweetworthy.

Let’s start with Jesus, whose most famous statement fits easily in a tweet: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

And some of the most enduring statements from our presidents fit easily in tweets (I deliberately left President Obama off this list because it is just too soon to say which statements of his will endure):

Thomas Jefferson: I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Abraham Lincoln: A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Harry Truman: The buck stops here.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

John F. Kennedy: And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

And, of course, leaders of other nations have been eloquent but brief as well:

Winston Churchill: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Nelson Mandela: If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

Other inspirational leaders also showed their eloquence in brief statements:

Mohandas Gandhi: An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Patrick Henry: I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

Helen Keller: It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.

Martin Luther King Jr.: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Douglas MacArthur: Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Rosa Parks: All I was doing was trying to get home from work.

Gloria Steinem: A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.

A couple writers known for their pithy wisdom nearly always shared it in bursts of less than 140 characters:

Benjamin Franklin: Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Aesop: It is with our passions as it is with fire and water, they are good servants, but bad masters.

Of course, I could go on and on. Virtually every advertising tag line (Just do it. Got milk?) would fit in a tweet, as would many lines from Shakespeare, Mark Twain and other literary giants, as well as lines from our favorite movies, songs and comedians. Not to mention such sages as Yogi Berra and Gertrude Stein. How many of your favorite “Seinfeld” lines would fit in a tweet?

Twitter leaves plenty of room to say something important. Most of us don’t take full advantage of that room, but you could say that about any communication forum.

If you’re interested in more tweetworthy wit, wisdom and inspiration, I’ve compiled other brief quotes by source (it may take me a while to post all the links). Please feel free to add more in the comments. I know I’ve just scratched the surface here:

• The Bible (and holy books from other faiths)
• Aesop
• Winston Churchill
• Benjamin Franklin
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Thomas Jefferson
• Helen Keller
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Abraham Lincoln
• Nelson Mandela
• Karl Marx (didn’t quote him above, but his impact is undeniable)
• Ronald Reagan
• Gloria Steinem

A note on sources: I chose the quotes in this post primarily from memory, checking all of the quotes in this post in multiple sources (they all show up hundreds, if not thousands, of times on a Google search, so I won’t cite them all). The source I used most, including for most of the quotes in the related links, was BrainyQuote. Biblical quotes were checked using BibleGateway. I used the Bible translation that seemed to be the most-quoted for that passage, often the King James.

Tweetworthy wisdom from the holy books

This is related to my post, Tweeting wisdom of the ages, attempting to debunk the notion that something less than 140 characters must be shallow. These are quotations from the Bible and holy books of other faiths that would fit in tweets:

Each  of the Beatitudes fits into a tweet, a great series of tweets or a start for a sermon on a mountain:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Each of the Ten Commandments, as abbreviated for posting at courthouses and other locations, fits easily in a tweet:

I am the Lord thy God … Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.

A side note here: The Ten Commandments as taught to children and displayed artistically are really a condensation of their appearance in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. Catholics, Protestants and Jews actually use slightly different versions of which parts of those passages constitute the Ten Commandments.

Lots of other favorite Bible verses would fit in tweets, but I’ll illustrate the point with these four:

Be still and know that I am God.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Other faiths also boil many of their important teachings down to messages that would fit in tweets:

The creed repeated as the first of the Five Pillars of Islam: There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet.

Qur’an: Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, the compassionate, the merciful.

Buddha: A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.

Buddha: Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Buddha: Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

Buddha: There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

Confucius: And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Confucius: Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

Bhagavad Gita: Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Bhagavad Gita: A man’s own self is his friend. A man’s own self is his foe.

Aesop’s wisdom in tweets

This is related to my post, Tweeting wisdom of the ages, attempting to debunk the notion that something less than 140 characters must be shallow. These are quotations from Aesop that would fit in tweets:

A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.

After all is said and done, more is said than done.

Appearances are often deceiving.

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard, if we do not strive as well as pray.

It is with our passions as it is with fire and water, they are good servants, but bad masters.

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Please all, and you will please none.

Slow but steady wins the race.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.