Balladeer’s Blog had proceeded from the assumption that most readers were familiar with flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker but comments and emails indicate otherwise. Here’s a look at him as we lead up to another November 11th, now called Veterans Day but formerly known as Armistice Day since November 11th, 1918 marked the end of World War One.
EDDIE RICKENBACKER – “Fast Eddie” Rickenbacker was first known as a race-car driver who competed in four Indianapolis 500’s before the U.S. entered World War One. Upon America’s entry into the conflict Rickenbacker enlisted in the Army and was in France with his unit by late June 1917.
Fast Eddie’s mechanical abilities – honed working with engines during his racing days – kept him grounded as a mechanic for several months. During that period Rickenbacker learned to fly in nearly every spare moment. Eventually he got his wings and took to the air with America’s legendary Hat in the Ring Squadron (the 94th Aero Squadron).
Eddie made Ace – five confirmed kills – with less than a full month between his first kill and his fifth. Lieutenant – eventually Captain – Rickenbacker scored his sixth verified kill on May 30th, 1918 before getting an ear infection which kept him out of the air for a few months. Many more kills lay ahead of him. Continue reading
Yes, it’s once again Guy Fawkes Day, the day Balladeer’s Blog celebrates figures who became symbols of the exact opposite things they represented in their actual lives! 
“Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood.” 
Read more of this animal’s own words and you will see what a callous, unfeeling political fanatic this hate-filled scumbag was. He never wanted to overthrow dictatorships to help “the people”, he just wanted to overthrow them to install dictatorships more to his liking.
THE IACCACI BROTHERS – In the 1960s young American men would head to Canada to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. During World War One a number of young American men headed to Canada to serve in British Military Units because the U.S. had not yet entered the conflict. 
“THE SALAMANDER” – Previously I covered Haraden’s career in the Massachusetts Navy as First Lieutenant and later Captain of the legendary commerce raider Tyrannicide. After two years on board that vessel, by the summer of 1778 Captain Haraden left the Massachusetts Navy to command the privateer ship the General Pickering. Haraden’s fame would fly even higher as he earned the nickname “The Salamander,” a play on words regarding his ability to withstand fire. 
Always a consummate swashbuckler, Haraden would sometimes capture a British prize even while transporting a cargo across the Atlantic. Off Sandy Hook, NJ on October 13th, 1779 the good captain added to his legend by taking on THREE British privateer vessels at once. The Brits outgunned the 16-cannon General Pickering by 14, 10 and 8 cannons but the Salamander coolly emerged triumphant and towed in all three defeated craft. 
TRAIL OF TEARS: Democrat President Andrew Jackson openly ignored a Supreme Court decision and subjected Native Americans to the hardships and large-scale deaths in forcibly moving them along what became infamous as the Trail of Tears. 
SLAVERY: Anyone who knows American history knows that the Democrats fought to preserve and extend their beloved “Peculiar Institution” of slavery just as obstinately as they fight today to preserve and extend Islam’s Gender Apartheid and their beloved Peculiar Institution of Sharia Law. 
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION: In the years leading up to the Civil War DEMOCRAT Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B Taney was responsible for the Dred Scott Decision which claimed that African-Americans were not people and therefore had no rights. Democrats still blame the rest of us for this outrage, too.
JIM CROW: Democrats used every underhanded legislative and judiciary trick their bigoted minds could come up with to keep violating the rights of African-Americans. They did this for a century, then gave into the inevitable and embraced the long-active Civil Rights Movement. 
RED was TRUMP – BLUE was HILLARY. Last November saw Donald Trump become President of the United States while the blustering and bitter Hillary “Bugsy” Clinton had to settle for winning a meaningless statistical category that both she and Trump knew did not designate the election winner. 
Career criminal Hillary Clinton continues to flail her arms, get that unfocused look in her eyes and – in between long coughing jags – snivel and whine about her humiliating loss. She blames everything for her defeat at President Trump’s hands EXCEPT her phony charity, her mishandling of classified information and the public exposure of the steady bribes being funneled to her through the Clinton Foundation. 
The Memorial Day Holiday is marked here at Balladeer’s Blog with items about neglected conflicts and neglected military units from American history. The latest unit to be examined is the Navy of the Republic of Texas. I’ll examine the period from the Texas Revolution against the tyrannical Mexican government up through the Texas Republic joining the U.S. as the State of Texas. 
THE THREE-DAY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IS HERE! As always Balladeer’s Blog marks the event with a few looks at neglected conflicts from America’s past. The servicemen who fought in those actions are just as deserving of being memorialized as those who fought in more familiar wars. 
WILLIAM F LUKES 
