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America’s Top 11 Generals: #2 Douglas MacArthur

America's Top 11 Generals: #2 Douglas MacArthur

American General

Douglas MacArthur

Korean War

U.S. Military

West Point

World War I

World War II

The last of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed last week at a Kentucky munitions plant, the Pentagon said Monday. 
In 1986, Congress ordered the destruction of America’s chemical weapons, and 11 years later, the U.S. joined 192 countries in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, requiring the weapons’ complete elimination by September 30 of this year, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/10/chemical-weapons-pentagon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Chemical weapons were first used on a large scale in the trenches of Europe during World War I, causing horrifying deaths through suffocation and wrecking of the nervous system. 
At its peak, America’s chemical weapons stockpile reached 30,000 metric tons, requiring the country to take decades to destroy the weapons while seeking the safest way to eliminate the chemical agents. 
“Destroying the remainder posed a greater challenge because it involved the more complicated approach of neutralizing these munitions’ chemicals,” said Douglas Bush, an Army assistant secretary. 
The final chemical weapon to be destroyed was a rocket filled with a nerve agent called sarin, “one of the most toxic of the known chemical warfare agents,” <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750001.html#:~:text=Sarin%20(military%20designation%20GB)%20is,the%20skin%20can%20be%20fatal." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC says that just 1 to 10 mL of sarin can be fatal, and the chemical is even more dangerous because it is odorless and tasteless. During World War I, chemicals such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas killed approximately 100,000 people, according to the United Nations, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4089820-us-destroys-last-of-its-chemical-weapons-ending-decades-long-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.  
Last month, the U.S. military destroyed the last of its mustard gas-filled projectiles and mortars at a destruction facility in Pueblo, Colorado. The U.S. was the final signatory of the convention to have reportedly destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile, but U.S. officials question if China and Russia followed through on their pledge. 
“We have questions about some of the destruction of China’s stockpile,” said Mallory Stewart, the assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance. “We also have concerns, specifically, with respect to the undeclared chemical weapons that Russia is maintaining.”
America’s destruction of its last chemical weapon comes as the Biden administration approved sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine last week. Ukraine, now engaged in a counter-offensive against Russian forces, is set to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-to-send-cluster-bombs-to-ukraine-bypassing-u-s-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">receive</a> a round of cluster bombs from the Biden administration in a drawdown of weapons that bypasses U.S. law. 
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Despite American law prohibiting the production, use, or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1%, President Joe Biden is able to bypass the law through a rarely used provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, The Washington Post reported.
Cluster bombs, first developed and used during World War II, are banned by most countries due to the view that they are inhumane because of high failure rates and unexploded fragments that can linger for years, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66134663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the BBC.

Gasmask and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) suit

U.S. Destroys Last Chemical Weapon, Pentagon Says

Biden Administration

Chemicals

Global Politics

Pentagon

U.S.

The first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-navy">U.S. Navy</a> destroyer to be sunk in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-history">American history</a> has been found by divers off the coast of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/england">England</a>. 
The ship, the Jacob Jones, was a Tucker-class destroyer that was sunk on December 6, 1917, after being struck by a torpedo while traveling to Ireland from France. 
“We found the Jacob Jones, the first U.S. destroyer to be sunk, ever, and the first major casualty for the U.S. Navy-wise in WWI. It’s an incredible achievement,” 39-year-old U.K. diver Will Schwarz <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/08/18/divers-find-wwi-navy-destroyer-the-first-to-be-sunk-by-enemy-fire/">told</a> the Military Times. 
The group of U.K. divers first announced their find last week on Facebook, and they said that they would be working with the U.S. Embassy on next steps now that the ship has been found. 
“She lies in 120M of water 60 miles south of Newlyn, Cornwall. We based ourselves there and everyone has been excellent,” diver Steve Mortimer posted alongside a picture of a portion of the ship’s wreckage. 
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The group of divers, whose group is called Darkstar, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/world/europe/us-navy-destroyer-shipwreck.html">found</a> the fallen ship 400 feet under the surface on August 11. They were able to find a bell and the ship’s gun mount during their 20 minutes of exploring the wreck. One of the divers said that they cheered and gave each other high fives upon finding the Jacob Jones. 
The divers were also aware of the somber nature of the find, according to Rick Ayrton, a retired dentist who was part of the diving team. 
“For all of our excitement and adventure now, they were fighting a life-and-death struggle over a hundred years ago,” he said. 
The Jacob Jones, under the command of David W. Bagley, was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine while traveling from Brest, France, to Queenstown, Ireland. Sixty-four men of the 110-man crew died when the ship went down, including two officers. Within eight minutes of being struck, the ship had sunk, making it the first destroyer to go down in American history, <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/uss-jacob-jones-dd-61.html">according</a> to Naval History and Heritage Command.
“It’s a really big deal, to be blunt,” naval historian Michael Lowrey said. “The U.S. Navy got into World War I late, and they didn’t lose a lot of major ships. The one destroyer they lost in combat was the Jacob Jones.”
Those who did so either survived by holding on to ship debris or in life rafts for hours in the cold Atlantic water. Lieutenant Stanton F. Kalk died of exhaustion and exposure after helping many men into life rafts. He was given the Navy Distinguished Service Award posthumously. 
British ships helped save the survivors of the wreck throughout the night, but the ship itself was never recovered or found until this month. 
The ship was named after early American Naval hero <a href="https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/06/jacob-jones-the-revolutionary-making-of-a-naval-hero/">Jacob Jones</a>, who served during several of the nation’s early conflicts, including the fights with the Barbary Pirates and the War of 1812.

Female Diver – Palau, Micronesia

World War I Destroyer, Named After American Naval Hero, Found 100 Years After Being Sunk

American World War I Destroyer, Named After Naval Hero, Found 100 Years After Being Sunk

American History

England

U.S. Navy

A new monument was announced in Rhode Island for a World War I hero who died fighting in France during the war. The monument will replace one that was destroyed over the summer.
The original monument to Italian American Carlo Lafazia was vandalized over the summer in Providence, Rhode Island. The vandal was never identified or arrested.
“I was shocked and saddened when I learned that the Lafazia Square Monument was damaged beyond repair this past summer. Carlo Lafazia made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and he and his family deserve the utmost respect and honor, as do all of our veterans, even 100 years later,” <a href="https://council.providenceri.gov/2021/10/21/city-council-honors-memory-of-world-war-i-veteran-carlo-lafazia-with-restored-monument-and-ceremonial-street-designation/">said</a> city Councilman David Salvatore.
He continued, “Lafazia represents the history of Italian immigrants in our city and their indelible contribution to our city, state and nation.”
In honor of Lafazia, who was from Providence, a resolution to name part of the street where the new monument will be placed as “LaFazia Way” was approved by the town’s city council. The resolution was passed on October 7.
Lafazia fought with the 16th Infantry Division, first landing in France in 1917. Just a month before an armistice to effectively end the war was agreed to in 1918, Lafazia was killed in the line of duty on October 11, 1918. He had been participating in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a part of the Western Front in France.
“Several years after the war ended, the United States disinterred the bodies of 14,000 American soldiers from French cemeteries so that they could be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, Carlo Lafazia was not among them, and could not be laid to rest at home because his remains were never found,” said the nephew of Lafazia, Jeremiah C. O’Connor Sr.
“While his memory was not afforded that honor, thanks to the Providence City Council and the City of Providence Special Committee for the Review of Commemorative Works, Carlo Lafazia’s sacrifice will not be forgotten,” he continued.
Dubbed in 1933 by the town as an “Emblem of Italian loyalty to the Stars and Stripes,” Lafazia was a first generation American, with his parents coming from Italy. O’Connor noted that the base of the monument had served as a sort of de facto grave for his uncle, as his body was never recovered.
“What we have now is a war that’s been forgotten, the men that died and suffered in that war who’ve been forgotten, and I don’t think that Carlo should be one of those,” O’Connor said, <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2021/10/21/monument-providence-world-war-veteran-destroyed-replaced/6118675001/">according</a> to The Providence Journal. “Not as long as I’m alive he won’t be.”
Local officials hope that the rededication will provide expanded opportunities to learn about World War I and their community’s participation in it.
“We’re going to relocate it to a new area that is going to allow for an education opportunity, first and foremost about the history of Private Lafazia and the contributions that he made, and secondly, some of the history around World War I and what that meant to the Eagle Park community and to Rhode Island as a whole,” Salvatore explained.
The new monument is slated to be finished by 2022.

World War One

World War I Hero Gets New Monument After Old One Destroyed Last Summer

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World War I

America’s Top 11 Generals: #2 Douglas MacArthur

U.S. Destroys Last Chemical Weapon, Pentagon Says

World War I Destroyer, Named After American Naval Hero, Found 100 Years After Being Sunk

World War I Hero Gets New Monument After Old One Destroyed Last Summer