Need some creative thoughts...

[cam7002]

It could have been in Hay Fork that the group found the parachute, or it also could have been around Klamath. I really don't remember.

 

[cam7002]

I think an interesting topic would be Randolph Abbott Shotwell. Shotwell is often cited in Civil War history for his primary account of the Union's POW camps in and around Charlottesville, VA. By all accounts, conditions were an abomination. However, there is much more to Mr. Shotwell. After the war, he returned to NC. He was a leader in the Klan, and he was tried and convicted for a raid and assault on Reconstructionists in 1871. Shotwell tried to (and did) derail Mr. David Schenck's ascendancy to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Schenck who was a superior court judge at the time.

The wide spot in the road where I live is named after Shotwell, and one of the largest plantations in the South is right in my backyard (Mial Plantation).

 

[cam7002]

More on Shotwell (the man, not the place).

 

[BRUTUS12]

does anyone know if there are books or websites (NOT Wikipedia, or a forum) that has the history of a Deuce? I asked my professor if SS could count as a source, but she says it can't.

 

[drgreg]

Deuce, spelling and capitalization counts.
You could use the TMs as a resource.

 

[SasquatchSanta]

Stateside security during WW2 isn't often touched, on other than the usual stuff about wartime rationing and the various slogans that were in use at the time; "Loose lips sink ships" and "Is this trip really necessary?" having to do with fuel and rubber conservation are just a couple.

"Use Less Sugar And Stir Like Hell, We Don't Mind The Noise" was a sign that hung in a restaurant in the southwestern town where I was born. It referred to the rationing and therefore use of sugar during the war.

Unlike the War on Terror, where only the serving GIs and their family sacrifice, everybody on the home front during the second world war sacrificed.

This could be a good topic and "Use Les Sugar And Stir Like Hell - We Don't Mind The Noise" could be a good title/headline.

 

[Junkyard Wars Crusher]

Good Luck, young man.

 

[johnnybravo]

Do it on the use of the US Army Air Corps against American citizens on Cabin Creek, WV in 1920 "The Coal Wars". Might want to check out Ludlow, Co., about the same time period.

 

[Another Ahab]

Most people don't think the U.S. Mainland (lower 48 ) was ever attacked during WWII, but the Japs sent over high altitude balloon bombs in an effort to strike fear into Americans. Several caused some small forest fires, and many fell and did not detonate. I don't remember if there were any injuries or casualties as a result, but I want to say there were not any casualties.

There actually were casualties. A church group was out in the Siskiyou National Forest, if I remember. One of the boys found one of the parachutes, the group leader went over to check it out, they pulled around on it, and it blew up and killed one and injured others (I am going off of memory here).

The other thing is that the Japanese had submarines that patrolled the US coastline. Some of the subs had planes inside that could be launched from the hull. One of these firebombed the national forest, but it didn't start a fire as had been hoped.

Additionally, the US Navy had blimp duty sailors on the coast. One blimp station was out of Eureka, CA, and one of the blimp sailors, Cy Beatty (who had already seen extensive action on ship in the South Pacific), and I had a great number of conversations. We both believe that his crew sunk a sub that had been coming ashore some nights and coming up to charge batteries. If so, it is still there, right off the head of Trinidad, just north of Arcata, CA. Apparently, there is a large chunk of magnetic something down there so it could be there.

Anyhew ....

Stumbled across this thread by pure accident, but good stuff here.

Read an article once in Scientific American magazine:

U.S. was determined to neutralize those fire balloons. Effort was made to recover the devices, and the balloons were discovered to have ballast bags filled with sand.

Someone had the amazing idea to try and figure the source of the sand; now THAT is some real thinking. Geologists were recruited to study the sand, and observation by microscope determined that all the sand particles, from a broad range of recovered devices, all had a similar profile.

Well apparently "sand is not just sand", and sand particles from around the world have signature profiles depending on their location (rock source, erosion characteristics, etc.) The identification was confirmed that the sand was of origin from Japan. But the question was, WHERE in Japan?

So the word goes out, "who would know?". And some busy sleuthing checking scientific journals and little known research papers later buttonholes a SINGLE Ph.D. in some obscure geology department in a solid but not particularly renown American college, who just happens to be the world's one-and-only Western expert on certain sands of Japan(!).

Samples of the sand are sent to this guy, and he is asked if he knows anything about them.

He puts a sample under his microscope, and reports back (this might be simplifying things), "sure: this is sand from such-and-such beach". Amazing: the guy pin-pointed the source of the sand to one tiny little beach area in a particular cove near a particular town on a particular shore of Japan. UFB.

B-29's made a special delivery to that area shortly thereafter, and the balloons stopped coming.

Interesting story to keep in mind whenever you hear about federal research dollars drying up for non-specific general scientific research. You just never know: what you need to know, and when you need to know it.

THAT guy knew his stuff, and that was a good thing. The End.