Feature

On D-Day, seventy years ago, the Invasion of Normandy changed the course of the World War. The daring surgical strike against German-Occupied France was the catalyst that deterred Adolf Hitler’s forces from further entrapping Europe in deadly quicksand of possible all-out defeat.

The Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and by 1944 already occupied several European nations. The continent was still reeling from the Great War that had ended in 1918—a mere two decades earlier.

To deter Britain’s anticipated attacks from the sea, German forces constructed fortifications along the Western Front known as “The Atlantic Wall.” The Nazi Military Machine secured 2,400 miles of coastline facing Britain from the Bay of Biscay to Arctic Ocean, in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway, with a force of 300,000 troops.

They constructed the coastal Atlantic Wall with millions of tons of cement and steel barricades, fortified with observation towers, encampment bunkers, pillboxes, gunnery emplacements, machine gun nests and impenetrable fortifications to repel attacks. Some subterranean hideouts had sleeping quarters and mess halls as well as defense weaponry. Along the French coast, many bunkers were camouflaged caves carved into cliffs while others were disguised as quaint cottages with Mansard roofs, dummy doors and phony lace curtains.

The Nazis had spent two years constructing the Atlantic Wall with a quarter million foreign conscripted slave laborers, POWs and workers from French Colonies in Asia. They were ill-fed and worked to death.
The Allies had to break through the near-impregnable coastal wall to defeat the Third Reich’s tyranny.

The prelude to the Normandy land battle was the vital air support of a 24,000-strong force, supplied by a trinity of nations; Britain, Canada and the United States. The RAF (Royal Air Force) and U.S. Army Air Force flew continual air assaults to pulverize and disable the Nazi fortifications. And on the night of June’s first full moon the bombardment of Nazi military installations was guided by ribbons of moonlight in nearby rivers.

The targeted air bombardments on fifty-miles of coastline weakened the Atlantic Wall for the dawn landings of thousands of men. American GIs, along with British and Canadian units, were to be dispatched from an armada of over 5,000 ships to LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) and amphibious crafts.

The D-Day Invasion of Normandy was the largest such operation ever executed in world history, with simultaneous surgical assaults from all sides by air, land and sea. Allied Ground Forces stormed five targeted beaches at first light, knowing full well they were entering the Jaws of Death, and knowing when they set foot on the shores they would take hits from 88 mm artillery, mortars, rocket launchers, howitzers, machine gun fire, flame throwers, snipers and deadly land mines.

Demolition crews were among the first to rush beaches to neutralize mines; many blown to pieces before the sun came up. Cruisers, destroyers and troopships took mortar fire. Over 5000 sitting duck ships, vision cut by burning oil, loaded with supplies, tanks, Jeeps and trucks, were in the enemy’s scopes.

Vehicles landed, traversing the mined sands, soldiers following behind, stepping in the wheel ruts, others rushing to shelter in the dunes, Rangers rappelling cliffs. Smoke, fire, noise, explosions; mayhem was everywhere. Men lay dead or dying, Medics rushed and radios blared. Demo crews set charges to detonate mines; they took the biggest hits.
Coastal shorelines were mined and strewn with lethal steel obstacles to capsize landing craft and kill intruders; tetrahedral spikes, half-buried mines, mined spikes, and dragons’ teeth tank deterrents. Allies needed good vision to breech the shores at first light.

The trinity of Allied Forces in Operation Overlord were to land on five different beaches, codenamed Utah, Omaha, (U.S.) Gold, Juno (Britain) and Sword (Canada). Britain’s launch points were Falmouth, Slapton, Portsmouth and New Haven.

The Allied beach raiders were delivered to channel waters by 5000 Naval and Merchant Navy ships carrying 195,000 men to be dispersed into amphibian vessels to the shores. Even though logistics of such an operation must have been nightmarish, the operation worked like clockwork.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the operation, in retrospect, was the military’s most daring General. He understood the forces’ penetration of the Atlantic Wall would depend upon favorable weather and tides, and yet the death toll would be still be horrendous. Eisenhower knew the danger the invasion posed. He understood that Operation Overlord could fail—and fail badly—and was aware that tens of thousands of Allied Forces could perish. But the warrior extraordinaire had raw guts, stamina, courage, and was a brilliant military strategist. He had the fortitude to take the chance, and through sheer military genius, changed the course of history.

General Eisenhower had arrived in Britain in January 1944 to set about planning the proposed invasion. He butted heads with Britain’s top military echelons including Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His strategic design for Victory in Europe was laid out with all possible scenarios. Planners knew weather and tides were to be a determining factor, and that they had to wait until conditions were viable for thousands of warships to cross the rough English Channel. The weather had a mind of its own, as winds could turn within hours.

Members of the Supreme High Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) consulted Britain’s best military meteorologists. Countdown to victory commenced early June, 1944. There was no precedent for such a mighty invasion with the largest armada ever assembled in military history. The 1942 Invasion of Sicily had enabled Allied Forces, under Patton and Montgomery, to traverse to Northern Italy, and now they were poised to penetrate the Atlantic Wall.
So, a full moon night Tuesday 6th day of June was targeted to enter a new phase in world history. The Invasion of Normandy was to be the event that turned the currents of war, leading to the greatest eventual victory the earth would ever see.

The Bravest of Men
Allied troops waiting in the south of England for orders were chomping at the bit, ready for action. Training sessions warned of the danger of even talking about the upcoming invasion. Allied troops were sequestered in fenced camps weeks before D-Day—not allowed to communicate with family or girlfriends by phone, cable or mail. Coastal residents were relocated ten miles away from all southern shorelines.

The mission of the jumpers in the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne “Band of Brothers” was to parachute behind enemy lines and destroy exit roads and bridges to thwart the enemy’s retreat. For weeks they had studied aerial reconnaissance photographs, topographical maps, and mock-up models of the Normandy terrain for night jumps.

By the time the jumpers parachuted from planes and gliders behind enemy lines, they had memorized layouts of the white cliffs jutting into Etretat Bay, contours of each beach, patchworks of Bocage region green fields with thickets and hedgerows, and the roads and bridges they had to sabotage. Allied troops knew not to bomb historic landmarks or the fabled Le Mont Saint Michel, the medieval abbey near Caen that loomed high on a rock island.

Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force provided air support by bombing the targeted region day and night, to soften up the enemy and penetrate the formidable Atlantic Wall. RAF Hurricane and Spitfire planes were on alert at Dover Base to fly missions on a minute’s notice. Many pilots were killed or captured; thousands never returned.

The Supreme Commander confirmed day and hour; wheels were set in motion for nearly 200,000 Allied troops to reach Normandy beaches before daybreak. One can imagine the orders; dismantle mined obstacles, assault German strongholds, clear out weapon and machine gun nests, neutralize the enemy, fight like hell and complete the mission.

The operation at hand lasted many days. Twenty percent of the Allied troops died and thousands were maimed before they forged north to Paris.

The build up to Operation Overlord was Top Secret; only a handful of inner circle planners had “For Your Eyes Only” access. British Agencies were ordered to disseminate false stories through Intelligence outlets and leak fictitious names and dummy armies. Faux info leaked that Allied Forces were poised to attack Pas-de-Calais on France’s northern shores in July. Spies and double-agents picked up phony information and German forces further reinforced the northern Atlantic Wall other than the actual targeted regions.

Knowing that Luftwaffe spy planes were reconnoitering British coasts, they constructed false military bases, and phantom forces were assigned to mighty General Patton. Set decorators from Shepperton Film Studios built Hollywood-style, faux, one-dimensional barracks, dummy planes and rubber blowup-trucks; the façade described as “The Eye of the Needle.”

An already-dead military man, “The Man Who Never Was,” disguised as an intelligence officer, was dropped into the sea from the air with false documents outlining an imminent attack on different shores. Germans retrieved the corpse washed ashore and presumed they had recovered valid, secret Intelligence. They were still buoyed with power after ousting the British Expeditionary Forces four years earlier in Dunkirk.

So, the Nazis were unprepared for the mighty Normandy raiders; unprepared that such brave warriors would knock down their monumental wall, and were totally unprepared that their elite forces would be decimated.

Dunkirk
Almost four years prior to D-day, in mid-1940, Nazi behemoth Panzer tanks had pushed 338,000 soldiers of British Expeditionary Forces, including 100,000 Frenchmen, towards the English Channel. They were trapped in Dunkirk Harbour on the far Western Front, backs to the wall, with no escape route but the cruel sea.

Britain’s War Office alerted “everything that could float,” to rescue the trapped men from impending massacre. Big ships and small boats rushed all night from Dover to Dunkirk, navigating the 50-mile channel through watery mine fields.

Known as Operation Dynamo, lifesavers participated in the makeshift flotilla; a cruiser, 39 destroyers, yachts, ferries, trawlers, tugboats, gunboats, sail boats, motor boats, fishing boats, rowboats and lifeboats navigated the choppy channel. Indefatigable rescuers ferried soldiers to offshore transit ships, dodging strafers for nine solid days until the last man was out of Dunkirk.

Luftwaffe planes and surface vessels continually bombed rescue vessels in all-out attack as they rowed soldiers from the harbor. Sixty-eight thousand died, and 861 boats were sunk, but they never stopped the valiant rescue effort.
The Legend of the Little Boats is one of the war’s most beloved stories. Every rescuer, British and French, was honored with the Saint George’s Cross flag that they proudly flew above their humble barks, telling of their bravery at Dunkirk.

Germans did not succeed in killing them all, nor did they break the inimitable British spirit, but they commandeered the abandoned tanks, trucks, fuel tanks, ammunition and artillery weaponry; in all, a treasure trove of British engineering secrets.

On the home front, exhausted from Blitzkrieg bombings, and with the Dunkirk near-massacre in mind, troops waited to proceed. Britain was poised to attack with over 150,000 Canadians, and 1.5 million American Servicemen and women stationed in England.

General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, was assisted by six others, including General Omar Bradley and Sir Bernard Montgomery. They confided the invasion plans to King George VI just before departure. Prime Minister Churchill said that General Eisenhower was the most powerful man in history.

The General knew every order of battle, every minute detail of each division’s time schedules, and knew that many must die on that fateful day to save others from Hitler’s horrific tyranny.
It would be years before the world would be stunned by the war’s death toll at about 50 million, and General Eisenhower could not know at that point of battle, that over 405,000 United States Military personnel would die before the war ended in 1945.

Bitter Victory
There were thousands of behind-the-scenes strange stories that affected the war. One such bizarre incident was a perceived Intelligence breach that caused alarm. An incredible coincidence nearly deep-sixed the entire operation five weeks before the invasion. An unassuming physics teacher, Leonard Dawe, a puzzle compiler, submitted five weekly crossword puzzles to London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. Clues included the top secret code-words used for the Normandy Invasion; Utah, Omaha, Neptune, Overlord, and Mulberry—code for artificial harbor tide breakers.
Military officials were convinced a spy was supplying Intel to the enemy. Scotland Yard picked up the puzzle compiler. After interrogation they concluded it was all just an incredible coincidence. The operation proceeded as planned.

Such stories make up the war’s tapestry. Prime Minister Winston Churchill warrants mention; already a seasoned warrior from the South African Boer War and WWI. He was crusty, adamant, and steadfast; a man of raw courage. He also gave the most astounding “blood, guts, and spirit” speeches in Parliament. Churchill’s “our darkest hour” speech will live forever.

Churchill’s biting telegrams and letters to President Roosevelt, begging for ships, are legendary. His threats to the then neutral America as being in the Nazis’ gun sights were bloodcurdling. Pearl Harbor attacks by the Japanese in 1941 slammed the Americans into the wartime European Theatre. The “Yanks” jumped in with guns ablaze and saved Britain.

When France, Britain’s ally, capitulated to Axis Powers, Churchill feared the Germans would take the fleet of French warships. He gave the admiral an ultimatum; scuttle all French naval ships or the British would blow them to smithereens. When the French declined, Churchill ordered Royal Navy warships from Gibraltar to bombard the cruisers and destroyers with deadly firepower. British warships blasted them with 14-inch guns sinking them into the sea off French Algeria. The collateral damage was over a thousand French sailors.

Parliament applauded Churchill’s resolve to beat Germany, and when Roosevelt realized the warrior was serious about winning the war, he sent warships and supplies to Britain’s aid.

When one of history’s most important forecasts promised good weather; spring tides and a full moon—they set Operation Overlord for Tuesday, 6th of June. To alert French Resistance fighters of the imminent invasion, BBC radio broadcast lines from Verlaine’s poem, “Wound my Heart with Monotonous Langour.” The Resistance partisans, crucial to the invasion’s success, were ready for the Allied night jumpers and started blowing up trains, rails, roads and bridges.

It can only be imagined how operation logisticians must have anguished about the 5000 ships carrying planes, weapons, minesweepers, amphibians, pontoons, LCTs, 150,000 jeeps, trucks, tanks, planes, food and medicine. And brilliant military innovation supported the logistics of transporting hundreds of thousands of men crossing the choppy channel to target the beaches at first light.

We have seen the blood and guts movies and have read historic reports. We know about D-Day—or do we? We may never understand what those brave young men were thinking. We may never know how calmly they faced potential death, and we will never understand, even upon entering the Jaws of Death, they were able to remain steadfast, on to glory.

Could those courageous men of the Allied Forces have known on that grey morning that within hours of storming the beaches that twenty percent of them would lay dead on the sands?

While films such as  The Longest Day, and Saving Private Ryan, and scores of British, J. Arthur Rank films, tell vividly of the horror, no movie can hope to explain the thoughts of those young, brave men, on that fateful morn.
To confuse the enemy and jam radar, Allies parachuted dummies and tinfoil chaff, and bombarded installations the night before. And on the morning of June 6, 1944, air support planes struck the coast with 11,000 sorties targeting railroad junctions, gun positions, and troop concentrations.

Californians 1st Lt. Anthony Pavone and 2nd Lt. Archie Maltbie were among the raiding pilots on that fateful day.
Pavone, a longtime family friend, recounted his personal account to my daughter Antonia. Anthony Pavone, 94, was a 1st Lt. in the Army Air Force, one of the D-Day pilots. His reaction to that day; “There were a lot of ships and boats out there—we were up in the altitude, couldn’t see the people getting killed—I assumed they were—it’s so far behind me, I don’t remember…I flew over and bombed the Germans ahead of the landing forces.” Asked what he had learned from the war he responded wisely; “War doesn’t pay…”

Archie “Lin” Maltbie, 90, was a fighter pilot flying P-47 Thunderbolts with 365th Fighter Group of Ninth Air Force—the “Hell Hawks” 388th Squadron. He signed up at 19, sailed on Queen Mary and was stationed in England three weeks before D-Day.

Archie tells of cross-channel missions on D-Day; strafing and bombing in the morning, again that afternoon to hit inland and coastal gun positions. “We were up before dawn, got briefed on our mission…skies were full of U.S. planes. On D-Day morning, thousands of ships were down there, so close you could walk from one to another like stepping stones. We saw red in the water. Blood tinted the beaches. I recall shell bursts, tracer bullets flying—it was rough down there. After D-Day we flew from French soil on leveled fields.”

Archie had already shot down enemy planes, and that August, flying at 300 mph, gunned a German ME 109. The Messerschmitt’s exploding debris blew to his canopy disabling the P-47. He baled-out, seconds before it blew up.
Maltbie parachuted, landed in a woodsy area near the River Seine, infested with Germans. Armed with a silk map and French phrase book, he was taken in by a family with the French Underground. He gave up his uniform, got a Basque passport and blended in. During German farmhouse inspections he pretended to be mute thus securing his faux Basque identity.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Archie Maltbie, a retired pharmacist lives in San Jose, has two sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He wrote the foreword for a recently-published military history book, “Thunderbolts of the Hell Hawks,” authored by John Crump and Roy Sutherland. The coffee table book, rich with photos, is illustrated by Don Barnes.

And there was the late Capt. “Zim” Zimmer, pilot in 319th Bombardment Group, who bombed Italian train depots and Po River bridges to support Allied ground troops advancing north after the Invasion of Sicily.
In June 1945 he wrote; “This is how we were hit. Formation came over the coast, climbing from about 11,000 ft. [We] lost the leader in clouds at 16,000. Other wing ship was still there. Lead had disappeared. Not far ahead was the lead box…the other wing ship and I were only ones left. Kline thinks we were hit by flak—banged through ship and radio. Number two engine failed; we feathered it. I thought I could make formation and salvoed bombs to lighten load. We got ripped from stem to stern, losing altitude and speed. I tried to get power, just made the 180 when we got hit again. Landry fell behind my seat, yelled he was hit. Number three was throwing gales of oil—we were doing 110 at 9,000 ft. I couldn’t hold on. I called “abandon ship!” [We} went out the bomb bay—there must have been 7 Luftwaffe ME-109s concentrating on us! I caught a glimpse of my ship in my chute…pieces flew in the air…so long, Zim…”
Captain Zimmer landed in a field north of Pisa, was rescued by the Agostini family, and later taken as POW. After the war he reunited with the Italian family. Zim and Kay had twelve children. They lived on our street.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Theatre, Navy man Bruno Costa, San Ramon resident, was a sonar-radar technician on a destroyer for three years. They torpedoed Penang-based German U-862 subs trolling Pacific waters. “We dropped depth charges on German submarines; we sank about nine. August ’45 I was in Okinawa when they dropped the bomb. I saw a lot of action—it was the best time of my life.”

These mentioned service members have lived to tell their stories—granted the right numbers in the lottery of life. So it is with respect and gratitude that we thank all military personnel for their service, and honor heroic men and women who bravely fought many battles in the war of wars to bring victory to Europe and the Pacific.

Bravo and Godspeed, Bands of Brothers all. May your contrails of conquest endure as a testament to your courage, and forever remind us of your valor and sacrifices as you soar unforgotten on the edge of the skies.

Monte Vista High School, in conjunction with assistance from parent volunteers, local agencies including law enforcement, emergency responders, area hospitals, and clergy presented the Every 15 Minutes program to current students and staff at Monte Vista on April 7 and 8. Every 15 Minutes is a powerful two-day program encouraging teens to think about personal safety and the potentially tragic consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, and while using cell phones. The program stresses the importance of making mature decisions and recognizing that their actions affect others besides themselves.

This two day program included a simulated traffic accident which took place on the Monte Vista football stadium on April 7. Students at Monte Vista were the participants in the collision, as drivers and injured passengers. The accident simulation included on-site trauma triage, DUI investigation, and hospital treatment/death. Student participants also attended a student retreat the night of April 7 with activities designed to show the effects of driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs and/or while distracted.

A school wide assembly then took place on April 8 in the Monte Vista Large Gym. Robert Pack, from the Troy and Alana Pack Foundation, along with Austin Whitney, an anti-drunk driving and motivational speaker delivered their powerful messages to the entire Monte Vista school community.
Every 15 Minutes is made possible from PTSA funding, a federal grant, local business donations, and many hours of work from parent volunteers.

First Hand Account;
I feel very fortunate to have attended the Every 15 Minutes program at Monte Vista High School as a media representative and father of two teenage daughters. To say that it was moving, powerful, educational, emotional, memorable and amazing would be an understatement. This well structured two day presentation was an incredibly effective way to realistically make teen drivers aware of the dangers and repercussions of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and texting.

On a warm spring morning, over 2,000 students piled into the home bleachers of the Sam Zackheim Stadium at Monte Vista High School. On the track, a tarp covered what turned out to be a post car accident crash scene. The teen victims were just starting to awaken from the traumatic occurrence as the driver of one car frantically called 911. Over the next 50 minutes, a real time reenactment played out in front of the audience’s eyes. As response crews including policemen, firemen, sheriffs, paramedics, a Calstar medevac helicopter and ultimately the country coroner arrived on the scene, this powerful depiction of a realistic occurrence seemed to genuinely strike a nerve with the students in attendance.

Sherry Watkins, a trauma center nurse for John Muir Hospital, the leading trauma center for Contra Costa County, said, “this injury prevention outreach program is the ultimate Show & Tell.” The simulated fatal crash scene proved to be more impactful and emotional than I would have ever imagined. Throughout the presentation, freshman through senior students sat in silence, showing remarkable respect for the event being played out. More than a few girls could be seen dabbing tears away from their eyes. “The emergency response team did an incredible job showing us how they performed their jobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few students saw this as a future career path because of this experience,” said one parent.

There was no snide laughter, group conversations or immature behavior displayed at all by the student body. More than a few parent volunteers commented on the intense, full attention of the students watching the presentation.

The basic premise of the program is that one person dies every fifteen minutes in an automobile crash because of alcohol, drugs or distracted driving, such as texting while driving. The presentation focuses on the serious and potentially deadly impact that poor decisions can have on family and friends. As the victims were evacuated, the police administered a field side sobriety test to the inebriated driver responsible for the accident, ultimately placing him under arrest. The assembly ended with the deceased characters real life parents arriving to identify the body, followed by the coroner’s van removing the body as the announcer Jim Doliber read the eulogy of Shelby Cooke.

Later that same day, every 15 minutes a student was removed from a class representing a crash statistic (aka the Living Dead). Their mock obituaries were read aloud in class. Diane Weltz, the mother of Alex Weltz (one of the Living Dead), said, “even though I knew it was coming, it was unnerving getting a mock call from the sheriff’s department and a visit from a police department Chaplain notifying me that my daughter was the victim of a fatal accident.”

The second day assembly began with the Monte Vista Choir performing “Amazing Grace” to a packed gym, as the students who participated in the previous day’s activities filed in with a casket symbolizing the deceased victims of these tragic accidents. This was followed by a video recap of the prior day’s reenactment with a moving account of what transpired once one of the victims arrived at the hospital trauma center and died in the emergency room. Parents all around me wiped back tears when a doctor told a grieving mother and father that their son could not be saved. Even I had a hard time holding it together.

Austin Whitney, a 20 year old paraplegic, spoke to the crowd about an accident he was responsible for that left him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The students seemed to truly relate to this remorseful former star lacrosse player, member of the student council and popular big man on campus as he recounted his one-time care free lifestyle. The inexcusable choice that Austin made, to drive after a night of heavy drinking, nearly killed him and his two closest friends when he lost control of his car and it slammed into a tree at high speed.

Bob Pack, the father of Troy and Alana Pack, two elementary school children who were killed by an intoxicated driver ten years ago on Tassajara Road spoke of the immeasurable loss a parent feels when a child is lost. Bob, and his wife Carmen, have fought for legislation to promote and enforce public safety policies related to driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Perhaps the most moving portion of the presentation was when the two students who had“died” in the simulation, read an open letter to their parents. Both Laura Taylor and McKay Butler’s voices cracked with emotion as they talked about the love and support their parents had given and how much more they could have shared if not for the horrific tragedy. Parent volunteer, Jill Reynolds said, “Every MVHS parent should be grateful that their children got to experience this. Things like this do make a difference.”

Once again, a common theme among the adults in attendance was how impressed we were with the attention and respect the students gave to the proceedings. While it’s safe to say that teenagers will at times use poor judgment and make mistakes, the observations I made of the Monte Vista student body gives me hope that our children will learn from what they saw and the emotions they experienced thanks to Every 15 Minutes. While teens of today have more distractions, temptation and stress than ever before, they also seem to take responsibility and accountability more seriously than my generation ever did. This is evidenced by the latest national statistics indicating that Every 15 Minutes is now closer to Every 30 Minutes.

“The one thing I want them all to take away is how much they are loved and that life is precious and fragile. Choice not chance will determine their destiny if they get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence or distracted by texting. I hope they choose to live,” said Laurie Terzolo, who was the Program Chairperson and largely responsible for bringing Every 15 Minutes to Monte Vista High School.

Special thanks goes out to Cindy England and Lori Stanton for inviting me.

 

Most readers probably aren’t aware that there are two middle and high school equestrian teams located along the I-680 corridor. The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) was formed and organized to promote and improve the quality of equestrian competition and instruction available to middle and secondary school students. Hilary Johnson, Head Trainer for both the Diablo and Athenian IEA teams, says collectively the two teams have approximately 30 student riders and both train out of the Iron Horse Equestrian Center in Danville. “We have a lot of very committed and talented athletes participating at all levels,” says Coach Johnson.

IEA was formed in the spring of 2002. Beginning with only 200 participants, the IEA has grown to over 8,000 riders in over 32 states. It wasn’t until the 2012/13 season that Hilary, along with coaches Reagan Hayes, Paul Bennett and Jacqueline Duff formed the two teams. The competition season starts September 15th and ends at the National Finals in late spring. Amazingly, the Diablo team produced a national champion during its first year in existence.

While the IEA supports three disciplines of riding (Hunt Seat, Western and Saddle Seat), locally it’s the Hunt Seat or Equitation style that is most popular. The unique aspect of the competitions, both at a local and national level, is that none of the riders supply their own horses or tack. Instead, the host team provides the horses and equipment. This equalizes competition variables and tests the horsemanship of the contestants

Approximately eighteen Division 1 and four Division 2 colleges and universities make up the National Colligate Equestrian Association (NCEA) and have scholarship opportunities in equestrian riding. Participation in the IEA is almost essential to be recognized by one of those NCAA schools. Gretchen Koenen, a graduate of Monte Vista High School and former member of the Diablo IEA team, is currently riding for Kansas State University.

Some of the top riders currently competing for the Athenian team include sisters Alexandra and Nicolette Hirt, Peyton and Ginger Freeman and Kelsey Sarracino. From the Diablo team, riders such as Kelsey Pearl of Bishop O’Dowd, Hannah Copeland of Monte Vista and Sara Kobayashi of San Ramon Valley High School make up a strong nucleolus.

Hilary’s hope is that her riders will be recognized by their individual school’s athletic departments and allowed to earn a varsity letter like their high school peers. Johnson says, “These girls put in just as much time as any other student athlete and hopefully their schools will eventually embrace their athletic achievements.”

The Zone 10 Finals took place on Sunday, April 6that Iron Horse Equestrian Center. Coach Johnson is extremely pleased that Peyton Freeman, from Athenian, qualified for nationals which will be held in Springfield, Massachusetts May 16 -18th.

 

In mid-April, the Bay Area was treated to a rare lunar eclipse of a full moon. Those who stayed up late to view the red-hued moon also saw a smaller reddish orb in the same area of the sky. That was Mars, which had ventured to its closest position with earth for the past six years. Since America placed humans on the lunar surface 45 years ago, many citizens believe our next deep space journey should look beyond the moon… and focus on Mars.

Foremost among them is a person who is uniquely qualified to have his informed opinion heard. Buzz Aldrin, the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11 and one of the first two humans to set foot on the moon, is a major believer in aiming our next space-faring effort for Mars.

Last year he published a book called Mission to Mars. In it, Buzz details a vision of the steps needed to plant an American flag on the red soil of the 4th rock from the sun. Even with a well-funded, highly-focused program, he believes it will be a decade before we can get there.

NASA, however, doesn’t usually get all the funding it needs nor all the focus it wants. They believe a human landing mission will more likely take around 20 years of effort, with an “earliest date” of 2032.

Reaching Mars safely is far more difficult than putting a human on the moon. The moon is only 240 thousand miles away from earth, around which it orbits, so that distance remains constant. It can be reached in roughly three days using modern spacecraft technology. Lunar-based astronauts could be retrieved or resupplied relatively quickly if an illness or injury were to occur. Lunar explorers are also not subject to serious health risks that come with long-term solar radiation exposure.

However, the average “closest distance” Mars stays from the earth is around 48 million miles! Since it revolves around the sun, this only happens every 26 months, such as we saw this past April. For the rest of its 687 day cycle around the sun, the Mars elliptical orbit takes it as far as 250 million miles from earth. At a minimum, it would take a human-rated spacecraft six months just to reach the planet and, once there, the return journey would be difficult if not impossible to make until the next close approach.

Hence, a Mars exploration program will involve a 2-year journey to a hostile land rather than just a 1-week hop to our nearest heavenly neighbor. The logistics for a Mars landing are orders of magnitude more complex than the Apollo effort. A habitat of some sort will have to be erected; water, food and fuel will need to be carried with them (or have periodic resupply missions from earth), the atmosphere requires spacesuits to be worn at all times, and the temperature extremes must be dealt with.

In terms of our present day science and technology, how we enable a successful Mars expedition by 2032 is not completely clear. The Apollo program required an army of scientists, engineers and technicians, using slide rules, chalk boards and calculators, to work almost a decade to achieve their success. The Mars landing program will require a similar army of science-savvy people, although armed with sophisticated computers, data mines, neural networks and autonomous robots.

A major reason America won the 1960’s space race was the vast number of college graduates with degrees in science and engineering. The Apollo program, and the people involved, created a significant technological advantage for the U.S., generating political and economic power that has lasted for almost a half century.

The current U.S. work force has a deficit of this type of knowledge and skill (even in Silicon Valley). Hence, there is major national effort underway to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in high school and college. These are not only the key skills needed to build a successful Mars landing program, but the necessary foundation for continued economic prosperity in the U.S.

Danville’s own shuttle astronaut, Leroy Chiao, expressed his views at a recent Senate hearing, calling a Mars mission important not only for developing technologies beneficial to humans on Earth but for boosting national prestige and inspiration. “Human space flight has become woven into the very fabric of our identity, as a nation of explorers, innovators and entrepreneurs,” he said. “It was exactly the endeavors of the Apollo and prior programs that inspired me and my generation. We must do the same and more for our children and grandchildren, and to help maintain our position as the world leader.”

The USS Hornet Museum in Alameda has offered various types of STEM youth programs for many years. As part of this initiative, on July 26th, the museum is holding its 45th commemoration of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Called Splashdown 45, it will feature astronaut Buzz Aldrin and other space-exploration personalities. In addition to reviewing the Apollo effort, it will also explore some of the technologies and sciences needed to create a successful Mars landing program.

The first humans to walk on Mars have already been born and are quite likely in junior high school right now. The Hornet Museum hopes that one of them may have been inspired by attending this commemoration event, and be the featured speaker of Splashdown 70 in 2039, following their successful journey to the Red Planet!

 

The other day I heard a political consultant describe America’s current relations with Russia in light of the situation in Ukraine as a poker game between President Obama and Russian President Putin. “So far,” he said, “Putin is winning.”

While our president voices words of concern and carefully scripted, tele-prompted warnings of “serious consequences,” the Russian president responds with actions– sending troops, tanks and weapons across Ukraine’s sovereign border. So far it would appear that the Russian leader is the one calling the shots. Putin is acting while Obama is reacting. Russia is playing offence while America (and the rest of the world) is playing defense.

In isolation, this situation might not be all that important, but from a perspective measuring America’s standing within the landscape of geo-political relationships, it seems we are on the cusp of serious trouble.

Russia is on the move. It is now engaged in its largest military buildup since the collapse of the Soviet Union and is aggressively expanding its global influence. China’s economy continues to expand and it is drastically ramping-up its military capacity with eyes on Taiwan. Both China and Russia have made significant inroads into Latin America, while America’s influence there has diminished.

In the shadow of what might be gathering clouds of confrontation, President Obama is naïve and appears unsure; his condescending finger-wagging impressing only members of his own party and much of the American press. Not only are our enemies unimpressed, they are emboldened. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad skips over Obama’s “red line,” as he continues to exterminate his own citizens who dare oppose him, and Iran appreciates Obama’s conciliatory tone as it marches on toward its goal of nuclear weapons and the destruction of Israel.

A credible leader only speaks of consequences if  he knows what those consequences will be before he speaks. Obama’s obvious scrambling shows that he has TR’s policy of “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” reversed.

Any past progress made toward stability in the Middle East has been negated by Obama’s sorry leadership, as Egypt, Libya, and Syria go up in flames. We are unclear about our loyalties, as we vacillate in defining friend or foe. Israel rightfully feels abandoned by Washington, as do our Eastern European friends, now that they too are discovering that they are on their own.

America’s anemic imposition of “sanctions” in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea only serves to stiffen Russian resolve and invites a return to the cold war. The Russian people cheer for Putin and scoff at the ignorance or arrogance of any American president so oblivious to history—the Russian people hunger for nationalistic pride, not financial security.

Then there is the issue of Edward Snowden. The complete absence of any leverage whatsoever for America to influence Russian cooperation, in what is arguably the most significant intelligence threat in decades, testifies to the Obama Administration’s astounding weakness in national security matters.

Our President’s skill in navigating foreign policy is being tested, and so far he has failed. He appears impotent in the role of Commander-in Chief. The cumulative result of his foundering has left our nation as vulnerable as it was the day before Pearl Harbor.

The stature of America—our influence and the respect other nations apportion us—has declined dramatically. In large measure this is on account of the dismal performance of President Obama. But the American people bear a significant underlying responsibility for how America is perceived by other nations—friends and foes alike.

The spilt blood of assassinated American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya is a glaring, hideous example to a watching world of Americans’ indifference regarding matters of supreme importance. For the President of the United States to refer to this tragedy as some sort of “phony scandal,” is outrageous and contemptible; likewise, for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to dismiss the matter (while under oath), with the statement, “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?”

Other foreign policy failures aside, on account of this tragedy alone, the American people should be holding our leaders to account. Apparently however, most Americans have been too busy updating their Facebook walls and re-tweeting photos from the Academy Awards to be concerned about the Benghazi incident, or to notice that Vladimir Putin and other leaders have been working round the clock building their militaries, as our president has been reducing and softening ours.

While Putin ramped-up for his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of Defense Hagel announced the reduction of our military troop numbers, to the lowest levels since 1940. President Obama has been more concerned with the feminization and “trans-genderization” of our military than in its readiness, and as a result, morale in the armed forces has never been lower.

During the debates prior to the last election, there was an exchange between Mitt Romney and President Obama, where the President derided Romney for saying that he believed Russia represented the greatest long-term strategic threat to our security. Obama also mocked Romney for being critical of the administration’s cuts to our naval forces, claiming that today’s technology negated the need for a large number of ships. On the first point, as recent events are proving, Romney was right. As for Obama’s flippant critique of Romney’s concern about cuts to our naval forces, the point should have made that regardless of how advanced our new ships may be, they still cannot be two places at once! The point demonstrated Obama’s ignorance, not Romney’s.

A good poker player is not necessarily the one with the best hand, but one who knows how to play a poor hand, well. In the poker game of geo-politics, the stakes are enormous. Freedom or oppression, peace or war, hang in the balance.

America sits at the table, still with the best hand–the most powerful, technologically-advanced military in the world. The problem is, the man holding our cards is a very poor player, indeed.