The recoilless rifle was six feet long and weighed over a hundred pounds. It often required three or four Marines to carry it across the battlefields during the Korean War.
Lugging it was dangerous, but it was necessary, because that rifle, which the soldiers nicknamed “reckless,” could fire a 75mm shell thousands of yards with surgical-like precision.
It was one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ finest munitions. But the commander of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon, Eric Pedersen, knew there had to be a better way to use it on the battlefield in Korea.
That better way came to Lieutenant Pedersen in the form of an offer from a stable boy from the racetrack in Seoul. The boy’s sister had stepped on a land mine and lost her leg, but the family couldn’t afford a prostethic. The boy offered Pedersen a horse he owned and was training to race. He had named it “Ah Chim Hai,” or “Morning Flame.”
Pedersen paid $250 of his own money for the small chestnut mare. He wouldn’t be racing her. He was going to train her to carry that giant gun.
Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, their families and cohorts remind many patriotic citizens today of Paul Cantrell and his political machine.
In Athens, Tennessee, the seat of McMinn County, was once upon a time, the headquarters of Sheriff Cantrell, the unscrupulous boss of a corrupt Democratic machine which stretched from Tennessee to Washington, DC.
When so many of the husbands, fathers, uncles, sons and cousins left for duty during the Second World War, Cantrell kicked his corruption into high gear.
🔹On the books, Cantrell drew salaries of nearly sixty thousand dollars per year over his first six years that were worth over $715,000 in today’s dollars.
🔹He was also appointed superintendent of the county workhouse (which didn’t even exist) for an additional two thousand dollars annually. a time when the median Tennessee home was worth less than two thousand dollars and the starting salary for enlisted men was fifty dollars per month.
🔹Despite the strict rationing for millions of patriotic citizens, Cantrell’s “lieutenants” and “enforcers” had plenty of cars, tires, and fuel.
🔹Reminiscent of Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein, or Joe Biden and Judge Emmett Sullivan, Cantrell and company had their own whorehouses, not to mention illegal casinos, and speakeasies, to play in and take in thousands of dollars per month in protection money.
🔹Like Congress and the Senate today protecting their beloved kickback schemes from Ukraine, by 1946, Cantrell had dozens of county employees on the payrolls to provide cover for their vast money laundering operations.
🔹By August 1, 1946, citizens had enough. The boys who went to fight in World War II returned home as men, brave veterans.
Returned home as fighting men.
.
🔹While the “roosters” were gone saving the world from tyranny, the “fox” made certain the elections were rigged, much like 2020.
🔹McMinn County ballot boxes remained in Democratic offices. Cantrell’s deputies were the “election officers,” some of whom went down in history as “brutal killers with the blood of innocent civilians on their hands. Other local thugs and felons were on hand to further inculcate the climate of fear, including a man who murdered his own father and, five months after the election, murdered his sister-in-law, an expectant mother, and an infant child.”
🔹Like the patriots of January 6, 2021, some of McMinn County voters were imprisoned to prevent them from voting.
🔹Similar to the fake news of Big Media today, the message went out to older voters that their pensions would be held up unless they voted “the right way.”
🔹When a Republican election judge, a disabled veteran of World War I, tried to view the ballot count, he was dragged into the corridor and beaten, leaving him paralyzed.
🔹Another man who attempted to observe the ballot count was pistol-whipped, and one gunman fired at a poll worker who tried to leave the courthouse.
🔹Citizens petitioned the Department of Justice for relief, knowing that local and State officials would not take any action against the machine.
🔹Like the DOJ of 2022, the 1946 Department of Justice took no to little action and downplayed any evidence.
🔹Judges then, as now, dismissed evidence and lawsuits that did make it into courts. Of course, judges, DAs, senators and congressmen were associated with the machine. In one case, the judge not only dismissed most of the charges but fined the men one penny for the charges that stuck.
🔹The machine awarded Cantrell by having him “elected” to the Tennessee Senate. Pat Mansfield replaced him as Sheriff.
🔹Stories started to spread that widows and daughters of some deceased military heroes were forced into prostitutuon.
🔹Surviving veterans returned home to a community of horror.
🔹Near the end of September, 1944, Earl Ford, a returned Navy Seabee, was shot and killed by one of Mansfeld’s thugs, George Spurling.
🔹Not long after Ford was killed, Bill White returned from his tour of duty. Bill’s father, Edd, a veteran of the First World War, told his son a story:
He walked five miles a day to work at the power station on Railroad Avenue. He carried his lunch in a brown paper bag and a pint of milk from Mayfield’s Dairy. While walking past the jail on his way home he saw four deputies stare at him, get in a car, and start the engine. As he walked past the courthouse, the car was in the middle of the street, following him. He lowered his head and kept walking. He walked past the bus station and they were right alongside him. Edd picked up the pace. They accelerated. He didn’t know what they wanted with him or why. But he knew it wasn’t good. He panicked and started running to his house. The car pulled in front of him and slammed on its brakes. Four deputies jumped out with clubs in their hands. He was arrested and taken to jail. Now it was time to figure out a reason. The deputies took his milk bottle out of the bag and passed it around, taking a sniff. “Smells funny,” they agreed. The deputies who protected the roadhouses and honky-tonks and lined their pockets with kickbacks from bootleggers and pimps decided the remnant of Edd White’s milk was alcohol. He was fined $16.05, several days’ pay.
“It was a big surprise,” Bill described about returning home from the war, and “everything, everything, everything you’ve been told you’re supposed to be fighting for wasn’t there.” There were “liquor houses, whorehouses, gambling joints all over the county,” protected by “a bunch of thugs wearing guns and badges.”
Sounding very familiar to Americans today, Cantrell back then decided he was returning to Athens to “run” for Sheriff, Mansfield would be his handpicked successor to “run” for the State Senate seat.
🔹The veterans could stand no more. It was time to take action. They were told to keep away from the polls and to not even think about running for office, the veterans began organizing anyway.
🔹They prepared in secrecy to put a ticket together. They called it the “Ex-Serviceman’s Cleanup Ticket for McMinn County.”
🔹The local Republican Party endorsed them. One party official summed it up:
“We are involved in a conflict with desperate enemies who have sought to subject us to tyranny and oppression…We feel a deep sense of obligation and now seek in measure to repay…Young men who have fought against oppression abroad will continue that fight for honesty and decency at home.”
🔹Bill White finally told the group they were being naïve, arguing that they had to organize a fighting bunch:
“Listen. Do you think they’re going to let you win this election? Those people been taking these elections for years with a bunch of armed thugs. If you never got the guts enough to stand up and fight fire with fire, you ain’t gonna win.”
An Athens minister preached to his congregation:
“If you do not vote as your conscience dictates, then you have sold your citizenship and do not deserve to be citizens. It is the responsibility of each and every person to preserve our most cherished possession, liberty, or forever lose it.”
ELECTION DAY
🔹Armed deputies “guarded” each polling place, and reports of election fraud poured in to GI headquarters almost immediately.
🔹One veteran reported, “They already started knocking our boys in the head and putting them in jail. They’re taking this thing…This thing’ lost.”
Athens Jail, 1946
🔹A deputy beat and shot a sixty-year-old who insisted he was going to vote as he tried to enter a polling place.
🔹Another deputy brutally beat an election judge, a veteran who protested the shameful voter fraud he witnessed.
🔹One writer indicated “there were twelve ballot boxes: one in the jail, another inside a heavily defended courthouse, a third barricaded in the Dixie Café, a fourth in the vault in the Cantrell Bank Building, and poll watchers had been ejected at two other locations.”
🔹Inside the courthouse, deputies held a handful of GI poll watchers hostage, two of them wounded.
🔹Bill White and some of the team of GI veterans took these courthouse “deputies” for a drive out in the country were they marched them into the woods, made them take off their clothes, and tied them to trees. Some were whipped with a hickory stick.
Some of the veterans who took their city back
.
🔹Leaving the naked and whipped deputies tied to the trees, White and team returned to town. White told his fellow patriots:
Well! Here you are! After three or four years of fighting for your country. You survived it all. You came back. And what did you come back to? A free country? You came back to Athens, Tennessee, in McMin!n County, that’s run by a bunch of outlaws. They’ve got hired gunmen all over this county right now at this minute. What for? One purpose. To scare you so bad you won’t dare stand up for the rights you’ve been bleeding and dying for. Some of your mothers and some of your sisters are afraid to walk down the streets to the polling places. Lots of men, too! Because they know what happens. A car drives by in the night and shoots out your windows. If that doesn’t scare you enough, they’ll set fire to your house or your barn. They’ll beat up members of your family and put them in jail. For no reason! Is that the kind of freedom you were supposed to be fighting for? Do you know what your rights are supposed to be? How many rights have you got left? None! Not even the right to vote in a free election. When you lose that, you’ve lost everything. And you are damned well going to lose it unless you fight and fight the only way they understand. Fire with fire! We’ve got to make this an honest election because we promised the people that if they voted it would be an honest election. And it’s going to be. But only if we see that it is. We are going to have to run these organized criminals out of town, and we can do it if we stick together. Are you afraid of them? Why, I could take a banana stalk and run every one of these potbellied draft dodgers across Depot Hill. Get the hell out of here and get something to shoot with. And come back as fast as you can.
Bill White, 1946
🔹The veterans returned with an arsenal of pistols, rifles, shotguns, squirrel guns, and European souvenirs like a German Mauser. It wasn’t enough.
🔹A group of them raided the nearby National Guard armory, where they found revolvers, a Thompson submachine gun, an array of .30-caliber M1917 rifles, and plenty of ammunition.
🔹Sheriff deputies gathered at the jail, where the ballot boxes had been taken.
Local hero patriots pose in jail after they took it over.
🔹 White remembered how they had sworn to defend America against all of her enemies. Later, he explained that “if it was worth going over there and risking your life, laying it down, it was worth it here, too. So, we decided to fight.”
🔹The veterans formed a line on a hillside across from the jail and demanded that the machine men bring out the ballot boxes. From the jail, someone yelled, “You’re going to have to come get them.”
🔹A gun battle commenced and the vets climbed to rooftops, strategically surrounding the jail.
🔹 Other veterans fired from behind walls and parked cars. They shot out the transformer that supplied the jail. The deputies could even see their ammo which had mostly been used up.
🔹More deputies from both Monroe and Polk Counties arrived with a plan to kill Knox Henry, the veteran candidate for Sheriff.
🔹After receiving news that the National Guard had been mobilized, the veterans asked White what they should do. He replied immediately, vowing, “We’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to keep shooting here until we get those ballot boxes and get those people out of there.”
🔹Some of the veterans went and returned with an enormous stockpile of dynamite in the old county barn that the county used to clear roads and blast stumps and stones.
🔹They began tossing dynamite in increasing amounts at the jail, aiming closer and closer with each throw, finally promising that the next would be through the window.
🔹The deputized political machine men, outgunned and out of ammunition, surrendered with their hands held straight up as they walked out.
🔹The patriots searched the deputies for weapons and marched them from the jail to the courthouse in a column led by Bill White.
🔹White’s men gathered all deputies fancy late model cars so citizens could see them turn them over, douse them with gasoline, and set aflame.
🔹The veterans delivered a statement to a local radio station:
“The GI election officials went to the polls unarmed to have a fair election, as Pat Mansfield promised. They were met with blackjacks and pistols. Several GI officials were beaten and the ballot boxes were moved to the jail. The GI supporters went to the jail to get these ballot boxes and were met by gunfire. The GI candidates had promised that the votes would be counted as cast. They had no choice but to meet fire with fire. In the precincts where the GI candidates were allowed watchers, they led by three-to-one majorities. The GIs are elected and will serve as your county officials beginning September 1, 1946.”
The GIs continued by:
🔹Halting their planned aerial attack at a nearby airstrip in which they had planned to drop bombs over the jail.
🔹Raided all of the gambling dens, seized the slot machines and destroyed the equipment.
🔹Knox Henry was sworn in as Sheriff and declared:
“We have accomplished what we started out to do. We’ve broken the grip of the political machine that has ruled McMinn County for ten years without regard as to the wishes of the people in how their government was to be run. When I say we, I mean the other GIs on the nonpartisan cleanup ticket and the citizens of McMinn County who helped us win the battle.”
“We regret that the gunfight at the jail had to happen…Our only alternative was to use force…there will be no trouble of this kind at the next election. Any person who can qualify for an office may run with the full assurance of an honest election and the people will have nothing to fear when they go to the polls on Election Day.”
🔹Knox needed a whole new team of deputies, and pinned a star on Bill White. Almost immediately, they carried out raids on the moonshiners and bootleggers who had enjoyed the protection of the eliminated machine.
Soon, a Commonwealth editorial read:
“Since, after all, our American nation was founded by virtue of revolution, and since such revered figures as Jefferson evidently thought that revolution had valuable tonic effects on the body politic, it would be a trifle hypocritical for Americans to raise their hands in horror at these goings-on in the shadow of the Great Smokies.”
These brave patriots of Athens, Tennessee, fought and won the only successful armed insurrection in the United States since the War of Independence….so far.
🔹Petty Officer First Class Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL, chased four men through four counties while armed with two 9mm Berettas because they killed his dog, DASY. – Source
Luttrell was the sole survivor of a US Navy SEAL team ambush by Taliban fighters. He was saved by members of the Sabray tribe under the Nanawatai principle of the Pashtunwali code which requires a tribe to safeguard an individual against his enemies at all costs. – Source
🔹The original Navy SEAL Team 6 was formed after a failed Delta Force mission and was given its team number in order to confuse Soviet Intelligence as to how many teams there actually were (there were only 2 at that time). – Source
🔹Bill Shepherd, first US Navy SEAL that became a NASA Astronaut and first commander of the ISS, was asked what he does best in his astronaut candidate interview. He answered: “Kill people with a knife.” – Source
🔹There was a Navy SEAL so elite that they created his own unit just for him. He kidnapped Admirals and infiltrated US military bases. His name was Richard Marcinko. – Source
Marcinko
🔹During the Vietnam war, Navy SEAL teams One and Two amassed a combined kill/death ratio of 200:1. – Source
🔹The brain of a Navy SEAL is trained to alter the way the amygdala processes fear. – Source
🔹Navy SEALs that killed Bin Laden got stealth series flashlights as a ‘thank you’ from the company. – Source
🔹The Navy SEALs who killed Bin Laden were the same team that rescued the American captain held hostage by Somalian pirates in 2009 – Source
🔹The runner up of the first ever Ironman was John Dubar, a US Navy SEAL. He was winning during the marathon until his support crew ran out of water and decided to give him beer instead – Source
Dunbar, Monsoor, SEALS, Monsoor funeral
🔹During the funeral of Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor, every Navy SEAL on the West Coast came to the funeral, took off their golden trident off of their own uniform and slapped it onto his wooden coffin covering the whole coffin in golden tridents. – Source
🔹The trident worn on the uniforms of Navy SEALs is officially designated as the “Special Warfare Insignia,” but is sometimes called the “Budweiser,” named in part for the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) course, the grueling twenty-five week special warfare school. The trident also has an uncanny resemblance to the Anheuser-Busch logo.
🔹An aerospace engineer attached to the Navy SEALS was charged in federal court for building a plane from scratch to “more easily visit his wife”. – Source
🔹The Belgian Malinois is the preferred “war dog” of the Navy SEALs. They are highly trained special ops experts, even trained to operate a parachute, “jumping either in tandem with their handlers or solo, if the jump is into water.” – Source
🔹Chris Kyle, a sniper on the US Navy SEALs, eliminated so many enemies that Iraqi insurgents gave him the nickname “The Devil.” – Source
Navy SEALS make up less than 1% of all United States Navy personnel, but despite their small numbers they make a huge strategic impact on every operation of which they’re a part.
Because of the specialized training, SEALS can’t just do combat coming from the sea, but they’re trained in desert, urban and jungle conditions, and can handle explosives and jump from airplanes. They’re trained in every useful skill.
Though they’re trained in a variety of ways, Navy SEALS specialize in combat in surprise strikes from the sea as well as a secretive return to the sea. This allows them to strike and return clandestinely numerous times doing the most damage possible, and achieving aims that larger troops couldn’t manage without being noticed.
🔹For $10,000 former Navy SEALs promise to teach you what they have learned for a week and then, if your skills are up to par, “unleash you on the most exciting and terrifying 36-hours of your life.” – Source
Rudolph Giuliani is best known for being mayor of New York during the September 11, 2001 attack. In 2008, Jack Dennis had the opportunity to meet Giuliani in San Antonio, Texas.
The American leader expressed his thoughts on his personal change, compassion, hope and faith during the disaster.
“Most people are surprised to know that I changed more from having prostate cancer than from September 11,” Giuliani stated, backstage at the Alamodome, where he was to give a speech later. “Dealing with the cancer forced me to gain the wisdom about the importance of life and the lack of control we have over death.”
“I needed the confidence and character I gained from coping with the cancer to prepare me to deal with, and even survive, the trials of September 11,” the former mayor said.
Giuliani found himself surrounded by firefighters, police officers and emergency workers on that fateful day in 2001. The worst attack on American soil became the most successful rescue operation in our country’s history under his leadership.
That evening, as Giuliani prepared for bed, he found solace in the words of Winston Churchill and “realized that courage doesn’t simply materialize out of thin air.”
Giuliani attended hundreds of funerals and visited Ground Zero daily.
“I grew physically and emotionally exhausted,” he recalled. “When I saw the families of the victims, I was revived knowing if they can do this, I can do it.”
“Courage begins years before, sometimes in our early childhood, as we develop our character,” he spoke. “Every choice we make in life can strengthen or weaken our character.”
Here are highlights of Mr. Giuliani’s views.
“When I was in my teens, I seriously planned to become either a priest or a doctor as I have always been faithful and enthusiastic about my faith in God and helping others. Religion was a favorite topic I enjoyed talking with my teachers about. Prayer and faith in God provided me with the strength I could not acquire from any other source. When things are tough, it’s always a good idea to pray for the guidance and strength necessary to get us through.”
“Most of my time as mayor was spent under the maxim that it’s better to be respected than to be loved. September 11 unlocked compassion in me that I typically reserved for my family and very close friends. I discovered that revealing your love and compassion does not weaken leadership. It makes it stronger.”
“Allowing doubt, fear and worry to overtake us is an inevitable path to failure. I could not afford failure after September 11. It was very necessary to reach inside and push the doubts away, and even out, of my thinking.”
“I’ve spent much of my reading on learning about how great leaders that I admired grew up and forged the character each had to deal with different substantial challenges. Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt came to mind. ‘Then only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’”
“Love can spark deep moments of profound goodness. When I saw the love of our heroes in New York who looked beyond their own safety or what was best for themselves and focus on the lives and safety of others, I learned that love can help us push aside differences to share our humanity and those things that we have in common.”
“I prayed with these brave men and women. I became very close and was able to learn from these firefighters, police officers and emergency responders, not to mention ordinary every day civilians. At the root of all of this, it was love, and not so much the sense of duty, that caused those firefighters to run into the flaming towers to save those he or she had never met. Love can so powerful it can help us be kind to even those who are cruel to us.”
The famous Italian diver Enzo Mallorca recalled “when I first started thinking about setting freediving records, the medical experts kept saying that a man could not stay alive diving deeper than 165ft [50m] because his lungs would not make it.”
“Doctors were creating barriers for us and I admit that at the time it worried me,” he admitted. “Even Aristotle claimed a man could dive no deeper than 30 ft.”
In September 1960, he successfully descended to a depth of 45m, in the process setting the first of 17 wworld records in the variable buoyancy category.
Two months later, he extended this to 49m.
Enzo Mallorca died at 86 in 2016.
In August 1961 he set a new record of 50m in the “constant weight” category, in which there are no additional buoyancy aids and the diver must descend and ascend with their own fin power. The Italian media dubbed him Lord of the Abysses.
Years later, Enzo dove into the sea of Syracuse and was talking to his daughter Rosanna who was aboard the boat. Ready to go in, he felt something slightly hit his back.
He turned and saw a dolphin. Then he realized that the dolphin did not want to play but to express something.
The animal dove and Enzo followed.
At a depth of about 12 meters, trapped in an abandoned net, there was another dolphin. Enzo quickly asked his daughter to grab the diving knives. Soon, the two of them managed to free the dolphin, which, at the end of the ordeal, emerged, issued an “almost human cry” (describes Enzo).
Rosanna and Enzo
(A dolphin can stay under water for up to 10 minutes, then it drowns.)
The released dolphin was helped to the surface by Enzo, Rosanna and the other dolphin. That’s when the surprise came: she was pregnant!
The male circled them, and then stopped in front of Enzo, touched his cheek (like a kiss), in a gesture of gratitude and then they both swam off.
Enzo Mallorca once said, “Until man learns to respect and speak to the animal world, he can never know his true role on Earth.”
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. stands as a symbol of America’s honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War.
Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of 58,267 (including those added in 2010) men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. The Memorial is dedicated to honor the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of all who answered the call to serve during one of the most divisive wars in U.S. history.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.
There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.
39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
8,283 were just 19 years old.
The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.
5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.
In one small section, Jack Dennis found three ‘Dennis’ names.
997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.
Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.
54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.
8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.
244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.
Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.
West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.
Visiting the Wall
Vietnam Veterans Memorial is located north of the Lincoln Memorial near the intersection of 22nd Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW.
Visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial can be a very emotional experience for visitors. Please be respectful of others while you visit.
🔹To locate a name on the wall, use one of the catalogs available near the entrances of the memorial. The names are listed alphabetically by last name in the catalog. Each listing provides a panel number and a row number.
🔹To locate the name entry on the wall, look on the bottom corner of each panel for its panel number (e.g. 24W) and then count down the rows starting from the top. As an indexing aid, every other panel has pip marks on every tenth row to help users count the rows.
🔹Typically five names appear on each row (six appear where names have been added to the wall since 1982). Rangers and volunteers are often available to assist you.
Parking is available along Constitution Avenue. Be sure to read the signs for restrictions and time limits. Handicapped parking is available on the south side of the Lincoln Memorial.
Interstate 395 provides access to the Mall from the South. Interstate 495, New York Avenue, Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the Cabin John Parkway provide access from the North. Interstate 66, U.S. Routes 50 and 29 provide access from the West. U.S. Routes 50, 1, and 4 provide access from the East.
In 1976, Shavarsh Karapetyan, an Armenian Olympic swimmer who earned eight gold medals and broke several world records at European championships for finswimming, had just completed a 12-mile run with his brother Kamo when they saw a trolley bus crash into a dam reservoir. The trolley bus sank 80 feet offshore at a depth of 33 feet.
It was September 16, 1976 when Karapetyan risked his own life to save over three dozen people from drowning in the reservoir Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Despite zero visibility, he managed to kick in the back window, injuring himself in the process. He proceeded to save 37 people trapped in the bus, one at a time, for hours.
Using the routine he had developed from his swimming training, Karapetyan fell into a rhythm. He took five breaths, dove down for two passengers, and kicked against the top of the bus for momentum as he returned to the surface with the people in both arms.
He had instructed Kamo to stay at the surface and ferry passengers to the bank of the reservoir, as he dove again and again. Karapetyan’s own legs were bleeding, sliced open by broken glass, but that did not deter him.
The two-man lifesaving effort lasted about 20 minutes, before a rescue crew arrived, some of whom moved in on kayaks.
Because of the flurry of action and lack of clear government records, it’s unknown how many people the Karapetyan brothers saved; they estimate about 30. Some survivors freed themselves. Forty-six people died.
Karapetyan after rescuing about 37 people, is shirtless at the bottom center.
The combined effect of the cold water and his inquiries from breaking the glass window led to his hospitalization for 45 days after the incident, during which time he developed pneumonia, sepsis, and lung damage which ended his athletic career.
For years, his story wasn’t known, until an article about the event identified him by name in 1982. In 1985, he happened to pass by the Sports and Concert Arena when he witnessed a fire break out and rushed inside, again saving people trapped inside one at a time until he collapsed. He was again hospitalized with severe burns and lung damage.
He retired at the age of 24, having set 11 world records. Karapetyan held 17 world championship titles, 13 European championship titles, and seven Soviet championship titles.
He was born in 1953. As of 2022, Karapetyan says that he wouldn’t change a thing. Diving into Yerevan Lake that day cost him his athletic career. But he would do it again.
“There was no other choice,” he said. “I knew that it wouldn’t be right if the world’s fastest underwater swimmer was there and didn’t even try to help. Nature and humanity would have judged me. God probably would have judged me.”
Texas trucker Joe Buttons honked at his Oklahoma cousins waving flags and banners above as he drove his rig under a large group of supporters this weekend.
“I could spot them in the crowd up there and heared them loud and clear,” Buttons said. “On the cell (phone) they told me how proud they were of me–all of us. We just thank everybody for lining the streets and overpasses. It’s like patriotism is back.”
One of his relatives told him later they counted 688 18-wheelers “and hundreds of cars, vans, pickups, RVs, and occasionally a motorcycle or two.”
“Everybody asks how many trucks are in the convoy,” Buttons offered. “Hell, I don’t know because it changes so much.”
He explained that some trucks join them on their way east and “then a few that leave us after a few hours. There is a constant flow of families and everybody driving beside us, honking their horns and wishing us luck.”
“We see everybody from every color and every age,” he continued. “It just makes us feel good. It tells us they are on our side of freedom, no matter your age or sex or whatever. We are all Americans—together.”
“They said, with a drone and people on the overpasses counting, it looks like we are up to over 600 trucks and at least that many more of cars and all,” Buttons said. One thing we know for sure–it’s growing and it’s growing fast.”
“When they say ‘the convoy,’ it’s not about just one line of trucks going to Washington,” he explained. “There’s more than one route. We have tributaries of highways leading the charge, the convoys will all meet up.”
“We heard someone say if they could measure all of these trains (vehicles on highways), single file and add them up, right now it would be about 65 miles long.”
While national mainstream media ignores, downplays or distorts news of the convoy, local, social media and independent coverage is strong.
You may not have known that Uncle Sam was a real person! In case you’re unfamiliar, “Uncle Sam” is the famous patriotic character we see on the poster that reads, “I want you for U.S. army.”
Born Samuel Wilson in 1766, the real-life Uncle Sam worked as a meat packer in Troy, New York. During the War of 1812, he supplied troops with meat that he shipped in barrels.
The barrels contained the branding “U.S.,” short for “United States,” but people often joked that it actually stood for “Uncle Sam.” The trope eventually spread far and wide, and the rest is history (literally).
Painted by noted U.S. illustrator James Montgomery Flagg, the image first appeared on the cover of the July 6, 1916, issue of Leslie’s Weekly magazine with the title “What Are You Doing for Preparedness?” The U.S. would not declare war on Germany until April of the next year, but the storm signals were clear. The image was later adapted by the U.S. Army for the poster with the new, unforgettable call to action. More than 4 million copies of it were printed between 1917 and 1918.
This photo above of Wilson was taken sometime in the 1850s, and is the only known photograph of him.
As midnight ended the first day of America’s great trucker convoys, over 976 trucks and other vehicles settled down in Arizona and beyond. The People’s Convoy group reported donations totalling $464,731 directly to their organization website:
Along the way supporters greeted and thanked the truckers with flags, banners and chants of TRUCK JOE BIDEN. Food, water, letters from children and even 25,000 gallons of fuel were provided.
Despite the downplay and propaganda from mainstream media, independent and patriotic news providers reported the facts and enthusiasm of the cause.
The send off crowd sang ‘Amazing Grace’ with the Truckers before they left California.Shared live on Internet. Great America Pizza provided food and fuel in Arizona.Crowds gathered to welcome the Convoy into Arizona to rest for the night.
Millions of Patriots Supporting, Praying and Cheering Along Routes
American Truckers launch The People’s Convoy, a peaceful and unified transcontinental movement for freedom, on February 23, 10:00 am, from Adelanto Stadium in California.
This verse was read and shared by thousands before they embarked:
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10
Citizens are supporting the Convoy For Freedom by:
Praying for their safety and success.
Attending their send off rallies and cheering them along the routes.
Sharing information about The People’s Convoy on social media and by email.
Living not by lies or fear.
As The People’s Convoy begins their peaceful and unified transcontinental movements for freedom, hundreds of truckers are hearing encouragement and blessings from speakers including FLCCC President Dr. Pierre Kory and Godspeak Church Pastor Rob McCoy.
“The truckers are joined by freedom-loving supporters from all walks of life on this peaceful and law-abiding transcontinental journey for freedom,” one spokesperson said Tuesday night.
“This convoy is about freedom and unity,” they announced.” “The truckers are riding unified across party and state lines with freedom loving people of all colors and creeds. Everyone is welcome to participate by attending the launch rally and/or by following the big rigs in their own vehicles.”
First 4 Days: Truckers, Bikers, RVs, and Other Vehicles Main Convoy RouteAcross America
Day 1: CA to AZDay 2: Through AZ (Snow expected)Day 3: AZ to TXDay 4: TX to OK
The People’s Convoy Message
The 23 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a rough road for all Americans: spiritually, emotionally, physically, and – not least – financially.
Good therapeutics and the hard work of courageous, frontline doctors and nurses contributed to declining COVID-19 cases and severity of illness. It’s time to re-open America. It’s time for elected officials to work with American workers to and restore accountability and liberty – by lifting all mandates and ending the “state of emergency.” Americans need to get back to work and living in a free and unrestricted manner.
Adjoining Routes
Truckers Are Ready
Many non-mainstream media reporters, photographers and staff will embed with the Convoy. Note: As of this writing Newsmax, Eric Bolling, Maureen Steele, The Epoch Times and other journalists, media outlets and podcasters are joining.
Retired military and security experts are assisting the convoy and spearheading logistics to ensure a 100 percent safe, lawful, and peaceful journey.
“We have the freedom our forefathers and veterans have continually died for over the past two hundred years. Just visit our National Cemetaries and view the rows of sacrifice on the grounds. This freedom needs to be defended whether foreign or domestic,” was a message passed around by supporters to truckers before they left. “All of us must fight these communists. I know this because I am a cold war veteran. This time they have attacked us from the inside via money and political means.”
“Our representatives seem to be very quiet during these times, why? God bless all of you in this endeavor to retain our freedom that we still have today,” wrote FireDogRazor54. “To my brothers and sisters in Canada, your blood has been shared in the past many times and I know personally that you do not quit, defend the Maple leaf! To all I repeat ‘esprit de corps’. Post this message on your trucks!! To the police, go 10-7 with the blue covid flu for about a week, just saying. Where is our clergy? Tend the flock and ward off the foxes!”
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Clever Journeys 