I'll put him in the Military Leader category for now:
Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller (No italics for a man this badass.)
The General holds the following awards:
Navy Cross with Gold Stars in lieu of four additional awards
Army Distinguished Service Cross
Army Silver Star Medal
Legion of Merit with Combat "V" and Gold Star in lieu of a second award
Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V"
Air Medal with Gold Stars in lieu of second and third awards
Purple Heart Medal
Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon with four bronze stars
Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal with one bronze star
World War I Victory Medal with West Indies clasp
Haitian Campaign Medal
Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal
Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with one bronze star
China Service Medal
American Defense Service Medal with Base clasp
American Area Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal with four bronze stars
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Korean Service Medal with one silver star in lieu of five bronze stars
United Nations Service Medal
Haitian Medaille Militaire
Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit with Diploma
Nicaraguan Cross of Valor with Diploma
Republic of Korea's Ulchi Medal with Gold Star
Korean Presidential Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster
The only Marine to earn five Navy Crosses, Chesty Puller is an inspiration to all current, former, and aspiring devil dogs. Out of the 37 years of service to his country, all but 10 were spent abroad or afloat...
Quote:
Born 26 June 1898, at West Point, Virginia, the general attended Virginia Military Institute until enlisting in the Marine Corps in August 1918. He was appointed a Marine Reserve second lieutenant 16 June 1919, but due to the reduction of the Marine Corps after World War I, was placed on inactive duty ten days later. He rejoined the Marines as an enlisted man on the 30th of that month, to serve as an officer in the Gendarmerie d'Haiti, a military force set up in that country under a treaty with the United States. Most of its officers were U.S. Marines, while its enlisted personnel were Haitians.
Excerpt from his citation for his fifth Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross:
Quote:
"Fighting continuously in sub-zero weather against a vastly outnumbering hostile force, (the then) Colonel Puller drove off repeated and fanatical enemy attacks upon his Regimental defense sector and supply points. Although the area was frequently covered by grazing machine gun fire and intense artillery and mortar fire, he coolly moved among his troops to insure their correct tactical employment, reinforced the lines as the situation demanded and successfully defended his perimeter, keeping open the main supply routes for the movement of the Division.
During the attack from Koto-ri to Hungman, he expertly utilized his Regiment as the Division rear guard, repelling two fierce enemy assaults which severely threatened the security of the unit, and personally supervised the care and prompt evacuation of all casualties.
By his unflagging determination, he served to inspire his men to heroic efforts in defense of their positions and assured the safety of much valuable equipment which would otherwise have been lost to the enemy. His skilled leadership, superb courage and valiant devotion to duty in the face of overwhelming odds reflect the highest credit upon Colonel Puller and the United States Naval Service."
Quote:
General Puller also fought with the 1st Marine Division in the World War II campaigns on Guadalcanal, Eastern New Guinea, Camp Gloucester and Peleliu, earning his third Navy Cross and the Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals at Guadalcanal, his fourth Navy Cross at Cape Gloucester, and his first Legion of Merit with Combat "V" at Peleliu. He won his first Navy Cross in November 1930, and his second in September and October 1932, while fighting bandits in Nicaragua.
Serving in Korea from September 1950 to April 1951, the general also earned the Army Silver Star Medal in the Inchon landing, his second Legion of Merit with Combat "V" in the Inchon-Seoul fighting and the early phases of the Chosin Reservoir campaign, and three Air Medals for reconnaissance and liaison flights over enemy territory.
Last edited by Montana Moe; 07-29-2009 at 01:57 AM.
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Oh ye of little faith! I'm working on my pick as we speak. (Type?) I'm also going to post the justification for my first round pick. Second round pick coming first so as to speed the draft along.
Last edited by Five-hole; 07-29-2009 at 12:28 PM.
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In the category of military leader, team Five-hole selects Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a five-star general in the United States Army. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
In 1942, Eisenhower was appointed Commanding General, European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA) and was based in London. In November, he was also appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force of the North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA) through the new operational Headquarters A(E)FHQ. The word "expeditionary" was dropped soon after his appointment for security reasons. In February 1943, his authority was extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean basin to include the British 8th Army, commanded by General Bernard Law Montgomery. The 8th Army had advanced across the Western Desert from the east and was ready for the start of the Tunisia Campaign. Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up command of ETOUSA to be commander of NATOUSA. After the capitulation of Axis forces in North Africa, Eisenhower remained in command of the renamed Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO), keeping the operational title and continued in command of NATOUSA redesignated MTOUSA. In this position he oversaw the invasion of Sicily and the invasion of the Italian mainland.
In December 1943, it was announced that Eisenhower would be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In January 1944, he resumed command of ETOUSA and the following month was officially designated as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), serving in a dual role until the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945. In these positions he was charged with planning and carrying out the Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the liberation of western Europe and the invasion of Germany. A month after the Normandy D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, the invasion of southern France took place, and control of the forces which took part in the southern invasion passed from the AFHQ to the SHAEF. From then until the end of the War in Europe on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower through SHAEF had supreme command of all operational Allied forces, and through his command of ETOUSA, administrative command of all U.S. forces, on the Western Front north of the Alps.
United States Awards
In Order of Precedence
* Army Distinguished Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters
* Navy Distinguished Service Medal
* Legion of Merit
* Mexican Border Service Medal
* World War I Victory Medal
* American Defense Service Medal
* American Campaign Medal
* European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver and four bronze service stars
* World War II Victory Medal
* Army of Occupation Medal with "Germany" clasp
* National Defense Service Medal (2 awards)
He was offered the Medal of Honor, but turned it down.
International awards
List of citations bestowed by other countries.
* Argentine Order of the Liberator San Martin, Great Cross
* Belgian Order of Léopold
* Belgian Croix de Guerre/Belgisch Oorlogskruis
* Brazil Campaign Medal
* Brazil War Medal
* Brazilian Order of Military Merit, Grand Cross
* Brazilian Order of Aeronautical Merit, Grand Cross
* Brazilian National Order of the Southern Cross
* British Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross
* British Order of Merit
* British Africa Star with "8" and "1" numerical devices.
* Chilean Chief Commander of the Order of Merit
* Chinese Order of Yun Hui, Grand Cordon
* Chinese Order of Yun Fei, Grand Cordon
* Czechoslovakian Order of the White Lion
* Czechoslovakian Golden Star of Victory
* Danish Order of the Elephant
* Ecuadorian Star of Abdon Calderon
* Egyptian Order of Ismal, Grand Cordon
* Ethiopian Order of Solomon
* French Croix de Guerre
* French Legion of Honor.[73]
* French Order of Liberation
* French Military Medal
* Greek Order of George I with swords
* Guatemalan Cross of Military Merit, First Class
* Haitian Order of Honor and Merit, Grand Cross
* Italy Military Order of Italy, Knight Grand Cross
* Italy Order of Malta
* Luxembourg Medal of Merit
* Luxembourg War Cross
* Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, First Class
* Mexican Medal of Civic Merit
* Mexican Order of Military Merit
* Moroccan Order of Ouissam Alaouite
* Netherlands: Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grand Cross
* Norwegian Order of St. Olav
* Pakistani Nishan-e-Pakistan, or Order of Pakistan, First Class
* Panama Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Grand Cross
* Panama Order of Manuel Amador Guerrero, Grand Master (collar grade)
* Philippines Distinguished Service Star
* Philippines Shield of Honor Medal, Chief Commander
* Philippines Order of Sikatuna, Raja (First Class)
* Polish Cross of Grunwald
* Polish Order of Polonia Restituta
* Polish Virtuti Militari
* Soviet Order of Suvorov
* Soviet Order of Victory
* Tunisian Order of Nichan Iftikhar, Gand Cordon
In the category of Inventor / Scientist, team Five-hole selects Nicolaus Copernicus.
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published in 1543 just before he died, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution. His heliocentric model, with the sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of modern science that is now often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.
The Copernican Revolution refers to the paradigm shift away from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which postulated the Earth at the center of the universe, towards the his heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the universe. It was one of the starting points of the Scientific Revolution of the 16th Century. For over a millennium, the Catholic Church had been at the head of not just religion, but also politics and science. The Church did not explicitly contradict popular theories of geocentrism, although prominent theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albert the Great were aware of heliocentric theories. Revelation of the latter to the uneducated masses was rightly predicted to cause discord across all branches of knowledge. Thus began the great shift from trust in authority figures to trust in the self.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant used the expression "Copernican revolution" to describe the effect that his critical method would have on traditional metaphysics.[2] The conditions and qualities he ascribed to the subject of knowledge placed man at the centre of all conceptual and empirical experience, and overcame the rationalism-empiricism impasse, characteristic of the 17th and 18th centuries. See also Subject-object problem.
On July 14, 2009, the discoverers of chemical element 112 proposed that it be given the permanent name Copernicium and symbol Cp "to honor an outstanding scientist who changed our view of the world".[69] This proposal has been submitted to IUPAC for discussion by the scientific community; if the name is approved, it will replace the temporary name "ununbium".
OK, as I search the annals of my historical mind (it was a quick search), I seem to be thinking of draftees that are of historical importance to myself.
So if my choices don't pass muster with the gallery, go easy, they're important to me!
With my first pick, I submit in the Explorer/Discoverer category:
William Clark of the Corps of Dscovery.
Such an underappreciated event in American history. The expedition was an unbelievable success in almost every way. It is the reason why Thomas Jefferson is my second favorite President.
Great pick Moe. It is quite a thing for me to look down on the Yellowstone, and later at Three Forks and think that 200 years ago these amazing people were on this spot.
I do it every time I go by.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
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I always looked at Lewis and Clark as the start of American 'foreign' adventurism. Considering they went far beyond the Louisiana Purchase which was their mandate. But you guys are correct in that the expedition's greater importance is often overlooked.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Thats why Flames fans make ideal Star Trek fans. We've really been taught to embrace the self-loathing and extreme criticism.
When I was younger I used to like philosophy quite a bit, and I assume I had some sort of a knack for it, being that I was so much encouraged to actually take up philosophy as a scientific career (by some university professors no less). Possibly unfortunately I couldn't see myself earning a living doing something as useless, as intriguing as it might have been.
Another reason for me to pretty much give up philosophy was this dead Scottish guy. Simultaneously a highly enlightening read, and some true dead ends in thinking (although very interesting ones).
So in the Thinker/Philosopher category, team HeroQuest chooses another personal hero (I count Gandhi there too, Häyhä not so much), Scottish philosopher David Hume. (1711–1776)
He wrote a lot of good stuff about causality and induction, practical reasoning, ethics,
morals and so on. Check out Wikipedia for starters, it's good stuff.
Causality? Induction? Circular reasoning I say! Miracles? You'd be a fool to believe in them, even if one happened right in front of your eyes. Necessity and liberty? Can't have one without the other you know. Reason schmeason, let's face it, it's our passions that really move us. And who are all these idiots who don't know "is" from "ought"?
He apparently was a pretty good historian too.
EDIT: I really like this draft.
Last edited by Itse; 07-30-2009 at 01:54 PM.
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When I was younger I used to like philosophy quite a bit, and I assume I had some sort of a knack for it, being that I was so much encouraged to actually take up philosophy as a scientific career (by some university professors no less). Possibly unfortunately I couldn't see myself earning a living doing something as useless, as intriguing as it might have been.
Another reason for me to pretty much give up philosophy was this dead Scottish guy. Simultaneously a highly enlightening read, and some true dead ends in thinking (although very interesting ones).
So in the Thinker/Philosopher category, team HeroQuest chooses another personal hero (I count Gandhi there too, Häyhä not so much), Scottish philosopher David Hume. (1711–1776)
He wrote a lot of good stuff about causality and induction, practical reasoning, ethics,
morals and so on. Check out Wikipedia for starters, it's good stuff.
Causality? Induction? Circular reasoning I say! Miracles? You'd be a fool to believe in them, even if one happened right in front of your eyes. Necessity and liberty? Can't have one without the other you know. Reason schmeason, let's face it, it's our passions that really move us. And who are all these idiots who don't know "is" from "ought"?
He apparently was a pretty good historian too.
EDIT: I really like this draft.
Interesting pick; I remember really liking him in the epistemology class I took, but I didn't really know much about him beyond a few of his ideas.
That's Bill Shakespeare. Or at least a drawring of him. He was to be in 1564 and became not to be in 1616.
I hated the son of a bitch in high school until a teacher showed us a film adaptation of one of the plays -- The Taming of The Shrew -- and that turned me all around on the subject.
Before I watched the movie I couldn't really visualize what was going on in the book, which made it really boring. Watching it changed all that. Before I saw it on the television I would skip over the scene descriptions in the book and basically "speed read", which was pointless.
Although I did get some of it when I was just racing through it -- I remember reading some lines and thinking "this guy is telling dirty jokes in this play". But I didn't believe he was telling dirty jokes because it all read so fancy-like, what with the "art thou's" and "he hath's" and so forth. But he was really telling dirty jokes.
I can't remember the exact titles of the plays, but I know the ones with the name "Henry" in the title had plenty of gags about screwing, farting, drunken debauchery and general lecherousness.
So on top of it all being "grand narratives" and "stories that have been ripped off for 400 years" and "hard-to-understand old-timey-time language", there are a lot of laughs in there.
I used to buy every Shakespeare "book" I'd run across at any book sale, garage sale, flea market or library castoff bin, so I have a lot of them. Not one of them has been cracked in 10 years but it makes me feel like a big man to have them sitting in that box under my slide projector.
If you would like to learn more about William Shakespeare, visit your Pubic Library.
__________________
Last edited by RougeUnderoos; 07-30-2009 at 11:02 PM.
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Rats, I would have taken Shakespeare for my writer; I love his works.
I will move on to Explorer, and happily pick a crazy old Brit who reminds me somewhat of Sutter. In that this man also could "do whatever he wants."
He is Sir Richard Francis Burton
He has so many accomplishments that it would be difficult to list them all. He was a scientist, writer, linguist, soldier, fencer, traveller, diplomat, soldier, etc.
He spoke 29 languages.
He is considered the first non Muslim European to make the Hajj to Mecca and Medina. At least the first well documented one. He made the trip in disguise and surely would have been killed if discovered.
He translated what is popularly known as the "Arabian Nights" and the "Kama Sutra" He was very interested in sex, and researched everything about it and the local peculiarities whereever he travelled. This amongst many other things made him many enemies in England and abroad.
He spoke out aqainst the rampant colonialisation of Africa, and was very far from the typical English Victorian gentleman.
from Wiki:
"As an obituary described: "... he was ill fitted to run in official harness, and he had a Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against himself that had no foundation in fact."[28]Ouida reported that "Men at the FO [Foreign Office] ... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected ... not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of doing".[
I like that last line.
"Published in this period, but composed on his return journey from Mecca, The Kasidah[7] has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a Sufi. The poem (and Burton's notes and commentary on it) contain layers of Sufic meaning, and seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West.[20] "Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws" is The Kasidah's most oft-quoted passage.
When badgered by a priest about killing a man, he reportedly told him that he had "committed every sin the the decalogue."
Burton was involved with several expeditions to find the primary source of the Nile. Was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika.
I select in the Visual Artist category, EMILY CARR:
Portrait by Nan Chaney, 1937
I lived in Vancouver for five years in the early 1990s. Emily Carr's prescence is everywhere there. One summer day, an Aussie girl and I smoked a big fattie, and sat mesmerized by her paintings for hours at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I've also seen her paintings at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa. Her paintings are intense - they speak to the sub-conscious.
Carr is remembered primarily for her painting. She was one of the first artists to attempt to capture the spirit of Canada in a modern style. Previously, Canadian painting had been mostly portraits and representational landscapes. Carr's main themes in her mature work were natives and nature: "native totem poles set in deep forest locations or sites of abandoned native villages" and, later, "the large rhythms of Western forests, driftwood-tossed beaches and expansive skies". [11] She blended these two themes in ways uniquely her own. Her "qualities of painterly skill and vision [...] enabled her to give form to a Pacific mythos that was so carefully distilled in her imagination".[11]
Her painting can be divided into several distinct phases: her early work, before her studies in Paris; her early paintings under the Fauvist influence of her time in Paris; a post-impressionist middle period[12] before her encounter with the Group of Seven; and her later, formal period, under the post-cubist influences of Lawren Harris and American artist and friend, Mark Tobey.[13] She used charcoal and watercolour for her sketches. The greatest part of her mature work was oil on canvas or, when money was scarce, oil on paper.
In the category of visual artist, I select Charles M Russell.
Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864, St. Louis, Missouri—October 24, 1926, Great Falls, Montana)[1], also known as C. M. Russell, was an artistWestern United States, in addition to bronze sculptures. Known as 'the cowboy artist'[2], Russell was also a storyteller and author. The C. M. Russell Museum Complex is located in his hometown of Great Falls, Montana houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. of the American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Russell's mural entitled Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians hangs in the state capitol building in Helena, Montana. Russell's 1918 painting Piegans sold for $5.6 million dollars at a 2005 auction.
I am no art expert, I would wilt in The Louvre or any similar museum as my lack of knowledge of the great artists would surely be exposed! However, I do have an appreciation for art. Certain things move me. As a child of the west, Russell's extensive body of work provided a backdrop for everything I deemed important as a kid. There have been many 'cowboy artists', but none are as prolific or excellent (IMHO) as Charles M Russell.
Piegans
Lewis and Clark Meet the Flathead Indians
Before the White Man
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
Last edited by Displaced Flames fan; 07-31-2009 at 06:45 PM.
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In the catagory of Innovator, Team Charlie Don't Surf is proud to select, Leonardo Da Vinci.
Quote:
Leonardo was and is renowned[2] primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, respectively, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.[1] Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon,[3] being reproduced on everything from the Euro to text books to t-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.[nb 2] Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity.[2] He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics.[4] Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime,[nb 3] but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded.[nb 4] As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.[5]
I'm working on my pick as we speak. (Type?) I'm also going to post the justification for my first round pick. Second round pick coming first so as to speed the draft along.
), I seem to be thinking of draftees that are of historical importance to myself.
