The Great Escape - Veteran's Day

Steve McQueen made a famous movie about Allied prisoners escape attempts from German Luft Stalags in World War 2. What most folks don't know is his character was based partially on the war experiences of Alvin Vogtle.




Alvin Vogtle ultimately became the CEO of Southern Company, and a nuclear power plant near Waynesboro, Georgia was named in his behalf years ago.



Alvin Vogtle was educated at Auburn University and attended law school at the University of Alabama. In 1941, he joined the US Army Air Corps, having already been a civilian pilot.

Vogtle was captured as prisoner of war in January 1943 while on his 35th mission – a trip to carry a message to Bone, Algeria, that could not be transmitted by wire. Out of fuel because of a storm and taking flak behind enemy lines, he crash-landed at 80 mph, his Spitfire hitting a drainage ditch and splitting in half. He got quickly on his feet but was captured within a half-hour by some 40 German soldiers, led by officers on horseback.

After a night in jail and three days of interrogation in Tunis, he began his long train journey under guard to Germany, via Italy. In Rome he made his first getaway. When his guard turned away briefly in a market, he took off running. But wearing his leather flyer’s jacket and U.S. Army Air Corps uniform, he was quickly caught.
Later, while spending the night in the Frankfurt train station, Vogtle took from his sleeping guard all the papers seized from his plane and destroyed them. He eventually arrived at an interrogation center where he spent three weeks annoying his captors by providing them with only his name, rank and serial number.
His first POW camp was Offlag XXI-B in Poland, where women spit and threw horse manure on him and other flyers as they were led from the train to the camp, which Vogtle was glad to find was alive with escape planning and tunnel digging. By March, he and a companion had cut a hole in the barbed wire fence and were ready to escape the following night. Their exit was discovered, however, and their attempt foiled.

In April, Vogtle and a large group of American flyers rode three days in boxcars without food and water to the North Compound of Stalag Luft III, a POW camp for British air force officers and the site of “Tom,” “Dick” and “Harry” tunnels immortalized by the 1963 movie “The Great Escape.”
Vogtle quickly became a hard-working participant in the escape effort, excelling in stealing tunnel-building materials and bribing guards with Red Cross chocolate and homemade booze. He was the designated head of the “procurement committee.”
But Vogtle was not waiting for completion of the tunnels. On a July morning he went out the front gate, buried at the bottom of a trash wagon – his escape companion having been discovered because he had not rooted himself far enough into the stinking garbage. Traveling at night, guided by stars, and scaling the Carpathian Mountains, he covered 150 miles in 10 days, all the way to Czechoslovakia. However, civilians there turned him in to the Gestapo.
Once back in camp, Vogtle spent 14 days in solitary confinement, but that never seemed to deter him. Imprisonment was simply intolerable to him; he was so intensely private and independent. It made him feel like a caged animal.
For Vogtle, trying to escape was his responsibility as an American. It was his duty to occupy as many Germans as possible in trying to keep him fenced in. When a guard had been forced to travel with him back from Czechoslovakia, he knew that was one less German on the battlefront fighting the Allies.
When Vogtle and the other Americans were moved to the South Compound of Stalag Luft III, he again began looking for a way out. It was like a game for him. He spent his days watching the routine activities of the camp, searching for an opportunity, a weak spot in its defense. He eventually devised two plans but had to abort both. The first time his companion was caught going out the barbed wire they had cut, leaving Vogtle to slither back to his barracks. The second time, when he planned to slip out with a parcels detail, his companion – another perennial escapee – was being watched too closely.





Alvin Vogtle (third from right) and bunkmates in front of their victory garden at the south compound of Stalag Luft III.


Not even the execution of 50 British flyers caught after their escape through the North Compound tunnel “Harry” – many of them his friends – deterred Vogtle. At 5-foot-7, he planned to go out in a mailbag in January 1945 but never got the chance. With the Allies advancing, the entire camp was moved one windy night in six inches of snow, marching 34 miles in 27 hours before being packed into unventilated boxcars.
At a water stop, the POW chain of command issued orders that anyone who wanted to try to escape could. Vogtle and John Lewis went out the window at a stop in Moosburg. They covered 90 miles in four nights of snow, rain and one of the coldest winters on record in northern Europe, building fires to warm themselves. When they finally took refuge in a hayloft, they were discovered by farm children the next day and recaptured.

At their new camp – Stalag Luft VII-A – they found not only their former campmates but a total of 80,000 POWs of all nationalities, rank and service branch. It was chaos. And Vogtle loved it. He was free again by the end of February.
Dressed like British orderlies, Vogtle and Herb Spire slipped into a large group of POWs being taken to Munich to work and, once there, broke away from their smaller detail when their guard turned to give directions to a woman. They soon connected with Frenchmen who gave them a multi-stop route by train toward Switzerland. Nervous that he would eventually be asked to show identification, Vogtle left Spire within 100 miles of Switzerland and set out on his own. He had a map; that was all he needed
He hiked through snow drifts, stole a bike and swam or crossed five creeks. When he came to the Rhine River, in the darkness of an early morning, he again started swimming. He made it halfway across the frigid water before the strong current turned him back. As he ran down the river’s edge, he discovered a rowboat. He untied it and rowed into Switzerland and freedom. Dawn was breaking. It was March 3, 1945. Mission finally accomplished, focus still in tact.





Alvin's focus in World War 2 served him well. He prospered in business, and attained the highest levels of success in the electric utility industry. He was a family man and enjoyed his children and grandchildren. His granddaughter Katie, only 16 years old when he died, never heard her grandfather's secrets - only the declassified public knowledge of World War 2 history.



Katie Kirtley has written a new book detailing the CODE USER (CU) messages her grandfather included in his letters home from the Stalags.

Pilots who flew particularly risky missions were trained in the use of a code technique, which was declassified only in the past twenty years. These men were called CU's or Code Users. Even at the time of Vogtle's death, he could not divulge this information to anyone. CU letters were intercepted by the American Red Cross and forwarded to a PO Box in Arlington, VA, where letters were steamed open, decoded, resealed, and forwarded to the family. Her book will detail the encrypted messages along with the daily banter of a prisoner or war writing home to his family.

She always knew her grandfather was a hero, and now has a deeper understanding of heroism and commitment of a man who took secrets to his grave.


God Bless our veterans, our heroes, old and new.
God Bless America.

July Fourth, 2010

"For those who have served, freedom has a taste that those who have not served will never know." - A Medal of Honor winner



My grandfather served in the US Navy from 1942 until 1946. He was 35 years old, married and had three children under 10 years of age when the war broke out. My Grandfather served on the Japanese Island of Okinawa, on what is now known as Kadena Air Base. He tended to liberated POWs, many of which were incapacitated, blind, and near death.

My father served in the US Army First Cavalry in Korea. Dad enlisted at the age of 17, and served in Korea in the capacity of Intelligence and Reconnaisance. His outfit received a visit from General Douglas Mac Arthur at the 38th parallel late in the war.

Both of these men had a deep appreciation for WHAT IT MEANS to be an American.
And that's how I was raised. A young man simply had to serve the country to be entitled to understanding this conversation. I'm glad I did. In these times, more than ever. Millions of Americans don't seem to get it - and I was taught - they won't ever get it.

July Fourth, we are reminded that the founding fathers also experienced great sacrifice. We remember them mostly from historic depictions of them in positions of power and victory. Sadly, that was not often the case.

General George Washington was beaten more than he was victorious, forcibly evacuating Long Island, then Manhattan - leaving New York to British occupation.
Britain had a Navy - Washington really didn't. New York being surrounded by water - and Washington had no capability to defeat them. Washington's ego was smarting over New York City. He had to leave that behind to win the war.

French advisor Comte de Rochambeau met with Washington outside New York, and compelled Washington to head towards the South, where British General Cornwallis had just been pounded by General Nathaniel Green in the Carolinas. Cornwallis had withdrawn to Yorktown, Virginia, pretty severely beaten up.

Washington discovered the British fortification at Yorktown and had the British General trapped, his back to the ocean - the French Navy approaching. A continuous barrage of cannonfire and a courageous hand to hand night raid on forward posts, brought forth a surrender.
It was a Hail Mary. A late game victory, with very few offensive scores for the Americans.

Men and Women have died in the service of this Nation since that time. There has never been a "free" victory. A heavy price has always been paid, and one that continues to this day.

We should all be proud to be Americans, but some won't.
Because they haven't done what it takes to know.

Thomas Jefferson:

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants ..."

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

I've said it many times, all forms of energy have risks which need to be considered.
Energy, by it's very nature, is destructive, and things can get out of hand and cause disasters. In the US nuclear power industry, our lessons in developing a Nuclear Safety Culture came in 1979 at Three Mile Island. The US Nuclear Safety Culture is defined by 8 principles. They are . . .

1. Everyone is personally responsible for nuclear safety.
2. Leaders demonstrate commitment to safety.
3. Trust permeates the organization.
4. Decision-making reflects safety first.
5. Nuclear technology is recognized as special and unique.
6. A questioning attitude is cultivated.
7. Organizational learning is embraced.
8. Nuclear safety undergoes constant examination.

When any person has a safety concern, that person gets everyone's hearts and minds until the concern is resolved. The vast majority of the time I spend training NRC License Candidates involves ingraining those principles into the way a person thinks, works, and acts. Knowledge of thermodynamics and nuclear physics is required, but by itself, is inadequate in the Control Room.

Anyone can teach a person how to start a pump or open a valve - that is strictly psychomotor, getting their brain to tell their hand what to do.
These candidates need to know the effects, potential hazards, expected indications, how to validate indications and identify defective indications, inform crew members of variations from the expected, and place the plant and system in a safe condition when a malfunction occurs.

Something tells me that the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was operated by an organization lacking a Safety Culture. I'm sure the months of investigations will reveal the details, but someone on that rig knew that the Blowout Preventer was compromised well before the blowout happened. This information made it up the management chain, and management chose to proceed with uncertainty.

The engineering parameters involved in this well are hard to imagine. The ocean itself puts out a pressure of 2,227 pounds per square inch at 5000 feet of depth.
The palm of a man's hand covers about 10 square inches, the ocean would exert 22,270 ponds of force on a man's hand at that depth. Half the weight of a legal limit load of a tractor trailer on your palm.

Pressures at that depth are crushing.
US Submarines can get to that depth if they have to - but the hull is very well compressed. You wouldn't want to take the hull shock of a battle down there. If they tied a string from one wall to the other while on the surface and then dove to that depth, the string will touch the deck plates. Major squish.

Then there is the well pressure itself. Estimates as high as 40,000 pounds per square inch have been made involving the well. That's why it hasn't been capped. No known material withstands that internal pressure. Not even in nuclear reactor metallurgy. The well is spewing natural gas, oil, and abrasive sandy grit from the earth's crust. Any abrasive grit blasted through any pipe or well casing, or anything else, for that matter, will wear away the surrounding material. So - yes - that pipe in the well casing is getting bigger by the week. When it wears through, the hole itself will begin to wear away. Any sustained pressure through a piping system that has an increasing diameter over time will result in greater and greater oil flows.

You've heard numbers - constantly revised in the upward direction - regarding the thousands of barrels per day being released. In my opinion, all of the released data is accurate - the volume really is increasing, due to increasing bore size in the failed well.

So how do you fix this thing?

If I was on the team, I'd attack pressure.

From what I have read, they are doing that by drilling relief wells. They will punch multiple wells in the same location, giving the oil and gas multiple paths to flow. The increased flow will cause a pressure drop. At that point, they should have another Top Kill procedure prepared, the well likely won't reject the high density mud column they pump in during that evolution. That mud is about 10 pounds per foot in density, so the 5,000 feet from the ocean surface to the ocean floor alone will generate 50,000 pounds per square inch in opposing pressure. If the earth plays along and withstands that pressure - and it should - that will end this leak.

The moratorium on pumping in the Gulf of Mexico was a disastrous and ill-informed decision. Let me list the reasons.
1) We will need multiple wells drilled in that area to lower well pressure - there's a bad casing down there on a nasty high pressure source.
2) We will need the oil handling capacity and engineering facilities available from multiple rigs. More equipment means more backup capability is on hand when needed.
3) Current producing wells will be capped and abandoned. Another Haiti style earthquake may make us wish we had rigs available in the Gulf of Mexico when a leak develops.
4) Cash flow, It's going to take billions to clean up the mess - I've estimated 80 Billion (simply ten times the EPA estimate - government is THAT dependable).
Let's pump that oil, sell it, and generate the revenue to clean up the Gulf of Mexico. Unemployed shrimpers, fisherman, tourism folks, etc, will need the work. That oil will provide the money.
5)Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Yes, the Iranian. This well is a Jed Clampett class oil discovery. Developed western oil sources remove Ahmedinejad's political handle in the Persian Gulf. His big hammer is missile shots into tankers leaving Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and United Arab Emirates. His hammer shrinks if we can replace that Persian Gulf source using the Gulf of Mexico.

Some more advice.
1) Waive the Jones Act. Norwegian skimmers helped clean up the Persian Gulf in the 70s and 80s. They still do it - and they have offered. The Jones Act is a union law that prohibits non-union maritime employees in US waters.
Obama would rather destroy the Gulf Coast than offend his union thugs.
2) Get the environmental restrictions off Louisiana. Bobby Jindal wanted sand berms built in the Barrier Islands, and the US government interfered. The case was based on no environmental impact statement. Sand can be easily moved, oil is a little tougher. Maybe if Obama had to clean up a five gallon pail of sand and a five gallon pail of oil - he could figure this out.
3) Stop grandstanding with threats and chest banging, throat stepping, ass kicking, etc. It doesn't fix things in a Control Room and it won't fix things in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil dependency has been no friend to nuclear power. If I were talking my money game here, I'd say to hell with it, build nuclear generated electric or hydrogen powered cars. People don't want them yet. It is easy to drive natural gas powered cars, though. Honda already builds them. Canadians and Australians drive Liquid Propane powered cars and trucks. The US is awash in the stuff, particularly if we develop the Gulf of Mexico.

The US continues to need energy of all sorts. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid want oily pelicans and dead sea turtles to help them sell Carbon Cap and Trade Taxation, most recently camouflaged as "Comprehensive Energy Reform". If it sounds like "Comprehensive Health Care Reform", you're catching on quick. That means immediate years of oppressive taxes with the promise of some future pie in the sky benefit. Like 2014 or so, if it's Health Care.

Carbon Cap and Trade is a Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme. No kidding - it ought to be ran by Social Security - it's that bad. They want to assign a cash value to something invisible, and that occurs in nature by natural processes, and call it pollution control. We exhale Carbon Dioxide. I exhale ALOT of Carbon Dioxide. The EPA says its pollution and the Chicago Climate Exchange (yeah Obama's buddies) say the stuff costs $25 a ton to emit. You pay them - sound familiar?
Nuclear plants don't emit Carbon Dioxide, but we get "credits" for what we were "allowed" to emit. Nuclear plants can sell "credits" to other companies who burn coal. Some company called Exelon in Chicago (imagine that) loves this idea.

The same old coal becomes the same old Carbon Dioxide, only ALOT more money changed hands and . . . (here's the fun part) Guess where all those Billions of Dollars come from?
Utilities? No.
Chicago Climate Exchange? No.
Obama? No.

It comes from ratepayers using the same old electricity from the same old sources.
The earth, by the way, experiences the same old Carbon Dioxide emission as in the past. Change you can believe in.

Auntie Zeituni

Zeituni Onyango is the half sister of President Barack Obama's father.
A federal judge has granted asylum so that she may now remain legally in the United States. She had been ordered to be deported in 2004, but has been living in a Boston housing project for several years. Some news sources state that the Bush Administration delayed her scheduled deportation to avoid embarrassing Barack Obama so close to the 2008 Presidential Election.

One thing bothers me about the case of Auntie Zeituni. Her treatment.
The President of the United States own aunt is impoverished and living in a housing project. Her nephew certainly has the financial means to help her, and likely has spare bedrooms in the White House.

A decent man would offer to support his own impoverished relative.

If that's how he treats his own flesh and blood - what sort of behavior do you expect of him?

Hope and Change?

With fundamental transformation the watchwords of 2010, one would believe that the case of Auntie Zeituni would be a powerful image for Immigration Reform. With sad stories and detailed coverage of the anguish associated by deporting a helpless lady back to Kenya.

I deeply believe that this same topic of conversation must have been held among the White House Staff, if not between The President and Mrs. Obama. And here's my theory on why she remains in public housing and in a state of poverty.

Old ladies tell family stories. Especially to an interested audience. Stories of Kenya and significant events that happened 50 years ago, such as the birth of Barack Obama - just might be recorded by a first hand witness.
The African tradition of keeping the spoken history just might be an inconvenient truth, to steal an Al Gore rhythm.

She might tell a story of Barack Obama's birth in Kenya, before the wrong camera crew and reporter. Not all media is friendly to the Administration.
In Boston, she is safely in Kennedy media country. She can tell whatever stories she wants and the truth within will never see the light of day.

Not much news hits the streets from public housing. They'll keep it that way.

Our Mexican Neighbors

This is ridiculous. Cinco de Mayo demonstrations in the US. Don't you think a really proud Mexican would spend that holiday in Mexico with their family?
The problem with most of these folks is that they are felons.

That's right - felons.

Lets look at Title 8 US Code Chapter 12 Subchapter II Part VIII § 1325.

Improper entry by alien
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who
(1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or
(2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or
(3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

You either have completed the immigration process - or you're in violation of that law. Not Arizona's Law - Federal Law.

If they have a job in the US there's another felon who needs locked up...

§ 1324a. Unlawful employment of aliens
(a) Making employment of unauthorized aliens unlawful
(1) In general it is unlawful for a person or other entity—
(A) to hire, or to recruit or refer for a fee, for employment in the United States an alien knowing the alien is an unauthorized alien (as defined in subsection (h)(3) of this section) with respect to such employment, or
(B)
(i) to hire for employment in the United States an individual without complying with the requirements of subsection (b) of this section...


The US Code also REQUIRES authorities and employers to check papers. So the Federal Gubmint needs to shut their trap about Arizona checking Mexicans papers.

(b) Employment verification system
...(C) Documents evidencing employment authorization
A document described in this subparagraph is an individual’s—
(i) social security account number card (other than such a card which specifies on the face that the issuance of the card does not authorize employment in the United States); or
(ii) other documentation evidencing authorization of employment in the United States which the Attorney General finds, by regulation, to be acceptable for purposes of this section.
(D) Documents establishing identity of individual
A document described in this subparagraph is an individual’s—
(i) driver’s license or similar document issued for the purpose of identification by a State, if it contains a photograph of the individual or such other personal identifying information relating to the individual as the Attorney General finds, by regulation, sufficient for purposes of this section...

Arizona has a serious problem with Illegal Mexicans. If the Federal Gubmint doesn't control that border, it is the obligation of Arizona's governor to protect the people of Arizona.

Washington DC Geeks pretending that this is some sort of civil rights violation are demonstrating ignorance to the extreme. Only US citizens have civil rights. Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and 12 million Illegal Mexicans - do not.

Tear Down This Wall

In June of 1987, Ronald Reagan - against the advice of the State Department and other advisors, made the following speech...

"We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate...

...Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Today, with celebrations in Europe over their freedom and the destruction of the Berlin Wall - not one reference was made to this man and his stance against oppression.

It's as if he didn't exist. (LINK)

Why?

The Communists hated that speech. They still hate that speech. And now - they're in charge.

Anita Dunn - inspired by Mao Tse Tung

White House Communications Director. Mouthpiece of the Obama Administration.
Admirer of the murderer of 77 million Chinese people during the "Cultural Revolution". No kidding. She said the two most politically influential inspirations in her life were Mother Teresa and Chairman Mao Tse Tung. (LINK)

I'd hope she included Mother Teresa in hopes of taking the edge off of the other choice and avoid allegations of sexism. You know, the party platform says a Democrat can't be sexist. Maoist is OK. Sexist, uh - no.

Wow. At least she's not an avowed fan of Adolf Hitler or Attila The Hun.

Anita's new revelation is that she thinks Fox News is an extension of the Republican Party. I've yet to hear Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly profess inspiration from a murderous Communist or Socialist.

Shit folks. This isn't a recently brainwashed high school or college student we're talking about. This is the United States Government.