July 4 and the discovery of raindeer in San Diego
Arne Nelson, one of the docents on the USS Midway also looks for interesting items from past issues of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Arne found this treasure in the January 1926 issue.
When visiting Havana, the crew of USS Powhatan was never able to pick the winner in the regular Sunday afternoon cock fights. A Chief Boatswain’s Mate named Gallagher was known to utter, “Tain’t natural to always lose.”
At a crew strategy session Gallagher suggested the way to reverse their fortunes was to bring an American bird to Havana upon the ship’s next visit. Gallagher was given the assignment of obtaining the American bird, and after a few months he secured one.
On the next trip to Havana he placed the bird in a cage adjacent to the wardroom chicken coop and cared for the bird on the ship’s journey from the U.S. east coast to Havana. With the first Sunday liberty, the crew, the “Great American Bird,” and a big bag of the crew’s money under the care of a certain Casey made their way to the sporting arena.
Powhatan’s pride, when placed in the ring with its Spanish opponent, took on an indifferent posture and seemed taken aback upon receiving the first blow. Money flowed for the Spanish bird, which was matched by Casey from his money bag at reasonable odds. The next foray by the Spanish bird drew blood, howls from the Spanish backers and more of their money, increasing the odds on the American bird significantly. At this point, Gallagher told Casey to empty the bag, as no better odds would be obtained.
Soon afterward the American bird came alive, grasped the game cock with a claw, bit the Spanish opponent’s head off and began eating it. It turns out Gallagher had obtained a young American eagle and trained it to the task at hand. With Powhatan’s crew having increased their investment six-fold, liberty celebrations continued for a long time.
The author’s point being that long before there was a Naval War College for senior officers (established 1884), common American sailors had demonstrated the ability to conduct an Estimate of the Situation and, though ignorant of the meanings of the words Logistics, Strategy, and Tactics, could combine all three to achieve their objective. – Arne Nelson
Rob Kracht gave us a treasure of a prayer this morning…
A Prayer for Fundraisers
Good and gracious God, we recognized all life is a blessing.
We thank you for your most generous love.
Help us to always revere the sacred space where our donors and our missions meet.
Give us openness to listen to the needs of our donors.
Give us joyful spirits, and an eagerness to engage others.
Give us hopeful imagination and creative vision, recognizing generosity in even the smallest gift.
Give us strong, steadfast hearts sin times of discouragement.
Give us trusting heart, knowing that the fruits of labors will be realized long after we are gone.
Give us faithful hearts, deeply committed to Your realm.
Remind us always that what we do for the youth of Coronado, we do for you.
We ask this in your name. Amen.
The picture at the left is of course the Powhattan’s Pride and on the right are President Carla and Karen Drugger who represents the beach volley ball teams in all the schools. Karen cmae to collect one of our big checks.
July 4th information–Form up at 0930 on H Ave between 1st and 2nd–in front of the horses. Dress appropriately in Goldenrod.
Rob Kracht is the go to man for prepping the viewing bleachers. If you can help in the morning give him a call to get an assignment. It is easy and very helpful.
Al Aegerter urged us to give a dime a day to help support the OI Foundation. This goes to all the programs that OI uses for scholarship, JOOI clubs and such. Al has the forms our you can go to the OI website and donate to the “Dime-A-Day” Fund.
There is no no meeting next week!
Ask Senor Bowen about the discovery of Polar Bears and Reindeer at the Zoo. Who knew
