Posts by Christopher Kelly

  Jimmy Stewart1908 – 1997 Robert Matzen’s Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe was published in 2016 (https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Jimmy-Stewart-Fight-Europe/dp/173227357X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638016209&sr=8-1).  Jimmy Stewart was a remarkable American actor and a remarkable man as well.  Stewart’s family had a strong military tradition.  His grandfather, the original James Stewart, served in the Union army in the US Civil…

  H.W. Brand’s 2017 The General vs the President is a timely re-examination of the Truman / MacArthur confrontation that roiled the world at the outset of the Cold War (www.amzn.com/0385540574). MacArthur was no ordinary General.  He and his father were the only father / son team awarded a Medal of Honor in US history.…

  Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is great fun (www.amzn.com/1250119030).  If you admire Winston Churchill, as I do, you will likely enjoy this book.  If you have an interest in exploring offbeat aspects of World War II you will enjoy this book.  If you enjoy history you will enjoy this book. This is the story…

  Justus Rosenberg, the author of The Art of Resistance (www.amzn.com/0062742191) turned 100 years old in 2021.  This centenarian was born in Danzig (Gdansk) to Jewish parents.  His father was a prominent businessman.  Rosenberg grew up speaking German.  The Free City of Danzig held a unique political identity.  It was a port, a financial center, an…

Daniel Boone1734 – 1820 Daniel Boone, a founding hero of Kentucky, was born on November 2, 1734 in Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Boone never did wear a coonskin cap (he thought them “uncivilized”) and he likely never carved “D. Boon kilt a bar” into a tree but he did become an American legend.  This courageous frontiersman…

Afghan Taxi Ride2001 – 2021 (Author’s note: Please note that this blog was written BEFORE the death of 13 American service personnel in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.  And also before President Biden had the temerity to describe the American experience in Afghanistan as an “extraordinary success”– certainly it was for the Taliban!  When I wrote this…

  In the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, Americans won 113 medals including 39 gold medals — more than anything other nation.  Evidently many American athletes have been targeting Tokyo for some time now with their training.  Congratulations to the American athletes and all Olympians.  In April of 1942, eighty young Americans were targeting Tokyo as…

  Katie Heath RIP1953 – 2021From “Cooties” to Covid-19 My sister Katie was born in 1953 to Clinton Elliot and Nina Van Rensselaer.  Nina subsequently divorced and married my father Robert Kelly in Sacramento, California.  My dad adopted Katie (and my brother Clinton) at the time of his marriage to Nina which followed a whirlwind…

Commander K at US Navy Seal MuseumFort Pierce, Florida The US Navy Seal Museum is located in Fort Pierce on the Atlantic coast of Florida (https://www.navysealmuseum.org).  During WW2 it was here in Fort Pierce in 1943 that Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) began training for their incredibly dangerous mission of preparing the beaches at Normandy…

  June of 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of the largest land invasion in human history — Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.  Operation Barbarossa kicked off on June 22, 1941 employing nearly four million German and Axis troops.  Hitler was wildly optimistic about his invasion of Stalin’s Russia, “We have only to kick in…