November 2009 Entries
Seniors Hold Holiday "Wrap Session"
CARLSBAD, CALIF. – It's only early November, but the residents at La Costa Glen already have a head start on the holidays. More than 135 residents at the continuing care retirement community recently wrapped nearly 2,200 Christmas and Hanukkah presents for America's troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the community's Care Packages From Home program. The holiday packages are scheduled to be shipped overseas starting this week and continuing until Dec. 15.
According to gift-wrapping event organizers and La Costa Glen residents Sandy Wiener and Richie Clyne, everything from gift-wrapped flashlights with batteries...
CARLSBAD, CALIF. – More than a few, proud Marines from Camp Pendleton showed up last week at the La Costa Glen retirement community in Carlsbad, Calif., for a thank you barbecue and appreciation ceremony. Only this time, it was the Marines who were doing the thanking.
More than 100 active Marines and three retired generals were on hand for the event organized by the Rotary Club of Camp Pendleton to thank the seniors for their efforts to assist the Marines and their families with donations of household goods and furniture.
According to Linda Sundram, past president of the Rotary Club, the "Lunch...
- By Jim Raymond -
Tony Baggio
Tony enlisted in the Navy in early 1943. Despite a desire to fly he was assigned to the cargo attack ship USS Hercules, which saw action throughout the South Pacific including the support of seven invasions. In 1944, he went back home to Chicago on leave where he met Virginia, the love of his life. When he returned to duty he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Essex, and was a gun captain serving through substantial action in the Philippine Sea including survival of Japanese kamikaze attacks.
In January, 1946, he returned to Chicago,...
- By Carole Eibelheuser -
Waging the battle on the home front included loaning our government money to help finance the war effort through the purchase of Defense Bonds, later called War Bonds, and even later Victory Bonds. The War Finance Committee and the War Advertising Council produced the greatest volume of advertising to date in U.S. history. Starting with radio and newspaper ads, then magazines, “The Greatest Investment on Earth” was launched to the people of the U.S. More than a
quarter of a billion dollars worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense...
- By Ray Holt -
February 23-24, 1942, might have been called a typical February night in California except for the sudden earsplitting wail of countless air raid sirens tearing asunder the winter peace. Hundreds, and some reports claimed thousands of powerful searchlights shredded the inky sky in frantic sliced search for enemy aircraft. U.S. fighter planes chased through the air seeking to find and destroy the enemy planes before they could breach the shoreline between Santa Monica and Long Beach. Naval ships aided by the recent success in translating enemy code sought submarines hoping to sneak ashore.
Everywhere alert civilian...