This is a postcard from Great Grandpa Phil’s collection; it was sent to him and Great Grandma Lottie by the Hodinka family, John, Helen, and daughter Charlene, from a vacation in Minnesota. It’s postmarked Rochester, MN, August 27, 1966. John Hodinka — “Sonny” — was my grandmother’s cousin; he passed away last Wednesday, September 22 at the age of 81.

Charlene tells me that her grandfather on Helen’s side had a cousin there. Her mother’s aunt corresponded regularly with the folks in Rochester, but they had never met, so this trip was part vacation, part family reunion.

At one point during the vacation, Sonny somehow wound up on a horse, with explicit instructions not to let up on the reins. Of course, he did, and the horse wound up riding in circles, with Sonny unable to get the horse to stop. Another rider had to sidle up to them to bring Sonny and his mount to a stop. Bear in mind that we’re talking about a man who made sixteen jumps into Italy with the 82nd Airborne Division.

For young Charlene, the highlight of the trip was a tour of the Hormel plant, where she was able to observe how ham is made. “Poor little piggies,” she says. “They hung them upside down (on hooks) and a knife stabbed each one in the stomach. The things you remember…. I got pig blood on my white sneaker.” She didn’t remember if Sonny had anything to say about it, but I think he would have found the humor in the situation.

So long, Sonny. I miss you already.

“The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It’s why we participate in all of these great international organizations.

“There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power — and here I think you’re referring to military power — then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can’t deal with.

“I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

“So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don’t think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

“We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years… and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home… to live our own lives in peace.”

– Secretary of State Colin Powell, at the World Economic Forum, 26 January 2003, responding to an assertion by George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, that the United States ”is in danger of relying too much upon the hard power and not enough upon building trust”.

For Postcard Friendship Friday — and the Friday before we celebrate our Independence Day — I would like to present these reminders that American men have not been the only guardians of our freedom.  The United States Postal Service apparently felt that the theme of women who protect and defend us is worth repeating as well.

The postcard pictured is a Postal Service-issued postcard that reproduces the “Women in Military Service” 32-cent stamp, issued on 18 October 1997, which was also the date of the dedication of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the gates of Arlington National Cemetery.  A 3-cent stamp with a very similar theme (but which unfortunately omitted the Coast Guard) was issued on 11 September 1952.  The Department of Defense used the latter stamp to impress upon women the option of a military career.

Although the Postal Service has issued other stamps honoring individual women who served or contributed — pioneers in aviation, medicine, and other fields — I think that these stamps say it best.

My favorite woman in uniform (excluding those with whom I served) is without a doubt Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (1906-1992), a pioneer in computing.  Among other achievements, she brought forth the idea that we could program computers using words and syntax that resembled human languages, instead of having to use the ones and zeroes of the machine.  (She’s also credited with the saying that “It’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission” which, in my opinion, is how most progress is made.)

Be sure to stop by the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday.

“December 7, 1941, Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor sinks the Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah. The Oklahoma was salvaged and scrapped. The remaining six battleships returned to duty. U.S. Losses: 2388 killed, 1178 wounded, 12 ships sunk or beached, 9 damaged, 164 aircraft destroyed, and 159 aircraft damaged.” This modern chrome postcard was published by the late WW2Cards.com. My guess is that the original photo started out as a black-and-white photo, and was taken from either Ford Island or Hickam Field.

The description on the back of this card is so long that there’s only about an inch of space in which to compose your message. “The United States Naval Radio Station at Radio, Virginia. Situated at the southwestern end of Fort Myer Military Reservation opposite Washington, D.C. Build by the United States Navy Department (Bureau of Steam Engineering). Land ceded to the Navy Department by the War Department. Rated power of station 100 kilowatts. Towers, one 600 feet high 150 feet square at the base, two 450 feet high 120 feet square at the base, located at angles of an isosceles triangle, large tower at the apex base of triangle 350 feet between centers of towers, perpendicular to base 350 feet. Normal range: day 2,000 miles, night 3,000 miles. Cost about $250,000.”

Construction on the station began in 1910, and the postcard is almost as old. I’m sure that the average third grader of 1910 could draw a diagram of the station from the description; I’d be hesitant to put it in the hands of a high school graduate of today.

The intent of the radio station was to allow communications between Washington and the fleet commanders at sea and, to my knowledge, this is one of the first instances where the word “radio” was used to describe this type of wireless communications.

Being an old military communications man myself, I have a copy the U.S. Army Signal Corps Radio Communication Pamphlet No. 40, The Principles Underlying Radio Communication (Second Edition, revised May 24, 1921; the First Edition was published December 10, 1918). This particular pamphlet has 619 pages, including a 41-page index. In the index, under “Wireless”, it says “See Radio.”

This postcard is a WNC “Colorchrome” published by the Washington News Company, Washington, DC.

This is a beautiful Curt Teich linen postcard, number 8A-H2001, published in 1938 — apparently when this building was still pretty new. GlobalSecurity.org has the story of how this school and post came to be:

On September 18, 1918 the Adjutant General directed that the Infantry School of Arms with all personnel, property and equipment move to Columbus, Georgia by October 1, 1918. The first troops from Fort Sill arrived on October 6, 1918, and occupied a temporary camp three miles east of town on Macon Road. The next day the camp was officially opened. At the request of the Columbus Rotary Club, the camp was named in honor of Confederate General Henry Lewis Benning, a Columbus native many thought was the area’s most outstanding Civil War officer.

The search for a permanent location for the camp settled on a plantation site south of Columbus owned by Mr. Arthur Bussey. The Bussey land featured the kind of terrain considered ideal for training Infantrymen. The plantation would serve as the core of the camp, and the large frame house, known as Riverside, would serve as quarters for a long line of commanders.

After years of struggling for appropriations and attention from the makers of Army policy, Benning enjoyed a construction boom in the mid-1930s as a result of federal work projects during the great depression (sic).

Nowadays, this is the “old” Infantry School Headquarters, according to Cultural Resources Management at Fort Benning; it is now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).

This is a memorial in my hometown which is inscribed with the names of all the local folks who have gone to war, including my stepfather. My mom found this card and sent it to me inside of a greeting card, though I guess she originally planned to just send the card itself through the mail. “Saw this card and remembered your visit and the monument with Joe’s name. Here’s one for your collection. Hope all are well. Oops! I wrote upside down!” That’s my mama.

Another modern reproduction from the late WW2Cards.com. “The USAAF’s version of the civilian Douglas DC-4. With a crew of six and no armaments, later versions were able to carry up to 49 passengers.”