Fourth Of July!

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Ray Andersen

Fourth Of July!

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Posts: 4071

(06/30/08 09:24 AM)

Chief Master At Arms

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Wow,has this come up fast or what? This coming Friday is the Fourth and summer is Half over already! (My calculation).Here is a little bonus though...

Lowe's, Home Depot offer July 4 discount

For several days during the July Fourth holiday period, two national home-improvement retailers will again offer 10 percent discounts to active-duty personnel, reservists, retirees, honorably discharged veterans and their immediate families.

Be prepared to show your military ID or other proof of service.

Lowe's Companies Inc. is offering the 10 percent discount from now through Monday, July 7. The discount is available on in-stock and special-order purchases up to $5,000.

Home Depot will offer the 10 percent discount from Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, for purchases up to $2,000.

Some items do not qualify for the discount, so check the store for details. To be sure, stop in at the customer-service desk to ask whether you can get the special military discount on particular items. For example, Lowe's does not offer the discount for sales on Lowes.com, previous sales, and purchases of services or gift cards.

The two national retailers have offered the holiday discounts for the last several years.

bluenose

"Independence Day"...Happy Birthday America!!!

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Posts: 406

(06/30/08 04:43 PM)

King Walt

Speaking of "The 4th"...I would like to wish all of our shipmates, spouses, partners, etc. a happy and safe "Independence Day"!!!

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday Dear America...
Happy Birthday to you...

Only 232 years old, and still "LOOKING GOOD"!!!...

Our youngest Daughter (Eileen) is getting married on July 3rd...Two down and one to go!!!

Fair Winds and Following Seas...

Walt

heavycruiser

Walt is old

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Posts: 6013

(06/30/08 07:56 PM)

And the same to you as well Walt. See you soon.

Ray Andersen

July 2nd???

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Posts: 4090

(07/02/08 08:36 AM)

Chief Master At Arms

John Adams predicted in a letter to his wife Abigail that Americans would celebrate their Independence Day on July 2. Off by two days - not too bad for government work.

On July 2, 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, signed only by Charles Thompson (the secretary of Congress) and John Hancock (the presiding officer). Two days later Congress approved the revised version and ordered it to be printed and distributed to the states and military officers. The other signatures would have to wait.

Many actually viewed the Declaration of Independence as a yawner - a rehashing of arguments already made against the British government. John Adams would later describe the Declaration as "dress and ornament rather than Body, Soul, or Substance." The exception was the last paragraph that said the united colonies "are and of Right ought to be Free and Independent states" and were "Absolved of all Allegiance to the British Crown."

For Adams, it was the momentum towards achieving American independence initiated on July 2 that future generations would consider worth celebrating, not the approval of this document on July 4.

Interestingly, the pomp and circumstance that many Americans presume took place on July 4, 1776, actually occurred days to weeks afterwards.

The Philadelphia Evening Post published the Declaration's full text in its July 6 newspaper. And the Declaration of Independence was publicly read from the State House in Philadelphia on July 8. Later that day, it was read in Easton, PA, Trenton, NJ, and to the local embryonic militia to provide much-needed inspiration against the formidable British.

The shouting and firing of muskets that followed these first public readings represent America's first celebrations of independence.

As copies spread, the Declaration of Independence would be read at town meetings and religious services. In response, Americans lit bonfires, fired guns, rang bells, and removed symbols of the British monarchy.

The following year, no member of Congress thought about commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence until July 3 - one day too late. So the first organized elaborate celebration of independence occurred the following day: July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia. Ships in the harbor were decked in the nation's colors. Cannons rained 13-gun salutes in honor of each state. And parades and fireworks spiced up the festivities.

Fireworks did not become staples of July 4 celebrations until after 1816, when Americans began producing their own pyrotechnics and no longer relied on expensive fireworks from across the pond.

Since 1777, the tradition of celebrating America's independence on July 4 has continued.

Original Story: When Was the 4th of July First Celebrated?

heavycruiser

Good job

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Posts: 6035

(07/02/08 01:06 PM)

Interesting and a good read.

Ray Andersen

4th of July!

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Posts: 4122

(07/03/08 08:08 PM)

Chief Master At Arms

Don't burn your fingers on the fireworks tomorrow! Have a geat Family day...for you guys that still are working,have a nice day off!

ArtNH

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Posts: 1008

(07/04/08 12:40 PM)

Admiral of this Navee

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE 4TH OF JULY !

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and

they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.

Eleven were merchants.

Nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated, but
they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the
penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home
and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to
move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress
without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His
possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge,
and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the
Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and
Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she
died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled
for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in
forests and caves returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently remember these patriots.

Art

heavycruiser

July 4th

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Posts: 6069

(07/04/08 09:40 PM)

And we think we have it tough.

Ray Andersen

NAVY fourth of July

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Posts: 4140

(07/06/08 08:28 AM)

Chief Master At Arms

Navy Independence Days down the years

To most Americans, Independence Day is a day off work and an excuse to barbecue, but for many sailors, July Fourth is just another day on watch. As such, a number of noteworthy and little-known Navy events have taken place on a July 4 in every era. Here are a selected few:

* 1776: The American colonies declare their independence from Great Britain; at the time, the U.S. Navy consists of three captured English schooners and two ships on paper, authorized by Congress but unbuilt.

* 1777: Capt. John Paul Jones runs up the first Stars and Stripes aboard his frigate Ranger in the harbor at Portsmouth, N.H.

* 1842: The first test-firing of an electrically operated underwater torpedo sinks the gunboat Boxer.

* 1862: The Union gunboat Maratanza captures the Confederate armed tug Teaser in the James River, in Virginia; the Teaser later goes into U.S. Navy service as a prize of war.

* 1863: Confederate soldiers surrender Vicksburg, Miss., giving the Union control of the Mississippi River.

* 1898: A sailor aboard the battleship Iowa, Seaman W.J. Murphy, writes his account of the Battle of Santiago from the day before, in which the American fleet defeated the Spanish Caribbean Squadron for control of Cuba. "Through the megaphone came the hail, "Iowa there, what casualties?" Murphy wrote, "and when the answer came back "None", the cheer that arose from the [battleship] New York told us that the crew had heard and appreciated."

* 1919: The battleship Rhode Island finishes its last of five Atlantic round-trips bringing home U.S. soldiers after their victory in World War I.

* 1926: The 16-gun sloop of war Constellation, commissioned in 1855 at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., makes what the Naval Historical Center described as "its final appearance as a commissioned U.S. warship" in a celebration of the U.S. sesquicentennial in Philadelphia. (The Constellation was re-commissioned in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt and served as a flagship for U.S. Atlantic Fleet commanders.)

* 1944: In battle of the Marianas, two groups of Task Force 58 send their carrier aircraft against the Japanese bases on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima, and the other two groups of the task force attack Guam. The Guam attacks continue onto July 5.

* 1950: Two F9F Panthers, three F4U Corsairs and a helicopter go overboard after a flight deck crash aboard the carrier Valley Forge, on station providing air support for U.N. troops in the Korean War.

* 1965: The destroyer Black (which carried the hull number DD-666) one of many ships stationed throughout the 1960s in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam, shells positions in North Vietnam to support troops fighting ashore.

* 1976: President Gerald Ford celebrates the U.S. bicentennial aboard the carrier Forrestal in New York harbor, reviewing a parade of ships in New York harbor.

* 1992: The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier George Washington is commissioned at Naval Base Norfolk, Va.

* 2000: President Bill Clinton comes aboard the carrier John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor to meet sailors and review a fleet of ships assembled in the harbor. Onboard the Kennedy, Clinton announced that the Navy's new-generation destroyer - then known as DD 21, later known as DDG 1000 - would be named for Adm. Elmo Zumwalt. The Navy announces it plans to build 32 of the ships starting in a decade.

heavycruiser

VERY

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Posts: 6077

(07/06/08 11:21 AM)

Very interesting.

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Fourth Of July!

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