Witness to History!

[germanos]

Originally posted by Lancer
Germanos, you got to see alot, you may see more with Putin flexing his muscles.

I'd rather not. One hot war is more then enough for a lifetime .

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I was at the Supreme Court during oral arguments in The night of 9/11 I drove downtown and saw Humvees and heavily armed soldiers on every corner.

we did that too. I wasnt gonna mention 9/11, i figured lots of folks have stories.

For rallies, well I was at the Million Mom March, a Save Darfur rally, a couple of pro-Israel rallies, and way back when, a rally for Soviet Jewish refuseniks. I attended a teach in on South African Apartheid.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
1. I was at the 1955 24 hours of Le Mans a few meters behind the 80 people who were killed by the Mercedes; once at home I see some drops of blood on my coat.

2. I was in Algeria in 1961. A military coup was started by Friday April 21. I was at the headquarter of the Zone Nord Est Contantinois, commanded by General Ailleret (3 stars). During the weekend, it was not clear whether the professional soldiers will follow or not. So, on Monday, with two dozens of friends and colleagues, we decided not to go to work until we know what side General Ailleret has chosen. This was taken quite seriously, and half an hour later, the Chief of Staff came to our barrack and explain that the General was decidedly faithful to the government of the Republic.
On Wednesday this General was promoted to the Army corps of Constantine; ten days later he was promoted to Deputy General in Chief in Algeria, and by June 9, fully in chief.
Therefore, I can say that 49 days after having helped (with my friends) this guy to make the good choice, he rose from a two divisions and a tenth of regiments command to the command of 400000 soldiers.
Although slightly exaggerated, this is confirmed in a book written by General Charles Ailleret, titled “Général du contingent”, page 104 : after describing incidents against the coup caused by conscripts this very day, he said “ even at the headquarter, soldiers refused to work ; it was enough that the chief of staff explained my opinion and what I have decided to do, for all of them to return to work”.
More seriously, why this General was chosen amongst 200 hundred ? The fact that he was not involved in the Algerian affairs (he was in charge for 8 years of the first nuclear explosion made 1959) was certainly a good qualification for the difficult ten months to come, but the fact that he was the only general to believe that the coup will fail because of the contingent was decisive.

I think we have a winner.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
For rallies, well I was at the Million Mom March, a Save Darfur rally, a couple of pro-Israel rallies, and way back when, a rally for Soviet Jewish refuseniks. I attended a teach in on South African Apartheid.

I think I was at that same Darfur rally.

[Hueij]

Davout, you just killed this thread Wow...

Only thing I was present at was the two demonstrations Germanos mentioned. Biggest demonstrations in Dutch history.

My first "historical" memory is seeing a map in the newspaper of Papua New Guinea in the early 60's. We were fighting those Indonesian terrorists who wanted to annex our last Asian colony. We lost it, thanks to you American aggressors

At the same time, one morning when I woke up my mom asked me if I could guess who was assasinated. Must have been late '63

And I know were I was and what I was doing when John Lennon got shot...

[Slaughtermeyer]

I was at an event last year that was televised nationwide by C-Span.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5004704309041471296

I also made the front page of Philippine newspapers and went on Philippine TV when I offered to exchange myself for a Filipina nurse that was being held hostage.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-83653066.html

[VetLegion]

Very noble of you.