A Pilgrim's Story Version 2.0

 In the biblical story, God commands the prophet Jonah to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh. Unwilling to go, Jonah boards a ship bound for Tarshish, fleeing in the opposite direction. Jonah despised the assignment; he hated the Ninevites and longed not for their redemption, but for their judgment.

 

My own story bears a faint resemblance to Jonah’s. When I first heard my parents speak of leaving my Sicily homeland for the United States, I was filled with dread. I wanted no part of such a journey.  I loved the life I knew—grazing sheep with my father in the Madonie Mountains of north-central Sicily, surrounded by the rugged beauty and familiar rhythms of home. But at twelve years old, I possessed no power to resist what had already been decided for me. When the day of departure finally came, my heart was broken. As we boarded the Italian Cruise ship, the Saturnia, at the Port of Palermo, I turned to my mother and pleaded with her to leave me behind. She refused. Our family consisted of six children and my parents.  The youngest was a mere 8 months old.

 

We left Palermo in mid-March1956 heading out of the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean.  The entire trip to New York Harbor took two weeks; the Atlantic was in a very bad mood; rough seas seem to have lasted the entire crossing.  Having never been on a ship before we were all seasick and hardly ever left our cabin.  I don’t remember ever eating in the ship’s cafeteria.

 

Upon arrival at the New York Harbor, we debarked and headed straight to the train station for our trip across the entire United States to Los Angeles with a stop in Chicago to change trains.  Not ever having had any American food such as mayonnaise or mustard we ate sparingly. As we arrived at Union Station Los Angeles, I noticed weather I had never seen, overcast skies.  Where we’re from it was either sunny or foggy, never overcast. My dad’s sponsor, his sister, met us at Union Station and took us to our rented one-bedroom duplex in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles. 

 

Los Angeles was a beautiful city in the mid 1950s, clean well-kept streets with Palm trees that reached for the sky.  We lived in a mixed neighborhood, black and white families living in total harmony.  This was the first time I had ever seen a black person.  I did not discover until later of the racial discrimination that was going on in other parts of the country.  Where we lived, however, I never saw discrimination.  My very first friend was Norman Aubry, a black kid down the block.  I adjusted quickly.  Our house was next to an empty lot.  With my two younger brothers we built a pigeon cage and raised fancy pigeons:  Tumblers, rollers and fantails.  We managed to recreate something of what we left behind in Sicily. Los Angeles was a very safe city.  We could ride the bus to anywhere without trouble.  I later managed to buy a used bike and rode around freely.  On one occasion, I rode my bike to Griffith Park which was about 14 miles from our house.  On my return trip heading south on Western Avenue, I was hit by a car and knocked down.  Luckily, I was unhurt.  A passing off-duty policeman who witnessed the accident, took me home with my broken bike.

 

My parents enrolled me into Angeles Mesa Elementary school which was two blocks from our house.  I was the only foreign student.  Not speaking a word of English, my teacher, Mr. Fox, just put me in the last row against the wall and left me alone.  This proved to be the best solution.  Within a few months I could speak English with my fellow students semi-fluently. Total immersion was a big success. 

 

I had my first Coca Cola at the vending machine of Van Ness Park. Ten cents would get you a cold bottle.  I also learned to play the carroms board game.  There we also met the park custodian who took us under his wing and looked after us. Within a year I got a job throwing the afternoon Los Angeles Mirror News newspaper. 

 

The traumatic events I experienced by the move have lasted to a small degree.  I still resent the fact that I was moved to an unknown place against my wishes.  I hold no animosity against my parents; however, they did what they believed was to be the best for us.  Sometimes God has a job for us that we do not like, like Jonah, but it is the right job for us.  Just do it.

Notorious U.S. Chemical and Radiation Experiments

 The saying, “you could be a PhD and still be an idiot,” is sometimes attributed to the American physicist Richard Feynman. Some U.S. chemical and radiation experiments were so shocking that they defy belief.

The chemical and radiation tests carried out by the U.S. government or military remain deeply disturbing. Their design and execution raise serious ethical questions, and their consequences were severe: thousands, and possibly millions, of people were exposed to harm, including long-term illnesses such as cancer.  Here are just a few:

 

1.        The burn pits during the Iraq War.  During the Iraq war, the U.S. military relied on open-air burn pits to dispose of waste at forward operating bases.  Millions of service members were exposed to toxic smoke from burning plastics, medical waste, batteries and tires and other.

 

2.        COVID.  Between 2014 and 2020, U.S. agencies, primarily the NIH and USAID distributed over $1.4 million in grants to the EcoHealth Alliance, which passed roughly $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China to study coronaviruses.  We all lived to see what happened.  In the United States alone over 1.23 million people died from Covid. As far as I know, the government has yet to admit to this partial financing of the WIV. They’ve been dancing around this issue since 2020.

3.       Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. As a Vietnam veteran myself this was so outrageous that it boggles the mind.  What were they thinking? Agent orange is a highly toxic chemical defoliant.  It was sprayed over forests and jungle cover and crops.  Its devastating legacy continues to cause severe, long-term health issues for both American servicemen and Vietnamese people. In the annals of bad war-time decisions this has to rank at the top.

 

4.      The Nevada nuclear test.  In the 1950s the U.S. conducted 97 atmospheric nuclear tests just 65 miles from Las Vegas. These tests were prominently featured as tourist attractions and used for military training.  They knowingly exposed thousands of civilians to dangerous radioactive fallout.  Again, what were they thinking?  This was not just a bunch of clueless teenagers doing a prank, they were done by the best scientific minds of the day.  As Forrest Gump would say “stupid is as stupid does.”  The radioactive cloud drifted far away, to Utah and other parts of the West.

 The Christian Crusades: How Religious Fervor Led to Catastrophe

Overview

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, historians commonly identify at least eight major Crusades between 1096 and 1270, while also recognizing related movements such as the People’s Crusade, the Children’s Crusade, and the Albigensian Crusade. These expeditions were launched by western European Christians for several overlapping reasons, including aiding Byzantium, checking Muslim expansion, and attempting to recover or defend territories regarded as Christian. Their history, however, is far more complex than a simple story of religious devotion or military success.

Main Argument

To put it plainly, the Crusades were, in the long run, a deeply costly and only partially successful movement. The First Crusade did achieve a remarkable short-term victory by capturing Jerusalem and establishing Crusader states in the Levant, but those gains proved difficult to maintain. Over time, the broader crusading effort failed to secure lasting control of the Holy Land and often produced destructive, unintended consequences for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Byzantines alike.

 

The Crusades were frequently undermined by poor coordination, disease, harsh travel conditions, logistical strain, and conflicting political aims. The human cost was unquestionably severe, but exact casualty totals remain difficult to establish because medieval sources are incomplete, rhetorical, and often contradictory. For that reason, broad numerical claims should be treated cautiously even while acknowledging the scale of suffering involved.

Examples of Atrocities

Among the most notorious examples of Crusader violence were the following atrocities:

 

1.       The Rhineland massacres of 1096, carried out by forces associated with the People’s Crusade, devastated Jewish communities in cities such as Speyer, Worms, and Mainz.

2.       The capture of Jerusalem in 1099 was followed by the mass killing of many Muslim and Jewish inhabitants during the general slaughter that followed the Crusader victory.

3.       The sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade involved extensive looting, destruction, and desecration in one of the most important cities in Christendom, badly damaging the Byzantine Empire and deepening distrust between East and West.

Strategic Failures

The planning behind many Crusader campaigns showed a striking lack of long-term coherence. The First Crusade initially answered a Byzantine appeal for aid, but cooperation between crusaders and Byzantine authorities was often fragile and shaped by mutual suspicion. Rather than building a stable and lasting alliance, crusading leaders frequently pursued their own territorial ambitions and established vulnerable Crusader states that were difficult to defend over time.

 

There was also no consistent central command and no durable political structure capable of funding, coordinating, and stabilizing the movement over time. In many cases, crusading armies functioned as competing private forces rather than as a unified campaign with a coherent peace strategy. This helps explain why military success, when it occurred, so often failed to produce lasting political order.

Long-Term Consequences

The Crusades also damaged relations within Christendom and intensified hostility toward Jewish communities. Violence against Jews during the People’s Crusade marked a grim turning point in medieval Jewish-Christian relations. The Fourth Crusade’s sack of Constantinople in 1204 further deepened the divide between the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox East. Although the schism between Rome and Constantinople is conventionally dated to 1054, historians emphasize that the breach developed over centuries; the events of 1204 made reconciliation far more difficult and left a lasting scar on relations between the two churches.

For a compelling history of the Crusades Podcast see: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eva+schubert

For a terrific book on the Byzantine Empire see:  "Lost to the West" by Lars Brownworth, 2009,  Crown Publishers.  Brownworth has an engaging podcast on Byzantine history called: 12 Byzantine Rulers

Italy - Yugoslavia Conflict After WW II

The Devastation of World War I

War unleashes unimaginable destruction, turning landscapes into infernos of suffering. World War I exemplified this devastation, marking a turning point in the history of warfare. Over the course of four years, the conflict resulted in more deaths than any previous war, with an estimated 85 million people losing their lives. The introduction of poison gas added a new level of horror to the battlefield, causing massive casualties and creating killing fields that had never been seen before.

Italy: From Victory to Tragedy

As is often the case with war, there are both winners and losers. Although Italy was on the victorious side in World War I, the aftermath brought serious consequences that extended well into the mid-1950s. The rise of Benito Mussolini's tyrannical regime marked the beginning of a troubled era. Following World War II, Italy found itself in conflict with Yugoslavia over national territories. The damage inflicted by Mussolini's fascist rule from 1924 to 1943 fueled ongoing tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia, leading to warfare and ethnic cleansing in areas around Trieste, Fiume, and Istria.Communist forces led by Marshall Tito, a Yugoslavian dictator, carried out mass killings of civilians between 1943-1949 in these regions. Many victims were disposed of in large pits known as Foibe in Italian. Ultimately, Italy suffered further losses, as it lost the territories of Istria and the city of Fiume to the Yugoslavian communists.

Historical Background: Shifting Territories

After the collapse of the Austria-Hungary Empire following World War I, territories previously occupied by Austria in northern Italy—specifically the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia—were affected by the reshaping of borders and political power. 

When Italy entered World War I, it was promised territorial gains that were never delivered. Losing over 600,000 troops Italy felt betrayed, fueling tensions with the newly formed Yugoslavia—a state comprising Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, led by Tito. After Tito’s death in 1980, Yugoslavia’s member states sought independence, resulting in civil war from 1991 to 2001 marked by ethnic cleansing and conflict among Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics.

 

By all practical purposes, Italy was the loser in the Yugoslavia-Italy dispute.  Although winning the port city of Trieste, it lost the entire Istria peninsula and the cities of Fiume and Gorizia.  A loss that to this day stings the Italian soul.  To add insult to injury, Italians in these areas were forced to give up their homes and property and become refugees.  A national wound that cannot heal.  Between 1943 and 1960 350,000 Italians, mainly from Istria-Dalmatia were forced to evacuate.  One of these refugees was the famous auto racing driver, Mario Andretti, who eventually settled in the United States.

 

“Il Lungo Esodo,” by Raoul Pupo is a book, in Italian, describing the atrocities and the conflict. 

The Fog of War and Man's Inhumanity to Man

 The flight from Travis Air Force Base near Oakland, California, to Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam was one of the longest I had ever experienced. The journey lasted eighteen flight hours.  Our airplane was a Continental Airlines charter with a full load of U.S. soldiers (about 300).  Along the way, the plane made two scheduled stops: the first in Hawaii, and the second at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Bien Hoa Air Base is located about a half hour north of Saigon. 

 

As we were approaching our landing at Bien Hoa I could see flashes of what appeared to be artillery fire to the right of the airplane.  Soon after landing we were rushed into an Isuzu bus and driven to the St. George Hotel in the Cholon section of Saigon.  This was May of 1968 during the Viet Cong Tet Offensive.  Fighting on Saigon city streets was in progress as we approached Cholon.  The sound of helicopters overhead and the noise of combat was surreal.  As we were led into the hotel, I noticed a fellow soldier take out his cassette recorder and record the sound of battle.  I asked him what he was going to do with it and he said that he would send it to his parents. I did not ask any further questions.  As we settled in the hotel, Australian soldiers were drinking at the bar on the first floor of the hotel.  

After a couple of days in Saigon, and duty at Tan Son Nhat Airport I finally reached my duty station, First Field Force, Headquarters II Corps in Nha Trang, on the central coast of South Vietnam just north of Cam Ran Bay.  Upon arriving at Camp McDermott, a U.S. Army base, I saw a sign that read:  “Even though I walk in the Valley of the shadow of evil, I fear no evil for I am the evilest son of a bitch in the valley “(a bad reference to Psalm 23).  Welcome to a new world, I thought, where there is a different moral compass.  As I discovered later, in some cases there was no compass at all. An example was the My Lai Massacre, where about 500 Vietnamese civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers.  Lieutenant William Calley was Court Martialed and convicted but spent less than three years of “house arrest” and his sentence commuted by President Nixon.  Wars do this to men in battle; some lose all contact with their moral compass.  In a recent book on the invasion of Sicily in 1943 called “Sicily ‘43” by James Holland, it describes at least two occasions when American soldier executed captured Italian prisoners.  None of the soldiers faced any discipline. 

 

In World War II, the Nazis and the Russians and perhaps the Japanese were the most brutal.  First prize would go to the Nazis and the Russians.  The Nazi invasion of Russia was murderous.  The Nazis just killed everyone they encountered and had no hesitation about it.  The Russians were brutal beyond belief.  They would kill their own soldiers who had been captured and managed to return.  Russian commanders would order suicidal frontal assaults, and any Russian soldier who hesitated, was shot by his own men.  Russian prisoners of war were killed or starved to death.  It is estimated that between 350,000 and 1,000,000 German prisoners of war died in captivity. Another estimated 50,000 Italian Russian prisoners of war died in captivity.  Man’s inhumanity to man has no bounds and war makes men abandon any moral compass.

 

For more reading on this and related topic, see the following:

1. Sicily ’43, James Holland

2. Leningrad State of Siege, Michael Jones

3. Kiev 1941, David Stahel

4. Stalingrad, Anthony Beevor

The Times They Are A-Changin

"Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'”

 

Bob Dylan wrote these words in his great song, The Times They Are A-Changin in 1964, when he was in his late teens.  Every generation has come up with some sort of the “Times They are a Changing.”  Nearly every generation thinks their ideas are superior to their parents.  Dylan’s song was a masterpiece as well as a big hit.  I love the song.  But let’s look at it a little closer.  Is change good?  Depends on what you want to change.  Certainly, the prejudice of Dylan's times against black Americans needed changing.  Prejudice against any group is always bad and needs changing.  Dylan did not say what the change was; he left it open and perhaps on purpose.  

 

If you grew up in the 1950s things were certainly different than today, but then nothing ever stays the same.  There was bad and there was good.  What was good?  The 1950s Los Angeles, for example, was Mayberry compared to today.  Very little crime, you could walk, take public transportation safely for the most part.  I do not remember any gangs, drive-by shootings, car-jackings, or the like. The above lyrics of the song admonishes parents about not criticizing what they don’t understand.  Really?  This is a very subjective point of view.  Perhaps they did understand.  Bill Maher has an interesting video on Instagram about the “Trad dad” the traditional dad who told you that “because I said so” is a good reason for you to do it.  Today, modern parenting has been reversed.  Children are in command.  Jordan Peterson also has a video on Instagram about not doing something for your kids that they could do for themselves.

 

In the 1950s, if you wanted a car, or a bicycle, for example, you got a job saved money and bought one yourself. Today, mom or dad will buy it for you.  Parents today are their kid’s friend, not necessarily their parent.  A friend of mine told me about what he told his two sons when they were young: “I’m your dad, not your friend.”  Both grew up self-reliant and very successful.  

 

In the 1960s we had changes for sure:  Drugs became rampant, rebellion was a right of passage, crime increased. We had the Vietnam War, riots in the major cities, three major assassinations, President Kennedy, Martin Luther king and Bobby Kennedy.  Was change good? 

The Tragedy of the Italian Army in Russia. The Fate of 250,000 Soldiers on the Frozen Russian Steppe During World War II

 

Introduction

One of the lesser known but profoundly tragic episodes of World War II was the fate of approximately 250,000 Italian soldiers who were sent to fight on the Eastern Front in Russia. This deployment, ordered by Benito Mussolini in support of Nazi Germany, resulted in catastrophic losses and immense suffering, as the Italian Army faced the brutal Russian winter and the relentless advance of the Soviet forces.

The Context: Italy's Involvement in the Eastern Front

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Mussolini was eager to demonstrate Italy’s commitment to the Axis cause. Despite Italy’s limited resources and the unsuitability of its army for the harsh conditions, he sent the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, or CSIR), which later expanded to the Italian Army in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR). By 1942, Italian forces numbered over 250,000 men.

The Challenges of the Russian Campaign

The Italian soldiers were ill-prepared for the Russian climate. They lacked adequate winter clothing, modern weapons, and logistical support. The Russians had tanks, the Italians had mules. The Russian steppe, with its vast distances and freezing temperatures that could plunge below -30°F (-34°C), proved to be a deadly adversary. Disease, frostbite, and malnutrition became as formidable as the enemy’s bullets. The Soviets waited them out until they were at their weakest point then destroyed them with brutal frontal assaults.

The Soviet Offensive and the Collapse of the ARMIR

In the winter of 1942–1943, the Soviets launched Operation Little Saturn, which targeted the Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian armies holding the flanks of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. The Italian Army was quickly overwhelmed. Soviet armor and infantry broke through the thinly stretched lines, and the Italians, lacking anti-tank weapons and air support, were forced into a desperate retreat.

The Retreat: Suffering and Loss

The retreat from the Don River, often referred to as the "Ritirata," became a story of unimaginable hardship. Italian soldiers, many suffering from frostbite, wounds, and starvation, marched hundreds of miles through snow and ice, pursued by Soviet forces. The lack of transport, food, and medical supplies led to mass casualties. Thousands were captured and sent to Soviet prison camps, where the chances of survival were minimal.

 

In the last several weeks Italian Facebook sites have posted the anniversary of this complete and utter military disaster.  One story retold the story of how the German commander met with his Italian counterpart and ordered him not to retreat and fight to the death.  The Italian commander reminded the German that he had no tanks nor weapons to defend against the well-armed Soviets.  The German smirked and told him that was his problem.  The Italians were assigned to defend open ground without a hill in sight.  Of the 250,000 Italian soldiers sent to Russia, 90% did not return.

 

In the annals of military annihilation this one must be one of the most devastating and the most insane.  Tyrants don’t care how many men they lose.  Certainly, the Russians did not care how many men they lost either.  This is a damming testament to the rule of tyrants.  We still have them today.  Vladimir Putin does not care how many soldiers he loses in Ukraine.  He cares only for his glory.  This is the madness of war.

 

For a good eye witness testimony of what the Italian Army went through, read the first person account of Italian soldier Mario Rigoni Stern in his book “The Sergeant in the Snow