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The emaciated American hero stood silently in tattered clothing. The OSS men stared at each other with stunned disbelief.

Wainwright broke the silence. “Are you really an American?” he asked.

“General, you are no longer a prisoner of war. You’re going back to the States,” Lamar responded.

Wainwright, however, was conflicted. He had survived over three years of brutal captivity and was afraid of what his fellow Americans thought of him. Would he return to the United States in disgrace and live the remainder of his life in shame?

Wainwright responded slowly, his voice cracking with emotion, and asked the question he had agonized over for three terrible years. “What do the people in the States think of me?”

“You’re considered a hero,” Lamar replied. The tired old general nodded silently but was still not convinced.

It’s one thing to be found and technically free; it was a whole other adventure getting out of there, which involved three days traveling over 100 miles avoiding rogue Japanese infantry, working with uncooperative Russian troops driving U.S. military vehicles that got stuck in the mud, and riding in a train that derailed.

On the August 31, Wainwright landed in Yokohama to meet with General MacArthur. Wainwright was apprehensive, fearing his old commander’s reaction to the general who had surrendered American armed forces in the Philapeens to the Japanese. When MacArthur spotted the weary old soldier, he rushed across a crowded dining room and embraced him. The tough veteran soldiers fought back tears, and spoke in whispers for several moments.

Per Wikipedia: He later received the Medal of Honor, an honor which had first been proposed early in his captivity, in 1942, but was rejected due to the vehement opposition of General MacArthur, who felt that Corregidor should not have been surrendered. MacArthur did not oppose the renewed proposal in 1945.

Wainwright retired on 31 August 1947, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64, stating that he was reluctant to do so. He became a Freemason in May 1946 at Union Lodge No. 7. in Junction City, Kansas, and a Shriner soon after. He died of a stroke in San Antonio, Texas on 2 September 1953, aged. Wainwright was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his wife and near his parents. Present during the funeral were Omar Bradley, George Marshall, and Edward King, with a conspicuous absence of MacArthur.

One other thing I discovered about the Formal Japanese Surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. As the Japanese are led away the victors put on one final display of Triumph: 1,500 planes, Boeing Superfortresses and navy fighters roar across the sky

Ever wonder what snow in the swamp would look like? This is 5 miles into the Louisiana swamps in the Atchafalaya basin… it’s unreal… having lived down there for the first 28 years of my life, we never saw anything like this.

Smashed records.

Curtesy of Garrett Roberts.

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— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) January 25, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Chiefs-Bills IV

No holds barred at Arrowhead
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— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) January 26, 2025

• Republican House members have rushed to introduce bills that would codify Trump’s vision for expanding the U.S. borders by acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal,
• The measure is an extreme long-shot: It would need a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress and be ratified by 38 states to be added to the Constitution.
• Ogles’ amendment would allow any president to serve a third term if their first two terms were non-consecutive.
• The text of the amendment would still prohibit a third term if the first two were consecutive — prohibiting former Presidents Bush, Obama, and Clinton from running again — or a third full term for anyone who has served more than two years of someone else’s term.

• An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the effort.

• The Ohio State Buckeyes were just crowned the best team in the country. According to an analysis of what each team would be worth on the open market, they’re also the most valuable program in the sport.
• The valuation considers factors such as revenue, growth, cash flow, and sustainability, and accounts for the recent changes in college sports, including the introduction of player compensation.
  

David Byrne and Choir! Choir! Choir! singing David Bowie’s Heroes is exactly what I needed to hear tonight
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— Eric Stangel (@ericstangel.bsky.social) January 23, 2025 at 9:17 PM

• “It’s finally happening, we’re reuniting for something iconic. Can’t wait to show you all soon,” Ryan captioned the joint post.

• Trump said the investment will create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. The leaders of SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle stood alongside Trump during the announcement. Their respective companies will invest $100 billion in total for the project to start, with plans to pour up to $500 billion into Stargate in the coming years. 
• My initial thought is that this is a very good thing for the United States to set itself up as the AI leader. AI is the next big thing. However, the potential of AI scares me, and this comes from a guy who has numerous paid subscriptions to AI services. Not to mention, I don’t have a lot of faith in the Trump administration to manage something like this.
• I thought only U.S. companies would be involved, but SoftBank is a Japanese company.
• MGX is also a big player and another foreign company.
  • It was reported in June that the UAE, with roughly $2 trillion in sovereign wealth funds, aims to reduce its dependence on oil by establishing itself as a world center for AI. This goal led to the creation of MGX.
• The article says the first data center will be in Texas. Curious, I researched, thinking it would probably be Austin, near Elon’s home. DFW is home to a lot of data centers, or maybe one of the other major cities like Houston or San Antonio. Nope. The first data center will be in Abilene. The data center in Abilene, Texas, is being constructed within the Lancium Clean Compute Campus, which spans approximately 800 acres northwest and just outside the city limits. That creates enormous opportunities for their three universities: ACU, Hardin-Simmons, and McMurry. I’m thinking that having internship possibilities at the data center would be a huge recruiting tool for college students interested in a technology career.

• The number of new, traditional, entry-level positions has not been increasing along with the number of meteorologists entering the workforce, nor is it expected to in the next few years. Trends suggest there will be an increasing oversupply of meteorology graduates in the coming years, and that some meteorologists will have a difficult time finding a traditional weather-related job.

 

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• A deep breath sends a signal to the brain that all is well. The best way to do this is to breathe in with the nostrils to the point your diaphragm is full, then exhale twice as long as the breath you took in. So, if your inhale took four seconds, exhale through your nostrils for eight seconds.
• One thought of gratitude. Start with one thing and focus intensely on it.
• Create one intention, an action to carry out in the future. Use your imagination to see yourself doing something successful that day. Pick a word that describes how you want to be, and then focus on yourself acting on that one word.
• Be present. Get out of bed and take a moment to just be where you body is. Your mind and body are in the same place at the same time. Don’t think about the past or the future. Just line up your mind on the present.

“It was an accident!! He’s autistic!!” pic.twitter.com/eOCgJ4cPBr

— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) January 21, 2025