Ben and Jerry Say Thanks to TJ!

Happy National Ice Cream Day and Thank you TJ!  No, Thomas Jefferson was not the first to introduce ice cream to America, but it can be argued that he generated the first popular obsession with the cold dessert.  The Library of Congress even has his hand written recipe that was served at the President's House in Washington DC and at Monticello.  The President found many pleasures during his time spent in France, but ice cream spreading through the well to do households of the 18th and early 19th centuries led to a new and lasting American craving.  Here is the overview from the Jefferson Library.

Americans and the RAF

A highlight of our Warriors on the Western Front trip to Europe this year was visiting the RAF museum north of London.  Of course with everything else on this trip, we did not have near enough time to fully explore the museum.  Many Americans are aware that men from the US did join the RAF during the Battle of Britain prior to Pearl Harbor.  The sad part is that they learned this from the sappy Ben Affleck film Pearl Harbor.   These American pilots braved not only the German Luftwaffe, but lost their American citizenship for doing so.  They were later pardoned.  Letters they sent home were America's first up close look at World War II.  It always amazes me that just 160 years before Americans were giving their lives to defeat the British, but these men took it upon themselves to prevent the British from being defeated.

Royal Air Force Museum - Eagle Squadrons

Teddy Roosevelt's Grave Overlooking Omaha Beach

Well maybe not the President Teddy Roosevelt, but his son Ted Roosevelt.   After serving in North Africa and helping to lead the Normandy invasions as a Brigadier General his efforts were rewarded with a Medal of Honor and a promotion to Major General on July 12th, 1944.  However, on this same day he was struck down by a heart attack.  It was decided that he would be buried in Normandy with his men and is today one of the most visited graves at the American Cemetery.  He truly embodied the spirit of his father by being the highest ranking and oldest soldier  on Utah Beach on D-Day.  The Roosevelts (along with the MacArthurs) are one of only two fathers and sons awarded the Medal of Honor.

Where is the Statue of Liberty?

This might seem like a simple question.  New York of course, but there is not just one.  Most people know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886.  Lady Liberty arrived as an unassembled puzzle on June 17, 1885 in New York harbor.  However, it was not the first to be created.  Liberty Enlightening the World is the name given to the statue by its sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi who created numerous small copies to help fund the project.  The one in the picture below is in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.  What is also interesting is Bartholdi designed a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette that is in Union Square, Manhattan.

One of my favorite episodes in History Channel's America Story of Us is about the building of the Statue of Liberty.

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National D-Day Memorial in Rural Virginia

June 6, 1944 is a date that rivals July 4, 1776, July 3, 1863, Dec. 7, 1941 as one of the greatest turning points in American history. The Allied landings on the Normandy Beaches ingrained the term D-Day in the consciousness of almost all Americans, British, French, and Canadians. As I prepare to take 26 high school students across the Atlantic to experience World War II. We are fortunate to live only 2 hours from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. On an overcast, rainy Sunday afternoon in May we took some of our students to the Memorial to get a holistic picture of D-Day from those who planned it all the way to the marines who scaled Point-du-hoc.  Bedford lost more men proportionally than any other community in the country.  I highly recommend the book Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw and a trip to the National D-Day Memorial.

Americans who could not stay away

The Lafayette Escadrille was deployed on April 20, 1916 and was made up of American pilots who in the spirit of the Wright brothers could not be kept from the skys in war.  Some of these controversial pilots hoped to inspire the end of American neutrality, some felt a strong sense of duty to support their European allies, and others wanted the opportunity to hone their fighting skills.  They saw their first action at the Battle of Verdun under the symbol of the screaming sioux.  Later with the joining of the US in WWI, the pilots were incorporated into the American Air Force.  Of course in French style, an arch was created in their honor outside of Paris.  The following link has some awesome primary source newspaper articles from the Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/escadrille.html

Washington in London?!

One of the most surprising sights that I encountered the first time I was in London was a statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square.  This was the last figure I would have thought to be captured in bronze in the middle of the most famous square in Great Britain.  Apparently it was a gift from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1921 and modeled after a marble one in Richmond.  It is rumored that because Washington said he would never set foot in London again after the Revolutionary War that soil from Virginia was placed under the statue.  It is also interesting to note that around the corner from Trafalgar Square is the only remaining, in-tact home of Benjamin Franklin.