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1863 President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Celebrated shortly after Lincoln committed his life to Christ, and celebrated while America was still in the midst of its Civil War. It was this proclamation which eventually led to the establishment the U.S. national Thanksgiving holiday.
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” She explained, “You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”
Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states. President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale’s request immediately, unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, issuing his request on October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before Lincoln’s.
The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
By the President of the United States of America.
Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863
A Proclamation of Thanksgiving and Praise.
“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.”
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler et al.
Today is the U.S. Marine Corps 242nd birthday. Below are some important figures and dates for the military branch, which counts tens of thousands of service members among its ranks.
1798: This is when the Marine Corps Band was established by a congressional act, the Marines website says. “Its mission is unique—to provide music for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine Corps,” it explains.
183,477: The total number of active duty service members as of August 2017, according to the Defense Manpower Defense Center (DMDC).
15,384: The number of active duty women in the Marine Corps as of August, the DMDC says.
39,106: The amount of people in the Marine Corps Reserve as of August.
1883: The year “Semper Fidelis” became the official Marine Corps motto. The term means “always faithful” in Latin.
Nov. 21, 1942: This is when then-commandant of the Marine Corps Thomas Holcomb approved a line in “The Marines’ Hymn” be changed from “On the land as on the sea” to “In the air, on land, on sea,” the Marines Corps says.
3: The number of core Marine Corps values. They are honor, courage and commitment.
1: The current commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert B. Neller.
-Fox News
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
FORT BELVOIR, Va., Oct. 25, 2017 — U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford said the meeting here of more than 70 chiefs of defense at the Counter-Violent Extremist Organization Conference was a historic occasion.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff hosted the meeting so the chiefs could chart the progress in the struggle against violent extremists and look at ways to improve the strategies in the long war against the terrorists.
Dunford; Brett McGurk, the president’s special envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS; and Australian Army Col. David Kelly, an exchange officer on assignment to the Joint Staff, spoke to the press following the conference.
During the meeting, the senior leaders from every part of the globe looked at the threats posed by extremist groups and examined strategies and tactics to combat them, the chairman said. The chiefs concluded “that we are dealing with a transregional threat and it is going to require more effective collective action by nations that are affected,” Dunford said.
Wide-Ranging Threat
He noted that in Iraq and Syria the coalition saw more than 40,000 foreign fighters from 120 different countries. The chairman added that figure describes the range of the threat in a nutshell.
The chiefs spoke mostly about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Dunford said, because they regard ISIS as the most virulent example of violent extremism in the world today. Still, he added, they envision the military network that has been built to combat ISIS will also deal with other transregional extremist threats as they arise.
The key takeaway from the conference is that “the most effective action against these groups is local action, but local action has to be informed by the nature of the trans-regional aspect and so cooperation globally is important,” the chairman said. But, he noted, global actions must be informed by local actions.
Connections
Violent extremists are connected by three things that Dunford calls the “connective tissue” of terrorism: foreign fighters, finances and the narrative. Cutting the connectivity between these groups is key to defeating them, the general said. Doing this will enable local forces to deal with the challenges posed by these groups, he said.
One example is the five-month battle for Marawi in the Philippines, which the chiefs were briefed about yesterday, Dunford said. About 30 foreign fighters returned to the Mindanao region after fighting with ISIS and persuaded local extremist groups to pledge to ISIS and launch attacks in the city. “Small numbers of ISIS leaders are attempting to leverage local insurgencies,” the chairman said.
The coalition is seeing something similar in Africa, he said, where a number of local insurgencies rebranded themselves and pledged allegiance to ISIS.
The chiefs discussed the movement of these individuals and the need for intelligence- and information-sharing within the coalition to stop them, Dunford said.
Global Effort, Global Approach
McGurk helps coordinate the whole-of-government approach to the campaign against violent extremism. He said the chiefs spoke a great deal during the meeting about all the efforts against ISIS, including the stabilization and humanitarian programs that are included in every military campaign. He also said foreign fighters trying to get into or out of Iraq and Syria has come to a near halt. “We believe we’ve cut their revenue down to the lowest level ever,” he said.
“Most interestingly today, we did a little walk around the globe, because it is not just about Iraq and Syria,” McGurk said. “We had very detailed presentations of operations against ISIS in Marawi, in the Sahel, we talked about how we are tracking foreign fighters around the world … and we had a very good presentation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia about the leading efforts that they have taken on to counter the narrative and leading the counter-messaging campaign in that part of the world.”
The chairman said the campaign against ISIS is at an “inflection point” and that all the chiefs discussed what’s next. “One of the points that was made several times today is the need for the coalition to stay focused on Iraq and Syria for an enduring period of time,” Dunford said.
Counter-Messaging
Defeating the narrative of the terror groups is one of the toughest nuts to crack, he said, but progress is being made. “I’m not complacent, but I am encouraged by how the success on the ground in translated into undermining the credibility of the narrative,” the chairman said. “There have been some studies of young people who are radicalized and those numbers seem to go down. There are certainly indicators that fewer young people are being radicalized, and that’s as a result of us being able to demonstrate what ISIS is. They can only behead so many people and treat people they way they did in Mosul and Raqqa before those stories came out.”
The Saudi counter-ISIS messaging effort now has 41 nations involved. “Clearly, credible Islamic voices are going to be the ones that matter most in countering the narrative of ISIS, and countering it and discrediting it for what it is,” he said.
With 75 nations and entities such as NATO and the African Union Mission in Somalia, there are some who think the coalition is too big, Kelly said. But the coalition thrives on the diversity of views the coalition offers, he noted.
“What I bring to the Joint Staff, I feel, is a diversity of perspective,” the colonel said. “It’s that diversity of perspective that we are looking for in our planning. Can [the coalition] become too big? I don’t think so. I think the price of admission is wanting to be a part of solving the problem.”
The coalition is not a formal alliance, nor does any nation want it to be one, Dunford said. It all comes down to helping local and regional forces handle their security problems, and sharing information and intelligence to sever the connective tissue and defeat the narrative. “The bigger the coalition is, the better,” the chairman said.
Picture: U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers remarks to open the 2017 Chiefs of Defense Conference at Fort Belvoir, Va., Oct. 24, 2017. The conference brought together defense chiefs from more than 70 nations to focus on countering violent-extremist organizations across the globe.
U.S. DoD photo by Army Sgt. James K. McCann
By Devon L. Suits
U.S. Army News Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2017 — Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Capt. Mike Rose’s military service number, RA18846904, was one of the many things on his mind yesterday as he prepared for his induction into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon.
Issued to him by an Army noncommissioned officer back in April 1967, Rose said he remembers the sergeant telling him then “by the time you get off this bus … that number, beginning with RA, will be embedded in the back of your eyeballs.”
Receiving that military service number, he said, was the moment when he transitioned from being “just another kid on the block,” into a soldier. Rose said also that he never believed the things he might do as a soldier would one day warrant him receiving the nation’s highest military honor.
But that’s exactly what happened.
Rose, who served as a medic in the Army Special Forces, received the Medal of Honor Oct. 23 in a ceremony at the White House for his actions in Laos from Sept. 11-14, 1970, as part of Operation Tailwind.
Yesterday, Rose attended a second ceremony at the Pentagon, where his name was placed on a wall within the Hall of Heroes there — alongside the names of every other Medal of Honor recipient. Rose said the recognition for his actions as a soldier exceeded the expectations he had for what would come of his time in uniform.
“I have always considered it to be a great privilege to be a member of the U.S. Army,” Rose said. “To be a part of Special Forces is a privilege. If I walked away at the end of my three to four years with my National Defense Ribbon and Good Conduct Medal, I would have been the proudest young man that could be.”
Extraordinary Valor
Rose is the 3,500th Medal of Honor recipient, said Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James C. McConville. He is also the 174th soldier to receive the medal for extraordinary heroism during the Vietnam War. Furthermore, the 5th Special Forces Group, the unit to which Rose was assigned, was the most decorated unit of its size during the Vietnam conflict.
“Today we honor Captain Mike Rose for his extraordinary valor,” McConville said. “By honoring him, we honor the heroes … that fought by his side. And [we honor] those that sacrificed for this nation. The Green Berets, and every soldier, Marine and airman that was there, that raised their hand to defend the Constitution and all that it stands for.”
In attendance during the Hall of Heroes ceremony were Rose’s wife, Margaret; their children, Michael, Cynthia and Sarah; and several grandchildren. Also present were some of his battle buddies from Operation Tailwind and others from the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group, or MACV-SOG.
“It’s no surprise that Mike considers his Medal of Honor to be an award for all of his comrades in MACV-SOG,” said Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy.
“There’s no way of knowing exactly how many American lives Mike Rose and his comrades saved during Operation Tailwind, which tied down and disrupted thousands of North Vietnamese troops,” he said. “But we do know that Mike personally saved many lives over the course of those four days. It is a fact that there are veterans whose names are not inscribed on a black stone wall just across the Potomac because of Captain Rose.”
Himself the son of a Vietnam veteran, McCarthy reflected on how service members returning from that conflict had been “unfairly tarred and libeled with false accusations, [and] misunderstood, overlooked and forgotten by too many of their fellow Americans.”
“This Medal of Honor is a long-overdue vindication of both Rose and the quiet professionals who served in MACV-SOG and similar units,” McCarthy said.
Thank You
“America is looking you straight in the eyes at long last and finally saying: Thank you. You were right. You served bravely, and well. You stood by each other, both during the war and in the decades since. And although you are too humble to say it of yourselves, you are heroes,” he said.
Rose’s honor comes at a critical moment, as the Defense Department recently observed the 50th anniversary of the start Vietnam War, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who spoke on behalf of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“Captain Rose, you came to the aid of your brothers in arms,” Shanahan said. “Forty-seven years ago, you preserved their lives. Today, you preserved their legacy. You give us a chance to remind our country of the sacrifices and heroism of the whole Vietnam generation, just when we need that reminder the most.”
Having grown up in Southern California, Rose said he had humble beginnings. His teachers, he recalled, instilled in him a love of reading and the English language. And a neighbor, a veteran who had fought in France during World War I, would help develop in Rose an affinity for American history, including the great conflicts the United States had played a part in.
“The more I read [about] and talk to people who participated in places like Guadalcanal, Mundy, Tarawa and Normandy,” Rose said, the more he considers those people to be heroes. “At least they were my heroes.”
These influences, combined with knowledge of his own father’s service with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, are part of what inspired Rose to join the Army in April 1967.
During his 20-year Army career, Rose served in Thailand, Vietnam and Panama. And while he initially enlisted in the Army, he later sought greater leadership opportunity, and accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in December 1973. He retired from the Army as a captain in May 1987.
“[Rose’s] service offers us powerful lessons,” Shanahan said. “[The Medal of Honor] represents the ideals we try to inspire in America’s warriors: courage, selflessness, love for country and each other. These are virtues upon which our whole enterprise rests. Without them, nothing else matters. Not our gear, gadgets, bombs or budgets.
“The Medal of Honor is a marker of courage — our most precious national resource,” he added. “Captain Rose takes his place in the Hall of Heroes, where his name will become one star in a great consolation of courage. By those stars, we chart our course on land, sea, and air. They burn brightest when the night is darkest.”
Retired U.S. Army Capt. Gary M. Rose, a Medal of Honor recipient, is inducted into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes during a ceremony presided over by Deputy Defense Secretary of Pat Shanahan, Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy, and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville at the Pentagon in Washington, Oct. 24, 2017. Rose received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during Operation Tailwind in September 1970, during which he provided medical care to more than 60 service members while under fire.
DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jette Carr
U.S. Sailors aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort say a prayer for Sara Victoria Llull Rodriguiz in the Caribbean Sea, Oct. 17, 2017.
Little Sara Rodriguiz is the first child born aboard USNS Comfort in more than seven years.
U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Ernest R. Scott
Yellow Ribbon America News Desk:
PEARL HARBOR (Oct. 2, 2017) Seaman Recruit Jessika Delagado, left, and Electronics Technician Seaman Mark Hefti post for morning colors detail in front of the ensign, at half-mast, on the flight deck of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112). Michael Murphy is flying the ensign at half-mast to honor the victims of the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting in Las Vegas.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Justin R. Pacheco/Released)
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2017 — The Defense Department is accelerating relief operations and the deployment of additional response capacity to Puerto Rico to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency‘s need for a comprehensive commodities distribution network able to reach isolated communities and provide sustained medical support for the island’s residents, Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement this morning.
Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, who’s in command of the DoD response effort in Puerto Rico, is working with FEMA and service components to get distribution priorities right, Davis said.
Buchanan, assisted by his deputy, Army Brig. Gen. Richard C. Kim, assessed that the planned force flow will build the capacity necessary to support Hurricane Maria response priorities, the spokesman said.
Army Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, Chief of Engineers and commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, is also in Puerto Rico overseeing the temporary power project, electrical distribution repairs and infrastructure improvements, Davis said.
The Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp is now involved in response operations in and around Puerto Rico, the spokesman said.
Davis provided the following updates and details of hurricane relief operations in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean region:
Puerto Rico Situational Update
— FEMA reports assessments completed at 64 of 69 hospitals; 59 are partially or fully operational; five unassessed facilities are psychiatric hospitals that do not provide emergency care.
— Forty-five percent of customers have access to drinking water. Ninety-five percent of customers remain without power; power has been restored to San Juan airport and marine terminals.
— Eight hundred and fifty-one of 1,100 retail gas stations have reopened and purchase limits have been lifted. Forty-nine percent of grocery and big box stores are open.
— Erosion repairs to the Guajataca Dam are scheduled to begin Oct. 1-2.
— The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departed Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday and it is estimated to arrive in Puerto Rico on Oct. 4.
— Five of six FEMA-priority sea ports are open or open with restrictions; surveys of Ponce and Roosevelt Roads are ongoing.
U.S. Virgin Islands Situational Update
— An assessment of the main hospital on St. Thomas will be completed today.
Details of DoD Response in Puerto Rico
— U.S. Northern Command is deploying enhanced logistics capacity, centered on commodity distribution and medical support, and designed around a sustainment brigade. Northcom is flowing five force packages into Puerto Rico focused on logistics, tilt/rotary wing lift, and medical units. Force Package 1 is on the ground with leadership in Puerto Rico for planning and assessment. Force Packages 2 and 3 will deliver logistical units and associated command and control and is deploying. Force Package 4 will follow and deliver helicopters, aviation command-and-control elements and medical units. Force Package 5 will deploy next and provide more robust medical capacity.
— The USS Wasp, carrying three MH-60 helicopters, is en route to Puerto Rico and will embark 10 additional aircraft. The Marine Corps has identified eight additional MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and two KC-130 fixed-wing aircraft that will self-deploy to support operations on Puerto Rico.
— U.S. military helicopters moved 3 HHS Disaster Medical Assistance Teams with 12,500 pounds of equipment to Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Ponce from Roosevelt Roads to support the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “hub-and-spoke” concept for the delivery of medical care. Seven federal medical stations will be co-located with each of the seven hospitals identified as ‘hub’ hospitals.
— The Guajataca Dam spillway continues to erode; immediate risk reduction measures are ongoing to stabilize the dam spillway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports two to three inches of rain has fallen, and an additional two to four inches each day over the next two days is possible.
— U.S. Transportation Command will deliver super sandbags for spillway stabilization today; sandbag installation will follow on or about Oct. 1.
Foreign Disaster Assistance
— U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Task Force Leeward Islands continues evacuations on Dominica. Following the evacuation of priority U.S. citizen medical cases, the Hurricane Response Task Force will transition to on-call status today.
Picture: In San Juan, Puerto Rico National Guardsmen load pallets of food and water onto an UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for distribution to Orocovis, Puerto Rico, Sept. 29, 2017. The National Guard has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other state and federal agencies in response and relief operations for Hurricane Maria. Air National Guard photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Y. Alvarez-Rea
U.S. Navy Construction Electrician 2nd Class John McConnell, left, assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion (ACB) 2, annotates Spanish-English translations concerning a faulty generator to Hospitalman Apprentice Judd A. Ostolaza, a local resident and U.S. Navy Reservist assigned to Det. 1, Headquarters & Services Company, 4th Marine Logistics Group, volunteering his translating services with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU) as part of Hurricane Maria relief efforts at Ryder Hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico.
The Department of Defense is supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead federal agency, in helping those affected by Hurricane Maria to minimize suffering and is one component of the overall whole-of-government response effort.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Tojyea G. Matally/Released)
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