The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy Integrated Program Office announced Dec. 19 the approval to start construction of the nation’s first polar security cutter in more than 50 years. This icebreaker, being built by Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss, will enhance the United States’ ability to operate in the challenging Arctic and Antarctic regions, which are increasingly vital to national security and scientific exploration.
The approval incorporates eight prototype fabrication assessment units, part of the program’s phased approach. These units, either underway or planned, use a “crawl-walk-run” strategy as the shipbuilder refines techniques and gets the workforce skills up to speed before transitioning to full-blown production.
The icebreaker program is, however, behind schedule. It was supposed to have delivered the icebreaker this year, but now it may not be done until 2029. the delays include the fact that Halter Marine, which won the contract out of the five companies that bid on it, was bought this year by Bollinger.
The Polar Security Cutter class addresses the aging state of the U.S. Coast Guard’s operational polar icebreaking fleet, which is down to just one heavy icebreaker, the 399-foot Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, commissioned in 1976, and one medium icebreaker, the 420-foot Coast Guard Cutter Healy, commissioned in 1999.
To supplement the two, the Coast Guard recently acquired a commercially available polar icebreaker, M/V Aiviq, a 360-foot U.S.-built polar class 3-equivalent icebreaker, to bolster presence and mission capacity in the Arctic.
The Biden administration justified major crackdowns on fossil fuel and mineral development in Alaska by playing up its commitment to Native American tribes, but some community leaders who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation said they did not feel respected by the administration.
Over the course of the last four years, the Biden administration moved to shut down drilling activity on tens millions of acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), retroactivelycanceled lease sales and effectively blockeda major mining project in the state, often touting the administration’s commitment to protecting the environment for native communities in official statementsand press releases. However, these actions were a major disappointment to some of Alaska’s natives, who told the DCNF that the administration seems to have mostly ignored their desire to allow development that generates revenues for their communities and that they are ready to work with the incoming Trump administration to strike an appropriate balance.
“With climate change warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, we must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a September 2023 statementafter the administration moved to shield 13 million acres from drilling activity in the NPR-A and retroactively canceled lease sales. “President Biden is delivering on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history. The steps we are taking today further that commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.”
However, the administration’s deference to “Indigenous Knowledge” did not mean much to some tribal leaders and officials in light of the government’s apparent disinterest in meaningfully engaging with them about key issues related to resource development.
Nagruk Harcharek is the president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an organization that represents the interests of numerous native communities in the resource-rich North Slope region of Alaska. In his view, the Biden administration was not particularly interested in hearing what his organization had to say about the value of the economic benefits that resource development provides for his community.
“I started here in 2022. The first thing I did was try to get in there and make sure our voices were heard, because what we’re hearing from the administration is that we’re the most tribally-friendly administration in the history of the United States, right? ” Harcharek told the DCNF. “At least from our perspective, that’s not our impression.”
“We’ve always tried to stress that we are part of the environment. We utilize it for subsistence hunting, for our culture, and it’s extremely important to us. We don’t need to be protected from our own environment,” Harcharek continued. “We can make decisions and help administrations make decisions that are both good for the region and also good for the environment and good for the state, good for the nation. And that just wasn’t the case. There was a lack of engagement, meaningful engagement. Oftentimes, we heard of policy changes in the news and not from phone calls from folks, even though everybody has our number.”
Harcharek says his organization attempted to secure a meeting with Haaland on nine different occasions, but only managed to get a chance in June of this year. Other times, the Department of the Interior (DOI) sent staffers or other officials to meet with them, if their outreach to the government was even returned.
“Sometimes we didn’t even get a response from those emails, so saying that they’re the most tribally-friendly and then not speaking to most of our tribes or us in a timely manner or a meaningful manner, the just question is, who are you? Who considers you the most tribally friendly organization? Because it sure isn’t us, or we’re not getting that sentiment,” Harcharek said.
Doreen Leavitt, secretary for the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS), also ripped Haaland for lackluster engagement with her community since 2021 and expressed hope that Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — Trump’s pick to replace Haaland — will be a better leader at DOI.
“Secretary Haaland’s leadership for ICAS and our region was not just deeply frustrating, but it was saddening because as an indigenous woman myself, who wants to see other indigenous women in leadership succeed and grow, her lack of respect for our region was frustrating, to say the least, despite her recognition of tribal stewardship, our requests for consultation on critical issues were ignored or dismissed,” Leavitt told the DCNF. “I don’t know much about Secretary Burgum, other than that he comes from the Dakotas, but we will expect the incoming secretary to provide that meaningful consultation, that transparent process and respect for our tribal sovereignty and self-determination and those things we did not see under Haaland.”
Leavitt also explained that resource development has provided the money her community needed over the past 50 years to establish and maintain basic things like running water, school systems, health clinics, emergency services and more.
Without taking a political stance, Leavitt noted that she and her organization are “especially looking forward to having the government-to-government relationship rights respected” by the incoming Trump administration.
Charles Lampe, the president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation, said that he and his people are looking forward to Trump’s return to power after sensing that most of his community’s concerns about cracking down hard on resource development were “pretty much just cast aside” by the Biden administration.
“We’re really excited about the next four years. With the previous administration, the Trump administration, we had a great relationship. We just felt like we were actually listened to during that time,” Lampe told the DCNF.
Nagruk Harcharek is the president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an organization that represents the interests of numerous native communities in the resource-rich North Slope region of Alaska. In his view, the Biden administration was not particularly interested in hearing what his organization had to say about the value of the economic benefits that resource development provides for his community.
“I started here in 2022. The first thing I did was try to get in there and make sure our voices were heard, because what we’re hearing from the administration is that we’re the most tribally-friendly administration in the history of the United States, right? ” Harcharek told the DCNF. “At least from our perspective, that’s not our impression.”
“We’ve always tried to stress that we are part of the environment. We utilize it for subsistence hunting, for our culture, and it’s extremely important to us. We don’t need to be protected from our own environment,” Harcharek continued. “We can make decisions and help administrations make decisions that are both good for the region and also good for the environment and good for the state, good for the nation. And that just wasn’t the case. There was a lack of engagement, meaningful engagement. Oftentimes, we heard of policy changes in the news and not from phone calls from folks, even though everybody has our number.”
Our country has witnessed the highest number of presidential pardons in the history of our nation. As of Dec. 12, 2024, President Joe Biden has given 8,027 pardons, commutations and clemencies. On Dec. 23, he granted clemency to 37 men on death row.
We’ve all by now seen memes on social media. We all innately understand that innocent people don’t need pardons. But 8,027 pardons, commutations, and clemencies?
Hunter Biden’s preemptive pardon is the one and only preemptive pardon handed out by outgoing President Biden so far., pardoning him for all crimes known and unknown, and granted to Hunter two weeks before his sentencing for felony firearms charges. Are there other preemptive pardons in the wind?
Historically, past presidents, Republican and Democrat, have issued preemptive pardons.
In 1858, during the “Utah War,” a conflict between Mormon settlers in Utah and the federal government, President James Buchanan, a Democrat, issued a blanket pardon to Brigham Young and others involved in resisting federal authority.
In 1974, President Gerald Ford, a Republican, issued a full and unconditional pardon to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office as president.
In 1977, shortly after taking office, President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, issued a blanket pardon to thousands of men who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.
The courts have held that the presidential pardon power is unlimited except in cases of impeachment (Ex Parte Garfield 1866); is broad and inclusive nature of constitutional authority (Ex Parte Grossman 1925); and not limited to cases where charges have been filed, or a conviction has occurred (Murphy v Ford 1975).
Alexander Hamilton discusses the pardon power in Federalist No. 74, arguing in favor of its inclusion in the Constitution by emphasizing the importance of mercy in the justice system. Hamilton rationalized that a single executive (the president) is better suited to exercise this power than a larger body like Congress, which might be too slow or swayed by factionalism. He argued that there must be a mechanism to mitigate the “rigors of the law” in certain cases where justice would otherwise be overly harsh.
Hamilton points out that concentrating the pardon power in one person ensures accountability. The president’s reputation and legacy are on the line, making them cautious in using this authority.
He also notes that the pardon power can play a crucial role in times of political unrest, such as during insurrections or rebellions, to promote peace and reconciliation.
The anti-Federalists were more skeptical of the broad pardon power, and their concerns appear in various writings, though they do not focus extensively on it. The pardon power could be abused by a corrupt or partisan president to shield allies or accomplices from prosecution.
They worried that this power might enable a president to obstruct justice by pardoning individuals involved in crimes, including those that could benefit the president personally. Further, Cato (likely George Clinton) and Brutus (likely either Melancton Smith, Robert Yates or perhaps John Williams) both saw this broad pardon power as monarchical and an abuse of executive authority. There was a definitive lack of checks on the President’s pardon power.
But what about the questioning of competency when a sitting president exercises such constitutional authority?
While U.S. courts have addressed various aspects of presidential authority and actions, they have generally refrained from directly questioning a sitting president’s mental competency.
The list of some of the sitting presidents who have faced competency questions include James Madison, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and now, Joe Biden.
One of the significant checks comparable to many monarchs throughout history is competency affected by cognitive decline, such as George III of England, Charles VI of France and Caligula to name a few.
As Hamilton states, one person owning pardon power secures accountability, accountability implicitly implies being answerable.
Concerns about President Joe Biden’s competency have been raised in political and public discourse, particularly focusing on his age, verbal and physical incongruities. We as the public have witnessed a variety of verbal and physical gaffes, moments of confusion and other intelligible fog which have fueled our concerns over his cognitive decline.
A December 19, 2024, article by Diana Glebova begins by stating, “White House aides covered up President Biden’s apparent mental decline from Day 1 of his presidency shielding the aging commander-in-chief from the public and even rearranging his schedule after scatterbrained performances, an explosive report revealed Thursday.”
“The bombshell report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that White House aides hid President Joe Biden’s apparent mental decline from day 1 of the presidency. Aides kept meetings short and controlled access, top advisers acted as go-betweens and public interactions became more scripted. Private discussions with the President became less frequent and a voice coach was also hired.”, synopsis 12/19/2024 by The Economic Times.
A former CNN pundit has offered a mea culpa for shrugging off concerns about President Biden‘s mental decline.
Chris Cilizza, who served as CNN’s editor-at-large before leaving the network in 2022, spoke candidly about his lack of journalistic curiosity about Biden’s condition to serve following a pair of damning reports this week from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that shed light on the president’s diminished state.
“As a reporter, I have a confession to make,” Cillizza began his “apology” on his YouTube channel last Thursday. “I should have pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline.”
Today, those concerns take on new urgency. If a president’s cognitive decline affects the ability to exercise sound judgment, can the president responsibly wield the pardon power? Outside of Hamilton’s clear requirement for accountability and the anti-Federalists’ warning on monarchism, the Constitution’s framers did not foresee the intersection of such broad authority with potential mental incapacity, leaving Americans to grapple with these difficult questions.
As we consider the implications of President Biden’s unprecedented use of pardons and the potential of preemptive pardons, the public must reflect on the balance between constitutional authority and presidential competency.
Can a sitting president experiencing cognitive decline effectively carry out the responsibilities outlined in Article II, Section 2, which grants the President the authority to issue reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States?
History, legal precedent, and modern concerns all suggest this is a critical and unresolved issue.
Michael Tavoliero is a senior writer at Must Read Alaska.
When former Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz shut down businesses in 2020 over the Covid pandemic, one man’s restaurant stayed open in defiance. Andy Kriner’s establishment, Kriner’s Diner, defied the mayor’s orders, saying they were unlawful.
The code enforcers quickly converged and nailed a “Stop Work” order to his cafe wall. After the enforcers left, a customer tore down the order.
Kriner’s act of civil disobedience was roundly criticized by people like then Rep. Harriet Drummond, a Democrat, and other Democrats. Soon, Berkowitz was begging for a meeting with Kriner.
Andy Kriner, the owner of Kriner’s Diner, died Dec. 21, 2024 of a heart attack, the family wrote on Facebook:
“Dear Kriner’s Diner customers – scratch that – family, because you know when you’re at Kriner’s Diner, you are our family! Unfortunately, we have news that we never thought in a million years we would ever have to deliver…a tragedy hit our family on Saturday, December 21st. Andy Kriner, husband, father, brother, grandfather, son, and friend, has fatally passed from a heart attack.
We know, this will never ever make sense, and, honestly, Andy would tell you that it is not for us to understand, it is only up to the Good Lord to know. Andy is the most God-fearing man, well, besides his dad Norm Blakeley, his mom Sally Hoskins, and his stepmom Barb Blakeley.
“Questions that have come to mind: how is Norann ever going to make it? Do you know Norann Kriner, the strongest woman you will ever meet? God blessed us with a family that is large and in charge, and we all have roles that play a part in keeping things going.
“Another question: are we closing Kriner’s Diner? NO! The last post Andy put on social media was a happy birthday to Jim Meredith, his best friend of 60 years. Poetically, Andy Kriner passed on his best friend‘s birthday, always trying to take that spotlight. All jokes aside, Jim Meredith is a very intelligent man and he has taken over all the strategies to help make Kriner’s Diner work.
“Now, we know we just celebrated Christmas and we’re busy but the Kriner family must move forward. All we ask for at this time is prayers. We need all the prayers our entire family can get.
“We share our sincerest condolences with every single one of you that felt like you were his best friend because that’s exactly how you made him feel. Know that our hearts are with you and you all are in our prayers for comfort and love.
“One last thing, never miss a moment to tell someone you love them!”
Kriner became a folk hero in Alaska in 2020, and his customers/family never forgot his acts of courage. To this day, the diner remains popular with freedom-loving Alaskans.
Read about how Andy Kriner took on City Hall in 2020 and how other businesses followed in the links below.
Early Christmas morning, a woman armed with a hatchet was fatally shot by Juneau police after advancing on officers in a parking lot, despite a failed attempt to subdue her with a taser.
The incident occurred at 5:25 a.m. on Dec. 25 at the Valley Breeze-In, following reports of a disturbance involving a woman threatening people with a hammer.
Juneau Police Department officers arrived on the scene and encountered the 30-year-old woman in the parking lot. Holding a hatchet, the woman ignored repeated commands to drop the weapon and began advancing toward the officers.
In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, one officer deployed a taser, which struck the woman but failed to stop her approach. As the woman continued toward one of the officers with the hatchet, an officer discharged their firearm, fatally striking her.
Emergency medical personnel from Capital City Fire/Rescue were dispatched, but the woman was declared deceased at the scene. No officers or bystanders were injured during the incident.
The Juneau Police Department and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation will conduct an investigation into the shooting. The State of Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions will review the findings to determine whether the use of lethal force was legally justified.
Per JPD policy, the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. Their names will remain undisclosed until they have been formally interviewed as part of the investigation. The woman’s next of kin has been notified.
In a move underscoring the complexities of local governance in Southeast Alaska, the City of Gustavus is filing for reconsideration of the Alaska Local Boundary Commission’s (LBC) recent decision to approve a vote on the creation of the Xunaa Borough.
In addition, the cities of Gustavus, Elfin Cove, Pelican, and Tenakee have hired an attorney who has asked for an extension of deadlines relating to the reconsideration of the commission’s decision.
According to the formal letter, the written decision by the commission on Dec. 17 came at a time when municipal offices had holiday closures and local people had travel plans that made it hard to meet the deadline for requests for reconsideration.
The commission’s narrow 3-2 vote on of the last steps toward transforming the first-class City of Hoonah into a borough with jurisdiction over a vast swath of northern Southeast Alaska.
The proposed borough would encompass other settlements, some of which have expressed skepticism about promised benefits of the new governance structure. The change, if ratified by voters, would Hoonah residents greater autonomy over their affairs.
A history of opposition
Gustavus is a historic agricultural homesteading community of 600 people, which started with settlers in about 1914, just after Alaska formally became a territory.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt abruptly seized the agricultural land for part of the Glacier Bay National Monument, halting farming development.
After decades of effort by locals, in 1955 Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a presidential proclamation that excluded 19,000 acres of land from the national monument, and homesteading was restored.
The community has a strong sense of homesteading and subsistence identity, but is also tied historically and geographically to the national monument, which now provides jobs in the tourism sector.
Hoonah is larger, at 948 people and is an historic Tlingit settlement, with a strong historical identity. It has a growing tourism economy as well, due to expansion of the dock and improvements to the community that make is a stop for some cruise ships.
Gustavus and the fishing communities of Elfin Cove, Pelican, and Tenakee, have long been vocal critics of Hoonah’s attempts to form the Xunaa Borough and the territorial land grab.
In 2019, the Gustavus City Council passed a formal resolution opposing any borough formation that included Gustavus and its surrounding areas. Subsequent correspondence in 2022 from then-Mayor Mike Taylor declined Hoonah’s invitation to join the proposed borough, citing policy concerns and the council’s established opposition.
Despite these objections, the City of Hoonah submitted a petition in June 2023 to form the borough, delineating boundaries that included Icy Strait, Glacier Bay, Chichagof Island, and lands and waters far beyond, but isolating as enclaves the cities of Gustavus, Pelican, and Tenakee Springs, all of which had declined to join a Xunaa Borough.
The LBC’s approval of the petition came after significant debate, with commissioners acknowledging potential shortcomings in the borough’s compliance with state statutory requirements.
Gustavus pushes back
In response to the LBC’s decision, the Gustavus City Council passed Resolution CY24-05 in February 2024, disputing the qualifications of Hoonah’s petition and raising concerns about its statutory deficiencies. On June 10, 2024, the council endorsed the LBC staff’s preliminary report, which had highlighted issues with the proposed borough’s viability.
The Nov. 12 decision to approve the borough, however, galvanized Gustavus officials into action. The mayor, along with council members and legal counsel, reviewed the LBC’s records and identified procedural failures and disregard for state standards. A formal resolution was passed in December, directing the city’s administration to file for reconsideration of the LBC’s approval.
Looking ahead
The challenge from Gustavus and other communities reflect broader regional tensions over the Xunaa Borough’s potential impact. While proponents in Hoonah argue that borough status would strengthen local governance, critics worry about resource distribution and governance efficacy in such a geographically dispersed area, with towns that have their own vey distinct identities.
The LBC’s reconsideration process could set a precedent for how Alaska navigates disputes over borough formation in the future. As legal counsel for Gustavus prepares to submit the formal request, all eyes will be on the commission to see if it revisits its controversial decision.
The letter to the boundary commission by an attorney representing Gustavus, Elfin Cove, Tenakee Springs, and Pelican wants the deadline pushed into January formally asks for the deadlines to be extended due to the holidays so the local communities have a reasonable amount of time to respond.
“For a day, the God of goodwill was once more master of this corner of the earth when He united opposing men of different honors to share brotherly love in His name.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
In many sectors along the Western Front during World War I, troops spontaneously stopped fighting at Christmas and enjoyed a brief but welcome respite from the horrors of war. Such moments of humanity were largely lacking from World War II. But one notable exception occurred during the Battle of the Bulge, when seven young soldiers were spared from the fighting on Christmas Eve.
During World War II, due to the love and courage of a mother, a miracle took place on Christmas Eve in the Ardennes forest during the Battle of the Bulge. Elisabeth Vincken from the German city of Aachen was forced to seek a new home when her house and bakery were destroyed by an Allied bombing raid. They fled to a small hunting cottage her husband used on weekends before the war.
The Vinckens, with their 12-year-old son Fritz, sought refuge there to be isolated from the war. Her husband, a member of the defense squad in Monschau, near the cottage, came home to visit them regularly. It was an act of God that brought a storm that kept him from coming home for Christmas.
On Dec. 16, 1944, nine days before Christmas, the Germans launched Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein – “Operation Watch on the Rhine.” It was the last major counteroffensive against western Allies. This caught the Allies by surprise, as desperate Allied units tried to fend off this ruthless German attack. Soon, the entire Ardennes Forest was overwhelmed in a contentious battle for its survival.
Elisabeth and Fritz were alone in the cottage with a plump rooster intended to be cooked for their Christmas dinner. Elisabeth had named the rooster Hermann Göring after the prominent well-fed head of the Nazi air force. He was not very well-liked by the Vincken family or by other Germans.
Early on Christmas Eve, she heard a loud, anxious knock on the door of the cottage. Elisabeth quickly blew out the candles so Fritz could open the door. When she saw three soldiers on her doorstep, she ran to greet them herself. She found three young American GIs outside. One was deathly pale, laying face down in the snow. They’d been separated from their battalion three days.
They didn’t speak German, and Elisabeth spoke no English, but she looked at the desperate men and invited them in. This was a dangerous act of kindness. Had the Germans found her harboring the enemy, she would have been executed. Yet she allowed them in and sent Fritz outside to fill a bucket with snow. She had Fritz take off their jackets and boots and rub their frozen feet with snow.
One soldier and Elisabeth spoke a little French and they started communicating. The American GIs were Jim, Robin and Harry, the one who was wounded and soon fell into sleep. Elisabeth ordered Fritz to fetch six potatoes and Hermann the plump rooster so she could cook these young men a warm Christmas meal. She told Fritz, “They need a hot meal much more than we do this evening.”
Elisabeth ripped her bed sheet into bandages and did her best to treat Harry’s wounded leg. With the smell of the hot chicken filling the room, there was another knock on the door. Fritz believed it was more lost Americans and opened the door. But this time, however, it was four young German soldiers. Elisabeth ran to the door and quickly stepped outside and greeted them with “Fröhliche Weihnachten” – “Merry Christmas.” The soldiers returned the greeting. The corporal explained they had lost their regiment and were concerned that they’d freeze to death if they remained outside all night. They were hoping that someone in the cottage would allow them to stay there until daylight.
Elisabeth replied, “Of course you can. You can also have a fine, warm meal and eat till the pot is empty. But we have three other guests, whom you may not consider friends.” Her compassion now turned to concern. “You know this is Christmas Eve, and there will be no shooting or war in here.”
The German corporal quarried if the men inside were Americans. Elisabeth sternly replied. “Listen, you could be my sons, and so could those inside. A boy with a gunshot wound, fighting for his life, and his two friends, lost like you and just as hungry and exhausted as you are. This one night, this Christmas night, let us forget about killing. Let us forget about war. Let us thank God we are alive.”
The corporal stared at her stoically. Elisabeth decided it was time to break the dangerous silence. She clapped her hands and told the Germans to leave their weapons outside it they want to come in. Elisabeth quickly retreated inside and told the American GIs what had transpired. They agreed to give their guns to Elisabeth, who took them outside and put them with the Germans’ weapons.
When Elisabeth brought the German soldiers over to meet the GIs, they stoically stared at each other. Elisabeth intervened again. She strategically placed her guests around the dinner table and whispered to Fritz, “Get more potatoes and fresh oats. These boys are hungry, they are starving.”
The German corporal produced a bottle of red wine and a loaf of rye bread to share with the GIs. Elisabeth said grace and prayed for peace. Fritz noticed their guests had tears in their eyes. For one night they could do something other than fighting each other. For one night, they were seven lonely young men, lost in the woods, far from home, who were taken in by a God-fearing Christian woman.
After dinner, one of the Germans who spoke fair English and had studied medicine examined Harry’s wound. He explained to Harry he needed to clean his leg daily with soap and water. He added, “You also need to eat more healthy foods like red meat to make up for your blood loss.”
The two groups slept peacefully through the night in peace and prepared to part their ways in the early AM. In the morning, Harry was given some broth and more of the German wine, some sugar, and the only egg in Elisabeth’s home. The other soldiers ate oatmeal and slices of warmed bread. Elisabeth helped them fashion a stretcher for Harry out of two polls and her Christmas tablecloth.
Before departing, the German corporal showed his map and compass to the Americans, explaining how to get to the nearest American-controlled area. He also cautioned them to avoid the town of Monschau, which had been occupied by the Germans two days prior. Elisabeth then gave the soldiers back their weapons and watched them disappear into the forest in opposite directions.
This story has survived thanks to Fritz Vincken, who lives in Honolulu. Then President Ronald Reagan referenced it in a 1985 speech he gave about German reconciliation.
“Two former war heroes who met today at the unification ceremony; each an enemy of the other 40 years ago; each a witness to the horrors of war, broke bread together on Christmas Eve together in Aachen during the middle of World War. II. They came together then, as they have today, just as Germany has done too.” – Ronald Reagan
This column first published at The Center Square on Dec. 24, 2023.
On Sunday, a second U.S. Navy fighter jet was nearly shot down by a Navy missile cruiser over the Red Sea.
Earlier it was reported that an F/A-18 Super Hornet was shot down by a missile fired from the U.S.S. Gettysburg. Both pilots survived by ejecting.
On Tuesday, it was revealed by a source to Fox News that the second fighter jet took evasive action, after being shot at. The missile from the Gettysburg came within 100 feet of the second American jet, which was not far behind the first jet.
The second incident has not been reported by U.S. Central Command.
The commanding officer of the Gettysburg is from Adak, Alaska. Captain Justin Hodges was assigned command of the ship in 2023. More in this story:
