Matthew Shepard



On the night of Tuesday, October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young, twenty-one-year-old homosexual male, went into a bar alone for a drink at the Fireside Bar after attending a meeting at the University of Wyoming’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Association. Inside, he met two men in their twenties who posed as homosexual men and lured Shepard outside. There, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson kidnapped Shepard at gunpoint and drove to a remote area outside Laramie, a small town of 26,000 people in rural Wyoming. They tortured Shepard and left him to die tied to a buck-rail fence in the cold more than 7,000 feet above sea level.

He was found the following morning by a mountain biker. Transferred to a hospital in critical condition, Shepard, a native of Casper, Wyoming, died on October 12 from fatal injuries incurred during the attack. The town of Laramie later passed a bias crime ordinance in response to Shepard’s death. His killers, McKinney and Henderson, each received two consecutive life sentences in prison.

Shepard was one of thirty-four gay men and women killed in 1998 for their sexual orientation, and his death in particular became a catalyst for calls for hate crime legislation as a violation of basic human rights. Activists defined a hate crime as any crime perpetuated on an individual because of the appearance of particular characteristics or because of one’s apparent membership in a particular group. In other words, such crimes overtly functioned to deny a person’s access to human rights. As of 2000, twenty-one states had passed hate crime legislation that covered sexual orientation in their definition. Of the hate crimes reported to the FBI that same year, those crimes based on one’s sexual orientation accounted for the third highest reason for the crimes, at 11 percent, falling behind race with the highest percentage and religion as second.

We could leave Mathew at this point as his death was a catalyst for change, but there is  more.

In the aftermath of Matt’s death, Judy and Dennis Shepard started the Matthew Shepard Foundation to honor his life and aspirations. Because of the tragedy endured by the Shepards, the beginning principle of the Foundation was to teach parents with children who may be questioning their sexuality to love and accept them for who they are, and to not throw them away.

The Laramie Project, Moisés Kaufman's internationally successful play, began one month after a horrific crime occurred in the city of Laramie, Wyoming. Members of Kaufman's theatrical group, Tectonic Theater Project, volunteered to travel with their director from New York City to the wide-open ranges of the West in order to gather in-person interviews from Laramie's populace. The idea was to capture the emotions, reflections, and reactions of the people who were most closely related to the crime—a brutal beating and subsequent death of a young college student. Was this a hate crime? Or was it a random, senseless assault and robbery?

No matter which, Kaufman's objective was to learn through the town folks' raw responses how the issues of homosexuality, religion, class, economics, education, and non-traditional lifestyles were reflected through this crime. How did this crime define the culture, not just of this Western town, but of the entire United States?

The play is based on over 400 interviews with about 100 Laramie residents, as well as journal entries from the members of Tectonic Theater Project and Kaufman, as they reflect on their own reactions to the crime and to the interviews they carried out. It is structured as if it were a documentary as it attempts to re-enact the events that occurred on that fateful night.

The play opened at the Denver Theater Center in March 2000 and two months later moved to Union Square Theater in New York, where it ran for five months. Later, HBO, working with the Sundance Theater Lab, turned the play into a film, which Kaufman also directed. It was presented as the opening-night film at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, with Robert Redford, the founder of Sundance, making a special appearance to introduce the movie. For his work, Kaufman received two Emmy Award nominations for director and writer of the film.

The play was also acted out in many drama classes in many educational institutions across North America, at least, the ones who were allowed to do so. It was not uncommon for administrators to shut down rehearsals and productions up to and including the opening night when the theatres were filled and waiting for the show to go in.

This powerful, raw play was the target of middle American religious groups, educators and people in general. Despite all of the efforts of so many groups to shut down the Laramie Project, the project and Mathew Shepard continue to educate us and cause us to question ourselves, what would we have done?

Roméo Dallaire

 

Roméo Dallaire is a retired lieutenant-general, Senator, and celebrated humanitarian. In 1993, LGen Dallaire was appointed Force Commander for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), where he witnessed the country descend into chaos and genocide, leading to the deaths of more than 800,000 Rwandans.

Since his retirement, he has become an outspoken advocate for human rights, genocide prevention, mental health and war-affected children. He founded The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, an organization committed to ending the use of child soldiers worldwide, and is the author of two best-selling books.

LGen Dallaire provided the United Nations with information about the planned massacre, which ultimately took more than 800,000 lives in less than 100 days yet permission to intervene was denied and the UN withdrew its peacekeeping forces.  LGen Dallaire, along with a small contingent of Ghanaian soldiers and military observers, disobeyed the command to withdraw and remained in Rwanda to fulfill their ethical obligation to protect those who sought refuge with the UN forces.

His courage and leadership during this mission earned him the Meritorious Service Cross, the United States Legion of Merit, the Aegis Award on Genocide Prevention, and the affection and admiration of people around the globe.  His defiant dedication to humanity during that mission is well-documented (e.g. The Last Just Man, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, The Lion, The Fox, and The Eagle), as are the personal consequences he continues to suffer and his subsequent commitment to fellow victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Upon being medically released from the Canadian Army in 2000, LGen Dallaire has served on the UN Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention, as Special Advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs Canada, as Advisor to the Minister of National Defense, and as Special Advisor to the Minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency on matters relating to War Affected Children.

He is author of two best-selling books.  His harrowing experiences in Rwanda are detailed in Shake Hands with the Devil – the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2004 and the “Shaughnessy Cohen Prize” for political writing awarded by the Writers’ Trust of Canada.  It provided the basis for an Emmy Award-winning documentary as well as a major motion picture of the same name; it has also been entered into evidence in war crimes tribunals trying the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.

LGen Dallaire’s most recent book, They Fight Like Soldiers; They Die Like Children – the Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers, introduces the Child Soldier phenomenon and solutions to eradicate it: a mission to which LGen Dallaire has committed the rest of his life.

Sergei Anatolievich Preminin

 

To Russian Seaman Sergei Preminin, who has saved the world from a nuclear catastrophe.

Sergei Anatolievich Preminin
18 October 1965 – 3 October 1986

Sergei was a Russian sailor who sacrificed his life on the nuclear submarine K-219 when he manually prevented an impending nuclear meltdown by means of a reactor SCRAM. (an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor.)

Military Awards:
Order of the Red Star (posthumously) by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (23 July 1987).
Hero of Russia (posthumously), Medal #409, President's decree number 844 of 7 August 1997.
Medal of the Order of service to the Fatherland I degree (31 October 2003, posthumously)

Monuments:
In the city of Gadzhiyevo, a monument was erected, and a road and two schools were named after him.
In the city of Krasawino, a monument was erected in his honor.
In Preminin's native Skornyakovo, a marble plaque commemorates his heroism with an inscription that reads: "To Russian Seaman Sergei Preminin, who has saved the world from a nuclear catastrophe."
Street:
In Vologda in 2004 named a street in south part of city in memory of Sergey.
In Vologda oblast 2 school named in memory of Sergey (one school in hometown Krasavino)

Sergei was a Russian sailor who sacrificed his life on the nuclear submarine K-219 when he manually prevented an impending nuclear meltdown by means of a reactor SCRAM. (an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor.)

On 3 October 1986, while on patrol 680 miles (1,090 km) northeast of Bermuda, the K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in missile compartment VI.[2] Three sailors were killed outright in the explosion. The vessel surfaced to permit its twin nuclear reactors to be shut down.

The remaining crew was assigned to the bow or the stern, as far away from the explosion site as possible, and had been issued gas masks. Soon after, the temperature indicator showed a very high temperature at the nuclear reactors, the flow of coolant in the reactor gradually decreased further. This meant that a meltdown was imminent. However, the reactor shutdown could not proceed as planned from the control station; the trigger of the control rods had been damaged, by either the expanding gases or the intense heat.

For this reason, the reactor SCRAM had to be carried out manually, directly into the reactor chamber. This also meant that the men doing this would be exposed to strong radiation, since the on-board contamination coveralls were not designed to protect the sailors from the strong gamma and neutron radiation directly in the vicinity of the reactor core.

The officer of the reactor department, Nikolay Belikov, and his subordinate - sailor Sergei Preminin - went into the reactor chamber to complete the reactor SCRAM. They dropped three of four rods, but because of the high temperature (about 70°C or 158°F) Belikov lost consciousness. Preminin had to put the fourth rod in place. This was a job that required great physical strength, as the holders of the rods were now severely deformed by the heat.

When he tried to leave the reactor chamber, he could not open the hatch, as a pressure difference had been established between the reactor chamber and the reactor control station. After further attempts from other colleagues to force open the hatch from outside, Preminin died in the hot reactor chamber, as the rest of the crew had to move further towards the rear to escape the poisonous gases that spread out in the boat.

Meena Keshwar Kkamal

MEENA (1956-1987) was born on February 27, 1956 in Kabul. During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities, Meena laid the foundation of RAWA in 1977.

This organization was meant to give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan. She started a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in 1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion.

Another great service rendered by her for the Afghan women is the launching of a bilingual magazine,  Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message) in 1981. Through this magazine RAWA has been projecting the cause of Afghan women boldly and effectively. Payam-e-Zan has constantly exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also established  Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially.

At the end of 1981, by invitation of the French Government Meena represented the Afghan resistance movement at the French Socialist Party Congress. The Soviet delegation at the Congress, headed by Boris Ponamaryev, shamefacedly left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign. Besides France, she also visited several other European countries and met their prominent personalities.

Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987.

Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sell outs imposed on women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of population will be awaken and cross the path towards freedom, democracy and women's rights. The enemy was rightly shivering with fear by the love and respect that Meena was creating within the hearts of our people.

Malalai Kakar

The woman in the burqua is an Afghani martyr who put her life on the line for democracy and women’s rights. Her name was Malalai Kakar, and she was Kandahar’s first female police officer .

The mother of six was considered an iconic figure around the world for her efforts in protecting Afghani women from the terror of the Taliban. After following in the footsteps of her police officer father and brothers in 1982, Kakar eventually rose to the rank of captain and became the head of the department of crimes against women. She was a protector, and her burqa was what allowed her to do her job.

Photographer, Lana Šlezić met Kakar while she was living in Afghanistan and working on a photography book about the country’s women from 2004 to 2006. She remembers Kakar as “an incredible person” and “a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“She was my hope for Afghani woman in the future,” Šlezić says, “Malalai was the only woman they could turn to.”

Šlezić met with Kakar multiple times, both in her home and at the police station. “I remember one woman knocking on her door with her white burqa covered in blood because she had been beaten,” Šlezić says, recalling how local women were constantly in need of Kakar’s help. One day Šlezić even joined her on the job to confront a group of kidnappers who had taken a young girl. She remembers Kakar throwing a burqa over her uniform, jumping in a truck, and entering the kidnappers hideout with her pistol drawn, eventually rescuing the girl. “She was a hero,” Šlezić says.

In the Afghanistan of the Taliban, the woman named Malalai Kakar appeared like a guardian angel and for a brief  moment, shone bright until the Taliban fatally shot her in September of 2008.

Count Felix Graf von Luckner

When thinking about the Imperial German Navy in World War One, the image of a U-Boat automatically springs to mind. But there were other stories of the sea, and there were other men of the sea that were lauded by friend and foe alike because of their courage, honor and nobility. Felix Graf von Luckner was one such man.

Felix Graf von Luckner was born in Dresden on June 9, 1881 and was quite an adventurer. He had ran away from home at age thirteen to see a Buffalo Bill show, then signed up as an unpaid cabin boy on a Russian sailing ship under the assumed name of “Phylax Lüdecke.” He jumped ship in Australia and spent seven years doing an assortment of things to get by.

He enrolled in a German navigation training school at age twenty and passed the examinations for his mate’s commission. He volunteered service to the Imperial Navy and he took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, and during the Battle of Jutland he commanded a gun turret aboard the battleship Kronprinz Wilhelm.

In order to combat the lethal British blockade, Germany had converted several merchant ships into raiders by equipping them with guns and sending them in search of Allied merchant ships, but by 1915 most of the armed raiders had been sunk or interned. Germany could not send out any of the German Grand Fleet as they were involved in a stand off with British and French fleets, and they could not afford to lose any more ships.

All the Germans had left to commission was a 245-foot, full-rigged, Scottish-built three masted wooden bark built in 1888 that the Germans had captured off of Norway. It was close to the end of its life and needed a total rehaul. She was renamed “Seeadler” and she would find herself a perfect captain: the ten year veteran of sailing ships with an outstanding record in the German Navy, colorful aristocrat Count Felix Von Luckner. As virtually the only officer in the German Navy with extensive experience of large sailing ships, Luckner was appointed commander of the impounded ship. The problem was how to get it through the tight British blockade.

The Seeadler, with its bogus name “Irma” and a load of timber supposedly bound for Australia, carried false papers and a pilfered log book when it quietly slipped out of the river Weser on December 21, 1916 and skirted up the Norwegian coast to sneak around the tip of Northern Scotland where it could break free into the Atlantic. Many of the crew of 6 officers and 57 men on the “Irma” were chosen for their ability to speak Norwegian, as could the captain, in case of British interception.
As part of the pretense, von Luckner had a thin young sailor ready to wear a blonde wig and masquerade as his wife.

The Seeadler had only two obsolete cannons and a few rifles for protection when she sailed straight into one of the worst hurricanes that had hit the North Sea in a long time. As Luck(ner) would have it, the hurricane was more of a blessing than a curse. Although Von Luckner, running the frozen ship with the wind, was being pushed dangerously North toward the arctic ice, the storm had dispersed the British blockade and forced their ships back to port. In the nick of time, the winds died down and the crew was able to free the ice from the blocks and the running rigging could finally be used to change sail. The Seeadler sailed toward calmer seas.

After a close call with a boarding party from an armed British merchant cruiser, Von Luckner was cleared to proceed, and on Jan 9, 1917 the Count captured his first vessel, the steamship Gladys Royal, who was carrying 5,000 tons of coal. The entire crew of captured sailors were taken safely aboard the Seeadler while the Gladys Royal was sent to the bottom of the sea. In the next thirty thousand miles of sailing, Von Luckner sunk 14 ships and would never allow any of the crew of his captured vessels to drown. He not only allowed the captured sailors to live, he treated them with the utmost respect and courtesy. They were well-fed, well-berthed and allowed recreation on deck while their Captains dined daily with Von Luckner at the Captain’s table.

About the time the Seeadler’s prisoners’ quarters were bursting at the seams from his generosity, Von Luckner captured a French bark, the Cambronne, which was well stocked with provisions. He extracted a promise from his prisoners that if he let them have the Cambronne, albeit with much-reduced rigging to slow it down, they would not try to converse with any ships and would sail directly to the nearest port, Rio de Janeiro, thus allowing the Seeadler time to make her getaway. He then treated the departing Captains, under the command of Captain Mullen of the Pinmore, to a banquet, and with his own money he paid every captured seaman the same wages they would have earned otherwise during their time of captivity. They sailed off to freedom and all of them kept the promise. The notorious Count was from that time forward given the name “The Sea Devil.”

The Seeadler had successfully sunk 50,000 tons in her short career. Every man of the crew eventually returned home to Germany. Von Luckner had lost not one of his own crew or any of those captured throughout his many raids. After the war, Von Luckner authored a book of his adventures and traveled extensively, lecturing and teaching in the United States and England. Many cities in the United States made him an honorary citizen.

Captain Ed Freeman - Vietnam war

Sometimes guns are not enough to win the day. A little bit of courage and determination in the right person is all that is needed.

Ed W. "Too Tall" Freeman (November 20, 1927 – August 20, 2008) was a United States Army helicopter pilot who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War. During the battle, he flew through gunfire numerous times, bringing supplies to a trapped American battalion and flying dozens of wounded soldiers to safety. Freeman was a wing-man for Major Bruce Crandall who also received the Medal of Honor for the same missions.

You're a 19 year old kid. You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam . It's November 11, 1967. LZ (landin...g zone) X-ray. Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your commanding officer has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter. You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you. He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway. Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety. And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!! Until all the wounded were out.

No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm. He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey. Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died August 28, 2008 at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho.

Ken Taylor

May 10, 1934 – October 15, 2015

Canadian Ambassador to Iran – 1977 - 1980

Awarded the United States Congressional Gold Medal
Officer of the Order of Canada
Canadian Consul-General to New York City
University of Toronto- Chancellor of Victoria College.

A shining example of friendship between countries. A perfect example of personal courage. A fantastic example of Brains over guns.

On November 4, 1979, a mob of Iranians, mostly radical university students and supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini, surged over the wall around the United States compound in Tehran and occupied the American Embassy. They took most of those in the compound hostage, illegally holding them for 14 long, dark months, as the world's superpower looked on, desperate and helpless.

But six Americans escaped capture that day The Agricultural Attaché, Lee Schatz,Robert Anders, the head of the consular section, and two Consular Attachés, Joe Stafford and Mark Lijek, with their wives.

Picking their way cautiously through the streets, they reached the temporary security of Anders' apartment, and shortly after, and for the months that followed, the "Canadian Caper unfolded.

The Canadian Ambassador in Iran, Ken Taylor, first heard of the Embassy takeover from his Swedish colleague, whose building overlooked the compound. He promptly informed Ottawa. Four days later, his Chief Immigration Officer, John Sheardown, was astonished to receive a phone call from Bob Anders. Anders explained the situation and asked if he and his group could be given shelter within the next few days; Sheardown promised to consult the Ambassador.

Taylor didn't hesitate. The Americans would be given shelter and after many anxious months of planning, a daring and successful plan was developed.

The daring rescue touched a nerve in the U.S., where Americans were desperate for good news. It brought an outpouring of gratitude across the United States and made a celebrity of Taylor, who made personal appearances across North America, reaping honours and awards from grateful Americans. Exploiting his celebrity, the government appointed him Canada's next Consul-General in New York. And why not? He had already received the keys to the city!

Washington awarded Taylor the Congressional Gold Medal and Canada made him an Officer of the Order of Canada. Sheardown, Lucy, Taylor's secretary, Laverna Dollimore, and the Embassy's communicator, Mary Catherine O'Flaherty, were made Members of the Order of Canada. Sgt. Gauthier and two fellow military policemen received the Order of Military Merit. Foreign service spouses were outraged that Pat Taylor and Zena Sheardown were not similarly honoured, and protested strongly. They too became members of the Order of Canada.

Specialist Joshua Strickland

Army Sgt. Joshua J. Strickland

Died September 21, 2013 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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23, of Woodstock, Ga., assigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.; died Sept. 21 at Forward Operating Base Shank of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan. Also killed in the incident were Staff Sgt. Liam Nevins and Staff Sgt. Timothy McGill.

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Pentagon IDs 3 Special Forces soldiers killed in Afghanistan attack
Staff report
The Pentagon on Tuesday identified three soldiers killed in an apparent insider attack Sept. 21 at a base in Paktia province, Afghanistan.

According to a Department of Defense press release, the three soldiers died at Forward Operating Base Shank when “enemy forces” attacked their unit with small arms fire while the soldiers were conducting range training in Gardez.

Earlier reports said an Afghan wearing a security forces uniform turned his weapon against U.S. troops on Sept. 21 inside a base of the Afghan army in Gardez.
Killed were:

-- Staff Sgt. Liam J. Nevins, 32, of Denver, Colo., assigned to 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group, Watkins, Colo. Nevins received a Purple Heart with Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster (2nd Award) and Army Commendation Medal with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters (3rd Award) among his numerous awards. Nevins is survived by his mother, his father, two sisters, and his fiance.

-- Staff Sgt. Timothy R. McGill, 30, of Ramsey, N.J., assigned to 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group, Middletown, R.I. McGill deployed with the 3rd Marine Division in 2005 and joined the R.I. National Guard in 2008. His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. He is survived by his parents and two sisters.

-- Spc. Joshua J. Strickland, 23, of Woodstock, Ga., assigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Achievement Medal. He is survived by his wife, his son and two daughters.

So-called insider attacks killed 62 personnel in 47 incidents last year compared with 35 killed in 21 attacks a year earlier, according to NATO.
So far in 2013, 11 foreign soldiers have been killed in seven such attacks, including Saturday’s, according to an Associated Press count.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Specialist Joshua Strickland is only one of the thousands of soldiers who could, and should be placed among the bright spots of humanity, not for what they do, but how they do it.

In some cases, what a person has already accomplished speaks volumes about that individual. Imagine what that person could have accomplished had they not been struck down.

To all the service men and women who serve, or have served, or will serve, what you are choosing to do with your life speaks volumes about your character.  Guns are simply your keyboard, your business flow charts and your tools of the trade. You have chosen a life of service for reasons only you can adequately understand.

When you come home, remember your humanity. Until then, do your job well and with integrity and strength of character. But do come home

John Diefenbaker

"On 31 March 1958, Diefenbaker led the Progressive Conservatives to a landslide win over the Liberals. They held 208 of 265 seats in the House of Commons (53.7% of the popular vote) including 50 of 75 seats in Québec. Diefenbaker’s victory remains the largest in Canadian history, based on a percentage of the total seats in the House of Commons. Following the election, Diefenbaker wasted no time in moving toward fulfilling his vision of creating a Canada that promoted fundamental rights and freedoms."

John Diefenbaker was a prominent criminal lawyer in Saskatchewan before becoming an MP in 1940. After two losses, Diefenbaker finally won the position of the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1956. With Diefenbaker at the helm, the Progressive Conservatives won the 1957 election and ended the Liberal Party’s 22 year run in office.

In 1960, Diefenbaker implemented a Bill of Rights to protect the fundamental rights of Canadians. While he was exceedingly proud of the accomplishment, it was less effective than it should have been, as the provincial governments did not consent to the Bill. The Bill was therefore not entrenched in the Constitution.

Diefenbaker was also responsible for changing the laws that made it possible for Aboriginal people to vote in federal elections. Prior to 1960, they were not permitted to.

One of the things Diefenbaker is most remembered for is the cancellation of the Avro CF – 105 Arrow fighter jets after high building costs and low sales. In an unusual move, the government ordered that all of the plans and the prototypes be destroyed. Only small models of the aircraft remain as evidence of this significant part of Canadian aeronautical history.

Diefenbaker’s government ran into political trouble in a number of areas. The use of nuclear weapons was a hot topic, but the government decided that nuclear weapons would not be permitted in Canada. (to this day, no nuclear weapons exist in Canada nor does the Canadian military possess nuclear weapons as part of their arsenal.)

John Diefenbaker's oratorical powers have not been seen in Canadian politics for many years and it was not so much what he said but the passion and belief in what he said that made him one of Canada's greatest political figures .

John Diefenbaker remained a Member of Parliament until his death in August 1979.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Born Ayaan Hirsi Magan,on 13 November 1969) is a Dutch-American activist, author, and former politician of Somali origin. She is a leading opponent of female genital mutilation, and calls for a reformation of Islam. She is supportive of women's rights and is an atheist. Her latest book was released in 2015 and is called: Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.
 
Hirsi Ali is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse. She and her family left Somalia in 1977 for Saudi Arabia, then Ethiopia, and later settled in Kenya. In 1992, Ali sought and obtained political asylum in the Netherlands.

Ayaan has been a vocal critic of Islam. In 2004, she collaborated on a short movie with Theo van Gogh, entitled Submission, the English rendering of the word "Islam", a film about the oppression of women under Islam. The documentary sparked controversy, which resulted in death threats against the two and the eventual assassination of Van Gogh later that year by Mohammed Bouyeri, a second-generation migrant from Morocco.

In a 2007 interview, she described Islam as an "enemy" that needs to be defeated before peace can be achieved. But in her latest book Heretic (2015) she moderated her views of Islam and now calls for a reform of the religion by supporting reformist Muslims.

In 2005, Hirsi Ali was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also received several awards, including a free speech award from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten,the Swedish Liberal Party's Democracy Prize,and the Moral Courage Award for commitment to conflict resolution, ethics, and world citizenship.

Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley

Perhaps not yet a household name like Winston Churchill, but some day.

He was a soldier, written about in the book "We Were Soldiers Once…And Young", and portrayed in the movie  "We were soldiers". He was awarded 28 different personal, unit, campaign and service awards and decorations (40 total) in almost 33 years of military service, spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

He parachuted into 4 major battles as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, with which he made combat jumps at Sicily, Salerno, Normandy (D-Day) and the Netherlands (Operation Market Garden). He went on to make one more combat jump in Korea with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

He was awarded multiple decorations and wore Master Parachutist wings with a gold star signifying those five combat jumps.

He is most famous for his actions as Sergeant Major of the US Army’s 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, at the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, 1965. Lieutenant General Hal Moore, who, as a lieutenant colonel, was his battalion commander during the Battle of Ia Drang, and praised him as an outstanding NCO and leader.

The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between regulars of the United States Army and regulars of the People’s Army of Vietnam of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965, at two landing zones (LZs) in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam near the Ia Drang river.

The initial North Vietnamese assault against the landing 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray was repulsed after two days and nights of heavy fighting on November 14–16, with the Americans inflicting heavy losses on North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas.

In a follow-up surprise attack on November 17, the North Vietnamese overran the marching column of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry (1st Battalion’s sister unit) near LZ Albany in the most successful ambush against U.S. forces of the war. Both sides suffered heavy casualties; the U.S. had nearly 250 soldiers killed but claimed to have counted about 1,000 North Vietnamese bodies on the battlefield and estimated that more were killed by air strikes and artillery.

After his retirement, he worked 15 more years for the army as a civilian in administration at Martin Army Community Hospital and at various medical clinics around Fort Benning (Fort Benning, Georgia), retiring again in 1990.

Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley – Veteran of 3 Wars died, on October 10, 2012.

Col. Bob Denard

Bob Denard, the French mercenary who has died aged 78, was one of the soldiers of fortune to profit from the upheavals of Africa of the 1960s.

He came to prominence during the early conflicts in the Congo, when he led a raid on Stanleyville (now Kisangani) to rescue white civilians besieged by rebel forces. The ruthless efficiency with which his group of mercenaries carved through the rebel army earned them the soubriquet "Les Affreux" (the fearful ones).

 

Denard, who always insisted that he was "a soldier, not an assassin", trained the secessionist force of Moise Tshombe in the breakaway Katanga province, fighting there until the regime collapsed in January 1963.

 

In 1968 he was back in the Congo, attempting to invade Katanga with 100 men on bicycles. This farcical episode ended in failure, and Denard left the Congo for the last time.

For 10 years he was employed as a "military adviser" to the government of Gabon in West Africa. This job is believed to have had the backing of the French government, which was known to promote its widespread interests in its former African colonies by occasional unorthodox methods and operatives.

Denard, describing himself as "the pirate of the republic", took part in an attack on Guinea in 1970 and was involved in a failed coup attempt in Benin in 1977. Again both ventures were believed to have had the blessing, if not the connivance, of the French government.

In later years Denard became obsessed with the Comoros Islands, an impoverished but idyllic group of islands in the Indian Ocean which had been part of the French Empire. He overthrew the government of the Comoros on no fewer than four occasions.

He first helped to depose Ahmed Abdullah in 1975, after which a young maniac called Ali Soilih seized power, and a group of teenage tearaways ran amok for two years: the chief of police was 15.

In May 1978 Denard was involved in a counter-coup, in which Soilih was shot, though it is not clear whether Denard himself killed him. He certainly delivered his corpse the next day to Soilih's sister, and remained on the Comoros after Abdallah resumed power.

Denard had considerable business interests, and influence, in the Comoros, converting to Islam and eventually becoming a Comoran citizen. When Abdallah was deposed in 1989 Denard hotly denied having anything to do with it.

He then launched a coup against Haribon Chebani, who had automatically succeeded Abdallah, in favour of Said Mohammed Djohar, who became the third president within five days. France had, by this point, had enough, and Denard was flown to South Africa and placed under house arrest.

But in 1995 he was back on the islands, and Djohar was overthrown. Three thousand French troops were sent in to tackle Denard and his 30 soldiers. Denard conceded defeat.

He returned to France to face trial for his involvement in the coup attempts in Benin and the Comoros. Although he was convicted, his jail sentences were suspended after evidence was given that the now ageing mercenary was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

He also received outspoken support from the former chief of staff of the army, who declared that Denard had always operated in France's interests.

Robert-Pierre Denard was born near Bordeaux on April 7 1929, the son of a retired Army officer who later worked in the French colonial service, and grew up in the small village of Grayan.
He enrolled in a marine school and joined the French Navy, eventually serving in Indo-China as a corporal aboard a ship that was involved in patrol work in the Mekong Delta.

But Denard resented the injustices of the French class system; he left the navy and joined the colonial police in Morocco. He began to adopt aliases, beginning with André Maurin and then Gilbert Bourgeaud.
In Casablanca he fell in with Right-wing groups and was allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Pierre Mendès-France, the Left-wing French prime minister. He served 14 months in prison on remand before being acquitted.

Denard returned to France, where he worked as a bathroom appliance salesman, complaining that he was "bored s***less". Then a friend showed him a newspaper advertisement for security men needed to guard mining companies in Katanga, and within weeks he had emerged in Tshombe's Katanga province in the Congo dressed in a commando's uniform and using the self-bestowed rank of "colonel".

He soon found himself leading the motley group of European and South African soldiers of fortune fighting what was in essence a guerrilla war in the African bush. He soon established a reputation as a flamboyant and fearless leader of men in battle.

When the Katangese secession collapsed, Denard reappeared among a group of French officer-mercenaries training Royalist soldiers in the Yemen. He was summoned back to the Congo, succeeding the British mercenary Colonel "Mad Mike" Hoare in 1965 under the presidency of Mobuto Sese-Seko.

Mobuto soon became suspicious of the mercenaries he had hired, suspecting them of plotting against him. He ordered their disbandment, but Denard — along with the Belgian mercenary "Black Jacques" Schramme — attempted to overthrow the regime.

In the subsequent chaos Denard was wounded in an abortive attempt to relieve the beleaguered Schramme and fled to Angola, his reputation badly tarnished.

Denard was married officially twice, though he had a further five polygamous unions, and fathered eight children. He died at his home in south-western France on Saturday.

(The Col. was never one to hide his mistakes but often corrected his mistakes not with brains but with guns and bravado...He often chose the more direct route than your average politician to take care of some of this tired worlds problems)

Major General Charles George Gordon

Major General Charles George Gordon CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British Army officer and administrator.

 During the Crimean War (1853–56) he distinguished himself by his reckless bravery in the siege trenches outside Sevastopol. He was promoted to captain in 1859 and volunteered the following year to join the British forces that were fighting the Chinese in the “Arrow” War. He was present at the occupation of Beijing (October 1860

Gordon is one of the most famous soldiers of the Victorian age. Certainly he is now known as Gordon of Khartoum, but highly regarded in his own life time, he was to many also Chinese Gordon and Gordon Pasha. Commissioned as a Royal Engineer, Gordon first saw action during the Crimean War taking part in the siege of Sebastopol, the assault on the Redan and the expedition to Kinburn. In 1860 the Second Opium War broke out in China and it was here and during the Taiping Rebellion that Gordon earned his reputation and the recognition that set him towards high military rank. But it was Africa where he achieved his greatest fame. Gordon was engaged in much vital and interesting service before he found himself behind the walls of Khartoum in an unequal struggle against the religious fervour of the Mahdist forces.

Siege of Khartoum, (March 13, 1884–January 26, 1885), the siege of Khartoum, capital of the Sudan, by al-Mahdī and his followers. The city, which was defended by an Egyptian garrison under the British general Charles George (“Chinese”) Gordon, was captured, and its defenders, including Gordon, were slaughtered.

Many different accounts of his death in Khartoum have arisen, each for their own reason, but it was in Khartoum where he rose above military rank to become a legend to the British people.

T.E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence CB DSO was a British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat. He was renowned for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18.

Better known as Lawrence of Arabia he was a colorful figure with loyalties to both the British empire and the Kingdom of Hejaz (Mamlakat al-Ḥijāz) which was a state in the Hejaz region ruled by the Hashemite family.

The First World War, with its horribly bloody trench warfare, produced few heroes. But after the war, the British were told that a short, blue-eyed, Irish-English officer named T.E. Lawrence had donned Arab robes and led an audacious and dashing Arab revolt against Britain’s enemies in the Middle East.

They were told this tale most compellingly by a young American journalist, Lowell Thomas, whose multimedia show — part of which was titled “Lawrence in Arabia” — played in front of three million people from 1919 to 1924 in New York, London and across much of the English speaking world, and more than 4 million people in all. Lawrence had been a low-ranking officer, removed from the central battles of the war. Yet the British and much of the English-speaking world had their hero.

And the fascination with T.E. Lawrence has remained remarkably strong. “Along with Winston Churchill, he remains perhaps the best-known Englishman in the world,”

During the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, Prince Feisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, and Lawrence agreed on a desert attack plan on Akaba. On May 9, 1917, a small band of 50 Arabs left Feisal’s headquarters in Wejh on the Arabian Peninsula. They were led by Auda abu Tayi of the Howeitat tribe, by the Sherif Nasir of Syria and by Lawrence, who was wearing Arab robes, riding a camel.

This Arab army dashed from well to well across some extraordinarily inhospitable territory, stopping occasionally to blow up Turkish railroad tracks or create diversions to confuse the Turks about their ultimate objective. The plan was successful.

In 1919, during the Paris Peace negotiations, one of the more unusual sights at the peace conference called to redraw the map of the world after the First World War was the member of the British delegation walking around Versailles in Arab robes. It was at the Paris Peace Conference from January to June 1919 that T.E. Lawrence would push forward his campaign for Hashemite Kingdoms.

T.E. Lawrence was in Cairo in March 1921, working for Winston Churchill, the British Colonial Secretary, who had arranged the conference. Churchill and Lawrence had worked out this plan for Iraq and Transjordan in advance of the conference. And their plan was based on two ideas for which Lawrence had been crusading during and after the war. First, the Arabs must be given control of their own lands (as Lawrence had implied they would when the Arabs were fighting alongside him against the Ottoman Empire and for Britain). And, second, the proper Arabs upon whom to bestow this power were the members of the Hashemite family: King Hussein and his sons, including Feisal and Abdullah.

Thirty-nine British men and one British woman, Gertrude Bell, attended the conference in Cairo, but none — probably including Churchill — had more influence upon its outcome than T.E. Lawrence.Winston Churchill, Auda abu Tayi, Gertrude Bell, T.E.Lawrence.

Gertrude Bell

(14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926)

Although the world is tearing itself apart with people claiming to be this, that, or another thing, Gertrude Bell was the real thing. When guns were blazing all about during WWI she and her companions were knowingly, or perhaps unknowingly creating our modern stage of conflict.

Gertrude Bell, lady of the desert, a strong will that shaped the modern history of the desert people.
Intelligent, a maker of kingdoms, all without guns. and still remembered by those whose countries she forged from war.

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveler, political officer, administrator, spy and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.

Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.

She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, utilizing her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and given an immense amount of power for a woman at the time. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection".

(Gertrude Bell and T.E. Lawrence at the Cairo Conference, 1921)

Auda abu Tayi

 



(Photographed by T.E.Lawrence)

 
The Howeitat (Huwetat, Huwaytat) bedouins take a rather original stand among the Arabian tribes. From Egypt to Djof, from the Dead Sea until far down into the Hedjas they were feared as cruel warriors, and still a sort of stain was on them: their progenitor Huwet has not been a free Bedu, but an Egyptian.

 

The Howeitat have been camel traders, bringing great numbers of these animals to Cairo.

They became famous in Western civilisation through Auda Abu Tayi´s role in the riot of the desert, led by T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Auda Abu Tayi led a life like a hero of the past. He was said to have slain 75 men in combat, man against man, without counting the Turks, whom he hated.

He lived in permanent feuds and liked to recall his deeds in epic form like the old poets. Auda´s hour came with outbreak of World War One. In 1917 he led Sherif Naser of Medina and Lawrence across Wadi Sirhan to Akaba that could be taken from backwards by this way, leading to the decisive turn against the Ottoman empire.

 

The depiction of Auda abu Tayi as a man interested only in loot and money is at odds with the historical record. Auda did at first join the Arab revolt for monetary reasons, but he quickly became a steadfast supporter of Arab independence, notably after Aqaba's capture. He refused repeated bribery attempts by the Turks (though he happily pocketed their money) and remained loyal to the revolt. He was present with T.E. Lawrence from the beginning of the Aqaba expedition and in fact helped plan it along with Lawrence and Prince Faisal.

 

Auda’s tribesmen were reputedly the finest fighters in the desert which is why his support and assistance were vital to the Arab Revolt. Auda had initially been in the pay of the Ottoman Empire, but switched allegiance to Lawrence and Faisal bin Al Hussein. With the incentives of kicking the Turks out of Arabia, and the lure of gold and booty, Auda joined the Arab Revolt, becoming a fervent supporter of the Arab independence movement (apparently going so far as to smash his Turkish false teeth with a hammer to demonstrate his patriotism). He was repeatedly approached by the Turks with further financial inducements if he would switch to their side, but he refused to go back on his word.

 

He was an Arab patriot and he would ride with Lawrence. He and his tribesmen were instrumental in the fall of Aqaba (July 1917) and Damascus (October 1918).

Sharbat Gula

 

 



Back in 1985, in the Nasir Bagh Afghan refugee camp, photographer Steve McCurry photographed a 12-year-old Afghani girl with haunted sea green eyes. The picture went on to captivate the world, becoming the symbol of a cruel war that spanned twenty-three years; and yet, not one person in the Western world could name her.

Published on National Geographic Magazine’s front cover in June 1985, the picture triggered countless reconnaissance missions and searches across the plains of Southern Asia, which all proved fruitless. Finally, in 2002, a National Geographic team returned to Afghanistan for one last search, and chanced upon the girl’s brother, who sent word back to a snowy village at the foot of the Tora Bora mountains. Finally, the two-decade long mystery was solved: the elusive Afghan girl’s name is Sharbat Gula, and her story is one of sadness, loss and survival.

In the years before that iconic photo, Sharbat had lost her parents in bombings, and trekked to Nasir Bagh with her four siblings and frail grandmother, braving snow-covered mountains and harsh weather conditions. After she left the refugee camp, she returned to her native village, where she married and bore four children (one of whom later died). Sharbat now lives with her family in harsh poverty, but relative peace. Whilst her brother ponders that she has never experienced a happy day, the story of the girl with breathtaking sea green eyes lives on, symbolising the hope, strength and survival of a nation.

Humans - As bright as the sun