Prince Charles of Britain visited the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas with Anne Armstrong in October 1977. (David Adame/The Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
Liz Cheney, left, said Thursday that Marjorie Taylor Greene should lose her clearance for her tweets about the alleged leaker. Getty Images
America’s Allies are very nervous about the leak of Top Secret Documents. NATO is going to spend a trillion dollars on the threat Putin poses. The value of these Defense Dollars is being undermined. Our Allies our concerned by how divided the United States has become. Unity is the goal. President Biden is in Ireland this day shoring up the peace treaty between religious factions. I’m going to write him a letter suggesting he create the U.S. Civilian Oversight of British Defense Staff that is a Hands Across The Water, and Hands Across Party Lines.
Dick Cheney was friends with the Armstrong family who own a large Texas ranch. Prince Charles came for a visit, and a Polo game was played. Soon, this Prince will be King of the United Kingdom. Jane Dorothy is the ambassador of Britain. We have entered another Cold War. May I suggest the new head of the BDSUS reach out to Hollywood in regards to making propaganda movies, and anointing Hollywood Stars and Goodwill Ambassadors.
John Presco
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said he thought Cheney’s embrace of Costner’s support would backfire.
“Liz is already going to lose, but while many fans love Costner and enjoy Yellowstone, who in Wyoming thinks he’s one of them?” Fleischer tweeted.
“It never ceases to amaze me how important Hollywood thinks it is,” he said.
Jane Dorothy Hartley (born April 18, 1950) is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom in the Joe Biden administration since 2022. She served as the United States ambassador to France and Monaco from 2014 until 2017 during the Barack Obama administration.[1] She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday that GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene should not have a security clearance after Greene defended the Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking a trove of classified documents.
Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who has come out against the Trump-aligned wing of the party, said Greene’s comments made clear that she “cannot be trusted” with national security information.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, defended the alleged leaker, Jack Teixeira, 21, in two tweets Thursday night, claiming that the Biden administration was “the real enemy” and had “lied to us from the very beginning.“
Cheney responded in a post on Twitter, saying, “Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secret_(1950_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fairbanks_Jr.
Airman suspected of leaking secret US documents hit with federal charges
Story by By Tim McLaughlin and Sarah N. Lynch • Yesterday 6:04 PM
By Tim McLaughlin and Sarah N. Lynch
FBI arrests U.S. Air Force National Guard employee over the leaks online of classified U.S. documents© Thomson Reuters
BOSTON (Reuters) -A 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard accused of leaking top secret military intelligence records online was charged on Friday with unlawfully copying and transmitting classified material.
Jack Douglas Teixeira of North Dighton, Massachusetts, who was arrested by heavily armed FBI agents at his home on Thursday, made his initial appearance in a crowded federal court wearing a brown khaki jumpsuit.
Jack Douglas Teixeira appears in federal court in Boston© Thomson Reuters
At the hearing, Boston’s top federal national security prosecutor, Nadine Pellegrini, requested that Teixeira be detained pending trial, and a detention hearing was set for Wednesday.
During the brief proceeding, Teixeira said little, answering “yes” when asked whether he understood his right to remain silent.
The judge said Teixeira’s financial affidavit showed he qualified to be represented by a federal public defender, and he appointed one.
An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira who was arrested by the FBI, over the leaks online of classified documents© Thomson Reuters
After the hearing, three of Teixeira’s family members left the courthouse, with a group of reporters trailing them for several blocks. They entered a car without making any comments.
The leaked documents were believed to be the most serious U.S. security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010. The Pentagon has called the leak a “deliberate, criminal act.”
This leak did not come to light until it was reported by the New York Times last week even though the documents were posted on a social media website weeks earlier.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he ordered investigators to determine why the alleged leaker had access to the sensitive information, which included records showing purported details of Ukrainian military vulnerabilities and embarrassed Washington by revealing its spying on allies.
Relatives of Jack Teixeira, a member of the U.S. Air Force National Guard suspected of leaking highly classified U.S. documents, leave the federal courthouse in Boston© Thomson Reuters
Fallout from the case has roiled Washington. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has requested a briefing for all 100 senators next week while Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed to investigate.
Relatives of Jack Teixeira, a member of the U.S. Air Force National Guard suspected of leaking highly classified U.S. documents, leave the federal courthouse in Boston© Thomson Reuters
“The Biden administration has failed to secure classified information,” McCarthy said on Twitter. “Through our committees, Congress will get answers as to why they were asleep at the switch.”
Biden said he was taking steps to tighten security. “While we are still determining the validity of those documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information,” he said in a statement.
MORE CHARGES EXPECTED
A criminal complaint made public on Friday charges Teixeira with one count of violating the Espionage Act related to the unlawful copying and transmitting of sensitive defense material, and a second charge related to the unlawful removal of defense material to an unauthorized location.
Relatives of Jack Teixeira, a member of the U.S. Air Force National Guard suspected of leaking highly classified U.S. documents, leave the federal courthouse in Boston© Thomson Reuters
A conviction on the Espionage Act charge carries up to 10 years in prison.
The charges are connected to just one leaked document so far, a classified record that described the status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and included details about troop movements on a particular date.
Experts expect more charges as investigators examine each leaked document. Teixeira could also face more counts depending on the number of times he separately uploaded and transmitted each document.
“They are going to pick the ones (documents), I would imagine, that foreign governments have already seen,” said Stephanie Siegmann, the former national security chief for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston and now a partner with the Hinckley Allen law firm.
A general view of federal courthouse where Jack Teixeira, a member of the U.S. Air Force National Guard suspected of leaking highly classified U.S. documents, makes his initial appearance in Boston© Thomson Reuters
In a sworn statement, an FBI agent said Teixeira had held a top secret security clearance since 2021 and also had sensitive compartmented access to other highly classified programs.
Since May 2022, the FBI said, Teixeira has been serving as an E-3/airman first class in the Air National Guard and has been stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts.
Siegmann said one lingering question is why a 21-year-old National Guardsman held such a top-level security clearance.
“That’s an issue that Department of Defense needs to now deal with,” she said. “Why would he be entitled to these documents about the Russia-Ukrainian conflict?”
javascript:void(0)
Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of the documents, labeled “Secret” and “Top Secret,” but has not independently verified their authenticity. The number of documents leaked is likely to be over 100.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and Tim McLaughlin in Boston; Writing by Sarah N. Lynch and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee, Alistair Bell, Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Osterman)
Kevin Costner has got legs.
Literally, that’s true. But figuratively as well.
The seemingly innocuous photo of the “Yellowstone” actor wearing a tee-shirt calling out his support for Liz Cheney continues to get attention.
Cheney first surfaced the photo of Costner’s shirt-wearing support in a tweet that said “Real men put country over party.”
Congressional challenger Harriet Hageman, who grew up on a Wyoming ranch, has taken a dim view of Costner’s credentials as a rancher and his support for Cheney. But she does like the TV series.
“Yellowstone is a good show, but Kevin Costner is a pretend rancher in a Hollywood production shot mostly in Montana, not Wyoming,” Hageman told Cowboy State Daily.
“And I’d bet that if he had to work a real ranch for a day, he’d call his agent to get him out of there. I’ll take the support of the people of Wyoming any day of the week over a liberal actor who voted for Joe Biden.”
Former Trump spokesman and current Hageman advisor Tim Murtaugh took it a step further.
Murtaugh tweeted a photoshopped version of Costner with a different message on the tee-shirt.
“I’m for Liz Cheney leaving office,” the shirt read.
Whether any of this makes any difference to voters can be debated.
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said he thought Cheney’s embrace of Costner’s support would backfire.
“Liz is already going to lose, but while many fans love Costner and enjoy Yellowstone, who in Wyoming thinks he’s one of them?” Fleischer tweeted.
“It never ceases to amaze me how important Hollywood thinks it is,” he said.
McALLEN, Texas – Anne Armstrong, a longtime powerful Republican who served as US ambassador to Great Britain in the Ford administration, died yesterday, her office said. She was 80.
Ms. Armstrong had battled cancer and had been in a Houston-area hospice for about a week, her assistant Kay Hicks said.
Ms. Armstrong and her husband, Tobin, were Republican stalwarts. She was a national leader of the Republican Party and a Cabinet-level adviser to Presidents Nixon and Ford.
Ms. Armstrong’s name was again in the news in 2006 when Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a fellow hunter during an outing at the Armstrong family’s ranch in South Texas.
She was the first woman to serve as US ambassador to Great Britain, taking the post in 1976.
At her swearing-in, Ford quipped that his wife was “always needling me” to appoint women to such posts. Ms. Armstrong replied, “I have the feeling Abigail Adams would have been just as excited as Betty Ford and I” about her selection.
A couple of months into her tenure, The New York Times reported that the British had “taken an instant liking to her . . . because she is visible and direct and informal without turning informality into a cloying, down-home soupiness.”
More recently, Ms. Armstrong was an adviser on foreign intelligence to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“Her public service was exemplary and set a high standard for all who recognized that government service is vitally important to our way of life,” George H.W. Bush said in a statement. “Anne was a great sportsman, fantastic shot, and a wonderful friend to the Bush family. We send condolences to her family and mourn her death.”
Tobin Armstrong died in 2005. They had been married for 55 years.
The man wounded by Cheney on Armstrong’s ranch in February 2006 was Harry Whittington, a millionaire lawyer and longtime Republican activist. He was hit in the face, neck, and chest with birdshot and was hospitalized for several days.
The Kenedy County ranch had been in the Armstrong family since the 19th century. Tobin Armstrong’s grandfather, John Armstrong III, who settled it, had earned his fame as the Texas Ranger who captured notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin.
https://marketrealist.com/p/who-owns-king-ranch-in-texas/
How much is King Ranch worth?
Thanks to the sale of the W.T. Waggoner Estate Ranch in Texas earlier this year, we can get a sense of King Ranch’s value. Waggoner Ranch isn’t as large as King Ranch, but it calls itself the “largest ranch under one fence.” King Ranch, meanwhile, is split across multiple parcels.
Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought Waggoner Ranch this summer, according to Forbes, and though the terms of the sale weren’t disclosed, the nearly-800-square-mile property was listed at $725 million. Robert Grunnah, a principal at the Texas land specialty firm Novus Realty Advisors, told Bloomberg in July 2021 that if Waggoner Ranch is worth $725 million, King Ranch is worth $1.1 billion.
British Defence Staff USA
Posted on August 2, 2021 by Royal Rosamond Press
Treacherous Republican-Christians, and their disgraced ex-president, tried to end our alliance with Britain, formed by the artist , Winston Churchill.
John Presco
British Defence Staff in the USA
Location:USAPart of:Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) protects the security, independence and interests of our country at home and abroad.
We work with our allies and partners whenever possible. Our aim is to ensure that the armed forces have the training, equipment and support necessary for their work.
The MOD works with the United States on joint overseas operations and contingency planning, bilateral defence co-operation, interoperability and engages on defence trade.
Our team in the United States assists this work and communicates the broader transatlantic defence relationship, elevates the UK’s interests and reputation and provides high-quality advice and reporting to the UK on all aspects of defence business.
Responsibilities
The MOD is responsible for: defending the UK and its overseas territories, providing strategic intelligence, providing nuclear deterrence, supporting civil emergency organisations in times of crisis, defending our interests by projecting power strategically and through expeditionary interventions, providing a defence contribution to UK influence and providing security for stabilisation.
The British Defence Staff in the United States comprises some 750 military and civilian MOD personnel based in over 30 states across the US. Their mission is to protect and advance the UK and its interests by reinforcing the transatlantic defence and security relationship.
Priorities
Preserving global peace & security — The UK and the US co-operate to address the world’s most pressing security challenges.
Supporting trade and investment — Driving forward industry, the UK works with the US on facilitating defence trade and investment.
Co-operating in science, innovation, energy and higher education — The UK and the US collaborate in science and innovation; including advanced defence technologies.
Departments at post
- Ministry of Defence civil servants
- Royal Navy personnel
- British Army personnel
- Royal Air Force personnel
- Joint Forces Command
Follow us
Our people
- Air Vice-Marshal Mick SmeathDefence Attaché, USA
- Edward FergusonMinister Counsellor Defence, USA
- The UK is threatening to tear up its defense alliance with the US after President Donald Trump’s Iran crisis triggered a rupture between the two countries.
- UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told The Sunday Times that the UK was looking to forge stronger alliances with other international partners that shared its priorities.
- He said the US under Trump risked withdrawing from its global leadership role.
- Wallace also said Trump threatened to tear up the US’s intelligence-sharing relationship with the UK.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
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President Donald Trump’s order to assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani has triggered a major rupture between the US and its historically closest ally, the UK.
In remarkably outspoken comments, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in an interview published Sunday that Trump’s isolationist foreign-policy stance had prompted the UK to look for alternative allies.
“I worry if the United States withdraws from its leadership around the world,” he told The Sunday Times.
He added: “The assumptions of 2010 that we were always going to be part of a US coalition is really just not where we are going to be.”
The comments came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government distanced itself from the attack that killed Soleimani, with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab labeling it a “dangerous escalation” that risked a conflict in which “terrorists would be the only winners.”
A spokesman for Johnson was also quick to condemn Trump’s threats to target Iranian cultural sites, if carried out, as a breach of international law and possibly a war crime.
The UK is now openly threatening to tear up its long-standing defense partnership with the US.
The US ‘withdraws from its leadership’ of the world under Trump
Wallace told The Sunday Times that the UK was increasingly looking for alternative international allies.
“Over the last year we’ve had the US pullout from Syria, the statement by Donald Trump on Iraq where he said NATO should take over and do more in the Middle East,” Wallace said.
“The assumptions of 2010 that we were always going to be part of a US coalition is really just not where we are going to be.”
Wallace said the UK would need to reduce its dependence on US military assets.
“We are very dependent on American air cover and American intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets,” he said. “We need to diversify our assets.”
Wallace told the paper that the UK would increasingly need to turn to other allies that more closely shared the UK’s interests.
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“Regardless of what the US does … we are going to have to make decisions that allow us to stand with a range of allies, the Five Eyes [intelligence partnership with the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand] and our European allies where our interests converge,” he said.
Trump is threatening to cut intelligence ties with the UK
Wallace also said the Trump administration had threatened to cut off its intelligence-sharing partnership with the UK if Johnson’s government pursued its plan to allow the Chinese technology company Huawei a role in building Britain’s 5G network.
“They have repeatedly said that. They have been clear about that,” he told the paper.
“President Trump, the national security adviser. The defense secretary said it personally to me directly when we met at NATO. It’s not a secret. They have been consistent. Those things will be taken into account when the government collectively decides to make a decision on it.”
He added: “Friends and enemies that are independent make you choose.”
Our Brexit Insider Facebook group is the best place for up-to-date news and analysis about Britain’s departure from the EU, direct from Business Insider’s political reporters. Join here.\
The British Ambassador
Posted on July 9, 2019 by Royal Rosamond Press
Douglas Fairbanks was made a member of the Order of Saint John. The range war I have been having with Rena Easton is pure prophecy. I see into the future with the help of my muses, reluctant or not.
John
British Ambassador
“At the outset of Trump’s presidency, there was some concern about how America’s international relationships would fare during his administration. Trump’s declared willingness to shake up the United States’ position in the international order was a feature of his 2016 campaign and one that, as president, he hasn’t shied away from.
There’s no suggestion at this point that the relationship between the United States and Britain will suffer over the long term from Darroch’s comments, particularly now that Trump has apparently excised him from America’s diplomatic sphere. These sorts of indelicacies, originating from an individual, aren’t generally the stuff that foment international crises.”
A tractor is parked toward the end of seeding between Choteau and Dutton. (Photo: COURTESY PHOTO/SCOTT INBODY)
‘We feel abused’
SUNBURST, Mont. — As Lyle Benjamin fires up his tractor for seeding this spring, he’s doing it staring down what he anticipates will be a tough year for Montana farmers.
A mile and a half away from his farm, Canadian farmers are benefiting from access to overseas markets through deals that Americans have lost as “collateral damage” in the recent trade wars.
“What we’ve been asking for, what we’re trying to safeguard is what we already had,” Benjamin said. “We feel abused as other industries are asking for major concessions, and we’re collateral damage.”
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and James Bond
Posted on September 2, 2018by Royal Rosamond Press
Highly-decorated Commander Fairbanks Jr., KBE, DSC, etc, after the war – and wife, Mary Lee
It is my conclusion, that Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is the model Ian Fleming used for James Bond. I discovered this by looking at the cast of ‘The American Venus’. Douglas plays Trident, the son of Nenptune. Consider the opening of ‘On Her Majesties Secret Service’ where beautiful nude women are carrying tridents.
I suspect Ian Fleming saw the movie ‘State Secret’ and knew of Fairbank’s secret operations. Then there are those images of beautiful actresses hanging on him, the man who was considered the most handsome man in the world. A million women wanted him – at least. Fairbanks was at that bathing beauty contest starring Fey Lanphier.
Fairbanks kept his Naval history in the background. Did he know Fleming was authoring books? Did they converse? Why did no one, until now, compare James Bond to Fairbanks? I think there were agents in South America that might me compromised. Did Elizabeth Taylor know about her fellow thespian’s secret life? How about Ian Easton who headed the College of Defence Studies?
Douglas came up with the Beach Jumpers and trained as a Commando. I suspect he looked down on Hollywood after being – the real deal! He had friends in high places, and was done with Slumming For Roles.
Above is the cote of arm of Douglas Fairbanks. It depicts Britain and the U.S. being united, tied by a ribbon across the Atlantic Ocean. Above is the American Eagle carrying the Olive Branch of Peace. This is the most profound discovery in all the billions of words that have been written about James Bond. Note the symbol for Anarchy on the wall under the image of the Arch Villain. I am ordained to take over Ian Fleming and Fairbank’s work. I think a remake of ‘State Secret’ would make a great Bond movie – that never mentions the name Bond. But, with the news of my discovery, everyone will flock to behold – the real deal! No more Hollywood phonies!
Chas Cunningham is now taking down my posts on his facebook for his band. He will have no part of my discovery. He is banned – for life!
John Presco 007
Copyright 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achnacarry
After that he was made Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy) in 1969, Flag Officer for the Admiralty Interview Board in 1971 and Head of British Defence Staff and Senior Defence Attaché in Washington, D.C. in 1973.[1] He last posting was as Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1976: he commissioned armourial bearings for the College which were presented during a visit by the Queen in November 1977.[3] He retired in 1978.[1]
Douglas Fairbanks: A Brash Officer with Brash Ideas
Reassigned to the United States in late 1942, Fairbanks – as brash a junior naval officer as he was a brash onscreen hero – pitched his idea for a U.S. Navy unit specializing in tactical cover, diversion, and deception operations to Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, commander of all U.S. amphibious forces and all American naval forces in North African and Mediterranean waters.
Hewitt loved the idea and took it to the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Ernest King. In March 1943, King issued a secret order to establish a force of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for “prolonged, hazardous, distant duty for a secret project.”
Within weeks, Beach Jumper Unit 1 was stood up. The origins of the name Beach Jumper is unclear. One story maintains the moniker came from the unit’s mission to “scare the be-jesus out of the enemy,” and BJ led to the name Beach Jumpers. In a 1993 interview with the U.S. Naval Institute’s journal Proceedings, Fairbanks provided a much more mundane answer.
“It was a codename given by Mountbatten,” he said. “The idea was for it to be a cover name – partly descriptive – and a code name at the same time.”
The College of Arms in London granted Fairbanks a coat of arms symbolizing the U.S. and Britain united across the blue Atlantic Ocean by a silken knot of friendship
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Douglas_Fairbanks,_Jr..svg
Any heraldry experts care to comment on this? On the shield there is a “Red Hand”. Is that the “Red Hand of Ulster”? Or does it signify something else?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secret_(1950_film)
The American Venus is a 1926 American silent comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Esther Ralston, Ford Sterling, Lawrence Gray, Fay Lanphier, Louise Brooks, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The film was based on an original story by Townsend Martin. The scenario was written by Frederick Stowers with intertitles by Robert Benchley.[1]
It was used as a Commando Training Depot during the Second World War and the village retains close ties to British Commandos, the United States Army Rangers and similar units from other allied nations. In 1928, the Achnacarry Agreement was signed, an early attempt to set petroleum production quotas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commandos_(United_Kingdom)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Jumpers
Military.comBy Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Dashing, handsome, and connected, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had a well-established movie career in 1939. He could easily have spent the war years starring in light-hearted entertainments. Instead, he combined political activism with active-duty military service in the U.S. Navy, and was instrumental in bringing special tactical deception methods to U.S. naval operations.
Fairbanks came from Hollywood royalty and had friends in high places, including President Franklin Roosevelt, who in 1941 appointed Fairbanks as special envoy to South America, where he gathered intelligence. In the late 1930s, at the height of American isolationism, he helped Adlai Stevenson organize the William Allen White Committee that lobbied for U.S. entry into the war. Six months before Pearl Harbor, he obtained a commission in the Naval Reserve.
Fairbanks’ support of intervention was doubtless strengthened by his lifelong Anglophile sympathies. He was a great favorite of several British royals, and King George VI was to give him an honorary knighthood for “furthering Anglo-American amity.” His ties to England were knotted tight when he was assigned to an officer exchange program under British Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten. Lt. Fairbanks trained with the Royal Navy at the HMS Tormentor Advanced Training and Amphibious Operations Base and at the Commando Training School at Ancharry Castle, Scotland. He learned the art of naval deception and brought its skills and philosophy with him to his next assignment at Virginia Beach.
Under the command of Adm. Kent Hewitt, Fairbanks suggested that a unit of specialists such as those he had trained with might aid in the deployment of U.S. Naval forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean. The suave Fairbanks helped Hewitt sell the idea in Washington, and in 1943 the Beach Jumper program was begun. Although Fairbanks was not senior enough to command the unit, he was assigned to develop, supervise, and coordinate all plans with the British. The Beach Jumpers created and sustained the illusion that a military landing was happening at one beach — when in reality, that landing was taking place at a completely different location. These units had great success at Sicily, Salerno, Southern France, and the Philippines during World War II.
At the war’s end, Fairbanks was working on schemes to support the scheduled British landings at Singapore. He retired from the reserve as a captain in 1954. He wrote an enormously entertaining book about his wartime experience, “A Hell of A War.”
However, his truest feelings about his patriotic service may be best expressed in his words to a journalist in 1990. After forming the White Committee, he and his family received several death threats. “Why did I do it,” said Fairbanks. “I can only describe it with words that are considered rather corny these days: conviction, conscience, doing what I thought was right, the hell with the results.”
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. died on May 7, 2000, at the age of 90.
Although celebrated as an actor, Fairbanks was commissioned as a reserve officer in the United States Navy when the United States entered World War II and was assigned to Lord Mountbatten‘s Commando staff in the United Kingdom.[16]
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him special envoy to South America. Fairbanks served on the cruiser USS Wichita during the disastrous Convoy PQ17 operation.[17]
Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-Channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, Fairbanks attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy. Lieutenant Fairbanks was subsequently transferred to Virginia Beach where he came under the command of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, who was preparing U.S. naval forces for the invasion of North Africa.
Fairbanks convinced Hewitt of the advantages of a military deception unit, then repeated the proposal at Hewett’s behest to Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations. King thereupon issued a secret letter on March 5, 1943 charging the Vice Chief of Naval Operations with the recruitment of 180 officers and 300 enlisted men for the Beach Jumper program.
The Beach Jumpers’ mission would simulate amphibious landings with a very limited force. Operating dozens of kilometers from the actual landing beaches and utilizing their deception equipment, the Beach Jumpers would lure the enemy into believing that theirs was the principal landing.
United States Navy Beach Jumpers saw their initial action in Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. Throughout the remainder of the war, the Beach Jumpers conducted their hazardous, shallow-water operations throughout the Mediterranean.
For his planning the diversion-deception operations and his part in the amphibious assault on Southern France, Lieutenant Commander Fairbanks was awarded the United States Navy’s Legion of Merit with bronze V (for valor), the Italian War Cross for Military Valor, the French Légion d’honneur and the Croix de guerre with Palm, and the British Distinguished Service Cross.
Fairbanks was also awarded the Silver Star for valor displayed while serving on PT boats and in 1942 made an Officer the National Order of the Southern Cross, conferred by the Brazilian government.[18][19]
“A Hell of a War”: An Interview with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Naval History Magazine – October 1993 Volume 7 Number 3
The motion picture legend talked recently to the Naval Institute’s History Division Director Paul Stillwell and Naval History Editors Fred L. Schultz and Linda O’Doughda about his new book, A Hell of a War (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993). Still sporting his familiar thinly trimmed moustache and red carnation, he sat behind the desk of his Madison Avenue office immersed in a vast collection of memorabilia. Among the treasures he displayed—mostly autographed photos of Hollywood and political notables—were the helmet he wore in combat, his Navy cover and lieutenant commander’s shoulder boards, and a life ring off the battleship Washington (BB-56) inscribed “Lieut. D. Fairbanks, Jr., USNR, to a sailor good enough to be a Marine,” from then-Marine Corps Captain Donald Hittle, later Brigadier General Hittle, who is now a writer and the President of the Army-Navy Club in Washington, D.C.
In keeping with the low-key style he used so effectively in his new book—which is the sequel to his Hollywood memoir The Salad Days (New York: Doubleday, 1988)—Fairbanks recalled his experiences as a Naval Reserve officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters of World War II. As it turned out, the veteran of more than 80 movies knew of the Naval Institute, too.
Fairbanks : I still take the Proceedings , you know.
Naval History : Now, that’s the way to start an interview.
Naval History : You took great pains not to be recognized or treated specially during your naval service. How do you feel about participating in interviews and getting attention now?
Fairbanks : Frankly, being in the theatrical world, and also the governmental, diplomatic, and political worlds, I’ve been at the other end of interviews since I was a boy. So there’s really nothing novel about it. I try to make sense out of it, to give the right answers, and to be as honest as I can.
Naval History : To put things in perspective, where would you place your naval service in the overall context of your life?
Fairbanks : That’s a good question, isn’t it? It’s one I shouldn’t answer quickly. [Pauses.] I’d put it very high up, very high up indeed. But it had to be. I wasn’t a boy when I went in. In fact, I was beyond draft age. I went in 1940, when I was already 30 years old. My theatrical career was fairly flourishing at the time. But I wanted to get into the Reserves and take on Adolf Hitler. Actor Robert Montgomery and I went in at the same time and did our training together. I had a difficult time getting a commission in the first place, because I didn’t have a university education. I finally got one through a correspondence course in California. Franklin Roosevelt, Jr. went with me the day I signed on to go to sea in Boston.
Naval History : You’ve probably heard the various theories espoused about how in the world we could have been taken by such complete surprise at Pearl Harbor. At least one even implicates President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a conspiracy. What do you think about all of that?
Fairbanks : Nonsense. I don’t believe that President Roosevelt would have been involved in any conspiracy. If that were true, evidence of it surely would have come out much earlier than this. People suspect anything they don’t like or don’t want to digest. It’s libel and slander on the President to suggest a conspiracy. All sorts of things could have happened. Nearly everything is possible. The senior admirals and generals, I’m sure, considered it a possibility—but not a probability. And they likely gave it no more credence than a dozen other options.
Naval History : We realize that you had a close relationship with President Roosevelt and his family before the war. Has your opinion of him changed since then?
Fairbanks : Not at all, except that I have even more admiration for him now. I thought he was a wonderful man, and still do.
Naval History : In the book you say that, after you received an AlNav bulletin that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, you threw it in the wastebasket. Having been the first and only one on board to have seen it, what made you pull it back out?
Fairbanks : I was not certain what it meant—“Air Raid Pearl Harbor, this is no drill.” What the hell was Pearl Harbor? Where was it? And what did they mean, “This is no drill?” That part made me think it might be serious and that maybe I should tell somebody about it. I was an Atlantic sailor at the time, not a Pacific one. Nobody in the Atlantic knew much about Pearl Harbor.
Naval History : You acknowledge that you were luckier than most, especially those in the Navy. How would you rate your general relationship with your shipmates?
Fairbanks : Pretty good. I didn’t have any special advantages. I was just lucky that the things I did came off all right and that I didn’t get hurt. And I didn’t break any rules, or at least I didn’t get caught breaking any.
Naval History : So you made a specific effort not to trade on your celebrity status?
Fairbanks : Oh, absolutely, yes. That would have been stupid—suicidal. There were always some who tried to put me in my place. “We’ll teach this guy,” they’d say. When I didn’t pay them any attention, that sort of annoyed them. They got no fun out of it and eventually just gave up.
Naval History : What do you remember about your relationships with the enlisted men?
Fairbanks : I suppose it was just the same as any other junior officer—a very junior officer. I must have been a curiosity to many of them for the first few weeks. Then the curiosity just melted into the ship’s company.
Naval History : Which is exactly the way you wanted it to go.
Fairbanks : Oh, of course, that’s the way I tried to guide it. It would have been impossible to do the job otherwise.
Naval History : When would you say you turned from being a green officer into a veteran?
Fairbanks : I suppose that happened during the first engagement we had with a German U-boat on the destroyer—the Ludlow (DD-438) it was—when we crossed the Atlantic. It doesn’t take very long once you get a good scare. You get scared once, and you’re part of the team.
Naval History : You obviously had a varied Navy career, at least as far as ship types go. By our account, the only ships in which you did not serve were submarines. If you could have served in only one of those ship types, which would it have been and why?
Fairbanks : I enjoyed amphibious work best of all, because it had a little bit of everything. It had land, sea, and air, a combination that was sort of off the beaten track, not straight down the line. It was sort of special operations, and so it was more fun. It wasn’t so conventional. A battleship is too big, and a destroyer in a bad sea rolls around and rocks too much. A lot of people liked the tin cans best. But I’d take cruisers. They’re sort of in between. I enjoyed my time in the battleships—the Washington and the Mississippi —but they were so enormous.
Naval History : If you could have done anything differently in the war, what would it have been?
Fairbanks : Stayed out. No, seriously, I’ve always been interested in the diplomatic and political side. I would have liked to be in the State Department or to serve in some diplomatic capacity. I enjoyed my Navy experience, but I think I would have enjoyed doing the same sorts of things I did before the war for FDR down in South America and in Europe, particularly in England and France. I found it all very interesting. I was on a much higher level than people would have imagined from somebody like me. Nobody would have suspected that I was dealing directly with the President and the Secretary of State. So it was all very interesting and fascinating from my point of view.
Naval History : What impressions do you retain of [Allied Combined Forces Commander] Admiral [H. Kent] Hewitt pictured there on your wall?
Fairbanks : Very fond ones, very fond. He was a gentle, nice man. When Admiral [Ernest] King gave him hell in front of the lot of us, the old man almost wept with embarrassment and humiliation. We hated Admiral King for doing that to him, because we had such affection and respect for Admiral Hewitt.
Naval History : You described the frustration you felt in the beach jumpers when you had a skipper who was not very knowledgeable or supportive. Did that situation improve once he was replaced?
Fairbanks : The man was a madman. He was absolutely impossible. He tried to conspire with me, saying, “You must get more recognition. You must arrange to have somebody killed on the next operation. We haven’t had enough casualties yet.” That’s when I got around to reporting it. I was on friendly terms with some senior officers. I didn’t want to go through proper channels. This was too dangerous. He was widely disliked, widely hated, widely feared, and finally sent out to the Pacific.
Naval History : How did the term “beach jumper” come about?
Fairbanks : It was a code name given by Mountbatten, I think. We had training up in Inverary, Scotland. The idea was for it to be a cover name—partly descriptive—and a code name at the same time.
Naval History : Do you feel that the beach jumpers really fulfilled their potential?
Fairbanks : I thought we could have done even more. Today, this type of operation is an integral part of the force.
Naval History : In the book, why did you spotlight operations in the south of France over Normandy, which usually gets most of the attention?
Fairbanks : They didn’t do too much of my sort of fighting at Normandy. At Normandy we were experimenting with new things, like the Dieppe operation. Normandy was pretty much all power, not much deception. And we were later involved in strategic planning. It was called London Control—just a cover name. That was an interesting group. They had supervision over that sort of operation all around the world.
Naval History : From the looks of your walls, it’s almost as if people were standing in line to give you medals.
Fairbanks : A lot of them don’t mean a thing. They’re just routine. Two or three of them mean something, and I received them gratefully. The others are all just automatic.
Naval History : Well, six campaign stars on your Middle East/European/African medal is impressive indeed.
Fairbanks : We’re going to a dinner tomorrow night at an ambassador’s house. On the invitation it says that decorations will be worn. I don’t know where all mine are at the moment. My wife thinks she knows.
Naval History : Some of the action summaries that you wrote during the war and then quoted in the book certainly display a flair for writing. Do you enjoy writing?
Fairbanks : Yes. I probably should have done more. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I still do. That is the art I most respect.
Naval History : What type of writing do you prefer—newspapers? Or novels? Or what you’re doing now?
Fairbanks : Different kinds. I wrote articles and poetry when I was 16 and 17. Two poems of mine were published in Vanity Fair , and I had some short stories printed in Esquire . I’ve been scribbling a long time. I didn’t win any prizes, but I did get published.
Naval History : What are you working on now? Is it a follow-on to A Hell of a War ?
Fairbanks : Oh, yes. I’m not working very hard on it, though. There’s no rush.
Naval History : Are you going to bring us up to the present in your next book?
Fairbanks : I won’t really know until it happens. I’ll see what the publisher wants. You might say I just scribble for the sake of the family now.
Naval History : How much did you rely on memory, how much on notes, and how much on research?
Fairbanks : It’s a little mélange of everything. I found some diaries and notes, and letters to the family.
Naval History : The research is the fun part, and the writing is the hard part.
Fairbanks : You’re absolutely right. It is fun to get it all assembled. Then you find one bit of research that upsets everything else before it, and it contradicts what you’ve already concluded.
Naval History : As historians, we wish everyone had as keen a sense of history as you obviously do. What does history mean to you? How important is it?
Fairbanks : I’ve always enjoyed it—the stories, the excitement, how things developed, the origin of everything. I’m not only fascinated with natural history—the sun and the stars—but also political history, language, and culture. I’ve been interested in how things began ever since I was a boy.
Naval History : Today’s history teachers try to instill this interest in young people, but it’s become more and more challenging.
Fairbanks : My children aren’t in the least interested in history, so I understand the situation.
Naval History : In your opinion, how has World War II been depicted in films? How would you rate it?
Fairbanks : Do you know, I haven’t seen very many of them. I’m trying to think of one. The Longest Day is one. I remember seeing the play, The Caine Mutiny , but I didn’t see the movie. In Which We Serve , with Noel Coward, I thought was great. That was all about Mountbatten, of course.
Naval History : What we are driving at here is that one of the big criticisms of movies, at least these days—and you must have heard it before—is that historical accuracy often suffers in favor of romanticism.
Fairbanks : Sure! And why shouldn’t it? Films and theatrical productions are not meant to be documentaries. Shakespeare wrote a lot of history, but I doubt if much of it was historically accurate. He made Richard III a famous hunchback villain. But there’s no evidence at all in any history showing that Richard III was deformed, that his right shoulder was higher than the left. Somebody else wrote that his left shoulder was higher than his right. This was the only contemporary mention that Richard III was crippled at all. Yet Shakespeare made Richard III famous as a hunchback villain.
Naval History : Do you have any stories or anecdotes that you’d like to share with our readers but didn’t include in the book?
Fairbanks : I doubt it. Nothing that I could say out loud, anyway.
Fairbanks’s War
1937
- Assigned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles to official and semi-official government duties with various public, foreign, philanthropic, and educational organizations.
1939
- Helped organize the William Allen White Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and served as National Co-Vice President with Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Helped organize Franco-British War Relief, Inc. (later, British War Relief).
- Headed and financed Douglas Voluntary Hospitals in the United Kingdom, later absorbed by St. John’s Ambulance Brigade and the British Red Cross.
1940
- Committee member of The Fight for Freedom Committee
1941
- Commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade), U.S. Naval Reserve.
- Appointed by President Roosevelt as presidential envoy to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Panama.
- Assigned temporary duty in the Office of Naval Intelligence, Navy Department, Washington, D.C.
- Ordered to USS Ludlow , serving as assistant gunnery officer, assistant communication officer, and watch officer in the destroyer, which was part of a convoy escort in the North Atlantic. Saw first action against German U-boats in November.
- Transferred as assistant gunnery and watch officer to USS Mississippi , flagship of U.S. Task Force 99, U.S. Atlantic Fleet (attached to British Home Fleet) based in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Scapa Flow, Scotland.
1942
- January, served in Office of Naval Intelligence, at headquarters of Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet, U.S. Navy Department, Washington, D.C.
- February, served as executive officer with minesweeper patrol in U.S. Atlantic coastal waters.
- March, assigned to staff of Commander, U.S. Task Force 99 in the battleship Washington as flag lieutenant and aide to the task force commander.
- June, assigned temporary duty as assistant gunnery officer and “staff observer” on board the USS Wasp on convoys from Scapa Flow and Glasgow to Malta.
- July, assigned same duties on board the heavy cruiser USS Wichita as part of close covering escort of Convoy PQ-17, from Scapa Flow, via the Arctic Ocean, to Murmansk, U.S.S.R.
- End of July through September, assigned to Rear Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten’s Combined Operations Commando Headquarters, London. Participated in planning section, special weapons and camouflage sections, and attended the Commando Training Centre, Inverary, Scotland. Later assigned by Mountbatten to command a flotilla of amphibious raiding craft (only U.S. officer assigned), with bases in Warsash, and Isle of Wight. Operated with Royal Marine Commandos in raids across the English Channel.
Late 1942 to 1944
- Assigned various special operational and staff duties, including planning staff for Special Operations Commander, Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Northwest African Waters. Served as Chief Staff Officer for Special Operations Task Group 80.4 (the “Beach Jumpers”) in the Mediterranean.
- After invasion of France in 1944, transferred to Strategic Plans Division and later to Post War Plans Division, Officer of the Chief of Naval Operations, and Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet, Washington, D.C., serving as liaison between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department. Returned to inactive duty, February 1946.
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