Jack Kemp

On Pajamas Media Television, Alonzo Rachel, shows video of Obama making fun of Scott Brown and his truck, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jepAO74hP5I with the obvious implication that driving a truck is an appeal to hicks and rubes. I have been informed that since PJTV is a paid site, I should not directly link to Alonzo Rachel's story, but the title of the piece is “Truckin' 2010: Has Obama Set Democrats Up For a Long, Strange Trip?”

It turns out that Alonzo Rachel's grandfather was one of the many Black truck drivers of General Patton's fast moving supply truck fleet in World War II, the Red Ball Express, which contributed greatly to Patton's ability to strike and advance with speed. Here is what Publishers’ Weekly had to say about “The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II’s Red Ball Express” by David P. Colley:

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Victory-Untold-Story-Express/dp/1574881736/ref=pd_sim_b_2

After the Normandy invasion, the Red Ball Express--a U.S. Army trucking operation that lasted 81 days--transported critical ammunition, rations, gasoline and other supplies to American troops as they pushed on toward Germany. Three-fourths of the Red Ball drivers were African-Americans who faced continual prejudice and hostility from white soldiers. In this stirring chronicle--an important contribution to WWII history--former Baltimore Evening Sun reporter Colley tells the full story of the Red Ball Express for the first time. Drawing from interviews, army documents and oral histories, Colley leaves no doubt that the heroic efforts of the Red Ball drivers, who braved strafing by Luftwaffe planes, German artillery and friendly fire, contributed significantly to the defeat of the Nazis in France--and he shatters the myth that the Germans were the masters of mechanized warfare. (While the German Army was supplied by horse and wagon, the American army's secret weapon in the ground war-- simple, rugged trucks nicknamed "Jimmies"--made it the world's most flexible and mechanized force.) Colley transforms what might have been a dry tale of military logistics into a rousing, perceptive reappraisal of the Allied invasion of northern Europe. Although the Red Ball's exploits--the subject of a 1952 movie starring Sidney Poitier--are legendary, former Platoon Sergeant John Houston (father of singer/actress Whitney Houston) sums it up: "We never got enough credit for what we did.... The Army would never have won without us."

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And it appears that no truck driver who distributes goods or works in America will ever get enough credit from the Obama administration for what they do in America today either. But people with deeper roots in this country will have to remind the elitists in Washington – at both the voting booth, on the web and the Redball Express section of the US Army Transport Museum Newport News, Virginia. http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/redballintro.htm  Since Barack Obama is so fond of traveling, perhaps he can make the trip to the Museum. If not, he can read these personal stories online at  http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/personalstoriesredball.htm

There was a time when intellectual leftists lionized truck driving Okies in John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Steinbeck also drove a truck himself with a camper http://travelswithcharley.net/ when he made his last trip across America in 1961, knowing he was dying. The trip detailed in the book “Travels with Charley.”

If you drive cross country overnight on roads like the Pennsylvania Turnpike, you can see a fleet of trucks making their way to markets. They will signal you back if you blink your headlights to them, keeping both you and them awake and aware of road conditions.

The chances are good that you won’t see any Presidential limos on the highway in “flyover country” these days – just real people. And at least one truck owner (not myself) I know who also writes for the Birdnow website.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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