The Mathews Men

(Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-Boats) By; William Geroux A friend advised me of this book which covers the war from the perspective of Mariners. A chronicle that up to now has never been documented as Mr. Geroux has so thoroughly written. Mathews is a County of the coast of N. Carolina that has had a tradition of producing sailors since the 1700’s. It was astonishing to me that one location could have had so many important sailors during WWII. I never realized how successful the U-Boats were particularly during the first six months of 1942. As a nation we were not ready to conduct war on an equal basis until we had time to train men and produce equipment to fight. This was particularly true with respect to protecting merchant ships. The ships sailed alone and were sitting ducks. The citizens resisted turning down lights. The U-Boats had no trouble seeing the outlines in the night. There was no air cover or naval escorts. The ships were not provided weapons to fight back. It wasn’t until the middle of 1942 that coastal convoys were created with air and naval protection. The progress of the War is outlined. Of particular interest were the convoys to Murmansk which received great losses. A man could not survive more than a few minutes in the bitter cold water and the convoy couldn’t stop to try to save them as they would only add to the losses if they stopped. As we follow the different men we learn that many returned again and again after surviving a torpedo attack. Some eventually paid the ultimate price by doing so. We learn of the families of these men and how they persevered. If you are interested in WWII history you might learn from reading this one. Jack B. Walters June 8, 2018

Letter in response to an article

Mr. Tim Steller, June 17, 2018 I am responding to your article published today in the Arizona Daily Star entitled “Recent Immigrants no threat to American identity”. I always read your articles and usually agree but not this one for several reasons. Representative David Stringer does not speak for those of us who voted for Trump. You assert that Trump was elected because those of us who voted for him are racist. That may be true for some, but the ones I know who voted for him including myself did so out of disgust for a Congress,(both parties) who have been bought and sold, a Congress that ignores the welfare of the average citizen and always does the bidding of the lobbyists who shower them with money and write legislation to benefit themselves. I hope you took the time to watch 60 Minutes this evening when the opioid epidemic was featured and where the Food and Drug investigators were made toothless The Legislation was passed without a negative vote from anyone in the House or the Senate. It was signed into law by Obama, the Obama that was and still is adored by most members of the Press. Illegal immigration is totally out of control. Congress even with Trump is not willing to pass legislation. As a result there is chaos at the border. No fence will ever stop this when all they have to do is assert they need shelter and they are admitted. The separation of families is to create the tumult of indignation such as expressed in your article. How can any country function if the borders are wide open and hordes of humanity cross over? As to people of the Muslim faith, no one should care what anyone believes. It is not as simple as that. The radical believers have been creating problems all over the world and they seem to be in control. It will not be long before it grows in magnitude. This religion when in dominance lords it over all others. Don’t take my word for it just read your history books. I have read many. I am not willing to let them dictate who or what the rest of us want to believe. Trump is doing all he can while all it seems are determined to keep him from draining the swamp as we want him to accomplish. Jack B, Walters .

Arizona Star anti-Trump bias continues

The Wall Street Journal headline page this morning was devoted to the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. The Star also made it a headline article. The difference was that the Star decided to give equal space to an article about lawyers claiming Trump in violation of the Constitution. Not content with this you also printed a large article by Trump hater, Robert Reich on the top of the Editorial page. You print many of his. I don’t know why since they all say the same thing. Also five of the eight letters to the editor were anti Trump. Does anyone but me recognize the blatant ongoing attack by this paper on Trump? For the eight years of Obama nothing but kind words. The list of bad decisions of his is too long to recount but anyone critical was labeled racist. How tragic. None of us know if this effort to solve the problem of N. Korea will be successful but Trump should be given credit for trying. Jack B. Walters June 12, 2018