5-24-25 The Weekend Hour 1: The History Of Memorial Day

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The night. Michael Brown joins me here, the former FEMA
director talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, no, Brownie, You're
doing a heck of a job the Weekend with Michael Brown. Hey, everybody,
welcome to the Weekend with Michael Brown. Glad to have
you with me. I appreciate everybody tuning in. It is
Memorial Day weekend. I'm always I'm always reluctant to say
Happy Memorial Day because Memorial Day weekend is actually such

(00:23):
a really somber kind of weekend. But so I'll just
say it's Memorial Day weekend. Uh So here's what I'd
like to do. First, Let's get the rules of engagement
out of the way, because they apply even though it's
Memorial Day weekend. You can always text the word Mike
or Michael to three three one zero three. I read
the text messages twenty four hours a day, seven days

(00:43):
a week. So regardless of when you're listening to the program,
whether you're listening on a podcast, your affiliate carries the
program on a different day, different hour, you can always
send me your comments, questions, ask Michael anything by texting
the word Mike or Michael. Do three three one zero three.
And of course, if you'd like to follow me on
social media, you would like to find the podcast, find it,

(01:06):
find an affiliate, find out which affiliate carries the program,
and what time. Simple website to go to one stop shop,
Michael says, go here dot com. Michael says, go here
dot com. So it is Memorial Day weekend, and so
I do want to take some time out to do
a couple of things during today's program. One, let's talk
about what Memorial Day is and what it means. And

(01:28):
let's also talk about what Memorial Day is not, because
I think a lot of times people get confused Memorial Day,
Veterans Day, Armed Services Day. We have these different days
which memorialize, in which commemorate certain aspects of the foundational
principles of this country. Even the fourth of July is
one of those days. But Memorial Day is a special day.

(01:53):
And I know, in fact, I'm tempted at some time
during the program today I may actually go through and
talk about some of the great things that are on sale.
Because Memorial Day is typically thought about in terms of
two things which drive me nuts. Number one is, oh,
it's the start of the summer. It's the start of summer. No,
it really doesn't. That doesn't occur until June and then

(02:15):
two the Memorial Day sales. I know that as you
go about your Memorial Day weekend, you'll see commercials on television,
You'll hear commercials on radio about oh, this is the
weekend to buy this, this is the weekend to buy that.
Well not really, So I want to take the next
few hours and really focus on what's Memorial Day all about.

(02:41):
You know, the United States has fought twelve major wars
and of course a lot of smaller skirmishes throughout the
history of this entire country. Memorial Day is the day
and is how we honor the soldiers, the sailors, the airmen,
the air women, the marines, those that did not come

(03:04):
back from those wars, in those skirmishes. Memorial Day dates
back to the months immediately following the Civil War, when
a few towns in both the North and the South,
and some of the major cities began actually honoring their dead.

(03:26):
In eighteen sixty eight, for example, General John A. Logan,
at the time the head of an organization for Union
veterans and later who became a US Senator from Illinois
and actually as a footnote. If you've ever been to Washington,
d C. You may have been to Logan's Circle in Washington, DC.
Logan Circle was actually named for General Logan. He called

(03:48):
for May thirtieth to be designated as Decoration Day. He
said the purpose would be for stewing the memory of
those who diedduring the Civil War. So what is memorial
the Civil War? Which it ended in the spring of

(04:09):
eighteen sixty five. The Civil War claimed more lives than
any conflict in American history, and it really did require
the establishment of the country's first national cemetery. Here in
Colorado we have Fort Logan. The most famous of all
probably is Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington, d C.

(04:32):
Across the Potomac in Virginia. At the top of Arlington
National Cemetery is Lee's General Lee's mansion during the Civil War.
But they're also the national cemeteries, for example, the Normandy
Cemetery from World War Two. Do you ever have the

(04:52):
chance to go to Normandy, see the beaches, see the cemetery.
It's an amazing place to visit. The If you ever
had the opportunity to go to Washington and visit, for example,
the Korean War Memorial, the World War II Memoire, the
Vietnam Memoire, every single one of those memorials. In fact,

(05:13):
I'll tell you a story about my dad. It's the
Korean Memorial later in the program. But because of the
Civil War, and because of the hundreds of thousands of
Americans that died during that war, we had the establishment
of the country's first national cemetery. So by the late
eighteen sixties, Americans in various towns and cities had begun

(05:37):
holding springtime tributes to all the fallen soldiers, and they
started decorating degrads with flowers, and they would recite prayers. Now,
it's not clear in my research, it's really not clear
where that tradition originated, but a different communities, different cities,

(05:58):
different towns probably independently initiated their own memorial gatherings. This
is one of those situations where something begins to happen organically,
and it happens in different places around the country, and
only does it reach a tipping point where suddenly everyone

(06:20):
begins to recognize, oh, we all seem to kind of
be doing the same thing on the same day, and
sort of doing all the same things on the same day. Now,
some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day
commemorations was actually organized by a group of former slaves
in Charleston, South Carolina, less than a month after the

(06:43):
Confederacy Confederacy surrendered in eighteen sixty five. I think this
is so important to note because often overlooked in the
Civil War are the role that black Americans play during
the Civil War. And probably the earliest Memorial Day commemoration

(07:04):
was actually organized by those formerly enslaved human beings, and
of all places, in Charleston, South Carolina. And the timing
for me is fascinating because it was less than a
month after generally surrendered in eighteen sixty five. But it
wasn't until nineteen sixty six that the federal government declared Waterloo,

(07:28):
New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Days. Now, I
could go down a rabbit hole here and say, well,
wait a minute. We fought the Civil War in part,
in a large part over slavery, So why don't we
determine and why didn't the federal government determine that the
birthplace of Memorial Day was Charleston, South Carolina, Because what

(07:52):
better way, what better place to commemorate Memorial Day than
in a place where slaves who fought along with white
America first started honoring their dead. But no, for whatever reason,

(08:13):
the federal government in nineteen sixty six decided that it's
going to be Waterloo, New York. Waterloo, which first celebrated
the day on May five, eighteen sixty six, was chosen because, well,
they had an annual community wide event. Sounds kind of trite,
doesn't it. So you compare and contrast for a moment

(08:33):
that in Charleston, South Carolina, less than a month after
the end of the Civil War, Black Americans are commemorating
their honor dead in Charleston, South Carolina, in the heart
of the Confederacy. But oh no, we can't do that.
We have to declare that Waterloo, New York because they
first celebrated on May five, eighteen sixty six, actually almost

(08:59):
a year later than black Americans were doing the same
thing in Charleston, South Carolina. But it was chosen because, hey,
they had an annual community wide event. Businesses closed down,
residents decorate the graves of soldier with flowers and flag.
Now footnote do you know that every single Memorial Day

(09:23):
there is a national moment of remembrance that takes place
at precisely three pm local time. So I don't know
what time you're listening to this program, but whatever time
you're listening to the program, on Memorial Day, which is
technically Monday, at three o'clock of a favorite day, would

(09:45):
you just stop for just that one moment at three o'clock.
Maybe you have an uncle, your father, a grandfather, maybe
you've studied someone in history. Maybe it's someone that is
only known to you. But stop at three o'clock on Monday,

(10:09):
Memorial Day and just take I don't care five seconds,
thirty seconds, five minutes, doesn't take. It's like saying saying
a silent prayer. Just take that one moment and remember
that one individual. Then I have another favorite ask at

(10:30):
the same moment that you remember that one individual that
was important in your life, think about all those people
that you don't know in all of those wars, beginning
in the Revolutionary War, all the way through Iraq and
Afghanistan and all the wars in between. Stop and just

(10:50):
think about those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice some
of the most Americans aren't willing to do, and stop
and remember them. That's your first assignment. So let's go
back to the history of Memorial Day. Let's go back
to General John Logan on May five, eighteen sixty eight.

(11:12):
As I said earlier, General Logan, who was this leader
of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, he actually
put a call out for a nationwide day of remembrance
later in that month. Later in May, he says, quote,
the thirtieth of May eighteen sixty eight should be designated
for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating

(11:36):
the graves of comrades who died in defense of their
country during the Late Rebellion, and whose bodies now lie
in almost every city, every village, and every hamlet churchyard
in the land. As he called it that day decoration day.
And it was chosen because it wasn't the anniversary of

(11:58):
any particular battle, or any particular war, or any significant
day in any particular war. He was chosen because it
was none of those. It was. And on the first
decoration Day, General James Garfield, who later became President, gave

(12:19):
a speech at Arlington National Cemetery. Five thousand participants decorated
the graves of twenty thousand Civil War soldiers to this
day still buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Now, a lot
of the Northern States they had similar commmoritaty events, and
they reprised the tradition in subsequent years. So by eighteen ninety,

(12:43):
every one of those places had made Decoration Day an
official state holiday. Now the Southern States, on the other hand,
continued to honor the dead on separate days until after
World War One. So there's a brief history of Decoration Day.
But that's not Memorial Day. So how did we get

(13:04):
to Memorial Day. Here's a history Memorial Day coming up next.
Remember you can text the word Michael Michael to three
three one zero three. You can always go to the website,
Michael says, go here dot com. It's Memorial Day weekend,
and we're understanding and talking about the significance of this

(13:24):
coming Monday. I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to
the weekend with Michael Brown. Indeed, it is Memorial Day weekend,
and this weekend we're doing a history and I hope
some thoughtful things about Memorial Day weekend. It's an important

(13:46):
weekend for me because I have my maternal grandfather was
a World War One veteran and he has. In fact,
I want this from my mother. I've told my mother
of all the things. You know, parents do this, you
know when I die, What do you want? Mom? I
really don't want anything except this picture of your dad,

(14:10):
my grandfather with his platoon battalion. I'm not sure what
it was, but a group of him and his fellow
soldiers in this long Sepia colored photograph that is about
almost two feet long and only about I would say
eight inches high, and I say it's Sepia colored, but

(14:32):
it's all of these dough boys from World War One,
and I can picture my grand I can see my
grandfather in the picture. He had a very distinctive face,
and so I can picture him. There's about three rows
of them, and he's on the front row, toward the
far left side. And I want that photograph when my

(14:52):
mom passes away because it's so meaningful to me. The
stories that my grandfather would tell me about World War
One not a lot, but you can tell me a
little bit. And he was a staunch anti communist, and
he was a staunch believer in, you know, the American dream.
So that that photo and his stories make Memorial Day

(15:16):
important to me just as my father does, my father
who served in the Korean War. So let's talk about
Memorial Day. We talked in the in the last segment
a little bit about Decoration Day, but graduation graduation Decoration
Day gradually became known as Memorial Day, and it originally

(15:38):
honored only those that were lost fighting during the Civil War.
But then it comes along World War One and the
United States found itself embroiled in another huge, major conflict,
and so Decoration Day, that holiday evolved to commemorate American

(15:59):
military personnel who died in all of our wars, including
World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, for decades, Memorial Day
continued to be observed on May thirtieth. That was the
date that, remember General Logan we talked about in the
last segment, that was the date that he had selected

(16:19):
for the first Decoration Day. But then we get to
eighth or I'm sorry to nineteen sixty eight, And in
nineteen sixty eight, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act
that established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May.
Because the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was created so we
had we would always have these three day weekends for

(16:40):
federal employees. Did you ever know that? That's why, except
for maybe the fourth of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving, that's why
all these other federal holidays are always on a Monday,
so that federal government employees can have them Monday off.
Megan have a three day weekend, Well, I don't care,

(17:00):
as long as we do focus on Memorial Day itself,
that last Monday of the month, for what it's real purpose,
and that is to observe and to honor everyone who
died in all of these wars. The change went into effect.

(17:21):
These three day weekends went into effect in nineteen seventy one,
and the same law that Uniform Monday Holiday Act declared
Memorial Day a federal holiday. So we have a lot
of Memorial Day traditions and ritual What are some of
these Memorial Day traditions and rituals. Well, let's talk about though.

(17:43):
You're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown. Text the
word Michael Michael to three three one zero three. I'd
be curious what you do on Memorial Day. Let me
know what a text message. Text the word Michael Michael
three three one zero three. Hang tight, Let's talk about
some of these traditions and rituals coming up next. I'll
be right back tonight. Michael Brown joins me here, the

(18:08):
former FEMA director of talk show host Michael Brown. Brownie, no, Brownie,
You're doing a heck of a job the Weekend with
Michael Brown. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Glad to have you with me. It is Memorial Day weekend,
and we're spending this weekend's program talking about Memorial Day.
And do you give you a little kind of roadmap
of where we're going. Talked a little bit about the

(18:28):
history of Memorial Day and how it became Memorial Day,
and then I want to tell you some stories, including
some personal stories about Memorial Day. But there are all
sorts of traditions and rituals surrounding Memorial Day. Different cities
and towns may be true in your community. They host
Memorial Day parades every year, and those parades often incorporate

(18:49):
military personnel, members of veterans organizations. Some of the largest
parades take place in Chicago, New York, d C. But
also a lot of Americans observe Memorial Day by simply
visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy
in remembrance of those fallen in war. That's a tradition

(19:11):
that began with a World War One poem. I can
remember growing up as a child, my grandparents had a
dry cleaning business, my paternal grandparents that a grut dry
cleaning business, and they always had at the counter they
would sell these paper poppies. And I never really understood
as a child what those poppies were, but I just

(19:33):
knew that you could you could take out a poppy,
and I forget whether it was a quarter or a nickel,
but there was a slot where you would take the
poppy out and then you could put your quarter in.
And I can remember, you know, my grandparents running the
dry cleaning place, and I would be standing there, you know,
probably causing trouble, and I would watch their customers come in,

(19:54):
pick up their dry cleaning, pick up their laundry. And
during the month of May they would have that little
packard out the local veterans organization would put out and
people would buy the poppies. I never really understood it.
I never really understood it until I started all these
years I mean, we're talking about decades ago, and I

(20:14):
started looking into why did we do this? Well, here's why.
From nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen, World War One took
a greater human toll than any previous war in American history,
some eight and a half million soldiers dead of battlefield

(20:36):
injuries and disease. We often forget about disease. It wasn't
just injuries, but disease also. The Great War, that's how
my grandfather referred to and that's how it's kind generally known.
It actually just ravaged the landscape of Western Europe, where
most of the fiercest fighting took place. From the devastated

(20:56):
landscape of the battlefield, the red poppy would grow oh
and thanks to a famous poem, became a powerful symbol
of remembrance all across northern France and Flanders northern Belgium.
The brutal clashes between the Allied and the Central Power
soldiers just tore up the fields, tore down the fourth

(21:19):
tearing up trees and plants and wreaking having on the soil.
But in the warm early spring of nineteen fifteen, literally
bright red flowers started peeking through the battle scarred lamb.
I may be mispronouncing this, but the scientific term p.

(21:40):
Paver rahis known variously as the Flanders poppy or corn poppy,
red poppy corn Roads. Chris McNabb is, the author of
the book The Book of the Poppy, wrote in an
excerpt published in The Independent, that the brilliantly colored flower
actually classified as a weed, which makes you know, kind

(22:03):
of sense, giving its tenacious nature. But Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae,
a Canadian who served as a brigade surgeon for an
Allied Army unit, he spotted a cluster of poppies that
spring shortly after the Second Battle of I think his
house pronounced. McCrae tended to the wounded, and in doing

(22:29):
so he got a first hand look at the carnage
of that battle, in which the Germans unleashed lethal chlorine
gas for the first time in war. So we often
think that chemical warfare is something that you know, we
haven't seen, maybe since napalm and the Vietnam War. No,
go back to the First World War. The Germans unleashed

(22:54):
lethal chlorine gas on soldiers some eighty seven thousand think
about that, some eighty seven thousand Allied soldiers were killed, wounded,
or went missing in that battle well, also thirty seven
thousand on the German side. So a friend of McCrae's,

(23:15):
lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was among the dead. So McCrae, struck
by the side of the red ballooms on the broken ground,
he wrote a poem. You've probably heard that. You've heard
the poem before. I've heard the name of the poem
in flanders Field. In that poem he channeled the voice

(23:36):
of the fallen soldiers that were buried under those hardy
weeds poppies. He was published for the first time in
nineteen fifteen in a magazine called Punch. The poem would
then be used at Cauntless memorial ceremonies and became one
of the most famous works of art to emerge from
the Great War. The fame of the poem spread far

(24:00):
and wide by the time that McCrae himself had died.
He died from pneumonia meningitis in January of nineteen eighty
So go back across the Atlantic. A woman named Monia
Michael read the poem in flanders Field in the pages
of Ladies Home Journal that November, just two days before

(24:22):
the armistice. Then a professor at the University of Georgia
at the time that the war broke out, Michael had
taken a leave of absence to volunteer at the New
York headquarters of the Young Women's Christian Association, the hy WCA. HYCA,
at the time, trained and sponsored workers overseas. Inspired by

(24:42):
those verses, Michael wrote her own poem in response, which
she called we shall Keep the Faith as a sign
of that faith and a remembrance the sacrifice of flanders Field.
Michael vowed to always wear a red poppy, so she
found an initial batch of fabric blooms for herself and

(25:05):
her colleagues at a department store. After the war ended,
she returned to the university town of Athens, when she
came up with the idea of making and selling these
red silk poppies to raise money to support the returning veterans.
Her campaign this one single woman's campaign to create a
national symbol for remembrance, a poppy in the colors of

(25:25):
the Allied nation's flags, entwined around a victory torch. Yeah,
he didn't get very full. By mid nineteen twenty, she
managed to get Georgia's branch of the American Legion, a
veterans group, to adopt the poppy minus the torch as

(25:46):
its symbol. That was the tipping point because soon after
that the National American Legion they voted to use the
poppy as the official US national emblem of remembrance when
those Americans Legion members convened in Cleveland in September of
nineteen twenty. Now on the opposite side of the Atlantic,

(26:09):
it's fascinating to me how these things work together. On
the opposite side of the Atlantic, a French woman named
Anna Gary. She had championed the symbolic power of the
red poppy from the very beginning, so she gets invited
to the American Legion convention to speak about her idea
for an inter Allied Puppy Day. Madame Gherien helped convince

(26:32):
the Legion members to adopt the poppy as their symbol
and to join her celebrating National Poppy Day in the
United States. Yes, when the following may. Now Back in France,
ye're in organized French women, children, veterans to make and
sell these artificial poppies as a way to fund the

(26:54):
restoration of war torn France. In a website run by
Heather Johnson which is devoted to Madame Ghern's work, the
French woman may have been the single most significant figure
in spreading the symbol of the remembrance poppy through the British,

(27:14):
Commonwealth countries and other Allied nations. One single woman. You,
every time I think about this story took one woman. Now,
granted there was something going on in the United States too,
but over in France, Madame Gharen, she single handedly is
responsible for those poppies that I ended up seeing on

(27:37):
the counter of my grandparents bry cleaning. Within one year
she had taken her campaign to England and in November
of nineteen twenty one, the newly founded Royal British Legion
held its first ever poppy appeal. And the purpose of
the poppy appeal was to try to sell millions of

(27:57):
these subflowers, which they did and they raised over one
hundred and six thousand pounds, which at the time was
a pretty large amount, and all of that money was
to go towards finding employment and housing for the World
War One veterans in the United Kingdom. Now go forward

(28:18):
a year, Major George Howson set up the poppy Factory
in Richmond, England, in which disabled servicemen were employed to
make the fabric in paper bloom. Then it takes off.
Other nations started doing the same thing. They started adopting

(28:39):
the poppy as their official symbol of rememberance. Now today,
century after World War One, more than a century, millions
of people in the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, Australia
and New Zealand they donned those red flowers every November eleven,

(29:00):
which was known as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, to
commemorate the anniversary of the nineteen eighteen Armistice. According to
the website, the Poppy Factory, which is still located in Richmond,
England and in Edinburgh, Scotland, is still a center of
poppy production. You how many poppies they turn out every year?

(29:21):
Forty five million poppies made of different kinds of materials
every single year. So that's on the other side of
the Atlanta. But what about on this side of the
Atlanta here in the United States? How did those poppies
actually get onto my grandparents dry cleaning store on the counter. Well,

(29:42):
our tradition developed a little differently. We don't typically wear
poppies on November eleventh, which we call Veterans Day. Veterans Day,
again different from Memorial Day. Veterans Day honors all living veterans.
And this is this is a difference that most Americans,
I shouldn't say most Americans, many Americans fail to recommend it.

(30:06):
Veterans Day November eleven is to honor all veterans. Anyone
who has ever served in the United States military in
any form, any fashion, any position, we honor them on
November eleven. Instead, in this country, we wear that symbolic
little red flower, the poppy on Memorial Day, the last

(30:28):
Monday in May. And we do that to commemorate the
sacrifice of all the men and women who have given
their lives fighting for the country. But what about the poem?
Does the poem really mean anything? I'm not very good
at poems, but I want you to hear it. In Fandersfields,
the poppies blow between the crosses row and row that

(30:52):
mark our place, and in the sky the larks still
bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the guns below. We
are the dead. Short days ago we live, felt dawn,
saw sunset, glow, loved, and were loved, and now we
lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe.

(31:18):
To you from falling hands, we throw the torch be
yours to hold it high. If you break faith with
us who die, we shall not sleep though poppies grow
in Flanders field. It's an amazing little poem, only three paragraphs.
We live, felt, dawn, saw sunset glow. We were loved,

(31:43):
we love, and now we lie in Flanders fields. To
you from failing hands, we throw the torch be yours
to hold it high. If you break faith with us
who die, we shall not sleep though poppies grow in
Flanders field. It's an amazing little poem, but it personifies

(32:04):
it kind of exemplifies the horror of those battle fields
on the Western Front. It was an a war of attrition.
It was a war that was fought literally just row
upon row. We're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown.
It's Memorial Day weekend and we're thinking about Memorial Day Weekend,

(32:28):
the history, the traditions and what it means to different people.
I have stories to tell. Text the word Mike to
three three one zero three. Be sure you go to
the website. Michael says, go here dot com Memorial Day Weekend.
I'll be right back. Welcome back everyone to the weekend

(32:50):
with Michael Brown. Glad to have you with me. It's
a Memorial Day weekend, and so this program for this weekend,
we're talking about Memorial Day. And I want to conclude
this out by reminding everybody about briefly the history. Memorial
Day really started in Charleston, South Carolina, when former slaves

(33:14):
who fought along white American soldiers decided that they needed
and wanted, desperately wanted to honor those among them who
had died fighting during the Civil War. You fast forward
to today we now celebrate Memorial Day, where we recognize

(33:34):
commemorate Memorial Day as a way to honor those who
died in all of our wars. And so in honor
Memorial Day, I want to tell a few stories, some personal,
some that I found online, but all stories of people that,
in one way or another were kind of personified everything

(33:57):
great about people who serve in the military and make
the ultimate sacrifice they give their lives. The first story
I want to tell you about is a Medal of
Honour with the Medal of Honor of the nation's highest
award for bravery for people that make the ultimate sacrifice.
This is about Lieutenant Junior grade Wheedon Edward Osborne born

(34:20):
in Chicago, November thirteen, eighteen ninety two. He grew up
in an Orphany. He graduated dental school in nineteen fifteen.
Enlisted in the Navy as a dental surgeon in nineteen seventeen,
just shortly after the US entered World War One. So
when he joined the army, Osborne was attached to the

(34:42):
sixth Marine Regiment. At the Battle of belleu Wood, which
is legendary in the annals of the Marine Corps, on
June sixteenth, nineteen eighteen, when Marines were tasked to clear
the wood located outside the town of Chateau Theory, some
fifty miles northeast of Paris, creative German tree groups. As
the fighting began, Osborne, whose deadly equipment had yet to

(35:04):
arrive at the front, he volunteered to help rescue wounded marine.
He was carrying an injured officer to safety when they
were both killed by an artillery shell. Osborn twenty five
years old. That always breaks my home. It's always the
young people. The Navy destroyer USS Osborne commissioned in nineteen

(35:29):
twenty and the USS Osborne Dental Clinic in North Chicago
were named in his honor. Osborne is one of three
dental officers to receive the Medal of Honor. Where Admiral
Daniel J. Callahan born to a merchant family in San
Francisco July twenty, sixth, eighteen ninety eighteen ninety. He joined

(35:51):
the Navy after graduating from Naval Academy in nineteen eleven.
His naval career spanned thirty years and two World Wars.
Climbed through the ranks on various ships, eventually earning the
nickname Uncle Dan from his sailors. He served as President
Roosevelt's naval Age from nineteen thirty eight to nineteen forty one,

(36:12):
when he assumed the commander of the USS San Francisco
in the Solomon Islands. On the night of November twelve,
nineteen forty two, he led his forces against an attack
by the numerically superior Japanese fleet. His ingenious tactical skill
and superb coordination helped the smaller US force repulse the

(36:35):
Japanese offensive. He was killed by a blast on the
bridge of the San Francisco. He was awarded the Medal
of Honor. Two Navy ships have borne his name, the
USS Callahan It's amazing story. You're listening to the Weekend
with Michael Brown. Its Memorial Day Weekend stories about Memorial

(36:57):
Day coming up next. Don't go away way everywhere, wh