On this date in 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War. The rookie upstarts, in their very first away game, trounced the former champions and advanced their record to 3-0, clinching the Western Hemisphere Division title.
Anti-imperialists back home were disappointed with the lack of a firm timetable for pulling out of the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
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Time table, there is a time table somewhere? How many times did we go to Paris to finish off another war? Wasn't there anywhere else to get the victory party?
Followers of the fancy were even more astounded when the Japanese became the phenoms of 1905.
(I think I mixed two sporting idioms there. Oh well. As the word verification says, "Butrana.")
And because of the war, we got the National Guard in 1905.
It seems that, during the fighting, Democrat governors refused to send troops to a "Republican" war, so after the war a Republican administration chose the best militia units in each state and provided them with top of the line equiptment and training at no cost to the states. However, there was a little catch.
They now were required to take oaths to both the state and national governments, and the governors could no longer keep these "Select Bands" from federal service when nationalized by Washington.
The rest of the militia system withered for lack of funding, to it's present tiny state.
As a corporal in the Rhode Island State Guard (speaking of tiny states), I get free ammunition (supplied from the State Police budget, not the National Guard), a fresh set of utilities each year, an offer to the ball in Newport (I don't go, as I don't see the need to buy a class A uniform), and am required to attend 4 meetings a year.
To fulfil the requirement, I put in two or three target shooting sessions during the two weeks I'm down there on vacation, and run up to the armory for an afternoon's training in contingency plans.
All in all, it's a good excuse to bring the AR down to the beach (we provide our own weapons), and if things ever went into the pot I'd have a uniform and an ID card to justify lugging artillery and moving around in a private vehicle.
I also get to do something useful during hurricanes and have free access to cool training and certification in things like EMT.
But would a bunch of former military middle-aged guys with semiauto small arms be much of a deterrent to anyone more organized then your basic bunch of rioters?
Frighteningly, if the Guard was away, we'ed be all there was, except fot the States and local police. And most of the police SWAT team boys are in the National Guard.
I could use some cross training in those neat Cadillac Gage armored cars and manuver work with the SWAT teams, but in the worst scenario we seem to be tasked with static defense of banks and bridges, vital stores and refugee encampments. Looks like a potential hole in the T.O.& E there. For reference, we still need some bodies.
If any pistol permit holders from R.I., CT or Mass. are interested, you don't have to be former military (though most of us are), there is no age restriction, and the physical could be passed by anyone who could last out a brisk softball game.
We have a former SEAL in his 70's, who could run my pudgy ass into the ground without working up a sweat, and give some practical training to newbies who haven't been in uniform before.
If anyone in the tri-state area is interested, hit the next gun show at the Middletown Armoury just north of Newport and stop by our table for a howdy.
Actually, wouldn't that be a record of 5-0 (American revolution, Barbary States, 1812, Mexican-American, and Spanish American) or are you only counting the Pro League? (In that case are The Barbary and Mexican wars exhibition and Farm matches?)
Actually, I counted the Revolution and Civil War as intrasquad scrimmages and totally spaced the shooting up of the shores of Tripoli...
Hey guys, the first Korean War was an away game too. The locals burned the General Sherman to the waterline, and the 1871 return visit from the United States Navy cost them 5 or 6 forts and several thousand dead and wounded.
Word verification is ropse. is that more than one rope in Brooklyn?
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