"Shoot 'em, nab 'em, grab 'em! Shake 'em, bake 'em, cook 'em! Broil 'em, kick 'em! Twist 'em! All gone! Bye-bye!"

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/arts/design/returning-the-spoils-of-world-war-ii-taken-by-our-side.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043&_r=0

The New York Times


Returning the Spoils of World War II, Taken by Americans

By TOM MASHBERG MAY 5, 2015


As the Allies stormed through Germany in 1945, museum officials in Dessau scurried to hide their art treasures in a nearby salt mine, where they would soon be discovered by American soldiers.

Much of the art was preserved, but three paintings by old masters somehow ended up in a poker game won by an American tank commander, Maj. William S. Oftebro, who quietly mailed them home.

For the past seven decades, they have been with his family, most recently on the wall of his widow’s room in an assisted living center in Texas.

On Tuesday, the poker winnings began their journey home.

In a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, the three works from Dessau and two other paintings taken by American G.I.’s were handed over by the soldiers’ heirs to the German ambassador to the United States, Peter Wittig, in an event organized by the Monuments Men Foundation, based in Dallas. “I just couldn’t keep them,” the major’s stepson, James Hetherington, 71, of Dallas, said. “Whether he won them in a poker game or not, they were stolen property.”

Though stories of art looting during World War II invariably focus on Nazi plunder, German and American officials say thousands of works, among them masterpieces by Dürer, Cranach and Hals, crossed the Atlantic in footlockers and mail parcels in the 1940s. Very few have trickled back.

The thefts from German castles and storage vaults in no way match the scale of Nazi looting, and were undertaken by men who had witnessed the bloody toll of German aggression. But few suggest American soldiers were confused about the rules of war. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had issued strict directives forbidding such thefts.

“Yes, they were suffering and losing buddies,” said Robert M. Edsel, chairman of the board of the foundation, which chronicles and promotes the return of art stolen during World War II. “But they knew what they did was wrong.”

Mr. Edsel has spent much of his life researching the work of a small group of American troops who were assigned to safeguard European treasures against the retreating Germans and the advancing Soviets, events portrayed in the 2014 George Clooney film, “The Monuments Men.” He believes the return of artworks to Germany on Tuesday might prompt the families of other American veterans who defied Eisenhower and took illicit trophies to come forward with any items hanging on dining room walls or taking up space in the attic.

“We just have to hope the heirs will come forward now that they’re discovering these things as the veterans die off,” he said.

In the past, returns have been scarce. In 1992, rarities from the eighth century, including a gold-and-jewel-studded Bible cover, a hand-carved ivory and gold chest, and a rock-crystal silver reliquary, went back to a Lutheran church in Germany after a group there paid $3 million to the heirs of the Texas soldier who had them.

Seven years later, a 16th-century painting of Christ by Jacopo de’ Barbari was recovered by a museum in Weimar, Germany, after a Long Island man tried to negotiate a $40,000 reward for the work, stolen in 1945, saying it had mysteriously turned up in his wood shop. Instead, he was arrested and charged with selling stolen property.

Two years ago, eight antique manuscripts from 1533 to 1789, taken from shell-damaged Naples by an Army radio operator, were handed back to Italian officials by the operator’s grandson.

The three works obtained by Major Oftebro, whose 750th tank battalion had landed at Normandy, France, were among hundreds that the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie, a small museum in Dessau, had crated and hidden in the Solvayhall mine, about 30 miles east. But when officers from the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section arrived at the mine a few weeks later, they found that some hidden items had been taken.

Among those missing were “The Prodigal Son,” a 17th-century Flemish work by Frans Francken III; a landscape by the German artist Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich; and “Landscape With Staffage,” by an Austrian, Franz de Paula Ferg. Experts said they would fetch between $25,000 and $50,000 each if sold today.

Mr. Hetherington said his mother had married the major in 1982 and that the three works held pride of place on the parlor wall of the Oftebro home for years. No one in the family “had the foggiest idea they were valuable,” he said.

But in 1994, when the major died, and again in 2002, Mr. Hetherington said he had consulted an appraiser. Each time he was told they were listed on a database of stolen art and should be returned to Dessau.

But Mr. Hetherington — influenced, he said, by the losses so many had suffered at the hands of the Nazis — resisted at first, reasoning, “I’m sure as heck not giving anything back to the Germans.”

More recently, he said, he had a change of heart after seeing The “Monuments Men” and witnessing the heroism of the men who had risked so much to preserve part of the world’s cultural heritage. He described it as “the honorable thing” to do.

The two other works being returned were stolen from the Kronberg Castle Hotel outside Frankfurt, a luxurious palace built in 1893 by Queen Victoria’s eldest child, also Victoria, who had married Emperor Frederick III of Prussia and later became known as Empress Friedrich.

One is an unattributed copy of a triple portrait of King Charles I of England, originally painted by Anthony van Dyck in 1636 to help Bernini create a sculpture of the king. The other is a gilt-framed miniature showing Queen Victoria holding her namesake daughter in a Madonna and Child pose.

The castle was one of 14 estates in the region requisitioned by the Army as postwar officers’ clubs. But in 1945, hundreds of the works there, as well as gold and silver heirlooms and a $31 million cache of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, were shipped to the United States by rogue officers with reputed ties to the Chicago mob. Some of those pieces were recovered.

The two small paintings are being returned by Michael R. Holland, a retired house builder from Montana, who said he found them in the safe deposit box of his aunt, Margaret I. Reeb, after her death. A note in the box from Mrs. Reeb, a member of the Women’s Army Corps who had served in Germany, said she bought them there just after the war.

Family lore, Mr. Holland said, has it that Mrs. Reeb, who died in 2005 and was a wartime acquaintance of Eleanor Roosevelt, bought the works from American soldiers who approached her in a Nuremberg hotel for some quick cash.

“She was a very secretive woman,” Mr. Holland, 67, said of his aunt. “To me it was always kind of iffy.” After the ceremony on Tuesday, he said he was “ecstatic” to be returning them. Donatus Landgraf von Hessen, great-great-grandson of Empress Friedrich, said in a telephone interview that few paintings from the castle have been recovered, and that many are probably in the United States or Russia.

“Finding these is like a needle in the straw,” he said. “It’s wunderbar, because in wartime winner takes it all, in a way. So it is very honorable of the people to give them back now.”

Similarly appreciative remarks were made by the director of the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie museum in Dessau.

“The soldiers who stole them, they just wanted a souvenir,” said the official, Norbert Michels. “These were cruel times and there were many injustices.










http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/tv-personality/tom-brokaw-net-worth/

TheRichest


Tom Brokaw Net Worth


Net Worth:$70 Million

Source of Wealth Television journalist, Author

Nationality United States


ABOUT TOM BROKAW

American television journalist and author, Thomas John “Tom” Brokaw has an estimated net worth of $70 million. Tom Brokaw has earned his net worth as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News










From 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) To 11/30/1998 is 2874 days

2874 = 1437 + 1437

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/9/1969 ( Richard Nixon - Remarks on Presenting the Medal of Honor to Four Members of the United States Army ) is 1437 days



From 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) To 11/30/1998 is 2874 days

2874 = 1437 + 1437

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/9/1969 ( Richard Nixon - Remarks on Presenting the Medal of Honor to Four Members of the United States Army ) is 1437 days



From 2/17/1909 ( Geronimo deceased ) To 3/17/1942 ( Franklin Roosevelt - Statement on General MacArthur's Departure from the Philippines ) is 12081 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/30/1998 is 12081 days



From 9/8/1944 ( London attacked the first time by German V-2 rockets ) To 10/6/1977 ( the first flight Soviet Union MiG-29 Fulcrum ) is 12081 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/30/1998 is 12081 days



From 11/30/1998 To 9/11/2001 ( the scheduled terrorist attack by force of violence to destroy the New York City World Trade Center and the Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense "The Pentagon" by Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-George Bush the cowardly violent criminal with massive fatalities and destruction ) is 1016 days

From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official Deputy United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 8/14/1968 ( the Disneyland passenger helicopter crash - Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 ) is 1016 days



[ See also: http://hvom.blogspot.com/2015/03/george-bush-another-pedophile-protected.html ]
[ See also: http://hvom.blogspot.com/2015/05/shoot-em-nab-em-grab-em-shake-em-bake.html ]


http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Generation-Tom-Brokaw/dp/0375502025/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

amazon


The Greatest Generation Hardcover – November 30, 1998

by Tom Brokaw (Author)


Product Details

Hardcover: 432 pages

Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (November 30, 1998)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0375502025
ISBN-13: 978-0375502026










https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brokaw-generation.html

The New York Times


CHAPTER ONE

The Greatest Generation

By TOM BROKAW

Random House

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES

"This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

--Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The year of my birth, 1940, was the fulcrum










http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/firebirds-script-transcript-nicolas-cage.html


Firebirds


So much for the warm-up,
gentlemen.
You now have
air-to-air threat.
I am the greatest.
I am the greatest.
I am the
greatest!
I am the
greatest.
I am the
greatest!










http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8672

National Museum of the US Air Force


MIKOYAN-GUREVICH MIG-29A

Posted 4/18/2014

The MiG-29 was designed in response to a new generation of American fighters, which included the F-15 and F-16. Designed as an air defense fighter, this dual-purpose aircraft also possessed a ground attack capability. The task of producing a "frontal" or tactical fighter for the Frontal Aviation Regiments of the Soviet Air Force went to the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau (MiG OKB). Employing all the technical data available about the most advanced Western aircraft, the MiG designers started working on the MiG-29 in the early 1970s, and the first prototype made its first flight on Oct. 6, 1977. U.S. reconnaissance satellites detected the new fighter in November 1977, and NATO gave it the designation "Fulcrum."

Production started in 1982, and deliveries to Frontal Aviation units started in 1983. By comparison, the USAF's first operational F-15As arrived seven years earlier in 1976, and its F-16As entered operational service four years earlier in 1979.

Although newer, the MiG-29 still lagged behind the most modern Western fighters in several important areas. For instance, the aircraft designers had little experience in either fly-by-wire controls or lightweight composite materials for airframe construction, and the first MiG-29 versions used a conventional hydraulic flight control system and an aluminum alloy fuselage. Over time, MiG designers addressed these deficiencies, and later variants of the MiG-29 incorporated some fly-by-wire controls and composite materials.

Nevertheless, the MiG-29 presented a formidable threat to Western pilots. The radars used on earlier Soviet fighters had been unable to distinguish aircraft flying below them from ground clutter, and low-flying aircraft could avoid detection. With the Phazotron NIIR N019 Doppler radar (NATO designation "Slot Back") capable of detecting a target more than 60 miles away, infrared tracking sensors, and a laser rangefinder carried on the MiG-29, a pilot could track and shoot at aircraft flying below him. Also, the pilot's Shchel-3UM-1 helmet-mounted aiming device turned the MiG-29 into a very dangerous threat once opponents came within visual range. No longer did a pilot have to turn his aircraft toward a target and wait for his missiles' sensors to "lock-on" before firing. Now, the pilot simply turned his head toward a target, and the helmet aimed the missile's sensors toward the target. This "off boresight" procedure gave the MiG-29 pilot a great advantage at close range.

The aircraft on display was an early model Soviet Air Force MiG-29A (S/N 2960516761) assigned to the 234th Gvardeiskii Istrebitelnii Aviatsionnii Polk (234th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment) stationed at Kubinka Air Base near Moscow. It was one of the six MiG-29s that made a good will visit to Kuoppio-Rissala, Finland, in July 1986. This event marked the first public display of the MiG-29.

TECHNICAL NOTES:

Armament: One 30mm GSh-301 cannon; six air-to-air missiles (mixture of medium-range, radar-guided AA-10 "Alamo-A;" or close-range, infrared-guided AA-11 "Archer;" and/or close-range, infrared-guided AA-8 "Aphid" missiles); able to carry bombs and 57mm, 80mm and 240mm rockets in attack role.

Engines: Two Isotov RD-33 turbofans of approx. 18,300 lbs. thrust each with afterburner

Maximum speed: Approx. Mach 2.3










http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/event/september-1944-8/

Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day


On September 8, 1944 Germany launched the first V2 rocket at London. In the next 6 months Germany launched 1,400 at Britain. The rockets ended in March 1945.










http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099575/quotes

IMDb


Fire Birds (1990)

Quotes


Brad Little: When we have mastered these tactics, we will use them to seek out and confront the forces of evil and kill 'em deader than hell!



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 02:13 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Wednesday 06 May 2015