Veterans Corner

Community Contributed

By Jesse Church

Aloha my fellow veterans and residents of Molokai, old Jesse here with all the veterans news and upcoming events.

The MV-22 Osprey shares its name with a bird of prey. So why is Osprey such an appropriate name? One of North America’s largest birds of prey, the osprey is a magnificent fish eating hawk, according to the National Audubon Society. Like the Marine Corps tiltrotor aircraft, the osprey is often at sea. And like Marines, its presence has grown all over the world, near coastlines and other bodies of water. The term osprey derives from the Latin word ossifragus, meaning bone breaker. This could apply to the bird’s sharp talons and the tiltrotor’s attack capabilities.

I hope that everyone did well with the last question, which was, what names were Hawaii known by before it joined the Union in 1959? The answers are, The Kingdom of Hawaii and The Republic of Hawaii. The new question is, nearly a decade before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, another nation launched an attack against the site. What country was it?

Now I’d like to finish the article in my last column about the American women work force during WW II. I stated in the start of this article that women that were working in war related factories in 1944 were being paid an average of $31.21 a week while men doing the same jobs were paid $54.65 a week. I think this was a terrible injustice, along the same lines as Pres. Roosevelt in 1942 ordered the forced evacuation of all Japanese residents from the West Coast, both were terrible wrongs. But in the 1980s and 90s, the Americans of Japanese descent were compensated by the government for some of what they lost. I believe that the women who worked in the war factories should be compensated for lost wages, those women did a great job in the war effort and should be fairly compensated.

On Aug. 2, 1876, legendary Western gunfighter, scout, and law enforcement officer James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickock was shot in the back and killed while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota. Hickock was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights when he is shot, which became known as the “dead man’s hand.”

I thank everybody for all your support of our troops stationed around the globe, especially the courageous men and women that are in harm’s way, and our veterans at home, for all that you do for us, and have always done, I send you all a big mahalo. If anyone has any questions of suggestions, or news, please give old Jesse a call at 553-3323. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer, and please remember that old Jesse loves you all. Until my next column, aloha.