2nd BATTALION 20th ARTILLERY, “DUTY NOT REWARD.”

The 20th Artillery was formed on June 03, 1916, as the 20th Field Artillery in the Regular Army. The regiment was organized on June 01, 1917, at For Sam Houston, Texas as an element of the 5th Division on September 05, 1921, the unit was inactivated at Camp Bragg, North Carolina.

The 20th Field Artillery was relieved from its assignment to the 5th Division on October 16, 1939, and activated June 1, 1940, at Fort Benning, Georgia, and concurrently assigned to the 4th Division ( later the 4th Infantry Division). The unit was reorganized and redesigned as the 20th Field Artillery Battalion on October 01, 1940. The battalion was inactivated February 13, 1946, at Camp Butner, North Carolina.

The battalion was activated October 15, 1957, in Korea and concurrently assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. The unit was redesigned the 2nd Rocket Howitzer Battalion, 20th Artillery, on July 01, 1960. It was redesigned 2nd Battalion, 20th Artillery, on September 01, 1963. On July 01, 1965, the battalion was transferred from Korea to Fort Benning, Georgia, and reorganized.

The battalion has campaign participation credit for St. Mihiel and Lorraine (1918) in World War I and for Normandy (with arrowhead), Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsca and Central Europe in World War II.

The battalion received the Belgian Fourragere, 1940, for action in Belgium (cited in the Order of the Day for the Belgian Army) and for action in the Ardennes (cited in the Order of the Day for the Belgian Army). In Vietnam the unit received the Presidential Unit Citation (streamer embroidered PLEIKU PROVINCE) and the Valorous Unit Citation (streamer embroidered TAM QUAN).

There were only two ARA Battalions in the history of the Army that served in Vietnam. The 1st Cavalry had the first ARA battalion followed by the 101st Airborne. The 1st Cavalry ARA Battalion arrived at Qui Nhon, Republic of Vietnam on September 01, 1965. Charlie battery flew their first mission two days latter in support of elements of the 101st Airborne Division. That was the enemy’s first look oat the rockets of the 2nd Battalion (Aerial Artillery), 20th Artillery. At that time the rockets of this very unique unit were mounted on UH-1B Huey helicopters. This gave the unit the ability to provide immediate artillery fire support to airmobile units, often operating beyond the range of conventional artillery. Due to the fact that the aerial artillery pilot was at the target site, his fire could be quickly adjusted for maximum accuracy and could provide extremely close fire support.

On September 18, 1965 the battalion demonstrated another new technique, the “light ship,” a Huey mounted with seven landing lights. The illumination the ship provided proved extremely effective as a tool for base security. On October 3, 1965, the battalion fired the first SS-11 guided missile to be used in combat . In all between September 17 and October 20 the battalion flew 78 missions and expended 2,870 rounds of rockets.

In late October of 1965 the battalion was called up to provide support in the Pleiku Campaign, for which the division would win the Presidential Unit Citation. Alpha Battery saw the first major action in the campaign when Plei Me came under attack the night of October 29-30. The pilots bombarded enemy forces assaulting and mortaring the camp. As one platoon expended its ordnance another would take its place.

Charlie Battery was positioned for the campaign on a small strip on a tea plantation south of Pleiku City. On the night of November 12-13 the enemy attacked the position in battalion strength. As the first mortars hit the camp, pilots ran to their helicopters and quickly had them all in the air, the first instance in Vietnam when all aircraft evacuated without loss from an airstrip under attack.

Bravo Battery flew a unique mission in the closing days of the campaign when on November 28, Special Forces requested that the battery destroy the gates of a fortified VC village. The gate was protected by booby traps and weapons positions from which the enemy delivered fire. Three well aimed SS-11 wire-guided missiles blasted the gates open.

The Vietnam War was the first helicopter war. The helicopters provided “airmobility” speed, freedom of movement and firepower on the battlefield and it has been said that the Pleiku Campaign was the triumph of the airmobile concept.
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We all know that both Hamas and Hezbollah have shot 10s of thousands of rockets into Israel, and forced Israel to go after them. During the last Hezbollah war, the media chastised Israel for defending itself and moving into Lebanon to stop the incoming rocket barrages. Then the Israelis found that Hezbollah has armored piercing RPG rounds to shoot at the tanks.

Well, just when you thought things were stable again, now both Hamas and Hezbollah have restocked supplies and have enough rockets to do it all again. So, much for any peace talks, they just needed time to re-arm themselves for more rocket volley attacks. But it gets worse, as cargo ship headed for Syria from Iran was stopped by the Israelis and they found cargo container loads of more weapons in route to be snuck into from Syria to attack Israel.

It is amazing that this goes on while Iran is negotiating with the UN and IAEA claiming that they are developing nuclear enrichment only for peaceful nuclear power generation. Apparently, Iran’s actions speak as a back drop to their words of peace. In this latest cargo shipment 70 tons of weapons were seized. And it is estimated that these International terrorist organizations have enough weapons for a 25-30 day war with Israel.

On the ship were also anti-aircraft weapons systems, not your run of the mill cargo indeed. Syria media declined any relevant comment, rather just another denial of facts. How can their ever be peace in the Middle East with these sorts of things constantly going on? The reality is we can’t, so please think on that.
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The United States economy, founded on the foolish principles on spending is bound to cause what many economists are predicting: the worst economic calamity the USA has seen since the Great Depression. The United States has consistently been overspending and taking credit out of their accounts. This has caused the nation to suffer because the trade deficit is huge and will continue to grow with the price of oil going up. The nation is also in mounds of debt due to the overseas empire the country vies to continue.

With foreign countries refusing to buy up the Treasury bills, the federal reserve has no choice but to continue to print more money. The famous economist John Williams has stated that the M3 money supply, total number of dollars in the banks, has increased by about 20% this year from next. With this increase in the money supply, there is expected to be a 20% increase in the costs of all goods and services the average American will have to spend. Essentially, it is expected that the next year will experience a 20% inflation on their wealth, savings, and income.

For many, this type of economy will cause a loss of jobs. And a loss of jobs will result in social and civil unrest by the citizens of this nation. In a recession, folks feel less safe and less protected by their governments so they look to protect themselves.

In a recessionary economy, gun sales are expected to grow. The sales of burglar alarm systems will also go.
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Mascara. Rocket Moms have always worn lipstick.

By now, the whole world has heard the line about the only thing separating a hockey mom from a pit bull being lipstick. Sarah Palin, the woman everyone knows about after being thrown into the national spotlight seemingly overnight, personifies feminine spunk that you just gotta love. Regardless of your politics, regardless of your stance on the working-versus-stay-at-home debate, regardless of your judgment on the teenage pregnancy thing. You just gotta hand it to her.

And if you’ve been reading my ROCKET MOM! Newsletters for the past four years, you know that I’ve always advocated wearing two things…if nothing else. Lipstick and mascara. So here we have it: hockey moms. Rocket Moms. ALL decent moms. Fighting to be the best they can be. And wanting to hear more of this woman we hardly know.

And now with Labor Day behind us, and my promise to once again renew the weekly dollop of “joie” via these email Newsletters, just how do we discuss what’s been on my mind these past ten days in light of the fact that some of my readers are faithful because they like a weekly mommy-motivator, while some of you are with me because you are part of the design-chef-francophile crowd following the release of Country French Kitchens? An interesting mix, to be sure. But let’s face it: we’re all in need of nurturing both hearth and home, be it via parenting tips or marriage notes or simply advice on how to get dinner to the table. So if this is not your cup of tea, please forgive me. Delete this newsletter and wait until next week. Because I feel the need to talk about this with you.

This time of year finds me re-thinking my A-game. How to effectively go into fall with personal and family game plan in hand. Charting football schedules against volleyball games, out-of-state visits to our two college kids against client dinners. PTA involvement with board meetings. Figuring out an exercise and grooming schedule.

Now here’s where Palin fits in. She’s not just a hockey mom. She’s a rocket mom of the nth degree. And she gives us plenty of tips on just how to get our A-game on the docket now that Labor Day and beach excursions are behind us.

What I’m learning from Sarah:

She’s kept her priorities straight. Husband and kids first. Everything else falls into place once these priorities are set. As much as she loves her role as governor, she loves being a wife and mom most of all. (Love that.)

She’s got the multi-tasking thing down pat. Sarah usually has her Blackberry in one hand and something of her child’s in the other. Be it a ponytail she’s shifting into a ribbon or homework needing a quick check, she does it with her mind ready to jump to the next task at hand. One might find contradiction to the idea of “being in the moment” or of being into the thing you’re into. But Sarah seems to have figured out how to immerse herself into what she needs to and get her mind…and hands…prepared for what will inevitably come next, be it an executive meeting, a kid’s play-date, dinner preparations or a conference call.

She’s figured out that the best stress-reliever is physical exercise. Sweating at the gym or during a midnight jog is how Sarah best gets rid of the stresses that go with the job. Rocket moms have known this for years. We’re into strength training and aerobic activity to tone lumpy thighs and keep arms and abs strong. Sarah kept her fifth pregnancy a secret not because she necessarily wanted to, but because her abs were so tight (after four babies!) that she was able to.

She’s perky despite obstacles. Thrown into controversy both from her years as governor as well as parent to teenagers, she knows all too well that some things are beyond one’s control and spin outside of one’s reach or influence. In spite of it all, she stays cool under pressure and maintains a charming, can-do attitude even when the odds are stacked against her.

She’s committed to service. Those who challenge her ability to be wife, mom and veep need to remember that she didn’t choose to run for the vice presidency. She was chosen. Opportunities come to those who are prepared. Be it in your professional or personal life, your role at your church or house of worship, or the corner of the world in which you roam, opportunities to increase your reach will come your way if you do your homework and work your tail off. Embrace them. Your territory for influence will expand exponentially. Guaranteed.

She’s intellectually and morally strong. I love strong people. Strong personalities. Can’t help it. Always been attracted to strength. Sarah sticks to her convictions unapologetically. If she believes in a cause or a point of view, stemming from conviction based on faith or experience or pure world view, she does not let others deter her from meeting her goal.

She’s embraced her femininity. Wears attractive clothing, an attractive hairstyle and obviously utilizes a fabulous skincare regimen because her complexion is flawless. Excellent personal grooming is a hallmark of all rocket moms, and while you might not prefer pink nail polish on your toenails (as do both Sarah and I…check out OPI’s “Calypso” for one last hot pink late-summer fling ), you certainly keep them in good shape. And, I know you are already wearing lipstick and mascara….

There’s more to learn over the next couple of months about this fascinating woman, Sarah Palin. I will be on the lookout for details, as I am always interested in reading about those women who might be role models for me. If you get any tidbits that you’d like to share, feel free to email me.

Until then, let me leave you with one last thought. My minister shared a true story about an itinerant preacher, Jesse Lee, who is the namesake for the church where my family and I worship in our own small town. Unqualified, without credentials or pedigree, he simply rode-horseback-from village to village talking with others about the Gospel. He held up an apple to one of these crowds in one of these towns and noted that we can all count the number of seeds inside an apple…but only God knows how many apples will grow from the seeds.

As you strive to go into the fall with your A-Game, contemplate the number of apples that might grow from your seeds. Your seeds of energy. Of wisdom. Of compassion. Of conviction.
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Amnesty International calls on the United Nations to impose an immediate and complete embargo of arms to Hamas Israel and other Palestinian armed groups. The human rights organization issued a report previously regarding the foreign arms supplied to help Israel and Gaza, where she claims to have gathered evidence that Israel and Hamas both of the weapons used abroad, and specifically the United States between December 27 and January 18, the date of the cessation of fighting. We call upon the Security Council of the United Nations to impose an embargo Until they found a mechanism to ensure that ammunition and other military equipment are not used to commit serious violations of international law, said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty director for the Middle East.

At the site, we found many remains of weapons and ammunition used during the fighting. Through serial numbers, we could determine their origin, with the exception of an electrical component (missile engine) produced in France, while the rest came from the United States, said Donatella Rovera. The researcher for Amnesty International visited the site to investigate different types of violations of human rights in the Gaza Strip. Just arrived, was surprised by the number of remains found weapons including rockets and artillery. Hamas arrive without problem to the source from abroad, including through a system of smuggling is going on in part through tunnels into Egypt, he said. The Jewish State, for its part, has signed a ten-year agreement with Washington in 2007 that plans to provide military aid to 30 billion dollars.

Excessive use of white phosphorus artillery including fragments of phosphorous weapons – tanks or tanks of rocket darts or debris found in homes, hospitals or school playground…All these weapons were used to commit serious violations of international law, including war crimes in Gaza and southern Israel, said Donatella Rovera. According to the defense of human rights, some or disproportionate attacks were directed against civilians or civilian buildings. Amnesty International, in particular, the fingertip of the repeated use of white phosphorus weapons against Palestinian civilians in the densely populated areas of Gaza. According to the hospital, patients, including children, now burning white phosphorus, which does not always heal.

For his part, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a brief press release that all the weapons used were in accordance with international law and the use of Western armies, saying that Israel has deliberately attacked civilian targets. Israel is a sovereign nation which is forced to use force to protect its citizens, while Hamas is a terrorist organization, said the minister. The conflict, which lasted 22 days, killed, according to Amnesty International, more than 1,300 Palestinians, including 300 children and 13 Israelis, all of which Hamas is responsible for their death.
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Living in Lamar, Colorado, at the heart of America, pedestrians expect a certain level of hometown comfort and nostalgia. Why wouldn’t they? The media purports gangly cowboys and rough shod horses still roam the dirt streets so, wouldn’t gallery style boardwalk shops be part of the picture? And yet, the metal façade structures resembling 1960’s heritage don’t quite measure up.

Living in a Star Trek world with Father knows best ideology brings greater problems to the forefront. How can hometown America, the heartland central of the United States, more closely resemble a space station at warp speed than a community along the Arkansas River with pedestrian traffic and kids begging for ice cream on Main Street? Isn’t there a balance in the design somewhere?

One of the most significant and long lasting stores along the main drag, offers pine log furniture in the window with a high-tech building exterior. Nice combination, the contrasts are remarkable. But people don’t want to see Star Trek technology in a town most often referred to as Cowtown. Getting back to the future, in these days of everlasting historical value, means moving back to the simpler times with classic storefronts, hometown atmosphere, and glory-days comfort.

The average American tourist wants the hometown advantage as they cross the country. Sarsaparilla in the coffee shop on Main Street works if the bartender has a feather in his well worn felt hat and a gun holster. If the gun will light a candle, so much the better.

So how can you dress the windows in an Urban Renewal event and bring Community Wide Progress to your own community?

1. Warm up the colors of your downtown shop fronts.

2. Update the windows frequently and dress them for the holidays.

3. Make sure your store front is inviting and lively.

4. Put up a sign above your doorway that can be read from the sidewalk.

5. Move a display out onto the sidewalk, include something from inside to make it more important that the sidewalk shopper enter your store.

Do you want to learn more about window dressing for your community?
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Old dogs tend to sleep in the middle of the road, move slowly and don’t bark as quickly as they once did at the first sign of danger. As they begin to age it is not their lifetime of loyalty that keeps them alive until the last possible moment, it is ours. Anyone with an ounce of humanity will wait until all hope is lost before putting down an old and faithful dog.

In a world of ‘change’ where history is re-written and loyalty doesn’t count for much as in days gone by, we can vote down an old trusted dog and pick up an all new pup who’s antics and irrepressible new behaviors delight us and become our newest spectacle and distraction. But with all pups the problem is they don’t know an enemy from a friend and they don’t know how you run your house. They chew on your best possessions, disregard your space and leave nasty surprises in places where you are bound to set your feet.

Perhaps this analogy has gone far enough but it is hard not to mention that the media made more ado about the lengthy process the Obama’s made about which kind of dog that would share the White House, than it did about the nature and background of the new pup that would hold both the White House and the country in its sway for the next four years. Some of them (birthers) are still waiting for the papers (birth certificate and other records) to prove his pedigree. The result is a lot of people are dreaming back to the days when they had Old Shep underfoot and times were simpler.

Some are looking forward to a stronger figure to guide the household and clean up the messes of the trial pup. They are willing to consider a time when patriarchal rule could give way to matriarchal rule and a motherly approach to guarding and running the house might look a lot better. The phenomenal new interest in Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann seems only appropriate and may be the only way to straighten out a house that is torn up and has become hardly recognizable.

Moving on from old dogs to fat cats is where I have to pause for the usual disclaimer all journalists now have to use in the new PC world of “can’t criticize the new Prez.” How quickly we forget that the new Prez wasted no time to criticize all that America ever was and is today and that before the entire world on his recent global excursions.

In what is now being called the top most un-presidential blurb ever made by Mr. Obama, he called corporation executives who get huge bonuses for cranking up their companies revenues ‘fat cats.’ The average Joe running on the natural wisdom of the street might think that the President’s remarks are fully appropriate but as a minister of the gospel the challenge was to see if the Bible had anything to say about it. It turns out that this was easier than I thought.

In the twentieth chapter of Matthew’s gospel is a parable or an elaborate story of a vineyard owner who is hard pressed to get his crop in before it is too late. He goes to the market place in town and hires as many workers as he can. As the day moves on he realizes he doesn’t have enough workers to pull the entire crop in before sunset so in the last hours of daylight he rushes to town to hire more workers.

At the end of a successful day of harvesting the vineyard owner pays off the workers. To the surprise of all, he pays them all exactly the same wages. Those who came in at the last hour were paid the same wages as those who worked all day long. Those who bore the heat of the day were irate and they complained.

The owner gives them his answer and while they might not have liked his explanation they could not argue against it. It is that same argument that works for CEOs who get bonuses whether we like it or not. The owner said “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Mt 20:15)

In a free enterprise system where corporations decide to set incentives, as long as no government bailout money is being used the same rule applies. It is their money to do with as they see fit. Why this administration is so bothered by that is even harder to explain because the money this big government is giving away in stimulus and entitlements isn’t even theirs, it is yours!

Even as we reel to the insults laid on the corporate kings at home we see our President tripping across the globe bowing to kings, decrying America’s arrogance, picking up unearned peace prizes and last but not least signing on to the worlds latest new supposed life threatening phobia, global warming.

Leaked emails that indicate a cover up or a shutting out of dissenting voices, input from thousands of scientists who say it isn’t so and a scientific model used for development of the Kyoto Protocol for determining this latest panic has been totally debunked, yet all of this can’t seem to slow down the fearful. Political scientists who have not yet sold their soul to the hula hoop rage of the century say it is only a means to gain control.

For those theologically well versed global warming is the third in an offering of world changing generational lies to be offered to the unsuspecting.

The theology of generational lies is derived from a far more controversial theology called the generational curse, which is derived from the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20:5 which declare that God will judge a people for their persistence in sin if it is carried through to three or four full generations. Although it is clear that no one is being called out for the sins of their fathers it is only the fact that they are carrying on the same sins or worse that gets them into trouble.

All generational curses are created by generational lies. We hear them all the time in words like, it’s OK it’s the 90s or ‘everyone’s doing it.” The more sophisticated lies are syndicated by modern secularist education, re-written history and suspect science. To resist the PC lies of today’s world makes the peer pressure of high school days look easy.

The first two offerings that have been almost completely swallowed hook, line and sinker by this generation have wreaked havoc with the single most important aspect of the Bibles total address to the world which is accountability.

If your God is the Big Bang then you need never answer to a creator God. Growing arguments contrary to the evolutionary model are being squashed and not heard at all. Creation scientists are labeled as kooks and summarily dismissed out of hand. Some of the arguments against the newly discovered facts in creation science are sounding ever more politically driven by the day. The politics of science is a caricature of real and unconstrained scientific inquiry that should be limited to comic books, but it is not.

We are willing to tell our young students struggling in university the amazing recent discovery that DNA is the blue print of all life. It is the greatest storage system of information ever discovered and although it is so small the information contained in a pin head could fill volumes of books that would reach to the moon five times.

Then we presume to tell the same eager students that all of this info came about by means of a lightning strike to a puddle of mud followed some changes and self engineered modifications that only took about four billion years. Presto! Here stands Homo erectus and tens of thousands of species of animals, plants and insects.

We hope they won’t discuss this amazing bit of didactic reasoning with a dorm mate who may be studying mathematics, else they might be reminded that the odds of picking only six single numbers to win the lottery are about 20 million to one. The very idea that all the information in DNA could produce even one living creature by random chance would come down in odds that the greatest computers could not equate without crashing.

This is but one example of dismissing intelligent design with an argument that has no more intelligence than a comic book episode of Batman or the Green Lantern. Not seen as easily is the real dismissal accomplished in our persistence in this fairy tale which is the removal of accountability. While we ascribe to the misguided notion that the God of this world, (Satan) if he exists, has powers that are limited to parlor tricks for poor mislead Satan worshippers, he has pulled the wool over the eyes of an entirely unsuspecting generation. This is an example of the highest kind of generational lie.

The second greatest generational lie to quash accountability in this generation is the promise of interstellar space exploration. Mans meager top speed of 30,000 mph in space travel so far should be warning enough, but the one area that may actually be larger than space itself still remains, the imagination of man.

Estimates say there are a billion trillion stars stretching across a universe that would take trillions of human lifetimes to reach providing we could bring our speeds closer to the speed of light. Nothing in the known physical universe except light can reach the speed of light except those rocket ships also created in the comics. I won’t get lengthy here but suffice it to say, what man runs out of first will never be space but rather it is time. Here too is the key to the Bible message of accountability. The Bible agrees completely with these findings. It declares that man has a specified time to do all he is going to do. That time is clearly declared to be one life time per person, no more and no less.

In fact the Bible declares that man will be judged not for the space he has managed to travel through but only the time and how he handled himself in that time. To wit, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Heb 9:27) No stopovers on M Class planets are in man’s future.

With accountability knocked out of both ends of the human equation, didn’t come from God, not going to God, civilization has become reckless. Strange behaviors, horrible crimes, civil unrest and near pandemonium has erupted in various places across the globe. What seems to be missing in the shiny new secular society is the absence of a cause. Enter the all new global cause known as global warming.

Now there is a banner under which to march, a chance to concert our effort to attack this giant life threatening, menacing dragon even if it turns out to be only a harmless windmill humbly harnessing the wind to grind the corn of the field. All that’s needed now is a Don Quixote kind of leader to show us the way to slay this gruesome and deadly windmill. Here is where the final generational lie comes into play.

It will take yet one more generational lie to bring the matter to a head. Just as some 167 biblical prophecies given over a period of 4,000 years predicted the coming of the Savior including the where’s and when’s, the manner of life and his manner of death the same book declares in no uncertain terms the coming of another called, the Antichrist.

Here is the final generational lie. Here will be a man to pull it all together. He will be endowed by the god of this world with all the available wisdom this world has to offer and will be a charming political and military genius that will make Hitler look like a choir boy by comparison. He will embody all the lies gone before to persuade an entire generation to follow him to its final test. He will claim to know God for a while until he is completely in power after which the only god he allows to be worshipped is himself.

He will promise man that space is there for the taking and will offer worldwide solutions to combat the inevitability of self destruction if we don’t deal with the great evil of our own carbon footprint. In the end the only footprint to be seen will be the heel of his boot on the neck of an unsuspecting generation that has fully accepted the fourth and last generational lie.

These portents needn’t be feared by the faithful to the gospel and those who still believe in the American dream of freedom, democracy and free enterprise. If we let the proclivity to see only a bluebird on our shoulder and nebulous undefined change dismiss all that America ever was like an old dog that has outlived its usefulness it would mean that we’ve believed the generational lie. This will not result in just another fine zip-a-dee doo dah day.

It will take more than nostalgia for Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine to pull this nation back up to its special place in the world. What it will actually take is a serious return to the call of the words spoken by the Lord to the Israelites who had just completed the building of Solomon’s Temple that by today’s standards would cost some forty six billion dollars to construct.

God never mentioned the solid golden vessels or the elaborate works of gold and silver that adorned almost every inch of this great palace of worship. He addressed only the hearts and minds of those who stood by for the commissioning of this marvelous piece of ancient architecture. Here is what he said then, here is what he says now.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Ch 7:14)
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Honk if you Love Pluto! Casual surveys such as this bumper sticker quote began springing up immediately following the International Astronomical Union’s decision to reverse itself when the definition of a ‘planet’ suddenly ousted Pluto. At the same time the bounds of our Solar System lurched significantly closer, it seems as if our imaginations about the boundlessness of space were suddenly more confined.

In 1930, the announcement of Pluto’s discovery was poetic and imaginative. Pluto was described as being, “black as coal, nearly dense as iron, [and] twice as dense as the heaviest earthly surface rocks.” Lofty names were suggested including that of the reigning King, the astronomer, Lowell, who located it, President Hoover and Minerva. The name of one of Saturn’s sons, Pluto, was the result.

The buzz and whir of telescopes and stunning calculations of mathematicians were set to play against the cold, dark night of space. From 1930, forward to our announcements of three new planets, Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune collected a total of eighty-eight satellites and moons between them. Even Pluto gathered up Charon, Nix and Hydra as satellites. The frenzy and expansion of space was perfectly fitting.

The everyday man was encouraged to draw space in his imagination in his own likeness. No fantasy was too fantastic; Astrology proclaimed Pluto the mark of one’s inner truth or guidance. Pioneer 10 was designed to last for twenty-one months. It passed beyond Pluto’s orbit entering interstellar space eleven years after its launch. Defying its own design, its radio receiver crackled information back to Earth for nearly thirty years. Space was a thing of dreams and amazing facts and speeds and numbers and possibilities.

Pioneer 10 is now headed toward the constellation Taurus where it will pass the nearest star in that constellation in about two million years. The growth of a species depends on what room they have to grow. The energy created by the very idea that our Solar System was expanding still farther by the addition of three new Planets was electric in the minds of every net-surfer, space watcher movie-goer and day-dreamer. It seemed that the sky lifted; the rain storms in the day became smaller and more trivial and easier to bear.

The International Astrological Union announcement on a Friday that the following Monday would change the course of a thousand-thousand textbooks and the history of the future was humbling to conceive. The future’s potential would be greater than our own for we remembered when there were only nine planets! A greater Universe is exactly what civilizations and progress build for younger generations and we had done it in a weekend after 76 years since Pluto’s discovery and walking on the Moon and building space stations and crawling on Mars.

All those advances would seem like child’s play. Before we finished honeymooning the fantasies and re-writing the tasks we had in mind for the future generations, the same Union not only recalled the new wing of the Solar System, but their limitations ate into what we had long held dear. Pluto had suddenly been cast into the newly defined list of, “Dwarf Planets.” Inner truth and guidance be damned; a thousand-thousand textbooks would now be changed to reflect history filled with more hope and ambition than the future!

“Your Universe is smallish. We remember when there were nine planets.” And the future was boundless.
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