Upcoming Virtual Events
Contact recorder@continentalcommandery-nous.org to add your events here.
November 2024 - Virtual Lecture
Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962: “One Minute to Midnight”
November 21, 2024 (Thursday, 1900 EST)
John Lowery, Docent USS Midway Museum
It was the time when the world faced the imminent threat of thermonuclear war. After WW2, the United States and Russia entered into “Existential Combat” with each party intending to destroy the “Ideology” of the other. For seventeen years, between 1945 and 1962, the world watched the U.S. and Russia engage in a dangerous game of “Diplomatic Brinkmanship”. And ... in 1962 the game turns deadly with a showdown in Cuba. The U.S. is threatened with Russian Nuclear Missiles installed in Cuba just 100 miles South of Miami, FL. In October 1962, the U.S. and Russia entered into a “HOT” Cold War, and Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy played up to the very edge of the thermonuclear abyss.
The author had a front-row seat to the conflict as a Division officer and Qualified officer of the deck aboard the USS Wren (DD-568), a crucial element of the US blockade strategy. Unintended thermonuclear catastrophe was present in every aspect of the decision-making throughout the conflict. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special advisor to President Kennedy, said of the crisis ... "this was THE MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY”. Kennedy and Khrushchev narrowly averted disaster as the clock approached..."One Minute to Midnight."
December 2024 - Virtual Lecture
"Naval Battle of Pungdo, Part III: The Kowshing Incident and Aftermath”
December 19, 2024 (Thursday, 1900 EST)
CAPT Roger Crossland, USN (ret.)
In 1894, the Donghak peasant rebellion broke out in the Kingdom of Korea, fomented by Japanese unfair trade and other subversive practices. The Korea monarchy requested Chinese assistance under the terms of its tribute agreement.
The last truce between China and Japan, known as the Convention of Tientsin, is about to be ripped to tatters. At Pungdo, the first naval battle of the First Sino-Japanese is underway.
Japan has attacked two Chinese warships uncertain of Japan's intentions, and within a couple hours is about to attack an unaware, unarmed, neutral British transport “Kowshing” carrying 1,100 Chinese troops bound for Korea to put down the Donghak Rebellion .
Britain is neutral and China is at war with the Donghak peasant rebels, not Japan. This Japanese attack will result in the demise of 800 Chinese soldiers, two hundred Chinese sailors, and 47 British merchant crewmen, a massacre which will be carried by every English-speaking newspaper in the world. The destruction of the "screw" steam-transport's coat bunkers with 10+" guns will turn the mid-day sky black. This veiled surprise will initiate a half-century series of undeclared Japanese attacks.