germany Archives • DAVIDPDX

page contents Google

REAL PEOPLE FROM HISTORY

February 1, 2026 by David Gillaspie

Real history gets more realistic when granddaughters tell about their family. I’ve got grandkids. Maybe you’ve got grandkids, too? Imagine them in the future, telling your story. What would it sound like? This comes from a comment on Stumbling Stones Of Harsh History:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blessing, civil service, crime, deported, education, Family history, firing squad, germany, grade school, historian, history, history book, holocaust, illegal arrests, leadership, learning, memories, people, read history, real history, real people, Stolpersteines, stumbling stones, writer, writers, writing, WWII, wwii history

POWER RULES WRITTEN TO FOLLOW

June 2, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Power rules come in a variety of formats including written, verbal, and example. The written ones seem to carry the most importance since we’ll never know the verbal or actions of history. Unless it’s written down. Once direct orders are written down, the next bit of documentation is the recollection of events, the after-action report […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, better stories, books, BOOMER, boomerpdx, boomers, documentation, education, family, first historian, germany, history, history books, history writers, informed decision, japanese, kryptonite, power, power distribution, power rules, rules, stories, story, trauma, unconditional surrender, war, wife, write, writer, writing, written, written down, WWII

COST OF VICTORY FROM HISTORY

March 14, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The cost of victory, American victory, is ongoing. And it should be. Here’s why: After finishing the assigned reading list for an American History degree I noticed repeated behavior: The losers get paid. Why, you ask? Here’s why:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: aggressor nation, America, American civil war, American History, cost, cost of victory, Death, Eastern Europe, economy, education, Europe, financial aid, germany, history, history degree, history test, holocaust, ignorant message, iron curtain, japan, manila, nanking, peaceful world, reading, reading history, sweet talk, the south, the standard, U.S., USSR, victory, writer, WWII

FOLLOWING ORDERS WITH FELLOW FOLLOWERS

March 6, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Following orders seems simple at face value: Someone tells someone what to do and the second someone does it. Done deal? Not so fast.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: all volunteer army, Army, boss, bullied, bully, caregiver, cowing down, face value, fear, fellow followers, followers, following, following orders, germany, historical, historical reference, karma, loss, mai lai massacre, orders, Parkinson's, powerful position, senior care, soldiers, testosterone, volunteer, war, WWII, young men

EXCITABLE BOY, THEY ALL SAID

March 5, 2025 by David Gillaspie

An excitable boy at age eighteen is a good thing. I had a great year at that age. Graduated from high school, got a summer job, hitch-hiked to Iowa and back. I left town for college, then turned nineteen and joined the Army the next fall like it was school. That’s where I saw older […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, berlin bunker, best results, blowhard, dangerous, excitable boy, exciting times, germany, historical documentaries, historical industry, history, history degree, human depavity, killers, machine guns, peer pressure, research, teachers, testosterone, Vietnam, WWII, young men

EXTRA EFFORT, BUT HOW MUCH?

March 1, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Extra effort is the rule, or so we hear. “If you want to be somebody, it will take more than you’re doing.” “If you want to succeed, work harder.” But some people are born lucky. Clint asks, “Do you feel lucky? Do you, punk?”

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, army recruit, backstory, competition, Drill Sergeant, effort, exhaustion, extra effort, football, germany, history, history degree, holocaust, leadership, motivation, story, strength, training, Violence, winning, wwi, WWII

ON VETERANS DAY 2024

November 11, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Veterans Day is for the old folks who remember their youth and those who were young with them. They remember the young people who didn’t have the chance to get old. My Dad got a chance to get old. He out-lived his Dad, just like I’m out-living him.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Army, college, conflict, education, enlistment, france, germany, italy, Korean War, Marine Corps, Navy, Oregon, Portland, Portland Oregon, service, Ukraine, Veterans Day, Vietnam War, WWII

COACHING STAFF FOR THE WORLDWIDE WIN

October 24, 2024 by David Gillaspie

A coaching staff starts at the top with the head coach. From there it’s a bunch of coaches for the specialties, the offense, defense, special teams, quarterbacks, the works. The smart head coach hires people who are qualified and ready to go. How can they tell who they want?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Berlin wall, coaching staff, decent people, despots, dictators, election, England, germany, head coach, Hitler, iron curtain, jan.6, night of long knives, normal people, Russia, stalin, the great terror, USA, USSR, Winston Churchill, WWII

‘NOTHING TO FEAR’ WITH WINSTON CHURCHILL AND GEORGE CLOONEY

July 11, 2024 by David Gillaspie

“Nothing to fear, nothing to see, move along.” It’s just Winston Churchill strolling in his front yard. We had a Churchill lesson at his place, then another in his London war rooms. Our dude didn’t have smooth seas on the trip to joining the immortals of history.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: afraid, alarmist distraction, Army, biden candidacy, blogger, boy scouts, Churchill, Churchill war rooms, crappy things, England, fear, forward, free world, George Clooney, germany, great britain, hooper, Joe biden, journey, learning, london, Nazi, New York Times, opinion, parents, public life, respect authority, small footprint, war rooms, whine, Winston Churchill

LIFE LESSONS: FIRST DO NO HARM

December 6, 2023 by David Gillaspie

Life lessons start early and never stop. But, and this is a tough one, people do look away. “But Blogger D, aren’t older people a repository of life lessons?” Not always, but who am I to judge? If you need to ask, this might not be the place for you.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Army, army medic, blogger, boomerpdx, caduceus, college, David Gillaspie, do no harm, education, English translation, germany, harm, history, japan, Kurt Vonnegut, latin, life, life lesson, life lessons, MARRIAGE, medical school, mental health, no harm, normal, not normal, writer, writers, writing, WWII