After that momentous and fateful day on June 6th, 1944, the sound of taps could be heard at Omaha Beach and all the other landing zones...John Wayne Speaks of the Story of TAPS as told from the perspecive of an earlier conflict, The Civil War.
John Wayne "America, Why I Love Her"
Below, John Wayne's appearance on the Dean Martin TV Show, talks about his new daughter and what he is teaching her.
Below, President Reagan's 1981 Christmas Message.
Below, Red Skelton in 1969 on his show explains the Pedge of Allegiance.
Below, the Historic Apollo 8 Broadcast from Orbit, around the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. Note: I vividly remember seeing this live on the night of Christmas Eve 1968 as a young boy of 9. I remember looking up at the moon out our family room window with all my family and Nana present and watching.
Communion on the Moon - Buzz Aldrin
by Bill Carrell
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon in the Apollo 11 space mission. Michael Collins third member of the group, was in charge of the command module, essential for their return to earth, which circled the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed. The moon lander touched down at 3:17 Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, July 20, 1969.
Aldrin had brought with him a tiny communion kit, given him by his church, that had a silver chalice and wine vial about the size of the tip of his finger. During the morning he radioed, "Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way."
"In the radio blackout," he wrote later, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.' I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly..." "Eagle's metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."
The story behind Buzz Aldrin's Communion on the moon.
"Every thinking man, when he
thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and
entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally-I
do not mean figuratively, but literally- impossible for us to figure what
that loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the
standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the
standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise
ourselves." President Theodore Roosevelt
"The foundations of our society and our
government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be
difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be
practically universal in our country." President Calvin Coolidge
"I just want to do God's will. And He's
allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the
promised land..." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"I shall allow no man to belittle my
soul by making me hate him." Booker T. Washington.
"America was born a Christian nation.
America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness
which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures. Ladies and gentlemen,
I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I as of every man and woman in
this audience that from this night on they will realize that part of the
destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations.
That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits
free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture." Woodrow Wilson, 1911, pre-Presidential
campaign speech.
"The secret of my success? It is simple.
It is found in the Bible, 'In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall
direct thy paths." George Washington Carver.
"If you will not have God (and He is
a jealous God), you should pay your respects to Hitler and Stalin." TS Elliot
"The fundamental basis of this nation's
law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill
of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from
Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days.
If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally
end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right
for anybody except the state." President Harry S. Truman.
"History fails to record a single precedent
in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political
and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome
the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration to ultimate national disaster" General Douglas MacArthur
"Without God there is not virtue because
there is no prompting of the conscience without God there is a coarsening
of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure.
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation
gone under." President Ronald Reagan
