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Post by EXO on Dec 31, 2017 19:52:02 GMT 8
31 December 2017
Welcome to the last member of the 2017 year to "buddyssweetheart" who writes: "My Grandfather served in the Philippines in World War II. While there, his childhood best friend whom he grew up with and served with was killed in action. I know where he was buried in 1945. I am in the process of trying to find any surviving family and when I do, I would like to be able to tell them where their loved one ended up."
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Buddy's Sweetheart,
That looks like a great teaser for an article.
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Post by EXO on Dec 30, 2017 9:17:48 GMT 8
I have just released Volume II of BLESS 'EM ALL, The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.
The web is both strangely permanent and deeply impermanent, often in exactly the way you don’t like.
Websites are ephemeral, transitory beings, likely to disappear at the slightest wisp of late payment of their hosting fees. (It looks as if my attempts at getting a long term hosting guarantee have fallen in a heap, so no plans exist at this point for continuity of my websites. This proboards forum is hosted by a commercial provider, and so there's no guarantee of them staying around either - look at what happened to GeoCities when Yahoo! bought them out - Yahoo! succeeded in destroying the most amount of websites in the shortest amount of time, certainly on purpose, in known memory. Millions of files, user accounts, all gone. Pffft! GeoCities was for millions of people the first experience dealing with the low-cost, full-color, world-accessible website and all the possibilities this contained. That's where Corregidor Historic Society started. Phfft, gone in a commercial world. In more recent times, consider what Photobucket did to us all. So it's a commercial world, we understand. For that reason, I decided that I should make a permanent version of the BLESS 'EM ALL website, something that could survive a few decades on your bookshelf. Something you'd be proud to leave on your coffee table. Something you could read without the necessity of batteries.
That's what prompted me. But as is often the case, the reasons we start something often change in the course of our doing it.
“BLESS ‘EM ALL” is taking on the character of a hardcover reference series. It’s part of a major event in my semi-retired life to establish in print the history of the 503d PIR to fresh generations of "ROCK REGIMENT" veterans, their families and their friends.
VOLUME II, now released, follows the Regiment to Leyte and Mindoro, and sets up the preparation for the retaking of Corregidor. It is now part of a Regimental Combat Team.
In the course of creating my websites, I've acquired images and copies of documents relevant to the 503d. Volume II contains most all of the Orders packet for the Corregidor Operation, and the Battalion's S-1 Journals 21 September 1944 to 31 January 1945. Plus a lot else besides!
Vol II is published in Blurb’s large landscape format, 13 x 11 in (33 x 28 cm) and comes in at a whopping 308 pages. At this point, it is available ONLY in hard copy versions.
I have just released an Adobe PDF File Version of Volume II. The cost is $9.95. The pdf version is created in a screen resolution file size which is suitable for internet delivery, but not suitable for high-quality paper printing. It will show as good as your screen can show it.
If you are considering getting a hard cover version but are choking at the price, I suggest you get the pdf version and see if you like it. If you want a hard copy for your library shelf, then you can get one later. Couldn't be fairer than that!
I have no plans to release it as an ePub version at this time. The book's layout, fonts and layouts are designed and produced for high-quaity print production, and it would look completely crappy if converted to ePub format. This is because E-Versions must change the fonts to a limited selection of licensed fonts, and the new fonts all have different line spacings. It's theoretically possible to produce the book as a series of graphics, yes, but it would take me months - and it would interfere with my preparation of the next volume. If you're a cheap Charlie, read the website.
Now, about the price. $222. Yes, it is unreasonable. Here's why. "BLESS 'EM ALL" is released as print-on-demand product by the Blurb printing company based in San Francisco. The cost of print-on-demand books depends on their physical size and the number of pages which they contain, the type of cover, end-pages, etcetera. It's not so much like a book produced in their hundreds but 150 double-sided color prints hard bound. This book is hardcover, full color on quality paper, and presented in a large coffee-table size of 13 x 11 inch (33 x 28 cm) format, and delivers in at 306 pages. Blurb's actual printing costs are 95% of the price that you pay. You heard that right! To that, they add shipping. Complain to them, not to me, I have to pay their prices too.
I suggest you look for blurb coupon vouchers. These range from 10% to 50%. (I scored a 50% voucher on Black Friday, and a 40% voucher for Christmas/New Year. No one knows what they will have next week, you've got to hunt.)
Still interested? There's a teaser preview HERE. It can only be purchased through the publisher.
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Post by EXO on Dec 22, 2017 6:32:07 GMT 8
Beirut-vet,
You capture my view beyond simple agreement. There is no shortage of superior architectural talent in Manila, and no shortage of Heritage charm available as the means to give a place a special or memorable ambience. The opportunity to refurbish the Inn was an opportunity too important to squander. The character of the Inn informs visitors to Corregidor of the primacy of heritage and remembrance, or at least it should have, or might have done. It should have set the tone for the overnight visitors. "Come to Corregidor and enjoy our nineteenth century ambience" is what they might have said. But what have we got? An architectural hodge-pudge of conflicted tropical clinicality, and modern style licks. One of our group, he might not appreciate my mentioning his name in the context of being an architectural critic of this refurbishment, used the word QUIRKY when recalling the old Inn. It certainly was all of that, quirky, and it was a loveable, nostalgic quirkiness indeed. It welcomed one in, embracing us with that other world charm. So what do we have today?
A charm bypass, so far.
It has been said that, in military-historical fields, the Philippines in WWII was "the place where good planning comes to die". That can be said of a lot of places, though, to be fair. Yet even the Japanese author/propagandist Kazumaro Uno, who wrote about the American loss of Corregidor, termed it an "Isle of Delusion." He was lording it over the Americans, of course. 16 February 1945 would come, soon enough. Perhaps the more things change, the more they DO remain the same. None of us are immune.
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Post by EXO on Dec 21, 2017 11:29:38 GMT 8
The Corregidor Inn, which has been closed for more than a year (just long enough to allow memories of it to mellow into nostalgia). is now being completed. Its not all completed yet, so the photographs which are below are prior to them getting the decorators in. At least, we hope they are going to get some decorators in. A little birdie tells me that I'm not the only person who has had mixed feelings about the Corregidor Inn, and the way it has been managed and morphed through the years. They used to have a bad habit of ignoring your reservations when they could take a block booking of the entire place. I've been going there more or less annually for about twenty years. (Since their chef departed, they never could toast bread properly.) For several years I have been commenting that the Inn needed to be reinvented, because its management had allowed it to become tired. It sure had a quirky and lovable character, though. Resorts, and with them resort hotels, have a life-cycle, and they need to reinvent themselves when they start approaching the end of their cycle. This is not the reinvention I was hoping for. I've started this thread into an area of our board where people can make a post without being members, so that we can find out what they really think. So you should be able to post anonymously.
Of course, criticism (constructive or otherwise) makes no difference to the Corregidor Inn, for they are a monopoly. Besides, it's clear already that they have already decided to take it to a different market, and that the market is not us. I’d kind of hoped Sun Cruises would at least have been clever with with a heritage décor, but they weren’t. I don’t even like the look of it, sorry. It is what I would call “modern minimalist sterile”, which is fine for generic, characterless, antiseptic apartments but not for a holiday resort hotel. I am told the overnight rate is 4,500 peso - which is about three times what it might be had for prior to the refurbishment. Recently, I was on business in Phnom Penh and was staying at a boutique hotel at US$45 a night. Life warns us generally to give anything named "boutique" a wide swerve, but the hotel was bloody brilliant, well maintained, luxurious, fantastic cleanliness, great facilities, exemplary room service etc - and at less than half the price. Corregidor Inn mustn't be relying upon "word of mouth" to redevelop their market. The photos are hosted and posted by permission. Remember the wooden the staircase railing? Mahogany I assume. It is now painted white.
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Post by EXO on Nov 24, 2017 9:12:48 GMT 8
I was doing a search, and saw this post from 2010, and thought it would be interesting to compare what was happening then with the state of play as to what's happening now: ____________________________ _____________________ When it comes to sponsors, no one presented themselves. Our hosting is partly paid for by income earned from the sale of membership maps, much thanks Martyn Keen. When that gets thin, I kick in myself. I also thank some good friends who assist (and put up with) me when I am in the Philippines. Corregidor.Org is more than twenty years old. Given that the average website lifespan is 2 years 7 months (Actually it was 2.66 years which is 2 years, 6 months and 27 days, but close enough), that's an achievement I can be proud about. The website domain 503prct.Org has done well. It's been going more than seven years now. I am proud that it hosts the 2/503 Vietnam Newsletter, of which there are more than eighty issues. Along the way, I have been recognized, officially, as an honorary member of the 503d Infantry Regiment. There still isn't a website called "Coast Artillery of Manila and Subic Bays". When it came to anyone accepting the responsibility of creating a domain, nobody stepped up to the plate. No one was found who admitted any expertise with Expression Web, let alone volunteered any. I completed the rebirthing of concretebattleship.org website myself, with the moral support of Richard King and Shawn Welsh who assisted in the transfer of the domain and with mucho images. (I have't added to it in a long time.) Leathernecks at Corregidor died stillborn. The offer for permanent (30-year guarantee) hosting made by Roderick Hall / Filipinas Heritage Library/ Ayala Museum looks dead in the water. I won't give up trying, because it means a lot to those who have supported us through the years, and who have been so badly treated by the Photobucket Disaster. From all of this, what? Well, I believe that the days of the individual 'special interest' website are numbered, if not already in the past. People are so used to getting access to free information, they figure the internet should be free to air. They will put up with all sorts of advertising intrusions, and losses of privacy, in order to get it. (None of my websites uses cookies.) The sites, all of them, need refurbishing, and at this point I am unable so to do. My priority is transferring their materials into book form. If you are interested in preserving some aspect of what is on my websites, I suggest you copy it all to your hard drive and start getting familiar with self-publishing. What's all this say about the "personal interest" internet website phenomenon? Essentially, that we have lived through its golden days. Individually developing and maintaining a website that might pass for professional, is no longer possible. Website technology is now too complex for one person to master. As soon as you learn to cope with one web technology, another comes along to supplant it. Or worse, because like the way that automobile manufacturers made backyard home mechanics redundant, the software companies are making individual website creators dinosaurs of their own domains. The pun is intentional.
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Post by EXO on Nov 11, 2017 8:40:59 GMT 8
I have obtained a copy of a portion of the mimeographed records of the 3d Bn, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division that was involved in the retaking and holding of Malinta Hill. I intend to republish it in full on the Rock Force Website, so as to bring it into the public domain. It is in many respects a treasure of information which cannot be lost.
Although not a 503d document, I intend to include it as part of Bless 'em All - Corregidor (Vol III), because the story of what occurred on Malinta Hill is a critical part of the Corregidor 1945 story. Not to know what occurred on Malinta Hill leaves a significant hole in understanding the retaking.
I seek a volunteer to convert the document into Word format so that I can quickly produce it on the website, but just don't have time. I am fully booked for at least another year with current projects.
The document also has several hand-drawn maps, which could ideally be overlined in black to make the lines high contrast so that I can reproduce them - they are critical to the explanations contained.
The document to be reproduced runs approx 30 pages, double-spaced. I have scanned it at 200dpi, which should be more than adequate to print and transcribe. I will provide the link to the volunteer.
Contact me at: paulatwhitmandotcomdotau or exoatcorregidordotorg
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Post by EXO on Oct 15, 2017 15:44:37 GMT 8
Whatever you do, don't forget to mention the indefatigable Bob Hudson who, together with his lovely wife Rosalie, are the REAL PEOPLE who maintain the Death March Markers, and who from time to time must clash with the careless workers (another description had crossed my mind, but this is a G-Rated Forum) of the Department of Public Works and Highways, who all too regularly damage them.
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Post by EXO on Oct 9, 2017 6:55:46 GMT 8
Banned "Valien" - the Ukranian IP 93.75.65.53 has six demerits at stopforumspam.com
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Post by EXO on Sept 22, 2017 7:07:03 GMT 8
"I HATE eBay sometimes!" Rant:
I can’t believe some folk – several years ago, to I put together a "cat patch" graphic and took it down to the local professional printing shop in George St., Brisbane so I could do a plaque for my wall, and sell off the others to pay for the hosting costs of my website. They said they couldn't fit two to a sheet, but could fit a number of them on each sheet so I said "That’s great!" and had them print a number of sheets. Cost me about two or three bucks a sheet. I sold off a few sheets, and when they were all gone, I forgot about it. I now see identical stuff, I am convinced someone reproduced exactly what I did, and they sell them for $35. Up yours fletcherwilliams.com !
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Post by EXO on Sept 9, 2017 8:54:33 GMT 8
Every issue, Lew "Smitty" Smith features an article from our 503d Heritage Bn. website. This issue, the seventy-fifth, it's Don Abbott's writings about "The Navy Intercept Tunnel at Monkey Point (Station "C")." This month I have started using a URL shortening web service, to make it easier to visit the Newsletter's index page: tinyurl.com/503Vietnam75 so give it a try.
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