Chapter 101

1/6/2006 

Ch 101 Book 3: Dogon Dagger

War Era Heirloom                                 

Mission Statement for Book 3: A new productivity and research with high bandwidth downloads.

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On an Acura swap to Peabody last summer I did a side trip to Concord to walk across the North Bridge and see the cannon that instigated the beginning of the American Revolution. “BY the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world”.  History Detectives on PBS this week verified the authenticity of that “Hancock” cannon.

My investigation is for another weapon from a more modern war. Shawn is now keeper of a handsome Dogon dagger  which seems to have originated in the west Africa country of Mali.    Dogon tribe of Mali  Dogon knife for sale 50 bucks. Some valued to $2000. Dad brought it back from his March 1944 B24 deployment trip to England via Brazil and through west Africa. In lower right of my pix 0the guy with white pants is wearing one during the ritual dance. I hadn’t realized how that red (blood?) goat skin sheathed knife had originally stunk to high heaven when first acquired from the natives of Marrakech, (French) Morocco for a few packs of cigarettes. There are 850 INCREDIBLE photos of the culture here .  In Dad’s autobiography  it sounded like his bomber crew was about to mutiny and wanted to throw it out the window. Mom’s Channel #5 perfume present was sacrificed to save the knife. A year earlier the first US  President to fly while in office, Roosevelt,  accompanied by Prime Minister Churchill had visited Marrakech and received a gold dagger from the Sultan of Morocco at the historic, intriguing, and top secret Casablanca Summit  . Soviet leader Stalin was unable to attend due to the battle of Stalingrad, which Shawn now plays on XBOX 360. Humphrey Bogart’s movie “Casablanca “ was playing during this time period.

Another unrelated bombardier guy, John, had similar evil-smelling knife story from Dakar, Senegal middle of this article (search “evil”). Dad mentioned the 7 foot tall native warriors hired to guard the planes in Dakar were Maasai. but that tribe lives up near Kenya, and I found no other corroboration of their presence there? Another interesting description of the guards with red fez caps and the base is in Ted’s voluminous journal March 8, 1944 .  Facts getting murky: these guys may have been Senegalese soldiers or “bowmen” or part of Free French forces. Many may have been massacred at the end of 1944 at a camp in Dakar. Can’t imagine receiving the inhumane treatment these guys got . Movie on the theme Camp de Thiaroye . Recent article on couple Senegalese soldiers (one a German POW) just now getting back pay.

Senegals secret soldiers. Then also there was the bubonic plague that ravaged the Senegalese in 1944.

Dad ended up replacing starter motor in Wales on this R-1830 engine after finding broken studs and flying over the north Atlantic. His B24 model H had four Pratt Whitney model R-1830-86 (1830 cu in) 1200HP Twin Wasps with 14 radial cylinders each.

Aunt Carol, as “Keeper of the Past” you didn’t tell me about this SUNY Albany Civil War veteran, Hiram Olmsted. Needs research, could be next chapter, or book?