(1) Battle of Baghdad, by Eric May, Military Intelligence, US Army

(2) Conspiracy theory? C'mon, don't be leery! - CPTMAY

(3) CPTMAY 2 DR. G -- it all started out so innocuously!

(4) Georgia and Genealogy -- a bit about the May family tree!

(1) Battle of Baghdad, by Eric May, Military Intelligence, US Army

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 14:30:15 -0800 (PST) From: Eric May
<captainmay@prodigy.net>

Here's the intro (op-ed length) to my allegation of a cover-up of my
comrades' deaths in the Battle of Baghdad.

Best regards, Eric H. May, Capt., Military Intelligence, US Army

Military background

My name is Eric Holmes May, born 1960. From 1977-1980, I served in the
U.S. Chemical Corps in the 1st Cavalry Division, holding ranks from
private to sergeant. In 1980, I entered the University of Houston Honors
College, and while there received my commission as a second lieutenant
(December 15, 1983). I completed my degree in Classics (Latin & Greek)
in 1985.

After graduation, I attended the Military Intelligence Officers Basic
Course at Ft. Huachucha, Arizona, where I remained for a year working on
special projects for the Director of Reserve Intelligence. In 1986 I
attended the Defense Language Institute (DLI) at the Presidio of
Monterey, California, where I completed the Russian basic and
intermediate courses. In 1988 I was selected as an inspector/interpreter
for the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty team, and afterwards worked
on special projects for an intelligence asset in the area of Washington,
D.C. Afterwards, I attended the Military Intelligence Officers Advanced
Course in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.

In 1990 I returned to civilian life, teaching languages (Latin, Greek
and Russian) for Houston's Mt. Carmel High School (where I was elected
teacher of the year), and serving in the Army Reserves as an expert on
Opposing Forces (OPFOR) doctrine and tactics with the 75th Division
(Exercise). In 1991, I began to write op-eds for the two Houston daily
papers, the Post and the Chronicle. Most of my op-eds were about
education and general-interest topics, but twice (after Operation Desert
Storm), they were strategic warnings. My first strategic op-ed, "Success
of Desert Storm being judged unfairly" (Houston Chronicle Outlook,
August 12, 1992) was based on my insights as a Desert Storm volunteer.
In it I stated that, had we invaded Iraq after liberating Kuwait, we
would have ended up in a quagmire like Vietnam. My second strategic
op-ed, "Somalia intervention not as simple as it seems" (Houston
Chronicle Outlook, December 3, 1992) advised that we were making a big
mistake by going into a little-known African country called Somalia - an
opinion borne out by later events.

In 1993, I became the public affairs officer for the 75th Division, and
attended the Defense Information School in Ft. Benjamin Harrison,
Indiana. In 1995 I began a new civilian career as a freelance executive
speech writer for many prominent Houston companies: Texaco, Enron,
Compaq, Hill & Knowlton - you name 'em. At the same time I was the
editorial writer for NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. I continue to publish op-eds
in the local and national media, mostly for clients, without my own
name. I am what is known in the info biz as a ghostwriter.

Early Iraqi Freedom published essays

Before the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue April 9, 2003, I had
published two more strategic warnings, specific to the new Gulf War. The
first, "Don't laugh at duct tape, it saves lives" (Houston Chronicle
Outlook, February 23, 2003) urged greater domestic caution in light of
the pending conflict, particularly at Houston's chemical plants.
Government agencies (e.g., EPA) started issuing the same warning late
this summer - half a year after my initial analysis. The second op-ed,
"Visions of Stalingrad: Claim victory in Iraq now" (Houston Chronicle
Outlook, April 3, 2003) flatly predicted that the Iraq war would turn
into quicksand, and perhaps spin out of control into a world war. Here
is the op-ed's concluding paragraph:

"Military intelligence officers are accustomed to being told that their
field is a contradiction in terms, and that they are the bearers of bad
news and worst-case scenarios. But it seems to me that fortune is no
longer smiling on our heroic liberation of Iraq, and I'm afraid we may
learn too late that we have stepped into quicksand."

Nowadays when I search the Internet, I find the word quicksand
frequently used in mainstream media to describe Iraq (around 5,000 times
in my search), but I used it first by a month. George W. Bush certainly
got us into the Quicksand War, but I sure as hell named it.

As my op-ed suggested, I was plenty skeptical about the American media's
presentation of the war. After all, I had been trained at the Defense
Language Institute to evaluate the techniques and tendencies of the
Soviet media, which some of my most intelligent Soviet-emigrant
instructors assured me had duped them for decades on the realities of
the world. I never forgot the important lesson that smart people could
be misled by "the big lie" (as Hitler used to call it) of a false media
picture.

My readings of the international press, my own observations and a few
choice conversations led me to believe that the American media had
self-mobilized to support the war effort, much in the same way it
self-mobilized to support the war effort in World War II; it had become
something of a national propaganda agency, like the former Soviet TASS,
or like Nazi Josef Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry. 911 was waved like a
bloody shirt. Whatever did fit the war picture (e.g., patriotism and
profiteering) was hyped, while whatever didn't fit the war picture
(e.g., lack of WMD evidence and lack of terrorist connection evidence)
was neatly omitted. The propaganda crested as U.S. forces approached the
city of Baghdad, which they began to surround for an eventual assault.

Battle of Baghdad

You might now remember that on the night before the Battle of Baghdad
began Saddam had promised us an attack. Well, he kept his promise.
Friday night at 8:30 p.m. (Central), I was watching CNN showing the
predawn of Saturday 5:30 morning half-way around the world in Baghdad.

All at once the skyline of the besieged city erupted with the flash and
report of sustained explosions. The CNN people (Aaron Brown and
Fredricka Whitfield) reacted with surprise, saying that U.S. public
affairs hadn't alerted them that there would be a major fire mission
tonight. I immediately became anxious, knowing it exceedingly unlikely
that public affairs hadn't contacted affected media about a major fire
mission in a choreographed war. "It probably wasn't us doing the
firing," I thought.

In the next few minutes CNN's reporter Walter Rodgers, embedded with the
3/7 Cavalry, attempted to make a report from the Baghdad Airport.
Rodgers' voice was indistinguishable because of the extreme background
noise of artillery impacting around him, automatic small arms fire
striking his vehicle and the shouts of the soldiers inside. It was the
fog of war, no doubt about it. Aaron Brown offered no explanation of the
noise, merely stiffly saying that the network was having technical
difficulties.

Thankfully, Walter Rodgers' luck held. A half hour later Fredericka and
Aaron were off the clock and Larry King Live carried an interview
between Rodgers and Lt. Col. Terry Ferrell ? the commander of the very
3/7 Cavalry under fire at the airport. I had never seen the unit
commander in two weeks of the TV war, so his sudden appearance was just
more sad corroboration of my theory that we were getting the worst of it
in the early Battle of Baghdad. Lt. Col. Ferrell bravely tried to keep a
straight face as he told Rodgers that all was well at the airport, but
ended up in tears; Rodgers was too choked up to pick up the
conversation. The put-up interview was yet more tragic corroboration of
my sad analysis, and I began to cry along with Lieut. Col. Ferrell and
Rodgers, for the boys of the 3/7 Cavalry, remembering that I had once
been a young cavalryman, too.

Over the weekend I picked up around twenty "indicators" (to use the
intelligence term) of a cover-up of the Battle of Baghdad, which I
believe began with the attack against the 3/7 Cavalry. To all but a few
people, the CNN surprise about the explosions and the consequent events
seemed little more than sloppy journalism, maybe frayed nerves, but I
had the military and media background to see through the shadows and
into the sun: We had come under attack from Iraqi forces. It wasn't our
explosions that had been blowing them up - it was the other way around!

Eight hours later, when it was morning back in the United States, most
Americans thought nothing if they tuned into the news to find that the
president had suddenly decided to go and visit Tony Blair in England;
that last night's build-up to the Battle of Baghdad had been supplanted
by the contrived human interest story of Private Jessica; and that the
Pentagon had cancelled it's 1230 (Eastern Time) Saturday briefing, with
no reasons given. The tone of CNN, which I continued to watch, was
secretive, and at times apologetic. Aaron Brown said that there were
things that they couldn't talk about now that they'd later explain.
Reporter Christiane Amanpour chaffed at the conduct of the American
misinformation campaign, and came close to condemning it on the air when
she said that there were "substantial contradictions of fact" between
allied and independent media accounts of events.

Media duly continued to broadcast Jessica for two days, then bombings
meant to get Saddam for a third; they broadcast everything but the
Battle of Baghdad. On Wednesday, April 9, public affairs contrived a
pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue and word generally spread that
the battle (never shown before and never acknowledged as begun) was
over. Frustrated by the failure of the American media to cover the
much-awaited battle, millions of Americans turned to the English-version
Al-Jazeera online for their news - and it promptly crashed (probably
interrupted on White House orders).

The public had (and continues to have) no idea that the Iraqis did make
their promised counterattack on April 5, at the Baghdad Airport and
later across Baghdad, inflicting hundreds of casualties while fighting a
rearguard action as they dispersed into the underground. On the basis of
twenty years of military service, I infer that the Battle of Baghdad is
what was raging every minute the media was airing or printing
distraction.

If I'm wrong, why didn't they report it? Wasn't Baghdad the climax of
the war that they had set us up to watch? Well, they changed the
programming because it turned into something worse than an anticlimax -
a military disaster, and just the kind of thing to undercut public
support for the war and public confidence in the commander in chief. The
media stayed true to the administration plan and false to the American
people by covering up the Battle of Baghdad for George W. Bush and the
pro-war factions, Republican and Democrat, in control of Congress. It
was clear to me from then that we had slipped off our constitutional
foundation.

Military honors

At noon, April 8, 2003, I began a solitary protest of the war and
collection for the fallen of the 3/7 Cavalry at my alma mater, the
University of Houston Honors College. In the next two weeks I sat and
took collections from the pampered elite of America for forty full
hours. They gave but twenty dollars of emergency relief for their less
privileged peers (or their widows), who had tried to go to college the
hard way, as I did: after an Army tour. The same craven bunch hoorayed
when I told them I believed the Army had assassinated Al Jazeera
journalists on orders from the White House. They were generally
jingoistic about the war - as long as it was less fortunate Americans
who were fighting it.

The Honors students were of service in one thing, though, despite their
inhuman indifference to their brothers (American and Iraqi) suffering in
the war. Despairing of their humane assistance, I appealed to their
avarice, and with far better results. I posted a bounty offering $100 to
any Honors College student who would effectively refute the proposition
that there had been a big battle in Baghdad over the prior weekend.

The foreign students, ever more enterprising than the homegrown, made up
the first posse for the truth of the Battle of Baghdad, saying that they
would discover what had really happened from foreign sources. The next
day they came back, jabbering to each other in a bewildering array of
Asian languages, then told me with wonder what I already knew: that from
Morocco to Malaysia, independent media were reporting that Americans had
been fighting and dying in Baghdad all weekend.

My brother Baptists, the Righteous Republican students, promised to
claim the prize by researching the liberal American media, joking that
such a media as ours would make the worst case it could against the war,
because it was pacifistic, leftist and inimical in the ongoing
kulturkampf (a word they learned from right-wing megastar Rush Limbaugh
- along with all their ideas). The next day they came back even more
confused than the foreigners. They said apologetically that they
couldn't find anything at all about the missing Battle of Baghdad in the
liberal American media!

On April 13, I wrote an op-ed "3/7 Cavalry, tragedy and travesty" for
Frank Michel, the associate editor of the Houston Chronicle, who had
been a colleague for more than ten years. He sealed it and put it in his
desk, with witnesses watching, because he knew that I knew what I was
writing about. He told his colleagues that the essay was history.

Scouting to Georgia

CNN's Aaron Brown had an on-air conversation with Walter Rodgers
(evening, April 9), in which Brown cryptically noted that CNN had been
with the 3/7 Cavalry at the Baghdad Airport. He then asked a strange
question, given the rosy picture the media had painted of the war: "Do
they (the 3/7 Cavalry) feel safe, now?" Rodgers' reply was as grim as
Brown's question. He said that Lt. Col. Ferrell had addressed the
assembled squadron that afternoon, and had summed it up for all the
ommand when he said that "no one will ever feel safe again until they
get back home to Ft. Stewart, Georgia."

April 22, 2003 I began my annual bicycle tour a bit early this year, and
took it in the direction of Ft. Stewart, Georgia, some 1,000 miles away
from Texas. I wasn't in a hurry, wanting to take the pulse of our
people. Along the way I discussed my observations of April 5-9 with
dozens of common people at the diners, hotels, stores and post offices
where I stopped to chat. I found that many of them remembered various
things about the information picture that didn't quite fit right, but
that none of them could give an explanation for what, if anything, it
all meant. Events were fresh on people's minds, then, and as I explained
it all they had an easy time seeing through the deception of the times,
but after we parted they left the topic and the talk behind them and
returned to their normal lives, content that even if there was a bit of
funny business going on in Iraq, everything was still fine in America.

I reached Ft. Stewart May 14 and went to the Marne Chapel, one of the
3rd Infantry Division churches, and there met with a Colonel Dennington,
a Special Forces chaplain. He acknowledged the Battle of Baghdad and its
dead, telling me that more soldiers than just the 3/7 Cavalry had
perished. He urged me to cover it up for the greater good of the war
effort, and said a few things that a reasonable person might have
thought menacing. I still have Colonel Dennington's receipt for the
paltry donation of the University of Houston Honors College, which I
carried to Ft. Stewart first for my fallen comrades, and second as a
cover for getting inside their Army post in time of war to find out what
the hell was going on!

It's the first rule of a mission, after all, and every leader should
know it: You always scout things out thoroughly before you act. If the
president had kept this basic rule in mind, we wouldn't be at war now.

Infowar - the last published essay

After returning to Houston (via bus) I kept low for the rest of May and
most of June, as the Houston Chronicle waited for the military to let
the media tell the story of Baghdad. According to my editorial contacts
Frank Michel and David Langworthy, the military had ordered the media to
suppress the Battle of Baghdad when it was raging because real-time
reports would have compromised operational security of an ongoing
operation (a valid concern). Things went crooked, though, when the
military ordered the media to continue to suppress the story after
operations were concluded. David and Frank agreed that this put the
Pentagon and the White House outside the parameters of the Constitution,
but they weren't going to stake their careers on any futile heroics ?
the big bosses were telling them what to tell the public, and it wasn't
the truth, but it was a paycheck.

On June 25 General Clark came out against the Bush war on CNN Crossfire,
and on June 27 I sent the Houston Chronicle's opinion page editor, David
Langworthy, my "Worried about the quicksand of war in Iraq" denouncing
the Bush war plan and attacking the integrity of the commander-in-chief.
Encouraged by the New York Times publication of Ambassador Joe Wilson's
op-ed against hyped WMD claims July 6, the Chronicle finally published
my op-ed July 8.

Afterwards, I believed that I had caused a fair amount of anger in the
White House with my words and deeds, because my editors carried no
letters to the editor in response to someone who had called George W.
Bush a liar, avoided my calls, and stopped publishing my op-eds - even
going so far as to take sudden vacations to be away when my essays
arrived for editing. On the advice of friends and family I ducked out of
circulation for a while. Between July 17 and September 21, I stayed
inside my home. The timing of my move underground was fortunate,
perhaps, because other critics of the war (e.g., David Kelly of England
and Ambassador Joe Wilson of the U.S.) became targets for retaliation by
leaders of their respective countries during July. As a matter of fact,
Kelly's strange death came the evening of the day when I went into
hiding.

I began to call this state of affairs, in which speaking the simple
truth becomes dangerous, infowar, and it's being waged against the
American People. My media contacts (among them Thom Shanker of the New
York Times, Barbara Phillips of the Wall Street Journal and Frank Michel
of the Chronicle) have confirmed my pessimistic analysis: the infowar is
real, reporters are frightened of the Bush people, and no one is talking
or writing about (or allowing anyone else to talk or write about) the
Battle of Baghdad - until public outcry makes some explanation
unavoidable.

In other words, the media are afraid to tell us what a few of us have
known from the start until we find out for ourselves - they're not doing
their jobs. In the meanwhile those who favor continued military action
are smiling with the knowledge that every passing month of public
ignorance about the human cost of the war pulls America deeper and
deeper into the Arabian quicksand. Ever loyal (to the war), the American
media is now beginning to discuss the need for a draft. I've got a
feeling that the brats of the Honors College of the University of
Houston are about to find out a new word, conscription, and their
interest in it will be far greater than merely academic.

Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry

So now we come to it.

Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry is the unit comprised of all the unacknowledged
dead soldiers from the Battle of Baghdad, who are receiving no just
reckoning or recognition because the media lied - and continue to lie ?
about the Battle of Baghdad. We have a Watergate cover up on our hands;
worse, we have a war. I have assumed command of Ghost Troop and,
according to the oath I swore when I accepted commission as an Army
officer, I have self-mobilized (under my former rank of captain) to
oppose the Bush cover up of the unpleasant realities of Iraq -
especially of Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry. I consider myself to be in a
state of revolution against an unconstitutional, unconscionable abuse of
the public's right to know - the first freedom guaranteed to Americans.
So long as there is no talk of what actually happened in Baghdad that
weekend in April, there is no freedom of the American press. The fix is
in, my friend, and America's in a fix.

The $100 offer to find out the truth about the lost weekend in Baghdad
still stands. In fact, given the depth of the denial, I've increased it
to $1000 for the reporter who breaks the story of the Battle of Baghdad
- and thirty pieces of silver for his or her megamedia parent.

Captain Eric Holmes May, MI, USA

(2) Conspiracy theory? C'mon, don't be leery! (That's all for today --
g'nite, CPTMAY)

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 20:28:47 -0800 (PST) From:  Eric May
<captainmay@prodigy.net>

PROLOGUE
The Fickle Finger of Fate can't wait --
he went for glory and topped my story
of conspiracy -- unthinkable, heresy!
I'll match with 'im -- I'll even forgive 'im!

Poem for GTFF:

LOL!  You're so damn bad,
GTFF, old man, my lad!
OK, if you're into conspiracy theory,
I won't be outdone, no sir!  Here it comes, deary:

When he ran to be prez George Bush got a pass
from the press and the TV and radio mass!
Well, am I right? Sweet Jesus, just look at the shit
that they've come up with lately -- and they just looked a bit!

He's been busted like I have (yep, I've done me some fighting...
a few trips to county jail, bed bugs a biting!)
LOL, anyhow, ain't his cover-ed up?
The tail wags the dog, right?  Boy George is their pup!

So was it all some vast right-wingish plan
by neocon Strangeloves with Bush as their man,
and with Ari and Tony behind the scenes?  Well, well...,
they've been pretty tight since the two towers fell!

It's all worked out well if you wanted a war,
and Weasel Clark says it was all planned before --
and Clark knows secrets, folks, how much was he saying?
Was it all a setup, a build-up, a BETRAYING???

Naw, naw, that can't be, I've too much already
to think of, like Baghdad, but the story stays steady:
Folks, no matter which side of the infowar shows,
it all hangs together, and it grows and it grows...

I know that they BS'd us right into the war,
that they fight for the rich with the lives of the poor!
I know that they cover-up dead soldier still
to keep from the public the smell of the kill.

I know that they're anti-Semitic for sure,
'cause they hate my brother Arabs like manure!
And that's why they sicced the dogs of war
on the Middle East, to even the score.

Embedded media --, how busted can you be?
They're whores folks!  Watch this:  JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY!!!
H-a-a-a-a-a-w!!!  Did you laugh too?  (It's a laugher, c'mon --
folks always should laugh at an oxymoron!)

OK, goodnight FF, my desert Voltaire,
I'll meet you in Bisbee, or in hell, if not there!
We'll sit down and share us a hell of a joke,
and I'll blow out rings from my Mexican smoke!

Goodnight, Ghost Troop -- hope you like this,
inspired by friend Ficklfinger, 'cause great power is his!
Yo gotta play nice with the finger of fate,
'cause in infowar the odds rule, and you hope that they'll wait.

That's really all I've got to say
Good night ya'll, Garry Owen, CPTMAY

FIKLFINGER@aol.com wrote:

Well, soon as I heard about it I thought "Israelis."

Why?

The whole world was getting down hard on them about snuffin Palestinian
kids. I mean it is effective to put a bullet in a rock thrower's
head....but is it right? After 9/11 everything remotely Islamic was fair
game...... the mentality went immediately to "Kill Em All-Let God sort
em out!" which is really a misquote of a question posed to a French
bishop (that's Christian folks)! by a French Army Commander way back
when their were a lot of Heretics. The Commander asked, "My Lord Bishop
how will we know which ones are the Heretics?" The bishop answered,
"Kill them all God knows his own".... So much for T-shirt history.

There was the report of the Israeli "students" in Jersey jumping up and
down high fivin each other as the buildings went down. Then, there were
56 I think Israeli Military types booted out of the country by the FBI
after they held them a bit. Shades of Strockmeyer in the OK City bombing
thing.

The U.S. (which is the corporate government of the United States ...a
long long story.) may have been complicit in the bombing. I do know I
really doubt a Passport would survive a plane crashing into a building
and a flash fire to be found at the bottom of the rubble. What of
Building 7 which was hit by nothing. Now they admit the building was
"taken down"...uh huh..why?

Emperor Jorge (oops President George W) sang the praises of Israel our
only friend in the Middle East... uh huh..before Israel did we have any
enemies in the Middle East?

(3) CPTMAY 2 DR. G -- it all started out so innocuously!

Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 04:18:02 -0800 (PST) From: Eric May
<captainmay@prodigy.net>

MS. SHIRLEY WROTE:

 Please say hello to our newest member Capt. Eric May
captainmay@prodigy.net.

Hello, Capt. May. May was my maiden name - do you happen to have
relatives in Little Rock, Arkansas? My uncle, Bob, was in Texas, but as
a transplant. My uncle, Harlan, died last year in Arkansas - he, Bob and
my dad were all retired from different branches of the armed forces.
Anyway, related or not, welcome. Shirley

 CPTMAYSEZ 2 MS. SHIRLEY:

Ma'am, thank you for the nice note of welcome. As far as Arkansas Mays,
no ma'am, but the breed is fairly promiscuous, so I make no promises not
to have contaminated the Ozarks. The May family comes from Georgia,
where they did their patriotic duty by owning property (human) and
fighting a war (civil). Well, they lost the war and the slaves -- worse
yet, Sherman burned 'em out and either the Yanks of the slaves killed
great-great-great grandpa. Yep, there's history for you.

Hey, I know it sounds redneck and low-born, but if I were English, had
sprung from a family had owned other people, y'all would be calling me a
Lord and proud to let friends know that an aristocrat was in the ranks
of your coversational circle! Anyhow, I'm more humble than dirt. I live
in a black neighborhood, a white man with a mixed-race wife and a black
belt. (I like my brothers a lot more than my own -- white folks are too
bourgeois for my blood...).

Since your society of friends is so erudite, I'm accepting y'all's
invitation, though I'm a best a difficult guest -- I just hope I'll be
interesting enough to warrant the difficulty. I'm not lunatic, but I
know how to look at things by the light of the moon, when good boys and
girls have been taught to say their prayers, tuck into bed and close
their eyes. Not me, ma'am -- I like trouble too much.

Anyhow, it's always nice to be sociable. By now you are familiar with my
mission, which began when I realized that my brothers and sisters were
dying in silence (and vain) in Baghdad April 5-9, covered-up beneath
Private Jessica. It was the stuff of literature, and I wanted to make
sure I wrote it all down from the start (I'm trying to be Thucydides,
ma'am...). I rode a bicycle across Dixie (from Texas where the family
ended up to Georgia where it started) to take the pulse of the country
in those victorious months, when we all though it over and done, but I
knew better. Fifty miles a day. One of the notable days (each had its
adventure) was the day I crossed the Mississippi, then sat down to write
a letter to Dr. G, my mentor, who had worn captain's brass for a war
himself -- WWII, where he fought for his "homeland defense" by following
orders and commanding his tank from the Vistula River to the outskirts
of Moscow -- then getting shot up all the way back for years. It made
him philisophical and deep (or maybe he was that way before the war and
it simply survived the carnage). The letter I wrote then, in my journal,
looking at the river, puts me in mind of better days, when I hadn't
confirmed my suspicions, thought there was a pretty good chance I would
be finished with the mission in a month (of breaking the news of
Baghdad) and probably wouldn't be assassinated by my own colleagues
(yep, military intelligence and associates) for being right at the wrong
time.

Should you have time for a good read, please indulge yourself by reading
the letter below.

Best regards -- and thanks for the welcome -- CPTMAY

Sunday, April 27 ? Vicksburg, Mississippi ? Professor G.

My dear Professor G.,

When I last wrote I had vaguely formed a plan of reaching Vicksburg, my
bridge across the Mississippi River, by Saturday. Happily favored by a
westerly wind, I arrived on time yesterday afternoon.

It is now high noon on the Sabbath, and I rest as Grandpa Moses
commanded, sitting in an abandoned church yard on the banks of the
rolling river, still looking at the fence I crossed yesterday (a minor
adventure itself, but the tale will keep). My Bible is before me, and I
have just finished reading the creation myth in the first chapters of
Genesis. Have you ever noticed that there He is one of "the gods," like
unto whom the serpent urges Eve to become? Then later in the same
chapter, He says (presumably to the other gods) "Look! That bad serpent
gave the humans too much power, so I've put a curse on the whole bunch!
And furthermore I've thrown them out of Eden so they won't figure out
how to live forever by eating life-fruit as well as smart-fruit! And
I've put a couple of cherubim out there as guards to kill them if they
try to come back. From now on they'll just have to grind it out in a
concentration camp called earth!

Do you know who He reminds me of, sir? He reminds me of Thor! Or of
Zeus, or Chronos, or Ouranos! He is the kind of god who doesn't take any
crap from anyone! When he decided the world was too far out of line
(later in Genesis), he sent a flood that was much more efficient than
the Totenkopf SS at destroying humanity, then started over again with a
master race, the children of the good Noah. (I'm a bit too much of a
student of myths to make much of a religious man, I'm afraid.)

Do you remember the Sodom and Gomorrah story, where His scouts send home
a bad report about those folks' behavior? He zapped the whole district,
which presumably included the unfortunate collateral damage of women
(though the lustful ones, of course, deserved death) and children. It
had been done elsewhere, of course, by Wotan and Thor because a town
they visited was rude to them while they were traveling incognito. The
same thing happened to Zeus and Hermes, and they had to zap a town or
two, let me tell you!

Of course there are differences in the myths. The Norse and Olympian
gods let one husband and wife get away from the zapping. God let Lott
and his wife go ? along with their daughters, I must add. But Lott's
wife looked back when she was told not to and turned into a pillar of
salt. I thought it was a beautiful portrayal of Lott's lost love, much
as the loss of Eurydice by Orpheus, who looked back when he shouldn't
have, and thereby damned his wife to remaining a shadow. Orpheus,
though, went around lamenting with his guitar until even the women had
heard enough and killed him to shut him up! Lott made out better, I
suppose: He started drinking a lot and having sex with his daughters.

"God moves in mysterious ways," say my Brother Baptists, who have tried
for over forty years to Christianize me, "and God bless those of us who
know His ways, and God damn anyone who doesn't!" Pure fire and
brimstone.

But you have long recognized that hellfire awakens a lazy audience,
professor. I remember how you would show our auditorium full of students
that Last Judgment scenes sculpted into Medieval churches.

"It's sometimes difficult to imagine the ecstasies of heaven," you would
say as you clicked a slide, say, of the doorway of the cathedral in
Autun. Heads would sag towards navels at the rows of pious saints
admiring the Lord in celestial solemnity.

"Oh, are you ready for a change of scene?" you would ask. "Ladies and
gentlemen, this is hell." Head bobbed up and chuckles erupted, and you
finished 'em off by adding "It's easy to think of interesting things to
do in hell!" You clicked a new slide and a new scene appeared: Stone
demons were devouring and deflowering the lost sinners on the wrong side
of the outstretched arms of Christ. We howled with laughter and you
smiled like Mephisto. Such a showman, my dear professor.

It occurs to me that, as travelers often do, I've taken up a campsite on
the foundations of an demolished church, a place of pilgrimage. You
explained to me a couple of decades ago that in digging beneath the
foundations of European churches, archaeologists often discovered pagan
ruins. Would Grandpa Jung say that I've discovered an archetypical
notion of sanctity? I'm sorry to be troubling you with my radical ideas
and questions, but every devil should get his due, and you helped me to
think such aberrant thoughts in the first place!

Today I will practice my tae kwon do, which is the single activity that
makes me feel closest to what most people would call religion. It
teaches me the humility of daily pain ? a true student of martial arts
should become stoic towards the complaints of the flesh. It teaches me
that there is a unity of physical and mental called Chi, and that
faithful practice will reveal it to me in greater degrees, as I achieve
greater harmony. It teaches me mercy to others, My teacher, Great
Grandmaster Yu Yong Kyu (the Flying Dragon), is emphatic in his
prohibitions against fighting. Himself a veteran of the Vietnam War,
where he spent five years with South Korean Special Forces, he considers
violence in a civilian context (such as a brawl in a bar) a demeaning
failure for a martial artist. An accomplished martial arts seldom has to
resort to his art.

If I may digress on this point of mercy, which I consider central to the
soul of a martial artist, I teach it at the end of each class at my
dojang (Korean for martial arts gymnasium) through a recitation of the
Lord's Prayer, which contains all that an honorable soul needs to keep
it out of trouble. A couple of my ambitious students said they wanted to
learn it in Latin after I recited it in that fine language at my
Thanksgiving feast this year, but students are always full of the best
intentions. So far the pater noster remains an English prayer for these
disciples of the Brass Dragon (your humble student).

I had a tangible occasion to practice what I preach a few months ago, as
I walked to a nearby forest for a stroll with my friend and dog, Dexter,
a large, docile Labrador Retriever. His leash was in my left hand, and
my walking cane (stout and effective, in the hand of an expert) was in
my right.

As we trod the last hundred yards of road leading up to the trees, I saw
a black man come from behind some bushes and stand out at the curb.
Since this gentleman was on my left, Dexter (all hundred pounds of him)
was on a leash between him and me. In my right hand was my walking cane,
which I find to be a wonderful way of carrying a three-foot hardwood
weapon without upsetting anyone. I was quite prepared, if the young man
had made an aggressive move, to strike him on any number of places to
incapacitate him.

As Dexter and I neared him, his right hand, hanging at his side, clicked
and glinted with steel. He had pulled a switchblade! At long last your
admiring black belt had a willing victim. He had pulled a short-range
weapon against an opponent about six feet away and shielded by a large
dog! To add to his predicament, his intended victim was a martial arts
expert with a medium-range weapon. His arm continued to hang down as he
turned the weapon this way and that to give it an impressive glint, not
knowing that he wouldn't have time to lift it an inch before a cylinder
of oak shattered his skull.

It didn't happen, thank God. Instead of killing him I burst into
laughter. He was so inept that he was ridiculous. Between chuckles I
told him that his was a very, very pretty knife, but that I thought he
should put it away. I pride myself on having said all this with
continuing good humor, not ceasing to chuckle until he timidly slipped
the knife into his breeches pocket and went home, more like a petulant
twelve- than a predatory twenty-year-old. I think that my reaction had
convinced him that he had made the unfortunate mistake of trying to mug
Thor. It was such good comedy that I remained benign as he turned away.
Of course, the entire time I was chuckling I remained ready to give him
a demonstration of tae kwon do, hapkido and stick weapons.

It's hard having someone else's life in your hands, and I can see why
gods do such a messy job of dealing with us foolish mortals.

A pleasant postscript to my merciful moment: The young man's uncle is a
man of dubious reputation as a gangster, but as is so often the case
with such men, a sense of honor. The next time he saw me he greeted me
politely, said that he knew I was a martial arts teacher, and had spared
his nephew. Then he presented me with a gift: a formidable, spiked dog
collar for the ever-affable Dexter, the kind of collar one usually finds
on a fighting dog in Northeast Houston or a fashionable young person. He
said he was grateful because most white men ? especially the police ?
would have killed the young man, given the same provocation. My
experience in working with the police (five years) tells me he's right,
and I think it's a pity. Dexter still wears the collar.

So much for my Sunday sermon. Lord knows, I have no pedigree as a
preacher. I will go and practice my tae kwon do until my movements flow
with force, then I'll pound cement with my hands to make them as hard as
stone. All of this, just to learn a little mercy.

I would like to extend my admiration for you and your wife, who kindly
reads these letters to you. I believe the two of you have had a long
marriage, blessed by children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I
am happy for you both. You are fortunate, professor, to have a companion
who lets you hear what is hard now to see for yourself. I was so
fortunate as to have you for a teacher, and you did the same for me.
Every good teacher needs to open the eyes of the blind, starting with
Socrates and Jesus and continuing up to you and me.

Finally, allow me to express my sorrow for the looting of the Baghdad
Museum. I think of the Mesopotamian cultures, from the Sumerian to the
Seleucids, who were lost in the theft. I remember the passion with which
you always defended works of art, ancient or modern, against the
simplicity of mocking students. You would bite their heads off at times,
but end by appealing for us to forgive you if you seemed a bit like Thor
yourself. "But you see, ladies and gentlemen," you would explain, "these
are my friends, and have been my friends for a very long time."

I'm sorry that this war has cost you some of your friends, professor. I
know that you, like any one who served in the front lines of World War
II, have lost many friends before, but each war seems to claim more, no
matter who started it and for what, and the loss can never be easy so
long as we are human.

Tomorrow I will ride through the Vicksburg battleground and cemetery,
site of the successful Union siege in our Civil War. I'm interested in
what those veterans will have to say to me.

Sincerely,

Eric

(4) Georgia and Genealogy -- a bit about the May family tree!

Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:06:17 -0800 (PST) From: Eric May
<captainmay@prodigy.net>

 RWM wrote:

You said that your family is from Georgia. I am from Georgia myself. I
had a friend in high school, who I actually enlisted in the military
with. He went one way and I went another. I saw him off and on for
several years after returning home, but sort of lost track a few years
back. Just wonder if your in the same bunch of May's? His name was Jim
Tom May, and he lived on, I believe it was Floyd Road in Columbus, Ga.
Anyway, welcome aboard the group. RWM

CPTMAYSEZ 2 RWM: No sir, Mr. M,

It's been since great-great grandpa May that we've been out of Georgia.
Evidently the family landed on its feet pretty well after the war, went
into banking. Probably collaborated with the Carpetbaggers for all I
know! Anyhow, they had some social swag, so when it was time for
great-great-grandpa May to be born he was delivered by a Dr. Holmes,
brother of Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes. I guess we were new-rich,
'cause we named great-great grandpa after the doctor! Voila! Holmes
Alfred May was born.

He fell out with his folks (first-born male, black sheep) and took off
for Texas. He wound up gambling and gaming (quasi-legal) until he
decided crime was safer when you wore a badge, then he became sheriff of
Ft. Worth. I still have his old Colt 41 -- doesn't work though. Well, he
had a son, named him Holmes Alfred May, Jr. That was Grandpa May. He was
the first-born and a black sheep, so he went off to the Middle East
after reading about Lawrence of Arabia and worked out there roughnecking
it, then came back to Texas, went to Beaumont and married Grandma May,
who was a bit of a flapper but was the first woman to graduate with
degrees in Math and Music (classical piano) from the University of
Texas. She had a little money as well as brains, and they went to
Houston. It was during Prohibition. Grandpa was a prizefighter and knew
how to convince people to accomodate his ways. He made some money in the
ring, made a lot more money promoting the ring..., and became president
of the Houston Teamsters. After that he made some good money, probably
bootleg. Hell, who didn't? He ran for governor of Texas in '52 -- you
can look it up, came in fourth out of eight, I believe. Said he ran to
torpedo someone else's chances to do someone or other a favor, and that
it all worked out. He was a grand old man.

We kept bragging about the Holmes connection when he named his son Harry
Holmes May -- that's my dad. He and I, Eric Holmes May, are both in
Houston nowadays, and he's semi-retired. He advises me on the infowar.
His particular specialty is acting (yep, he won a lot of awards for it
back in his school days), and he knows a liar on sight. He knew Bush was
lying about WMD -- I didn't!

By the way, the Holmes thing is still a family brag. My son, who lives
with me and Mrs. May (his stepmom) is Andrew Holmes May. Who knows how
long we can keep it going?

Hey, I call Ghost Troop the weapon of mass deduction (Ghost Troop lingo)
-- you think I got the idea from Sherlock Holmes? Yep, he's one of my
favorites, for sure. Remember what he said about the essence of what he
called "simple deducton"? He said that when you eliminated all the other
options, whatever remained, however unlikely, was the answer. I'm trying
to deduce a lot of things nowadays, and I'm not so precise as my English
Literary namesake, nor so judicious as my American Jurisprudential
namesake, so I struggle and stumble.

Wish me luck, my new friend. You can't imagine how delightful it is to
receive such kind letters as yours. Have you ever been an utter pariah?
Well, the folks with whom I used to work in both media and
military/intelligence circles know that my neck is sticking WAY OUT over
the Battle of Baghdad Cover-up, and I went through long months when
people did nothing but panic and break contact or panic and threaten me.

There was a lot of business going on before I ran into such indulgent
company as I now enjoy, rational skeptics who simply want to think
outside the box of reality mass-produced for mass consumption by the
good people of New York City. The internet community -- that which
connects you and my other friends and associates -- is one thing the
makers of mass reality didn't anticipate! One of my Ghost Troop
sergeants, Kay Lucas (she's the one I'm addressing this email to) TOLD
me to get my ass online, and I'm finally getting around to it -- and it
was a good move!


If we have the pleasure of communicating further, you'll find that what
you read as a personal email is read by Ghost Troop as a matter of
interest and a topic to forward -- all with the BOB allegation neatly
tagged onto the end. Get it? Revolution by Revelation! Yep, we're
realing the truth about the cover-up, and that points the way for the
American People to tear up the Establishment and start over. It will be
WATERGATE and more.

Shucks, let's hope so, anyhow, 'cause in case you haven't noticed, Bush
has started World War Three (O'Reilly was bragging he'd named it first
-- LOL!). Right now America doesn't want to enter the reality of WWIII,
and that's screwing up WWIII for the neocons, who know that
historically, now is our window of opportunity -- just as the 39/40/41
was a German window of opportunity. If they manufactured 911 (I doubt
it, but let's play the scenario out), then it explains why they didn't
think twice about lying for the prez about WMD or covering up the
Crackers and Coloreds who died (in incoveniently high numbers) to take
Baghdad; it explains why right now we're seeing sex stories about
Colorado football and gay issues in Arnold's Kalifornia -- when the
issue at hand would appear (to your humble captain) to be the integrity
of the commander-in-chief, who is still at the head of our forces and
policy, though he has insanely damaged both badly. King George XLIII,
the man who hoodwinked us (perhaps drove us) into the Quciksand War with
the Middle East, is the man who is making all the call about war (even
nuclear war -- whether he can pronounce it or not) and peace.

To hear the media frame it, all our concerns are mere trivialities on
the periphery of great issues like the Yankee's off-season acquisitions
and the latest sexploits of an intimidating black man they've sprug on
us -- the precise kind of thing the European Catholics and Orthodox used
to do with "Christ Killer" stories of Jews eating Christian babies and
poisoning wells. There's always a designated minority. We're always
looking everywhere except where we ought to, and that's too bad, 'cause
folks, we're in a mess!

Ever get the impression that the TV is a carnival show and that reality
is happening behind the curtains? Yeah, Plato thought the same thing --
he called it shadows on the wall of the universal cave of ignorance in
the Republic. Back when I translated Soviet media for Uncle Sam there
was no one in the outfit dumb enough to believe a word of Pravda -- it
was just government attempt to smooth over the truth. If you looked
carefully, though, you could find the truth under the surface. Not to
brag, 'cause it ain't saying much, but that's my art. Yep, I got a nose
for bullshit that came right off a bloodhound, I got an attitude like a
junkyard dog when it comes to protecting my master, and I swore to serve
one and one only in my life: the United States Constitution.

CPTMAYSEZ the operative matter at hand is to enjoy our correspondence as
enlightened citizens, thus drawing citizens in search of a little light
to catch a little fire from us. Here's the fire we nurture and spread,
until everything that's currently as dark as night becomes as clear as
day!

Your servant, Captain Eric Holmes May, MI, USA CO, Ghost Troop -- my
card (please feel free to share...)

--
Peter Myers, 21 Blair St, Watson ACT 2602, Australia
http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers          ph +61 2 62475187
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