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John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing
General of the Armies of the United States

Complete Biography of General Pershing

Over a century has passed since Pershing's birth and more than fifty years since his death, yet his memory stands tall in the land and his name rings firm in the historical echo of his times. General Pershing is the First World War, and the proof of this lies in the fact that after over fifty years no other general's name comes readily to mind when that war is mentioned.

Pershing was born into the opening fanfare of the golden age of Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Jackson -- four names that will stand linked forever before the fact of the preserved Union. Pershing's earliest toddler memories were of Southern bushwhackers raiding his hometown and shooting up the village. He was five years old when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.

He grew to manhood and as a junior officer served under Generals Nelson A. Miles, Adna R. Chaffee, John M. Schofield, and William R. Shafter- - four men indelibly associated with the march of America across the shrinking plains, to Cuba and the Orient, while the 19th century wound its way out and the century of great wars came upon us.

In the First World War, however, Pershing played his part without peer-standing alone in his time as history would have it, and with no one to share the fame.

Pershing grew very old and lived on to see the new men come to flower -- MacArthur and Eisenhower, Patton and Stilwell, all of whom he outranked by an active commission as General of the armies by Act of Congress as long as he lived -- but never once did he attempt to put finger in the New War pie. Like a wise old soldier, he spent the Second World War quietly fading away.

In 1944, when Pershing was in Walter Reed Hospital, the Old Man was eighty-four years old, and he had been living up on top of the hospital in his specially-built set of quarters for the three years that the Second World War had been going on. The Old War was pretty far back in history by this time; yet it was a mark of the stature of Pershing that his nurses scheduled receiving hours each morning for seldom less than three or four people who felt impelled, by right of past association and present desire, to call and pay their respects when passing through Washington. It was a mark of the gallantry that never dies in old cavalrymen, one supposes, that the comelier nurses would grin at times and rub themselves where they swore they'd been pinched.

Of all men of his time, he seemed to have an unerring instinct for just where he fitted in the scheme of things. When age came upon him, he met it with the cool dignity that marked his intercourse with even his close friends. He made no effort to inflict his aging mind on the nation as a senior citizen. He wrote no carping, critical books. He did not sell his retired sword to commerce. He was, in essence, a dirt soldier who came up the hard way, but who loved his profession dearly enough to continue the pursuit of excellence in it-- the hard way.

So when his time came, he folded his cloak about him and quietly departed, almost a stranger to the new war that had come upon his country, but forever a part of the careful binding to meet threats that will bring victory once more when the time comes.

Pershing's father, John Fletcher Pershing, was a boss tracklayer for the North Missouri Railroad at Warrenton, Missouri, where he met Ann Elizabeth Thompson. On 22 March 1859, they were married. Soon after, they moved to a shanty on the farm of Judge Meredith Brown near Laclede. John Joseph was born there on 13 September 1860.

When the Civil War began, John Fletcher moved to Laclede and bought Lomax's General Store. He bought two farms, one 80 acres, the other 160 acres, and a lumberyard. He also became the sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry, then quartered at Laclede.

In 1865, a "select school for small children" was opened in Laclede. John and his brother, James attended this school. Between 1870 and 1873, John Fletcher lost the greater part of his land holdings in speculation, and in 1876 became a traveling salesman. During this time, John Joseph worked on his father's farm and attended school, and later taught the Negro school at Laclede. Throughout this sometimes difficult period, the future General Pershing demonstrated the qualities which would always be paramount in his life: self-possession, competence, level-headedness, dependability, and the ability to see things through.

In October 1879, Pershing became the teacher of the school at Prairie Mound, nine miles from Laclede. During the summers of 1880, 1881, and 1882, he went to the State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri. In the spring of 1882, Pershing saw an announcement for a competitive examination for an appointment to West Point. He had no desire to become a soldier but he saw an opportunity for an excellent education. On the advice of his sister, he took the exam

( August 18,2009 ) Salvador Agunday Alberto II 30, Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) working as a teacher at Shanwei College, Xiang Chang Road, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China was apprehended by NBI operatives at the NAIA in Manila and found in his possession, 887.8 grams of heroin which was set to be transported to China via a China Southern Airlines flight. He will be charged for Violation of Sec. 5 (transportation of dangerous drugs) of RA 9165.
( Shown in photo from ( L to R ) are : Salvador Agunday Alberto II, wearing an NBI detainee orange t-shirt ,peeping and trying to identify the NBI's confidential informant, DOJ Secretary Agnes Devanadera, DDB Chairman Vicente C. Sotto III , an NBI official, the confidential informant and at extreme right is Rep. Roque Ablan , Jr., Chairman of the House Committee on dangerous drugs).


June 15,2010 news clipping from the Daily Tribune

RP post in Bangkok says Pinoy drug mules using Thailand as transit point
By Michaela P. del Callar

The Philippine Embassy in Thailand said the Southeast Asian state is being used as a transit point by Filipino drug mules to illegally transport drugs in other countries in Asia.

A West African drug gang is believed to be behind a large-scale operation where Filipinos are allegedly hired as drug mules, the embassy noted.

According to the embassy, Thai immigration and police authorities arrested three Filipinas at the Suvarnab-humi Airport for the

possession of between two and five kilograms of cocaine on three separate occasions on March 22, April 13, and May 4. Two came from Peru, while one arrived from Brazil.

At the Thai-Myanmar border, two Filipinos were recently arrested on May 3 for possession of over five kilograms of methamphetamine.

In June last year, a Filipina was arrested for possession of 13 kilograms of marijuana at the Thai-Laos border. The Filipina was told that she was just carrying slimming tea.

Following these incidents, the embassy has strongly warned Filipinos against accepting and carrying packages or items to Thailand in exchange for money.

“The embassy gives this warning especially to those approached by complete strangers or new acquaintances offering money in exchange for transporting certain packages on their behalf,” it said.

In Thailand, death penalty is meted to persons carrying Category I narcotics, such as heroin.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is working with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and other agencies in a concerted effort to combat the victimization of Filipinos by international drug rings.

Recently, the PDEA initiated and executed a successful operation which resulted in the neutralization of an international drug trafficking organization operating in the Philippines and in neighboring Asian countries. Working with foreign law and drug enforcement authorities, the PDEA-led operation led to the arrest of nine male Nigerians, one female Thai, one female Malaysian and two Filipinas, as well as the seizure of two kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin in China.

A Philippine task force to crack down drug syndicates using Filipino drug mules is composed of the PDEA as chairman; the DFA as co-chairman; and the Department of Labor and Employment, the Bureau of Immigration, the Bureau of Customs, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine Information Agency, the Manila International Airport Authority and the Philippine Tourism Authority as members.

They are now developing and executing programs and strategies against the recruitment of Filipinos as international drug couriers that victimize overseas Filipinos, and promoting close coordination among government agencies towards a more aggressive apprehension and prosecution of members of drug trafficking syndicates operating in the Philippines.