title: Canonical hours

text: Like the Mass (liturgy) itself, the Daily Office within the Lutheran Church has had considerable variety, in both language and form. In the Reformation era, the Daily Office was largely consolidated into Matins, Vespers, and sometimes Compline, though there are notable exceptions. The "Missale Germanicum" of 1568, for example, simply translated the pre-Reformation breviary into German, retaining all of the canonical hours. The Magdeburg Cathedral Book of 1613, on the other hand, provides for Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline to be sung in Latin every day of the year. Plainsong melodies and text for Latin invitatories, responsories, and antiphons are provided, with the Collects sometimes in Latin, sometimes in German, and the lections at each office being first read alternately in Latin and in German. In sixteenth and seventeenth century Germany, then, a rural parish church might pray as little as Saturday Vespers, Sunday Matins, and Sunday Vespers in German, while the nearby cathedral and city churches could be found praying the eight canonical hours in Latin with polyphony and Gregorian chant on a daily basis throughout the year.


title: Canonical hours

text: The advent of Pietism and Rationalism led to a disdain for and a decline in the observation of liturgies of every sort in Lutheran Germany, including the Daily Office, as described in Paul Graff's "Geschichte der Auflösung der alten gottesdienstlichen Formen in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands". Despite the onslaught of forces that had little time or use for the Daily Office, a Latin choir hymnal was published in Nuremberg as late as 1724, and weekday observations of Matins and Vespers continued in many German Lutheran parishes until the end of the 18th century.


title: Canonical hours

text: A renewal in the Daily Office took place in the nineteenth century as a part of the confessional revival among Lutherans, particularly as a result of the work of such figures as Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe. Among English-speaking Lutherans in North America, this influence helped give rise to traditional forms of Matins and Vespers, based on sixteenth century Lutheran precedents, found in the "Common Service of 1888", which were then included in English-language Lutheran hymnals in America prior to the 1970s. In 1969, the "Worship Supplement" of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod reintroduced the offices of Prime, Sext, and Compline, though only Compline was retained in subsequent hymnals.


title: Canonical hours

text: In 1978, the Lutheran Book of Worship was published, containing newly revised forms of the Daily Office influenced by liturgical reforms in vogue following the Second Vatican Council, with an order of Evening Prayer that includes a "Service of Light." Both the 2006 "Lutheran Service Book" of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the 2006 "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America provide forms of the modern Daily Office rites introduced in "Lutheran Book of Worship", though "Lutheran Service Book" also provides forms for traditional Matins and Vespers patterned on those found in the "Common Service of 1888".


title: Canonical hours

text: Today, in addition to denominational hymnals, there are a variety of books and resources used by Lutherans around the world to pray the hours. In Germany, the Diakonie Neuendettelsau religious institute uses a breviary unique to the order, and the Evangelisch-Lutherische Gebetsbruderschaft uses its "Breviarium Lipsiensae: Tagzeitengebete". Among English-speaking Lutherans in the United States, the twentieth century saw a proliferation in breviaries and prayer books alongside renewed interest in praying the canonical hours. Among the volumes presently in use is a translation of the "Breviarum Lipsiensae: Tagzeitengebete", entitled "The Brotherhood Prayer Book", which provides for eight canonical hours and includes a psalter, responsories, and antiphons set to Gregorian chant. It is largely used by clergy and laity within the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. "" was published in 1995, and follows the daily lectionary of the 1978 "Lutheran Book of Worship", providing three scriptural readings and a non-Scriptural reading from a Christian theologian or source for each day of the year in a two year cycle. In 2008, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod published "The Treasury of Daily Prayer", the only current denominational effort among Lutherans to reinvigorate the observation of the Daily Office. For each day, it provides a psalm (or a portion thereof), an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a writing from a Christian theologian or writer, a hymn stanza, and a collect. In a further effort to encourage widespread use of the Daily Office, the "Treasury of Daily Prayer" has also been made available as a mobile app called "PrayNow."


title: Canonical hours

text: The daily offices have always had an important place in Anglican spirituality. Until comparatively recently Mattins and Evensong were the principal Sunday services in most Anglican churches, sung to settings by composers both ancient and modern. While Evensong with its musical repertory spanning five centuries continues to play an important role in Anglican worship, the eucharist has replaced Morning Prayer as the principal service on Sunday mornings in most Anglican parishes and cathedrals.


title: Canonical hours

text: The "Book of Common Prayer", first published in 1549 and revised down the centuries, constitutes the basis of the liturgy for Anglicans and Anglican Use Roman Catholics. All Anglican prayer books provide offices for Morning Prayer (often called Mattins or Matins) and Evening Prayer (colloquially known as Evensong).


title: Canonical hours

text: The traditional structure of Matins and Evensong in most Anglican prayer books reflects the intention by the reforming Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, to return to the office's older roots as the daily prayer of parish churches. For this purpose, he followed some German Lutheran liturgies in eliminating the lesser hours and conflating the medieval offices of Matins and Lauds, while incorporating the canticles associated with each: the Benedictus and Te Deum. Similarly, Evening Prayer, also derived from German Lutheran liturgies, incorporated both the Magnificat from Vespers and the Nunc Dimittis from Compline. In Cranmer's adaptation of preceding Lutheran forms, each canticle was preceded by a reading from scripture. For the sake of simplicity, Cranmer also eliminated responsories and antiphons, although these have been restored in many contemporary Anglican prayer books. Since his time, every edition of the "Book of Common Prayer" has included the complete psalter, usually arranged to be read over the course of a month. One distinctive contribution of Anglican worship is a broad repertory of Anglican Chant settings for the psalms and canticles.


title: Canonical hours

text: Since the early 20th century, revised editions of the "Book of Common Prayer" or supplemental service books published by Anglican churches have often added offices for midday prayer and Compline. In England and other Anglican provinces, service books now include four offices:


title: Canonical hours

text: Some prayer books also include a selection of prayers and devotions specifically for family use. The 1979 "Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the U.S." also provides an "Order of Worship for the Evening" as a prelude to Evensong with blessings for the lighting of candles and the singing of the ancient Greek lamp-lighting hymn, the Phos Hilaron. In the Church of England, the publication in 2005 of "Daily Prayer", the third volume of "Common Worship", adds "Prayer During the Day" to the services for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline, and adds a selection of antiphons and responsories for the seasons of the Church Year. The 1989 "New Zealand Prayer Book" provides different outlines for Mattins and Evensong on each day of the week, as well as "Midday Prayer," "Night Prayer," and "Family Prayer." In 1995, the Episcopal Church (United States) published the "Contemporary Office Book" in one volume with the complete psalter and all readings from the two-year Daily Office lectionary.


title: Canonical hours

text: Most Anglican monastic communities use a Daily Office based on the "Book of Common Prayer" or on "Common Worship" but with additional antiphons and devotions. The Order of the Holy Cross and Order of St. Helena published "A Monastic Breviary" (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow) in 1976. The Order of St. Helena published the "St. Helena Breviary" (New York: Church Publishing) in 2006 with a revised psalter eliminating male pronouns in reference to God. The All Saints Sisters of the Poor also use an elaborated version of the Anglican Daily Office. The Society of St. Francis publishes "Celebrating Common Prayer", which has become especially popular for use among Anglicans.


title: Canonical hours

text: Some Anglo-Catholics use the Anglican Breviary, an adaptation of the Pre-Vatican II Roman Rite and the Sarum Rite in the style of Cranmer's original "Book of Common Prayer", along with supplemental material from other western sources, including a common of Octaves, a common of Holy Women, and other material. It provides for the eight historical offices in one volume, but does not include the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was bound along with many editions of the "Breviarium Romanum". Other Anglo-Catholics use the Roman Catholic "Liturgy of the Hours" (US) or "Divine Office" (UK). Various Anglican adaptations of pre-Vatican II Roman office-books have appeared over the years, among the best known being Canon W. Douglas' translation of the 'Monastic Diurnal' into the idiom of the 'Book of Common Prayer'.


title: Canonical hours

text: Historically, Anglican clergy have vested in cassock, surplice, and tippet for Morning and Evening Prayer, while bishops wear the rochet and chimere. In some monastic communities and Anglo-Catholic parishes, the officiant wears a surplice or an alb with stole and cope when Evensong is celebrated solemnly.


title: Canonical hours

text: The canons of the Church of England and some other Anglican provinces require clergy to read Morning and Evening Prayer daily, either in public worship or privately. According to Canon C.24, "Every priest having a cure of souls shall provide that, in the absence of reasonable hindrance, Morning and Evening Prayer daily and on appointed days the Litany shall be said in the church, or one of the churches, of which he is the minister." Canon C.26 stipulates that, "Every clerk (cleric) in Holy Orders is under obligation, not being let (prevented) by sickness or some other urgent cause, to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer..." In other Anglican provinces, the Daily Office is not a canonical obligation but is strongly encouraged.


title: Canonical hours

text: F. W. Macdonald, the biographer of The Rt. Rev. John Fletcher Hurst, stated that Oxford Methodism "with its almost monastic rigors, its living by rule, its canonical hours of prayer, is a fair and noble phase of the many-sided life of the Church of England".


title: Canonical hours

text: The traditional 1784 Methodist Daily Office is contained in "The Sunday Service of the Methodists", which was written by John Wesley himself. It was consequently updated in the "Book of Offices", published in 1936 in Great Britain, and "The United Methodist Book of Worship", published in 1992 in the United States. Some Methodist religious orders publish the Daily Office to be used for that community, for example, "The Book of Offices and Services of The Order of Saint Luke" contains Morning, Mid-Morning, Noon, Mid-Afternoon, Evening, Compline and Vigil.


title: Canonical hours

text: Certain Methodist parishes, such as Saint Paul's Free Methodist Church, offer a daily corporate praying of the canonical hours at church.


title: Canonical hours

text: The Liberal Catholic Church, and many groups in the Liberal Catholic movement, also use a simple version of the Western canonical hours, said with various scripture reading and collects. According to the "Liturgy of the Liberal Catholic Church," the Scriptures used are generally limited to the readings of the day, and the complete psalter is not incorporated unless at the discretion of the priest presiding, if as a public service, or of the devotee in private use. The Hours of the Liberal Rite consist of: Lauds, Prime, Sext, Vespers, and Complin. Its recitation is not obligatory on Liberal Catholic priests or faithful, according to current directs from the General Episcopal Synod.


title: Canonical hours

text: Some Reformed churches—notably the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ—have published daily office books adapted from the ancient structure of morning and evening prayer in the Western church, usually revised for the purpose of inclusive language.


title: Canonical hours

text: "The New Century Psalter", published in 1999 by The Pilgrim Press, includes an inclusive-language revision of the psalms adapted from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible with refrains and complete orders for Morning and Evening Prayer. Simple family prayers for morning, evening and the close of day are also provided.


title: Canonical hours

text: "Book of Common Worship Daily Prayer", published in 1994 by Westminster John Knox Press, includes the daily offices from The Book of Common Worship of 1993, the liturgy of the Presbyterian Church USA. In addition to Morning and Evening Prayer there is a complete service for Compline. Its psalter—an inclusive-language revision of the psalter from the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer—also includes a collect for each psalm. Antiphons and litanies are provided for the seasons of the church year. A new "Book of Common Worship Daily Prayer" with expanded content was published in 2018. It adds a service for Mid-Day Prayer. Its new psalter is from Evangelical Lutheran Worship.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during one of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific Theatre: the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He also commanded Task Force 16 at the Battle of Midway, comprising the carriers "Enterprise" and "Hornet". At Midway, dive bombers from the Enterprise crippled two carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, "Kaga" and the flagship "Akagi". Most historians consider Midway the turning point of the Pacific War.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Official Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison characterized Spruance's performance as "superb", and was nicknamed "electric brain" for his calmness even in moments of supreme crisis, a reputation enhanced by his successful tactics. He emerged from the war one of the greatest admirals in American naval history". After the war, Spruance was appointed President of the Naval War College, and later served as American ambassador to the Philippines.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 3, 1886, to Alexander and Annie Hiss Spruance. He was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. Spruance attended Indianapolis public schools and graduated from Shortridge High School. From there, he went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1906, and received further, hands-on education in electrical engineering a few years later. His classmates included Arthur L. Bristol, William L. Calhoun, William A. Glassford, Charles C. Hartigan, Henry Kent Hewitt, Aubrey W. Fitch, Frank J. Fletcher, Robert L. Ghormley, Isaac C. Kidd, John S. McCain Sr., Leigh Noyes, Ferdinand L. Reichmuth, John H. Towers, Russell Willson, and Thomas Withers.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance's first duty assignment was aboard the battleship , an 11,400 ton veteran of the Spanish–American War. In July 1907 he transferred to the battleship and was aboard her during the historic around the world cruise of the Great White Fleet from 1907 to 1909.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance's seagoing career included command of the destroyers from March 1913 to May 1914, , three other destroyers, and the battleship .


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: In 1916 he aided in the fitting out of the battleship and he served on board her from her commissioning in June 1916 until November 1917. During the last year of World War I he was assigned as Assistant Engineer Officer of the New York Naval Shipyard, and carried out temporary duty in London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Following his return to the United States, Spruance served aboard transport ship USS "Agamemnon", before he was ordered to Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, for duty in connection with fitting out of destroyer USS "Aaron Ward" in March 1919. He commanded that vessel during the patrols with the Atlantic Fleet until January 1920, when he assumed command of newly commissioned destroyer USS "Percival" in San Francisco, California.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: He commanded the "Percival" during the sea trials off the California coast and during the patrol cruises with the Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet until May 1922, when he was ordered to Washington, D.C., for duty in the Bureau of Engineering under Rear Admiral John K. Robison. While in that capacity he assumed additional duty as a member of the board on doctrine of aircraft in connection with fleet fire control.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance served in Washington until early 1924, when he was ordered to the headquarters, Commander Naval Force in Europe. He served as Assistant Chief of Staff under Vice admiral Philip Andrews during the period of tensions between Greece and Turkey and was decorated with the Gold Cross of the Order of the Savior by the Government of Greece for his service.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance ran a quiet bridge, without chit-chat; he demanded that orders be given concisely and clearly. In one incident a distraught officer rushed to report, "Captain, we've just dropped a depth charge over the stern!" "Well, pick it up and put it back," was Spruance's measured response.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: He began attendance at the Naval War College in 1926, and graduated in 1927. Spruance served as executive officer of USS "Mississippi" from October 1929 to June 1931. He also held several engineering, intelligence, staff and Naval War College positions up to the 1940s. He served as an instructor at the Naval War College from 1935 to 1938. He commanded the battleship USS "Mississippi" from April 1938 to December 1939, when he was promoted to rear admiral. On February 26, 1940, Spruance reported as commandant of the 10th Naval District with headquarters at Naval Station Isla Grande in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On August 1, 1941, he finished his tour in Puerto Rico.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: In the first months of World War II in the Pacific, Spruance commanded the four heavy cruisers and support ships of Cruiser Division Five from his flagship, the heavy cruiser . His division was an element of the task force built around the aircraft carrier and commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. Early on, Halsey had led his task force on hit-and-run raids against the Japanese in the western Pacific: striking the Gilbert and Marshall islands in February 1942, Wake Island in March, and projecting the air power of the Doolittle Raid against the Japanese homeland in April. These raids were critical to moralesetting a new tone of aggressiveness by U.S. commanders while providing invaluable battle experience for the commanders and sailors of the U.S. Navy.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: During the third week of May 1942, U.S. naval intelligence units confirmed that the Japanese would—by early June—invade Midway Island. Capturing and occupying Midway was the brainchild-plan of commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. With it he intended to significantly expand the Imperial Japanese Navy's outer defense perimeter across the central Pacific; and, he believed, this very powerful stroke against Midway would so severely threaten Hawaii and Pearl Harbor that the U.S. government would be induced to sue for peace. On the other hand, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz knew he must intercept the Japanese invasion fleet, and that he must give battle to the enemy aircraft carriers before they could project their overwhelming power against the naval air station at Midway.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Fewer than two days before launch from Pearl Harbor, Nimitz's commander of the fleet carrier force, Admiral Halsey, was hospitalized with severe shingles; Halsey immediately recommended Admiral Spruance to Nimitz as his replacement with Admiral Fletcher receiving overall command. Although Spruance was proven as a cruiser division commander, he had no experience handling carrier-air combat; Halsey reassured Nimitz, and he told Spruance and Fletcher to rely on their newly inherited staff, particularly Captain Miles Browning, a battle-proven expert in carrier warfare. Spruance assumed command of Task Force 16 with its two carriers, and , under battle command of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. Fletcher would command Task Force 17, but the task force flag ship, , had been badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the formation's other carrier, "Lexington", had been sunk, but at Nimitz's behest "Yorktown" was patched-repaired in "rush" time purposefully to join the Midway operation.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The U.S. Navy intercept force centered on the three carriers "Enterprise", "Hornet", and "Yorktown," and their air-attack squadrons. It faced a Japanese invasion fleet organized into two groups: the air-attack task force of four carriers with support ships under command of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, and the surface and occupation forces under Admiral Nobutake Kondō and others. Admiral Yamamoto commanded the combined invasion fleet from aboard his flagship .


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: At 0530 June 4, a scout plane from Midway sighted the "Kido Butai", however the scout only reported sighting "Two carriers and battleships", and giving course and speed. Since US intelligence had reported the possibility that the "Kido Butai" would be operating in two separate task forces, that meant that Fletcher only knew the location of half of the carrier force. Armed with this information, Fletcher ordered Spruance to launch a strike at the Japanese with "Enterprise" and "Hornet" while holding "Yorktown" in reserve in case the other Japanese carriers were discovered. Since the Japanese planes were returning from the Midway strike, Spruance ordered that his strike be launched without delay so as to maximize the chances that the Japanese carriers would be caught while landing planes or spotting the next wave. In this state the Japanese carriers would be extremely vulnerable. Furthermore, Spruance ordered that the air squadrons fly directly to their targets before assembling every squadron into a proper formation, gambling that the attacks would leave the enemy carriers in disarray and delay the launching of their own counterstrike. Though this gamble paid off, "Enterprise" air squadrons would pay a heavy price, flying in piece-meal and mostly without fighter escort.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The battle commenced on the morning of June 4; the first several waves of U.S. attack aircraft were badly beaten, both near Midway and at sea around the Japanese task force. Then U.S. dive bombers from Spruance's "Enterprise" flew to Nagumo's fleet of four carriers – which, fatefully, were without air cover. Most of Nagumo's attack planes had just returned from the first strike on Midway and were immobilized on the carrier hangers, while his combat air patrol cover planes were engaged with battling torpedo bombers from "Hornet". "Enterprise" dive bombers critically damaged two Japanese carriers including Nagumo's flagship ; while the "Yorktown" air group, launched after Fletcher was confident that all Japanese carriers were accounted for, crippled the "Soryu". All three were eventually scuttled.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The surviving carrier, , gave the Japanese some brief respite by sending strikes that again damaged "Yorktown". But several hours later—near the end of daylight hours—a U.S. scout plane located "Hiryū" again. Fletcher quickly ordered his dive bombers to strike, which fatally damaged the fourth Japanese carrier; it was scuttled the next day. However a second strike from "Hiryū" would fatally cripple Fletcher's flagship, "Yorktown" and as a result, Fletcher passed command to Spruance, who would command the mop up phase of the battle.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The U.S. Navy counterforce sank all four Japanese carriers while losing one of its own, "Yorktown". The repulse of the Japanese invasion fleet at Midway, and critically the destruction of the "Kido Butai", allowed the U.S. to gain parity in the naval air war. In 1949, naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison noted that Spruance was subjected to criticism for not pursuing the retreating Japanese and allowing the surface fleet to escape. But in summing up Spruance's performance in the battle, Morison wrote: "Fletcher did well, but Spruance's performance was superb. Calm, collected, decisive, yet receptive to advice; keeping in his mind the picture of widely disparate forces, yet boldly seizing every opening. Raymond A. Spruance emerged from the battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history". For his actions at the battle of Midway Rear Admiral Spruance was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and cited as follows: "For exceptionally meritorious service ... as Task Force Commander, United States Pacific Fleet. During the Midway engagement which resulted in the defeat of and heavy losses to the enemy fleet, his seamanship, endurance, and tenacity in handling his task force were of the highest quality." Both Fletcher and Nimitz recommended Spruance for the Distinguished Service Medal for his role in the battle.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The Battle of Midway is considered by many to be a turning point of the war in the Pacific, along with the Guadalcanal campaign. Before Midway, a small and fractional U.S. Navy faced an overwhelmingly larger and battle-hardened Japanese Combined Fleet. After Midway, although the Japanese still held a temporary advantage in vessels and planes, the U.S. Navy and the nation gained confidence and, most critically, time. The setback in the Japanese timetable to encircle the Pacific gave the U.S. industrial machine time to crank up war production, and ultimately, to turn the advantage on Japan in the production of ships, planes, guns, and all the other matériel of war. The Battle of Midway infused the U.S. Pacific Navy with confidence. And with this battle the American forces gained, and afterwards continued to gain, hard combat experience; so the Japanese lost that crucial advantage as well.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Shortly after the Midway battle, Spruance became chief of staff to Admiral Nimitz, and in September 1942 was appointed as Deputy Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: In August 1943 Spruance was placed in command of the Central Pacific Force, which, on April 29, 1944, was redesignated as the Fifth Fleet. At that time, Admiral Nimitz instituted a unique arrangement in which the command of the vessels which made up the "Big Blue Fleet" alternated between Admiral William Halsey Jr., at which time it was identified as the Third Fleet and Task Force 38, and Admiral Spruance, when it became the Fifth Fleet and Task Force 58. When not in command of the fleet the admirals, and their staffs, were based at Pearl Harbor and planned future operations.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The two admirals were a contrast in styles. Halsey was aggressive and a risk taker. Spruance was calculating and cautious. Notwithstanding their different personalities, Spruance and Halsey were close friends. In fact, Spruance had a knack for getting along with difficult people, including his friend Admiral Kelly Turner, the hotheaded commander of 5th Fleet's amphibious force. One exception was Admiral John Towers, a constant critic of Spruance, whom Spruance came to despise for his naked ambition.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Most common sailors were proud to serve under Halsey; most higher-ranking officers preferred to serve under Spruance. Captain George C. Dyer of the light cruiser , who served under both Spruance and Halsey, summed up the view of many ship captains:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance directed Operation Hailstone against the Japanese naval base Truk in February 1944 in which twelve Japanese warships, thirty-two merchant ships and 249 aircraft were destroyed. This occurred at the same time that Admiral Turner's forces were attacking Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshalls, about 700 miles to the east. Spruance himself directed a task group of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that left the main body to go after Japanese ships that were fleeing Truk, sinking the light cruiser and destroyer . This was said to be the first time that a four-star admiral took part in a sea action aboard one of the ships engaged. Admiral Spruance commanded with deadly precision, reported an observer.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: While screening the American invasion of Saipan in June 1944, Spruance defeated the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Although he broke the back of the Japanese naval airforce by sinking three carriers, two oilers and destroying about 600 enemy airplanes (so many that the remaining Japanese carriers were used solely as decoys in the Battle of Leyte Gulf a few months later due to the lack of aircraft and aircrews to fly them) Spruance has been criticized for not being aggressive enough in exploiting his success in the Philippine Sea. Buell quotes Spruance speaking with Morison:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: However, his actions were both praised or understood by the main persons ordering and directly involved in the battle. Admiral Ernest J. King told him that "Spruance, you did a damn fine job there. No matter what other people tell you, your decision was correct". Spruance's fast carrier commander, Marc Mitscher, told his chief of staff Arleigh Burke that:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: For most of the war, Spruance preferred to use the heavy cruiser , named for his hometown, as his flagship. He shifted his flag to the old battleship of the shore bombardment force after "Indianapolis" was struck by a Kamikaze off Okinawa. When "New Mexico" was struck by two kamikaze on the night of 12 May 1945 a hasty search by Spruance's staff found the Admiral manning a fire hose amidship. Determining that "New Mexico" was not too badly damaged to remain on station Spruance kept her as his flagship for the rest of the campaign. Spruance later chose the battleship as his flagship, as the huge "Iowa"-class battleship had both room for his staff and the speed to keep up with the fast carrier task forces.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: After the end of the war in August 1945, Spruance succeeded Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas in November 1945.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: On October 16, 1946, the former Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, presented the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Admiral Spruance, with citation as follows:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: At the end of the Second World War Congress created a limited number of five-star ranks for the Army and the Navy, designated General of the Army and Fleet Admiral. The Navy, by law, was limited to four Fleet Admirals; three of these appointments were obvious: Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and William Leahy. The fourth was a choice between Halsey and Spruance, and after much deliberation, eventually Halsey was appointed in December 1945. Spruance's achievements were acknowledged by the unique distinction of a special act of Congress awarding him Admiral's full pay for life. Spruance expressed his personal feelings on this matter as follows:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance was President of the Naval War College from February 1946 until he retired from the Navy in July 1948. He was decorated with Order of Leopold and Croix de guerre with Palm by the Government of Belgium for his service for the Allied cause.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Shortly before his retirement, Spruance received the following Letter of Commendation from the Secretary of the Navy:


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: He was appointed as Ambassador to the Philippines by President Harry S. Truman, and served there from 1952 to 1955.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.), honoris causa degree from Central Philippine University in 1955, an institution of higher learning founded by the American Baptist missionary, William Orison Valentine in 1905.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance died in Pebble Beach, California, on December 13, 1969, and was buried with full military honors at Golden Gate National Cemetery near San Francisco. His wife, Margaret Dean (1888–1985), is buried alongside him, as are Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, his longtime friend Admiral Richmond K. Turner, and Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, an arrangement made by all of them while living. He was the grandfather of legendary theatre director Anne Bogart.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance was an active man who thought nothing of walking eight or 10 miles a day. He was fond of symphonic music, and his tastes were generally simple. He never smoked, and drank little. He enjoyed hot chocolate and would make it for himself every morning. Besides his family, he loved the companionship of his pet schnauzer, Peter. Fit into his 70s, Spruance spent most of his retirement days wearing old khakis and work shoes and working in his garden and greenhouse; he loved to show them to visitors.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: His achievements in the navy were well known, but himself much less. He did not discuss his private life, feelings, prejudices, hopes or fears, except with his family and his closest friends. He was modest and candid about himself. "When I look at myself objectively," he wrote in retirement, "I think that what success I may have achieved through life is largely due to the fact that I am a good judge of men. I am lazy, and I never have done things myself that I could get someone to do for me. I can thank heredity for a sound constitution, and myself for taking care of that constitution." About his intellect he was equally unpretentious: "Some people believe that when I am quiet that I am thinking some deep and important thoughts, when the fact is that I am thinking of nothing at all. My mind is blank."


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The destroyers , lead ship of the of destroyers, and , 61st ship of the of destroyers, were named in his honor.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The main auditorium of the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, is named Spruance Hall. A bust of Spruance is in the lobby.


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: The Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis has a meeting room named for Spruance as well as displays honoring his career and that of the USS "Indianapolis".


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance was portrayed by Glenn Ford (a US Naval Reserve officer himself) in the 1976 film "Midway", and by Jake Weber in the 2019 film "Midway".


title: Raymond A. Spruance

text: Spruance is depicted as the controversial victor of Midway by G. D. Spradlin in the 1988 TV miniseries "War and Remembrance". He is shown to be at loggerheads with his staff on numerous occasions and corrected by them once. The series, based on Herman Wouk's book of the same name, shows Spruance's decision to end the battle and retreat rather than confront the rest of the Japanese fleet as having been opposed by his subordinates, and he was mocked behind his back as "lacking the stomach." Yet the decision is hailed by the series's narrator as instrumental in sealing the American victory. Wouk writes in his book that "Spruance escaped [the Japanese fleet admiral] Yamamoto's terrible trap by acting on perfect military instinct. Not till many months later did American intelligence ferret out the facts."


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Pokémon: The Movie 2000 is a 1999 Japanese animated fantasy adventure film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. It is the second theatrical release in the "Pokémon" franchise.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: The film has two parts: a 20-minute preceding short and the feature presentation. The events of the film take place during the second season of "", where Ash, Misty and Tracey enter Shamouti Island. While there, they discover the three legendary bird Pokémon, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Meanwhile, a collector named Lawrence III attempts to steal the three Pokémon to awaken Lugia, which proves dangerous for the legendary Pokémon, Lugia, and Ash himself.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: "Pokémon the Movie 2000" was released in Japanese theaters on July 17, 1999, by Toho. The English-language adaptation was released in the United States on July 21, 2000, by Warner Bros. The film earned less at the box office than its predecessor, "", but was still a financial success and received better (albeit still negative) reviews upon release.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: As in , all of the faces of the main human characters are unseen. When Togepi wakes up to see a group of Ledyba flying by it yawns and falls back down a hill and falls down a dark hole, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Marill, Venonat, and Psyduck give chase and find themselves in a giant tree that once was Pikachu's old home. With help from Pikachu's new friend, Elekid, the Pokémon find Togepi but he has been mistaken for an Exeggcute egg. The Pokémon head off into the depths of the tree to find the missing egg, meeting a trio of dancing Bellossom along the way. A severe storm hits the area and Pikachu and his friends try to protect the Exeggcute eggs from being blown away. The grass Pokémon lend a hand and Snorlax saves everyone with his great strength. The storm fades when a Dragonair appears and calms the storm while a Chansey appears, revealing she had the missing egg all along. The eggs are reunited. Exeggcute suddenly evolves into Exeggutor with the assistance of a Leaf Stone. Pikachu and his friends say farewell to Elekid and the others and head back to their trainers. Meanwhile, Meowth tries to find his way to a campsite but ends up getting caught on Pikachu's mishaps and gives up.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Lawrence III, a Pokémon collector, strives to make a legendary prophecy occur. His plan to capture the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres will ultimately lead to the capture of the "Beast of the Sea" Lugia. Lawrence sets out in his flying hovercraft to the heart of the Orange Islands to capture the three legendary birds, referred to as the Titans of Fire, Ice and Lightning. He successfully captures Moltres, but this upsets the balance of power the birds have over the world's climate. Weather across the world begins to go haywire, alerting countless Pokémon to the change. Ash Ketchum and his companions Misty and Tracey Sketchit get caught in a freak storm, and are washed ashore on Shamouti, set in the centre of the Orange Islands. Learning that the island festival celebrating the legend is about to begin, Ash is selected as the festival's Chosen One by a girl named Melody, the festival maiden.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: At the festival's banquet, Melody explains to Ash he must retrieve three crystal balls from each of the legendary birds' islands and take them to Shamouti's shrine, guarded by a talking Slowking, where Melody will end his task by playing the festival's song, actually the song of Lugia. Ash immediately sets out, led by the troubled Pikachu. Taken to Fire Island by sea captain Maren, Ash and Pikachu find Moltres' treasure, but are interrupted by Team Rocket. Misty, Tracey and Melody arrive via Melody's multi-purpose boat, followed by Zapdos who has come to claim the island. Pikachu and Zapdos communicate with each other with electric shocks, with Meowth serving as the translator. Lawrence appears overhead, attacking and capturing Zapdos as well as Ash and co. accidentally. Meanwhile, Professor Oak, Professor Ivy, and Ash's mother Delia Ketchum fly to the islands but their helicopter crashes on Shamouti. Having no use for them, Lawrence frees Ash and the others and attempts to capture Articuno, accidentally awakening Lugia in the process. Trying to foil Lawrence's plans, Ash and the others free Moltres and Zapdos who escape and bring down Lawrence's hovercraft.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres engage in all out war, trying to destroy each other. Ash and co. manage to escape, gaining Zapdos' treasure in the process, and are transported back to Shamouti by a mysterious water spout revealed to be Lugia. Lugia at first tries to stop the battle, but is outmatched by the birds' powers combined against it. Telepathically it then explains the birds and the weather can be stopped by the legend's Chosen One, actually Ash in reality. Ash puts the two treasures he has on the shrine, but he is still missing the third one. Ash agrees to go to Articuno's island to get the final treasure, but his progress is halted by the legendary birds. Team Rocket arrive on a speedboat made from a dingy and the helicopter's discarded propeller, wishing to save the world in order to continue their villainy. The group race up to Articuno's shrine and retrieve the treasure, but before they can escape, the legendary birds appear. They destroy the speedboat before Articuno is knocked out by Moltres and Zapdos. Lugia rescues Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket, but Team Rocket heroically jump into the sea upon realizing they are slowing Lugia down. Lawrence tries to catch Lugia, but Lugia uses its Aeroblast attack to destroy his airship and take out Moltres and Zapdos before collapsing into the sea.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Misty and Tracey rescue Ash and Pikachu, who venture to Shamouti Island's shrine and place the final treasure with the others. Melody plays Lugia's song, ending the storms and bringing peace to the legendary birds. Lugia rises from the sea, bringing the true Beast of the Sea with him, an underwater current that has been altering the climate. Later, after the birds returned to their islands, Lugia departs after thanking Ash. Delia and the professors arrive. Delia, having witnessed her son's actions, asks him to be more careful which he complies with. Lawrence laments his decisions, deciding to start his collection again. Team Rocket reach the island a day later and are told by Slowking that the audience saw their heroics; the trio contemplates changing their ways but ultimately decide to stay the same when they realize their boss might not like the idea.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: "The Power of One" was released in Japan on July 17, 1999. An English-language adaptation of the film produced by 4Kids Entertainment and licensed by Warner Bros. under the Kids' WB label was released on July 21, 2000 in the United States.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Viz Media and Warner Bros announced that a limited edition Blu-ray Steelbook containing the first three "Pokémon" films will be released on February 9, 2016, along with single releases on DVD (These are: "Pokémon: The First Movie", "Pokémon The Movie 2000" and ""). In accommodation with the 20th anniversary of the "Pokémon" franchise, a digitally remastered version of the film was released on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play on February 27, 2016. Blu-ray Release on December 13, 2021 in the UK.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: The film was financially successful. It earned $9,250,000 on opening day, which was only less than $1 million behind the opening day of its predecessor. It reached third place for its opening weekend, grossing $19,575,608. On its second weekend it declined 68.3% to $6.2 million and descended to sixth place. It made $43,758,684 at the domestic box office, barely over half of the first film's domestic total.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: As of 2015, the film is the 88th highest-grossing film in Japan, with ¥6.4 billion. The film made $133,949,270 at the end of its box office run.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the North American adaptation of the film has an approval rating of 19% based on 69 reviews, with the website's critical consensus reading: "Despite being somewhat more exciting than the previous film, this kiddy flick still lacks any real adventure or excitement. What it does contain is choppy animation and poor voice acting. Doesn't match up to virtually anything out there." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 28 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: Plugged In said that "the plot is as tiresome as it was in the first movie. But the violence is tamed somewhat, so the positive messages shine a bit more brightly".


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: A more positive review was given by Gene Seymour of the "Los Angeles Times". Seymour believed that the film "charms without talking down to its audience". He also compared it favorably to the first movie, stating, "...unlike its predecessor, 'Pokémon 2000' doesn't assume that everyone who sees it will know how to tell Togepi from Bulbasaur or Squirtle from Pikachu. Sure, I know now, but I'm not telling because I don't have to".


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: At the 2000 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for "Worst Achievement in Animation" and "The Remake or Sequel Nobody Was Clamoring For". However, it lost "Worst Achievement in Animation" to "".


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: In Japan, J-pop artist Namie Amuro sang the ending song "toi et moi". A soundtrack containing Shinji Miyazaki's original score for the film was released on September 9, 1999 along with two original songs sung by Rika Matsumoto and Akiko Hiramatsu.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: The North American soundtrack was released alongside the film in 2000 by WB's then-sister company Atlantic Records on compact disc and compact cassette and includes many songs by popular artists, many of which do not appear in the film. In the English dub, Donna Summer sings the closing song in the film, "The Power of One". The melody of has been noted as having a close resemblance to Rick Wakeman's theme for the film "The Burning", with the two opening bars being identical. The song was released as a single and was remixed by Jonathan Peters and Tommy Musto. The song drew new attention in 2011 due to Republican candidate Herman Cain quoting the lyrics as part of his campaign for President of the United States.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: "Weird Al" Yankovic provided an original song, "Polkamon", which is played during the ending credits. The last song played during the credits was "Flying Without Wings" by Westlife. Italian singer Laura Pausini sings the ballad "The Extra Mile", written, among others, by Australian singer Tina Arena. The B-52's also recorded the song "The Chosen One" for the movie.


title: Pokémon: The Movie 2000

text: "Pokémon: The Movie 2000 Original Motion Picture Score" is the orchestral soundtrack to the movie. The CD was originally released in some European countries in 2000. In 2004, it became available for download worldwide on iTunes.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Little Big Man is a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 novel "Little Big Man" by Thomas Berger. While broadly categorized as a western, or an epic, the film encompasses several literary/film genres, including comedy, drama and adventure. The film follows the life of a white man who was raised by members of the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers and Native Americans throughout the progression of the boy's life. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey and Richard Mulligan.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: "Little Big Man" is an early revisionist Western in its sympathetic depiction of Native Americans and its exposure of the villainous practices of the United States Cavalry. The revision uses elements of satire and tragedy to examine prejudice and injustice. "Little Big Man" is an anti-establishment film of the period, indirectly protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the United States Armed Forces negatively.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In 2014, "Little Big Man" was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In 1970, 121-year-old Jack Crabb, the oldest man in the world, is residing in a hospice and recounts his life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859, when he was 10 years old. He and his older sister Caroline survived the massacre of their pioneer parents by the Pawnee and are discovered by Shadow, a Cheyenne brave, who takes the siblings to his village. Caroline escapes, but Jack remains and is reared by the good-hearted tribal leader, Old Lodge Skins.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: As Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear; however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack when he saves Younger Bear's life from a Pawnee brave. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. Cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself from being killed. After spending time in U.S. Army custody and going through interrogations and debriefing, Jack, being a minor, is put in the foster care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household and renounces his foster parents and religion.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In 1866, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Meriweather. The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Meriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers is Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named "the Soda Pop Kid". Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Some months later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga. Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer pays a visit and suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures them they have nothing to fear from Indians.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Jack and Olga set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search of her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins and Younger Bear. Younger Bear has become a Contrary – a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the Heemaneh Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: A few months later, Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, only because Custer incorrectly determines that was Jack's past job. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women and children, Jack turns on them.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: On the outskirts of the massacre, Jack is attacked by Shadow, the Cheyenne warrior who saved him as a child but now does not recognize him. Shadow is killed by a cavalryman, and Jack discovers Shadow's daughter, Sunshine, giving birth while hiding from the onslaught. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, who is no longer a Contrary but is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga. The traumatized Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives, and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: A little later in November 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the Washita River. Jack saves the now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins, but Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve to kill Custer.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Disheartened, Jack withdraws from life and becomes the town drunk living in Deadwood, South Dakota for the next several years. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but again rebuffs her sexual advances.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to return to his quest for revenge.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Custer hires Jack as a scout, reasoning that anything he says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn (1876) by truthfully telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne group, Custer begins to rave insanely. Jack is wounded. The maddened Custer attempts to shoot Jack when he tells Custer to shut up, but is killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Back at the Cheyenne camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian burial ground, where the old man, dressed in full chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." They return to his lodge to have dinner.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Back in the present day, Jack abruptly ends his narrative story and he dismisses the historian. The final shot shows the aged Jack sitting in his wheelchair and somberly thinking back about his life in a world which no longer exists.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: The historical Little Big Man was a Native American leader bearing no resemblance to the Jack Crabb character. Little Big Man is known for his involvement in the capture and possible assassination of Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson in 1877.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: The movie's portrayal of the Battle of Washita River as a Custer-led massacre of women and children (which Penn compares to the Holocaust) is not entirely accurate as the camp was partially occupied by tribal warriors . The film, however, is consistent with historical records of other encounters between Indians and the U.S. Cavalry; the Cavalry's common tactic was to wait until the warriors had left the camp to hunt, or to lure the warriors away with assurances of good hunting, and then to attack the unprotected village. The two massacre scenes are historically reversed, the Sand Creek massacre occurring first in 1864, where Colorado militia (not including Custer) attacked a peaceful contingent of Native Americans, killing more than 150 women, children and elderly men. (The Sand Creek Massacre was depicted in another 1970 Western, "Soldier Blue".) The Custer-led raid on the Washita occurred in 1868.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: The film also presents an inaccurate representation of the death of Wild Bill Hickok. Hickok was actually killed nearly two months after the Battle of the Little Bighorn on August 2, 1876, while playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. Uncharacteristically, Hickok had his back turned to the door. At 4:15 p.m., Jack McCall walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head. Hickok was famously holding two pairs — aces of uncertain suits and black eights — when he was shot, a set of cards thereafter called the "Dead Man's Hand".


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: The film's depiction of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer as a lunatic at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was intended as satire, though many of his quirks and vanities were inspired by contemporary observations. Custer's fatal tactics at the Little Bighorn were far more complex than portrayed in the film, which portrays him as having a searing hatred of Indians and acting ruthlessly towards them in battle.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: The character of Jack Crabb is partially based on Curley, one of Custer's Native American scouts from the Crow tribe. Curley rode with Custer's 7th Cavalry into the valley of the Little Bighorn, but was relieved of duty before the final attack, retreating to a nearby bluff and witnessing much of the action. Many conflicting stories of the era embellished Curley's participation, stating in several cases that he disguised himself with a Cheyenne blanket to escape the immediate field of battle. He was interviewed many times, with some writers claiming him to be the only surviving witness from the U.S. side of Custer's Last Stand. Curley gave several variations of his participation in the battle, and the accuracy of his later recollections has been questioned. Thomas Leforge, however, who had himself recruited most of the Crow scouts for the event, maintained in Leforge's narrated biography, that the claims were false and that Curley neither took part, as a scout had been expected to take part, nor himself claimed to have been in the battle.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: To obtain the hoarse voice of a 121-year-old man, Hoffman sat in his dressing room and screamed at the top of his lungs for an hour. The makeup for the ancient Crabb was created by Dick Smith from foam latex and included revolutionary false eyelids that could blink along with the actor's. Due to editing, and much to Smith's chagrin, no blinks were visible in the finished film. Of the makeup, Hoffman was quoted in "Life" as saying, "I defy you to put on that makeup and not feel old". The role of Chief Old Lodge Skins was initially offered to Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, and Laurence Olivier, all of whom turned it down. The Little Bighorn battle scenes were filmed on location at Crow Agency, Montana near the actual battle site. Some of the town scenes were filmed in Nevada City, Montana, a town that by 1970 consisted predominantly of historic 19th-century buildings brought from elsewhere in Montana.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: All outdoor Indian scenes other than the Little Bighorn battle were filmed near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Some interior and various footage was shot on Hollywood sets. All Indian extras were North American Indians, though Aimée Eccles, who played Sunshine, is actually of Chinese descent, and Cal Bellini, who played Younger Bear, is actually a Malay originally from Singapore.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Old Lodge Skins dies at the end of the novel but not in the film. In an interview Arthur Penn explained the change: "We thought long and hard about this and in the first draft of the script he does die, but this death would have introduced an element of sadness into the film and we didn't want this. The film would have become dramatic, even melodramatic, instead of being picaresque. I also wanted to show that not only were the Indians going to be destroyed, but they were also condemned to live. On the whole, audiences like their entertainment dramatically compact and homogenous, but I want the opposite. A film should remain free and open, not with everything defined and resolved."


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: "Little Big Man" received widespread acclaim from film critics. It was among AFI's 400 movies nominated to be on their list of America's greatest 100 movies. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 24 of 25 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.9/10; in total, the film has a 96% rating on the website.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In his December 15, 1970, review, Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called the movie, "Arthur Penn's most extravagant and ambitious movie, an attempt to capture the essence of the American heritage in the funny, bitter, uproarious adventures of Jack Crabb." Roger Ebert, of the "Chicago Sun-Times", agreed, giving the film four stars out of four stars, and describing "Little Big Man" as "an endlessly entertaining attempt to spin an epic in the form of a yarn."


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Chief Dan George was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He won many honors for his performance, including the National Society of Film Critics Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Hoffman was nominated as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The screenplay by Calder Willingham was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award as Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: In 2014, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: Arthur Hiller's 1984 comedy drama "Teachers" features Richard Mulligan partially reprising his Custer role as Herbert Gower, an outpatient from a mental institution who is accidentally put in charge of a U.S. history class and teaches his pupils while impersonating historical figures such as Custer, but also Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin, amongst others.


title: Little Big Man (film)

text: , "Little Big Man" has been released worldwide on VHS and DVD, and in the U.S. on a region free Blu-ray.


title: Suikoden

text: Although the events of the games are not chronological, the entire series (except for "Tierkreis" and "Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki") takes place within the same world, among continuing and overlapping histories. In some cases, several characters appear in multiple installments.


title: Suikoden

text: A spiritual successor entitled "Eiyuden Chronicle", made by the original "Suikoden" team, is set to release in 2023.


title: Suikoden

text: The franchise began in 1995. The first two games were primarily 2D, using 3D graphics only for environments and visual effects. Suikoden III however marked the series' complete shift from 2D to 3D as the series made its way to the PlayStation 2.


title: Suikoden

text: The series comprises the following titles including prequels, sequels and spin-offs from the main series. They are arranged chronologically with their release dates:


title: Suikoden

text: is a re-release of "Suikoden" and "Suikoden II" for the PlayStation Portable. Konami announced the game in the fourth quarter of 2005, and the compilation was released on February 23, 2006. Both games are combined in one Universal Media Disc (UMD), in which the player can choose which "Suikoden" game they want to play, as well as a third choice which is "Gallery" (ギャラリー).


title: Suikoden

text: Several changes from the original PlayStation versions of "Suikoden" and "II" were done for the PSP. The player is now able to move their character diagonally inside places and over the world map. Graphics have been slightly enhanced and redone to fit widescreen. This includes an extension of some places which were designed for PAL and NTSC televisions.


title: Suikoden

text: The art director of the "Suikoden" series discussed in his blog a possible overseas release. However, the possibility was subsequently dismissed as a mistranslation and the blog has since disappeared. The game has not been translated.


title: Suikoden

text: "Gensō Suikoden I & II" sold 21,707 copies in Japan, considered low based on the critical reception of the original games.


title: Suikoden

text: A remastered version of the first two entries, "Suikoden I and II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars", is scheduled for release on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in 2023. It includes graphical improvements such as enhanced backgrounds and redrawn portraits, new and enhanced sound effects, Mode 7-style world map system, and quality of life features such as a fast-forward toggle for battles.


title: Suikoden

text: In the Suikoden series, the player takes control of a battle party having a maximum of six people (consisting of the protagonist and 5 other characters), "Suikoden IV", however, reduces the party to four fighters and one support. The goal of the game is for the protagonist to defeat the opponents who are trying to oppose his/her team. This becomes possible as every game in the series revolves around the recruitment of the "108 Stars of Destiny"; wherein the fighter characters recruited from the bunch can be used as members for the battle party; each game in the series have its respective "Stars of Destiny". The series practically makes use of running around towns on different islands and into dungeons filled with monsters or enemies. A base or headquarters will also be obtained by the player which is usually abandoned, monster-infested castles which turns into bustling communities when captured.


title: Suikoden

text: The most typical form of battle in the series is the turn-based battle wherein the 6-man team faces the opponents. However, it is not the sole form of battle featured in the games. There are 3 different types of battle present which recurs and have been accustomed to every game. They are: 'Basic Battle', 'One-on-one Duel' and 'Strategic War Battle'.


title: Suikoden

text: The "Suikoden" series was created, written, produced, and overseen by Yoshitaka Murayama, who left Konami near the end of "Suikoden III"'s development. Noritada Matsukawa took over as Senior Director of "Suikoden III" following Murayama's departure. "Suikoden IV" was directed by Matsukawa as well but was produced by Junko Kawano, who was the chief designer in "Suikoden I". "Suikoden V" was directed by Takahiro Sakiyama, a relative newcomer to RPGs.


title: Suikoden

text: In an interview conducted by Japanese website 4gamers.net regarding the RPG Frontier Gate, Konami developers revealed that the "Suikoden" development team has been disbanded with members scattered about teams within Konami and elsewhere. This led to speculation that the franchise had indeed been abandoned following disappointing sales of the latest entries in the series.


title: Suikoden

text: Despite these rumours, Konami presented a trailer for a new Suikoden game on Tokyo Game Show 2011: Genso Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century ("Genso Suikoden Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki"). It came out in Japan for PSP on 12 February 2012 to generally lackluster reviews.


title: Suikoden

text: According to an article published by "The Nikkei" in 2015, development on the series has been halted.


title: Suikoden

text: In 2020, one of "Suikoden"'s development crew left Konami and named a new studio called Rabbit & Bear, founded by some of the key creative minds behind the classic PlayStation-era roleplaying series, including Yoshitaka Murayama, director and writer on the first two "Suikoden" games, and the creative team also includes Junko Kawano, the lead artist on "Suikoden 1" and "4"; Junichi Murakami, art director on "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow"; "Suikoden Tactics" director Osamu Komuta; and composers Motoi Sakuraba and Michiko Naruke. Murayama directed to a Suikoden follow-up game called "Eiyuden Chronicle", slated to release worldwide on 2023.


title: Suikoden

text: Essentially, each game follows the plot formula of a coup d'état by corrupt power holder(s) and the protagonist is an exile from his/her home. The plot also follows the disastrous misuse of the "True Runes" while the hero struggles, despite overwhelming odds, to bring peace to the land alongside his/her friends, and the climactic showdown with the corrupted True Rune incarnation.


title: Suikoden

text: The "27 True Runes" are powerful sources of all magic and primal forces in the world of Suikoden. Wholly sentient and possessing their own will, the True Runes hold immeasurable power, and are the equivalents of gods in the Suikoden world. Many wars have been fought over them in the past, some instigated by the will of the runes themselves. True Runes are often sought by the powerful and influential due to their shared property of granting immortality to those who will bear them. All bearers of True Runes stop aging and become immune to disease and all other natural causes of death, though they can still die from physical trauma such as accidents or murder.


title: Suikoden

text: The True Runes often attach themselves to living beings. Doing so gives the True Rune holder great power over the aspect of nature the Rune governs, as well as immortality so long as they bear the Rune. Bearing a True Rune can also have negative consequences, as in the case of the bearer of the Moon Rune being transformed into a vampire. A True Rune can also take the shape of a physical object, as is the case with the Star Dragon Sword being a manifestation of the Night Rune. They can also incarnate themselves unattached from a host, as the Beast Rune did during the Highland-Jowston conflict, self-activating and then feeding of its own will.


title: Suikoden

text: The story of the creation of the "Suikoden" universe can be found in books discovered in most games. The story from "Old Book Vol.1" from "Suikoden I" reads:


title: Suikoden

text: A concept borrowed from the Chinese novel "Shui Hu Zhuan", each "Suikoden" game has featured 108 characters who band together to ward off a threat. In each main "Suikoden game" (excluding the "Suikogaiden" games and "Suikoden Tactics"), there are 108 notable characters, all of which are recruitable except for in Suikoden III, where several of the stars of destiny were the antagonist characters. While recruiting all of the Stars of Destiny is not a requirement to finishing the game, recruiting all of them gives certain bonuses that affect the story of the game.


title: Suikoden

text: The "Suikoden" series is set in a world with many countries. The political geography has changed over the series chronology; while the most recent game in the setting is "Suikoden V", chronologically, "Suikoden IV" is the earliest game while "Suikoden III" occurs latest within the time span of the series.


title: Suikoden

text: "Suikoden", "Suikoden II" and "Suikoden III" are set on the Northern Continent, a land mass composed of several regions. "Suikoden" takes place in the Scarlet Moon Empire, which is located on southeastern coast of the Northern Continent, and is composed primarily of the Toran region, with Lake Toran at its centre. Notable locations in this area include Gregminister, the empire's capital situated in Arlus, the Warrior's Village in the Lorimar region, and the Great Forest. At the end of "Suikoden", the empire is replaced by the Toran Republic.


title: Suikoden

text: "Suikoden II" is set in the Dunan region, north-west of the Toran Republic, and initially comprises the Highland Kingdom in the east and the Jowston City-States, a confederation of politically autonomous states, in the west. Significant locations in Jowston include the cities-states of South Window, Greenhill, Muse, and Two River, and the Knightdom of Matilda. Following the Dunan Unification War, the Highland Kingdom falls and it, along with the Jowston City-States unite to form the Dunan Republic. The Tinto region lying in the west, separated from Dunan by mountains, chooses to remain politically independent and becomes the Tinto Republic.


title: Suikoden

text: Sharing Dunan's western border and north of Tinto are the Grasslands, which stretch from the centre of the Northern Continent to a small portion of the continent's west coast. The area is composed of the six clans: the Lizard, Duck, Karaya, Chisha, Safir, and the Alma Kinan. Directly west of the Grasslands and bordered in the east by Tinto is the Zexen Confederacy, located on the west coast of the Northern Continent and historically an offshoot of the Grasslands. Important locations include the Zexen capital Vinay del Zexay and Budehuc Castle, which lies close to the Grasslands border in northwest Zexen. The primary conflict of "Suikoden III" occurs in these areas. The northwestern portion of the continent, due north of the Grasslands and Zexen, is the Knightdom of Camaro and the surrounding Nameless Lands.


title: Suikoden

text: The largest country in the north is the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia, located in the northeastern portion of the continent. Since its establishment, it has assimilated various neighbouring countries, such as Sanadia, as well as a portion of the Grasslands – the Kanaa clan of the Grasslands became Le Buque under Harmonian rule after the First Fire Bringer War. Notably, the Scarlet Moon Empire originally formed after obtaining political autonomy from Harmonia and taking Harmonia's old capital as its own, renaming it Gregminister, resulting in Harmonia establishing a new capital at the Crystal Valley. Harmonia is also home to the Tower, a location reserved for training and housing members of the Howling Voice Guild.


title: Suikoden

text: Other major areas on the Northern Continent include the Kooluk region and Kanakan. The Kooluk region was originally the Kooluk Empire during the course of "Suikoden IV" and eventually dissolved in "Suikoden Tactics" to be left as a group of independent settlements. It takes up most of the southern edge of the Northern continent and directly borders the Toran Republic in the east and the Dunan Republic in the north. Off the eastern coast of Toran is the island of Kanakan.


title: Suikoden

text: Lying directly south of the Northern Continent is the ocean and several islands, including Obel, Middleport, and Razril. At the end of "Suikoden IV", most of these islands are unified to become the Island Nations Federation. The largest island in the area, the Dukedom of Gaien, remains independent. West of Gaien is the island nation of the Kingdom of Zelant.


title: Suikoden

text: Due south of the Island Nations is the Southern Continent, a landmass composed primarily of three countries: the Queendom of Falena, and its neighbours, the theocracy of Nagarea in the southwest and the New Armes Kingdom in the southeast. As the setting for "Suikoden V", Falena has a large network of rivers and lakes throughout the country and the Ashtwal Mountains in its northern region. Key locations include the cities of Stormfist and Doraat in the west; Rainwall, Estrise, and Sable, located on the Armes border, in the east; Lelcar, Lordlake, and Sauronix in the south; and the Falenan capital, Sol-Falena, and the holy land of Lunas, governed by the Oracle, in the north. Falena has been protected from the militant theocracy Nagarea since the mountain pass between the nations was destroyed, though Armes continues to remain a threat throughout "Suikoden V".


title: Suikoden

text: Northeast of Falena also appears portion of a landmass of considerable size. West of the Northern and Southern Continents and the Island Nations is a landmass referred to as the Western Continent, of which few details are known. Scattered across the world are mysterious ruins attributed to the lost Sindar race, which is a recurring theme throughout the Suikoden series.


title: Suikoden

text: The "Suikoden" games have generally been considered to have soundtracks very well liked by the gaming community, though they have only been released in Japan as of 2007.


title: Suikoden

text: A series of arranged soundtracks were released from late 2001–2004. Despite the first being released slightly before "Suikoden III" and the last at around the same time as "Suikoden IV", the music was always taken from music in "Suikoden", "Suikoden II", "Suikoden III", and (rarely) the "Suikogaiden" side-stories.


title: Suikoden

text: Many publications, such as the "Suikoden World Guide" and "Suikoden Encyclopedia", exist for the "Suikoden" series, though the majority are only in Japanese. "Suikoden" and "Suikoden II" have light novel adaptations written by Shinjiro Hori released only in Japan. "Suikoden III" was adapted into a manga by Aki Shimizu, which was released in English markets by Tokyopop.


title: Truist Park

text: Truist Park (originally SunTrust Park) is a baseball stadium in the Atlanta metropolitan area, approximately 10 miles (16 km) northwest of downtown Atlanta in the unincorporated community of Cumberland, in Cobb County, Georgia. Opened in 2017, it is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves.


title: Truist Park

text: The stadium was constructed in a public–private partnership with a project budget of $622 million. Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority issued up to $397 million in bonds for the project. The county raised an additional $14 million from transportation taxes and $10 million cash from businesses in the Cumberland Community Improvement District. The Braves contributed the remaining money for the park and The Battery Atlanta. In March 2015, a security filing from Braves owners Liberty Media allotted $672 million for Truist Park and $452 million for The Battery Atlanta, which adds up to a total cost of above $1.1 billion. The Braves will spend $181 million over 30 years to help pay off the county's bonds on the project.


title: Truist Park

text: The Braves hosted a soft opening for season ticket holders on March 31, 2017, in a preseason game against the New York Yankees. The first regular season game at the park was held on April 14, 2017, against the San Diego Padres.


title: Truist Park

text: SunTrust Banks originally bought naming rights to the stadium in 2014. After a merger in 2020, SunTrust became Truist Financial and the ballpark was renamed.


title: Truist Park

text: On November 11, 2013, the Braves announced that the franchise would leave Turner Field for a new park after the 2016 season. Turner Field had been the home of the Braves since the 1997 season. It was originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics, but was designed from the ground up to be converted into a baseball-only stadium after the Olympics ended—even though this eliminated the possibility of its use for other events such as track and field. The stadium was owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA) and leased to the Braves for twenty years. The Braves had full control over the ballpark's operations. Turner Field was a relatively new facility, younger than 13 of the other 29 major league stadiums, but there were numerous issues that led the Braves to seek a new ballpark.


title: Truist Park

text: According to vice chairman John Schuerholz, Turner Field needed $350 million in renovations—$150 million for structural upkeep and $200 million to improve the fan experience. Braves executive vice president Mike Plant has stated that capital maintenance would be much less at the new stadium. While Turner Field was designed from the ground up with the Braves in mind, Plant said that it would require higher capital maintenance costs because it was value-engineered for the 1996 Summer Olympics. This has led to higher capital maintenance costs in the long run. Plant estimates that capital maintenance costs at the new stadium will be no more than $80 million after 30 years – less than the $150 million in capital maintenance needed for Turner Field after 17 years.


title: Truist Park

text: Braves executives said that fans were unwilling to come to games in Turner Field's later years due to metro Atlanta's infamous traffic congestion. They also claimed that parking around the stadium is inadequate; Turner Field was under-served by about 5,000 parking spaces. In addition, Plant has noted the downtown location "doesn't match up with where the majority of our fans come from." Plant said that while the Braves operated Turner Field, they had no control over the commercial development around the stadium. Other baseball stadiums built in recent years have been accompanied by nearby shopping and entertainment.


title: Truist Park

text: According to Plant, the Braves entered talks with the recreational authority to extend the team's original lease in 2013, but those talks broke down. Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed said the city could not afford to support the kind of renovations the Braves desired, especially while already funding a new stadium for the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons (what became Mercedes-Benz Stadium).


title: Truist Park

text: In summer 2013, the Braves and the Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee made a short list of possible locations in Cobb County. The location chosen for the park is next to the highway interchange between Interstate 75 and Interstate 285. The Braves claim the location is "near the geographic center of the Braves' fan base." Braves officials announced that the park's capacity would be 41,149, which is approximately 8,000 fewer than Turner Field.


title: Truist Park

text: In January 2017, the Braves announced that the new park would have more than 11,000 parking spaces owned or leased by the organization for game day. This is 2,500 more spaces than were available at Turner Field. The Braves further unveiled plans to launch a private shuttle service that will serve managed parking lots and key points of interest in metro Atlanta. The Braves also announced that Waze, the world's largest community-based traffic and navigation app, will collaborate with the Braves and Cobb to share data and real-time updates with fans and commuters. Truist Park features a designated ride sharing service drop-off/pick-up zone on Windy Ridge Parkway, adjacent to the ballpark.


title: Truist Park

text: In order to reduce traffic congestion, the Braves announced that games played Monday through Thursday would start at 7:30 pm. Games at Turner Field started at 7 pm on those days. There are approximately 30,000 parking spaces within of the stadium.


title: Truist Park

text: The baseball stadium occupies of a lot, with the remainder of the space devoted to parking, green space, and mixed-use development. Although the new stadium will be over from the nearest train station, the Braves use a "circulator" bus system to shuttle fans to and from the stadium.


title: Truist Park

text: On July 8, 2015, the Braves announced an agreement for Atlanta-based Gas South to remain the official natural gas partner at Truist Park. Under the agreement, Gas South will receive prominent signage in the new ballpark, including a long "Bring the Heat" LED board in left field that will display pitching statistics and fan-friendly messaging throughout the game.


title: Truist Park

text: On November 20, 2013, the Braves unveiled plans to build a $400 million entertainment district that will surround the ballpark. The complex, called The Battery Atlanta, contains a mix of shops, dining, living and workspace in the area surrounding the ballpark. It opened in stages starting in 2017.


title: Truist Park

text: The Braves chose Populous to design the new ballpark. Populous has designed 19 of the 30 Major League stadiums currently in use including Marlins Park, Target Field, and Yankee Stadium. The Braves picked Populous over HKS, Inc. who served as a consultant for the Braves prior to the selection of Populous.


title: Truist Park

text: On May 14, 2014, the Braves released the first renderings of the new stadium. The ballpark has a southeast orientation. Two factors ended up determining the placement of the park: the topography of the land and the location of gas lines on the property. Before the ballpark was built a comprehensive sun study was conducted by the team and designers that determined the orientation would not be an issue. The ballpark cuts back into a rocky hill, where fans will enter at midlevel and then walk down. The relatively tight site led to a design that's higher than the average MLB ballpark, with fans closer to the action than they were at Turner Field. In fact, the last seat in the upper deck is closer than what it was at Turner.


title: Truist Park

text: A key design element is the use of brick. The masonry resembles patterns popular in the Southeast. Braves executive vice president of sales and marketing Derek Schiller says the masonry gives the ballpark's exterior a look of "timelessness." In addition, the Braves decided to use pre-cast stone. Schiller said "It looks custom hand-laid. It's at all of the entryways. It brings the whole scale of the brick way down." According to Schiller, by designing breaks in the masonry like porches, canopies, varying angles and trellises, "it not only creates shade, it also warms the architecture and gives it a different scale."


title: Truist Park

text: Earl Santee, Managing Director of Populous, said his team "was very involved with the master planners of the development. The integration of this building (the ballpark) with those other buildings was really crucial to the success of the project." The result was "a fully integrated experience that's never been seen in baseball before."


title: Truist Park

text: On April 16, 2014, Atlanta Braves and Cobb County officials outlined the timetable for the new stadium's construction. Site clearing was scheduled to begin July 15, 2014 and complete by October 13, 2014. However, site clearing started ahead of schedule after the Cobb County commission vote on May 27, 2014. The Atlanta Braves held a formal groundbreaking ceremony on September 16. The ceremony took place at the site near the northwest intersection of Interstates 75 and 285.


title: Truist Park

text: In order to start construction three natural gas lines that ran under the property had to be moved. The high cost of moving the gas lines is one of the key reasons the land had not been developed. The cost to move the lines was $14 million. The pipelines were moved to the perimeter. Two of the lines, which run about underground, are owned by Colonial Pipeline Company, and the third belongs to Atlanta Gas Light Company. The project was completed in early November, 2014.


title: Truist Park

text: In November 2014, workers started drilling the holes for the pylons around the outside perimeter of the stadium's footprint. According to the Braves vice president of business operations Mike Plant, phase one of construction for both the stadium and mixed-use development began in November 2014 and included infrastructure for the site, such as sewer, water and electrical systems. The retention walls for the underground service level of the stadium were also built. The underground level will have a few hundred parking spaces for players, team doctors, clubhouse staff and management staff. By May 2015, crews had installed all the caissons to stabilize the foundation. With the caissons complete, the crews began to pour concrete for the decks.


title: Truist Park

text: On August 27, 2015, the Atlanta Braves held a ceremony for the first brick laid of 775,000 bricks that made up the main exterior at Truist Park. On hand for the ceremony were dignitaries from the Braves, Cobb County government, and ballpark sponsors. The first brick was laid by Eutis Morris, 83, who laid the first concrete block at Fulton County Stadium and placed the first and last bricks at Olympic Stadium, which later became Turner Field. Also laying bricks were former Atlanta Braves player Hank Aaron and the team's first baseman at the time Freddie Freeman. The team also sealed two time capsules. The capsules included a video of the ballpark ground breaking; parts of the Big Chicken; a 1948 World Series program; dirt from both older stadiums; a baseball signed by the 1995 championship team; and recordings from team broadcasters. These time capsules will be opened when the stadium is demolished.


title: Truist Park

text: In June 2016, construction started on a pedestrian bridge to connect SunTrust Park with the Cobb Galleria. The bridge spans Interstate 285. To fund construction, Cobb county used $5 million given by the Cumberland Community Improvement District, about $4.5 million in federal grants, $380,000 from the Atlanta Braves and about $159,000 from a special taxing district in Cumberland created to help fund the new Braves stadium's construction.


title: Truist Park

text: In July 2016, the installation of the seats for the new ballpark started. Also, the installation of hundreds of LED lights were installed along the edge of the ballpark's canopy from the right-field foul pole to home plate. Additionally, a large, light-up tomahawk was installed. Meanwhile, the metal canopy that covers about 60 percent of these seats was completed. In August 2016, the canopy, lights and seating bowl were completed and the last crane remaining on the field area was removed.


title: Truist Park

text: In January 2017, most of the exterior work was complete. The team began moving out of Turner Field the day after the Braves' 2016 season ended, storing equipment temporarily at a warehouse. In December 2016, staffers began moving office equipment and furniture into the new ballpark, and on December 19, team employees began moving into their offices. The playing surface itself started to take shape. The drainage and irrigation systems were installed and covered with layers of gravel, sand and soil. The infield, pitcher's mound and warning track were formed in December 2016. The final layer of topsoil for the grass sod was installed in January.


title: Truist Park

text: The Braves received the certificate of occupancy for the entire ballpark on February 24, 2017. With seats, video boards and most other elements already installed, the sod was one of the last missing pieces of the new ballpark. Workers began the installation of of sod on March 4, 2017, a task that took two to three days to complete.


title: Truist Park

text: The 2017 Atlanta Braves season was the team's first in Truist Park. The Atlanta Braves defeated the New York Yankees 8–5 in an exhibition game on March 31, 2017, in their first game in the ballpark.


title: Truist Park

text: On January 25, 2017, the Braves announced that the University of Georgia and University of Missouri would play the first baseball game in Truist Park on April 8, 2017. The Georgia-Missouri game was also the first time the stadium was open to the general public. The teams drew in 33,025 spectators as Missouri beat Georgia 6–1. Missouri's Trey Harris hit the first home run.


title: Truist Park

text: The Braves' regular-season opener was held on April 14, 2017. During pregame ceremonies, the Braves unveiled the team's 10 retired numbers on a left-field facade, and seven of the 10 individuals represented—Hank Aaron, Bobby Cox, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro, and John Smoltz—took part in the festivities. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Aaron, with Cox serving as catcher. Aaron had also thrown the ceremonial first pitch for the Braves' first and last games at Turner Field. The Braves would defeat the San Diego Padres 5–2. Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte recorded the first out, first hit, first run, and first home run in the new ballpark.


title: Truist Park

text: Inside the stadium 16 semicircular tables, each with four swivel chairs, replaced the top six rows of seats in sections 122 and 130, which are along the first-base and third-base lines. The change was made because the 80 four-person tables in the stadium's original design, all on the terrace level, sold out quickly the year prior. The Delta Sky360 Club – open to fans in about 1,800 lower-level premium seats between the dugouts, including those at the new tables – was expanded by about . The additional dining and kitchen space was gained mostly by eliminating a media interview room.


title: Truist Park

text: Outside the stadium the 264-room, 4-star Omni hotel and the Comcast office building, both of which overlook the stadium, opened during the Braves' offseason, adding energy and activity beyond the outfield. Two-dozen shops and restaurants now are open throughout The Battery. The latest addition is "eat-ertainment" concept Punch Bowl Social. About 75% of the available retail and restaurant space in the mixed-use development will be occupied on the Braves' opening day.


title: Truist Park

text: The playing field has been resodded, and the plants that struggled in the low-light "Monument Garden" area have been replaced.


title: Truist Park

text: In 2014, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks bought the initial naming rights to the stadium for 25 years. In February 2019, SunTrust Banks announced a merger with BB&T to create what would become Truist Financial; Braves officials stated that the SunTrust Park name would remain in place during the 2019 season. On January 8, 2020, crews began removing SunTrust Park signs from the stadium. On January 14, 2020, the Braves and Truist Financial formally announced that the ballpark's name would change to Truist Park.


title: Truist Park

text: The ballpark features an intimate configuration, placing a higher percentage of seats in close proximity to the field than any other ball park in Major League Baseball. Braves executive vice president of sales and marketing Derek Schiller stated that the seating bowl is aimed at putting fans closer to the action, not by reducing the amount of foul territory, but with cantilever designs that push the middle and upper bowls toward the field. The ballpark will also include a wide canopy horseshoeing around the stadium's top and air conditioning on every level to ensure that fans remain cool on hot summer days. The existing topography of the property has been integrated into the design. The Braves are using LED lights for the stadium. LED lights provide better quality for fans in the stands and watching on TV. LED lights will also reduce the time it takes to restore lighting in case of a power outage.


title: Truist Park

text: Inside the ballpark, in the "batter's eye" area just beyond the center-field wall features three evergreen trees. The area includes boulders and a waterfall/water feature nicknamed "Chattahoochee Falls". The green giant arborvitae is a large, vigorous, fast-growing evergreen—shooting up by as much as 3' per year until maturity. The Braves took inspiration from a similar setup in the same area of the Colorado Rockies' Coors Field. A fountain shoots streams of water into the air, toward the main video board, from the upper pond. The feature comes alive after Braves home runs and wins.


title: Truist Park

text: The ballpark features an expanded protection from foul balls. The protective netting extends from behind home plate to the far end of both dugouts at Truist Park. Although longer, Truist Park's protective netting isn't quite as high as Turner Field's. The screen is high, compared to high at the former stadium. Derek Schiller attributed that difference to the geometry of ballpark and where the cables that hold up the screen are secured to stadium structures. From directly behind home plate, the screen extends down the third-base line and down the first-base line, according to Braves field director Ed Mangan. Schiller said innovations have made protective screens "thinner but in fact stronger," meaning "we're getting the ability to cover the most number of seats with the least view issues as possible."


title: Truist Park

text: The Braves selected a type of grass called "Seashore Paspalum, Platinum TE" for the stadium. The Braves replaced Turner Field's Tifway 419 hybrid Bermuda grass in the infield in 2012 in hopes the softer, thicker paspalum would slow down the playing surface a bit for the benefit of their infielders. The Bermuda remained in Turner Field's outfield, while the grassed areas of foul territory also were switched to paspalum. At Truist Park, the entire field is paspalum. It is a popular choice for beach golf courses. It also is used at Minute Maid Park