title: Celestial navigation

text: Presently, lay-person calculations of longitude can be made by noting the exact local time (leaving out any reference for daylight saving time) when the Sun is at its highest point in the sky. The calculation of noon can be made more easily and accurately with a small, exactly vertical rod driven into level ground—take the time reading when the shadow is pointing due north (in the northern hemisphere). Then take your local time reading and subtract it from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or the time in London, England. For example, a noon reading (12:00) near central Canada or the US would occur at approximately 6 pm (18:00) in London. The 6-hour difference is one quarter of a 24-hour day, or 90 degrees of a 360-degree circle (the Earth). The calculation can also be made by taking the number of hours (use decimals for fractions of an hour) multiplied by 15, the number of degrees in one hour. Either way, it can be demonstrated that much of central North America is at or near 90 degrees west longitude. Eastern longitudes can be determined by adding the local time to GMT, with similar calculations.


title: Celestial navigation

text: An older but still useful and practical method of determining accurate time at sea before the advent of precise timekeeping and satellite-based time systems is called "lunar distances", or "lunars", which was used extensively for a short period and refined for daily use on board ships in the 18th century. Use declined through the middle of the 19th century, as better and better timepieces (chronometers) became available to the average vessel at sea. Although most recently only used by sextant hobbyists and historians, it is now becoming more common in celestial navigation courses to reduce total dependence on GNSS systems as potentially the only accurate time source aboard a vessel. Destined for use when an accurate timepiece is not available or timepiece accuracy is suspect during a long sea voyage, the navigator precisely measures the angle between the Moon and the Sun, or between the Moon and one of several stars near the ecliptic. The observed angle must be corrected for the effects of refraction and parallax, like any celestial sight. To make this correction, the navigator measures the altitudes of the Moon and Sun (or star) at about the same time as the lunar distance angle. Only rough values for the altitudes are required. A calculation with suitable published tables (or longhand with logarithms and graphical tables) requires about 10 to 15 minutes' work converting the observed angle(s) to a geocentric lunar distance. The navigator then compares the corrected angle against those listed against the appropriate almanac pages for every three hours of Greenwich time, using interpolation tables to derive intermediate values. The result is a difference time between the time source (it being of unknown time) used for the observations, and the actual prime meridian time (that of the "Zero Meridian" at Greenwich also known as UTC or GMT). Now knowing UTC/GMT, a further set of sights can be taken and reduced by the navigator to calculate their exact position on the Earth as a local latitude and longitude.


title: Celestial navigation

text: The considerably more popular method was (and still is) to use an accurate timepiece to directly measure the time of a sextant sight. The need for accurate navigation led to the development of progressively more accurate chronometers in the 18th century (see John Harrison). Today, time is measured with a chronometer, a quartz watch, a shortwave radio time signal broadcast from an atomic clock, or the time displayed on a satellite time signal receiver. A quartz wristwatch normally keeps time within a half-second per day. If it is worn constantly, keeping it near body heat, its rate of drift can be measured with the radio and, by compensating for this drift, a navigator can keep time to better than a second per month. When time at the prime meridian (or another starting point) is accurately enough known, celestial navigation can determine longitude, and the more accurately latitude and time are known, the more accurate is the longitude determination. The angular speed of Earth is latitude-dependent. At the poles, or latitude 90°, the rotation velocity of Earth reaches zero. At latitude 45° one second of time is equivalent in longitude to , or one-tenth of a second means . At the slightly bulged-out equator, or latitude 0°, the rotation velocity of Earth or its equivalent in longitude reaches its maximum at .


title: Celestial navigation

text: Traditionally, a navigator checked their chronometer(s) from their sextant, at a geographic marker surveyed by a professional astronomer. This is now a rare skill, and most harbormasters cannot locate their harbor's marker.


title: Celestial navigation

text: Ships often carried more than one chronometer. Chronometers were kept in gimbals in a dry room near the center of the ship. They were used to set a hack watch for the actual sight, so that no chronometers were ever exposed to the wind and salt water on deck. Winding and comparing the chronometers was a crucial duty of the navigator. Even today, it is still logged daily in the ship's deck log and reported to the captain before eight bells on the forenoon watch (shipboard noon). Navigators also set the ship's clocks and calendar. Two chronometers provided dual modular redundancy, allowing a backup if one ceases to work, but not allowing any error correction if the two displayed a different time, since in case of contradiction between the two chronometers, it would be impossible to know which one was wrong (the error detection obtained would be the same of having only one chronometer and checking it periodically: every day at noon against dead reckoning). Three chronometers provided triple modular redundancy, allowing error correction if one of the three was wrong, so the pilot would take the average of the two with closer readings (average precision vote). There is an old adage to this effect, stating: "Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three." Vessels engaged in survey work generally carried many more than three chronometers for example, HMS "Beagle" carried 22 chronometers.


title: Celestial navigation

text: The celestial line of position concept was discovered in 1837 by Thomas Hubbard Sumner when, after one observation, he computed and plotted his longitude at more than one trial latitude in his vicinity – and noticed that the positions lay along a line. Using this method with two bodies, navigators were finally able to cross two position lines and obtain their position – in effect determining both latitude and longitude. Later in the 19th century came the development of the modern (Marcq St. Hilaire) intercept method; with this method the body height and azimuth are calculated for a convenient trial position, and compared with the observed height. The difference in arcminutes is the nautical mile "intercept" distance that the position line needs to be shifted toward or away from the direction of the body's subpoint. (The intercept method uses the concept illustrated in the example in the “How it works” section above.) Two other methods of reducing sights are the longitude by chronometer and the ex-meridian method.


title: Celestial navigation

text: While celestial navigation is becoming increasingly redundant with the advent of inexpensive and highly accurate satellite navigation receivers (GNSS), it was used extensively in aviation until the 1960s, and marine navigation until quite recently. However; since a prudent mariner never relies on any sole means of fixing their position, many national maritime authorities still require deck officers to show knowledge of celestial navigation in examinations, primarily as a backup for electronic/satellite navigation. One of the most common current usages of celestial navigation aboard large merchant vessels is for compass calibration and error checking at sea when no terrestrial references are available.


title: Celestial navigation

text: In 1980, French Navy regulations still required an independently operated timepiece on board so that, in combination with a sextant, a ship’s position could be determined by celestial navigation.


title: Celestial navigation

text: The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy continued instructing military aviators on celestial navigation use until 1997, because:


title: Celestial navigation

text: The United States Naval Academy (USNA) announced that it was discontinuing its course on celestial navigation (considered to be one of its most demanding non-engineering courses) from the formal curriculum in the spring of 1998. In October 2015, citing concerns about the reliability of GNSS systems in the face of potential hostile hacking, the USNA reinstated instruction in celestial navigation in the 2015 to 2016 academic year.


title: Celestial navigation

text: At another federal service academy, the US Merchant Marine Academy, there was no break in instruction in celestial navigation as it is required to pass the US Coast Guard License Exam to enter the Merchant Marine. It is also taught at Harvard, most recently as Astronomy 2.


title: Celestial navigation

text: Celestial navigation continues to be used by private yachtsmen, and particularly by long-distance cruising yachts around the world. For small cruising boat crews, celestial navigation is generally considered an essential skill when venturing beyond visual range of land. Although satellite navigation technology is reliable, offshore yachtsmen use celestial navigation as either a primary navigational tool or as a backup.


title: Celestial navigation

text: Celestial navigation was used in commercial aviation up until the early part of the jet age; early Boeing 747s had a "sextant port" in the roof of the cockpit. It was only phased out in the 1960s with the advent of inertial navigation and Doppler navigation systems, and today's satellite-based systems which can locate the aircraft's position accurate to a 3-meter sphere with several updates per second.


title: Celestial navigation

text: A variation on terrestrial celestial navigation was used to help orient the Apollo spacecraft en route to and from the Moon. To this day, space missions such as the Mars Exploration Rover use star trackers to determine the attitude of the spacecraft.


title: Celestial navigation

text: As early as the mid-1960s, advanced electronic and computer systems had evolved enabling navigators to obtain automated celestial sight fixes. These systems were used aboard both ships and US Air Force aircraft, and were highly accurate, able to lock onto up to 11 stars (even in daytime) and resolve the craft's position to less than . The SR-71 high-speed reconnaissance aircraft was one example of an aircraft that used a combination of automated celestial and inertial navigation. These rare systems were expensive, however, and the few that remain in use today are regarded as backups to more reliable satellite positioning systems.


title: Celestial navigation

text: Intercontinental ballistic missiles use celestial navigation to check and correct their course (initially set using internal gyroscopes) while flying outside the Earth's atmosphere. The immunity to jamming signals is the main driver behind this seemingly archaic technique.


title: Celestial navigation

text: X-ray pulsar-based navigation and timing (XNAV) is an experimental navigation technique whereby the periodic X-ray signals emitted from pulsars are used to determine the location of a vehicle, such as a spacecraft in deep space. A vehicle using XNAV would compare received X-ray signals with a database of known pulsar frequencies and locations. Similar to GNSS, this comparison would allow the vehicle to triangulate its position accurately (±5 km). The advantage of using X-ray signals over radio waves is that X-ray telescopes can be made smaller and lighter. On 9 November 2016 the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched an experimental pulsar navigation satellite called XPNAV 1. SEXTANT (Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology) is a NASA-funded project developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center that is testing XNAV on-orbit on board the International Space Station in connection with the NICER project, launched on 3 June 2017 on the SpaceX CRS-11 ISS resupply mission.


title: Celestial navigation

text: Celestial navigation training equipment for aircraft crews combine a simple flight simulator with a planetarium.


title: Celestial navigation

text: An early example is the Link Celestial Navigation Trainer, used in the Second World War. Housed in a high building, it featured a cockpit accommodating a whole bomber crew (pilot, navigator, and bombardier). The cockpit offered a full array of instruments which the pilot used to fly the simulated airplane. Fixed to a dome above the cockpit was an arrangement of lights, some collimated, simulating constellations from which the navigator determined the plane's position. The dome's movement simulated the changing positions of the stars with the passage of time and the movement of the plane around the earth. The navigator also received simulated radio signals from various positions on the ground. Below the cockpit moved "terrain plates" – large, movable aerial photographs of the land below – which gave the crew the impression of flight and enabled the bomber to practice lining up bombing targets. A team of operators sat at a control booth on the ground below the machine, from which they could simulate weather conditions such as wind or cloud. This team also tracked the airplane's position by moving a "crab" (a marker) on a paper map.


title: Celestial navigation

text: The Link Celestial Navigation Trainer was developed in response to a request made by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939. The RAF ordered 60 of these machines, and the first one was built in 1941. The RAF used only a few of these, leasing the rest back to the US, where eventually hundreds were in use.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd discography

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band originally formed in 1966, later named after the guitarist Gary Rossington's high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner. The band has released many studio, live, and other albums, along with several singles and video discs.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd discography

text: The band has sold 28 million albums in the US since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales, not including album sales for the band's first 17 years.


title: United States Army Special Forces selection and training

text: The Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) or, informally, the Q Course is the initial formal training program for entry into the United States Army Special Forces. Phase I of the Q Course is Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). Getting "Selected" at SFAS will enable a candidate to continue to the next of the four phases. If a candidate successfully completes all phases they will graduate as a Special Forces qualified soldier and then, generally, be assigned to a 12-men Operational Detachment "A" (ODA), commonly known as an "A team." The length of the Q Course changes depending on the applicant's primary job field within Special Forces and their assigned foreign language capability but will usually last between 56 and 95 weeks.


text: This 6 week performance-oriented course includes physical conditioning, map reading and land navigation instruction; land-navigation practical exercises, and common-task training. The goal is to prepare and condition 18X and REP-63 (National Guard) soldiers to attend Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course and the follow-on Special Forces Qualification Course.


text: A version of SFAS was introduced as a selection mechanism in the mid-1980s by the Commanding General of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at the time, Brigadier General James Guest.


text: The first phase of the Special Forces Qualification Course is Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS), consisting of twenty-four days of training at Camp Mackall.


text: SFAS includes numerous long-distance land navigation courses. All land navigation courses are conducted day and night under heavy loads of equipment, in varied weather conditions, and in rough hilly terrain. Land navigation work is done individually with no assistance from instructors or fellow students, and is accomplished within a time limit. Each land navigation course has its maximum time limit reduced as course moves along, and are upwards of each. Instructors evaluate candidates by using obstacle course runs, team events including moving heavy loads such as telephone poles and old jeep trucks through sand as a 12-man team, the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), a swim assessment, and numerous psychological exams such as IQ tests and the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) test. The final event is a road march of up to known as "the Trek" or Long Range Individual Movement (LRIM).


text: Candidates complete a "wish list". Enlisted candidates rank the available MOS (18B, 18C, 18D, 18E) in order of preference. Officer candidates will attend the 18A course. Both enlisted and officer candidates list in order of preference the SF Groups in which they prefer to serve (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th) and the languages in which they prefer to be trained.


text: Language selection is dependent on the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) test scores of the candidate, as well as the SF Group to which they are assigned. Different SF Groups focus on different areas of responsibility (AOR), which require different languages. A board assigns each enlisted and officer candidate their MOS, Group placement, and language. The MOS, Group, and language a selected candidate is assigned is not guaranteed and is contingent upon the needs of the Special Forces community. Generally, 80% of selected candidates are awarded their primary choices.


text: Successful Active Duty candidates usually return to their previous units to await a slot in the Special Forces Qualification Course. Because an Initial Accession (IA) 18X candidate lacks a previous unit, they will normally enter the Q Course immediately.


text: All SF trainees must complete the United States Army Airborne School before beginning Phase 2 of the Q-Course.


text: Course Description: Phase 1 of the SFQC is the SF Orientation Course, a seven-week introduction to SF. Dubbed the Orientation and History module, the course falls under the auspices of the 4th Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne). The course is separated into six modules:


text: This module exposes the students to the overall learning objectives and outcomes of the SFQC, trains them in tactical guerrilla warfare, and provides them the operational and strategic context under which they will train for the remainder of the SFQC. Under the supervision of the cadre in Robin Sage and mentorship of the "G" chiefs, the students are expected to complete this phase with a firm understanding of what will be expected of them throughout the remainder of the SFQC and the importance of unconventional warfare in the Special Forces mission.


text: This module is intended to provide the soldiers an understanding of Special Forces, their history, organization, attributes, and core tasks relating to their mission. Lessons include SFOD-A and SFOD-B numbering convention, command and control architecture, joint special-operations area, duties and responsibilities of each MOS, SF planning and organization, core mission and tasks, SOF physical fitness and nutrition. The training prepares potential Special Forces soldiers for what is expected of them and the standards they must acquire to graduate the SFQC and be members of the Army Special Forces.


text: This module allows soldiers to maintain their jump proficiency and prepare for the training they will encounter throughout the SFQC.


text: This module provides the soldiers an understanding of the Special Forces Mission Planning process. The soldiers are given classes on the Military Decision Making Process followed by a practical exercise that reinforces the training.


text: This instructional module gives students a foundation of the battlespace including: operational culture and a systems' analysis of an area. The lessons include a view of that soldier's cultural lenses, leading to an understanding of the perspective of others as well as the use of PMESII-PT system of regional analysis to deduce the capabilities, people and environment of a given area. The Pineland Area Study will be used as the basis for analysis allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the training environment. The acronym PMESII-PT refers to a form of environmental analysis to examine the aspects of political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and time aspects of the military theater.


text: Phase 2 of the SFQC focuses on language and culture. During Phase 2, soldiers receive basic special-operations language training in the language assigned to them at the completion of Special Forces Assessment and Selection. Languages are divided into four categories based on their degree of difficulty for native speakers of English. Soldiers assigned a Category I or II language will be enrolled in an eighteen-week language program, while soldiers assigned a Category III or IV language attend twenty-four weeks of language training.


text: Students receive instruction in three basic language skills: speaking, participatory listening, and reading (limited). An overview of physical and social systems, economics, politics and security, infrastructure, technology, culture, and regional studies forms the cultural component. Language instruction focuses on functional application geared toward mission-related tasks, enhanced rapport building techniques, cultural mitigation strategies, interpreting, and control of interpreter methods. Also during Phase 2, a progressive physical training program prepares for Phase 3.


text: To complete Phase 2, soldiers achieve a minimum of 1/1 Listening and Speaking as measured by the two-skill Oral Proficiency Interview.


text: Small Unit Tactics is the third phase in the qualification course. The 13-week program provides soldiers in the SFQC the apprentice-level tactical combat skills required to successfully operate on an SFOD-A.


text: Students master these tactical skills: advanced marksmanship; small-unit tactics; SF common tasks; urban operations; mission analysis; advanced special operations level 1; sensitive-site exploitation; military-decision-making process.


text: At the end of Phase 3, soldiers enroll in SERE Level C for training in support of the Code of Conduct. Training includes survival field craft skills, techniques of evasion, resistance to exploitation, and resolution skills in all types of environments. Students participate in a survival and evasion field-training exercise and in a resistance-training laboratory. The course spans three weeks with three phases of instruction. The first phase lasts approximately ten days of academic instruction on the Code of Conduct and SERE techniques incorporating classroom training and hands-on field craft.


text: The second phase is a five-day field training exercise for students to practice their survival and evasion skills by procuring food and water, constructing evasion fires and shelters, and evading tracker dogs and aggressor forces over long distances. The final phase takes place in the resistance-training laboratory (RTL) -- students are tested on their individual and collective abilities to resist interrogation and exploitation, and properly apply the six articles of the Code of Conduct in a realistic captivity scenario.


text: The purpose of this phase is to train selected soldiers in the critical MOS, skill level tasks, and competencies required to perform the duties of a member of an SF ODA. Candidates passed the SF Orientation Course, Language, SUT, and SERE before entering Phase IV training. Any variation from these prerequisites requires a waiver from the Commanding General, SWCS.


text: This phase is intended to train selected officers in the critical branch tasks and competencies required to perform the duties of a detachment commander of a Special Forces ODA. The course focuses on the operational spectrum of problem analysis and resolution design associated with SF core missions across the elements of national power spectrum. Duties and functional-area familiarization of the 18 series MOSs: communications, engineer, medical, weapons, intelligence; the military decision-making process; special-operations mission planning; adaptive thinking and leadership; special reconnaissance; direct action; unconventional warfare; foreign internal defense; counterinsurgency operations; military operations in urban terrain; interagency operations; warrior skills; Advanced Special Operations skills; OPFUND management; elements of national power considerations; culture; in-depth core mission analysis; information operations, planning and conduct of ODA training; and three field-training exercises.


text: Prior to attending SFQC, officers must complete a captains career course, which is typically either the Special Operations Forces Officer Common Core or the Maneuver Captains Career Course.


text: The Special Forces operational detachment commander is a captain with the 18A MOS award. This captain commands the detachment, and is responsible for everything the detachment does or fails to do. The commander may command or advise an indigenous battalion combat force. The commander regularly meets abroad with the country team to include ambassadors, foreign ministers of defense, and foreign presidents. The captain ensures their detachment is trained for combat anytime, anywhere, and in any environment. The commander ensures they and all their detachment members are cross-trained on all assigned equipment and duties.


text: Weapons sergeants have a working knowledge with weapons systems found throughout the world. They gain extensive knowledge about various types of small arms, submachine guns, machine guns, grenade launchers, forward-observer procedures, anti-tank missiles, and directing indirect-fire weapons (mortars and artillery). They learn the capabilities and characteristics of U.S. and foreign air defense and anti-tank weapons systems, tactical training, and range fire as well as how to teach marksmanship and the employment of weapons to others. Weapons sergeants employ conventional and unconventional tactics and techniques as tactical mission leaders. They can recruit, organize, train, and advise/command indigenous combat forces up to company size.


text: Course instruction includes direct- and indirect-fire systems and procedures: mortars, light/heavy weapons, sniper systems, anti-armor systems, forward observer and fire direction center procedures, close air support; Warrior skills; combatives; plan and conduct training; field training exercise.


text: Engineer Sergeants are experts in employing offensive and defensive combat engineer capabilities, including demolitions, landmines, explosives, and improvised munitions, construction, home-made explosives, reconnaissance, and target analysis.


text: Special Forces engineers know and understand advanced demolition skills for destroying targets with non-electric and electric firing systems, with U.S., foreign, and civilian demolition components.


text: Engineer sergeants plan, supervise, lead, perform, and instruct all aspects of combat engineering, demolition operations, and theater-of operations construction engineering in either English or their target language. They can recruit, organize, train, and advise/command indigenous combat forces up to company size.


text: The course covers: basic military construction techniques and procedures; basic and intermediate demolitions; Special Forces Tactical Facilities, UXO/IED; target analysis/interdiction and mission planning; Warrior skills; combatives; plan and conduct training; and field-training exercises.


text: Medical sergeants specialize in trauma management, infectious diseases, cardiac life support, and surgical procedures, with a basic understanding of veterinary and dental medicine. General healthcare and emergency healthcare are stressed in training.


text: Medical sergeants provide emergency, routine, and long-term medical care for detachment members and associated allied members and host-nation personnel. They establish field medical facilities to support unconventional-warfare operations. They provide veterinary care. They prepare the medical portion of area studies, briefbacks, and operation plans and orders.


text: Soldiers selected for MOS 18D attend 250 days of advanced medical training. Additionally, they spend two months on a trauma rotation in hospital emergency rooms. 18D trainees receive instruction involving lifelike human simulation models and Hollywood-type make-up effects worn by fellow students to conduct training, within safe limits guided by cadre, to simulate potential casualties they may receive and treat while on the modern battlefield or in a potential clinical environment. The medical-training phase includes a nationally accredited emergency medical technician paramedic program. They can recruit, organize, train, and advise or command indigenous combat forces up to company size.


text: The training involves two stages: (1) the Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) course, which Special amphibious reconnaissance corpsmen (SARC) and medics in the 75th Ranger Regiment, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the United States Navy SEALs also attend and (2) the Special Forces Medical Sergeant course (SFMS), which just Medical Sergeants and SARCs complete. SOCM training is required to be refreshed every two years, while SFMS training is refreshed every four years.


text: The Special Forces communications sergeant learns U.S. communication systems as well as those systems globally. He incorporates this information and technology into his communications planning, and teaches it to the other members of his ODA. Communications sergeants have a thorough grounding in communication basics, communications procedures, computer technology; assembly, and systems applications.


text: They understand communication theory –- install, operate, and maintain radio systems across all bands. They are able to make communications in voice to data, and to read voice and data radio nets by using computer systems and networks.


text: Communications sergeants are experts in sending and receiving messages to link the SFODA with its command and control elements. They are familiar with antenna theory, radio wave propagation, and how to teach it to others. Communications sergeants prepare the communications portion of area studies, briefbacks, and operation plans and orders. They can recruit, organize, train, and advise/command indigenous combat forces up to company size.


text: The course provides training in computer applications, satellite radios, and satellite and antenna theory, and radio wave propagation. Soldiers learn to construct field-expedient antennas, employing communications procedures and techniques, and communicate throughout the high frequency (HF), VHF, and UHF spectrums, culminating with a field training exercise. The course develops a world-class SF Communicator capable of employing, accessing, and familiar with SF, joint, and inter-agency communications.


text: Since 1974, Robin Sage, the culmination exercise for the SFQC, has been the litmus test for soldiers striving to earn the coveted Green Beret. (Prior to 1974, similar exercises were held under the name Devil's Arrow, Swift Strike, and Guerrilla USA.) During Robin Sage, held across 15 rural North Carolina counties, soldiers put all of the skills they learned throughout the SFQC to the test in an unconventional-warfare training exercise.


text: The exercise, broken into two phases, puts students on their first SFODA. The SFODA is trained, advised, and mentored throughout the exercise—from mission receipt through planning and infiltration. During the first week, the students are taught the necessary skills to survive and succeed in a UW environment using the small group instruction teaching method. The remaining three weeks focus on their planning and application during Robin Sage.


text: The students are placed into an environment of political instability characterized by armed conflict to force soldiers to exercise individual and collective problem-solving. A key to the success of the Robin Sage training is its real-world feel by the use of guerrilla forces. The SFODA must assess the combat effectiveness of the G-forces, then trains them in basic individual tasks from each of the MOSs as well as collective tasks in basic small-unit tactics, while remaining responsive to asymmetrical challenges. Just as language plays a key role in all other phases of the pipeline, language skills will be put to the test during Robin Sage. During this training, the SFODA must demonstrate their knowledge of UW doctrine and operational techniques.


text: On the last day of isolation, the detachment presents their plan to the battalion command and staff. This plan explains the ways the commander intends to execute the mission. The next day, the students make an airborne infiltration into the fictitious country of "Pineland". They contact guerrilla forces to initiate "Robin Sage". Students accomplish their task of training, advising, and assisting the guerrillas. The training educates the guerrillas in various specialties, including weapons, communications, medical, and demolitions. The training is designed to enable the guerrillas to begin liberating their country from oppression. It is the last portion of the Special Forces Qualification Course before they receive their "Green Berets".


text: Robin Sage involves approximately 100 Special Forces students, 100 counter-insurgent personnel (OPFOR), 200 guerrilla personnel, 40 auxiliary personnel, and 50 cadre. The local communities of North Carolina also participate in the exercise by roleplaying as citizens of Pineland. The exercise is conducted in approximately of North Carolina. Many of the OPFOR and guerrilla personnel are North Carolina residents and are paid for their participation. The role of the guerrilla chief, "G-chief", is sometimes played by a retired Green Beret. During the summer Robin Sage exercises, Army ROTC cadets from The Citadel and cadets from the United States Military Academy act as guerrilla fighters.


text: During a Robin Sage exercise on 23 February 2002, Moore County Deputy Sheriff Randall Butler shot and killed 1st Lieutenant Tallas Tomeny, 31, wounded Staff Sergeant Stephen Phelps, 25, and detained civilian volunteer Charles Leiber.


text: While on patrol, Deputy Butler pulled over the three exercise participants after he determined their behavior indicated they might be searching for robbery targets.


text: During the road-side investigation, Leiber (the driver of the pick-up truck) was led by Butler to Butler's patrol cruiser for questioning. After leaving Leiber in his patrol car, Butler led Tomeny from the pick-up passenger seat to the truck bed where Phelps was riding. Butler wished to inspect a bag Tomeny possessed containing Tomeny's M4 service rifle. Butler later admitted he had no knowledge of the weapon at this point because the compartment containing the rifle remained unopened.


text: The soldiers, under the assumption Butler was aware of the ongoing Robin Sage training, attempted to bribe him with "Don" (Pineland currency), which looks similar to Monopoly money. Butler tussled with Tomeny for the bag, pushed Tomeny away, then threw the bag to the side. Tomeny backed-up and raised his hands, and, according to court documents, "Tomeny [...] did not bump Butler or reach for Butler’s service weapon." Butler re-holstered his service pistol, and "sprayed Tomeny in the eyes with pepper spray until the pepper spray appeared to run out," which caused Tomeny to scream and rub his eyes with his hands. Phelps moved from his position in the pick-up truck's bed, grabbed the bag with Tomeny's service rifle, and ran for cover in the direction of the woods.


text: Deputy Butler shot Tomeny, turned, and shot the fleeing Phelps who had, after hearing the shots fired at Tomeny, turned suddenly, and due to the wet pavement slipped and fell to his hands and knees. Phelps did not make any attempts to open the bag, and was shot by Butler twice. According to Butler's counsel, he warned Phelps to show his hands, but this was contested.


text: Prior to the incident, there was confidence within the military hierarchy all North Carolina law enforcement officials were familiar with the exercise. Press releases are now issued before an exercise commences, and law enforcement officials participating in the training are required to wear a distinctive uniform.


text: On 27 October 2009, a federal jury in Greensboro, North Carolina, awarded $750,000 to Phelps after he sued Butler and the Moore County Sheriff's office. Tomeny's estate settled out-of-court with the sheriff's office. Jurors said they did not believe portions of Butler's testimony.


text: Butler sued the US government for $5 million for "emotional distress" and "post-traumatic stress disorder" as a result of shooting Tomeny and Phelps; the case was dismissed.


text: Phase 6 is the final phase and consists of one week of out processing, the Regimental First Formation where students don their green berets for the first time, and the graduation ceremony.


text: After successfully completing the Special Forces Qualification Course, Special Forces soldiers are then eligible for many advanced skills courses, as listed below. These include, but are not limited to, the Military Free Fall Parachutist Course (MFF) (this is now a requirement for all members of the Special Forces), the Combat Diver Qualification Course and the Special Forces Sniper Course (formerly known as the Special Operations Target Interdiction Course). All Special Forces soldiers conduct real world, non-combat operations in order to maintain their skills. Special Forces Medical Sergeants (18D) often work in both military and civilian Emergency Rooms in between deployments.


text: Additionally, because one of the Special Forces soldier's primary mission is the instruction of other forces, they participate extensively in special operations training courses offered by other services and allied nations throughout their careers.


title: God Bless America

text: "God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin during World War I in 1918 and revised by him in the run up to World War II in 1938. The later version was notably recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song.


title: God Bless America

text: "God Bless America" takes the form of a prayer (with introductory lyrics noting that "as we raise our voices, in a solemn prayer") for God's blessing and peace for the nation ("...stand beside her and guide her through the night...").


title: God Bless America

text: Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called "Yip Yip Yaphank", so he set it aside. The lyrics at that time included the line "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..." as well as "Stand beside her and guide her "to the right" with the light from above".


title: God Bless America

text: Music critic Jody Rosen says that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band," contains a six-note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of 'God Bless America'". He interprets this as an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers." Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes.


title: God Bless America

text: In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in the U.S. from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. This song has become the performer's calling card. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer." (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang "that we're far from there" rather than "for a land so fair".) This was changed when Berlin published the sheet music in March 1939.


title: God Bless America

text: Woody Guthrie criticized the song, and in 1940 he wrote "This Land Is Your Land," originally titled "God Blessed America For Me," as a response. Anti-Semitic groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also protested against the song due to its authorship by a Jewish immigrant.


title: God Bless America

text: In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical "This is the Army" along with other Berlin songs. The manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. Berlin gave the royalties of the song to The God Bless America Fund for redistribution to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in New York City. Smith performed the song on her two NBC television series in the 1950s. "God Bless America" also spawned another of Irving Berlin's tunes, "Heaven Watch The Philippines," during the end of World War II. The Philippines was an American possession since 1898 and recently liberated from Japanese occupation; Berlin wrote it after he heard Filipinos singing a modified version of the song replacing "America" with "The Philippines."


title: God Bless America

text: The song was used early in the Civil Rights Movement as well as at labor rallies. During the 1960s, the song was increasingly used by Christian conservatives in the US to signal their opposition to secular liberalism and to silence dissenters who were speaking in favor of communism or in opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.


title: God Bless America

text: Later, from December 11, 1969, through the early 1970s, the playing of Smith singing the song before many home games of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers brought it renewed popularity as well as a reputation for being a "good luck charm" to the Flyers long before it became a staple of nationwide sporting events. The Flyers brought Smith in to perform live before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals on May 19, 1974, and the Flyers won the Cup that day.


title: God Bless America

text: In 1940 "God Bless America" was the official campaign song for both President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie. At that time, the song represented cultural and religious tolerance.


title: God Bless America

text: Irving Berlin personally performed the song on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on May 5, 1968, during an episode dedicated to him in honor of his 80th birthday.


title: God Bless America

text: During a live television broadcast on the evening of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, following addresses by then House and Senate leaders, Speaker Dennis Hastert (Republican) and Tom Daschle (Democrat), members of the United States Congress broke out into an apparently spontaneous verse of "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.


title: God Bless America

text: On July 21, 2011, Smith's version of the song was played as NASA's final wakeup call for Space Shuttle "Atlantis" (STS-135), capping the 30-year Space Shuttle program.


title: God Bless America

text: "God Bless America" has been performed at home games of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers and those of the Ottawa Senators in which the visiting team is from the United States. (The NHL requires arenas in both the U.S. and Canada to perform both "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada," the Canadian national anthem, at games that involve teams from both countries.)


title: God Bless America

text: At some Flyers' home games, especially during big games and the playoffs, their main anthem singer, Lauren Hart, has sung "God Bless America" alternating lyrics with Kate Smith on a video screen, until 2019. Smith actually appeared in person to sing at select Flyers games, including their 1974 Stanley Cup clinching game against the Boston Bruins, to which she received a thunderous ovation from the passionate Philadelphia fans. Before games whenever "God Bless America" is performed until 2019, Lou Nolan, the PA announcer for the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center, would say: "Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we ask that you please rise and remove your hats and salute to our flags and welcome the No. 1 ranked anthemist in the NHL, Our very own Lauren Hart, as she sings (if the visiting team is from Canada, O Canada, followed by) God Bless America, accompanied by the great Kate Smith."


title: God Bless America

text: At some Senators home games since , if the visiting team is from the U.S., their main anthem singer, Ontario Provincial Police Constable Lyndon Slewidge, has sung "God Bless America" and "O Canada." An example of this came during the Senators' home opener during the 2002–03 season, when they were home against the New Jersey Devils.


title: God Bless America

text: During Tom Golisano's time as owner of the Buffalo Sabres, the team occasionally substituted "God Bless America" for "The Star-Spangled Banner" during certain special events. When this occurred, Ronan Tynan was brought in to sing the song while usual anthem singer Doug Allen sang "O Canada."


title: God Bless America

text: At Chicago's Wrigley Field during the Vietnam War, the song was often played by the organist as part of his postgame playlist while fans filed out of the stadium.


title: God Bless America

text: Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "God Bless America" is commonly sung during the seventh-inning stretch in Major League Baseball games, most often on Sundays, Opening Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, All-Star Game, Labor Day, September 11, and all post-season Major League Baseball games. Following the attacks, John Dever, then the Assistant Media Relations Director of the San Diego Padres, suggested the song replace "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", the more traditional 7th inning anthem. Major League Baseball quickly followed the Padres lead and instituted it league-wide for the rest of the season. Presently, teams decide individually when to play the song.


title: God Bless America

text: The New York Yankees, at Yankee Stadium home games, is currently the only Major League club to play "God Bless America" at every game during the seventh-inning stretch. The Yankees' YES Network televises its performance during all games before going to a commercial. During major games, such as Opening Day, national holidays, playoff contests, or games against the Boston Red Sox or New York Mets, the Yankees will often have Irish tenor Ronan Tynan perform the song.


title: God Bless America

text: On August 26, 2008, at a Boston Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium, a fan who had attempted to leave for the restroom during the playing of the song was restrained and subsequently sent out of the building by NYPD officers. Part of the resolution of the resulting lawsuit was that the New York Yankees announced that they would no longer restrict the movement of fans during the playing of the song.


title: God Bless America

text: On September 15, 2009, three high school teens filed a lawsuit against New Jersey's minor league Newark Bears for being ejected from Eagles Riverfront Stadium over their refusal to stand during the playing of "God Bless America" on June 29, 2009. Before being ejected, they were asked to leave the stadium by Bears president and co-owner Thomas Cetnar.


title: God Bless America

text: At the January 1, 1976, Rose Bowl, to honor the start of the United States Bicentennial, Kate Smith and the UCLA Band performed "God Bless America" for a national television audience.


title: God Bless America

text: During the Super Bowl LI halftime show a pre-recorded introduction by Lady Gaga, who headlined the show, featured both "God Bless America" and "This Land is Your Land".


title: God Bless America

text: The Indianapolis 500 is traditionally held at the end of May, and "God Bless America" has been sung there since 2003. The song "America the Beautiful" was sung before, but it was switched to "God Bless America" in the post-9/11 era. The song for many years was performed by Florence Henderson, a native Hoosier, and a friend of the Hulman-George family, the track's owners at the time. The performance, often not televised, immediately precedes the national anthem. Henderson routinely sang the entire song, including the prologue, and in some years sang the chorus a second time.


title: God Bless America

text: In 1997, American country music recording artist LeAnn Rimes recorded a cover of the song on her second studio album, "". After the events of September 11, Rimes rereleased the song on a compilation album by the same name. Rimes also released the song on a CD single. Two versions were released on October 16, 2001. Both versions contain the song as the A-side track, but the B-side tracks were different. One released to the general public was released with the B-side track, "Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart," and the other was released to radio with the B-side track of Rimes's rendition of "The National Anthem." Rimes's version peaked at No. 51 on the "Billboard" Country Songs chart on October 27, 2001.


title: God Bless America

text: The song was recorded by New York City's "singing cop," Daniel Rodríguez, and charted for one week at No. 99 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 as a single. Before the 2001 versions, the last time "God Bless America" had been a "Billboard" chart hit was in 1959 when Connie Francis reached No. 36 with her version (the B-side of her Top 10 hit "Among My Souvenirs").


title: God Bless America

text: On January 20, 2017, Jackie Evancho released "Together We Stand", a disc containing three patriotic songs including "God Bless America". The song charted at No. 5 on "Billboard's" Classical Digital Song sales chart.


title: God Bless America

text: On September 21, 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Canadian pop star Celine Dion performed "God Bless America" during the television special "". Shortly afterwards on October 16, 2001 Sony Music released a benefit album called "God Bless America", which featured Dion singing the song. The album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 and became the first charity album to reach the top since USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in 1985. Dion's version also received enough radio airplay to reach number 14 on "Billboard"s Adult Contemporary chart. The music video premiered in September 2001.


title: God Bless America

text: Dion performed the song also a few times during 2002. In 2003, she performed it at the Super Bowl XXXVII. She also sang it on July 4, 2004 in her "A New Day..." show. "God Bless America" performed by Dion exists in two versions, live and studio. Both included on collections to gather funds for the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their families. The live version was released on "America: A Tribute to Heroes" CD and DVD on December 4, 2001. The studio version was released on the "God Bless America" album. The song was recorded on September 20, 2001, the day before the telethon. It was meant to be a replacement for the performance in the event something happened and Dion could not appear. The song was produced by David Foster.


title: Chronophilia

text: The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe a form of paraphilia in which an individual experiences sexual attraction limited to individuals of particular age ranges. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism".


title: Bachelor

text: A bachelor is first attested as the 12th-century "bacheler": a knight bachelor, a knight too young or poor to gather vassals under his own banner. The Old French ' presumably derives from Provençal ' and Italian ', but the ultimate source of the word is uncertain. The proposed Medieval Latin * ("vassal", "field hand") is only attested late enough that it may have derived from the vernacular languages, rather than from the southern French and northern Spanish Latin . Alternatively, it has been derived from Latin ' ("a stick"), in reference to the wooden sticks used by knights in training.


title: Bachelor

text: From the 14th century, the term "bachelor" was also used for a junior member of a guild (otherwise known as "yeomen") or university and then for low-level ecclesiastics, as young monks and recently appointed canons. As an inferior grade of scholarship, it came to refer to one holding a "bachelor's degree". This sense of ' or ' is first attested at the University of Paris in the 13th century in the system of degrees established under the auspices of Pope Gregory IX as applied to scholars still '. There were two classes of ': the ', theological candidates passed for admission to the divinity course, and the ', who had completed the course and were entitled to proceed to the higher degrees.


title: Bachelor

text: In the Victorian era, the term "eligible bachelor" was used in the context of upper class matchmaking, denoting a young man who was not only unmarried and eligible for marriage, but also considered "eligible" in financial and social terms for the prospective bride under discussion. Also in the Victorian era, the term "confirmed bachelor" denoted a man who desired to remain single.


title: Bachelor

text: By the later 19th century, the term "bachelor" had acquired the general sense of "unmarried man". The expression bachelor party is recorded 1882. In 1895, a feminine equivalent "bachelor-girl" was coined, replaced in US English by "bachelorette" by the mid-1930s. This terminology is now generally seen as antiquated, and has been largely replaced by the gender-neutral term "single" (first recorded 1964). In England and Wales, the term "bachelor" remained the official term used for the purpose of marriage registration until 2005, when it was abolished in favor of "single."


title: Bachelor

text: Bachelors have been subject to penal laws in many countries, most notably in Ancient Sparta and Rome. At Sparta, men unmarried after a certain age were subject to various penalties (, "atimía"): they were forbidden to watch women's gymnastics; during the winter, they were made to march naked through the agora singing a song about their dishonor; and they were not provided with the traditional respect due to the elderly. Some Athenian laws were similar.


title: Bachelor

text: Over time, some punishments developed into no more than a teasing game. In some parts of Germany, for instance, men who were still unmarried by their 30th birthday were made to sweep the stairs of the town hall until kissed by a "virgin". In a 1912 Pittsburgh Press article, there was a suggestion that local bachelors should wear a special pin that identified them as such, or a black necktie to symbolize that "...they [bachelors] should be in perpetual mourning because they are so foolish as to stay unmarried and deprive themselves of the comforts of a wife and home."


title: Bachelor

text: The idea of a tax on bachelors has existed throughout the centuries. Bachelors in Rome fell under the Lex Julia of 18 BC and the Lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9: these lay heavy fines on unmarried or childless people while providing certain privileges to those with several children. In 1695, a law known as the Marriage Duty Act was imposed on single males over 25 years old by the English Crown to help generate income for the Nine Years' War. In Britain, taxes occasionally fell heavier on bachelors than other persons: examples include 6 & 7 Will. III, the 1785 Tax on Servants, and the 1798 Income Tax.


title: Bachelor

text: A study that was conducted by professor Charles Waehler at the University of Akron in Ohio on non-married heterosexual males deduced that once non-married men hit middle age, they will be less likely to marry and remain unattached later into their lives. The study concluded that there is only a 1-in-6 chance that men older than 40 will leave the single life, and that after the age 45, the odds fall to 1-in-20.


title: Bachelor

text: In certain Gulf Arab countries, "bachelor" can refer to men who are single as well as immigrant men married to a spouse residing in their country of origin (due to the high added cost of sponsoring a spouse onsite), and a colloquial term "executive bachelor" is also used in rental and sharing accommodation advertisements to indicate availability to white-collar bachelors in particular.


title: Bachelor

text: The traditional female equivalent to bachelor is spinster, which is considered pejorative and implies unattractiveness (i.e. old maid, cat lady). The term "bachelorette" has been used in its place, particularly in the context of bachelorette parties and reality TV series "The Bachelorette".


title: Weltschmerz

text: The term was coined by the German Romantic author Jean Paul in his 1827 novel "Selina", and in its original definition in the "" by the Brothers Grimm, it denotes a deep sadness about the insufficiency of the world (). The translation can differ depending on context; in reference to the self it can mean "world-weariness", while in reference to the world it can mean "the pain of the world".


title: Weltschmerz

text: The worldview of "Weltschmerz" has been retroactively seen as widespread among Romantic and decadent authors such as Jean Paul, the Marquis de Sade, Lord Byron, Giacomo Leopardi, William Blake, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, François-René de Chateaubriand, Oscar Wilde, Alfred de Musset, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolaus Lenau, Hermann Hesse, and Heinrich Heine.


title: Weltschmerz

text: The modern meaning of in the German language is the psychological pain caused by sadness that can occur when realizing that someone's own weaknesses are caused by the inappropriateness and cruelty of the world and (physical and social) circumstances.


title: Weltschmerz

text: In "Tropic of Cancer", Henry Miller describes an acquaintance, "Moldorf", who has prescriptions for on scraps of paper in his pocket. John Steinbeck wrote about this feeling in two of his novels; in "East of Eden", Samuel Hamilton feels it after meeting Cathy Trask for the first time, and it is referred to as the "Welshrats" in "The Winter of Our Discontent". Ralph Ellison uses the term in "Invisible Man" with regard to the pathos inherent in the singing of spirituals: "beneath the swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo and a cave and I entered it and looked around and heard an old woman singing a spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as flamenco". Kurt Vonnegut references the feeling in his novel "Player Piano", in which it is felt by Doctor Paul Proteus and his father.


title: Weltschmerz

text: In John D. MacDonald's novel "Free Fall in Crimson", Travis McGee describes as "homesickness for a place you have never seen."


title: Rich People Problems

text: Rich People Problems is a satirical 2017 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. It is the third and final novel in Kwan's "Crazy Rich..." trilogy that looks at the rich and powerful families of Singapore. It was preceded by the bestsellers of "Crazy Rich Asians" in 2013 and "China Rich Girlfriend" in 2015.


title: Rich People Problems

text: In 2015, two years after the events that take place in "China Rich Girlfriend", Nick and Rachel Young (née Chu), an economics professor at New York University (NYU), are happily married and living their life in Manhattan. Nick is informed by his mother Eleanor that his grandmother, Su Yi, has had a heart attack, and that he must come home to reconcile with her before she dies. While Nick wants to make up with his grandmother out of guilt for having shut her out of his life for marrying Rachel (as Su Yi was opposed to the marriage), his mother wants him to make amends so that he will be re-introduced into the will and inherit Tyersall Park, Su Yi's home. The extended Shang-Young clan has descended upon Tyersall Park to say their last goodbyes with the hopes of getting into Su Yi's good graces and inheriting part of her fortune.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Nicholas is initially prevented from seeing Su Yi due to scheming from his cousin, Eddie Cheng, who believes he has a shot at inheriting his grandmother's estate. Eddie lies and convinces the entire family and house staff that Su Yi does not wish to see Nick while she is on her deathbed. With the help of the head of security, the head maid (who overheard Eddie's plotting) and Astrid, Nick is able to sneak into Tyersall Park and speak with his grandmother while she is in a cardiac intensive care unit in her bedroom. She is happy to see him and they make amends. Meanwhile, Astrid, Nick's cousin, becomes engaged again to Charlie Wu. Her relationship with Charlie faces obstacles from Charlie's scorned ex-wife Isabel Wu and Astrid's soon-to-be ex-husband Michael Teo.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Su Yi dies and everyone prepares for her funeral. During the funeral, Astrid receives a grainy video from Michael depicting her and Charlie having sex in Charlie's bedroom, with a threat of releasing the video unless he is given 5 billion dollars in their divorce settlement. In Su Yi's will, she leaves a share of Tyersall Park to each of her four daughters (Alexandra, Felicity, Victoria, and Catherine) and her son (Phillip, Nick's father) along with a share to Nick and his cousin (and Eddie's brother) Alistair Cheng. Upon the reading of the will, Eddie is humiliated to be left with nothing except his grandfather's antique sapphire cuff links. Astrid inherits Su Yi's fashionable dresses and jewelry. Jacqueline, Su Yi's goddaughter, inherits her shares at Ling Holdings, making her a wealthy woman and angering the family, who expected to inherit some of those shares, and now only have Tyersall Park.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Returning to Tyersall Park, Eddie furiously confronts Fiona for humiliating him by not telling him about the contents of the will, and ruining their family's opportunity to live in luxury. Fiona claims that she respected Su Yi's privacy and that she only picked up the pen to sign the paper as a witness. Eddie ends up curled up in a ball, crying, with Fiona comforting him. The family initially agrees to sell Tyersall Park to Jack Bing, to be used by his new wife Kitty, the former Hong Kong soap actress (and Alistair's former fiancée), for 10 billion dollars, because there are no funds to maintain it. Nick cannot bring himself to let Tyersall Park go, and so he attempts to buy out the shares owned by his four aunts, with his father signing over his portion directly to Nick. However, he is not able to raise the money to do this.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Isabel suffers a psychotic breakdown and in a fit of rage releases the damning video of Charlie and Astrid, revealing her involvement in helping Michael blackmail Astrid. She attempts to commit suicide and taint Charlie and Astrid's new house by hanging herself from a chandler.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Astrid is shunned by her family and retreats into seclusion, not even telling Charlie where she went. He goes to great lengths to track her down, eventually finding her on an island in the Philippines. He reveals to her that he has gotten Michael to sign off on their divorce without any challenge by threatening to have him prosecuted for illegal surveillance of Astrid and blackmail. He tells her that though Isabel survived her suicide attempt and is now in stable condition, her family had found out that she was involved in blackmailing Astrid with Michael and that she will face humiliation of her own. Astrid says that she wants to stay and to bring her son Cassian to live with the people on the island. Charlie is willing to let her have the life she wants but wants to know if there is any room for him.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Nick takes a trip to visit an elderly Thai prince, based on a note left to him by his grandmother, thinking that this is the key to the funding to buy Tyersall Park. However he learns that this Prince was his grandmother's first love, and Aunt Catherine's biological father. Nick also learns that during World War II, Su Yi aided in the resistance effort against the Japanese occupation of Singapore by providing Tyersall Park as a safe haven for many Chinese and British agents working against the Japanese. Nick then tries to block the sale of Tyersall Park by claiming that it is a historic site. Rachel and Nick bring together Nick's friends Colin and Araminta Khoo, Rachel's friend Goh Peik Lin, and Alistair to buy Tyersall Park and turn it into the Tyersall Museum and Hotel. Kitty completes the deal by becoming a secret investor in their group in order to spite Jack, who had decided to buy Tyersall Park for Colette (his daughter) instead of Kitty.


title: Rich People Problems

text: One year later, Peik Lin is marrying Alistair, with Nick and Rachel serving as best man and maid of honor. After years of trying to conceive, Araminta and Colin now have a two-month-old son. Eddie finally changes his ways after Fiona convinces him to seek help and he goes to a therapist. Astrid continues to live on the island with Charlie and has started designing her own clothes. She does not wish to get married yet, instead preferring to live "a life of sin" with Charlie, enjoys the fact that this very much bothers her parents. Rachel reveals to Nick that she is six weeks pregnant. They both jokingly agree to not tell Nick's mother about the news, agreeing to wait at least until their child is 21.


title: Rich People Problems

text: Kwan has said that this book was actually the first he had mapped out when he was first planning his trilogy.


title: Rich People Problems

text: The novel received positive reviews and was noted by "USA Today" to be "a memorable, laugh-out-loud Asian glitz fest that’s a pure pleasure to read".


title: Rich People Problems

text: "Time" reported on August 15, 2018 that Kwan has been tasked with developing the sequel to "Crazy Rich Asians" from his two follow-up novels including "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems". The planning was still in pre-production concerning the back-to-back filming of both sequels following "Crazy Rich Asians" as of August 2018, though several of the key actors are committed to other projects until 2020. Awkwafina was interviewed in January 2019 and indicated that there were still no scripts for the sequel and that production filming had not started. According to "Town and Country" magazine, the filming and premiere of the film is not scheduled to take place until 2020. According to a Slash film journal article, the two sequels, including "Rich People Problems", will be shot back-to-back in 2020 once the filming commences.


title: FHM

text: FHM (For Him Magazine) is a British multinational men's lifestyle magazine that was published in several countries. Its master edition contained features such as the "FHM" 100 Sexiest Women in the World, which has featured models, actresses, musicians, TV presenters, and reality stars.


title: FHM

text: The final printed issue of British "FHM" was produced in December 2015, after which the magazine moved to a digital-only platform, with updated daily content on topics such as dating tips, style advice, viral news, sports and entertainment.


title: FHM

text: High-profile people who have been published in the magazine include top models Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Anne Vyalitsyna, Miranda Kerr, Candice Swanepoel, Irina Shayk and Emily Ratajkowski.


title: FHM

text: The magazine began publication in 1985 in the UK under the name "For Him Magazine" and changed its title to FHM in May 1992, although the full "For Him Magazine" continued to be printed on the spine of each issue. The first woman to appear on the cover was Gina Davies in February 1993. The trend towards female cover stars grew over the following year, with both Naomi Campbell and Andie MacDowell appearing.


title: FHM

text: Circulation expanded to newsagents as a quarterly by the Spring of 1987 and then monthly in 1994. EMAP Consumer Media bought the magazine in 1994 and it subsequently went on to dominate the UK men's market and began to expand internationally, being published in 32 countries including India.


title: FHM

text: On 17 November 2015, British "FHM" announced their intention to suspend publication alongside that of fellow men's magazine "ZOO," leaving the publication available via its website at FHM.com.


title: FHM

text: In August 2016, under the guidance of BauerXcel Media, a property of Bauer Media Group, Nick Dimengo took over as the senior editor of FHM.com.


title: FHM

text: Each of "FHM"s international editions publish yearly rankings for the sexiest women alive based on public and editorial voting through the magazine's website. Dates of magazine issues, winners, ages of winners at the time of selection, and pertinent comments are listed below. The data below refer "only" to the British edition (the rankings for the international editions vary widely, with many top-ranking women in some editions not appearing at all in others).


title: Lee Morgan

text: One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's "Blue Train" (1957) and with the band of drummer Art Blakey before launching a solo career. Morgan stayed with Blakey until 1961 and started to record as leader in the late '50s. His song "The Sidewinder", on the album of the same name, became a surprise crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1964, while Morgan's subsequent recordings found him touching on other styles of music such as post-bop and avant-garde jazz as his artistry matured. Soon after "The Sidewinder" was released, Morgan rejoined Blakey for a short period. After leaving Blakey for the final time, Morgan continued to work prolifically as both a leader and a sideman with the likes of Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter, becoming a cornerstone of the Blue Note label.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Morgan died at the age of 33 when his common-law wife Helen Morgan shot and killed him following a confrontation at Slugs' Saloon, in New York City.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Edward Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on July 10, 1938, the youngest of Otto Ricardo and Nettie Beatrice Morgan's four children.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Originally interested in the vibraphone, he soon showed a growing enthusiasm for the trumpet. Morgan also knew how to play the alto saxophone. On his thirteenth birthday, his sister Ernestine gave him his first trumpet. His primary stylistic influence was Clifford Brown, with whom he took a few lessons as a teenager.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Morgan recorded prolifically from 1956 until a day before his death in February 1972. He joined Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band at 18 and remained as a member for a year and a half until economic circumstances forced Gillespie to disband the unit in 1958. Morgan began recording for Blue Note in 1956, eventually recording 25 albums as a leader for the label. He also recorded on the Vee-Jay label and one album for Riverside Records on its short-lived Jazzland subsidiary. He was a featured sideman on several early Hank Mobley records, and intermittently thereafter. On John Coltrane's "Blue Train" (1957), Morgan played a trumpet with an angled bell given to him by Gillespie.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1958, Morgan further developed his talent as a soloist and composer. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on numerous albums by the Messengers, including "Moanin'", which is one of the band's best-known recordings. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This version of the Jazz Messengers, including pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt, recorded many albums during 1959–61, including for Blue Note "Africaine," "The Big Beat", ""A Night in Tunisia" and "The Freedom Rider". During his time with The Jazz Messengers, Morgan also wrote several tunes including "The Midget", "Haina", "Celine", "Yama," "Kozo's Waltz", "Pisces", and "Blue Lace." The drug problems of Morgan and Timmons forced them to leave the band in 1961, and the trumpeter returned to Philadelphia, his hometown. According to Tom Perchard, a Morgan biographer, it was Blakey who introduced the trumpeter to heroin, which impeded progression in his career.


title: Lee Morgan

text: On returning to New York in 1963, he recorded "The Sidewinder". The title track cracked the pop chart in 1964 and served as the background theme for Chrysler television commercials during the World Series. The tune was used without Morgan's consent; after he threatened to sue, Chrysler agreed not to show the advertisement again and settled the case. Due to the crossover success of "The Sidewinder" in a rapidly changing pop music market, Blue Note encouraged its other artists to emulate the tune's "boogaloo" beat. Morgan himself repeated the formula several times with compositions such as "Cornbread" (from the eponymous album "Cornbread") and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" on "The Gigolo". According to drummer Billy Hart, Morgan said he had recorded "The Sidewinder" as filler for the album, and was bemused that it had turned into his biggest hit. He felt that his playing was much more advanced on Grachan Moncur III's essentially avant-garde "Evolution" album, recorded a month earlier, on November 21, 1963.


title: Lee Morgan

text: After this commercial success, Morgan continued to record prolifically, producing such works as "Search for the New Land" (1964), which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. He also briefly rejoined the Jazz Messengers after his successor, Freddie Hubbard, joined another group. Together with tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, pianist John Hicks, and bassist Victor Sproles, this lineup was filmed by the BBC for seminal jazz television program "Jazz 625".


title: Lee Morgan

text: As the 1960s progressed, he recorded some twenty additional albums as a leader, and continued to record as a sideman on the albums of other artists, including Wayne Shorter's "Night Dreamer"; Stanley Turrentine's "Mr. Natural"; Freddie Hubbard's "The Night of the Cookers"; Hank Mobley's "Dippin'", "A Caddy for Daddy", "A Slice of the Top", "Straight No Filter"; Jackie McLean's "Jackknife" and "Consequence"; Joe Henderson's "Mode for Joe"; McCoy Tyner's "Tender Moments"; Lonnie Smith's "Think" and "Turning Point"; Elvin Jones' "The Prime Element"; Jack Wilson's "Easterly Winds"; Reuben Wilson's "Love Bug"; Larry Young's "Mother Ship"; "Lee Morgan and Clifford Jordan Live in Baltimore 1968"; Andrew Hill's "Grass Roots"; as well as on several albums with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.


title: Lee Morgan

text: He became more politically involved in the last two years of his life, becoming one of the leaders of the Jazz and People's Movement. The group demonstrated during the taping of talk and variety shows during 1970-71 to protest the lack of jazz artists as guest performers and members of the programs' bands. His working band during those last years featured reed players Billy Harper or Bennie Maupin, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummers Mickey Roker or Freddie Waits. Maupin, Mabern, Merritt, and Roker are featured on the well-regarded three-disc, "Live at the Lighthouse", recorded during a two-week engagement at the Hermosa Beach club, California, in July 1970.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Morgan was killed in the early hours of February 19, 1972, at Slugs' Saloon, a jazz club in New York City's East Village where his band was performing. Following an altercation between sets, Morgan's common-law wife Helen Moore (a.k.a. Helen Morgan) shot him. The injuries were not immediately fatal, but the ambulance was slow in arriving on the scene as the city had experienced heavy snowfall that resulted in extremely difficult driving conditions. They took so long to get there that Morgan bled to death. He was 33 years old. Helen Morgan was arrested and spent a short time in prison before being released on parole. After her release, she returned to her native North Carolina and died there from a heart condition in March 1996.


title: Lee Morgan

text: Lee and Helen Morgan are the subjects of a 2016 documentary "I Called Him Morgan" by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin. The film premiered on September 1, 2016, at the 73rd Venice Film Festival and was theatrically released in the U.S. on March 24, 2017. In his "New York Times" review A. O. Scott called the film "a delicate human drama about love, ambition and the glories of music".


title: Rim of the World

text: Rim of the World is a 2019 American science fiction adventure film directed by McG from a screenplay by Zack Stentz. It stars Jack Gore, Miya Cech, Benjamin Flores Jr. and Alessio Scalzotto. The film, which was Stentz's modern take on the kid-centered action films of the 1980s, was streamed on Netflix on May 24, 2019. It was the most watched content in the SVOD service in the UK the week it was released, overtaking the series "Dead to Me" and "Riverdale.


title: Rim of the World

text: Alex, a socially reclusive boy who recently lost his father in a fire, reluctantly attends a summer camp in southern California called "Rim of the World". He meets two other "misfits" - Zhen Zhen, an initially mute, adorable orphan girl from China, and Dariush, an outspoken boy from a rich family. One afternoon, while waiting to go canoeing in a lake, Zhen Zhen wanders off into the woods, looking for the lookout point she had seen on a camp poster, while Alex attempts to follow. He comes across Dariush, who happens to be nearby answering the call of nature. Dariush mistakenly tries to 'cure' Alex's fear of heights by making him stand near a cliff edge, and Gabriel, a boy they hadn't seen at camp before, intervenes. Zhen Zhen, hearing the commotion, comes back down and meets up with the boys. At that moment, they all receive alarming texts advising they immediately evacuate the area.


title: Rim of the World

text: While hurrying back, they find out that other campers have left the lake, and they witness alien ships invading the valley. The kids head back to the camp, and afterward discover the camp to be empty of people - all except for Conrad, a camp counselor. Suddenly, a Dragon spacecraft fleeing the International Space Station lands heavily nearby. The dying astronaut inside the spacecraft gives Alex a key, with instructions that it should be taken to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) facility in Pasadena, and that it was the only way to destroy the aliens. An alien appears with its "dog" and kills the astronaut. Alex and his friends try to hide out and Conrad gets killed, but the kids manage to elude the aliens and escape the camp.


title: Rim of the World

text: They make their way to the sheriff's office and discover an inmate, Lou, who has been left behind in the cells. Lou claims to have a son waiting for him, so an empathetic Alex decides to release him before the group continues on their way to JPL. Later, the group encounters Marines who are evacuating civilians. The commander gratefully takes the key and puts the children on a bus to safety. However, alien ships attack the vehicle convoy and the soldiers are killed, whereupon Alex retrieves the key from the dying commander and the group sets out for JPL once more. During the night, after briefly taking refuge in Gabriel's old house, Gabriel explains that he is an escapee from juvie, where he was placed due to a misunderstanding at his mother's store, in which a customer assumed Gabriel was attempting to steal his change at the deposit box, unaware of Gabriel's dyscalculia. Sometime after, they are attacked by a gang of masked individuals, led by Lou, who reveals himself as a murderous thief and tricked the group into releasing him. He agrees to let the kids go, but only if Alex gives him the key, which Lou thinks he can sell on the black market. Alex refuses and Lou attempts to kill Alex with a knife, but right before Lou attacks him, the alien from the camp appears and attacks them all. Lou and his men are killed, but the kids manage to escape after trapping the alien in a backyard swimming pool.


title: Rim of the World

text: While they are walking in the forest, Dariush and Gabriel fight and Dariush reveals that his father lost their car dealership, meaning he will go to jail, hence the reason why Dariush was placed at camp. Suddenly, they receive on their transmitter an S.O.S. from the doctor at JPL they were instructed to give the key to, encouraging them to move forward with their journey. The kids walk into a mall and change clothes. After that, the group takes a Ford Mustang in the parking lot, which they discover Zhen Zhen is able to drive, to quickly journey the rest of the way to JPL, but they are again attacked by the pursuing alien. They abandon the vehicle while trying to escape the alien and realize that they left the key in the car. Dariush attempts to go alone to get the key, only to be injured by the alien in the process, but manages to get away with the key. The group finally make it to the JPL facility, but find that the doctor is dead, and his S.O.S. message was only a result of his blood dripping onto his transmitter. The kids are able to make radio contact with a general at NORAD, who explains that the key holds information that can be used to destroy the alien mothership in orbit via a Cold War defense project named Excalibur. Zhen Zhen goes into the basement to start the emergency generators, where she is attacked by an alien dog, while Alex goes to the roof to realign the communication dish, where he is attacked by the alien. Zhen Zhen manages to lock the dog in the basement and returns to the command room to help Gabriel and the injured Dariush insert the keys that will launch the Excalibur weapon.


title: Rim of the World

text: Zhen Zhen, Dariush, and Gabriel evacuate the JPL building, while Alex lures the alien into an engine test room and kills it with the engine's exhaust. The teens watch from the ground as the alien mothership is blown up in the atmosphere. Alex is reunited with his mother and the children are celebrated as heroes.


title: Rim of the World

text: In March 2018, it was reported that McG would direct "Rim of the World" for Netflix from a screenplay by Zack Stentz. In an interview, Stentz revealed that he started working on the script as early as 2017 and the deal with Netflix was closed a year later. Principal production commenced in May 2018 in Los Angeles, California. In June 2018, the cast was announced.


title: Rim of the World

text: The film had received negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""Rim of the World" is too bland to live up to the 80s teen adventures it references, and too full of clichés to be able to set itself apart from them."


title: Lem Billings

text: Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings (April 15, 1916 – May 28, 1981) was an American businessman known for his close and long-time friendship with John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family. Billings was a prep school roommate of Kennedy, an usher at his wedding and a campaigner for his successful 1960 presidential bid. Joseph Kennedy Sr. called him "my second son," and he sometimes acted as escort for several of the Kennedy women. Billings served with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 15, 1916, the third child of Frederic Tremaine Billings (1873–1933) and Romaine LeMoyne (1882–1970). His father was a prominent physician and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. His mother was a "Mayflower" descendant and his great-grandfather Francis Julius LeMoyne was a prominent abolitionist linked to the underground railroad who helped establish what is today known as LeMoyne-Owen College. The Billings family were Episcopalians and Republicans.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings, a 16-year-old third-year student, and Kennedy, a 15-year-old second-year student, met at Choate, an elite preparatory school, in the fall of 1933. Billings as a teenager was 6' 2", weighed 175 pounds, and was the strongest member of the Choate crew. They became fast friends, drawn to each other by their mutual distaste for their strict school. While at Choate, they formed a club and called themselves "The Muckers". The Muckers would pull pranks around the school and even planned to dump horse manure in the school gym, but that fell through after the headmaster found out. Billings' first visit with the Kennedy family was for Christmas in Palm Beach in 1933, after that, he joined them for holidays, participated in family events, and was treated like a member of the family. The Depression had hurt the Billings family financially, and Lem Billings was at Choate on scholarship. Billings repeated his senior year so that he and Kennedy could graduate from Choate together in 1935.


title: Lem Billings

text: In the summer of 1937 Billings and Kennedy took a summer trip through Europe which solidified their friendship.


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1939, Billings graduated from Princeton where he majored in art and architecture and wrote his senior thesis on Tintoretto.


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1941, Billings failed medical tests required by the military. In 1942, supported by a recommendation from Joseph Kennedy Sr., his friend's father, who called him "my second son," he won admission to the American Ambulance Field Service, where his poor eyesight was not a disqualification. He saw action in North Africa in 1942–43. In 1944 he received a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve and served in the South Pacific until being discharged in 1946.


title: Lem Billings

text: After working on Kennedy's successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Billings toured seven Latin American countries with Robert F. Kennedy.


title: Lem Billings

text: From 1946 to 1948, Billings attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA. He later had several jobs, including selling Coca-Cola dispensers to drugstores and working at a General Shoe store. As Vice President at the Emerson Drug Company in Baltimore, he was responsible for inventing the 1950s fad drink Fizzies by adding a fruit flavor to disguise the sodium citrate taste. In 1958, he moved to the Manhattan advertising firm Lennen & Newell as an advertising executive.


title: Lem Billings

text: On September 12, 1953, Billings was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. In 1956 he was an usher at the wedding of Kennedy's sister Jean to Stephen Edward Smith.


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1960, on leave from his job, he worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign. He managed the campaign in the Third Congressional District in the Wisconsin primary and then served as general troubleshooter and coordinator of television in the West Virginia primary.


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1961, Billings declined Kennedy's offer to appoint him the first head of the Peace Corps, director of a new agency to promote tourism, the U.S. Travel Service, or ambassador to Denmark. He later said: "I realized that I did not want to work for the president — because I felt it would change our relationship." In September 1961, he accepted an appointment to the board of trustees of the planned National Cultural Center, which later became the Kennedy Center. The next year, Kennedy named him to a board to plan America's participation in the New York World's Fair of 1964–5. He represented the President when the alumni association unveiled Kennedy's portrait at Choate in May 1963.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings visited the White House for most weekends during the Kennedy Administration. When a butler commented on the fact that Billings was leaving his belongings in one of the third-floor guest rooms, the First Lady replied: "He's been my house guest since I was married." Sometimes he stayed for longer periods. When the First Lady was away, Billings organized White House dinner parties for the President and old friends, and when the President traveled he kept the First Lady company. One presidential aide later said that "some people saw him so much they thought he was the Secret Service." Billings never had a White House pass and said: "Jack and Jackie were so nice about this that I didn't even have to tell them whether I was coming or going." Historian Sally Bedell Smith compared him to Leonard Zelig, a nondescript character in Woody Allen's 1983 film who is always present in the back row at major events. He sat with the President's family at the Kennedy inauguration and walked not far behind his widow at the Kennedy funeral.


title: Lem Billings

text: The press frequently reported on his presence at Kennedy family events, such as the arrival of the Kennedy children in Washington in February 1961. He accompanied the President to church, launched a kite for the President's daughter Caroline, and delivered pet hamsters to the Kennedy children. He joined the President's entourage for his tours of Europe in both 1961 and 1963. In 1962 he escorted two of the President's sisters, Eunice Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, around Europe for more than two weeks. When the Kennedys spent the weekend at Glen Ora, their Virginia estate, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to join them more often than the President did. She needed Billings to keep the President company while she went horseback riding.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings' role as "first friend" was assessed by many observers at the time and since. Ted Sorensen called him "an admirer — almost a fawning admirer — of his friend." Arthur Schlesinger thought Billings "used to glare at me when we occasionally encountered each other in the company of JFK, and for a time I took this rather personally. Soon I discovered that he glared with equal suspicion at anyone whose friendship with JFK postdated his own." Another said: "Members of the president's staff thought of him as a 'handy old piece of furniture.'"


title: Lem Billings

text: Most recognized that Billings and Kennedy had been friends from youth and did not question their relationship or Billings' presence. Ben Bradlee, a Kennedy friend who worked at "Newsweek" during the Kennedy Administration, and no friend of Billings, said "they were childhood friends and stayed loyal to each other forever." Billings, he said, "had a natural jealousy. He didn't want to share his friendship with Jack." Gore Vidal, who was banned from the White House after a run-in with Billings, was critical of Billings, but also thought Billings played an important role as an aide to Kennedy, who was often ill or in pain. "He needed Lem Billings to get around — better than a trained nurse" that would have made his political career impossible. Vidal thought Jacqueline Kennedy thought Billings "was kind of a nothing ... but Jack needed him and she was practical."


title: Lem Billings

text: Many testify to Billings' wit and ability to help the President relax. He once described the Kennedy family's lack of business awareness: "Listening to the Kennedy brothers talk about business was like hearing nuns talk about sex." Billings also served the President as an artistic adviser, selecting scrimshaw for display in the Oval Office and, on one European tour, quickly assembling a selection of artworks to be presented as gifts.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings spent less time with the President in the fall of 1963. One of their friends thought "that Jackie was trying to close Lem out." Billings spent the last weekend of October 1963 with the couple, the last time he saw them together. Billings saw the President for the last time when they dined at the White House with Greta Garbo on November 13, 1963, nine days before the President's assassination in Dallas.


title: Lem Billings

text: Friends from the 1970s confirmed that Billings was homosexual, but not open to discussing it. In 2006, looking back to the Kennedy Administration, Ben Bradlee said: "I suppose it's known that Lem was gay...It impressed me that Jack had gay friends." At the same time, he admitted that no one ever expressed the idea aloud during Kennedy's White House years. Red Fay, a friend of the President from his World War II service, said of Billings: "I didn't see anything overtly gay about him; I think he was neutral." One historian wrote that after the 1963 assassination Billings was: "probably the saddest of the Kennedy 'widows'." Though newspapers often mentioned Billings' attendance at major social events, they identified him either as the escort of a member of the Kennedy family or included him in a list of Kennedy friends. Otherwise he attended without female accompaniment. Billings had his own room in the White House.


title: Lem Billings

text: Some historians believe that Billings expressed his sexual interest in Kennedy in writing in 1934 and that Kennedy rebuffed his advances. Kennedy knew that homosexual behavior on the part of Billings had been revealed by a fellow Choate student during their years there. Charles L. Bartlett, a journalist who introduced Kennedy to Jacqueline Bouvier and friend of both Billings and Kennedy, described their relationship: "Lem was a stable presence for Jack. Lem's raison d'être was Jack Kennedy. I don't think it's true that he did not have views of his own, as some have said. He had a very independent mind. He had interests of his own that Jack didn't necessarily share. He certainly didn't have the same interest in politics and women that Jack had." Though Gore Vidal thought Billings was "absolutely nobody," he also believed "it was a good idea that Jack had somebody he could trust like that around him." He believed Billings loved Kennedy. "Jack made a big difference in my life," Billings said. "Because of him, I was never lonely. He may have been the reason I never got married."


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1964, Billings was named to select a memorial to Kennedy to be placed in the Kennedy Center. In 1965, Jacqueline Kennedy invited Billings to accompany her and her children to England for the unveiling of a memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede.


title: Lem Billings

text: He escorted Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of the President, to a gala ballet performance in 1966 and Ethel Kennedy, the president's sister-in-law, to the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center.


title: Lem Billings

text: After the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Billings became depressed and started to drink in excess, an addiction that plagued him for most of his life. He maintained close ties to the Kennedys and their children for the rest of his life, frequently socializing with Bobby Kennedy Jr., to whom he became almost a surrogate father, and Christopher Lawford.


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings' behavior changed drastically in the late 1960s. According to Kennedy family members, such as Peter Lawford, and others, Billings began using drugs due to the influence of the Kennedy and Lawford boys. The elder Kennedys began to discourage the boys from associating with Billings because of his excessive recreational drug use (including alcohol).


title: Lem Billings

text: Billings served for many years along with Sargent Shriver as a trustee for the Kennedy family trusts, working from an office in the Pan Am Building. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis included Billings as a guest at a party marking the birthdays of her children Caroline (21st) and John Jr. (18th) in 1978.


title: Lem Billings

text: In 1987, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described how Billings structured her interviews with him. She had to submit questions in advance. Billings then prepared responses and read them aloud to her.


title: Lem Billings

text: On May 28, 1981, Billings died in his sleep following a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment. His dying wish was for the young Kennedy men to carry his casket to its final resting place. When they arrived at the cemetery, it was already in place to be lowered. The young Kennedys took the casket and carried it around the gravesite before returning it to the burial plot. He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


title: Devin McCourty

text: Devin McCourty (born August 13, 1987) is an American football safety for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Rutgers and was selected by the Patriots in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Missing only five games during his Patriots tenure, McCourty has received two Pro Bowl selections and is a member of three Super Bowl-winning teams. McCourty also has the most postseason starts for a defensive player.


title: Devin McCourty

text: McCourty attended Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey, with his twin brother, Jason McCourty. He played cornerback and free safety and was an all-league selection in his final two seasons. As a senior, he had 50 tackles and three interceptions.


title: Devin McCourty

text: Considered a two-star recruit by Rivals.com, McCourty only received one scholarship offer, from Rutgers.


title: Devin McCourty

text: McCourty attended Rutgers University, and played for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team beginning in 2005. After redshirting his first season, McCourty appeared in all 13 games as a freshman in 2006 and recorded 38 tackles and two interceptions. In 2007, McCourty and his twin brother Jason McCourty started at cornerback, with Devin compiling 63 tackles, two interceptions, one forced fumble, and three blocked kicks on special teams. He was named an All-Big East Conference academic selection in his first two seasons.


title: Devin McCourty

text: McCourty started 13 games at cornerback in his 2008 junior season, picking up 57 tackles, one interception, and a blocked punt.