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Catatumbo Lightning
The Catatumbo Lightning (Spanish Relámpago del Catatumbo) is an atmospheric phenomenon in Venezuela. It occurs strictly in an area located over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo. The frequent, powerful flashes of lightning over this relatively small area are considered by some to be the world's largest single generator of tropospheric ozone. It originates from a mass of storm clouds that form a voltaic arc at more than 5 km of height, during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour. It occurs over and around Lake Maracaibo, typically over a bog area that forms where the Catatumbo River flows into the Venezuelan lake.
Likely causes
The storms (and associated lightning) are likely the result of the heavy winds blowing away from the Andes Mountains, which then collide with ionised gases - specifically the methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in the marshes. Being lighter than the incoming air, the gas rises up into the cloud layer, creating an electrical charge and a subsequent discharge which is seen as lightning.
The phenomenon is characterized by almost continuous lightning (without the sound of thunder), which is produced in a large vertical development of clouds that form large electric arcs between 2 and 10 km in height (or more). The lightning is seen most often in the afternoons, when evaporation is greatest. The mountains of Perijá (3,750m), and Cordillera de Mérida, themselves a branch of the Venezuelan Andes, serve to enclose and concentrate the now-charged winds from the northeast, thereby producing large vertical clouds, focused around the River Catatumbo.
The phenomenon is easy to see from hundreds of miles away, i.e. from the lake (where no clouds usually occur at night) which is also known as the Lighthouse of Maracaibo, as the boats that sail the area can navigate at night without any problems at the time of sailing. The storms have an annual occurrence of 140 to 160 nights, each lasting up to 10 hours per night and each producing up to 280 strikes per hour. Furthermore, these thunderstorms produce a high percentage of all the ozone production worldwide. The Catatumbo Lightning can be considered a major regenerator of the planet's ozone layer, as it produces approximately 1,176,000 kW of atmospheric electricity.
Catatumbo lightning usually develop between the coordinates 8 ° 30 'and 9 º 45' north latitude and 71 º and 73 º W.
Historical references
Historically, the first written mention of the Catatumbo lightning was in the epic poem "The Dragontea" of Lope de Vega, published in 1597, in which he narrates the defeat by the English pirate or privateer Sir Francis Drake of the mayor of Nombre de Dios, Diego Suarez de Amaya.
The Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt once described it as "electrical explosions that are like phosphorescent gleam ...". Italian Geographer Agustin Codazzi described it as "lightning that seems to arise from the continued Zulia river and its surroundings".
Among the major modern studies is that undertaken by Melchor Centeno, who attributes the origin of the thunderstorms to closed wind circulation in the region.
Between 1966 and 1970, the scientist Andrew Zavrostky with assistance from the University of the Andes, made three expeditions which concluded that the area would have several epicentres in the marshes of the Swamp National Park, Juan Manuel de Aguas, Claras Aguas Negras and west Lake Maracaibo, and in 1991 suggested that the phenomenon occurs due to the meeting of cold and warm air currents. The study also speculated that an independent cause of the lightning might be the uranium in the bedrock.
Between 1997 and 2000, Nelson Falcón et al, conducted several expeditions and produced the first model of the microphysics of Catatumbo Lightning, identifying methane as a major cause of the phenomenon, but this is mere speculation, and that methane is not so important here as in other areas such as oil dry or desert areas where there is no such thing. It has been noted to have little effects on local ferns, despite concerns.
Other websites about Catatumbo : venezuelanodyssey
Source : Wikipedia
Catatumbo
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Babi Yar
Babi Yar (Ukrainian: Бабин Яр) is a ravine outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of the most notorious massacre of Jews in the Soviet Union, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on September 29–30, 1941. The decision to kill all the Jews in Kiev was made by the military governor, Major-General Friedrich Eberhardt, the Police Commander for Army Group South, SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln, and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. It was carried out by combined forces of SS, SD and SiPo.
Historical background
The Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) ravine was first mentioned in historical accounts in 1401, in connection with its sale by "baba" (an old woman), the cantiniere, to the Dominican Monastery. In the course of several centuries the site had been used for various purposes including military camps and at least two cemeteries, among them an Orthodox Christian cemetery and a Jewish cemetery. The latter was officially closed in 1937.
Massacres of 29-30 September 1941
Nazi forces, mainly German, occupied Kiev on 19 September 1941. The decision to exterminate the Jews of Kiev was made on September 26, in retaliation for guerrilla attacks against German troops, by the military governor, Maj. Gen. Friedrich Georg Eberhardt and SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln, the SS and Police Leader at Rear Headquarters Army Group South. Einsatzgruppe C carried out the Babi Yar massacre and a number of other mass atrocities in Ukraine during the summer and fall of 1941. Its commander SS-Brigadefuhrer Dr. Otto Rasch and the officer commanding Sonderkommando 4a, SS-Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel were at the September 26 meeting as well.
On 29 and 30 September 1941, a special team of German SS troops supported by other German units, local collaborators murdered 33,771 Jewish civilians after taking them to the ravine.[2][3][4][5]
The massacre to come would be the largest single mass killing for which the Nazi regime and its collaborators were responsible during its campaign against the Soviet Union[6] and is considered to be "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust".
The implementation of the order was entrusted to Sonderkommando 4a, commanded by Blobel, under the general command of Friedrich Jeckeln. This unit consisted of SD and Sipo, the third company of the Special Duties Waffen-SS battalion, and a platoon of the 9th Police Battalion. Police Battalion 45, commanded by Major Besser, conducted the massacre, supported by members of a Waffen-SS battalion. Units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police were used to round up and direct the Jews to the location.
Afterwards, an official Nazi report described the means by which the people were induced to come to the killing site:
The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action -- in particular concerning the seizure -- were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.
On Monday the Jews of Kiev gathered by the cemetery, expecting to be loaded onto trains. The crowd was large enough that most of the men, women, and children could not have known what was happening until it was too late: by the time they heard the machine-gun fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene:
[O]ne after the other, they had to remove their luggage, then their coats, shoes, and overgarments and also underwear … Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 meters long and 30 meters wide and a good 15 meters deep … When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the Schutzpolizei and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot … The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a submachine gun … I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other … The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.
“ Kikes of the city of Kiev and vicinity! On Monday, September 29, you are to appear by 08:00 a.m. with your possessions, money, documents, valuables, and warm clothing at Dorogozhitskaya Street, next to the Jewish cemetery. Failure to appear is punishable by death. ” —Order posted in Kiev in Russian and Ukrainian, on or around September 26, 1941.
More than thirty thousand Kiev Jews gathered at the corner of the two streets and were escorted to the cemetery, expecting to be loaded onto trains for deportation. The commander of the Einsatzkommando reported two days later: "Because of 'our special talent of organisation', the Jews still believed to the very last moment before being murdered that indeed all that was happening was that they were being resettled." According to the testimony of a truck driver named Hofer, victims were ordered to undress and beaten if they resisted:
I watched what happened when the Jews - men, women, and children - arrived. The Ukrainians led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and over-garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians to keep them moving.– Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar
All were driven in groups of ten down a corridor of SS soldiers, and then shot at the edge of the Babi Yar gorge. The crowd was large enough that most of the men, women, and children could not have known what was happening until it was too late: by the time they heard the gunfire, there was no chance to escape. In the evening, the Germans undermined the wall of the ravine and buried the people under the thick layers of earth. According to the Einsatzgruppe's Operational Situation Report, 33,771 Jews from Kiev and its suburbs were systematically shot dead by machine-gun fire at Babi Yar on September 29 and September 30, 1941.The money, valuables, underwear, and clothing of the murdered victims were turned over to the local ethnic Germans and to the Nazi administration of the city.
Survivors
One of the most often-cited parts of Anatoly Kuznetsov's documentary novel Babi Yar is the testimony of Dina Pronicheva, an actress of the Kiev Puppet Theatre. She was one of those ordered to march to the ravine, forced to undress, and then shot. Jumping before being shot and falling on other bodies, she played dead in a pile of corpses. She held perfectly still while the Nazis continued to shoot the wounded or gasping victims. Although the SS had covered the mass grave with earth, she eventually managed to climb through the soil and escape. Since it was dark, she had to avoid the flashlights of the Nazis finishing off the remaining victims still alive, wounded and gasping in the grave. She was one of the very few survivors of the massacre and later related her horrifying story to Kuznetsov.
Further executions
In the months that followed, thousands more were seized and taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Ukrainians, mostly civilians, of whom a significant number were Jews, were murdered by the Nazis there during World War II. A concentration camp was also built in the area.
Mass executions at Babi Yar continued up until the German forces departed from Kyiv (Kiev). For example, on January, 10th, 1942 about 100 sailors from a military flotilla were executed there. In addition, Babi Yar became a place of execution of residents of five Gypsy camps. According to various estimates, during 1941—1943 between 70,000 and 200 000 Roma people were rounded up and murdered at Babi Yar. Patients of the Ivan Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital were gassed and then dumped into the ravine. Thousands of other Ukrainians were killed at Babi Yar. Among those murdered were 621 members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Ukrainian poet and activist Olena Teliha and her husband, renowned bandurist Mykhailo Teliha, were murdered there on February 21, 1942.
Syrets concentration camp
In the course of the occupation, the Syrets concentration camp was set up in Babi Yar. Interned communists, Soviet POWs, and captured Soviet Partisans were murdered there. On February 18, 1943 three Dynamo Kyiv football players who took part in the Match of Death with the German Luftwaffe team were also murdered in the camp. It is estimated that about 25,000 Ukrainians died in the Syrets camp.
The concentration camp was established in 1942 at a location on the northern edge of the city of Kiev, only few hundred meters from Babi Yar, a ravine which had been the scene of enormous massacres in late September 1941 and later. Syrets was intended to be a subsidiary of Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. About 3,000 people were imprisoned at Syrets. Paul Radomski was the camp commandant.
The camp was built in June 1942 at the suggestion of Dr. Hans Schmacher, a Nazi police official in Kiev, which he made to his superior. Erich Ehrlinger. The camp was intended to house persons perceived as opponents of the Nazis, mainly Jews.
Once a person was arrested, only skilled craftsmen would survive, to be used as forced labor. All others were shot or murdered by gas van.
The prisoners (women and men) were housed in holes dug into the earth. Most were underfed and some starved to death. Radomski ran a terror regime in the camp. For the smallest misdemeanours he invented heavy punishments and often struck the prisoners with the whip.
Inmate revolt
Before the Nazis retreated from Kiev, they attempted to conceal the many atrocities they had committed at Babi Yar. Paul Blobel, who was in control of the mass murders in Babi Yar two years earlier, supervised the Sonderaktion 1005 in eliminating its traces. For six weeks from August to September 1943, more than 300 chained prisoners were forced to exhume and burn the corpses (using local headstones as bricks to build ovens) and scattered the ashes on farmland in the vicinity (to this day many Ukrainians will not eat cabbage grown on those farms).
During the Sonderkommando 1005 exhumations, a group of prisoners secretly armed themselves with tools and scraps of metal they managed to find and conceal. They picked locks with keys they found on victims' bodies. Martin Gilbert quotes historian Reuben Ainsztein:
... in those half-naked men who reeked of putrefying flesh, whose bodies were eaten by scabies and covered with a layer of mud and soot, and of whose physical strength so little remained, there survived a spirit that defied everything that the Nazis' New Order had done or could do to them. In the men whom the SS men saw only as walking corpses, there matured a determination that at least one of them must survive to tell the world about what happened in Babi Yar.
On the night of September 29, 1943, as the camp was being dismantled, an inmate revolt broke out. The prisoners overpowered the guards using their bare hands, hammers and screw drivers. Fifteen people managed to escape. Among them was Vladimir Davіdov, who later served as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials. Among other escapees were Fyodor Zavertanny, Jacob Kaper, Filip Vilkis, Leonid Kharash, I. Brodskiy, Leonid Kadomskiy, David Budnik, Fyodor Yershov, Jakov Steiuk, Semyon Berland, Vladimir Kotlyar. Once Nazi control was re-established in the camp, the remaining 311 inmates were executed.
Concealment of the crimes
Before the Nazis retreated from Kiev, they attempted to conceal their atrocities. Paul Blobel, who was in control of the mass murders in Babi Yar two years earlier, supervised the Sonderaktion 1005 in eliminating its traces. For six weeks from August to September 1943, more than 300 chained prisoners were forced to exhume and burn the corpses (using local headstones as bricks to build ovens) and scattered the ashes on farmland in the vicinity (to this day many Ukrainians will not eat cabbage grown on those farms).
Numbers murdered
Estimates of the total number killed at Babi Yar during the Nazi occupation vary. In 1946, Soviet prosecutor L. N. Smirnov at the Nuremberg Trials claimed there were approximately 100,000 corpses lying in Babi Yar, using materials of the Extraordinary State Commission set out by the Soviets to investigate Nazi crimes after the liberation of Kiev in 1943. According to testimonies of workers forced to burn the bodies, the numbers range from 70,000 to 120,000.
In a recently published letter to Israeli journalist, writer, and translator Shlomo Even-Shoshan dated May 17, 1965, Anatoli Kuznetsov commented on the Babi Yar atrocity:
In the two years that followed, Russians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, and people of all nationalities were murdered in Babyn Yar. The belief that Babyn Yar is an exclusively Jewish grave is wrong... It is an international grave. Nobody will ever determine how many and what nationalities are buried there, because 90% of the corpses were burned, their ashes scattered in ravines and fields.
For his war crimes Paul Blobel was sentenced to death by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was hanged in June 1951.
Remembrance
After the war, commemoration efforts encountered serious difficulty because of the policy of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of memorials have been erected on the site and elsewhere. The events also formed a part of literature. Babi Yar is now within a suburb of Kiev. Babi Yar is located at the juncture of today's Kurenivka, Lukianivka and Syrets neighborhoods, between Frunze, Melnykov and Olena Teliha streets and St. Cyril's Monastery.
Other websites about Babi Yar : holocaustresearchproject
Source : Wikipedia
Requiem for Babi yar
Babi Yar Holocaust
Babi Yar
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Chuuk - The Truk Lagoon
Chuuk — formerly Truk, Ruk, Hogoleu, Torres, Ugulat, and Lugulus — is an island group in the south western part of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), along with Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap. Chuuk is the most populous of the FSM's states. Geographically, Chuuk is also part of the larger Caroline Islands group. Chuuk means mountain in the Chuukese language and was known mainly as Truk (a mispronunciation of Ruk), until 1990.
Geography
The main population center of Chuuk State is the Chuuk Lagoon Aka Truk Lagoon, a large archipelago with mountainous islands surrounded by a string of islets on a barrier reef. The two major geographical and dialectic divisions of the Chuuk Lagoon are Faichuuk, the western islands, and Namoneas, the eastern islands. Chuuk State also includes several more sparsely populated "outer island" groups, including the Mortlock Islands to the southeast, the Hall Islands (Pafeng) to the north, Namonuito Atoll to the northwest, and the Pattiw Region to west. The Pattiw Region is of particular interest in that they are some of the most traditional islands in the Pacific and culturally related to outer islands of Yap. This group, includes the islands of Pollap, Tamatam, Poluwat, and Houk. Today you can still find master navigators— Poluwat and Pollap are considered to have some of the best navigators and ocean-going outrigger canoes in the Pacific. The islands of Pattiw Region and some of the Islands of Yap, you will still today find last two remaining schools of navigation, Weriyeng and Faaluush. Visiting the Pattiw Region in the west, however, is hard due to lack of reliable transportation. Houk has probably the most accessible airstrip in the Pattiw Region, with planes landing every one or two weeks.
History
It is not known when the islands of Chuuk were first settled, but, based on archaeological and scriptural evidence, these islands had originally been settled more than 2000 years ago. It is not known with certainty where the original inhabitants came from. Based on archaeological evidence, it seems that, after about 200 AD, there was no continuous settlement until about 1300 AD. With further archaeological work, it is possible this gap could be filled in. However, because Chuuk is not high on the archaeological agenda (See List of archaeological sites sorted by country), it is improbable that such a developed study will begin soon. It is probable that people came from Pohnpei and Kosrae to the east, based on many legend and language similarities.
As part of the colonial territory of the Caroline Islands, Truk was part of the Spanish, then German and the Japanese empires.
During World War II, Truk Lagoon was the Empire of Japan's main base in the South Pacific theatre. A significant portion of the Japanese fleet was based there, with its administrative center on Tonoas (south of Weno). Truk was the base for Japanese operations against Allied forces in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Due to heavy fortifications, both natural and manmade, of the base at Truk, it was known to Allied forces as "the Gibraltar of the Pacific".
Operation Hailstone, executed by the United States in 1944, culminated in one of the most important naval battles of the war at Truk. Twelve Japanese warships, thirty-two merchant ships and 249 aircraft were destroyed, although the larger warships had received advance warning and were already at sea.
Chuuk was one of six districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands which were administered by the United States under charter from the United Nations from the end of the Second World War to the early 1990s.
On July 2, 2002, heavy rains from Tropical Storm Chataan caused more than thirty landslides that killed forty-seven people and injured dozens others, in the state's deadliest weather disaster. The landslides occurred throughout the day, some within just minutes of each other.
Truk Lagoon, also known as Chuuk, is a sheltered body of water in the central Pacific. North of New Guinea, it is located mid-ocean at 7 degrees North latitude. The atoll consists of a protective reef, 140 miles around, enclosing a natural harbour 49 miles by 30, with an area of 823 square miles. It has a land area of 49.2 square miles, with a population of 47,871 people.
The area consists of 11 major islands (corresponding to the 11 municipalities of Truk lagoon, which are Tol, Udot, Fala-Beguets, Romanum, and Eot of Faichuk group, and Moen, Fefan, Dublon, Uman, Param, and Tsis of Nomoneas group) and 46 smaller ones within the lagoon, plus 41 on the fringing coral reef, and is known today as the Chuuk islands, part of the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean.
Downed American airmen near Truk await rescueIts first colonial experience was as part of the Spanish Empire, then control was shifted to Germany after the Spanish-American War. It became a Japanese possession under a mandate from the League of Nations following Germany's defeat in World War I.
World War II
During World War II, Truk Lagoon served as the forward anchorage for the Japanese Imperial Fleet. The place was considered the most formidable of all Japanese strongholds in the Pacific. On the various islands, the Japanese Civil Engineering Department and Naval Construction Department had built roads, trenches, bunkers and caves. Five airstrips, seaplane bases, a torpedo boat station, submarine repair shops, a communications center and a radar station were constructed during the war. Protecting these various facilities were coastal defense guns and mortar emplacements. At anchor in the lagoon were the Imperial Japanese Navy’s giant battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, tankers, cargo ships, tugboats, gunboats, minesweepers, landing craft, and submarines. Some have described it as Japan's equivalent of the Americans' Pearl Harbor.
Once the American forces captured the Marshall Islands, they used it as a base from which they launched an early morning attack on February 17, 1944 against Truk Lagoon. The Japanese withdrew most of their heavy units. Operation Hailstone lasted for three days, with an American bombardment of the Japanese wiping out almost anything of value - 60 ships and 275 airplanes were sent to the bottom of the lagoon.
The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific; the Japanese garrison on Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on February 18, 1944, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island. Truk was isolated by Allied (primarily U.S.) forces as they continued their advance towards Japan by invading other Pacific islands such as Guam, Saipan, Palau, and Iwo Jima. Cut off, the Japanese forces on Truk and other central Pacific islands ran low on food and faced starvation before Japan surrendered in August 1945. (Stewart, 1986)
Today
In 1969, the famous French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his team explored Truk Lagoon. Following Cousteau’s 1971 television documentary about the lagoon and its ghostly remains, the place became a scuba diving paradise, drawing wreck diving enthusiasts from around the world to see its numerous, virtually intact sunken ships. Scattered mainly around the Dublon, Eten, Fefan and Uman islands within the Truk group, a number of the shipwrecks lie in crystal clear waters less than fifteen meters below the surface. In waters devoid of normal ocean currents, divers can easily swim across decks littered with gas masks and depth charges and below deck can be found numerous human remains. In the massive ships' holds are row upon row of fighter aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, railroad cars, motorcycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs, boxes of munitions, radios, plus thousands of other weapons, spare parts, and other artifacts. Of special interest is the wreck of the submarine I-169 Shinohara which was lost when diving to avoid the bombing. The sub had been part of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The coral encrusted wrecks attract a diverse array of marine life, including manta-rays, turtles, sharks and corals. In 2007, 266 species of reef fish were recorded by an Earthwatch team and in 2006 the rare coral Acropora pichoni was identified.
Other websites about Truk lagoon : holocaustresearchproject
Source : Wikipedia
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Truk Lagoon
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The Piestewa Peak & Lori Ann Piestewa
Piestewa Peak (pronounced /paɪˈɛstʌwɑː piːk/ pie-ESS-tuh-wah, O'odham Vainom Do'ag, formerly Squaw Peak), at 2608 feet (795 meters) is the second highest point in the Phoenix Mountains, after Camelback Mountain, and the third highest in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. Piestewa Peak is named in honor of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat in the US military, and the first woman soldier to be killed in action in the 2003 Iraq Conflict.
Name
Since at least 1910, the name Squaw Peak had been used in reference to the mountain. Other historic names included Squaw Tit Mountain, Phoenix Mountain and Vainom Do'ag, the Pima name for the mountain. Among the numerous efforts to change the name of the mountain was an attempt by a local branch of the American Indian Movement, which filed a petition in 1997 to change the name to Iron Mountain, the English translation of the mountain's native Pima name. State Board on Geographic and Historic Names researched the issue for nearly a year before ruling in July 1998 that too much doubt existed as to whether the name Vainom Do'ag actually referred to the mountain in question and the petition was rejected.
In 2003, Governor Janet Napolitano created some controversy when she successfully lobbied for the change from Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak. The controvery stemmed in part from the fact that governor's request violated a required waiting period of 5 years after a person's death prior to renaming a geographic feature; Piestewa had been killed earlier that year. Tim Norton, a Phoenix police officer who was serving as the board's director at the time, refused to place the request on the board's agenda, citing the five year requirement. Mario Diaz, an aide to Napolitano subsequently contacted Norton's supervisor with the police department in an attempt to pressure Norton into changing his mind, but the supervisor refused, stating it was not a police department issue and was outside of his authority. Diaz' actions were picked up on by the press and resulted in strong criticism from both the public sector as well as fellow politicians, with some politicians considering a formal inquiry. Napolitano herself publicly admonished Diaz, but the controversy dogged Napolitano during her reelection campaign and throughout her tenure as governor.
The state board, absent its director, approved the name change to Piestewa Peak on April 17, 2003, less than a month after Piestewa's death. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, however, refused to accept a similar peitition at the time, citing their own five year waiting rule. Five years later the board agreed to review the request as the waiting period had passed. The board also considered other potential alternatives, including Swilling Peak for area pioneer Jack Swilling. During the discussions, board members indicated that there was considerable opposition to the name change but also indicated that the state's pre-emptive decision had complicated the process. Ultimately, the national board voted to approve the name change to Piestewa Peak, while indicating that the original name of Squaw Peak might still be used in publications as a secondary reference.
Natural history
As a landform, Piestewa Peak is relatively young, formed roughly 14 million years ago. However, it is composed of much older rock, primarily schist.
Flora in this area is typical of the lower Sonoran Desert and includes almost all varieties of Arizona cactus such as saguaro, barrel, hedgehog, pincushion, jumping cholla and prickly pear. Trees and colorful shrubbery include palo verde, mesquite, ironwood trees, creosote (dominate), ocotillo, brittle bush, desert lavender and giant sage shrubs.
Wildflowers are abundant in the early spring and include Mexican gold poppies (deep yellow), brittlebush (yellow), lupine (purples), desert globemallow (orange) and scorpionweed (purple). Fiddleneck and bladderpod also are blooming in some areas. These are in addition to the many varieties of flowering cacti.
Reptiles and wildlife that thrive in the preserve are gila monster, horned lizard and chuckwalla. Hikers also can encounter rattlesnakes. The mammal population includes coyote, jackrabbit, cottontail rabbit, ground squirrel and kit fox. There are more than 54 species of birds from the turkey vulture to mockingbirds, cactus wrens, gamble’s quail and several species of owls and hawks.
Hiking
The Piestewa Peak Summit Trail (elevation gain = 1,190 feet in 1.2 miles) is climbed thousands of times per week by locals and visitors seeking a cardio-vascular workout, great views, or a family outing.. However, quite a few hikers do not actually reach the top due to the fact that this trail is more difficult than it looks, especially in the summer when temperatures are well over 100°F. No water is available on the trail and dehydration is a common and serious problem with hikers who come unprepared. Views from the summit include, in clear weather, Pinnacle Peak, the McDowell Mountains, Four Peaks, the Superstition Mountains, Tabletop Mountain, the Sierra Estrella, Woolsey Peak, the White Tank Mountains, the Harquahala Mountains and the Bradshaw Mountains.
The hike itself takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes depending on each hiker's capabilities. A beginning hiker should allow 60 minutes for a leisurely ascent and 30 for descent. The path is mostly well marked. There are 4 spots that are confusing and hikers who are not familiar with the path will be forced to look around for the best route. There are a few sections that are technically difficult as they are steep and there are no guard rails.
There are approximately fifteen miles of interconnecting trails in the Preserve, ranging from easy to difficult.
Lori Piestewa
SPC Lori Ann Piestewa (December 14, 1973–March 23, 2003) was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps soldier killed during the same Iraqi Army attack in which her friend Jessica Lynch was injured. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first woman in the U.S. armed forces killed in the 2003 Iraq war and is the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military.
Piestewa's youth
Piestewa was born and raised in Tuba City, Arizona, a town with more than a 50% unemployment rate, the daughter of Terry Piestewa and Priscilla "Percy" Baca Piestewa. Lori Piestewa's father is Hopi and her mother is of Mexican American ancestry. photo They met in 1964 and married in November 1968.
Her family had a long military tradition, with both Piestewa's father and grandfather having served in the U.S. Army. (Her father was drafted and served in Vietnam in 1965, and returned home in March 1967.)
As a child, she was given the Hopi name Köcha-Hon-Mana (also spelled Qotsa-hon-mana, meaning White Bear Girl).Her surname, Piestewa, is derived from a Hopi language root meaning "water pooled on the desert by a hard rain"; thus, Piestewa translates loosely as "the people who live by the water."
Ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq
Piestewa was a member of the army's 507th Army Maintenance Company, a support unit of clerks, cooks, and repair personnel. Her company was traveling in a convoy through the desert and was meant to bypass Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, during the opening days of the war; but the convoy became lost and ran into an ambush in Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.
As Piestewa came under what an Army investigation described as "a torrent of fire," she drove at a high speed, successfully evading the enemy fire until an RPG hit the front-left wheel-well of her Humvee. The force of the explosion sent her vehicle into the rear of a disabled tractor-trailer. Three other soldiers in the Humvee died in the crash. Lynch attempted to fire her M16, but it jammed. Piestewa and Jessica Lynch both survived but were wounded. They were taken prisoner, with Piestewa dying soon after of her wounds. A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa (filmed shortly before she died in an Iraqi hospital), was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television.According to Jessica Lynch's book—I'm a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story—Piestewa was wounded in the head, and it was impossible to perform delicate neurosurgery in an Iraqi civilian hospital in wartime conditions (such as intermittent electric power). In a U.S. military hospital with reliable power and neurosurgeons available around the clock, she might have survived.).
The families of soldiers in the 507th heard almost right away of the ambush and fatalities in the unit. The Piestewa family saw people in Lori's unit being interviewed by Iraqi TV, and for more than a week families of the two women waited for news. All around Tuba City signs were hung out telling people: "Put your porch light on, show Lori the way home." They used white stone to spell her name on a 200-ft mesa just outside the town.
Honoring Piestewa
Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal. The army posthumously promoted her from Private First Class to Specialist.
Jessica Lynch has repeatedly said that Piestewa is the true hero of the ambush and named her daughter Dakota Ann in honor of her fallen comrade. In addition, many entities have honored her memory with memorials. Arizona's state government renamed Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains near Phoenix as Piestewa Peak and this was codified by the US Board on Geographic Names on April 10, 2008; the freeway that passes near this mountain was also re-named in her honor. In addition, Senator Tom Daschle honored her, as did Indian Nations across America. Since her death, the Grand Canyon Games organizers have held an annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which brings participants from across the country. A plaque bearing her name is also located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Fort Bliss, Texas. She has also been memorialized with a plaque and ceremony at Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, California.
Her death led to a rare joint prayer gathering between members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have had a centuries-old rivalry.
In May 2005, Lori's parents and children had a brand-new home built by Ty Pennington and his crew on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition accompanied by Jessica Lynch. They also built a new veterans' center on the Navajo reservation.
Awards:
Purple Heart - Prisoner of War Medal
Other websites about Lori Piestewa : Defence.gov
Lori Piestewa
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