Welcome to Pride in America Month. Every day in the month of June and through Independence Day, we will be highlighting a figure who has demonstrated and defended American values. Consider it a healthy alternative to the Left's June celebration that has taken over the media and corporate America.
For the first three decades of the 20th century, it seemed like there was nothing Americans could not do. Americans had invented the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and airplane and created a process to manufacture automobiles so cheaply that every family could afford one. New technology brought celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Babe Ruth into the lives of the American people. Yet there was one man whose fame towered above them all.
Charles Lindbergh, born to a congressman and a schoolteacher, developed an early fascination with motorized vehicles, particularly primitive airplanes. At the tender age of 20, he abandoned his college education to pursue flying lessons, funding his training by joining a daredevil barnstorming tour.
After enlisting in the Army Air Force, Lindbergh graduated at the top of his class in 1925. However, with the small peacetime army's limited demand for pilots, he returned to civilian life. Subsequently, he worked for the US Post Office delivering airmail before embarking on the journey that would etch his name in history.
On the morning of Friday, May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, in a single-engine, single-seat airplane dubbed Spirit of St. Louis. More than a thousand people lined the runway to see him off on what would be the first solo transatlantic flight in history.
Nearly two days later, Lindbergh circled the Eiffel Tower before landing in Paris, where 150,000 people had gathered to meet him. Accolades poured in. He was honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City, Congress authorized the awarding of a Medal of Honor for Lindbergh — despite his civilian status — and Time Magazine recognized him as their very first Man of the Year.
Charles Lindbergh had become one of the most famous men on the planet almost overnight.
However, fame came at a steep cost. In 1932, Lindbergh's eldest son was kidnapped, and although a ransom of $50,000 was paid, the baby was tragically found dead. Lindbergh subsequently sought refuge from the incessant media attention by relocating his family to Europe.
As World War II loomed, Lindbergh emerged as a prominent voice opposing American involvement. Despite his anti-war stance, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he applied to reactivate his Army Air Corps commission, only to be denied by the government due to his earlier statements. Nonetheless, Lindbergh contributed as a civilian advisor and actively participated in over 50 combat missions against Japan in the Pacific theater.
In later life, Charles Lindbergh spoke out against the growing menace of worldwide communism as well as the deleterious effects of technology on mankind. He worried that technological advancements had the potential to exacerbate mankind's darker tendencies rather than uplift society.
In 1969, Lindbergh watched Apollo 11 lift off on its historic journey. Just 42 years after becoming the first man to cross the Atlantic alone in an airplane, Lindbergh witnessed Neil Armstrong on his way to becoming the first man to walk on the moon.
Throughout his life, Charles Lindbergh exhibited vision, patriotism, and unwavering faith in American greatness. Nothing can take away from his accomplishments.
Do you have a great American who deserves to be celebrated this month? Let us know!
