Ryan S. Walters

The Democrat Election “Reform” Bill: We’ve Been Here Before

Congressional Democrats are currently working diligently to pass a major election “reform” bill so that no person’s right to vote can be suppressed, which liberals allege is happening in every election, especially in red states. In order to safeguard this sacred right from those nasty conservatives who are trying to take squash it, Democrats are proposing what is essentially a federal takeover of the electoral process.

But this move is not unprecedented in American history. We’ve been here before, in 1890.

My New Book On Grover Cleveland

Just this week, I released a new book on Grover Cleveland, published by the Abbeville Institute Press.

Happy Birthday Jim McDivitt

Today is Jim McDivitt’s 92nd Birthday!

Did Politics Doom Apollo 1?

We live in an age where politics seems to pervade every aspect of our daily lives, touching everything from sports and entertainment to items as seemingly non-political as soft drinks and children’s cartoons. Apparently, nothing is off-limits. Yet if there was one entity that might be free of the taint of politics then perhaps NASA would be it. But sadly, that is not the case.

Apollo 1: Answering a Critic

I recently saw a somewhat negative review on Amazon on my book about the Apollo 1 tragedy:

June 3, 1965: Ed White’s Spacewalk

On this day in 1965, 56 years ago, astronaut Ed White, on board Gemini 4, stepped outside his spacecraft to perform the first American EVA. Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stunned the world the previous March by becoming the first man to walk in space. America had to answer.

An excerpt from Apollo 1: The Tragedy That Put Us On the Moon:

Arlington Memorial For Apollo 1

Did you know that there is not a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the crew of Apollo 1, who tragically perished in a flash fire inside their spacecraft on January 27, 1967?

There is a memorial to Challenger and Columbia but not to Apollo 1.

Honoring the Crew of Apollo 1

The crew of Apollo 1 – Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee – perished on January 27, 1967 when a fire swept through their spacecraft during a routine test three weeks before launch. They should also be memorialized on this Memorial Day!

Honoring the White Family

In my latest book, Apollo 1: The Tragedy That Put Us On the Moon, I honor the three fallen astronauts, one of whom was Edward Higgins White II. Ed was a 1952 graduate of the US Military Academy, at a time when prospective Air Force flyers attended West Point. The Air Force Academy did not yet exist until 1954. Ed served in the Air Force until he became an astronaut in 1962. In 1965, he was the first American to walk in space.

Service in America’s military forces was not limited to Ed; the tradition ran strong in the White family.

“It Must Not Be Again!”

On May 23, 1921, President Warren G. Harding stood on the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey and watched as 5212 wooden caskets containing the remains of American servicemen who died in World War I in France arrived for burial. In his brief remarks, Harding tearfully promised, “I find a hundred thousand sorrows touching my heart, and there is a ringing in my ears, like an admonition eternal, an insistent call, ‘It must not be again! It must not be again!’ God grant that it will not be, and let a practical people join in cooperation with God to the end that it shall not be.”