Hey Blake,
Is the horse trainer Tom Amoss related to the lady who writes children's books?
Joe Cage
Dear Joe,
Yes, indeed, he is. In fact, he is her son, one of six of them!
Berthe Amoss was born in New Orleans -- I won't say exactly when because I'm a gentleman. She has a degree in art from Tulane and has studied art in Hawaii, Germany, and Belgium. Her first book is entitled It's Not Your Birthday. The idea came from a time when one of her older sons was having a birthday, and 4-year-old Tom couldn't understand why he wasn't getting any of the presents. Another book prompted by son Tom is called Tom in the Middle. Since then, Berthe has written and illustrated many excellent books for children, young and old.
Tom, who may have been in the middle when he was a young lad, is now Tom at the top. He grew up and got a business degree from Louisiana State University. But clearly his interest was the business of horse training. After working at the various levels of apprenticeship, he got a trainer's license and his first four horses to train. Today he has a hugely successful stable of more than 40 thoroughbreds.
Tom has maintained a lifetime win percentage of 23. For those of you who are not familiar with thoroughbred racing, this remarkable feat places him in the top 1 percent of all trainers in the United States. Because of his outstanding accomplishments, he was inducted into the New Orleans Fair Grounds Hall of Fame in March 1999.
Hey Blake,
I just saw the PBS show Nova titled "Hitler's Lost Sub," about a German U-boat sunk off the coast of New Jersey and discovered by divers. Isn't there a German U-boat sunk off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico? I recall hearing it is off the coast of Grand Isle. Has the U-boat ever been identified? What year did it sink?
Drew in Slidell
Dear Drew,
A while back, someone made a movie called The Summer of '42. It was a love story. But somebody ought to make another one about that same summer. That was the year -- 1942 -- that World War II came to Louisiana.
It was on Aug. 1, 1942, that a Coast Guard seaplane operating out of Houma sank German U-boat 166. German U-boats -- U-boat was an abbreviation for Unterseeboot -- had started to enter the Gulf of Mexico in May 1942, and the United States rushed to defend the waters. They made use of every available seaworthy vessel -- including civilian yachts -- along with civil Air Patrol planes, Navy minesweepers, and Coast Guard seaplanes.
The U-boats attacked and sank 36 American and Allied freighters and tankers from May to August. The Gulf was no place to be during that dangerous time. But contrary to popular rumors, no submarine came up the Mississippi River and cruised around at the foot of Canal Street.
On the day of the destruction of U-166, Pilot Henry White and the crew of the Grumman J4F Widgeon were on routine patrol when they spotted a submarine on the surface. Because the U-boats usually came up only at night to recharge their batteries, the crew believed that it had probably been damaged. The U-boat had recently sunk the freighter Robert E. Lee, and had itself been the target of depth charges.
When the submarine saw the plane it executed a quick dive, but it was too late. The Widgeon, carrying a 325-pound depth charge under its right wing, flew over the U-boat just as its tower was disappearing beneath the surface. George Boggs pulled the lever, and released the depth charge that would explode 25 feet underwater. The plane flew in a circle for about an hour until it was relieved by another one. All the crew ever saw was an oil slick. They weren't even sure the boat had been sunk until after the war, when Boggs saw German records indicating that the U-166 had been lost in the Gulf.
Finally, driven back by patrolling boats and planes, the submarines left the Gulf and returned to the Atlantic at the end of the summer.
