安森县 (北卡罗莱纳州)

History.

The county was formed in 1750 from Bladen County. It was named for George Anson, Baron Anson, a British admiral, who circumnavigated the globe from 1740 to 1744, and later became First Lord of the Admiralty. Anson purchased land in the state.  Like its parent county Bladen, Anson County was originally a vast territory with indefinite northern and western boundaries. Reductions in its extent began in 1753, when the northern part of it became Rowan County. In 1762 the western part of Anson County became Mecklenburg County. In 1779 the northern part of what remained of Anson County became Montgomery County, and the part east of the Pee Dee River became Richmond County. Finally, in 1842 the western part of Anson County was combined with the southeastern part of Mecklenburg County to become Union County.

Geography.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and (1.1%) is water.

Law and government.

Anson County is a member of the regional Centralina Council of Governments.  As of the 2000 Census, Anson County is located entirely in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, which is currently represented by Republican Dan Bishop.

Demographics.

As of the census of 2000, there were 25,275 people, 9,204 households, and 6,663 families residing in the county. The population density was 48 people per square mile (18/km2). There were 10,221 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile (7/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 51.64% Black or African American, 48.53% White, 0.45% Native American, 0.57% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races, and 0.46% from two or more races. 0.83% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.  There were 9,204 households out of which 31.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.80% were married couples living together, 19.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.60% were non-families. 25.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.09.  In the county, the population was spread out with 25.20% under the age of 18, 8.60% from 18 to 24, 29.00% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64, and 14.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.80 males.  The median income for a household in the county was $29,849, and the median income for a family was $35,870. Males had a median income of $27,297 versus $20,537 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,853. About 15.50% of families and 17.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.90% of those under age 18 and 16.70% of those age 65 or over.

Education.

There are 11 schools in the Anson County Schools system that serve the students of the county.  South Piedmont Community College has a campus on Highway 74 near Polkton that serves Anson County residents.

Communities.

Population ranking.

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Anson County.  † "county seat"

In popular culture.

Steven Spielberg filmed "The Color Purple" mostly in Lilesville, and a large white farmhouse (the Huntley house, which is located in Lilesville, NC and is an old farmhouse located few miles off Highway 74) was used extensively as the main exterior location in that film. Most of the town scenes were done in nearby Marshville, NC in Union County, NC which is a small town in the county directly to the west of Anson County; the store is an actual store called Apple Jacks and dirt was laid out of over pavement during filming.

Anson County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,948. Its county seat is Wadesboro.

安森县(英语:Anson County)是美国北卡罗莱纳州南部的一个县,南邻南卡罗莱纳州。面积1,391平方公里。根据美国2000年人口普查,共有人口25,275人。县治韦兹伯勒(Wadesboro)。


Early life, family and interests.

Snow was born in Berea, Kentucky, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Jim, taught social studies, and was a school guidance counselor and an assistant principal at Princeton High School in Sharonville, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), from which his son graduated. His mother was an inner-city nurse who died of colon cancer in 1973, when Snow was seventeen years of age. Snow developed an early interest in journalism, public policy, and politics, and was editor of his high school newspaper.  After graduating from high school in 1973, Snow obtained in 1977 a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Davidson College in North Carolina. He then taught physics in high school. He attended graduate programs in philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago.  Snow was an avid musician. He played the trombone, flute, piccolo, saxophone, and guitar, and belonged to a cover band, Beats Workin', which featured fellow Washington-area professionals. Beats Workin' played publicly with a number of rock bands, including Snow's friends Skunk Baxter (The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan) and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Snow was featured on an episode of VH1 Classic's "Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp".  In Ohio, Snow originally registered to vote as a Democrat. He was a convert to Roman Catholicism.

Career.

Snow began his journalism career in 1979 as an editorial writer for "The Greensboro Record" in Greensboro, North Carolina, next working as an editorial writer at "The Virginian-Pilot" in Norfolk, Virginia (1981–82), editorial page editor of "The Daily Press" in Newport News (1982–84), deputy editorial page editor of "The Detroit News" (1984–87), and editorial page editor of "The Washington Times" (1987–91).  In 1991, Snow took a sabbatical from journalism to work in the White House for President George H. W. Bush, first as chief speechwriter (Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speechwriting) and later as Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs (1992–1993).  From 1993 to 2000, "The Detroit News" published his commentaries, and from 1994 to 2000 he was a Counterpoint Columnist for "USA Today". Snow also wrote a syndicated column for Creators Syndicate between 1993 and 2000; his commentaries appeared in more than 200 newspapers nationwide. Snow won numerous awards during his print career, including those from the Virginia Press Association, the Detroit Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, The Associated Press, and Gannett.  Snow appeared on radio and television programs worldwide including "The McLaughlin Group", "The MacNeil–Lehrer NewsHour", "Face the Nation", "Crossfire", and "Good Morning America". Until 1994, Snow was the writer, correspondent and host of the PBS news special "The New Militant Center".  From 1996 to 2003, Snow was the first host of "FOX News Sunday", a Sunday morning interview and roundtable program produced by Fox News, airing on affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company and later in the day on Fox News Channel.  Snow was the primary guest host of Rush Limbaugh's program beginning in the mid-1990s. He was also a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Snow's own "Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio premiered in late 2003. It ended when he became White House Press Secretary in April 2006.  In April 2006, Snow was named White House Press Secretary in the George W. Bush administration, replacing Scott McClellan. His appointment to the position was formally announced on April 26, 2006. His selection was initially criticized because of some of his past comments about Bush. Bush acknowledged Snow's criticisms during the announcement of Snow's appointment, saying that Snow was "not afraid to express his own opinions".  Snow began his new press secretary duties on May 8, 2006. He decided to leave the position of press secretary after new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten asked all staff members to either commit to staying through the end of Bush's second term, in January 2009, or to leave by Labor Day of 2007. On September 13, 2007, Snow gave his final press briefing, saying that he would miss the duties of his position, and that "I love these briefings".

Illness and death.

In February 2005, while still at Fox News, Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer. He returned to broadcasting in April 2005 after undergoing surgery. On March 23, 2007, after almost a year as press secretary, Snow once again took a leave of absence to seek treatment for recurrent cancer. Treatment for the spreading cancer in his final few months forced periodic absences from Snow's duties as press secretary, his subsequent position as a CNN commentator, and his public speaking engagements.  On July 12, 2008, Snow died at Georgetown University Hospital as a result of colon cancer that had spread to his liver. He was 53 years old. Reacting to Snow's death, President George W. Bush praised Snow's ability to bring "a certain civility to this very contentious job."

Robert Anthony Snow, known as Tony Snow (June 1, 1955 – July 12, 2008), was an American journalist, political commentator, television news anchor, syndicated columnist, radio host, musician, and the twenty-third White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, from May 2006 until his resignation in September 2007. Snow also worked for the first President Bush as chief speechwriter and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs, from 1991 to 1993. Between his two White House stints, Snow was a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. After years of regular guest-hosting for "The Rush Limbaugh Show" and providing news commentary for National Public Radio, he launched his own talk radio program, "The Tony Snow Show", which went on to become nationally syndicated. He was also a regular personality on Fox News Channel beginning in 1996, hosting "Fox News Sunday" and "Weekend Live", and often substituting as host of "The O'Reilly Factor". In April 2008, Snow briefly joined CNN as a commentator. He also made several notable speeches, including keynote addresses at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2007 and 2008. In his journalistic and governmental capacities, Snow generally supported conservative causes. Snow died of colon cancer on July 12, 2008.

罗伯特·安东-{}-尼·斯诺(英语:Robert Anthony Snow,1955年-6月1日-2008年-6月12日),美国政治家、专栏作家、时事评论员、第二十五任白宫发言人。


Background.

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was created by the United Kingdom on July 22, 1940 in accordance with Prime Minister Winston Churchill's directive to "set Europe ablaze." The objective of SOE was to undertake "irregular warfare" with sabotage and subversion in countries occupied by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers. SOE agents in occupied countries allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Section N was created within SOE to deal with the Netherlands. Section N had four chiefs during the war: R. V. Laming, Charles Blizard (known as Blunt), Seymour Bingham, and R. I. Dobson. In the words of M.R.D. Foot, official historian of the SOE, Section N was "not always noted for efficiency."  The opposite numbers of the SOE leaders in German-occupied Netherlands were Majors Hermann Giskes of the Abwehr and Joseph Schreider of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligent service of the SS.  The Netherlands presented geographical challenges to the Dutch resistance and the British intelligence agencies wishing to infiltrate agents and supply arms and supplies to the resistance groups. The country was densely populated and lacked forests and mountains where resistance forces could hide; isolated areas suitable for landing fields of airplanes or parachute drops of arms and supplies for the resistance were hard to find; the coast was flat and the beaches were guarded and often mined by the Germans offering little opportunity to bring in agents and supplies by boat or submarine. Moreover, the Netherlands did not border any neutral, unoccupied country which could be used a staging ground for resistance activities.

A bad beginning.

In late summer 1941 a Dutch agent of the British intelligence agency MI6 was arrested by the Germans in the Netherlands. He had with him a large number of coded messages and a German cryptographer, Sergeant E. G. May, was able to learn the MI6 cipher system. In February 1942, two MI6 agents were captured in the Netherlands which added to the German knowledge of the British codes. At this time SOE depended upon MI6 for its communications and ciphers.  Meanwhile, SOE was training Dutch agents to infiltrate into the Netherlands to help a fledgling resistance movement. The agents complained about the deficiencies of their training program. They were given clothing, easily identifiable as British, to be worn in the Netherlands, security was lax, and SOE could not provide the agents in training with names and addresses of contacts and safe houses which they would need in the Netherlands. In response, the British confined the disaffected trainees and only released them in December 1941 after a complaint by the Dutch government-in-exile in England and after the agents signed a agreement to remain silent about their complaints.  SOE's first two Dutch agents, wireless operator and saboteur Thys Taconis, parachuted into the Netherlands on the night of 6/7 November 1941. Lauwers was captured on 6 March 1942. He was persuaded to send messages to SOE in London, but he omitted from the messages the two security checks (deliberate errors) that were required to be introduced into messages by the sending agent, the scheme for which was known only to the agent and SOE. The presence of security checks in messages indicated that the sender was the legitimate agent and that they were acting under free will. The absence of security checks represented a vitally important duress code, which should have warned SOE that the sender was either an impostor or a legitimate agent who had been captured and coerced into working for the Nazis. Repeatedly ignoring the significance of the absent security checks was a serious violation of the SOE's own transmission protocol. However, SOE London ignored the absence of the security checks and accepted the messages as genuine. Lauers continued to transmit messages without the security checks and even inserted the letters CAU and GHT ("Caught") at the beginning and end of messages. SOE London paid no mind.  The messages Lauwers transmitted while a prisoner of the Germans included requests that additional agents and supplies be sent to the Netherlands. SOE responded positively. Agents and supplies, including weapons, were usually flown out of Britain at night and dropped by parachute from converted Handley Page Halifax bombers or landed in fields by Westland Lysander STOL aircraft. SOE air operations were based at RAF Tempsford. The agents and supplies were met on arrival and captured by the Germans.

Playing England.

Several captured Dutch radio operators continued broadcasting encrypted messages but without security checks, which should have alerted SOE that they had been compromised. SOE's head of codes Leo Marks also claims to have realised that, unlike all other coded messages from agents in other countries, the Dutch messages contained no errors. He reasoned that this was because they were not coded in the field by harried and harassed wireless operators, but by expert German cryptographers. The Dutch messages were too good to be genuine. In the documentary "Churchill's Secret Army" Marks recounts how a wireless operator ended a telegraphic radio communication with "HH", which stood for "Heil Hitler" and was the usual closing for German communications. The other party instantly replied "HH" which indicated that the transmitter was a German who was used to adding "HH" to messages automatically and not a British agent who would have been confused by the two letters. Finally, Marks sent a Dutch agent in the Netherlands a deliberately garbled message. Marks reasoned that no ordinary SOE agent could decrypt the message, but that the German cryptographers could and would. The Dutch agent responded to the garbled message, which indicated to Marks that he was transmitting under the control of the Germans. Marks reported these findings to his superior who told him to not discuss the matter with anybody else; no action was taken. Marks claims that the real issue was internal rivalry between the SOE and the SIS; the former did not want to admit error.  German wireless operators reported mock resistance groups and sabotage successes to SOE London. When SOE London requested that a agent return to England, he would suddenly meet with a calamity of some sort so could not return. In January 1943, Marks wrote a report to SOE leaders about his suspicions that all or nearly all SOE agents in the Netherlands were in German hands, but it was months before any action was taken. Neither the Dutch section, overseeing operations in the Netherlands, nor other services were notified of his suspicions. The failure of SOE leadership to respond to signs that the Dutch program was controlled by the Germans was probably motivated by both denial of warning signs and inter-departmental competition between SOE and the rival Secret Intelligence Service ("C") from which SOE had been created.

End of Englandspiel.

In the fall of 1943, two Dutch SOE agents, Pieter Dourlein and John Ubbink, escaped from Haaren concentration camp, made their way to Switzerland. and reported Englandspiel to the Dutch Legation there which passed the information along to the British government. The two agents then utilized one of the escape and evasion lines to get to Spain and hence to London. The Abwehr's Giskes, however, anticipated their arrival by sending a fake message, ostensibly from another SOE agent, that Dourlein and Ubbink were turncoats, having become German agents. The two were imprisoned on their arrival in London and remained in a British prison until after the Normandy Invasion in June 1944. They were later honored by the government of the Netherlands.  Englandspiel was already on its last legs in fall 1943. The Royal Air Force (RAF) which supplied the planes and pilots for SOE had suspended SOE flights to the Netherlands after May 1943 because of the high casualties to aircraft and airmen. The RAF had noticed that its flights to the Netherlands always arrived without opposition and that landing areas were "too bloody perfect," but planes were fired upon during their return trip to England, suffering unusually high losses. In less than a year 12 RAF aircraft were shot down during their return flight from SOE missions in the Netherlands.  The denouement of Englandspiel came on 1 April 1944 when Giskes sent a taunting message to SOE complaining about the lack of recent business from England given that he had been servicing them for so long. Giskes' message also promised a warm welcome to any further agents SOE wished to insert into the Netherlands.

Aftermath.

The fifty Dutch SOE agents that had been captured by the Germans were transported to Mauthausen concentration camp in September 1944 as allied military forces were advancing into the Netherlands and were executed. Giskes, the Abwehr mastermind of Englandspiel, was arrested by the British, but after the war was employed by the United States during the occupation of Germany.  Some of the officials of the Dutch government-in-exile in London refused to cooperate with SOE when the details of Englandspiel became known to them. They were ordered to do so by the Dutch Prince Bernhard, and a fresh start was made in mid-to-late 1944 under new leadership at SOE. Twenty-five well equipped and trained sabotage teams of two Dutch agents each were parachuted into the Netherlands. However, engendered by Englandspiel the British distrusted the Dutch resistance which prevented it from having an impact in Operation Market Garden, the unsuccessful offensive by allied military forces in the Netherlands in September 1944. The spearhead of the British forces, the First British Airborne Division, was ordered not to cooperate with the resistance. Had it not been ignored, the resistance would have been helpful in providing badly needed intelligence and communications to the division which had to be withdrawn from the battlefield after heavy losses.  Conspiracy theories in the Netherlands alleged that a traitor in SOE caused the Englandspiel and that Dutch agents were sacrificed to conceal allied plans for an invasion of the Netherlands. "For many, it was simply impossible to fathom how the devastation caused by "das Englandspiel" could have been the result of stupidity and ineptness." The contrary and more accepted view of M.R.D Foot is that “the agents were victims of sound police work on the German side, assisted by Anglo-Dutch incompetence in London."

Agents.

During the "Englandspiel" the following agents (amongst others) were dropped in the Netherlands:

In popular culture.

"Englandspiel" is also the basis for the 1956 Italian film 'London chiama Polo Nordo/The House of Intrigue', directed by Duilio Coletti with Curt Jurgens, and based upon the novel by Giskes.

References.

Notes

Englandspiel ("England Game"), or Operation North Pole (), was a successful counter intelligence operation of the (German military intelligence) from 1942 to 1944 during World War II. German forces captured Allied resistance agents operating in the Netherlands and used the agents' codes to dupe the United Kingdom's clandestine organization, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), into continuing to infiltrate agents, weapons, and supplies into the Netherlands. The Germans captured nearly all the agents and weapons sent by the United Kingdom (Britain).

北极圈行动(,英语:Operation North Pole)是第二次世界大战期间纳粹德国军事情报机构阿勃维尔发起的巨大反情报行动代号,由身在荷兰的德国反间谍机构头目赫曼·吉斯克斯策划,在1942年至1944年,德国军方利用被捕的荷兰特工向英国发送假情报,并利用其电台接收从英国发来的情报,以操控英国军事决策。


Early life and education.

Sheldon Gary Adelson was born in 1933 into a low-income family, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and one of Sheldon Adelson's grandfathers was a Welsh coal miner. His father drove a taxi, and his mother ran a knitting shop.  He started his business career at the age of 12, when he borrowed $200 from his uncle (or $2,740 in 2017 dollars) and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. At age 16 in 1948, he then borrowed $10,000 (or $102,349 in 2017 dollars) from his uncle to start a candy-vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then subsequently joined the army.  After being discharged from the army he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business named De-Ice-It which sold a chemical spray to help clear frozen windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tours business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his 30s he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson has created almost 50 of his own businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.

Business career.

COMDEX.

In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was the premier computer trade show through much of the 1980s and 1990s.  In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Corporation of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.

Sands Casino.

Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. The following year, Adelson and his partners constructed the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.  In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson found the inspiration for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino. The Venetian opened May 3, 1999. In 2003, The Venetian added the 1,013-suite Venezia tower giving the hotel 4,049 suites; 18 restaurants and a shopping mall with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company decided to build a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009. Table games began operation on July 18, 2010. The hotel opened May 27, 2011. Adelson said "If we have the opportunity to build an integrated resort, we're going to do it. We think it will attract the customers and the tax revenue to the state of Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley and the cities that are in it."  In 2010, during the late-2000s global recession, Adelson told "The Wall Street Journal" "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."

Macau, China.

Adelson spearheaded a major project to bring the Sands name to Macau, the Chinese gambling city that had been a Portuguese colony until December 1999. The one-million-square-foot Sands Macao became the People's Republic of China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owns 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Since the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth has multiplied more than fourteen times.  In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4-billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.  Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.

Marina Bay, Singapore.

In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Singapore's Marina Bay. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion. It includes stores at The Shoppes, convention center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, night clubs, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.

Other activities.

Israeli press.

In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper "Maariv". When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with "Israeli", a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, "Israel Hayom", was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase "Maariv" and the conservative newspaper "Makor Rishon". In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.  According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, "Israel Hayom", which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that "Israel Hayom" had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, "Yedioth Ahronoth" 37%, "Maariv" 12.1%, and "Haaretz" 5.8%. The "Yedioth Ahronoth" weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the "Israel Hayom" weekend edition, 14.9% for "Maariv", and 6.8% for "Haaretz". This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.  In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.

Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In December 2015, Adelson purchased the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC, and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three "Review-Journal" reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.  Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016 a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.  Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.  On September 23, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This makes Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid.  Adelson's newspaper, the "Las Vegas Review-Journal", was the only major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump.  Adelson was also the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.

U.S. policy on Iran.

In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Controversy arose when he said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He went on to explain that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that... actions speak louder than words".

DeLay controversy.

During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "...resulted from the press of other legislation, (not from) a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."

Cannabis.

Fighting the "mainstreaming" of cannabis legalization is a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell was said to have used cocaine and heroin from an early age.  Adelson believes cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awoken a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".

Repurposing the Israeli-American Council.

At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council, Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it.

Internet gambling.

Adelson has fought increasingly hard against internet based gambling in recent years. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson has poured money into candidates who want to overturn recent state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.

Honors.

Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.  Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.  Additionally, President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.  In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years; those on the list were described as "top leaders, icons and rebels, a definitive list of people who have had the greatest influence, sparked the biggest changes and caused the most disruption in business over the past quarter century."

Involvement in politics.

Ideology.

Adelson says that because of his upbringing in an immigrant family in an underprivileged neighborhood of Boston, "it went without saying that we were Democrats". He attributed his family's loyalty to their belief that the Democratic Party of the 1930s and 1940s shared their commitment to charity, self-reliance, and accountability, as well as support for Jewish causes. In a 2012 "Wall Street Journal," op-ed titled "I Didn't Leave the Democrats. They Left me", Adelson specifies three reasons why he switched political parties to the Republicans. First, he cites foreign policy, pointing to a Gallup poll that suggests Republicans are more supportive of Israel than Democrats. Second, he cites statistics that suggest Republicans are more charitable than Democrats. To support this claim Adelson cites a report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which claims, after studying tax data from the IRS, that U.S. states that vote Republican are more generous to charities than those states that vote Democratic. "My father, who kept a charity box for the poor in our house... would have frowned on this fact about modern Democrats." Third, he cites a nonpartisan study of Illinois's finances by the State Budget Crisis Task Force and political scientist Walter Russell Mead claiming that Democratic Party economic policies don't deliver on their promises of social justice and have wrecked one of the country's potentially most prosperous and dynamic states (Illinois).  Adelson also states that he doesn't agree with every Republican position and is liberal on several social issues; but believes the Republicans are better at supporting liberal democracies like Israel, better exemplify the spirit of charity, and support economic policies that would certainly be better for those Americans now looking for work.  Others have attributed different motives for Adelson's party switch. "Why is it fair that I should be paying a higher percentage of taxes than anyone else?", he reportedly said to an associate according to "The New Yorker", which claims Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.  The "New Yorker" article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson has had a long and notable feud, who formerly worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, who said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". "The Boston Globe" claims that Adelson has "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in the "New Yorker" article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".  Adelson denies those explanations for his political beliefs and behavior, suggesting such depictions of him are tainted by his critics' own political ideology.  In February 2012, Adelson told "Forbes" magazine that he is "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."

2004.

In May 2004, Adelson opened Sands Macao, Asia's first American style casino.

2005.

In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush.

2008.

Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.

2010.

In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people."  U.S. Senate candidates he donated to:  Congressional candidates:

2012.

During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.  On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider".  On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told "Forbes" that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich.  He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.  In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to "Bloomberg Businessweek", as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.  Romney believes that China should be pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would benefit financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to appreciate.

2014.

Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize Medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believes that cannabis is a gateway drug.

2016.

According to a 2014 "Washington Post" report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson was reported to have held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign.  In October 2016, Adelson, whose son died of a drug overdose, donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.

Views on Donald Trump.

Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.

2018.

For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.

2019.

On January 31, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.

2020.

It is estimated Adelson will donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for 2020 election cycle.

Philanthropy.

Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.  Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totalling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014.  Adelson also has funded the private, Boston-based Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.  In a 2016 listing of the top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life, Adelson was described as one of the world's most generous and influential Jewish philanthropists, who 'continues to make outsized gifts to a range of Jewish and non-Jewish groups'.

Personal life.

Marriage.

In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. They divorced in 1988.  Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year and married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1946, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.

Litigation.

A June 2008 profile in "The New Yorker" detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with top Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson is appealing again. Adelson faces another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.  In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.  Adelson successfully sued the "Daily Mail" of London for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation", and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.  In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.

Wealth.

In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.  In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero...(there is) no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no." In the "Forbes" 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to #178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.  In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes' Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes, and as of December 2014, his net worth is $30.4 billion.

Private jet fleet.

Adelson owns a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii by way of the Arctic Ocean.

Health.

In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricts his ability to stand and walk. On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.

Sheldon Gary Adelson (pronounced ; born August 4, 1933) is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and political donor. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owns the Israeli daily newspaper "Israel Hayom", "Makor Rishon" and the American daily newspaper "Las Vegas Review-Journal". Adelson, a philanthropist and donor to a variety of causes, created the Adelson Foundation in 2007 at the behest of his wife, Miriam. He is a member of the Republican Party, and made the largest single donation to any U.S. presidential inauguration when he gave the Trump inaugural committee US$5 million.

谢尔登·阿德尔森(Sheldon Gary Adelson,1933年-8月1日)美国亿万富商。立陶宛裔犹太人。他是拉斯维加斯金沙集团的董事长以及CEO,公司旗下有威尼斯人(澳门)股份有限公司及位处拉斯维加斯的金沙会议展览中心。阿德尔森在2004年年底出售了他10%的金沙集团(NYSE: LVS)股份,随即个人财产暴增。估计其个人财产达233亿美元,在福布斯杂志的2011年全球亿万富翁排行榜中,排名全球第十六,美国第五。在福布斯2019年亿万富翁排行榜中名列第二十四位,资产达到351亿美元。在2019年美国400富豪榜,他以345亿美元的资产,排名第17名。


Biography.

What is known is that King Wu Ding cultivated the allegiance of neighbouring tribes by marrying one woman from each of them. Fu Hao (who was believed as one of the king's 64 wives) entered the royal household through such a marriage and took advantage of the semi-matriarchal slave society to rise through the ranks to become one of the King Wu Ding's three consorts. The other two were Fu Jing (妇妌) and Fu Shi (妇嬕) Fu Jing was the primary queen while Fu Hao was the secondary queen. Fu Hao was also the mother of Prince Zu Ji (祖己). Oracle bone inscriptions show concern for her well-being at the time of the birth.  The activities of priestess and ritual matters of China only exist in the Shang dynasty, so some evidence is vague. Since each Chinese Character like "Fu" 妇 often has variable meanings, even with the oracle bones of Shang deciphered, it is possible that some women like Fu Hao were originally priestess instead of the King's wife; she just happened to marry to the King later. That is to say, the meaning of "wife" in some contexts may actually refer to a position as priestess.  Fu Hao owns her land. According to the oracle bones, she offered the King remarkably valuable tributes many times. Although the Shang king had control over ritual matters, which constituted the most important political activity of the day, oracle bone inscriptions show that Wu Ding repeatedly instructed Fu Hao to conduct the most special rituals and to offer sacrifices to the ancestors. The Shang Dynasty had two most important activities: ritual matters and battles; Lady Hao played extraordinary roles in both at that time.

Military Role.

Fu Hao is known to modern scholars mainly from inscriptions on Shang dynasty oracle bone artifacts unearthed at Yinxu. From these inscriptions and from the presence of weapons in her tomb, it can be determined that Fu Hao was a general in charge of several military campaigns for the Shang Dynasty.  In her military role, she was responsible for conquering enemies and neighbours of the Shang Dynasty. The Tu-Fang had fought against the Shang for generations until they were finally defeated by Fu Hao in a single decisive battle. Further campaigns against the neighbouring Yi, Qiang and Ba followed; the latter is particularly remembered for being the earliest recorded large-scale ambush in Chinese history. With up to 13,000 soldiers and important generals Zhi and Hou Gao serving under her, she was the most powerful Shang general of her time.  This highly unusual status is confirmed by the many weapons, including great battle-axes, unearthed in her tomb.  While Fu Hao's achievements were notable and unique, other women in this period were also active in military roles; in a similar manner Fu Jing was also thought to have served in the military based on the presence of many weapons and military equipment in her tomb. Oracle bones also revealed records of at least six hundreds of women participating in the military during this era.

Tomb.

Remarkably, after her death Fu Hao was buried in a tomb on her land across the river from the main royal cemetery, even though usually the royal families were buried together. She died well in advance of King Wu Ding, who constructed her tomb at his capital Yin.  Because of its location, Lady Hao's tomb is the only royal Shang tomb to have been left unnoticed and unlooted, giving unique insights into her life and the burial practices of the time. The King later made many sacrifices there in hopes of receiving her spiritual assistance in defeating the attacking Gong, who threatened to wipe out the Shang completely. This shows his great favor towards Hao and after her death, he had her married to the three greatest kings before him. The tomb was unearthed by archaeologists in 1976 and is now open to the public.  The tomb itself was only a pit that contains a smaller,,, and a wooden structure within. The inside was packed with burial sacrifices and wealth which signified Lady Hao's prodigious position.  She was buried with a large and varied quantity of weapons signifying her important martial status, since only warriors and generals were buried with such objects. Additionally, Fu Hao was entombed with hundreds of bronze, jade, bone, and stone objects such as figurines, vessels, and mirrors many of them rare objects from around the kingdom. These objects are some of the best preserved we have from that time period. The sacrificial bronze vessels and tortoise shells inscribed "prepared by Fu Hao" discovered in her tomb are further evidence of her status as a high priestess and oracle caster. As was the custom during the Shang Dynasty, Fu Hao was buried with 16 human sacrifices and six dogs.

Contents of tomb.

In total, Fu Hao was buried with:

Fu Hao (; died c. 1200 BC) or Lady Hao, posthumous temple name Mu Xin (母辛), was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty and, very unusually for China but not for that time, also served as a military general and high priestess. Minimal evidence detailing Fu Hao's life and military achievements survived the Shang Dynasty, as it preceded the invention of paper and the records may have perished over the course of time.

妇好(?-前1200年),又称帚子、妇子、帚好,庙号辛,是中国商朝第23位国君武丁的六十四位妻子之一,名好或姓好(即姓子),妇是一种对亲属的称谓,她是中国历史上有文字记载的最早的女政治家、军事家。


Early life.

Hrant Dink was born in Malatya on 15 September 1954, the eldest of three sons to Sarkis Dink (known as Haşim Kalfa), a tailor from Gürün, Sivas, and Gülvart Dink, from Kangal, Sivas. His father's gambling debts led to the family's move to Istanbul in 1960, where they sought a new beginning. Sarkis Dink's gambling continued in İstanbul, however, and one year after their move, Dink's parents separated, leaving the seven-year-old Dink and his brothers without a place to live. Dink's grandmother enrolled the boys at the Gedikpaşa Armenian Orphanage; Dink often noted his grandfather, who spoke seven languages and read constantly, as the role model and father figure who inspired his love of letters.  The Gedikpaşa Armenian Orphanage, an institution run by the Armenian Evangelical Community, was to be home to Hrant Dink for the next ten years. The orphanage children spent their summers at the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp, on the Marmara beachfront in a suburb of İstanbul, building and improving the summer camp during their stay. The Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp played a significant role in Hrant Dink's life, both personally, as he met his future wife as a child and later married her at the Camp, and professionally, as the government-led closing of the Camp in 1984 was one of the factors that raised Dink's awareness of the issues of the Armenian community and eventually led to his becoming an activist.  Dink received his primary education at the Hay Avedaranagan İncirdibi Protestant Armenian Primary School and Bezciyan School and his secondary education at the Üsküdar Surp Haç Armenian High School, working as a tutor at the same time.  During his senior year, he was expelled from the Üsküdar Surp Haç, and completed his high school degree at the Şişli Public High School. Hrant Dink continued his education at Istanbul University, where he studied zoology and became a sympathizer of TİKKO, the armed faction of the Maoist TKP-ML. Around this time, in 1972, he legally changed his name (to Fırat Dink), along with two Armenian friends, Armanek and İstepan, to disassociate their factional activities from the Armenian community. His friend Armanek Bakırcıyan, who changed his name to Orhan Bakır, later rose in TİKKO to membership of the central committee, took part in armed struggle in Eastern Turkey and was killed during fighting in 1978. Having fallen in love, Hrant Dink parted ways with his friends and remained at the sympathizer level, completing his bachelor's degree in Zoology and enrolling in the Philosophy Department for a second bachelor's degree, which he did not complete.

Rakel Yağbasan, childhood friend, future wife.

Dink met his future wife, Rakel Yağbasan, when she came to the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp at age nine in 1968. Born in 1959 in Silopi, Cizre, Rakel was one of 13 children of Siyament Yağbasan, head of the Varto clan and Delal Yağbasan who died when Rakel was a child.  In 1915, the Varto clan had received orders to relocate along with the rest of the Armenian population in the region, but they were attacked during the journey. Five families from the clan escaped to nearby Mount Cudi and settled there, remaining without any contact to the outside world for 25 years. Eventually they re-established contact and largely assimilated into the nearby Kurdish population, speaking Kurdish exclusively, although they retained knowledge of their Armenian origin and Christian beliefs. Armenian Protestant lay preacher Hrant Güzelyan (also known as Küçükgüzelyan), who was running a program for relocating Anatolian Armenians to İstanbul, visited the clan and brought back around 20 children to the Tuzla Camp, including Rakel and two of her brothers.  Staying at the Tuzla Camp during summers and at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage during winters, Rakel learned Turkish and Armenian, and finished primary school. Because Rakel was registered as a Turk, not as an Armenian, she was not allowed to enroll at Armenian community schools and her father did not give permission for her to attend a Turkish school past then-compulsory 5th grade. Not able to obtain further formal schooling, Rakel was privately tutored by instructors at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage.  Rakel's father, Siyament Yağbasan, at first opposed Hrant Dink's marriage proposal since the Varto clan traditionally practiced endogamy, but eventually relented when elders of the Armenian community, including Patriarch Kalustyan, applied pressure and Rakel declared that she would marry no one else. Hrant Dink and Rakel Yağbasan got married in a civil ceremony at the Tuzla Camp on 19 April 1976 when they were 22 and 17, respectively. One year later, at Rakel Dink's insistence, the couple conducted a church wedding ceremony on 23 April 1977. Hrant and Rakel Dink had three children: Delal, Arat, and Sera.

Religious beliefs.

Dink was baptized and married within the Armenian Apostolic Church, but was educated and sheltered at Armenian Protestant institutions and received his introduction to religion within the Protestant sphere. Dink was a member of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Gedikpaşa, Istanbul, as well as a member by birth in the Armenian Apostolic Church. He regarded both churches as part of his culture and said that he was not someone who dealt heavily with religious rituals. Keeping the duality to the end, his funeral service was held in the Apostolic Church, by Patriarch Mutafyan, with Protestant ministers delivering eulogies at the burial.

After university.

Having graduated from the university, Hrant Dink completed his military service in Denizli; not being promoted to sergeant despite his full marks on the examination caused him to weep. Whether his not being promoted was due to his association with TİKKO or his Armenian heritage, the discrimination he felt was one of the turning points on his way to activism. Returning to İstanbul, Dink established ""Beyaz Adam"" ("literally "White Man""), a bookstore in the Bakırköy district with his brothers Hosrop and Yervant in 1979. Encouraging students to browse and borrow needed books, the store gained recognition by word of mouth and gradually expanded into a multi-location bookstore and publishing house that specialized in textbooks, children's books, atlases and dictionaries. After the 1980 coup d'état, when it became difficult for Turkish citizens to obtain passports for travel abroad, Dink's brother Hosrop started traveling to Beirut and then to Europe by using falsified identification papers, and when he was caught in the act, Hrant Dink was also taken into custody as an associate. Soon afterwards, Dink was questioned twice again by the police, once when a former resident of the Tuzla Camp was investigated for possible connections to ASALA, an Armenian terrorist organization, and again when Hrant Güzelyan, who ran the Tuzla Camp, was arrested and charged with anti-Turkish propaganda, and had ASALA demand his release when they occupied the Turkish Consulate General in Paris and took hostages.

Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp.

Dink, together with his wife Rakel, took over the management of the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp at the time of Güzelyan's arrest, while continuing in the bookstore business with his brothers. In 1979, the General Directorate of Foundations started a court action to annul Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church's ownership of the camp, based on a 1974 ruling by the Court of Appeals that made it impossible for minority foundations to own real estate beyond what they possessed in 1936. After a five-year legal battle, the court ruled that the land should be returned to its previous owner and in 1984 the camp was closed down. The closure of the camp, where over 22 years around 1,500 children stayed affected Dink deeply and over the years he wrote about the camp often:  The Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp was the subject of an exhibit by the Turkish Human Rights Organization in 1996, the materials from which was published in book form in 2000, with a foreword by Orhan Pamuk and an afterword by Hrant Dink. In 2001 the camp grounds were sold to a local businessman who intended to build a house on the site until Dink contacted him and let him know that the land had belonged to an orphanage. The businessman offered to donate the land back, but the law at the time did not permit it. At the time of Dink's death in 2007, the camp grounds continued to stand empty, awaiting the new Foundation law that was passed at the end of 2006 but was vetoed and returned to parliament by President Sezer.

Editor of "Agos".

Dink was one of the founders of "Agos" weekly, the only newspaper in Turkey published in Armenian and Turkish, serving as its editor-in-chief from its founding in 1996 until his death in 2007. The first issue appeared on 5 April 1996 and was hailed by Patriarch Karekin II as a "զատիկ" (Easter) gift.  "Agos" was born out of a meeting called by Patriarch Karekin II when mainstream media started linking Armenians of Turkey with the illegal Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A picture of PKK's leader Abdullah Öcalan and an Assyrian priest appeared in a Turkish daily, with the caption "Here's proof of the Armenian-PKK cooperation". Patriarch Karekin II asked the attendees at the meeting what needed to be done and the opinion that emerged from the meeting was that the Armenians in Turkey needed to communicate with the society at large. The group held a widely covered press conference, followed by monthly press events and eventually formed Agos.  Dink had not been a professional journalist until founding "Agos". Up to that point, he had contributed occasional articles and book reviews to local Armenian language newspapers and corrections and letters to the editor to the national dailies. He soon became well known for his editorials in "Agos" and also wrote columns in the national dailies "Zaman" and "BirGün".  Up to the founding of "Agos", the Armenian community had two main newspapers, "Marmara" and "Jamanak", both published only in Armenian. By publishing in Turkish as well as Armenian, Hrant Dink opened up the channels of communication to the society at large for the Armenian community. After Agos started its publication, the participation of Armenians in the political-cultural life in Turkey increased greatly, and public awareness in Turkey of the issues of the Armenians started to increase. Always willing to speak on the issues faced by Armenians, Hrant Dink emerged as a leader in his community and became a well-known public figure in Turkey.  At its inception, "Agos" started with a circulation of 2,000, and at the time of Hrant Dink's death had reached a circulation of around 6,000. Influential beyond its circulation, often applauded greatly by some and criticized heavily by others, Agos became a paper whose editorial viewpoint was sought after.

Editorial policy.

Dink's unique perspective has been described as a "four way mirror", simultaneously empathetic to people of the Armenian diaspora, citizens of Armenia, Turkish Armenians, and citizens of Turkey. Under Dink's editorship, "Agos" concentrated on five major topics: Speaking against any unfair treatment of the Armenian community in Turkey, covering human rights violations and problems of democratization in Turkey, carrying news of developments in Armenia, with special emphasis on the Turkey-Armenia relations, publishing articles and serials on the Armenian cultural heritage and its contributions to the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, criticizing malfunctions and non-transparency in the Armenian community institutions.  As a leftist activist, Dink often spoke and wrote about the problems of democratization in Turkey, defending other authors such as Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist Perihan Mağden who came under criticism and prosecution for their opinions. In a speech Hrant Dink delivered on May 19, 2006, at a seminar jointly organized in Antalya by the Turkish Journalists' Association and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, he said:  Acting as a voluntary spokesperson for the Armenian community in Turkey, Dink, through "Agos", addressed the particular prejudices, injustices and problems the community faced in its interaction with the Turkish society and state. "Agos", through Dink's pen, criticized discrimination against Armenians found in Turkish mainstream media, publicized the problems faced by Armenian foundations, and spoke against cases of destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.

Armenian issues.

Dink hoped his questioning would pave the way for peace between the two peoples:  He defended his constant challenge of established notions:  Dink was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices and, despite threats on his life, he refused to remain silent. He always said his aim was to improve the difficult relationship between Turks and Armenians. Active in various democratic platforms and civil society organizations, Hrant Dink emphasized the need for democratization in Turkey and focused on the issues of free speech, minority rights, civic rights and issues pertaining to the Armenian community in Turkey. He was a very important peace activist. In his public speeches, which were often intensely emotional, he never refrained from using the word genocide when talking about the Armenian Genocide, a term fiercely rejected by Turkey.  At the same time, he felt the term genocide had a political meaning, rather than a historical one, and he was critical of Armenian diaspora campaigning governments for official recognition of the genocide. In 2005, he accused Germany of using the genocide to block Turkey's entry to the European Union, stating that he was ashamed, as an Armenian, that such manner of drama and political maneuvering should continue into the present day, and stating that he shared from the heart the pain of the Turkish families and Muslim families as part of the process he called "yüzleşme" or Turkey's confronting its past.  Dink featured prominently in the 2006 genocide documentary film "Screamers" in which he explains: Dink believed that diaspora Armenians should be able to live free of the weight of historical memory (the "residues of the past"), considering first and foremost the needs of the living majority (he said "eyes of the other side").  Indicating that a show of empathy would have nothing to do with accepting or refusing the genocide, Dink called for dialogue: By pointing out issues of rhetorical discourse that hampered Armenian-Turkish dialogue, he believed these obstacles could be overcome to the benefit of Turkish Armenians.  He was opposed to the French law that makes denial of Armenian Genocide a crime. He was planning to go to France to commit this 'crime', when the law came into effect.  According to Dink, "Agos" helped the development of the Armenian community such that it helped triple the participation in the last Patriarchal elections, trained many journalists, became the community's face to Turkish society and cultivated many friends. He voiced his intention for an "Institute of Armenian Studies" in Istanbul. He tried to make it the democratic, opposition voice of Turkey, a voice used to inform the public of the injustices committed against the Armenian community. One of the major aims of the newspaper was to contribute to a dialog between the Turkish and Armenian communities, as well as between Turkey and Armenia.

Policy view.

Dink promoted a policy of wider integration of Turkish-Armenians into the wider Turkish society. Critical of state injustices, he often underlined the fact that a stronger Turkey would be achieved through the elimination of discrimination. Even after his conviction for speaking of the Armenian Genocide, Dink continued to value his community, city, and country, noting often that his analysis and criticism was in the interest of strengthening the country. He concentrated on the mismanagement of community institutions, tried to promote obtaining rights through legal means, and was always open to compromise, once noting, "After all, Turkey is very reluctant to concede rights to its majority as well."  In his latest conference, held in Malatya Association of Entrepreneurs, Dink claimed that the Kurds were now falling in for the traps that the Armenians fell in the past. He stated that "English, Russian, German, and French are playing the same game again in this land. In the past, the Armenian people trusted them, thought they would rescue them from the cruelity of the Ottoman. But they were wrong, because they finished their business and they left. And they left brothers of this land as enemies". He claimed that the US is now playing the same game, and this time Kurds are falling for it. He said "That is America. Comes, minds its own business, and when he is done, leaves. And then people here, scuffle within themselves".

Prosecution for denigrating Turkishness.

Dink was prosecuted three times for denigrating Turkishness under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. He was acquitted the first time, convicted and received a suspended 6-month jail sentence the second time, which he had appealed at the European Court of Human Rights. At the time of his death, the prosecutor's office was preparing to press charges in a third case.  The first charge under the previous version of Article 301, then called Article 159, stemmed from a speech he delivered at a panel hosted by human rights NGO Mazlum-Der in Şanlıurfa on 14 February 2002. Speaking at the "Global Security, Terror and Human Rights, Multiculturalism, Minorities and Human Rights" panel, Dink and another speaker, lawyer Şehmus Ülek, faced charges for denigrating Turkishness and the Republic. In the speech, Dink had stated: On 9 February 2006, Dink, and Şehmus Ülek, who stood trial for another speech at the same panel, were acquitted of all charges.  The second charge under 301 was pressed for Dink's article called "Getting to know Armenia" (13 February 2004), in which he suggested to diaspora Armenians that it was time to rid themselves of their enmity against Turks, a condition he considered himself free of, keeping himself emotionally healthy while at the same time knowing something of discrimination. His statement, "replace the poisoned blood associated with the Turk, with fresh blood associated with Armenia" resulted in a six-month suspended sentence.  Dink defended himself vigorously against the charges:  In a February 2006 interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Dink spoke about his 2005 conviction for denigrating Turkishness in a criminal court: In the same CPJ interview, he explained that while he had always been a target of Turkish nationalists, the past year had seen an increase in their efforts: His appeal of the ruling that found him guilty was rejected by a Turkish court in May 2006. Having exhausted internal appeal mechanisms, Dink appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for an overturn of the ruling on 15 January. The appeal suggests that Article 301 compromises freedom of expression and that Dink has been discriminated against because of his Armenian ethnicity. Dink's family has the right to decide whether or not to proceed with the appeal after his death.  In September 2006, another case was opened against Dink on charges of 'denigrating Turkishness' under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which Amnesty International considered to be "part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression." The charge was brought against him by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office after he referred to the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide during a 14 July 2006 interview with Reuters: The charges were also leveled at Serkis Seropyan and Dink's son Arat Dink, as the holder of Agos's publishing license and executive editor, respectively. On 14 June 2007, the case against Hrant Dink was dropped due to his death, though proceedings for Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink were scheduled for 18 July 2007.  In September, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkish authorities have violated Dink's freedom of speech (Article 10 ECHR) by criminal proceedings against him for alleged denigration of Turkish identity and in reality, for criticizing the state institutions' denial of the view that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide.

Assassination.

Dink was assassinated in Istanbul around 12:00 GMT on 19 January 2007, as he returned to the offices of "Agos". The killer was reported to have introduced himself as an Ankara University student who wanted to meet with Mr. Dink. When his request was rejected, he waited in front of a nearby bank for a while. According to eyewitnesses, Dink was shot by a man of 25 to 30 years of age, who fired three shots at Dink's head from the back at point blank range before fleeing the scene on foot. According to the police, the assassin was a man of 18 to 19 years of age. Two men had been taken into custody in the first hours of the police investigation, but were later released. Another witness, the owner of a restaurant near the "Agos" office, said the assassin looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the infidel" as he left the scene. Dink's wife and daughter collapsed when they heard the news, and were taken to the hospital.

Funeral.

Dink's funeral service was held on 23 January 2007 in the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in the Kumkapı neighborhood of Istanbul. Dink's funeral ceremony developed into a demonstration at which over 100,000 marched chanting "We are all Armenians". Along the way thousands of people leaned out of their office windows and threw flowers.

Trial.

The Dink murder trial opened in Istanbul on 2 July 2007. Eighteen people were charged at Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No 14 in connection with the journalist's assassination. Since the main suspect, Ogün Samast was younger than 18, the hearing was not public. Reportedly, the defendants Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel repeated their testimonies given to the security forces and prosecutor. The court decided to release the defendants Osman Altay, Irfan Özkan, Salih Hacisalihoglu and Veysel Toprak to be tried without remand and adjourned the hearing to 1 October.  On 25 July 2011, Samast was convicted of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm by Istanbul's Heavy Juvenile Criminal Court. He was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison, and could be eligible for parole in 2021, after serving two thirds of his sentence. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was convicted of ordering the murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.  In July 2014, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that the investigation into the killing had been flawed, thus paving the way for trials of police officials and other public authorities. In the pursuit of this case hearings were held, and in January 2017 Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former head of Turkey's police intelligence branch, gave testimony that the killing was "deliberately not prevented" and security authorities in Istanbul and Trabzon were responsible.

ECHR.

In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey had failed to protect Dink's life and freedom of expression. He had received death threats from ultranationalists after writing articles concerning Turkish-Armenian identity, the Armenian origins of one of Atatürk's adopted daughters and the role of Turkey in the genocide of Armenians during World War I.

Awards.

Taner Akçam's 2012 book "The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity" is dedicated to Dink and to Vahakn Dadrian.  The Hrant Dink Foundation now hosts an annual "Hrant Dink Award" ceremony to recognize other human rights activists.

Fırat Dink, Taksim SK player.

He played professional football with Taksim SK, which is the Armenian Community team, in the 1982–83 season. His name was written as Fırat Dink in his licence.

Hrant Dink (; ; 15 September 1954 – 19 January 2007) was a Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of "Agos", journalist and columnist.

赫兰特·丁克(,拉丁化:,1954年-9月15日-2007年-1月19日)是土耳其的亚美尼亚裔编辑、记者和专栏作家。他创办了在土耳其出版的报章《犁沟报》(意译自亚美尼亚语,意指犁沟,音译为阿戈斯;有亚美尼亚语和土耳其语版本),并曾担任总编辑,成为在土耳其阿美尼亚少数族裔的名人。


Design and production history.

During the 1950s, the standard U.S. Army motorized 203mm artillery piece was the M55, based on the chassis and the turret of the M53 155mm self-propelled gun, which used some components from the M48 tank. The weight of the M55, at 44 metric tons, prohibited air transportation and its gasoline engines limited its range to approximately 260 km, as well as presenting an explosion hazard in combat.  This led the U.S. Army to issue a requirement for a new series of self-propelled artillery: lighter, so as to be transportable by air, while continuing the practice of deriving several vehicles from the same chassis, which simplified maintenance and training. The Pacific Car and Foundry (Paccar) company developed several prototypes. The 175 mm T235 self-propelled gun and 203 mm T236 self-propelled howitzer were driven by a diesel engine and, aside from the different armament, were essentially the same vehicle. They were introduced into U.S. Army service as the M107 and M110 in 1962 and 1963, respectively.  Paccar received the M107 and M110 design contracts and initial manufacturing bid from Detroit Arsenal. This was based on patented key features of the M55: the gas equalibrator improved barrel balance, which enabled the gun to be elevated more easily, which was linked to a hydraulically controlled pendulum. an improved ratchet mechanism to improve aiming, a new design of hydraulic recoil mechanism, and hydraulically controlled chassis suspension bracing when the gun was firing. Two other firms also produced the M107: FMC, between 1965 and 1980, and Bowen-McLaughlin-York.  Both the M107 and M110 use the same drive train components as the M578 light recovery vehicle. In addition to its use in performing maintenance on the M107 and M110, and for recovery of damaged or inoperable vehicles, this vehicle has seen wide use in a variety of engineering roles.  Many of the M107s were rebuilt into the M110A2 configuration.

Chassis.

Both the M107 and M110 are based on a common chassis, which features five road wheels on either side of the chassis, idler arms attached to torsion bars, tracks driven from the front by a 450 hp General Motors turbo supercharged diesel with the turbocharger connected to the supercharger by a steel pencil sized "quill" shaft. The engine and transmission are mounted in the front right, with the driver to its left. The engine had an attached hydraulic pump used to traverse the turret with a manual backup hand crank.  The hydraulic pump was sometimes improperly used to dig in the rear spade, resulting in damage to the hydraulic spade cylinders after the first round was fired. The manual backup was used to lay the gun, since the hydraulic control was too coarse. The primary purpose of the hydraulic pump was putting the barrel into battery, ramming ammunition and charges, raising or lowering the rear spade, rapid coarse deflection adjustment by the gunner and rapid coarse elevation adjustments by the assistant gunner.

Defensive capabilities.

The M107/M110 chassis only provides protection to the driver, with 13mm of aluminum armor sufficient to block only small arms and shell splinters. Later on, Kevlar shields were often provided to M107 units for additional protection, but due to the unwieldiness of their use, these were often kept stowed on the sides of the vehicle or even left behind before deployment in the field.

Operations and maintenance.

The M107 has a larger open working space than the closed space of tank-like self-propelled artillery such as the M109 howitzer. This allows for faster reload times and its high maneuvering speed and fast reload time allows the M107 to practice shoot-and-scoot, redeploying before the firing position can be zeroed in on.  One drawback of the M107 in combat was that laying the gun involves skilled minute movements of the entire vehicle. The gunner uses hand signals to the driver, who views them in the left rear view mirror and moves the vehicle left or right by tapping on the steering bar. The other cannoneers (aka "Gun Bunnies") set the collimator and aiming stakes under the direction of the gunner.  Only two rounds are carried with its gun tractor on "loading trays". These rounds can be fired by the onboard crew of five (Section chief, driver, gunner, assistant gunner, Number one cannoneer) out of a total crew of thirteen. The rest of the ammunition and crew follow in the M548 Ammunition Carrier. If the gun was facing hostile artillery, the gun would fire and relocate where these crewmen would reload the M107 at the new location to avoid enemy counter-battery fire.  Each member of the M107 crew has specific duties when the vehicle is firing.  The Section chief operates the hydraulic load and ram, verification with "Gunner's Quadrant", as well as operating the rear spade and left spade unlock. The driver operates the positions spade and the barrel travel lock. The gunner controls deflection (the horizontal direction in which the gun is pointing). The Assistant gunner controls elevation. The Number one cannoneer opens and closes the breech, verifies ramming of the round with ram rod and powder load "red on the rag" (which means he can see the red igniter patch to verify that the powder is not put in backwards), loads the primer, hooks up the lanyard (pig tail), pulls lanyard on command, and unlocks the right spade lock. Cannoneers two through nine set up the collimator (US Army Tm 9-2300-216-10), aiming stakes, bore sight (For Direct Fire missions only), communications, prepare additional ammunition (including fuzing) and powder zones, provide security, drive the M548, operate the ring-mounted M2.50 caliber machine gun, set up camouflage nets, dig a burn pit, and conduct the resupply of ammunition.  Early barrels were limited to 300 firings with the maximum zone 3 propellant, but later examples extended this to between 700 and 1,200 firings with extensive bore scoping by the supporting U.S. Army Ordnance Company.  Retubing the barrel was necessary when the barrel had exhausted its service life, fractures were detected, or when converting the M107 to an M110. In U.S. Army Service, the lowest level of retube was done at the Artillery Battalion's maintenance shop. Retubing could also be done by Ordnance Depot Support Units or at fixed depots such as Anniston Army Depot, Picatinny Arsenal, or the Miesau Army Depot in Germany. When retubing was done at the battalion level, the M578 Light Recovery Vehicle was used. The barrels could not be replaced using a single M578 due to weight and the need for precise placement of the barrel into the cradle to prevent damaging the barrel brass runners. Two cranes were used, one on either end of the barrel. Retubing could also be used to convert the 175 mm M107 to the 203 mm (8 inch) M110. This retubing was usually accomplished by the supporting U.S. Army Ordnance Company or a fixed depot as it requires an overhead electric rail winch and chassis modifications for the E2 barrel.  A single M578 was used to lift the engine or transmission from the hull once a month to clean the engine and transmission compartment, which was covered by two aluminum deck plates.

Combat history.

Vietnam War.

The M107's combat experience with the US military was almost entirely limited to the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese words "Sấm Sét" ("Lightning") and "Vua Chiến Trường" ("King of the Battlefield") were often painted on the guns to commemorate its sheer firepower. There, it proved its effectiveness by having one of the longest ranges of any mobile artillery-piece operated during that theater of combat in the Cold War, outranging the Soviet 130mm M46 heavy field-guns employed by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The M107 was able to launch a 147 lb (67 kg) projectile out to 21 miles (34 km) at 0° deflection and 800 mil (45°) elevation. This long-range advantage, along with its ability to rapidly move from its previous position, made it an effective weapon for destroying North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong command-and-control sites, communications facilities and supply-columns, while evading counter-battery fire from its Soviet counterparts in service with North Vietnam. This was proven in 1968 at the Battle of Khe Sanh, where American forces came under a long and intense siege by North Vietnamese troops and were constantly bombarded by accompanying artillery fire.  The M107 also had its disadvantages. It was noted for its relative inaccuracy at longer ranges. The gun was assigned to corps-level artillery units and a number of M107/M110 composite-formed units were created, allowing the option of responding with the longer-ranged M107 or the more-accurate M110. In addition, as noted above, the gun barrel on the M107 required frequent changing on early versions of the weapon. Individual batteries did not have the necessary equipment and parts for changing the barrel, so higher-level maintenance support was required, taking two hours in addition to the transportation time. The M107 had an extremely low rate of fire of two rounds per minute. Due to the enormous size of the shells, the ammunition storage inside the vehicle only contained two rounds. Additional ammunition was supplied by the M548 ammunition transporter vehicles.  The M107 suffered losses during the Vietnam War, with a considerable number of them destroyed by North Vietnamese troops. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) also captured several M107s, mainly from ARVN forces. Four M107s were captured during the battle at Quảng Trị in April 1972 and another 12 were taken during the Central Highlands offensive in 1975 towards the end of the Vietnam War. These captured M107s were used by the PAVN during their last offensives against the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) between March and April 1975. With these M107s, the PAVN established a strategic-artillery battalion after the war.  During the war against Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government in neighbouring Cambodia, Vietnamese M107s participated in the many battles along the border of the two countries. Today, Vietnam's M107s are operated as second-line artillery pieces in times of war and are currently in reserve storage of the PAVN's Artillery Corps, together with other American artillery pieces captured from American or South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War, such as M101 howitzers (105mm) and M114 howitzers (155mm).

Israel.

The M107 was also used by the Israel Defense Forces in the various Arab–Israeli conflicts from the Yom Kippur War on. During the Yom Kippur War it was one of the few weapons able to destroy Egyptian and Syrian anti-aircraft missile positions. Of the 15 SA-2 batteries lost by Egypt on the east bank of the Suez Canal, 13 were destroyed by M107s. When the IDF crossed the Suez Canal in Operation Gazelle, M107 SP guns were among the first to cross together with tanks and APC's. M107s also had sufficient range to hit the Syrian capital of Damascus. 108 more were received between 1973 and 1982 and they were also fielded during the Operation Peace for Galilee.  When these guns were outranged by rocket fire from Tyre, they were upgraded with the addition of extended range, full-bore ammunition and new powder supplied by Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation. This allowed operations over 50 km with increased accuracy. The IDF acquired over 200 vehicles. In IDF service, the M107 is known as the Romach (spear or lance).

Other.

M107s were extensively used by the Iranian Army during the Iran–Iraq War.  The M107 was retired from the U.S. Army in the late 1970s when the gun was changed to the extended length 203mm tube making the new unit an M110A2.

The M107 175 mm self-propelled gun was used by the U.S. Army from the early 1960s through to the late 1970s. It was part of a family of self-propelled artillery that also included the M110. It was intended to provide long-range fire support in an air-transportable system. It was exported to several other countries including Germany, South Korea, Spain, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. The M107's combat history in U.S. service was limited to the Vietnam War; it also saw extensive combat use in Israeli service. The M107 shared many components with, and in many cases was replaced by, later versions of the M110 203 mm howitzer. Although withdrawn from U.S. service in the late 1970s, it continues in service with some armies as of 2019.

M107自走炮(M107 175mm self-propelled gun)是美国生产的履带式自走炮系列之一。