Ascension : Letters To The Islander Submitted by The Islander (Gavin Yon) 21.02.2008 (Article Archived on 06.03.2008)
read & enjoyed your article. I am an American working as aConstruction Manager and I was on Ascension during 1995-96 during the building of a Power & Desalinization Plant as a young electrical superintendent.
Message: ----------------------------------------- I read & enjoyed your article. I am an American working as aConstruction Manager and I was on Ascension during 1995-96 during the building of a Power & Desalinization Plant as a young electrical superintendent. I will never forget my experience on the island and the people I met. I hope the project we built has made life better there. I doubt I'll have the opportunity to visit again but my stay there will always remain a unique memory. Not just anyone can say they've heard of, let alone been to Ascension Island!
Message: ----------------------------------------- I was interested to see that you are planning a piece on the American involvement with Ascension Island. There is a connection that goes back much further than WW2.
The admiral in charge of the incarceration of Napoleon on St Helena was (then Rear Admiral) Sir George Cockburn. It was his decision to end the two ships to secure the island of Ascension for the British Crown. (In the fullness of time Fort Cockburn was named in his honour.) However in the war of 1812 between America and Great Britain he was in charge of the British Forces that set fire to the Presidential Palace in Washington. The scorch marks were subsequently obliterated with white paint and so to this day the USA has - The White House. Cockburn rose to the highest ranks in the Royal Navy and died in 1853.
Message: ----------------------------------------- Dear Shari Parkhill. Concerning "News from The Grotto"
I want to thank you for your words of this week which I read this morning. For a period of nearly one year I have read your notes for your commmunity at Ascension with joy, though I have never been here and have no connection to the island at all. I have some family in Brasil and USA. I simply found you at Google Earth. I am a converted catholic in Denmark, 61 years, married and have 5 children between 34 and 10 years. I dwell at your words and thank you for them. God bless you and the island May be we could write to each other sometime.
