OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Vanderbilt
DATE: 30 November 2024
PLACE: First Bank Stadium (AKA Dudley Field) Nashville, TN
ATTENDANCE: 28,934
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 36 Vandy 23
Welcome, faithful readers, to the brave new world of the N-CAA-FL. For college football programs and coaches across the Fruited Plain the new standard is not: did you have a good season? Or go to a New Years Day bowl? Nope, the sole overriding standard is: did you make the playoffs?
Get in and most all sins are forgiven. Fail and dark questions start to be asked.
College basketball has been dealing with this for decades and the NCAA tournament has become a cash cow generating literally billions of dollars in ad revenue for the media outlets carrying the games and the schools and conferences involved. The new college football playoff system promises to eclipse those heady numbers by an order of magnitude.
And let's not even mention the boatloads of cash flowing to the
This writer was reminded, as the Vols came out onto Crudley Field, of the great John Ward's words from the 1998 Arkansas game, “Everything … EVERYTHING is riding on this game!”
ABC Sports had to get into the act and the ABC announcers treated us to a tongue-bath of Vandy QB Diego Pavia (PBUH), the likes of which hadn't been seen since Deep Throat. They even put a mic on him, undoubtedly to listen in as he destroyed the Vols. Ever since the UTAD used a Pat Forde article as a pretense to engineer an epic take down of the NCAA, and by extension ESPN, it's been clear that the LAST place they wanted the Vols was in the playoffs.
ABC/ESPN and the dozen or so paying Vandy fans in attendance were having simultaneous orgasms for the first five minutes of the game as the CommonHos returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and then converted a Dylan Sampson fumble into seven more points. The Hoes were up 14 zip and the joy in the announcers voices was unmistakable.
BVS hit the Vol faithful hard. The name of The Deity was taken in vain from Ducktown to Dyersburg and I'm sure TV sets received damage as remotes and other projectiles were hurled in anger. I'd like to meet the Vol fan who watched or listened to that first five minutes and didn't resign himself to disaster and shake his hand for being the most positive Vol fan ever … then punch him in the nose for being a damned liar.
One group people wearing Orange PMS #151 didn't panic. The pre-Heup Vols would have folded like a cheap umbrella and gotten blown out.
But not this day!
The Vols ROARED back. Nico found a wide-open Dont'e Thornton who was next seen in the end zone capping a 5-play, 73-yard drive.
Vandy responded with a field goal and the announcers reassured themselves that the Vols were in a deep hole and still not subject to prevail.
To the intense dismay of ABC/ESPN, Tennessee then reeled off 29 unanswered points and absolutely shut the sainted Pavia (PBUH) down completely. At one point a stat popped up showing that in the 2nd canto the Vols had over 200 yards of total offense whilst the Hoes had 57.
Made me laff.
In the 3rd quarter, UT had 125 yards of offense, the CommonHos had (snort!) 4.
Made me laff harder.
Diego Pavia (PBUH) led the 'Dores to a garbage score in the final quarter and that, as they say, was that.
The Lea family has not been known for an excess of common sense (look up Col. Luke Lea in WWI and after) but if he is even remotely clued in, HeadHo Clark Lea commenced to dust off his resume.
Final Score
Tennessee 36 Vandy 24
*******
On 25 November 1943, Sgt. Robert Denton“Dent” Tester of Co. I, 3rd Battalion, 131st Infantry, 35th Division was aboard a decrepit British transport, His Majesty's Transport Rohna. Rohna was a part of Convoy KMF-26 sailing west to Alexandria. He was one of six brothers from the Telford Community near Jonesborough in Washington County. They all grew up on the family farm and answered their country's call when it came. In 1942, their oldest brother, Thomas, and their father, Millard, both died leaving their mother, Marie at home and worried.
Dent Tester was one of nearly 2,000 GIs crammed into the ship which was only certified for about a thousand, something to do with a shortage of shipping. The vessel was under command of an Australian Master with British officers but the crew was Indian.
In the late afternoon of 26 November, the slow convoy came under intense German air attack. Allied fighters broke up the attack but a Heinkel He-177A-3 flown by Hans Dochterman launched an Hs 293 rocket propelled glide bomb guided by the bombardier using a flare in the tail to track the missile and a joy stick linked to a radio transmitter to steer it.
Traveling at nearly 600 mph, the missile hit the Rohna and its 659 lb warhead exploded inside the ship. An estimated 300 Americans plus most of the Indian crew were killed instantly. As the rest of the GIs on board swarmed on deck along with the surviving officers and crew, Murphy's Law took over.
And night was rapidly falling.
Evacuation drills in port had consisted of showing the men where the lifeboats and life rafts were, not how to launch them. The winches and pulleys on the life boat davits had, for the most part, rusted solid and then been covered in layers of paint. The surviving Indian crew knew which boat worked, launched it, and rowed away. The GI s managed to get a few of the boats loose but most of them only worked from one end and landed vertically in the water and sank. The lashing holding the rafts were similarly frozen. The ship was still making way and as those that could be sent over the side hit the water they simply floated away behind the sinking ship. Finally, the men had been issued 1920s-era life belts BUT NEVER SHOWN HOW TO USE THEM. If the belt was put around the waist, the most apparent method, upon going in the water the belt would flip the wearer upside down and in the rough seas that night, that was a death sentence.
Other ships in the convoy picked up as many survivors as they could in the gloom (HMT Pioneer while still under attack rescued over 600). However, it took hours for other rescue vessels to reach the area. In the end 1,015 Americans perished, the single largest loss of life among the American military while at sea in history. 142 other passengers and crew were also lost that night.
A veil of secrecy was immediately dropped on the incident. For one thing, the Allies didn't want to let the Germans know how effective they had been, but also the overcrowding and decrepit condition of Rohna reflected badly on both American doctrine and British shipping. The veil became a curtain of obfuscation and outright lies. Families of the soldiers lost were simply informed they were “missing.” It took another year and an irate Adjutant General of the Army before the families were informed their loved ones were, indeed, killed inaction.
Sometime after the sinking, Dent Tester's body washed ashore and was positively identified from papers and pictures in his wallet. He was buried in the American Military Cemetery at El Alia, Algeria.
Three other boys from East Tennessee also died in that attack: PFC Jesse W. Poteet from Bradley County along with T4 Robert Fleming Pace, Jr.,and Sgt. Thomas O. Tyner, both of Hamilton County.
Dent Tester's younger brother, Sgt. James E. “Earle” Tester, had joined the Army in 1942 and served in the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He and the rest of the“Ivy” Division (so named due to the Roman numeral IV, the division patch features a diamond shape with an ivy leaf at each corner) landed on UTAH Beach on D-Day and fought their way across France. On 14 September 1944, the 22nd Infantry attacked the notorious SIEGFRIED Line that guarded the western border of Germany. The 22nd pushed through the fortifications reaching the village of Brandscheid on 17 September. During the attack on the village, Earle Tester was killed. He was buried in the U.S, Military Cemetery at Henri-Chappelle, Belgium. Earle had earned the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor.
Most are completely unaware that there was a second invasion of France in1944. On 15 August Sgt. Glenn William Tester of Co. I, 3rd Battalion, 142nd Infantry, 36th Division came ashore on GREEN Beach near Frejus on the Côte d'Azure. Now known as a playground of the rich and beautiful, these beaches were more important in 1944 for their proximity to the major French ports of Marseilles and Toulon. The 36th Infantry Division had been pulled out of the fighting in Italy along with the 3rd Infantry and 45th Infantry Divisions for this operation.
Winston Churchill had sold the invasion of Italy as a strike at the “soft underbelly” of occupied Europe in 1943 as a way of deterring the Americans from an invasion of France and maintaining British primacy in strategic thinking. Italy proved to be a strategic dead-end as the Germans took advantage of every mountain and river in the Apennines Mountains to tie down two full Allied field armies.
Churchill grudgingly went along with the plan to invade southern France but insisted on the code-name DRAGOON as he protested he had been “dragooned” into agreeing.
In the event, the “soft underbelly” proved to be southern France as the Americans advanced some 200 miles in less than ten days.
By 24 August, the 142nd had encircled a substantial number of Germans near the town of Cléon. The Germans, naturally, took offense at this and staged a series of attacks designed to break out. During one of these counter attacks on the 24th, Glenn was badly wounded and would be in the hospital until the end of the year when he rejoined his unit.
On 9 January 1945, while on operations near Oberhoffen-sur-Moder duringthe “Second Battle of the Bulge” code-named NORDWIND by the Germans, Sgt. Glenn William Tester was killed in action. He was buried in the American Military Cemetery at Épinal. He also earned a BSM with “V” and a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster.
Marie Tester had to have been devastated having lost her husband and four of her sons in a bit over two years. Charles was excused duty from the Army and another son, Franklin, served as well but was not permitted to go overseas due the massive sacrifice the family had already made. Frank was serving as a policeman in Panama when he was killed in 1956.
Charles remained on the farm with his youngest brother Carroll and his mother. He passed away in 1991. Carrol joined them in 2006. I bet it was one helluva reunion.
Marie decided that her sons should remain in Europe but requested they be buried side-by-side.
Dent, Earle and Glenn now rest together in the Henri-Chapelle American Military Cemetery in Belgium.
“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.” - Abraham Lincoln, letter to Mrs. Bixby, 21 November 1864
*******
So, how did the Vols do against The Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
“At the end of the day, they're still Vanderbilt and we're still TENNESSEE! - JoeThompson
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
"For most Vol fans Vandy is the panty-waist capital of the Free World." - CharterVol
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up… PUT ON MORE STEAM!
“At one point a stat popped up showing that in the 2nd canto the Vols had over 200 yards of total offense whilst the Hoes had 57.” - OMG this year
4. Protectour kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
“Watch for Vanderbilt to do something incredibly stupid here.” - OMG last year
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Dylan Sampson.
6.Press the kicking game. Here is wherethe breaks are made.
Grumbles ...
7. Carrythe fight to Peabody and keep it there for sixty minutes.
Heh.
Now come the playoffs. Just win,Baby!!!
The Tester brothers: Dent, Earle, and Glenn (ETVMA)
Suggested Reading
William S. Boice, History of the Twenty-Second United States Infantry in World War II
22nd Infantry Regiment History WW2
1-22infantry.org
Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit. The U.S. Army in World War II
Martin J. Bollinger, “The Rohna Disaster”, Naval History, December, 2024
Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith, Riviera to the Rhine. U.S. Army in World War II
SSG Richard A. Huff, “Operations in France for the Month of August 1944” HQ 142nd Infantry
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www.36thdivisionarchive.com
John Romeiser and Jack McCall, The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial
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