Swanton, Thomas

Native-Lawng Islander, USMA, Armor/Cav, Cornell Law, RA & USAR JAG (retired), former AUSA-Dad of 4-teacher, nurse, USMA '20, '22 ROMCATH (per my dog tags)

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

I'm not sure the Irish understand the damage the recent story of their pumping economic support into Putin's war machine is doing to their reputation in Central/East Europe. The idea of Ireland standing on the side of the oppressed against imperialists is gone, probably forever.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@BDHerzinger Thank you. There was also a cold weather non-hooded utility jacket/coat-can’t remember the name of it.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@catsfive @xAviation Better than having JSOC do it.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@clairlemon @dilanesper No f-ing kidding. Mental scar tissue here.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@tshugart3 @HunterStires Taking advantage of our Iran dilemma?

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@drew_ryun @DastDn Please spare me “David Copperfield”-the “Seinfeld” of literature. “A Tale of Two Cities” would be so much better.

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

The richest man in America signed a document that could have gotten him hanged, and when someone sneered that he was safe because no one would know which Charles Carroll to come for, he picked up the pen and told the British exactly where to find him.

His name was Charles Carroll, and the colonies were crawling with men who shared it. His own father was Charles Carroll of Annapolis. So when the Declaration of Independence came to him for signing in 1776, a delegate made a cruel little joke. He said Carroll risked nothing by signing. There were so many Charles Carrolls that the King's men would never know which one to hang.

Carroll didn't argue. He leaned over the page and added three words to his signature: "of Carrollton." The name of his estate. His address. He was the only signer in the entire room who wrote down where he lived, and he did it on purpose, so that if the British wanted to come hang the traitor, they would know exactly which door to knock on.

That is who Charles Carroll of Carrollton was.

Here is what makes the moment even sharper. He was not a man with little to lose. He was the single wealthiest man in the thirteen colonies and the largest private landowner among them. While George Washington and John Hancock get talked about as rich men, it was Carroll who topped them all. When he signed, he was wagering the biggest personal fortune in America against a noose.

And he was the last man anyone would have expected to be there at all. Carroll was Catholic. In colonial Maryland, a colony founded as a Catholic refuge that had since turned on its own, Catholics could not vote. They could not hold public office. They could not worship in public. The most educated, wealthiest man in America was, in the eyes of the law, a second-class subject barred from the very government he was helping to create. He had spent seventeen years being educated by Jesuits in France and spoke five languages fluently, and back home he still could not legally cast a ballot.

So he became the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, putting his name on a revolution that he hoped would build a country with room for men like him. That was its own enormous bet, made by a man the existing system had already shut out.

Then he simply outlived everyone.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same astonishing day, July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration. When they were gone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the last living signer left on earth. For six more years he was the final human link to that room in Philadelphia, the last hand that had signed, a living relic of the founding that ordinary Americans traveled to see and shake.

He finally died in November 1832 at the age of ninety-five, fifty-six years after he wrote his address on a treason document and dared the empire to come find him.

The richest man in America. The only Catholic. The last one standing. He had more to lose than any of them, every legal reason to stay quiet, and he signed his full address anyway.

We remember the names we were handed in school. We forget the man who made sure his couldn't be mistaken for anyone else's.

Which Founding Father do you think history shortchanged the most?

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@CrispinBurke Nailed it

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@GrayConnolly @christopherrufo “Buck” would have been more symbolic and subtle

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@RealCynicalFox The only question being-will they hit the right zip code? : )

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@Polymarket And if “Europe” denies us free use of our in-theater airbases and logistics hubs-in their sovereign territory-we can kiss the Persian Gulf regional operations goodbye.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@RealCynicalFox @KTB_500 For maneuver units, down to company if not platoon level, they will need an organic C-UAS capability

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@GrayConnolly Definitely SDS; Weathermen adjacent.

[USS CONSTITUTION @USSConstitution]

As America approaches its 250th anniversary and Sail250 draws near, USS Constitution continues to represent the service, sacrifice, and resilience that have defined our nation for more than two centuries.

Today’s underway in Boston Harbor carried that legacy forward.

Huzzah!

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@hicasamadim 72

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@TPCarney Now you will have the privilege of being his biggest fan/informal coach/chauffeur. At the end of high school when he puts down his bat and glove for the last time, that is the gut punch.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@GrayConnolly No lies detected. Spot on.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@GrayConnolly As a Catholic American the man that I hate to love. A true Catholic and patriotic son of France.

[Swanton, Thomas @SwantonTP]

@nstr_att If you’re going out on a C-2, get ready for the “air brake” right before the “trap”. Hope not to have a go-around. The “cat” g-ride is worth the trip. Food will be great and readily available. LOTS of stairs: )