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National Business Review
08-05-2025
- Business
- National Business Review
Rocket Lab announces commercial customer for new Neutron rocket
Tech & Innovation 2 mins to read Rocket Lab announces commercial customer for new Neutron rocket Space company's new medium-lift rocket will help US Airforce to experiment with a point-to-point cargo transportation system. An impression of the Neutron rocket's final form.
Daily Mirror
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Lost letters tell adorable WW2 love story of US airman and his Brit sweetheart
A mum from the US discovered her parents long lost love letters as she posed for a selfie outside the former family home during a trip down memory lane A woman who flew from her native USA to seek out her British roots got more than she bargained for as she posed for a selfie outside her mum's old home. The current householders saw her there and when she apologised for intruding, they heard her accent and said: 'You must be Grace's daughter?' Gracie Aspinall was stunned, even more so when they told her: 'We have your mum's letters from your father Ken'. Those letters spoke of a long-lost time, when the love letter was the selfie of its day. Snapshots of emotions and feelings, sent to loved ones across the miles, in times of hardship, and mortal conflict. The sweet bundle told the love story of her parents, a GI and his English love, who he married four days after VE Day on May 12th 1945. Corporal Ken Aspinall, a 25 year old US Airforce gunner who served with the Eight Army Crop, had fallen head over heels in love with Grace Taylor, 21 from Dulwich and fought hard to win her hand. Their daughter Gracie from Washington DC told The Mirror she'd been 'touring around the old neighbourhood' of Dulwich in South London, with her British cousin Louise Flood and her husband Dave. 'Dave took a picture of me outside my mum's old house but we didn't realise there was no film in it,' she said. 'I've been a photographer since I was about eight years old and I had never done that. 'So we had to go back again and do it again another day. But this time as we were standing at the door a woman came out. 'I said 'I'm sorry we are taking a photograph here because my grandparents used to live here.' And this young woman said; 'You are American? I have your mother's letters.' 'I didn't believe it. I thought she's got to be wrong, that can't possibly be true because our grandparents died in 1974 and no one in the family has lived there since then. 'Apparently before my mother left England in January 1946, after marrying my dad, she'd put the box of letters up in the attic. ' Her cousin, Louise Flood, said; 'It was meant to be that day, without the camera mishap we would never have found those letters. We just couldn't believe it. They had been up there for more than 45 years. Strange things happen.' Gracie was then able to fill in the gaps of their love story after reading their correspondence with 'Checked by the US Army' stamped on the front of the envelopes. She giggled as she said there were also letters from other 'blokes' in the box too: 'My mum was obviously very very popular and had quite a few beaus. 'She did tell me sometimes she would come home at 6am and be late for work (in a dress shop) and when they asked her about it, she'd blame the bombs in Dulwich, there hadn't been any bombs, she'd just been out all night. She would take her gas mask out of the little bag they gave them and put her makeup in there instead.' Her parents met in Blackpool at a dance in 1943, when Ken was based at a US Army camp in East Anglia. At first Grace was unimpressed with the Airman so when her brother Peter ran upstairs to tell her 'There's some Yank downstairs for you' - she would go downstairs and tell him; 'Well, I've got a date so I'm going out'. Gracie said: 'My father would hang out with my grandparents and they would go down the pub. Eventually my grandmother said to my mother 'you should go out with Ken, he's a very nice bloke'. But it didn't start well, after the tail gunner stood her up. He wrote to her from North Africa, on September 23rd 1943, pleading with her to forgive him: 'Dear Grace, I can just about imagine what you are thinking of me. I only hope that you will be able to forgive me for not showing up on the 17th. 'There was no way possible to get in touch with you to inform you that I wouldn't be able to get there….I was looking forward to meeting you and I'm sure we would have had a swell time. 'If by any chance I don't see you again, I want you to know that you made my stay in England very Grace, I hope that this note will help to clear things up a bit until I can see you again. Please write soon and if you feel like bawling me out I'll understand. Love Ken…' She did forgive him but resisted his efforts to put a ring on her finger. In a letter from Ken dated June 7th, 1944, after D-Day, he wrote to her: 'Just a few lines to let you know I'm still kicking…I suppose there was quite a time in London the other night. I sure would have liked to be there. I can just see some of those GIs hitting the pubs. 'Of course there's another reason I'd like to be there but I don't have to tell you what that is. I've had plenty of time to think since I last saw you and still feel the same about the whole matter. When are you going to break down and change your mind? I'm still waiting patiently…All my love Ken.' Finally his persistence paid off and Grace said 'yes' because he was 'such a sweetheart' to her gran, bringing her food when she realised she wouldn't sit down for dinner with them because she didn't have enough rations to go around. In February 1945 a few months before the end of the war, he wrote: 'I'm looking forward to our marriage so much darling…I waited so long for you to say 'yes' and now know that you will wait no matter how long it may be…' A month later, he wrote: 'I've been happy before but never quite like this. I know we'll do okay because I want to make you happy darling. No matter how rough things may ever be, we'll always have each other. Why can't time pass a little more quickly.' They wed a few days after VE Day but never made it on their honeymoon, as they were too busy celebrating the end of the war. VE Day: 80th Anniversary Magazine Specials To commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we bring you two special special collector's magazines that look back at events that led to the end of World War II in Europe and marked a new era. In the VE Day 80: Anniversary Collector's Edition we share photographs from the street parties that were held all over Britain, while esteemed author and journalist Paul Routledge paints a picture of how the day was bittersweet, mixed with jubilation and hope for the future, as well as sadness and regret for the past. Routledge also recounts the key events of the Second World War, including Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbour. The magazine costs £9.99. Also available is World War Two - A History in 50 Photographs, a definitive pictorial account of the war. Carefully chosen from hundreds of thousands of images, this commemorative magazine shares 50 exceptional photographs - including many rarely seen shots - that capture the devastating moments, horror, hope and eventual triumph of World War Two. The magazine costs £6.99. You can buy your copies here! After their wedding Ken was flown home and he wrote 'I'm going to miss you an awful lot. Here's hoping it won't be too long before we can be together for good. They were finally reunited after the Japanese surrender in September and smitten Grace was on the first ship for 'war brides", The SS Argentina, an ocean-liner converted from troop transport. She joined four hundred and fifty-two British women, 173 children, and one bridegroom, who left Southampton on January 26th, 1946, arriving in the United States on February 4th. 'Luckily for her they were alphabetical in their placement on the cruise ship, so my mother, being A for Aspinall, was in a suite with six other women but it was beautiful. 'She said she felt bad for the people at the other end of the alphabet because they were in the steerage,' Gracie recalls. At first after her move overseas they had a 'good life' together in Western Massachusetts until Ken's death on the 36th anniversary of VE Day. Mum-of-two Gracie, a technical writer, says she has always felt a bond with England, where her daughter has settled after attending Oxford. 'It feels like home when I come back to England to visit,' she said. 'I get mistaken for a Brit when I speak.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Edmond Flakes, Youngstown, Ohio
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Mr. Edmond M. Flakes, Sr., born March 22, 1947 in Youngstown, Ohio to Oscar and Edna Briscoe Flakes, peacefully departed this earth on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. He attended Cardinal Mooney High School from where he graduated in 1965. Find obituaries from your high school Edmond was a zealous long-haul truck driver for 30 years. He was forced into early retirement due to his declining health. He served in the US Airforce during the Vietnam Era. He enjoyed television sports and fishing programs and playing video games. Edmond was gregarious. If you would listen, he would talk. He leaves to cherish his memory, his wife of nearly 48 years, the former Gwendolyn Archie; two daughters, Sonya (Kevin) Bennett and Angela (David) Sanders; two sons, Carson and Germaine Flakes; and a host of grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by his two sons, Edmond M. Flakes, II and Eric Flakes; three sisters, Juanita Burbridge, Ester Jenkins and Nina Johnson. Services will be Friday, May 2, 2025 at the L.E. Black, Phillips and Holden Funeral Home, 1951 McGuffey Road, Youngstown, Ohio 44505. Visitation will be 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Funeral services will follow at 11:00 a.m. Interment will be at Tod Homestead Cemetery following the Service. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Edmond D. Flakes, please visit our floral store. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Telegraph
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘No one wants this on their doorstep': The last mass asylum camp that shows no sign of closing
In Essex, near Braintree, there is a village where the population of a nearby accommodation site for asylum seekers will soon outnumber the population of the village itself. This is Wethersfield, the Government's flagship ex-military site turned asylum camp – a failing solution to an enormous problem. That problem, of course, is that the number of migrants arriving on British shores has reached an all time high; 5,847 people have arrived in Britain in small boats so far this year, an increase of 36 per cent year on year. Last week, the Home Office announced it will hand back Napier Barracks in Kent to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in September 2025, which will make Wethersfield the only remaining mass accommodation site still operational. The Home Office started to purchase these 'large-scale sites' – a former prison, military bases and the Bibby Stockholm barge among them – to attempt to reduce the government's huge hotel bill. They were beset by controversy from the start. In December 2023, a 27-year-old man was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm, which is docked in Portland, Dorset, in a suspected suicide. The Home Office spent millions on two others – RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, and HMP Northeye, a defunct prison in East Sussex – which were deemed unsuitable and will never be used. But Wethersfield is in use and, crucially, there is no current plan to close it. On July 12 2023, the first busload of asylum seekers arrived at the former RAF base that was last used by the US Airforce. Under proposals rushed through by Suella Braverman, then Home Secretary, it was decided that the site would be home to up to 1,700 men from the age of 18 to 65 while their asylum claims were processed. This cap was later dropped to 580, although the Home Office has recently informed Braintree District Council that it will be increased to 800. The population of Wethersfield itself is reportedly 707. The camp has been as unpopular with local residents as it has been with the men held there while their claims are processed. Three of them, who were accommodated at Wethersfield between July 2023 and February 2024, described the conditions as 'prison-like.' Last month, a High Court judge declared that the Government had acted unlawfully in housing the men, who were victims of torture and trafficking, at Wethersfield. The Government said it was pleased the court found in favour of the Home Office on the majority of grounds and pointed out it 'inherited' the legal challenge from the Conservative administration. It is not the first time the residents of Wethersfield have had foreign men living down the road. When the site was used by the US Airforce, the airmen hosted balls for the locals – some of the village's older residents still remember these fondly. However, fast-forward 50-odd years, and Wethersfield's new arrivals were not given such a warm welcome. Braintree District Council launched an injunction to try and stop the site being used, which was denied. The cause united local people at both ends of the political spectrum – those campaigning for the rights of those seeking asylum and their opponents – in the belief that the plan should not go ahead. Residents were told the Wethersfield site was temporary, but strongly suspected it was anything but. In March 2024, inevitably, the Home Office utilised a 'Special Development Order' to extend its use for three years. The site is remote: there is very little in Wethersfield itself, not even a pub. A row of postcard-perfect Georgian houses fringes a small village green. There is a 13th-century church, a small shop and a working men's club. It is clear its residents have tired of the media attention and closed ranks. 'I don't think you'll find anyone willing to speak to you,' says one resident. 'When [the site] first opened, there was a policeman who patrolled the villages and you would see a few of the men on the green,' says another, who wishes to remain anonymous. 'They were quickly moved on. Now, especially as we don't have a bus service, we don't see many of them. I keep myself to myself, and they seem to, too.' In Braintree, where the camp's residents are regularly shuttled by bus, it is a different story. Locals were 'livid,' says David Dunleady, 56. 'No one wants this on their doorstep,' he adds. The main problem, he says, is that Wethersfield's residents 'have nothing to do. They're not allowed to work… some people get around this and work as deliverymen, which I suppose is better than nothing.' Dunleady, who runs a heating business, actually worked on the Wethersfield site some years ago, installing windows. The conditions 'aren't dire, not by any stretch,' he says. 'It's sort of like student accommodation. I suppose a military base is easier to police.' The site itself is roughly three miles away from the centre of Wethersfield village, in flat, green countryside. In Home Office documents, the area is described as 'urban,' but in reality it is anything but. A series of low-rise, drab buildings and disused aircraft hangars are visible from the road. There is nothing else for miles. Mohamed, who gives his age as 22, and Jacky, who gives his age as 32, are wandering around the perimeter. I speak to them through the fence, before they come outside, which gives the site the look and feel of a detention centre, even though they are free to come and go. Both men are from war-torn Yemen, but they are living with men from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt. Both describe feeling listless and depressed, sleeping to while away the days. Like most of Wethersfield's residents, they crossed the Channel on a small boat. The journey took around six hours. They are sleeping three to a room. Mostly they stay inside – in any case, there is nowhere to go; just lanes and miles of farmland. There is a small gym, which they sometimes visit, and a football field. They have been 'asking and asking' for English lessons, but say none have been forthcoming. Charities describe it as an 'open air prison camp'. Some of the site's residents say they are facing a mental health crisis so acute that suicide attempts have become routine. 'Some have tried to jump off the buildings, others try to hang themselves in the rooms, one tried to hurt himself in the kitchen, and one took too many pills,' a resident called Amir, told the Independent. Ambulances were called to the site three times per week last year. A Home Office spokesman said: 'This government not only inherited an asylum system in chaos, but also a legal challenge regarding the use of the Wethersfield site. The judicial review confirmed the site is adequate, and we maintain it provides functional accommodation for those we have a legal obligation to support.'
