Commentary

Commentary Ocean City Today May 6, 2022 Page 64 Park’s wild horses aren’t your friends

Even though the subject begs to be made fun of, the aggressive horse problem just dealt with by National Park Service personnel at Assateague Island National Seashore is no joke.

Although horses, like other intelligent animals, have personalities and temperaments that can range from tolerant and easy-going to downright nasty and terrifying, it remains that the interaction between any wild creatures and humans rarely works out for the best.

In the case of Delegate’s Pride, the stallion shipped off to a preserve in Texas this week because of his aggressive behavior toward people, it’s certain that whatever personality traits he was born with were made more pronounced through his contact with humans.

As National Seashore officials said in their statement this week, Delegate’s Pride’s problem was his obsession with and determined pursuit of human food.

Add to that a stallion’s territorial nature and instinctive protectiveness of his band of females, and the result is a horse that will inflict injury on humans without hesitation.

If only people had stayed out of his way, not attempted to become his “friend,” fed him or left their food unattended, Delegate’s Pride might still be king of his small domain and doing whatever he wanted to do out of harm’s way. But no, human ignorance prevailed and it’s a shame.

Visitors to the park need to understand that it is their responsibility to protect the island’s inhabitants by leaving them alone. The signs that say “Horses bite and kick” mean exactly that, as the multiple victims of Delegate’s Pride came to learn the painful way.

As attractive and interesting as the park’s horses and other creatures might be, the best thing visitors can do for them, as well as for themselves, is to look but don’t engage, and keep their food secure.

For those who remain unconvinced, think about this: a horse’s kick will hit a person at roughly 200 mph. And the bite? Up to 500 pounds per square inch ... and that’s no joke.

Ocean City Today

11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Phone: 410-723-6397 / Fax: 410-723-6511.

EDITOR ............................................ Stewart Dobson MANAGING EDITOR................................ Lisa Capitelli STAFF WRITERS .................................... Greg Wehner, ..........................................Jack Chavez, Mallory Panuska ACCOUNT MANAGERS.......... Mary Cooper, Vicki Shrier ..............................................................Amanda Shick CLASSIFIEDS/LEGALS MANAGER .... Nancy MacCubbin SENIOR DESIGNER ................................ Susan Parks GRAPHIC ARTIST .................................... Kelly Brown PUBLISHER........................................ Christine Brown ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ...................... Gini Tufts

PUBLIC EYE Horse turns to crime

EXCLUSIVE: Delegate’s Pride, the Assateague Island horse convicted of crimes against picnic lunches, has a more extensive criminal background than the National Park Service revealed in its announcement this week that he has been deported to Texas.

Sources at Assateague National Island Seashore said that account omitted relevant information, including the details of Delegate’s Pride’s first known offense — joy riding in a visitor’s car after spending too much time at the local watering hole.

Video provided by the source suggests that Delegate’s Pride became a horse of a different color after that incident and that he soon became an active participant in a purse-snatching ring on the Ocean City Boardwalk.

Police also have him listed as a horse of interest in numerous unsolved muggings at local ATMs. He has never been caught, but police said his frequent loitering near the machines around the time of these assaults has raised their suspicions.

Meanwhile, federal authorities refuse to acknowledge rumors that Delegate’s Pride may have connections to organized crime.

Visitors urged to store food adequately to protect horses

Continued from Page 63 the fall of 2019 with new tables specifically designed with horseproof food storage compartments to hold standard-sized strapped coolers and hard-sided containers.

“All visitors need to take this food storage issue seriously and help us reduce the frequency of inappropriate interactions with the wild horses,” said Seashore Superintendent Hugh Hawthorne. “The free-roaming nature of the Assateague horses is what makes them so unique and special, but there are also issues like this that need to be addressed.”

Hawthorne urged all visitors to take a proactive role in protecting the wild horses by complying with all rules and regulations.

Always maintain a safe distance from horses (over 40 feet or a “bus length”), never feed wildlife (this includes the wild horses, and includes baiting the horses with food or leaving food for the horses) and follow proper food storage regulations.

Every visitor shares the responsibility and can help prevent the wild horses from becoming food conditioned and developing dangerous behavioral changes that could result in removal from the herd and their island home, officials said.

PHOTO COURTESY ASSATEAGUE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE Delegate’s Pride, AKA Chip, has been permanently relocated to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, a renowned wildlife sanctuary, because he was so food-conditioned that he had become increasingly aggressive toward Assateague Island National Seashore visitors in his pursuit of their food.

WORLD WAR II

Recounting historic Battle of the Coral Sea

By Sam Ghaleb Contributing Writer (May 6, 2022) This week, 80 years ago, the first naval battle exclusively between aircraft carriers occurred in the Coral Sea. The Coral Sea is a large expanse of ocean northeast of Australia.

A Japanese naval task force, composed of three aircraft carriers and supporting cruisers and destroyers, was intercepted by a U.S. naval task force that included two aircraft carriers, the Lexington and Yorktown. The Lexington and her sister ship, the USS Saratoga, were the largest U.S. aircraft carriers ever to see action in World War II.

In early 1942, as military defeats and reversals for the Allied military and naval forces mounted, the feeling of the Australians was one of depression and a general expectation that the Japanese would invade their homeland at any moment.

Almost as if aware of these fears, the Japanese were, by April 1942, examining the possibility of capturing Port Moresby, in New Guinea; Tulagi; New Caledonia; Fiji and Samoa Islands. The object of this plan was to extend and strengthen the Japanese defensive perimeter as well as cutting the lines of communication between Australia and the United States.

The occupation of Port Moresby, designated “Operation MO,” would not only cut off the eastern sea approaches to the Port of Darwin in Australia, but provide the Imperial Japanese Navy with a secure operating base on Australia’s northern doorstep.

In the Pacific Fleet headquarters at Pearl Harbor, radio signal intercepts decoded Japanese radio messages. They found that the next Japanese operation would occur at Port Moresby. Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and his staff, had a large chart of the Coral Sea area displayed. Nimitz decided to send a naval force centered on the Lexington and Yorktown to intercept and sink the Japanese invasion force.

The deployment and operation of the American naval forces into the Coral Sea was further complicated by Continued on Page 66

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Continued from Page 65 the fact that the Coral Sea lay in the newly created Southwest Pacific Theater, under the control of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

The Japanese naval forces for Operation Mo were basically divided into two task forces. The invasion force comprised: 12 transport ships carrying 5,000 Japanese soldiers; 500 Japanese special naval infantry; destroyers; minesweepers; minelayers and gun boats.

The other task force was the main strike force, and was composed of one light carrier, the Sh h , two fleet carriers, the Sh kaku and Zuikaku, both veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack, nine heavy cruisers and 15 destroyers.

The total Japanese naval force included five minesweepers, two minelayers, and three gun boats. The overall commander of the Japanese naval forces for “Operation Mo” was Adm. Shigeyoshi Inoue.

The U.S. naval force was divided into two task forces. Task Force 11 centered on the large fleet carrier Lexington, with three heavy cruisers and six destroyers, and Task Force 17 centered on the fleet carrier Yorktown, with two heavy cruisers and five destroyers.

There was also a surface action force composed of two Australian cruisers, the HMAS Australia and HMAS Hobart. It also included the heavy cruiser USS Chicago, and three destroyers. These US and Australian naval forces came under the command of Rear Adm. Frank Fletcher. On May 1, 1942, the two American carrier groups rendezvoused and began to refuel from their accompanying oilers.

Three days later, the Japanese forces invaded and occupied the island of Tulagi. Now the Battle of Coral Sea was in full swing. On the evening of May 6, the Japanese and U.S. carrier forces came within 70 miles of each other. The next day, planes from the U.S. carriers found and attacked the light Japanese carrier Shoho. It was sunk after receiving 13 bomb hits and seven torpedoes.

The same day, the Japanese launched 78 aircraft from the carriers Sh kaku and Zuikaku against a reported U.S. carrier and cruisers sighted to the south of the Japanese force. When the Japanese planes reached the position, they found no carrier.

Instead they found the oiler USS Neosho, and the destroyer USS Sims. During the course of the attacks that followed, the Sims was sunk, and the Neosho was severely damaged. She was later sunk by the destroyer USS Henley. At the same time, 90 planes from both U.S. carriers found and attacked the main Japanese strike force, damaging the carrier Zuikakou.

Both forces launched planes on May 8. Planes from the Japanese carrier Sh kaku critically damaged the Lexington and the Yorktown. The damage to the “Lady Lex” was fatal. Fumes from aviation gasoline ignited and caused a massive explosion. The carrier was doomed, and had to be scuttled.

The damage to the Yorktown was also severe. A bomb dropped from a Japanese plane penetrated the flight

Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet

Continued on Page 67