#robert cole

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Trees in Metal and Concrete

Pod Trees for Naylor by Robert Cole

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On June 11, 1944 Lt. Col. Robert Cole with the 101st Airborne Division, had the objective to take Carentan. The young commander called in a smoke barrage right in front of the German positions and ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge. Many Americans were killed as they assaulted, but more than 100 of Cole’s men managed to reach the German lines causing the defenders to flee. The attack would go down in history as “Cole’s Charge”. He won the Medal of Honor, but got killed in combat before the citation could be presented.

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Operation Market Garden would claim countless American lives in September of 1944, one of whom was a man set to receive the Medal of Honor just two weeks later.

D-DAY:

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, Lieut. Col. Cole’s battalion descended over Normandy. Gathering what men he could find after the chaos of the jump, he secured his objective behind Utah Beach and was there to greet the 4th Infantry Division as they pushed past the beachhead.

During the ensuing days, the allies were in a fight to take Carentan. By June 10, Lieut. Col. Cole and 400 other paratroopers were advancing towards the target city along a very dangerous and exposed causeway surrounded by marshes and the infamous hedgerows of France.

It was here just outside of Carentan that Lieut. Col. Cole would lead a rare bayonet charge and secure his place in military history.

Hand to Hand Combat

During the advance on the city, Cole’s Battalion was riddled with continuous artillery, machine gun, and mortar fire. The Germans had set up obstacles that made a bottleneck out of any attempt to press forward. As a result, Cole set up defensive positions for the night where they continued to suffer from heavy enemy fire.

By morning, approximately 250 of his original 400 men were left in fighting condition. Realizing the situation was becoming grim, Cole ordered smoke thrown towards the heavily defended hedgerows and personally led a bayonet charge towards the German lines with a pistol in one hand and bayonet in the other.

While the charge initially began as just Cole and a small portion of his unit, the rest of the Battalion took notice at what was happening. Feeling inspired by their commander’s leadership, the battalion picked up and thrust themselves into the German-occupied hedgerows.

The fighting was at close quarters and hand-to-hand, but the men of Lieut. Col. Cole’s battalion overpowered the German defenders and made them pay a high price as they fled from the assault. Approximately half of the men who took part in this dangerous charge became casualties, but it was credited as a key moment in breaking through the German defenses and pushing on towards Carentan.

For his leadership and conspicuous gallantry, Lieut. Col. Cole was recommended for the Medal of Honor. However, there was still a lot of war to be fought and Lieut. Col. Cole pressed on with his battalion in the ensuing campaigns to take Germany.

After Normandy, the 101st returned to England to replenish their forces with replacements and prepare for the next jump. It just so happens that for Lieut. Col. Cole’s battalion that would be Operation Market Garden and the largest airborne assault ever seen.

At the Front Till the End

After descending upon the Netherlands, the paratroopers found themselves in a pitched battle with the Germans as they attempted to secure the key bridges necessary for the rapidly advancing armor behind them. Cole’s battalion was tasked with seizing the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal in Best.

Under heavy artillery fire, his battalion was pinned down and seeking Allied air support to direct fire on the German positions. However, during the chaos of the battle, the Allied planes were actually firing at Lieut. Col. Cole’s men.

Furious, he ordered his men to place airplane recognition panels in front of their lines to redirect the American airpower. When this wasn’t happening fast enough, Lieut. Col. Cole ran out himself in front of the lines to place the panels. The American airplanes recognized the signal and directed their fire back upon the Germans.

While looking up into the skies for the planes, Lieut. Col. Cole was struck by a single sniper bullet to the head which killed him instantly on September 18, 1944.

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Robert Cole (Sierra Leonean) - Sunset (acrylic, 2014)

[tfmedianews]

L.A. council candidate starts paying $91,000 fine for bogus donor information

A Los Angeles City Council candidate accused of submitting bogus information about campaign contributions has begun paying his $91,548 fine after missing a first payment earlier this year, under an agreement approved by a city commission Wednesday.

Robert L. Cole Jr. was fined by the City Ethics Commission for submitting names of phony contributors — including multiple donations that were attributed to dead people — when seeking matching funds from the city for his unsuccessful bid to replace longtime Councilman Bernard C. Parks earlier this year.

To qualify for matching funds, candidates must show they have gotten at least $5 each from a minimum of 200 residents living in the area they seek to represent.

Cole was turned down for the money after Ethics Commission officials concluded that his campaign had filed false information about its donors.

Many people who were named as contributors told investigators that they had not made donations: Overall, more than 71% of the people that investigators were able to contact said they hadn’t donated to the Cole campaign.

Cole said in an interview earlier this year that the problems stemmed from an overzealous volunteer and that he was unaware that incorrect information had been submitted. Cole nonetheless took overall responsibility and agreed to pay the fine.

“I didn’t do my due diligence,” he said earlier this year.

City investigators found that Cole told the volunteer to raise the needed money “by any means necessary.” At the time, the campaign owed roughly $9,000 to staff for salaries and $17,000 to Cole himself for personal loans.

After struggling to raise enough money, the volunteer took donations from Cole’s family and friends, divided them up and attributed them to people named on an outdated list of local residents, some of whom were dead and some of whom now live outside California, according to a city report summarizing the case.

During a lengthy discussion Wednesday, ethics commissioner Nathan Hochman questioned whether Cole was aware of the more “scintillating” facts of the case — that the campaign was claiming donations from dead people and individuals who had not given to the campaign.

In reaction, Ethics Commission enforcement director Sergio Perez said he needed to honor the agreement already reached by Cole and the city, which supported facts about what had happened.

Cole “failed to review the contributions and supporting documents that he received from the volunteer,” a city report detailing the agreement states.

The document also states that Cole himself supplied false information about the date of the contributions, as well as employment information for the named donors.

Members of the Ethics Commission were scheduled to approve the fine and a payment agreement in June, but rejected it after Cole failed to make his first $10,000 installment. Failing to abide by the terms of the agreement could have jeopardized his payment plan or enabled the commission to pursue more violations against him.

However, Cole later provided nearly $25,000 to the city, bringing him back in line with the scheduled payments, according to city staffers.

Cole has agreed to pay the remaining sum of nearly $67,000 in monthly installments from September to May 2016. Members of the Ethics Commission unanimously voted to approve the proposed agreement Wednesday.

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