Over the last two decades or so, armed forces around the world have abandoned their camouflage patterns in favor of a more pixelated, machine-engineered camo, similar to the blocky graphics in the popular online game “Minecraft.” And while it may seem counterintuitive, the digital-print look of the pixelated camos is actually notably more effective than earlier…
Category: Military History
Historical Non-Fiction Book-of-the-Month Review
This is a book review from Michael Kriegers website. I wanted to post it because it contains a TON of good information on the subject. I will be posting my own personal review of this book this summer. -SF The Devils Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and The Rise of America’s Secret Government Allen Dulles,…
Cold War Files: Tolkachev, The CIA’s Most Valuable Soviet Asset in the 80’s
How a troubled past turned a Soviet military engineer into one of the CIA’s most valuable spies. His family and friends called him Adik. His eyes were the color of ash, under a broad forehead and thick brown hair, with a crook in the bridge of his nose from a boyhood hockey accident. He stood…
Military Defense News: South Korea’s Liquid Body Armor Scandal
Had the military not stopped this shady deal, 300,000 troops would have received faulty vests In 2007, the South Korean military became seduced by liquid armor, a new technology which promised to save soldiers from North Korean bullets. In theory, the experimental armor could even block armor-penetrating rounds from the AK-47. But in 2011, South…
The Warrior Poet: Snap, Snap! (and You’re Thankful)
By Rob Sanders When you’re cold and alone On the dark side of night, Your lying on rocks Shivering – cold or fright? The mortars are booming across the valley below, And you’re thankful. Snap Snap as rounds whizz past. Snap snap as rounds pass close. Crack crack the rounds start on rock. You…
Military History: South Vietnamese Troops Almost Fought from Bicycles
In early 1965, villagers across South Vietnam might have watched a curious military formation race through their hamlets. No, not heavily-armed troops shielded inside armored vehicles, but rural militiamen on bicycles. For nearly a year, authorities in Saigon and their American advisers considered adding bicycles to various rural units. Cheap and easy enough for provincial…
World War II History: Women of the OSS
Dr. Cora Du Bois, American Bad-Ass of the OSS in Southeast Asia As Women’s History Month draws to a close, I wanted to share some insights about one of my favorite scholars at war,anthropologist Dr. Cora Du Bois (1903–1991). During the Second World War, Du Bois served with the Office of Strategic Service (OSS)’s Research…
Profiles in Courage: MARSOC Team Endured Hell to Evacuate Wounded
“We faced what seemed the inevitability of death.” While conducting village stability operations in the Upper Gereshk Valley, of Helmand province Afghanistan, a Marine Special Operations Team with 1st Marine Special Operation Battalion came under heavy fire. The initial volley sparked a gunbattle that would rage for a full two days. On the morning of…
World War Two History: The Worst U.S. General of World War II
I was watching Patton with George C. Scott again the other day for about the 400th time and one of the scenes I remember the most was when Fredendall got Relieved by Patton after the disaster at Kasserine Pass in 1943…Even though the Americans were under the command of the British during Kasserine, Fredendall got…
Military News: After 95 Years, the USS Conestoga Has Been Found
The USS Conestoga left the Navy yard at Mare Island, Calif., on Good Friday, 1921, bound for Pearl Harbor, with a complement of 56 sailors. It cleared the Golden Gate at 3:25 p.m. and steamed into the Gulf of the Farallones in heavy seas. The Conestoga was a rugged oceangoing tug that had once hauled coal…