Islamic State militants attacked Syrian army troops with mustard gas in an offensive against a Syrian military airport in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor that borders Iraq, state media said on late Monday. Syrian state media did not disclose how many casualties were sustained in the latest drive by the hardline fundamentalist Sunni militants…
Category: Military History
World War Two History: The Battling Belles of Bataan
If you ever had occasion to do an R&R in Tai Pei, you know why a 19 year old, hormone engorged, no-time-in-grade Army sergeant would consider Tai Pei and “The China Seas Club” a prime destination. As far back as I can remember, my parents always kept a house in the Shilin District overlooking Tianmu….
Military Defense News: USMC Implements New Security Guard Detachments after Benghazi
It has always been said that New Regulations in the Military are Written in Blood and are Painfully Slow to Happen…This is a CLASSIC Case in Point. -SF The Marine Corps is taking big steps to help prevent another attack like the one on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 that left…
Espionage Files: A CIA Officer’s Long, Futile Secret War
WASHINGTON — In Douglas Laux’s final days as a CIA officer, the futility of his mission prompted him to quote George Orwell to his boss. Laux had spent months in 2012 working with various Middle Eastern nations that were trying to ship arms to Syria to help disparate rebel groups there. But it had become…
World War Two History: The Secret Speeches Ike Never Had To Give
Despite the seeming inevitability of an Allied triumph, the success of the cross-channel invasion in 1944 seemed like anything but a foregone conclusion.” “SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND AIRMEN of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon…
Bad-Ass Files: Alvin C. York, All-American Bad-Ass
This guy holds a special place in my heart. When I was a kid,growing up in the eighties, I watched the 1941 black-and-white epic, “Sgt. York” with Gary Cooper with my Dad. I always remember the part where York uses a turkey mouth call to get as a group of German soldiers hiding in a fox…
The History of Guerilla Warfare: Ancient Bullet Supports Accounts of T.E. Lawrence
Experts say discovery in the desert, near scene of famous train raid, seems to prove British diplomat’s memoir was not just a tall tale A bullet from a Colt gun found in the Arabian desert lends credence to TE Lawrence’s own account of his part in the Arab revolt in the early 20th century. Until…
Cold War Files: After-Action-Report (AAR) of a Rhodesian Ambush
Imagine initiating an ambush with a 40 mike-mike training round. That would be a Bad Thing. This ambush, as remembered by our friend and former Rhodie troopie Nick Bliksem, is just about as bad (but not quite). This was during the “Second Chimurenga” period of the Rhodesian Bush War, back when Jimmy Carter was POTUS,…
Military Defense News: After Benghazi, USMC Marks New Approach to Embassy Security in Africa
Close to the third anniversary of the infamous Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a small detachment of Marines descended on the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, Mali, on the other side of the African continent. The little-publicized 48-hour operation took about 200 Marines attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground…
Espionage Files: WW2 British General Bernard Law Montgomery was Best Man at Philby’s Wedding
Things I didn’t know: When St. John Philby got married in India in 1910, his best man was Bernard Law Montgomery. The Philby marriage of course produced H.A.R. “Kim” Philby, the greatest traitor of the 20th century. From the same book, Anthony Cave Brown’s biography of Sir Stewart Menzies, I learned the old World War II headquarters…