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…
Category: Military History
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…
Cold War Files: Some Obscure Cold War History (In Comics)
The World’s Highest War … in Comics ‘Siachen: The Cold War’ depicts a pointless conflict In 1984, India and Pakistan went to war over the Siachen Glacier. A 2003 ceasefire halted most of the fighting, but troops from both sides are still facing off and losing more soldiers every year to the climate, altitude and…
Military History: “Stalingrad on the Yangtze”, The Battle of Shanghai 1937
Today Shanghai is a hub of international trade and culture and one of the world’s great cities. But in 1937, it was a battlefield. Imperial Japanese troops fought the Chinese Nationalist army in the seaside metropolis in one of history’s most terrible battles. Westerners watched from their neighborhoods as two ancient rivals fought a new…
Cold War and Espionage Files: The Last Casualty of the Cold War
Cold War Memories: The Last Casualty In March of ’85 I had a chance to go hang out in Copenhagen for a week with some friends. Buffoonery was the only thing on the agenda and my travel partner and I were masters of it. It had been months since either of us had been…