Espionage, kidnapping, and the dark art of Spycraft is as American as George Washington. With all due respect to early-American hagiographer Parson Weems, George Washington knew how to tell a lie. In fact, he told a lot of them. Moreover, talent for deception was shared by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom, to…
Category: Military History
World War Two History: It’s D-Day for Ike’s Memorial!
The battle over plans for a Washington memorial to Dwight Eisenhower drags on, but meanwhile more and more of the Greatest Generation fades away each day. If Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican nominee for president, has anything to say about it, 2016 will be the year in which the funding issues for…
World War I History: Post from the Edge
Social Media Project Brings WW1 to Life in Real-Time “Followers will get see World War One through the eyes of a fictional infantryman named Walter Carter.” THE CONTINUING First World War centenary is getting a decidedly 21st Century treatment, thanks to the creators of a new U.K.-based social media project. WW1 Soldier’s Tale…
We’re Going to Draft Your Daughter to War
I have NEVER been in favor of a Draft and I NEVER will, regardless if it includes women. The stats below speak for themselves. -SF What You Need to Know About a Female Draft Recently there has been a lot of discussion among some of the military’s top brass discussing whether women should register…
Cold War Files: The Soviet’s Secret Moon Base That Never Was
The earliest plans for the Soviet outpost on the Moon sported a soil-drilling habitat and rocket-fuel-burning internal combustion engine. A quarter-century after the Soviet space program dropped its thick veil of secrecy, many fascinating details about the enormous scope of the USSR’s space ambitions are still trickling in. The latest treasure trove of information quietly…
World War Two History: The Guns of Cap Grip Nez
“The Dover Strait became the scene of one of World War Two’s longest-running battles.” (Originally published in MilitaryHistoryNow.com on Nov. 19, 2014) THE NARROW SPAN OF WATER separating Dover, England from the Pas-de-Calais, France has long been one of the most strategically vital locations on the map of Europe. And at no time was that…
Clash of the Titans: Will Syria be the beginning of WWIII?
Defense Secretary Ash Carter says a key Persian Gulf ally has agreed to send special forces soldiers to Syria to assist in the development of local Sunni Arab fighters focused on recapturing Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s capital. Carter made the comment after meeting Friday at his Brussels hotel with his counterpart from the United…
The Nine Crappiest Pieces of Gear in USMC
While the Marine Corps is the tip of the spear, when it comes to issued gear, we often get the shaft. One of the benefits of serving in the military is having the chance to use all kinds of cool equipment like in Hollywood action movies and repetitive Call of Duty games. The Army has…
The Bad Ass Files: Russian Soldier Jacob Pavlov
“Pavlov’s small group of men, defending one house, killed more enemy soldiers than the Germans lost in taking Paris.” – Lt. Gen. Vasily Chuikov The Battle of Stalingrad is the single bloodiest battle in human history. Over the course of sixth months of non-stop, ultra over-the-top-in-a-bad-way combat, this unfathomably-violent blood fiesta ended the lives of…
Exploiting Gaps: Russia and Electronic Warfare
In an article I wrote on FO about Russia’s EW Capabilities, I showed how NATO commanders were concerned about how far ahead Russia was in this department. That concern has not diminished, and for good reason as the article below shows. -SF Much has been written about the weakness of the Russian military. Commentators describe it…