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Military Myths and Legends

Emperor of Nicaragua: William Walker

Emperor of Nicaragua: William Walker

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On November 8, 1855, in front of the Parroquia Church in the town square of the Nicaraguan city of Granada, a line of riflemen shot Gen. Ponciano Corral, the senior general of the Conservative government. Strangely, the members of the firing squad hailed from the United States. So did the man who had ordered the execution.  His name was William Walker. Though later generations would largely forget him, in the 1850s, he obsessed the American public. To many, he was a swashbuckling champion of Manifest Destiny. To others, he loomed as an international criminal. In Walker's own mind, he was a conqueror destined to create a Central American empire. His bizarre career would leave a legacy that shadows the relationship between the United States and Central America to this day. Biography of William Walker Walker was born in 1824 in Nashville, Tennessee, to James Walker and his wife, Mary Norvell. His father was the son of a Scottish immigrant. His mother was the daughter of Lipscomb...

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The Lost Battalion

The Lost Battalion

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The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the final push of World War I on the Western Front, lasting from Sept. 28, 1918, until the end of the war, Nov. 11, 1918. The allied forces of Britain, France, and the United States advanced all along the front, making the largest offensive in U.S. military history, involving more than 1.2 million troops. It was also the deadliest, inflicting 350,000 casualties in less than seven weeks. The allies made relatively major gains, considering the course of the war until that point, but it was not without errors – and one of those errors meant the loss of a battalion-sized force. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive: Advance into Argonne Forest The men of that battalion came from the 77th Division, made up mostly of men from New York City. During the allied push, they fought their way into the dense Argonne Forest, where a counterattack soon left them surrounded and cut off from friendly lines. Thinking the unit had been lost, allied artillery shelled their position...

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The Ship That Wouldn’t Die

The Ship That Wouldn’t Die

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The USS Laffey (DD-724) was laid down 28 June 1943 by Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine. She was launched 21 November; sponsored by Miss Beatrice F. Laffey, daughter of Medal of Honor recipient S1c Bartlett Laffey. Commissioned 8 February 1944, Cdr. F. Julian. Becton as her first "Captain". The USS Laffey's Heroic Beginning After shakedown, the Laffey traveled the world in the war effort. She was off the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Off Cherbourg, France where an unexploded shell bounced off her hull above the waterline and did little damage. Rescuing a badly wounded Japanese pilot off the Philippines. Firing support in Leyete Gulf and Ormoc Bay. Transported intelligence to McArthur in the Philippines. Supported landings at Mindoro and Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Kerama Retto.  That is where this story begins. USS Laffey’s Dangerous Mission on Okinawa Commander Frederick Julian Becton, Captain of the destroyer USS Laffey (DD 724), took the radio message his communications officer...

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Pershing and His Pig’s Blood Bullets

Pershing and His Pig’s Blood Bullets

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It might be difficult today to imagine the United States as a true colonial power, but in the years following the 1898 Spanish-American War, the U.S. became a major global power. The idea of American Imperialism crept into the public consciousness for the first time. During the war, the United States captured several key Spanish possessions, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.  The War in the Philippines At first, it looked as if the U.S. was fighting to grant the Philippines its independence, but when the Americans annexed the islands instead, the resistance fighters that fought the Spanish started fighting the Americans. Combat in the Philippines meant bloody ambushes, lightning-fast raids, and fierce hand-to-hand combat at times. American forces suffered more troops killed in action in the first four months of fighting in the Philippines than they suffered in the entire Spanish-American War.  No rebel group fought more fiercely than the Muslim Moros of the...

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5 Legendary Heroes of the U.S. Air Force

5 Legendary Heroes of the U.S. Air Force

We all know the Marine Corps celebrates its birthday in a big way, but that doesn't mean the other branches aren't worth celebrating. The United States Air Force was created after President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. On September 18, 1947, W. Stuart Symington became Secretary of the Air Force, making September 18 the service's official birthday. In honor of its 77th birthday, let's take a look at some of the airmen who shaped the history and development of the world's premiere aerospace force. Gen. Billy Mitchell: The Father of the Air Force It's hard to imagine a time when the world's top military thinkers just didn't believe that airplanes would make any sort of difference on a battlefield. Also known as the "Father of the Air Force," Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell had the foresight to know exactly what air power could bring. Mitchell even set out to prove it by sinking battleships.  His advocacy for a separate Air Force landed him a court martial...

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The Chivalry of Medieval Knights

The Chivalry of Medieval Knights

While today's definition of chivalry places a moral emphasis on social virtues, the medieval sense of chivalry guided knights both in and out of combat, especially in their interactions with women. There was a good reason for orders of knights to introduce such a code of conduct: their heavily armored mounted troops needed to be reined in the unrestrained violence they inflicted on civilian populations.  The Chivalry of Medieval Knights: Myths and Mercenaries In the modern day, we tend to think of knights as virtuous and honorable, but in the knights' heyday, they were actually like medieval tanks who could wreak havoc on unarmed populations whenever they wanted - and they often did. They were often hired mercenaries who were promised money or land in return for serving what we would today call a warlord. By 1100, churches all over Europe began to pray for God's help in delivering them from the whims of roving knights - and that deliverance would come in the form of romantic...

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‘Only Son’ Law and the Draft

‘Only Son’ Law and the Draft

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This military urban legend is only as old as World War II, and probably because out of so many Americans registered for the war, a relatively small number were actually drafted for the war. It makes sense that more than a handful might not understand why they weren't called up to serve or what the rules for being called up or passed over might be.  Only Son Being Exempt from the Draft When the war ended, a number of myths and legends began to circulate. Stories about things that happened during the war were repeated time and again, spreading far and wide. Most of them were true - or started out as true. Like a large game of veteran telephone, some stories got a little distorted. The legend of only children being exempt from the draft is one of those stories that began with a true story but morphed into something else entirely.  Over the course of World War II, 49 million men registered for the draft in the United States. More than 407,000 service members were killed, and more...

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The Legendary Audie Murphy

The Legendary Audie Murphy

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The U.S. Army's history is filled with heroes, battlefield legends, and stories that seem like they could only come from the minds of Hollywood screenwriters. There are few larger-than-life tales of greatness bigger than that of World War II legend Audie Murphy, whose battlefield daring became an instant silver-screen classic – starring Audie Murphy himself.  Audie Murphy: Medal of Honor, Movies and Advocacy Murphy's early life did not suggest a life destined for greatness. He was the son of a Texas sharecropper who abandoned his family and a mother who died when he was a teen. Young Audie left school in the fifth grade to work in cotton fields and hunt game to help support his family. He joined the military in 1941, just days after the United States entered World War II. At the age of 16, he was technically too young to serve but forged papers allowed him to make it past the recruiter's office. Even so, he was turned down by every branch for being too small.  Luckily for...

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US Navy C-130 Hercules Plane Lands & Takes Off From An Aircraft Carrier

US Navy C-130 Hercules Plane Lands & Takes Off From An Aircraft Carrier

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Aircraft carriers are enormously important. They serve as mobile bases for warplanes at sea. They have flight decks for planes to take off and land. They carry equipment for arming warplanes and recovering planes that have been damaged. An aircraft carrier is considered a capital ship, the most important ship. This is because the Navy can use it to extend its power anywhere in the world. Countries that want to exercise influence need to have aircraft carriers. History of the C-130 Hercules Plane Aircraft carriers arose from cruisers that had been converted to carry aircraft in the early twentieth century. They were important during World War II, especially in the Pacific. Nowadays, they are some of the largest ships on the water and carry all kinds of aircraft, including helicopters, fighters, reconnaissance planes, and strike aircraft. They are, of course, enormously expensive to build. When on duty, and especially in war zones, they are protected by other ships. When it comes to...

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The True Story of The Great Escape

The True Story of The Great Escape

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More than likely, many of us have seen the 1963 American World War II epic film "The Great Escape" based on a real escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW Camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Sir Richard Attenborough. The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the real mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Zagan, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. As in any films depicting real events, many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, and the role of American personnel in both the planning and the escape was largely fabricated. The actual escape attempt took place one night in late March 1944 when 76 Allied Airmen escape through a tunnel from their Prisoner of War Camp deep in occupied Poland. Their aim was not only to get back to...

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How Armistice Day Became Veterans Day

How Armistice Day Became Veterans Day

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On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the belligerent armies fighting World War I finally laid down their arms and stopped killing each other for the same pieces of blown-up mud they'd been fighting over since 1914.  The Origins of Veterans Day The First World War killed as many as 22 million people worldwide and left some 23 million more wounded. An estimated 53,000 of those killed were American service members. Another 204,000 Americans would return home wounded. World War I ushered in a new age of warfare: industrial and mechanical innovations killed, wounded, and maimed troops on the battlefield in ways previously unimaginable. Tanks, machine guns, and poison gas forever scarred the men in the trenches in ways they could never forget - and Americans back home took notice.   On the anniversary of the armistice, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day, saying:  "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice...

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WW1 – The Angels of Mons

WW1 – The Angels of Mons

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The World War I Battle of Mons was famous for a number of notable firsts. It was the first test of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the first time Mons switched hands during the war, and probably the first time ghosts reinforced a living army to cover their retreat; ghosts who absolutely slaughtered the enemy – or so the legend goes. The First Battle of Mons took place on August 23, 1914, one of the earliest battles on the Western Front of World War I and the first time the British operated jointly with the French against the German invasion. The British were trying to protect the French left flank from an advance by the German 1st Army, and they held their ground well.  For 48 hours, they fought outnumbered three to one, yet they inflicted an incredibly disproportionate number of casualties, with estimates as high as three German casualties for every British one. It was a good start to the war. It would have been a great start, but the French lines began to break, and the...

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