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Gulf War – The Battle of Khafji

By late January 1991, the "war" part of the Gulf War still looked strangely distant. Since Operation Desert Shield transitioned to Operation Desert Storm, the war appeared very one-sided. Coalition jets had been pounding Iraqi command posts, radars, and armored columns in Kuwait and southern Iraq. That was all about to change. Saddam Hussein aimed to strike back in The Battle of Khafji On the ground, Saddam Hussein still had large forces dug in, and he wanted to prove they could strike...

The Kandahar Giant

Military Myths and Legends

The story of the Kandahar Giant sounds like something from a pulp adventure novel. According to this modern military legend, a unit of U.S. Army Special Forces encountered an enormous, red-haired humanoid in the remote mountains of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, in 2002. Over the years, the tale has spread far beyond military circles, capturing imaginations but lacking any hard evidence. Soldiers Reported Finding The Kandahar Giant As the legend goes, an American patrol had gone missing in...

Service Reflections of Lt Col Arthur Wedra, U.S. Air Force (1962-1984)

Air Force Reflections, Vietnam War

The draft was on! I dreamed of being an Air Force pilot… had several training flights during my first two years of Air Force ROTC at Gettysburg College (PA), a detachment that trained only pilots in 1956-1957. After completing my second year of ROTC, I was subjected to a complete physical, in which I discovered that I was color-blind and consequently would never be able to fly as an Air Force pilot. I was disappointed, but shortly thereafter learned that the Navy had an easier-to-pass color-blindness test… so I arranged for a physical at the Philadelphia Navy Base… it was an all-day exercise; the last event was the color-blindness test. The testers brought out what I knew was the same test the Air Force testers used. Surprised, I asked about the different tests and replied, “Oh, we found out that this one is more reliable.” And so ended my desire to be a military pilot. I put the whole idea of military service on the back burner until my senior year, in the spring of 1962…following two dropouts for lack of funds to return.

Break in the Chain-Intelligence Ignored by W.R. Baker

Military Book Reviews, Vietnam War

W.R. "Bob" Baker's "Break in the Chain — Intelligence Ignored: Military Intelligence in Vietnam and Why the Easter Offensive Should Have Turned Out Differently" is both a war story and an indictment. It's part memoir from the cramped intel bunkers of I Corps in 1972, and part after-action review of how a major enemy offensive can roar through a command system convinced that it "can't happen here." Break in the Chain shows how one analyst made a difference Baker isn't an armchair critic...

Anglo-Zulu War: Wolseley And Rorke’s Drift (1879)

Battlefield Chronicles

I recently reviewed a biographical history of the men who flew on the famous Doolittle Raid of 1942 where I professed strong approval of that kind of book. Rorke's Drift Emerges as More Than a Single Famous Battle We now must jump back further to the year 1879 for a similar and equally effective work by the respected Zulu War historian James W Bancroft. This book, "Rorke's Drift: The Zulu War, 1879", is the sum of decades of work, provides biographies of the men awarded the Victoria Cross for...

Service Reflections of Sgt Howard Johnson, U.S. Marine Corps (1969-1973)

Cold War, Marine Reflections

One of my family members served with Washington in the Revolutionary War, John Cahoes. He was actually on a sortie to capture an English General. They had to cross from New York to New Jersey in a rowboat, crossing between English warships in the dark of night. Intel had it that the British general had a kept maiden at a local pub, and the Americans caught him with his pants down. His troops were encamped just down from the pub. They caught him in bed and hauled him back down to the bay before they let him put his pants on. Then they rowed back across the bay between the warships.

War in the Pacific – The Battle of Manila

Battlefield Chronicles, World War II

On February 3, 1945, American forces entered the outskirts of Manila, capital of the Philippines, beginning the Battle of Manila, a ferocious and destructive urban battle against the Japanese that would leave Manila the second-hardest hit Allied capital (following Warsaw) of World War II. The Road to Manila and the First Days of Battle As part of his campaign to retake the Philippines from the Japanese (who had captured it from the Americans in 1942), General Douglas MacArthur first...

WWII – The Defense of Wake Island

Battlefield Chronicles, World War II

In December 1941, as Japan ripped across the Pacific, most American outposts collapsed in days. Guam fell between Dec. 8 and Dec. 10 to a larger Japanese landing force after only brief resistance by a small, lightly armed garrison of sailors and Marines. Wake Island was supposed to be another speed bump. Instead, a few hundred Marines, sailors, and civilian contractors turned it into a two-week fight that delivered the first American tactical victory of the Pacific War and a badly needed...

94th Fighter Squadron

Famous Military Units, World War I

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."Eddie Rickenbacker, Major, USAAS The 94th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the United States Air Force 1st Operations Group located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. The 94th’s primary weapon system is the F-22 Raptor at this time. Throughout its full course and its precursor units, the 94th has been assigned to 70 different stations worldwide, and since its inception, has flown 43 different airframes....

Capturing Skunk Alpha By Raúl Herrera

Military Book Reviews, Vietnam War

In "Capturing Skunk Alpha: A Barrio Sailor's Journey in Vietnam," author Raúl Herrera does something a lot of Vietnam books promise but very few deliver: he keeps you at "deck level" the whole time and still shows you the bigger war. Capturing Skunk Alpha Brings the War Down to Deck Level On the surface, it's the story of one mission: the July 1967 hunt for a North Vietnamese resupply trawler, codenamed "Skunk Alpha," and the small Swift Boat, PCF-79, that helped stop it cold off the coast of...

Service Reflections of CMCS Daniel McKinnon, U.S. Navy (1976-1997)

Cold War, Navy Reflections

My decision to join the Navy was heavily influenced by my stepfather, a seasoned World War II and Korean War Navy veteran who retired as a Boatswain’s Mate First Class (BM1). After my mother remarried, he was transferred from the Navy shipyard in Boston to the Navy shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, just when I started high school, and it was not an easy transition for me. During my senior year of high school, his no-nonsense advice was clear: he strongly encouraged me to enlist, telling me to visit the recruiter because, upon graduating from high school, I’d need to leave his house. His experience as a crusty old salt and his ‘firm guidance’ (nice way of saying it) steered me toward a Navy enlistment.

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Gulf War – The Battle of Khafji

The Kandahar Giant

Service Reflections of Lt Col Arthur Wedra, U.S. Air Force (1962-1984)

Break in the Chain-Intelligence Ignored by W.R. Baker

Anglo-Zulu War: Wolseley And Rorke’s Drift (1879)

Service Reflections of Sgt Howard Johnson, U.S. Marine Corps (1969-1973)

War in the Pacific – The Battle of Manila

WWII – The Defense of Wake Island

94th Fighter Squadron

Capturing Skunk Alpha By Raúl Herrera

Service Reflections of CMCS Daniel McKinnon, U.S. Navy (1976-1997)

The Christmas Truce of 1914

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