No one today can doubt how important George Washington’s leadership was in the battle for American freedom. But he had enemies who wanted to take him down. After a couple of battlefield defeats, some thought they saw their chance. One of them was Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Father of American Psychiatry. In January of 1778, Rush hand-wrote […]
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This is the second story about “The Filthy 13.” If you missed the first one, you can read it here. Known for their disregard of military discipline, they didn’t take a lot of baths, didn’t keep their barracks clean. Too busy going AWOL. They were members of the 101st Airborne, as you can see from the left […]
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Have you ever seen the movie, The Dirty Dozen? The real life soldiers it was based on were known as “The Filthy 13.” And a crew of troublemakers they were! Jack Agnew recalled it like this: “We weren’t murderers or nothing. We just did a lot more than they asked us to do, and we were always […]
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We hear a lot about how George Armstrong Custer met his end. But did you know he fought in the Civil war from the first major battle all the way to Appomattox? (He managed to take possession of the table on which Grant wrote the Terms of Surrender.) Custer had decent success for two years, but […]
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Paul Revere’s famous ride: every schoolchild learns of it. But who sent Revere to warn the British were coming? This man was a member of the Sons of Liberty. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and made sure gunpowder and firearms were stored in towns throughout Massachusetts. An outspoken Patriot, he wrote, “When the […]
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The USS Constitution is one of the most renowned warships in American history. The ship was among the first six frigates authorized to be built to form the new United States Navy. Launched for the first time in Boston on October 21, 1797 the USS Constitution holds the distinct honor of being the oldest commissioned […]
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The Battle of the Bulge was the biggest, bloodiest battle that Americans fought in WW 2. It lasted 41 days from December 1944 to January 1945, and spanned territory in three countries. On December 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in […]
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If you have ever wondered how Chicago’s O’Hare Airport got its name, here is the American hero it’s named for. Three months after Pearl Harbor, the US Navy’s aircraft carrier Lexington, known as the “Blue Ghost,” was carrying out the dangerous task of penetrating enemy waters. The carrier’s radar picked up enemy bombers inbound, […]
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There are “birds of war” that aren’t the metal flying machines equipped with abilities to release weapons on targets, but the flesh and blood feathered kind – pigeons, equipped with another type of targeting ability. Pigeons have been used as message carriers for over 5,000 years. Their service of delivering vital messages to the right […]
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The story goes that in 1861 the hamlet of Town Line decided to secede from the Union, by a vote of 85 to 40. It wasn’t until 1946 that another vote was held about rejoining the United States. This time there were 90 votes to rejoin the Union. But 23 Rebels were still holding out […]
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