Category: Military History

April 2, 1979 — Anthrax began to spread through the town of Sverdlovsk (now called Yekaterinburg) in the Ural Mountains, beginning an epidemic that some would call the “biological Chernobyl.” By April 4, one died from exposure to anthrax and it was initially claimed as pneumonia — in reality, spores were beginning to wreak havoc […]

On July 30, 1945, in the closing days of World War II, the cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35), unescorted in the Pacific Ocean, was steaming for Leyte, having left Guam after just delivering the components for the atomic bomb to Tinian. The Indianapolis’ orders were to rendezvous with the battleship U.S.S. Idaho (BB-42), in the Leyte Gulf […]

James Maurice Gavin, born 113 years ago of yesterday, would rise to become the youngest Major General to command a division in World War II. He led the 82nd Airborne during the D-Day invasion, Operation Market-Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. He was known “The Jumping General” or “Jumpin’ Jim,” as he would jump […]

Charles Ernest Hosking Jr. was a career soldier who fought as a U.S. paratrooper in World War II and was one of the original Green Berets when the unit was created in 1952. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam. A desire to serve Hosking was born in May […]

In part two, we discussed America’s entry in the “Great War” and the need for propaganda on both the enemy and domestic home front. The Great War was perhaps the first use of what we define as Psychological Operations in a modern sense. But with the Armistice taking effect on November 11, 1918, both the […]

In part one, we reviewed the basic definition of Psychological Operations and its relations to standard propaganda. Psychological Operations is actually a relatively modern concept but had roots long before the advent of the 20th century. The United States government and military, with a few exceptions, did not effectively utilize propaganda or public relations during […]

Psychological Operations. These two words have become so controversial that the U.S. Army in 2010 nonchalantly changed the term to the rather bland and bureaucratic “Military Information Support Operations (MISO).”   Rosa Brooks, Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and International Humanitarian Policy explained: […]

During World War II, many of the best operatives of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), were women. They worked undercover, putting their lives at risk in occupied France, and running agent networks, conducting sabotage, and training the French Maquis.  Many lost their lives or went sent […]

Today we are well used to seeing parachutists both civilian and military leap from aircraft and land with better precision and safety than ever before. It has become a staple of military forces to project power anywhere on the globe by inserting a force through the air by parachute. But did you know that the […]

Seventy-five years ago, the entire world was still at war. In Europe, the Allied armies of American, British, Canadian and Free French forces were pushing Germany in the west while huge Soviet armies were driving east into Germany. Other Allied troops were pushing northward up through Italy, putting the Nazis into an ever-tighter circle. In […]

You can read part four here.  July 19, 1972 The small fishing village was still dozing under the monsoon’s early morning mist. A half-mile to the north, behind a small hill, 250 adoo advanced in silence. No sound came from their cloth-muffled Chinese webbing. Their brand-new Russian AK-47s were well-oiled, their RPGs and 12.7mm heavy […]

You can read part 3 Here October 1971 Government forces and a permanent presence on the Jebel was unheard of. Scant water sources and lack of air transport had restricted the Sultan’s Armed Forces’ (SAF) patrols to the number of rations the men could carry. In a humid, mountainous terrain with simmering temperatures that wasn’t much. The introduction […]