“From the Halls of Montezuma…” (cont.)

                                             13 SEPTEMBER 1847                        “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…” (cont.) Meanwhile, a diversion created by Quitman’s troops allowed a second Army division under MGEN Gideon J. Pillow to carry the lower walls of Chapultepec from the west.  And, to the south, Quitman’s Read More

“From the Halls of Montezuma…”

                                             13 SEPTEMBER 1847                             “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…” By this date in the 17-month-old war with Mexico, the United States had gained control of California from San Francisco to Los Cabos in southern Baja.  But complete victory in the war required Read More

Saltonstall at Penobscot (cont. from 25 JUL)

                                                19 JULY-17 AUGUST 1779                                    SALTONSTALL AT PENOBSCOT Four hundred Continental and colonial Marines led the numerically superior American assault, clamoring up the cliff to within 600 yards of the fort.  But here they came within range of the three small Read More

Penobscot Expedition

                                                  19 JULY-17 AUGUST 1779                                         PENOBSCOT EXPEDITION The land stretching northeast from the Kennebec River in modern Maine (location of Augusta) to New Brunswick was contested by France and England for a century.  Then with the British victory in the French Read More

The Mysterious Death of Pete Ellis

                                   100th ANNIVERSARY                                                    12 MAY 1923                           THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF PETE ELLIS After World War I several of defeated Germany’s Pacific island possessions passed to Japan under a League of Nations mandate.  Japan’s subsequent fortification of these islands in defiance of the Read More

The Charge Up Coyotepe

                                              2-4 OCTOBER 1912                                      THE CHARGE UP COYOTEPE The US Marines had been in Nicaragua off and on since December 1909, each time to quell civil unrest and prop-up conservative pro-American governments.  In this latest foray, the administration of Adolfo Díaz had Read More

Makin Raid

                                              17-18 AUGUST 1942                                                    MAKIN RAID As a diversion to the 10-day-old invasion of Guadalcanal, 222 men of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion embarked on two submarines, USS NAUTILUS (SS-168) and USS ARGONAUT (SM-1), for a raid behind enemy lines.  Commanding the Read More

Navajo Code Talkers

                                                    5 MAY 1942                                         NAVAJO CODE TALKERS On the night of 26 October 1918 two WWI companies of the Army’s 142nd Infantry became trapped near Chufilly, France.  To affect their withdrawal in the face of German radio code breaking prowess, the Army Read More

Operation “Silver Wake”

                        13-26 MARCH 1997                     OPERATION “SILVER WAKE” Against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein’s continued recalcitrance in Iraq, and the discord in Bosnia-Herzagovinia, the Adriatic coastal nation of Albania experienced a financial collapse in early 1997 that brought anarchy to that nation.  On Read More