Dark Day at Bull Run (cont.)

                                                   21 JULY 1861                                   DARK DAY AT BULL RUN (cont.) Exploding Union shrapnel ripped through the Henry house striking  udith Henry in the neck and flank and nearly amputating her foot.  Her daughter, Ellen, had taken refuge within the fireplace and was Read More

Dark Day at Bull Run

                                                   21 JULY 1861                                         DARK DAY AT BULL RUN North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia had all seceded from the United States and established their capital in Richmond.  US Army installations in the disputed Read More

The Marines in Mexico

                                                   16 JULY 1847                                        THE MARINES IN MEXICO The period between the War of 1812 and the Civil War could be called the “doldrums” of US Marine Corps history, suffering as they did from insufficient manning and even scantier funding.  The end Read More

Nazi POWs in America

                                                   11 JULY 1944                                          NAZI POWs IN AMERICA On this day, German POWs Wolfgang Kurzer and Karl Tomola quietly slipped away from the camp at Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, and headed north.  They crossed the Canadian border where they found employment washing dishes Read More

Project Vigilant

                                                    6 JULY 1960                                              PROJECT VIGILANT On 16 May 1960, in response to the Soviet shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spyplane, Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a United Nations lectern vowing, “We will bury you!”   The USSR was now Read More

Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet

                                                   29 JUNE 1776                                   BATTLE OF TURTLE GUT INLET The six-gun civilian brig Nancy headed north from St. Thomas and St. Croix.  Her Master, Hugh Montgomery, had shipped a cargo that would bring a handsome profit in his homeport of Philadelphia.  Nancy Read More

Baghdad Missile Attack

                                                   26 JUNE 1993                                      BAGHDAD MISSILE ATTACK The decade following Operation “Desert Storm” was marked by Iraqi frustration over continuing United Nations sanctions and Coalition policing.  Then seemingly to rub salt in Iraq’s wounds, on 14 April 1993 a specially chartered Kuwait Read More

Billy Mitchell’s Coup

                                            21 JUNE-21 JULY 1921                                         BILLY MITCHELL’S COUP As an early advocate of air power, one of Army Air Service BGEN William “Billy” Mitchell’s loud proclamations was the invincibility of his aircraft over any Navy ship.  His assertion was one of several Read More

NAS Sigonella

                                                   15 JUNE 1959                                                 NAS SIGONELLA After World War II, Americans found it impossible to return to the isolation from European events we had enjoyed since our Revolution.  The vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans no longer presented obstacles to an attacker, and Read More

Controversial Silver Star

                                                    9 JUNE 1942                                   CONTROVERSIAL SILVER STAR This dawn saw eleven Army Air Corps Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the Army Air Corps 22nd Bomb Group waiting on the runway at Port Moresby, New Guinea.  They were one of three squadrons on Read More