A Brief History On November 5, 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley of New Braunfels, Texas went on a shooting rampage at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding another 20 victims in what was the worst mass shooting in the history of the State of Texas. In fact, the incident was the 5th worst mass shooting in United States history. And yet, it could have been worse! A citizen legally armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle intervened and chased off the gunman, stopping the massacre and saving numerous lives. Once again, a “good guy with…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama became the first American of African descent elected President of the United States. Or you could call him the first “bi-racial” President since his mother was of White European descent and his father was a Black sub-Saharan African. Now that the seeming racial barrier has been broken by the American voters, what other “firsts” remain to be achieved in regards to US Presidents? Today we look at 10 such “firsts” that have not yet happened. (See our previous article regarding “10 Presidential Firsts”) Digging Deeper First Woman. Oh, we…
A Brief History On November 1, 1893, a small force of British soldiers defeated a much larger force of African warriors at the Battle of Bembezi in the South of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the First Matabele War. The British force carried the day mainly because of the addition of the Maxim machine gun to their arsenal, a weapon that was the brainchild of American inventor Hiram Maxim. Digging Deeper At Bembezi only 700 British soldiers faced 10,000 Matabele (various spellings) warriors, of which 2000 were armed with rifles and the other 8000 armed with spears and more primitive weapons. …
A Brief History On October 31, 1917, during World War I, the war that brought the mass use of machine guns, armored vehicles, airplanes, and poison gas into warfare, a singular battle stands out as an anachronism when the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force sent infantry and cavalry units against the Yildirim Army Group (Ottoman Turks and Germans) defending the town of Beersheba in the Negev region of what is now Israel. Incredibly, the largely Australian and Anzac mounted troops made the cavalry charge with their rifles slung over their backs, and their bayonets in their hands! Digging Deeper After some…
A Brief History On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800 French soldiers commanded by General Lassalle, falling for the ruse that the French force was much larger. We previously used this example of wartime trickery as the start of our article, “Fooled You! Battles Won by Trickery.” Today we continue to explore the use of ruses, false information, decoys, fakes and general trickery in the conduct of warfare. Here are some more such incidents, and like our previous article, concerning World War II (with other tricky battles from other wars to…