A Brief History On June 4, 1855, Major Henry C. Wayne got on board the USS Supply in New York Harbor and headed to the Mediterranean Sea to procure camels (29 of the Dromedary or one-hump variety and 2 of the Bactrian or two-hump kind) for use by the US Army in the Western United States. In 1848, Wayne had conducted a more detailed follow-up study to the 1836 report submitted to the Army by Major George Crossman who had recommended the US Army acquire camels as pack animals for hot weather environments. These reports and recommendations went nowhere until…
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 June 3, 1861, in the first organized land battle (barely a battle in reality) of the American Civil War, the Union Army with 3,000 men routed an untrained force of 800 Confederate volunteers in what it now West Virginia at Philippi, a small town that today has only about 3,000 residents. Touted as a huge victory for the Union, the “battle” would be fairly inconsequential except for the wounding of 2 Confederate soldiers that both required battlefield amputations, one of which fashioned his own homemade artificial leg that proved so successful the wounded soldier founded a…
A Brief History On June 2, 2018, the new R-rated comedy from Johnny Knoxville (of Jackass fame), Action Point, is in its second day at the movies. An 84 minute romp through coarse sexual and physical comedy, the film is what you would expect from Knoxville. Funny, almost slapstick, and filled with “Oh no you didn’t!” moments. Digging Deeper Based on the familiar story line of the low budget, struggling amusement park (interchangeable with zoo, water park, ski lodge or other struggling small business) fighting against greedy corporate types looking to take over, the movie is told through the flashback…
A Brief History On June 1, 2018, the action-packed science fiction movie Upgrade will make its premier across the United States. A film about the not so distant future when the marriage of man and machine (computer) is a budding technology, the moral and ethical implications become entwined with a fierce battle for revenge and survival. Digging Deeper Starring Logan Marshall-Green as a man left paralyzed by a robbery in which his wife is callously murdered, the secret technology of implanting a computer chip in the man’s neck to allow him to walk again takes on sinister aspects, causing the…
A Brief History On June 1, 1879, the so-called “Napoleon IV” died in the unlikely service of the British Army fighting Zulu warriors in what is now South Africa. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only child of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Digging Deeper Born in Paris in 1856, the little Louis-Napoléon had the distinction of having the Pope as his Godfather at his baptism! His Godmother was Josephine, Queen of Sweden, the granddaughter of Napoleon I’s first wife, Josephine. In spite of this auspicious beginning, the young Bonaparte was fated to never succeed his father on the throne of Imperial…