Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On April 18, 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led one of the most famous bombing raids in aviation history when he led 16 B-25 medium bombers over Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama, Japan. After the devastating sneak attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the US military in the Pacific was reeling, as was the shocked and furious American public. With one Japanese success after another, the US finally mounted an offensive action by flying 16 stripped down B-25B Mitchell twin engine medium bombers off the deck of the USS Hornet, something that had never been…

A Brief History On April 17, 2018, we celebrate National Haiku Day, the day that the traditional Japanese form of poetry is celebrated. In recognition of this great “holiday,” we offer a few of our own creations. We invite our readers to compose their own Haiku poetry and share those with our other readers! Digging Deeper Remember, the Haiku form is normally consisting of 3 lines, the first line containing 5 syllables, the second line containing 7 syllables, and the third line containing 5 syllables. Rhyming is not necessary. Haiku appeared in Japan in the 1600’s, and in the US…

A Brief History On April 16, 2018, the World continues to watch events in Syria unfold two days after the United States, the United Kingdom, and France bombed Syrian sites deemed part of their infrastructure required to produce and store chemical weapons in response to Syrian use of chlorine and sarin poison gases against Syrian rebels, killing dozens. The Russians had tersely warned against the Western Allies taking such retaliatory action and hinted at retaliation against the West. Digging Deeper As the rhetoric continued back and forth between the US, its allies, and Russia, one is forced to wonder whether…

A Brief History On April 15, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to join the US Army to put down the rebellion known later as the American Civil War. He was so far off on the number of troops needed it would be laughable if not so tragic. Often times politicians or military commanders have greatly underestimated the manpower or resources needed to succeed, and today we list 10 of those miscalculations. Digging Deeper 1. Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers, 1861. So how many men did Lincoln really need to put down the rebellion and keep the Confederate…

A Brief History On April 14, 1775, Benjamin Franklin, inventor, statesman, scientist, musician, publisher and Most Interesting Man in the World co-founded the first Abolitionist society in what would soon become the United States, an event we used to name him as The Most Interesting Man in the World. The task for us today is to nominate several men for the current title of Most Interesting Man in the World. (We will address women at another date, so do not get all irate and stuff!) There is no significance to the order listed, but we are including only those people…