Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On April 17, 2018, the United States mourns the loss of former First Lady of the United States and mother of the 43rd President, Barbara (née Pierce) Bush, who died surrounded by family in Houston, Texas at the age of 92. Only one other woman has had the honor of serving as First Lady and also being the mother of a President, and that other fortunate woman was Abigail Adams, wife of second President John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams, our 6th President. Former President George H. W. Bush, the grieving widower, is now almost…

A Brief History On April 17, 2018, the Nation and the media were abuzz with the story of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, a Boeing 737 (the most popular jetliner in the world) that suffered a catastrophic engine failure resulting in a piece of the Port side engine breaking a window and causing a hapless female passenger to get sucked halfway out of the plane. Although other passengers pulled the lady back into the cabin, she later died of her injuries. It has happened before! Digging Deeper The passenger sucked out of her seat on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 (the aircraft…

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…