Author: Major Dan

Major Dan

Major Dan 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.

A Brief History On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing the Medicare and Medicaid programs the American people have come to take for granted. Digging Deeper Medicare was and is a program to provide health coverage to people over 65 years old and older, many of which were retired and no longer getting health insurance through their employer.  Medicaid was and is a program to provide health insurance to those people too poor to afford it.  The final bill passed the House of Representatives by a 307 to 116…

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A Brief History On July 29, 1976, the homicidal lunatic known to the tabloid press as “Son of Sam” murdered his first victim and wounded another in the first of 8 shooting attacks by David Berkowitz of New York City. Digging Deeper Berkowitz, also called “The .44 Caliber Killer” because his murder weapon was a “Bulldog” revolver in .44 Special caliber, eventually killed 6 people and wounded another 7 in the 8 attacks that spanned about a year.  During his spree, he left messages taunting the police and telling of being told by a “demon” to commit the crimes. The…

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A Brief History On July 28, 1935, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress first took flight, starting a career that many claim as the greatest bomber aircraft of all time.  Of course, the Avro Lancaster  crowd has something to say about that, and the eternal B-52, descendant of the Flying Fortress, will probably serve for 100 years before it is retired.  Even the proponents of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator question the title going to the B-17, but among the men that flew them, the B-17 was and will always be the greatest. Digging Deeper When the giant (for its day) Boeing…

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A Brief History On July 27, 1995, veterans of the Korean War finally got to see their sacrifice acknowledged when the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. Digging Deeper Often referred to as a “forgotten war” or even as an “unknown war,” the Korean War was actually the first major international conflict of the Cold War between the Communists and the Democratic West, and it took place from 1950 to 1953 before a truce ended the fighting, but technically not the conflict.  Communist North Korea, an ally of the Soviet Union and Red China, had invaded Democratic South…

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A Brief History In a bizarre mass killing near Tokyo, Fox News reports a 26 year old man, a former employee of a facility for disabled people, went to that facility at 2:30 am local time on July 26, 2016 (still July 25 in Eastern Daylight Time) and killed 19 people with a knife and wounded about 26 more. Digging Deeper Police and emergency crews arrived to late to stop any of the rampage, and the man actually turned himself in at a local police station.  Japan is known as a largely law abiding country with respect for authority, and…

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