Browsing: Military

A Brief History On November 6, 1935, the Hawker Hurricane, the first modern British fighter plane, made its first flight.  Although destined to live hidden in the glow of the Supermarine Spitfire, almost 15,000 Hurricanes were built from 1937 to 1944, and this rugged warrior was the primary British fighter during the Battle of Britain, accounting for 60% of the air-to-air kills. Digging Deeper The Spitfire, utilizing the same famous Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engine and armed with the same 8 x .303 caliber machine guns as the Hurricane, made its first flight only a few months after the Hurricane’s maiden…

A Brief History On November 5, 2009, Fort Hood, Texas became the scene of the worst slaughter of U.S. military personnel at an American installation when Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist of all people, went on a murderous shooting spree that left 13 dead and 32 wounded.  Digging Deeper On the morning of the fateful day, Hasan gave away his furniture and handed out copies of the Koran.  He then armed himself with a 5.7 mm FN pistol, went to the Soldier Readiness Center, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” (Arabic for “God is Great”) and spent the next ten minutes shooting his comrades.  Hasan…

A Brief History On November 1, 1951, the U.S. military conducted Operation Buster-Jangle in which U.S. soldiers were exposed to atomic explosions in Nevada so that the effects could be studied.  Nobody asked the soldiers for consent, and many of them were probably draftees as well.  6,500 of these unfortunate men were used in 7 separate explosions, 5 of which were above ground (atmospheric), and the remaining 2 were underground (“cratering”).  Of course, the men were lied to about the “safety” of these tests, and they were exposed to harmful radiation from inhaling radioactive dust and marching on irradiated ground. Over the years, the U.S.…

A Brief History On October 31, 1968, in a political move intended to help Hubert Humphrey win the Presidential election, President Lyndon Johnson made an announcement that became known as “The October Surprise,” in which he stated that all bombardment of North Viet Nam would be halted.  The reason publicly given for this halt was that North Viet Nam had supposedly shown good faith in negotiations toward ending the Viet Nam War. Since then, the term “October Surprise” has been used to describe news events that have been deliberately created to influence the outcome of elections, in particular the U.S. presidency. Digging…

A Brief History On October 27, 1954, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first African-American general (brigadier, or 1 star) in the U.S. Air Force.  In 1998, he was promoted by President Clinton to (full) general (4-star rank).  This accomplishment is all the more notable as he was the son of the first African-American general in the U.S. Army.  His father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., made general in 1940, a time when the U.S. military was still segregated. Digging Deeper Born in 1912, Ben Jr. was granted an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) in 1932.  There, in 1936, he became the…