A Brief History On April 6, 1970, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) traffic stop turned deadly when two CHP officers stopped a car containing two criminals and those two officers were killed in the shootout. The next two CHP officers on the scene were also shot and killed, with one suspect later committing suicide when surrounded and the other later killing himself while in jail doing a life term. The horrible results of what is known as the Newhall Incident resulted in a rethinking of police firearms training and equipment in California. Digging Deeper Analysis of the shootout found that…

A Brief History On April 5, 1943, B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the American 8th Air Force proved once again that “Friendly fire is not friendly!” On several occasions, we have discussed incidents where one side in an armed conflict accidentally causes casualties to either their own people or the people of an allied nation. In this case, US bombs meant to attack a factory supplying engine parts for German warplanes hit a residential area of Mortsel, Belgium, killing 936 civilians, of which 209 were children under the age of 15. Digging Deeper The US aviators were convinced that daylight…

A Brief History On April 4, 1984, President Ronald Reagan made a public plea to the world to ban chemical weapons.  Already outlawed by previous treaties, the widespread use of various chemical weapons in World War I was the peak of chemical warfare, but these terrible weapons have not totally disappeared.  Today, we list 10 Fiendish, Horrible, Evil Weapons We’re Not Supposed to Use, either by International agreement or our own decision.  At times even crossbows were banned for use against “Christians,” as were square projectiles. Digging Deeper 10.  Poison Gas. Not to be confused with your baby nephew and…

A Brief History On April 3, 1948, President Harry S Truman (there is no period after the “S” because it was just an initial, not standing for a name!) signed legislation authorizing $5 billion for the Marshall Plan, a foreign aid bill championed by former five star general George C. Marshall who was Secretary of State at the time. Digging Deeper Marshall was the first officer of five star rank promoted during World War II so that the US would have officers of a rank equal to or greater than Field Marshall.  After the war he became Secretary of State…

A Brief History On April 2, 2017, the people of the United States are being bombarded by a new infinitive or transitive verb, “to surveil,” and its present and past tenses, “surveilling” and “surveilled.” As a Military Intelligence officer (Go ahead, make your jokes…) I had pointed out to me early in training that the word “surveillance” was a noun and that there was no verb, to surveil. Well, so many people misused this non-word, that not only is it now in the dictionary (Merriam-Webster), but politicians and news casters seem to have made it the most overused word in…