Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
So this past weekend I had my wisdom teeth out. I elected to go full pansy and get all the anesthesia the doc would give me. Accordingly, there is a gap in my memory after coming out of surgery. Luckily, my charming wife took notes for posterity on what happens when an Army officer and …
Continue reading "Wherein I Come Out of Anesthesia"
A lot has been said about the role of artillery in World War I, in both its intensity and ferocity. On the opening day of the Somme on July 1, 1916, British guns hurled 250,000 high explosive and shrapnel shells towards German positions. During the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, over 3,000 …
Continue reading "Anatomy of a World War I Artillery Barrage"
We’ve all been there. It’s 1700 on a Friday and you’re still stuck in a meeting that began at 1300, and the S-3 still has twenty more slides to brief. What you could really use right now is a good stiff drink. Your mind wanders off to consider your options, as the monotonous drone of …
Continue reading "Army Staff Meetings and their Corresponding Cocktails"
This piece was inspired by Alice Rawsthorn’s TED Talk on design. Ever been that one person at a Revolutionary War battlefield who loudly questioned why the British were wearing bright red coats that made them extremely visible? Or looked at pictures of Polish winged hussars and thought they seemed preposterous? Or wondered why U.S. dragoons …
Continue reading "Is the Way the Army Looks at Uniforms Completely Wrong?"
When I walked off the ramp of the C-17 and the dusty heat of Bagram Airfield slapped me in the face, I went through the same thought process as thousands of U.S. servicemembers before me: what the hell am I even doing here? It was the fall of 2013, and I was arriving in Afghanistan to participate in the …
Continue reading "Is DoD Contracting Out of Control?"
Today’s guest post comes from Barefoot Boomer, who is a glutton for punishment, this being his second post. Read his first post here. Boomer is a career Army officer and strategist. He is also a historian with an emphasis in American and German military history. The content and opinions of this article are the author’s only …
Continue reading "Not Understanding the Fight Against ISIS: An Open Letter to Donald Trump"
So Memorial Day weekend is just about upon us, which means one thing: the proliferation of Memorial Day memes in my Facebook feed that waver back and forth between letting me know the differences between this holiday and Veterans Day, and letting me know that no fun is to be had this weekend. And like …
Continue reading "Mil-splaining Memorial Day: Stop it"
Today's guest post comes from Barefoot Boomer. Boomer is a career Army officer and strategist. He is also a historian with an emphasis in American and German military history. The content and opinions of this article are the author’s only and do not reflect the opinions of the United States Army or the Department of …
Full warning: I've got spoilers in here. A heap of them. No, not the plot spoilers you fear so much: the spoilers on how no one in the Star Wars universe learns a damn thing. A while back I wrote about how the Empire could've bounced back from the loss of Death Star II, Darth …
Continue reading "Galactic Lessons Never Learned"
Last week, presidential candidate and Republican nominee-presumptive Donald Trump decided to put on a more presidential tone. He gave a speech on foreign policy, won some primaries, and knocked the other Republican candidates out of the race. So it seems that through the will of the People, he has a shot at being President of …
Continue reading "The Donald Meets The Bard: If Trump were Henry V"
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