Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #48, August 24, 2001 |
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This Issue...
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Infinite Wisdom
"A rational army would run away."
--Montesquieu
La Triviata
- During World War I, a clever Briton developed a special attachment for the 3-inch Stokes trench mortar that theoretically adapted it for use in an antiaircraft role, though there is no record of the device ever having been used successfully.
- At one point during the War of 1812 Kentucky volunteer Micah Taul became the captain of his company after an "election" which involved, " a hard fight, fist and skull, biting, gouging, etc."
- Over 3 million American troops of all services received training in amphibious operations during the Second World War, about 25-percent of the total peak manpower strength of the armed forces.
- Italian immigrant Giovanni Martini, who as "John Martin" was a trumpeter with the 7th cavalry in 1876 and the last white man to see Custer and live to tell about it, retired from the army in 1904, moved to Brooklyn, and worked as a ticket agent for the New York City subway system until his death on Christmas Eve, 1922.
- Otto von Bismarck resigned from the Prussian Army in 1840 under threat of being cashiered for ineptitude.
- About 4,000 American war dogs served in the Vietnam War, of whom 281 are believed to have been killed in action.
- At the Battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471), the Duke of Somerset relieved Lord Wenlock for moving his forces so slowly that the battle was lost, by the simple expedient of beating his brains out with an axe, "a most effective way to sack a divisional commander."
- One out of every five American servicemen killed during World War II was a bomber crewman in the European theater.
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