War Stories: Five Shermans Shot Out From Under Him

I used to love working at the VA hospital. Just like everything Uncle Sam does, the Veterans Administration is bloated, inefficient, and frustrating. However, back when I worked there as a physician we still had a proper crop of World War II veterans who needed inpatient care. That was Candyland ...

By Will Dabbs, MD

Ichord Report: What If Congress Had Let the M16 Die?

“Practically every one of our dead was found with his rifle torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.” – Excerpt from a letter written by Marine in 1966 to his family after a firefight in Vietnam. Parts of this Marine’s letter was read by Rep. James J. Howard (...

By Robert A. Sadowski

Seeing Further, Striking Deeper: Unpacking the Army’s Launched Effects Portfolio

FORT IRWIN, Calif.— To secure a decisive warfighting advantage, Army Aviation must project power beyond the enemy’s threat ring. By penetrating and defeating an adversary’s Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) from a standoff distance, Army Aviation opens critical corridors that al...

By Eric G

Tragic WWII Story of the Sullivan Brothers

Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan is pure Hollywood fiction, but it was inspired by the true – and all too tragic – story of the five Sullivan brothers. The siblings enlisted/re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and i...

By Peter Suciu

America’s Rapid-Fire Flintlock: The Remarkable Chambers Gun

America’s quest for greater firepower isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, the desire for increased firepower can be traced to the earliest days of the United States and the repeating flintlock designs of Joseph G. Chambers. Multi-shot weapons were not unheard of in the late 18th century, but the...

By Tom Laemlein

McDonnell F3H Demon: Troubled Transition to Supersonic Flight

The McDonnell F3H Demon was a single-seat, carrier-based jet fighter developed for the United States Navy in the 1950’s. This aircraft represents a critical but troubled chapter in American naval aviation: one that pushed the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation toward design philosophies that would ...

By Richard Johnson

M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage: Artillery on a Stuart Chassis

A lot of people suggest that the Stuart tanks were underpowered for World War II. While this may be true when compared to tanks like the Panzer IV, the platform was still able to bring significant firepower to the battlefield in the form of the M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage. The M8 Howitzer Motor Ca...

By Richard Johnson
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