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FORT HUACHUCA — The community is invited to join Fort Huachuca for lunch in celebration of the Army’s 240th birthday. Although the actual birthday is June 14, the celebratory meal will be served June 11. On June 11, the birthday meal will be served at the Thunderbird Dining Facility from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Service is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Weinstein Dining Facility. Cost of the meal is $9.05. The menus at both DFAC feature T-bone steaks, crab legs and shrimp with assorted side dishes and desserts. The Army continues to serve the United States...

I watched all of part 1 before posting

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard...

Riding in the van of the American air spearhead which covered the landing of American Rangers on the coast of France, this reporter had a panoramic view this morning of the D-Day invasion and saw the first Americans come ashore from smoking landing boats which had ridden through a curtain of German gunfire to reach the beach a few minutes before. Deep behind the invaded beach, American paratroops and glider-borne Rangers were locked in battle along a wide, irregular front. Airborne units had landed soon after dawn and were engaged with the enemy when warships of the Unite Nations steamed...

Late on the night of June 5, 1944, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain commanded by Lt. Col. John M. Donalson launched with 15 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division on board. They were the very tip of the Allied invasion spear, leading a formation of hundreds of aircraft carrying thousands of troops. Just after midnight on June 6, That’s All, Brother navigated through intense German fire and low clouds to drop the first Allied troops to land in Normandy, France, on D-Day, commencing Operation Overlord. Seven decades later, Staff Sgt. Matt Scales of the Alabama Air National Guard was researching Donalson’s...

A bizarre ending to a hit-and-run collision that flipped a vehicle onto its roof near Naval Base San Diego. Investigators say the suspect is a sailor, who was found, hiding on board a ship. San Diego Police closed the intersection of Main and Vesta streets in Barrio Logan just after the crash occurred at 4 a.m. Officers say a vehicle traveling westbound on Main was struck from behind by an Acura sedan. After being rear-ended, the vehicle flipped over. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with what appeared to be lacerations to his head and possibly a broken...

Midway: Extraordinary Leadership and Brave Men In late December 1941, Navy Secretary Frank Knox and FDR met and selected Chester Nimitz to command the Pacific Fleet, which at that time the public perceived as residing at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said, “Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl and stay there until the war is won”. Knox informed Nimitz by saying, “You’re going to take command of the Pacific Fleet, and I think you will be gone a long time”. On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived alone by Catalina flying boat to take command....

22 Veterans kill themselves every day. Why? I've seen this figure in print several times. These are people who were tough enough and strong enough and brave enough and dedicated enough and smart enough to make it through Basic Training, Specialty Skills Training (AIT) and the rigors of military duty. Yet, they are killing themselves when they get back to the United States. Why? The claim is that something horrible happened to them in combat. They have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. OK. Let's for arguments sake accept that every Veteran that commits suicide was involved in one or several horrible...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi reported Sunday that 2,300 American Humvees were captured by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Just a day later, media reports emerged that some of those very armored vehicles had been used in a suicide bombing. According to Agence France-Presse, al-Abadi admitted the loss in an interview on state TV. “In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” he said. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.” The Humvees were lost when ISIS forces overran Mosul last year, forcing Iraqi soldiers to abandon tons of equipment during their retreat...

In late December 1941, Navy Secretary Frank Knox and FDR met and selected Chester Nimitz to command the Pacific Fleet, which at that time the public perceived as residing at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said, “Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl and stay there until the war is won”. Knox informed Nimitz by saying, “You’re going to take command of the Pacific Fleet, and I think you will be gone a long time”. On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived alone by Catalina flying boat to take command. When the door opened he was...

WOW...things have changed over the last 17 years, some good and some - not so good. JimRob is still the spirit of the Forum and he clearly deserves all the due he so righteously receives - most of the time. THANKS JimRob for all you've done over my 17 years on your well executed forum.

A British actor who has had minor roles in Hollywood films has joined Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group in Syria. Michael Enright, who played a deckhand in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” appears in a video released by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, known as the YPG. The video shows him in a trench with other fighters firing an assault rifle. In the video, posted on the YPG’s Facebook page, Enright says “ISIS are dangerous to every human being alive,” referring to the IS group. He calls for weapons and medical aid for the Kurdish fighters,...

A 70-year-old man sailing alone across the Pacific Ocean was rescued by a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier returning home to San Diego. USS Carl Vinson rescued the man Sunday from his 35-foot sailboat, 400 nautical miles from Hawaii. Using a satellite phone, the man sent a text to his wife asking for help. That message was relayed through the U.S. Coast Guard, Pacific Fleet Command and the U.S. 3rd fleet. The sailor, who had spent a month on his boat, was airlifted by the crew of a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter including two search and rescue swimmers. Once the...

~snip~ Why does the United States struggle in war? How can it resolve a failing conflict? Can America return to victory? Today, these are critical questions because we live in an age of unwinnable conflicts, where decisive triumph has proved to be a pipe dream. ~snip~ The price of military triumph was often immense. In the Civil War alone, there were around 750,000 American fatalities—more than the deaths in every other U.S. war combined. But if the costs of conflict were staggering, so were the benefits. The Civil War saved the Union and emancipated the slaves. World War II ensured...

Oops! A British army tank drove over an oncoming Toyota on a public road on Monday, crushing the bonnet in the process. For the second time this year, a British tank has been involved in a public crash while out on exercise in Germany. This time a tank drove over the bonnet of Toyota which was being driven by an 18-year-old woman. The soldiers were able to rescue the woman from the car and no serious injuries were reported. In a similar incident in February, blamed on a mechanical failure, a British tank drove into the garden of an elderly...

Eager to fight, he had to wait because he had a valuable railroad job that was important to the war effort. A boss finally let him go when he became a union steward. He saw action in the biggest way possible in February 1945, when the war in Europe was waning but the war in Japan was any anything but certain.

The C-17 military aircraft, brought from the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, departed Geneva's Cointrin airport shortly before 1600 GMT (1200 ET), Reuters witnesses said, bound for Kerry's home city of Boston. "Headed back to Boston. Look fwd to getting leg set & getting back to @StateDept! Meantime, work goes on. Big thanks for well-wishes," Kerry tweeted minutes after departure. Earlier, Kerry told French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius he would participate by telephone in a summit on Tuesday in Paris bringing together some two dozen countries to discuss the U.S.-led coalition's strategy against Islamic State militants in Iraq and...

<p>For years, Ryan Broderick has been trapped inside his mind, watching a constant reel of explosions that rocked the Army vehicles he had scrubbed of blood during three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p> <p>Since January, Broderick has been stuck inside a real jail, fortified by cinder blocks, surrounded by barbed wire. The government that Broderick upended his life to serve locked him up in Edgecombe County, about 75 miles east of Raleigh.</p>

This list is in no particular order, and comes in various categories. Going back to the Civil War: GLORY GETTYSBURG For the World Wars: THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. DAS BOOT. PATTON. THE GREAT ESCAPE. SCHINDLER’S LIST. THE DIRTY DOZEN. Vietnam War: FULL METAL JACKET

Well, there I go again. Another vanity, another question of.. WHAT IF??