George Smith Patton IV, asked what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a World War II icon, replied in a 1977 interview: “I’ve never worried about it. I’ve been too busy.” Born in Boston on Dec. 24, 1923, he was the fourth in his family to bear the George Smith Patton … Lire la suite

The fellow in Olaf Carl Seltzer’s 1928 watercolor Barkeep looks tough enough to handle rowdy patrons. (Gilcrease Museum) PLEASE DON’T SHOOT THE PIANIST; HE IS DOING HIS BEST. That saying entered Western lore from an unlikely source—Oscar Wilde. The celebrated Irish poet and playwright did a lecture tour of the United States in 1882 that … Lire la suite

Under the leadership of Eleanor Holmes Norton and Cory Booker, the U.S. Congress has begun debating the possibility of awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the nearly 200,000 Black people who served in the U.S. military service during the Civil War. Their efforts reinforce that Black Civil War military service, even 100 plus years ago, deserves … Lire la suite

History is full of dramatic conflicts where the capricious tide of events could have turned the outcome in either direction. A mistimed cavalry charge, a careless tactical blunder, a change in the wind direction. What if Napoleon hadn’t wavered at Waterloo? How close did the Normans come to losing the Battle of Hastings? What would … Lire la suite

On the evening of Saturday, December 20, 1919, cold winds swept New York Harbor as 249 leftist radicals waited on Ellis Island to board USS Burford. The Army transport was to carry the deportees, most of whom were not American citizens, to Soviet Russia. The Soviet state formed after the overthrow of the czar in … Lire la suite

Major General Benedict Arnold’s 1780 plot to surrender the American fortifications and garrison at West Point to the British, one of the Revolution’s most dramatic episodes, nearly succeeded. Arnold’s treasonous undertaking failed thanks to a remarkable convergence of events—events that many, including General George Washington, could explain only as divine intervention. “In no instance since … Lire la suite

The Army has awarded a posthumous honorary promotion to the service’s first Black colonel, elevating him to brigadier general more than 100 years after his death, Army Times has learned. Col. Charles Young’s career, which stretched from his West Point graduation in 1889 to his forced medical retirement in 1917 that kept him from fighting in World … Lire la suite

On February 2, 1855, Alexis Soyer, Britain’s most famous chef, left a London theater to join friends at a nearby restaurant. A waiter showed him to the wrong room, and while waiting in vain for his fellow diners, he picked up a copy of the London Times newspaper and read the latest distressing report from … Lire la suite

Gail Halvorsen, a child of the Depression, recalled watching planes soar over his family farm in Utah and how he longed someday to be at the controls. As America geared up for the looming world war, Halvorsen was accepted into a pilot-training program. The attack on Pearl Harbor prompted him to join the Army Air … Lire la suite

Situated on Prince William Sound’s scenic Passage Canal, Whittier was designed and built as a U.S. Army base during World War II. IT’S RAINING the day my train rattles through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel and comes to a halt in front of a rail yard in Whittier, Alaska. I disembark beside a small harbor … Lire la suite