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#LateNightHistory — 🚨 NEW Podcast Episode Featuring Returning Guest Army Green Beret Bob Charest 🚨 In Episode 12, Bob discussed his military career serving in the US Army between 1956 and 1981. Tonight — Episode 40 — Bob tells us about how he was awarded the Silver Star with MACV-SOG; his extensive experiences with Detachment-A; and his time with the CIA in Thailand. Episode 40 History Highlights: 1). B-56 Project Sigma, explanation of MACV-SOG’s Recon and Hatchet Teams, and Bob’s Silver Star (YouTube video link in bio 10pm EST) 2). Lodge Act soldiers — Eastern Europeans who volunteered for Army Special Forces and in return would receive their US citizenship. Note: Some of these soldiers would become Distinguished Members of the Regiment i.e. the Green Beret Hall of Fame. 3). Complete breakdown of Detachment-A — the Cold War clandestine unit tasked with “stay behind” operations in Berlin in the event of a Soviet Union invasion. 4). Fascinating tradecraft used throughout the 1960s like invisible ink, how to blend in as an American in Germany, and use of tabletop 3D models stashed in ceilings, which were miniature replicas of real targets. Additionally, Bob talks about an OSS/CIA-developed a .22 disguised as a cigarette lighter. 5). Sketchy nature of locking-out of a WWII-era submarine in Greece. 6). CIA in Thailand in the 1970s and Air America. 7). Driving a flatbed truck on fire and loaded with ammunition off a CIA base in Thailand. Bob received the Soldier’s Medal, which is a life-saving medal awarded for non-combat action. Listen to the #LateNightHistoryPodcast NOW — Links in bio. #History #DOL #SpecialForces #GreenBeret #MACVSOG #Veteran #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — CIA Paramilitary Officer Dick Holm Remembers Legendary Spy Tony Poe’s Exploits in Laos “Anthony Poshepny was a Marine who landed on Iwo Jima when he was 17-18 years old. He was sort of a legend in our paramilitary organization. A bright guy. A tough guy. Known for his patriotism and the Hmong absolutely loved him because he was willing to go out and actually do a lot of things rather than just talk about them. He was there before we got involved in Laos, he actually was in Indonesia when there was a revolution there and had to be evacuated by submarine to escape. He was just a legend in terms of the things that he had done and places he had been. “Tony operated way up in the northeast corner of Laos, which bordered North Vietnam. It wasn’t far at all where the French were trapped and lost their battle. Tony had intelligence from his Hmong troops and knew that a Vietnamese unit was moving from one place to another, and moving meant walking amongst trails as there were no roads there. So, Tony was able to prepare. They took empty glass peanut butter jars and put grenades in there and pulled the pins. The grenade’s handle couldn’t come up because it was in the jar. They packed them in boxes and into the back of an Air American carrier and caught this Vietnamese unit right in the open on a trail. “They flew by and Tony leaned out to throw these jars out of the plane and as they hit the ground the glass would break and the grenades would explode. He claimed that they did a lot of damage to the Vietnamese column. We all thought it was pretty brazen, certainly it was dangerous. You don’t just want to be flying around with boxes of bottles of grenades.” Listen to more on episode 27 with Dick Holm of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast. #History #CIA #Vietnam #Laos #Legend #AirAmerica #TonyPo #Spy #SpiesLikeUs #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — Rob Garnett, SEAL Team 3, Persian Gulf VBSS “Towards the end of the ‘90s, we had an embargo with Iraq, and we started doing counter-smuggling operations in the [Persian] Gulf. “They would load up either barrels of oil or dates and what they would try to do is get through Iraqi waters because they knew US and coalition forces were there kinda trying to roll them up — so they would try to go down and scoot into Iranian waters because they figured we wouldn’t go in there. “The very first one was pretty funny. We were all really excited because we had never gotten to do anything real. In your mind you think it’s gonna be like Pirates of the Caribbean: we’re gonna be out there and you’re gonna be duking it out, there’s gonna be swashbuckling, you’re gonna swing across the ropes with swords and be fighting. “The boat wouldn’t comply and we’re trying to hook the boat, but they can’t get it, so I just ran and jumped across. I remember getting onto the dhow and it was just me and another guy and everyone was losing their minds. I ran right into the control room and there’s just one dude — at that time I’m probably 22-23 and this guy’s in his late 50s and probably never exercised a bit in his day — so I came in and just threw him on the ground. There was this big, wooden wheel like Captain Jack Sparrow. I got my foot on the guy holding the captain down and steering the ship. The other guy came in and I said, ‘We’re good, I got it,’ and we were just laughing. We took down this terrible ship, but really it was this old man that was smuggling [dates].” Episode 2 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast with @rob.garnett — Humorously, when the SEALs didn’t have a caving ladder they went to Bahrain to get a pool ladder! And yes … that’s Henry Rollins. #History #OralHistory #VBSS #PiratesoftheCaribbean #JackSparrow #NavySEALs #SEALTEAM

#LateNightHistory — British Pvt. James Hills Describes Working as a Sniper in No Man’s Land During WWI “There were German lookouts that we couldn’t see from our trench. So I lay in no man’s land and carefully parted the grass with my .303 and the only thing that stopped me firing straight away were bits of grass and poppies that blew in front of my rifle. “I drew a bead on the first one and as I’m a good shot I was positive I could hit him. But just as I was going to fire a poppy blew in front of my eyes and I hit the second one instead. It was a beautiful shot and I was tickled pink by that. I put my head back down in the grass and lay there without moving for half an hour. “I wasn’t going to stick my neck out for some retaliation. As I lay there all sorts of funny things crawled up my sleeves. It’s a strange feeling to have your head down in the grass and you daren’t move no matter what happens. Eventually I moved my position back another 50 yards, which took about 2 hours, because I had to work backwards on my elbows and toes, at the same time hauling two rifles and all the ammunition. “I couldn’t move straight backwards, because when the sun shone it would show up a trail of flattened grass that could easily be seen, so I had to move in a sort of zigzag. Well, I stuck it out and at midday I carefully put my hand in my pocket and took out a bit of crumbly biscuit and stuck it into my mouth to chew, and I thought to myself, ‘Cor, what wouldn’t I do for a cup of tea.’” #History #WWI #Sniper #British #Tea #BritishTea #GreatWar #MilitaryHistory #Midjourney #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — 🚨NEW Episode Featuring Marine and Author Mac Caltrider 🚨 Mac joins the #LateNightHistoryPodcast to discuss his new book Double Knot, a war memoir in seven essays. Episode 39 highlights: 1). Plug Uglies — a now closed pub in Baltimore, Maryland, named after old-timey firefighter gangs that used to start fires and get into street fights. 2). Family lineage in the US military. 3). Mac’s passion for books from an early age, which would prove useful as a writer and journalist years later. 4). Awesome history associated with Mac’s unit, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines (2/8), which includes a tale about the first ever Medal of Honor recipient’s action captured on video (many confuse Air Force CCT John Chapman’s action in Afghanistan as the first). 5). The humorous tales of the wiggling hedgehog and “the smoking crab” in Afghanistan (YouTube link in bio goes live at 10pm EST). 6). Double Knot Explainer (YouTube link in bio LIVE NOW). 7). @coffeeordiemag and honored by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. 8). @pipes_and_pages — Where Mac pairs books with tobacco pipes to encourage reading various literature. Please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, so Late Night History can continue interviewing world-class guests. Thanks for the support! #History #DoubleKnot #Marines #GWOT #DeadReckoning #Author #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The Night a Vietnam Medic Rushed to Save a NHL Goalie Bleeding Out on the Ice As soon as he saw the blood, James Pizzutelli got ready to move. He didn’t know it yet, but the athletic trainer for the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres had just witnessed one of the most gruesome sports injuries ever captured on a live broadcast. During an unremarkable scramble for the puck early in the March 22, 1989, game — the kind of play that happens dozens of times every night in the NHL — the skate of Blues’ winger Steve Tuttle tore a 6-inch gash across goalie Clint Malarchuk’s neck, slashing his jugular. Malarchuk had only seconds before he’d bleed out on the ice. Pizzutelli put one foot on the Sabres’ bench and the other on the boards, readying himself to jump onto the ice. He could see blood starting to pool around Malarchuk as players from both teams began to frantically motion toward him. As he jumped and sprinted, Pizzutelli realized he was facing a wound less like a hockey injury and more like the trauma he’d seen as a part-time medic in a 13-month tour to Vietnam.  “What I first did on my way out as I saw the blood spurting out of his neck, I reached into my right pocket because I used to have this big wad of gauzes, so I tried to jam it in the hole,” Pizzutelli told me in a 2021 interview, adding that he was running so fast he nearly slid into Malarchuk himself. “Some guys would lay down. I needed to get him off quick, and I was thinking if that would have happened at the other end of the arena, things could have been different right now. But it happened literally 10 yards from the doctor’s office.” Pizzutelli’s aggressive actions — to reach into Malarchuk’s neck, pinch the severed vein* with his fingertips, and keep applying pressure on the gaping wound in those initial 30 to 40 seconds — were crucial in saving the goalie’s life. Interesting factoid: the extremely graphic video on the Internet has been used to teach “stop the bleed” courses. #History #NHL #Hockey #Vietnam #Medic

#LateNightHistory — British SOE Officer (And Future Vogue Artist) Brian Stonehouse Recalls Face-to-Face Meeting With German Captor After War “After the war, I was stationed in Germany with the British Army of the Rhine. Then I was demobbed in June ‘46 and I had some American friends in the American Army and they got me a job as an interrogator at Darmstadt, at the main American enclosure for automatic arrests of all the people who had been Nazis, Gestapo, whatever. I had my little office in the camp there in one of the buildings. There were several offices for other American interrogators, and my job was to interrogate so many people every day and put down the info, scribble it on a piece of paper. Then it was sent to a typing pool across the corridor staffed by German prisoners who spoke English. “They had to speak English because the interrogation was done in Herman but it all had to be typed down in English. The following morning the previous day’s interrogation would come to me for signing. I had my name on the door and on my desk and this man used to come in from the typing pool, this German prisoner. And I remember the first time he came in, he was standing there, his head bent and all I saw was the bald top of his head. I thought, ‘The top of that head looks vaguely familiar,’ but I had no idea who he was, and this went on for several days. ‘Well, why doesn’t he ever look up? Is there something wrong with his neck?’ “And then he looked up and I recognized him. It was my interrogator in Paris. He was absolutely petrified because he’d recognized my name on the door. I told the Americans and said, ‘God, would you believe it? There’s this Arnold Schneider. And they said, ‘Well, what we’ll do, Capt. Stonehouse, we’ll close the camp for the day. You can beat him, you can do what you like with him, and here’s a machine gun and you can kill him and no one will ever know.’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t do that. If I did that I’d be no better than the Germans. In any case, I’m free and he isn’t.’” #History #WWII #SOE #Commando #Artist #Vogue #Humanity #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The San Diego Bottom Scratchers: The Men Who Hunted Sharks Barehanded Jack “Walrus” Prodanovich formed the Bottom Scratchers in 1933 with his two friends Ben “Porpoise” Stone and Glenn “Grand Exalted Walrus” Orr. Their nicknames were aquatic themed, and their club’s name came from their underwater rituals. The exclusive club had its own initiation process. One of the difficult entry exams involved making a 30-foot dive, without swim fins, and surfacing with three abalone sea snails. This tested their breath holds, especially because as free divers they shunned any fancy gadgets that allowed for breathing. Another task was to catch a shark of any kind with their bare hands. They would collect the horns — toothlike bones on the dorsal fins — from horn sharks and dangle them from the rings on their swim trunks as souvenirs. These horns would scratch against the sandy bottom of the ocean as they swam. In the days when finding ready-made equipment was futile, the Bottom Scratchers had to be creative. Prodanovich fashioned a dive face mask using an automobile radiator hose for the strap and two circular mirrors modified from compact makeup cases for the faceplate. This helped him see underwater as he watched 40-pound halibut swim and 15-pound lobsters crawl on the ocean floor. Prodanovich used eyeglass lenses inside his face mask for clearer vision below the depths. Wetsuits hadn’t yet been invented. In World War II, the US Navy Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) — the predecessors to Navy SEALs — relied on grease, which they used to slather on their bodies to protect their core temperature from falling to dangerous hypothermic levels. The Bottom Scratchers didn’t even have that luxury and braced 55-degree water for only a few hours at a time. They were the pioneers of skin diving and set the industry standard of many gear implementations that evolved beyond old parts found in one’s garage. #History #SanDiego #BottomScratchers #Spearfishing #SkinDiving #FreeDiving

#LateNightHistory — Delta Force Legend Mike Vining Discusses Bunker Busters in the Gulf War “We dropped 60 BLU-109s — and they’re guided — on Taji #2 [al-Taji Airbase] command and control facility and did not damage it at all. “So, we were gonna do a ground attack. It was gonna be a Ranger battalion assault and I was gonna be the breacher for one of the bomb blast doors and my friend, Keith Lamb, was gonna be the breacher for the other bomb blast door. We would go in with the Rangers, breach the doors, the Rangers would take control of the facility, and Keith and I would blow the facility up from within. “But what happened with Taji #2 is that there was an ordnance officer up at Watervliet Arsenal in New York. They had a whole bunch of 8-inch gun barrels there. This officer thought one of these 8-inch gun barrels could make a pretty good bomb. So he suggested that and it became the GBU-28/B (Guided Bomb Unit). It took 28 days to convert it into a bomb so that’s why it was called a GBU-28. We test dropped one of those at Eglin and we had two of them [sent to] England. “Two F-111s. These bombs weigh 4,700 pounds. One on the left side of the wing of the F-111 and two conventional bombs on the other side of the wing to balance it out. They flew from England to Iraq last day of the war and they dropped it. The first one missed. The second one went in top, dead-center and detonated and destroyed the bunker. This bunker was really hardened. “When they built this two-story bunker they dug a big hole, built a two-story facility, put dirt on top of it, then a reinforced concrete slab on top of that dirt, and put more dirt on it. That concrete slab was called a burster slab and that’s what would stop the bombs from doing anything. And that’s the reason why the MOP was developed — the Massive Ordnance Penetrator — because we were relying on the B-61s to take out this type of target, which were nuclear, but we weren’t gonna use a nuclear weapon. We had no conventional [weapon]. The GBU-28/B bunker buster was also nicknamed “The Sodomizer” … just for trivia.” Episode 38 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast with Mike Vining is available everywhere!

#LateNightHistory — 🚨 NEW Episode Featuring Returning Guest OG Delta Force Member Mike Vining 🚨 In Episode 8, Mike discussed his life story, including all of the major Delta Force operations that he participated in. Tonight for Episode 38, Mike shares with us the history of the Bomb Disposal/Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) between World War II and the Gulf War. Additional topics covered below. Episode 38 highlights: 1). Controversy regarding Draper Kauffman “The Father of Navy EOD” and his first Navy Cross award 2). Lesser known service of the Army Combat Engineers alongside the Naval Combat Demolition Units on D-Day 3). Mike’s EOD experiences in Vietnam/Cambodia 4). History of the Tunnel Rats, including Mike’s experiences doing similar work, which involved crawling into small tunnels armed with only flashlights, pistols, and in Mike’s case, explosives 5). OSS Deer Team in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh’s relationship with the US in World War II 6). Delta Force EOD (which we also covered in Episode 8) 7). First Saturday in May (this Saturday) is National EOD Day to remember the names on the EOD Memorial Wall @EOD_WF 8). Mike’s uniform donated to the Ordnance Museum Fort Lee (Fort Greg Adams) in VA and various Museums-talk 9). Bunker Busters, Nukes, the Cheeseburger Bombs Episode 38 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast available everywhere! Number 4 is covered in a 5-minute clip on YouTube (10pm EST). Find it in my bio. #History #EOD #DeltaForce #CAG #MilitaryHistory #Vietnam #WWII #OSS #MikeVining #OralHistory

Repost from @latenighthistory • #LateNightHistory — How Chuck Yeager Escaped Capture After Getting Shot Down in WWII On March 5, 1944, Flight Officer Chuck Yeager bailed out of his P-51 Mustang and pulled the ripcord of his parachute at 8,000 feet. His aircraft plummeted to the ground and exploded on impact. Yeager landed safely in a forest clearing somewhere in Nazi-occupied France.  Almost immediately, half a dozen French resistance fighters were at Yeager’s location. They stashed his parachute, then whisked him to a nearby safe house. Yeager’s bomber jacket was exchanged for civilian clothes, and he was given enough food to fill his stomach.  Over the next two weeks, the pilot and his rescuers moved clandestinely through the French countryside, evading the Gestapo as they jumped from safe house to safe house en route to the Pyrenees mountains. The Pyrenees provided one of the most reliable escape routes out of France during World War II. Accompanied by local guides, Yeager and three other American aviators trekked through the snowy mountains for four days before finally arriving in neutral Spain.  The men and women who assisted Yeager in his escape were not just random strangers. They belonged to a highly organized network of resistance groups who worked in close cooperation with Allied intelligence to rescue GIs stranded in enemy territory. Over the course of World War II, the network helped approximately 1,000 downed airmen and escaped prisoners of war sneak across France’s treacherous southern border and reach friendly lines through Spain.  #History #SERE #Evasion #Escape #WWII #ChuckYeager #P51 #Legend

#LateNightHistory — How Chuck Yeager Escaped Capture After Getting Shot Down in WWII On March 5, 1944, Flight Officer Chuck Yeager bailed out of his P-51 Mustang and pulled the ripcord of his parachute at 8,000 feet. His aircraft plummeted to the ground and exploded on impact. Yeager landed safely in a forest clearing somewhere in Nazi-occupied France.  Almost immediately, half a dozen French resistance fighters were at Yeager’s location. They stashed his parachute, then whisked him to a nearby safe house. Yeager’s bomber jacket was exchanged for civilian clothes, and he was given enough food to fill his stomach.  Over the next two weeks, the pilot and his rescuers moved clandestinely through the French countryside, evading the Gestapo as they jumped from safe house to safe house en route to the Pyrenees mountains. The Pyrenees provided one of the most reliable escape routes out of France during World War II. Accompanied by local guides, Yeager and three other American aviators trekked through the snowy mountains for four days before finally arriving in neutral Spain.  The men and women who assisted Yeager in his escape were not just random strangers. They belonged to a highly organized network of resistance groups who worked in close cooperation with Allied intelligence to rescue GIs stranded in enemy territory. Over the course of World War II, the network helped approximately 1,000 downed airmen and escaped prisoners of war sneak across France’s treacherous southern border and reach friendly lines through Spain.  #History #SERE #Evasion #Escape #WWII #ChuckYeager #P51 #Legend

#LateNightHistory — The Man Behind Norman Rockwell’s Iconic “The Runaway” Painting If you grew up in Massachusetts, then you’ve probably seen Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post and framed in sports bars, barbershops, and bowling alleys. The famous artwork aptly named “The Runway,” depicts a Massachusetts State Trooper seated at a breakfast diner leaning over to counsel a small boy. On the ground near the boy’s feet is a knapsack indicating intent to runaway from home. The story of how the painting came into fruition began in 1958. Rockwell approached his neighbor, Richard Clemens, in year 5 of his 22-year career with the Mass State Police, and asked if he’d pose in uniform. Flattered by the request, and after he received permission from his superiors, Clemens happily accepted. Rockwell also invited Ed Locke, an 8-year-old Sturbridge resident, who had appeared in previous artwork. Together, the pair posed for Rockwell at Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in Pittsfield. Years later, Clemens was asked why he believes the painting has endured the times. “Certainly, I think it’s a depiction of reality,” he said. “Police work is far from what you see on TV. It’s dealing with people in times of crisis and sometimes in humorous situations.” In 2008, both Clemens and Locke were honored with a luncheon at Mass State Police headquarters in Framingham to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rockwell painting. Four years later, Clemens passed away. He was 83. #History #MassStatePolice #StatePolice #NormanRockwell #PoliceHistory #Humanity

#LateNightHistory — We Lost A Giant in Vito Cellini Last Night at 100 Years Old Sad news: Vito Cellini, who appeared on Episode 15 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast in 2022, passed away last night after a short illness. He was 100 years old. For those unaware of Vito, his life was a rollercoaster of adventure, and, up until the very end, he enjoyed deep sea fishing, Texas BBQ, and poker with friends. Vito “Tutuc” Cellini was born in New York City but raised in Bari, an Italian port city along the Adriatic Sea. He had a difficult upbringing and resorted to life as a gangster until World War II. When the war kicked off, Vito conscripted into the Italian Army. However, upon learning he’d be up against Americans, Vito deserted the Italian Army and headed for Yugoslavia, where he joined Tito’s Partisans. As a resistance fighter, he witnessed atrocities and war crimes committed by Axis forces and vowed to join the Allies if given the chance. In 1943, a significant problem emerged in the port city of Bari, as Allied servicemembers criminally sold vital war supplies like weapons, vehicle parts, and medical supplies to organized crime syndicates for cash. The US Army turned to Allied intelligence to prevent further losses. The American OSS and British SOE relied on locals like Vito to infiltrate the criminal underbelly and dismantle these rings. Vito called this period his “dirty work.” After the war, Vito returned to the US, becoming a prolific inventor and weapons manufacturer with 19 patents. He built his blood transfusion device, which he used during the “Cash for Blood” days in Nicaragua. Arguably his finest invention was Cellini Stabilizers, which according to Vito, “made shooting a .45 feel like shooting a .22.” His clientele included original members of Delta Force, which through the support of Texas billionaire Ross Perot, privately contracted Cellini stabilizers for The Unit’s various weapon systems. Remember Vito by sharing his story. #History #WWII #SOE #OSS #TrueCrime #Inventor #DeltaForce #Legend #DOL

#LateNightHistory — How Navy SEAL Andrew Sullivan Transfers Knowledge to Improve Community Safety “When I was at Team 2, when I first started, we would do training evolutions out in town. The reason being we only have so many CQB [Close Quarters Battle] tactical training facilities on the military installations and they are all pretty cookie cutter, for the most part. Especially back then [~2002-2007-ish]. “So we would always contact police, specifically Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and local areas to see if they had training venues and abandoned buildings out in town that we could use. We’ve always in the Teams had those relationships with law enforcement to where they would provide facilities that we could train in and in return we would provide fundamental training for them if they find themselves in a critical incident situation where they need to respond with tactical maneuvering. What we’re giving them, which I found this out very early in my career, is the knowledge and basic stuff that we learned throughout the years. “Then when I got to Dam Neck, it’s the same thing, but we were able to broaden our reach because we had bigger pots of money to pull from. So we would go to different cities, including Boston. One of the first evolutions I did was a training block in Boston, where the Boston Police provided us with venues to go do these large-scale military exercises, and then when we were done we would bring the police in and provide them with fundamental training. “When I got out of the military I knew I wanted to do something that gave back to law enforcement and … unfortunately watching critical incidents on TV and we’re seeing patrol officers failing in instances where they are put into high-stress critical incidents. I’m training cops and I’m watching what they’re doing and I’m seeing their abilities because it’s SWAT teams and then I’m watching the officers on TV and there’s a significant deficiency in performance at the patrol officer/school resource officer level.” Solution = @community_first_project — Ep. 37 #LateNightHistoryPodcast #History #NavySEALs #CommunityFirst #Cops #BPD #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The Intense Daylight Recon by UDT Frogmen Ahead of the Battle of Saipan in WWII On June 14, 1944, Harold Hall and other frogmen assigned to UDT-5 were tasked with a daytime recon along the coast of Saipan. The mission required the combat swimmers to infiltrate the surf zone under the protective naval gunfire of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers and mark beach obstacles for demolition later that evening. The following day, landing craft carrying US Marines would commence their invasion of the Japanese-occupied island, which served as one of the largest naval bases in the area. Hall and his dive buddy, Ensign Dolliver, prepared their gear that morning. “We were all blackened up,” Hall later recalled in an interview. “Our uniform was swim trunks, knife, swim shoes, life belt, and swim mask.” The frogmen’s lack of equipment for these missions would later earn them the nickname the Naked Warriors. Additionally, the swim pair relied on a “flying mattress,” or an inflatable raft painted dark blue and equipped with an electric motor. These flying mattresses were designed to provide a low-profile signature in the ocean.   At 9:30 a.m., the frogmen departed their mothership. Hall’s swim pair reached within 350 yards of the beach when the first shells splashed several yards in front of them. At first, the frogmen thought the shells were their own, dropping short of their targets along the beachhead, but quickly realized the Japanese were bracketing their position with mortars. Another mortar shell landed closer, this time 8 feet behind them, and unleashed a powerful explosion that rattled Hall to his core. Then came the machine guns. As they swam, the snipers tried to pick them off. Hall and Dolliver, although rattled, surveyed the bottom, read the currents, and searched for underwater obstacles. Then, only after completing their mission, they departed back out to sea for pickup.  P.S. Harold Hall hailed from Hingham, MA, a small seaside town located 15 miles south of Boston. A cool little factoid for us Massholes. #History #UDT #Frogmen #NavySEALs #WWII

#LateNightHistory — How Coca-Cola Provided A Fresh Coke to the Front Lines of World War II When Eisenhower’s plea was received by high-level executives from Coca-Cola, they started devising a plan to bring distribution of the soft drink to combat areas. A Coca-Cola representative flew to Algiers, the capital of Algeria, to implement the paper plans into actionable construction of the first bottling plant. Eisenhower anticipated only 10 would be sufficient but, to his surprise, 64 bottling lines were erected by the war’s end. Soon, 148 representatives from Coke filled the ranks with an official title of “Technical Observers,” or TOs. The TOs were given army fatigues, treated like commissioned officers, and had one responsibility: to serve Coke to every American GI, no matter where they were located. Their reputation spread as they deployed from North Africa to the Pacific and European theaters. Americans slung their rifles over their shoulders and welcomed the TOs without prejudice. Their inclusion into these units earned them the nickname “Coca-Cola Colonels,” and they worked tireless days, two returning home in flag-draped caskets. The Coca-Cola Colonels brought the fizzy drink to the front lines and to nearby aid stations; foxholes and dug-in positions once absent of smiles were replaced with toasts to one day making it back home. Soldiers who were located in the South Pacific and remote locations didn’t miss out on what their comrades around the world were enjoying — the TOs had a plan for them, too. A bottling factory in Brisbane, Australia, offered to fly in soda fountains, which were popular at drugstore conventions, to an airfield housing B-26 pilots. The small, green-painted dispensaries had modifications that included an ice-making component to ensure the best drinking experience even in austere environments. The pilots praised and admired their new “Jungle Fountains,” and the Army put in an urgent request for 100 more. Many of the 1,100 mobile units that were issued sat in the back of an army jeep, which quickly garnered the phrase, “A jeep and a nickel coke!” #History #WWII #CocaCola #Coke #Soda #MilitaryHistory #FoodHistory

#LateNightHistory — How A Green Bay Packer Returned Home in a Casket With 2 Silver Stars “We were in Chicago on December 7 to watch the Bears-Cardinals game. Coach Lambeau took the whole team down to scout the Bears,” recalled Green Bay Packer’s guard, and genius behind the draw play, Charles “Buckets” Goldenberg. “They announced the bombing of Pearl Harbor during the game. We just didn’t know how it would affect anything. We were stunned like everyone else.” While some Packers players were rejected from military service because they had “joints of 80-year-old men,” another Packer guard named Howard “Smiley” Johnson didn’t have the miles on him so he commissioned in the US Marines in 1942. He and others in 4th Marine Division saw action in Saipan during the Battle of Kwajalein. When the Japanese counterattacked the flank position held by his platoon, 1st Lt. Johnson exposed himself to heavy fire, annihilated advancing enemy soldiers, and even engaged with others in hand-to-hand combat who penetrated the position. For his actions, he was awarded his first Silver Star medal. On Feb. 19, 1945, Johnson was seriously wounded by an artillery shell at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Although a Navy corpsman rushed to his aid, he declined medical attention until 4 enlisted Marines received care first. He died on the battlefield. He was only 28 and one of three NFL players KIA at Iwo Jima. #History #GoPackGo #Packers #GreenBay #Marines #WWII #NFL #IwoJima #Football #PearlHarbor

#LateNightHistory — Marine Col. Eddie Ray Explains Lessons Learned From Gulf War & Applied to the Iraq Invasion “Another one I learned … because those Cobras [helicopter gunships] were so important [in the Gulf War] … is that I could refuel them. Those Cobra helicopters use the same fuel as the LAVs. “So I always made sure to carry enough fuel so if I ever needed air support I made sure my forward air controller tells them that I got the ability to refuel them. They are willing to stay because all they want to do is make sure they can make it back to their home base. “If I have fuel for them, they can stay longer. When they land, we refuel them, give them an MRE and some hot water [laughs]. I used to love that because it was so great to operate … because in LAVs, you’re at the pointy end, so you don’t have much support. Of course, people in the back are hoarding everything they can. We get the Cobras up there, top them off, and they realize you have hot water … hot water like I said is A BIG THING. That’s the hidden secret [laughs]. “MREs have powdered coffee and they can wash up. Being able to wash up is a big thing [too]. Especially when you got some warm water to do it instead of cold … it’s huge. I made sure they knew. Matter a fact, it was so bad because guys used to hang out until they’d call and ask if the helicopters were with [us] and I felt like that teenager who was supposed to be back by 10, but was still hanging out with my buddies, and [they’d] get the call from the parents like, ‘Where are you?’” Episode 36 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast #History #Marines #SemperFi #Invasion #Iraq #USMC #LAVs #Cobra #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The Battlefield Playbook: How Maine Capt. Eddie Ray Earned The Navy Cross in the Gulf War In the early morning hours of February 25, 1991, an Iraqi scout element surprised a forward outpost occupied by the 1st Marine Division near the Burgan Oil Fields of southeastern Kuwait. The Marines were caught off guard. But Eddie had prepared them. He developed a military tactics from scratch using one-word brevity codes as offensive or defensive plays, which became his football-inspired Battlefield Playbook. With every “play” Eddie signaled over the radio, his Marines knew exactly what tactical maneuver to follow. In swift, calculated actions, Eddie’s Marines eliminated the scout element, only to discover the small Iraqi force was part of a much larger mechanized brigade. Eddie called the next play. This time, they’d be on the offensive — 7 LAVs like an offensive line formation and two Cobra gunships like a tight end on each shoulder – versus 50+ Iraqi vehicles... The Americans ran right down the Iraqi formation, eliminated numerous armored vehicles, and broke the Iraqis’ spirit to fight. By the end of the intense battle, the Americans suffered ZERO casualties and took more than 250 prisoners of war. For his actions, Eddie would become one of only two Navy Cross recipients of the Gulf War. Eddie and his Marines transformed the LAV’s reputation, which were once considered “The Kiss of Death” for an officer’s career, into a command every warrior aspired to lead into battle. Listen to Part 2 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast now AND watch the YouTube video of Eddie’s explanation in his words NOW! #History #Marines #GulfWar #Iraq #Kuwait #Armor #Playbook #Football #UW #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — Marine Colonel Eddie Ray Discusses ‘The Kiss of Death’ “I wasn’t selected for Amphibious War College. But then my Battalion Commander there [at Parris Island] was leaving and he said, ‘Hey, the way careers work nowadays, if you don’t go to AWS, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll ever get command again. But, if you’re willing to go to 29 Palms and take a LAV [Light Armored Vehicle] Company, you’ll have a company right now.’ “29 Palms is the worst place you ever want to be stationed. At least that’s the way it was in the Marine Corps. The rumor was if you took an LAV company that’s a ‘Kiss of Death’ for your career. Kiss of death … considering the fact that I didn’t have a career, it was kind of hard to kill something that you don’t even have. That’s how I looked at it. “I get there and LAVs are a new thing. Literally. We got no manuals for how to operate LAVs and all that kind of stuff. None of it. We were trying to look through some Army manuals, cavalry and armor, and try to figure out what to do. At 29 Palms we were training between those big exercises that the battalions that come to 29 Palms to do. We’re a tenant unit so between the exercises we can go out and train. “Next thing I know, we’re in the field and get notification that Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States is mobilizing and the units that are stationed in the desert are gonna go first for the Marine Corps. The only thing we had going for ourselves was that we were stationed in the desert. We didn’t have any kind of TTPs. Nothing. Obviously we get there and at that point we’re there months early and there’s nobody else on the ground […] and we drive out into the desert. We’re about 100 miles from the Kuwait border. Nobody else was out there. The whole idea was if the Iraqis moved south into Saudi Arabia, we were there as an early warning. We called it the ‘Speed Bump’ because they were gonna be much more than what we had. We started training…” Part 2 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast comes out tomorrow night. A lot of lessons learned from a well-respected Devil Dog. #History #Marines #SemperFi #USMC #NavyCross #GulfWar #LAV #29Palms #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — New Podcast Episode with Ret. Marine Col. and Navy Cross Recipient Eddie Ray is Available NOW For about three hours, I sat down with Ret. Marine Col. Eddie Ray, and discussed his life story from his upbringing in South Central LA to D1 college football at the University of Washington to serving a career in the US Marine Corps. Episode 36 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast is two parts. Part 1 is available now on all major podcast platforms. Part 2 covering Eddie’s Navy Cross action in the Gulf War, which involved utilizing a football-inspired battlefield playbook to defeat a numerically superior enemy force 10x his unit size. We also cover Eddie’s continued service as a Battalion Commander in the ‘03 Iraq invasion and legacy in the Marines and premiers this Thursday at 8pm EST. P.S. This is a one-man show, so I would really appreciate it if you — all my loyal readers and listeners — would leave a positive review on Apple and subscribe to my podcast across platforms. Additionally, I setup Spotify Listener Support, which are donations that will help me contribute to making in-person interviews possible, create history videos, and produce a podcast beyond a seasonal basis. Think Patreon … but you don’t need an account to contribute. Cheers 🍻 #History #Marines #NavyCross #CollegeGameday #UW #Huskies #GulfWar #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The US Navy’s Morale Welfare & Recreation (MWR) Programs in the GWOT Before joining the US Navy, Annie Ferguson (Ep. 4) took a college internship with their MWR program in Sicily, Italy. It was her first real interaction with the military and for 6 or 7 months she provided sailors with other opportunities than hitting the bar or throwing darts. Some of the perks included snowboarding down Mount Etna, one of the tallest active Stratovolcanoes in Europe. Halfway through her internship the volcano erupted within view of her backyard further solidifying the epicness of her endeavor! Annie would go on to become one of the first women to serve as a Female Support Technician where she worked alongside Army Special Forces soldiers and Navy SEALs. She is a trailblazer and total badass. The Navy’s MWR program unofficially existed since the Navy was formed in 1775, but only officially became recognized around 1920. Fast forward to 2005. I interviewed US Navy Capt. Joel Stewart, an adventurer with 35 years of seafaring to his credit. He has cast flies in Australia while saltwater crocodiles stalked the same fish. He’s prepared ceviche on his ship off the coast of South America and taught fly-casting lessons to curious watermen in Bahrain. During a spontaneous weekend retreat with hobbyists from Oman, he traded some Clouser Minnow flies for a native headdress. In Iraq, a few years after the invasion, he established the Baghdad Angler’s Club and School of Fly Fishing. It was an MWR program where he received many donations of fly fishing equipment from patriotic Americans. Near the bridge of Al-Faw Palace — built by Saddam Hussein in celebration of the victory over Iran during the Iraq-Iran War — he taught soldiers and Marines how to catch Sadaam’s bass (the native Tigris mangar). When he left, he passed his fishing operations to someone else and it lasted until 2011. Last time I chatted with Joel he was still serving in the Navy, still catching fish, and still enjoying life. #History #Navy #MWR #Baghdad #Iraq #Sicily #MountEtna #Volcano #Snowboarding #FlyFishing #WarZone #OneMoreWave

#LateNightHistory — NEW History Content & Podcast Episodes Release Next Week Late Night History started as a micro-blog here in 2018, became a podcast in 2021, and now with the launch of this teaser — also via Spotify which is LIVE NOW — emerges a YouTube Channel in 2024. The podcast interviews themselves won’t change much. The evolution this year is the video content that’s accompanying the podcast, as well as individual history stories collected from my years researching and writing history articles. As with every year, I provide some sneak peeks into the upcoming guests. This year’s murderer’s row of 15 guests includes: Ep. 36 — Marine Navy Cross recipient Ep. 37 — Navy SEAL Ep. 38 — EOD Historian … Delta Force Ep. 39 — Marine + Author Ep. 40 — Army SF Hall of Fame Ep. 41 — Navy SEAL Ep. 42 — Army Forward Observer Ep. 43 — Marine Force Recon Ep. 44 — Army Sniper Ep. 45 — Smokejumper Ep. 46 — British Red Devils Para Ep. 47 — Author + Military Historian Ep. 48 — FDNY SOC Chief Ep. 49 — Air Force PJ Ep. 50 — A 2018 Battle from the GWOT from 5 perspectives The trailer on YouTube is where I do some name-dropping. More exciting stuff is on the way, I just don’t want to reveal it too soon. Episode 36 (Part 1) releases next Tuesday at 8pm EST and (Part 2) will drop same time on Thursday. It’s a special one as football fans and battlefield tacticians unite! #History #LateNightHistoryPodcast #NavySEALs #GreenBerets #Marines #FDNY #Author #PJs #RedDevils

#LateNightHistory — The Air Force Pilot Who Survived A Leap From Space (Part 1) On Aug. 16, 1960, United States Air Force Capt. Joseph Kittinger ascended above New Mexico in an open gondola suspended from a helium balloon. The 32-year-old test pilot wore a pressurized suit, because without it, the extreme altitude would’ve caused his body fluids to boil. When he was 19 miles above the earth, Kittinger jumped and entered an uncontrolled descent, falling at speeds exceeding 600 mph. The free fall lasted 4 minutes and 36 seconds until, at 14,000 feet, Kittinger pulled the ripcord of his parachute.  Kittinger broke two world records that day: the highest ever parachute jump and the longest free fall. Two weeks later, an image of Kittinger falling through a sea of white clouds appeared on the front page of Life magazine. But few details of the record-setting jump were made public, because it wasn’t a daredevil stunt. In fact, it was performed for the sake of solving a real-world military problem. After developing research aircraft that could reach 354,000 feet in altitude, such as the X-15, NASA had to come up with an emergency escape option for pilots in the event that they needed to bail at such heights. The US Air Force launched Project Excelsior in 1959 to determine whether parachutes could be used reliably in those scenarios. Kittinger was to be the guinea pig. Kittinger conducted his first high-altitude test for the project in November 1959, jumping from a height of  76,400 feet. He barely survived. His gear malfunctioned, and the shroud lines of the small, stabilizing parachute wrapped around his neck. He went into an uncontrollable spin at 22 times the force of gravity. The force was so great that it knocked him unconscious. He was saved only by the automatic deployment of his emergency parachute. Despite nearly dying, Kittinger completed two more jumps for Project Excelsior, including his third and final world-record jump from 102,800 feet. Part 2 tomorrow night #History #SkyDive #ColdWar #SpaceRace #Airborne #Balloon #AirForce #NASA

#LateNightHistory — Haunting Artwork by Auschwitz Death Camp Survivor David Olère David Olère’s drawings are considered the most important visual testimonies of the crematorium operation at Auschwitz concentration camp. The talented Polish-born painter and sculptor was imprisoned inside Auschwitz for two years. While there, he bare witness to daily terrors as a member of the Sonderkommandos. The Sonderkommandos were a special unit reserved for prisoners assisting Nazi guards in emptying gas chambers and disposing murdered corpses from crematoriums. If any of the Sonderkommandos refused their duty, they too would be slaughtered by their German captors. In addition to his role as a Sonderkommando, Olère illustrated letters home and produced artwork for SS guards, which saved him from death like the others. He bare witness to daily terror and was the only artist and Sonderkommando to survive. Shortly after the war, he produced 70 drawings, which later served as inspiration to transfer his traumatic experiences from memory into shocking paintings on canvas. Since photographs of inside the gas chambers were non-existent, Olère’s art became the only iconographic representations of what occurred inside these death factories. This artwork pictured here is called “Work Sets You Free and, also, Freedom Begins at the Top of the Chimney.” His son, Alexandre, provided commentary in a forward to his dad’s art collection as to why his testimony matters to history and remembering The Holocaust. “[This] type of art obviously could not be popular,” he said. “People did not want to look at it, worse, they did not want to accept the fact it presented real events. Indeed, this situation contributed to the artist’s death, who was unable to come to terms with a world that denied what had happened at Auschwitz, destroying his works and boycotting his exhibitions.” #History #WWII #TheHolocaust #Auschwitz #WeRemember #Art #Haunting

#LateNightHistory — Vote For Late Night History Trivia This Sunday 4/07/24 On the left is a picture of frogmen assigned to Underwater Demolition Team-1 on Nagai Beach near Camp McGill in Takeyama, Japan. Ken Garrett, who did a great interview with Ret. SEAL Don Shipley on YouTube, is pictured third from the left. On the right is a picture of a British SOE legend who operated with Force 136 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Trivia facts associated with his experiences in particular will have to wait as I have an upcoming podcast episode dedicated to honoring his memory and legacy. First episodes release this month. All other SOE content is fair game for Sunday … if chosen, of course. #History #LNHTrivia #Frogmen #UDT #NavySEALs #SOE #WWII #Korea

#LateNightHistory — Navy SEAL RJ Thomas Explains Nearly Being Overrun by the Viet Cong During Extraction After about 45 minutes of defending the crash site of his shot down Navy Seawolf helicopter armed with only a M1911 handgun, Navy SEAL RJ Thomas watched as an Army helicopter swooped in to pick them up. Thomas grabbed his pilot and raced him to the helicopter. Meanwhile, the Viet Cong who hadn’t had their heads shot to pieces by Thomas’ accurate fire, charged over the dike to prevent the helicopter from taking off. “They ran into the nose of the helicopter, which of course there are no guns out on the front of the helicopter, you could only shoot out the sides. As I shoved Barr [the pilot] in on the deck, and the other guy was dragging another wounded gunner back to the helo, I fell on the ground. I could see this guy running towards the helicopter directly at the nose of the helicopter, so I just shot at him from between the skids, and I hit him at about 10 yards in front of the helicopter and stopped that charge. “There were a couple other guys trying to flank us, but the pilot shot them, I think with an M3 Grease gun. “I got on the helicopter myself and once we started to takeoff, I got on the M60 machine gun, which now I had the people behind the dike exposed, so I started picking those guys off. “I would have preferred to stay there and clean them all up, but the helicopter pilots wanted to get out of there. They’d been hit multiple times with small arms fire. They got hit over 20 times with a .51 caliber and got hit over 100 times with small arms .30 caliber rounds. They were concerned the helicopter would quit flying at any moment. They didn’t want to stick around and do any more battle.” It came down to politics as to why RJ wasn’t awarded the Medal of Honor. Still, he would receive the Navy Cross. Listen to my conversation with RJ on Ep. 26 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast released in 2023. New episodes drop this April! #History #NavySEALs #SEALTEAM #Frogman #NavyCross #MedalofHonor #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — Photographs From The Troubles in Northern Ireland “The Troubles” was a tumultuous and violent period between Northern Ireland paramilitaries and the British armed forces from 1960 to 1998. In the year 1972 alone, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, or IRA, killed about 100 British troops, wounded 500 more, and terrorized the community with 1,300 bombings. In more than 30 years of armed conflict there were about 50,000 casualties. Here are some photos and slightly edited photo captions from that period: Photo 1: British operators from “The Det,” a plainclothes intelligence unit established in the 1970s during The Troubles. I recommend watching the movie “71” or reading the book “Say Nothing” by Patrick Radden Keefe. Photo 2: Children eating their ice creams while soldiers patrol the streets of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Photo by Peter Marlow, 1979. Photo 3: Riots following the deaths of two Catholic teenagers who were accidentally killed by British Army troops who drove into a group of rioters hurling petrol bombs. The rioters throw rocks and petrol bombs and the police respond with plastic bullets. A young rioter prepares to throw a petrol bomb at some British soldiers. Photo by Peter Marlow, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 1981. Photo 4: A Belfast man on patrol for the Irish Republican Army, 1987. Photo by Pacemaker Press International: Belfast Telegraph Archive Photo 5: IRA gunmen walk freely in Casement Park at a rally to mark the 10th anniversary of British Troops arriving. Photo by Chris Steele-Perkins, West Belfast, Norhern Ireland, 1997. Bonus fact: The hit song “Zombie” by The Cranberries is an anti-war anthem describing The Troubles. The band U2 also has a few popular songs about the conflict. #History #TheTroubles #IRA #BritishArmy #SAS #SBS #UKSF #MilitaryHistory #TheCranberries #Zombie

#LateNightHistory — A WWII Vet Pulled Off The Greatest April Fools Joke in Alaska (Part 1) Oliver J. “Porky” Bickar rolled out of bed on April Fools’ Day, 1974, looked out his window to a white-topped mountain outside Sitka, Alaska, and told his wife, Patty, “I have to do it today.” She replied with age-old words of wisdom: “Don’t make an ass of yourself.” Bickar, then 50, had lived in Sitka for 15 years. He was a logger by trade and no stranger to the local editors of the small town Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper. The showman and serial prankster routinely entertained onlookers with a stunt that involved felling a large tree to smash a target, typically a hard hat, on the ground.  As April had arrived in each of the previous three years, Bickar had postponed a stunt for which he needed perfect weather conditions. But April 1974 provided a clear blue sky with visibility for miles. His mind raced as his elaborate plan went into motion. The serial prankster phoned his closest friends, the so-called Dirty Dozen who met for coffee at a local restaurant, and scrambled aboard a chopper to transport old tires to the dormant volcano Mount Edgecumbe. Part 2 and Part 3 posted in my IG stories. #History #AprilFoolsDay #AprilFools #WWII #Veteran #Prankster #Alaska #Volcano #Legend

#LateNightHistory — ‘Hold And Die’ — The Marine Who Became A Legend on Easter Sunday Capt. John Ripley had positioned his troops along the south bank of the river. He ordered their tanks to fire at NVA armor within range and called for “danger close” naval artillery. To reach the bottom of the bridge, he jumped on a tank driven by Army Maj. James Smock, another American adviser. Once there, he saw that the explosives South Vietnamese engineers had placed earlier were not properly set. “I put a satchel charge over each shoulder and reached up and grabbed the beam as it approached the south bank,” Ripley, then a colonel, said. “Then I began kicking my way through the anti-sapper fence.” Smock assisted Ripley as best he could, but the high, chain-link “anti-sapper” fence that protected the bridge’s undercarriage was topped with steel-tipped razor wire. As Ripley carefully climbed over, the razor wire sliced open his legs and backside. His blood soaked his uniform, which he’d worn through three days and nights of nonstop fighting. Though completely exhausted and fatigued, Ripley began hand-walking out over the river, white-knuckled, his fingertips on the girder edges.  As his arms tired, Ripley repeated a rhythmic prayer over and over: “Jesus, Mary, get me there.”  The Marine dangled while completely exposed to the NVA. For more than three hours, Ripley repeated the process: He’d swing his body, hook his heels into the I-beam, muscle himself up inside each of the channels formed between two adjacent I-beams, push the explosives while on his hands and knees, then finally place and prime the charges. He went back and forth five times while the enemy fired “.30-caliber messages” at him. He even faced a flat-trajectory shot from an NVA T-54 tank. Search the title at the top for the full story 🫡 #History #Easter #EasterSunday #Marines #Vietnam #Legend #Advisor #BlackRifleCoffee #CoffeeOrDie

#LateNightHistory — Why There is a Darth Vader Statue in Odessa, Ukraine Here’s a historical lens into how one Ukrainian artist transformed the statue of a former Soviet Union leader into Star Wars villain Darth Vader. In 2015, Ukraine formally passed a package of “decommunization” laws, which called upon the removal of communist monuments. In Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, city officials targeted a statue dedicated to Vladimir Lenin, the former head of Soviet Russia. When Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov learned about the developments he decided to intervene. Milov proposed encasing the existing Lenin statue within a new titanium facade and transforming Lenin’s features into what is known as the world’s first monument dedicated to Darth Vader. Lenin’s long coat became Darth Vader’s cape. Lenin’s clenched fist now holds a lightsaber. And if you whip out your smartphone and feel the presence of the Force — it’s there because implanted inside Darth Vader’s helmet is a WiFi access point for free Internet. The statue stands in a private courtyard surrounded by office buildings and factories at the address 28 Stovpova Street on the outskirts of the city. No idea if it’s been impacted by the ongoing war. All things considered, if I can get my buddy, Nolan Peterson, who has covered the conflict since 2014, on the podcast perhaps he’d have better insight. He doesn’t have IG, but I recommend following him on Twitter. He has like a billion followers there so not hard to find #History #Culture #Odessa #Ukraine #StarWars #Statue #DarthVader #Yoda #Art #LightSaber

#LateNightHistory — Medal of Honor Day The award’s first recipients were a group of six Union Army soldiers who earned it for carrying out a daring mission to sabotage a strategic Confederate rail line deep in enemy territory.   As the story goes, the so-called “Great Locomotive Chase” began on April 12, 1862, when a detachment of Union Army soldiers disguised in plain clothes boarded a passenger locomotive in Marietta, Georgia. Accompanied by a pair of civilian spies, including their leader, James Andrews, the men settled themselves at the rear of the train as it moved out of the station and headed north toward Tennessee. All 20 members of the detachment who boarded the train (there were four others who didn’t make it) were volunteers. Their mission was to destroy as many bridges as possible along the Western and Atlantic Railroad — a vital Confederate supply line connecting Atlanta with Chattanooga. Shortly after leaving Marietta, the train, called The General, eased to a stop in the town of Big Shanty. Around dawn, the conductor and most of his crew and passengers disembarked and headed to a nearby hotel for breakfast. Meanwhile, Andrews and his men, having exited on the opposite side of the train, disconnected the cab from the passenger cars and drove it out of the station.  The saboteurs made periodic stops as they chugged along toward Chattanooga, using tools they had stolen from some railroad repairmen to tear up rail lines, cut telegraph wires, and litter the tracks with railroad ties to obstruct the rebel troops pursuing them. Yet they didn’t manage to burn any bridges, as the task proved too time consuming to carry out without risking capture. (Continued in the comments) #History #MedalofHonor #CivilWar #MilitaryHistory

#LateNightHistory — Dirty Boat Guys: An Expansive History of Navy SWCC On April 16, 1987, the Naval Special Warfare entered SOCOM, bringing a new era for SWCC operators. Almost immediately, SWCC was tasked with its first mission, Operation Earnest Will.  In July 1988, detachments of various Special Boat Units, along with SEALs and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, deployed to the Persian Gulf. For several months, SBU teams operated from mobile sea bases converted from oil rigs to protect Kuwaiti tankers from Iranian attacks. These tasks mostly included day and night coastal patrol and interdiction missions using various watercraft. In the 1990s, SWCC operated High-Speed Boats, or HSBs, RHIBs, and Mark V Special Operations Craft. In time, the so-called Dirty Boat Guys of SWCC carved out their own reputation, specifically during the Global War on Terror.  In the Philippines, SWCC used Mark Vs to rout Abu-Sayyaf extremists in the islands. The Mark Vs had five SWCCs manning M2 .50-caliber and M240 7.62mm belt-fed machine guns. While these missions emphasized SWCCs firepower, some of the missions were more clandestine in nature “We were sending guys in dugout canoes with outboard motors for collection operations,” said SWCC historian Phil Garn. “Two guys in a boat with pistols and a radio.” SWCC also integrated with the SEALs and other special operations forces in unique ways. For example, Garn explained how SWCC joined SEAL platoons to work as drone operators.  “In Iraq, we were doing a lot more intelligence-gathering missions in the rivers,” Garn said. “We got into some hellacious gunfights, the biggest gunfights since the Vietnam War.” This is just a snippet from a much more in-depth interview #History #SWCC #Navy #NSW #BoatGuys #ImOnABoat #Gunboat #SEALTEAM #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — The Legend of Dick Bong: World War II ‘Ace of Aces,’ Medal of Honor Recipient — And Crocodile Killer? Maj. Richard “Dick” Bong boasts a combat record unmatched by any other American fighter pilots in World War II. The “Ace of Aces” shot down 40 confirmed enemy aircraft, earned the Medal of Honor as a gunnery instructor, and garnered such an unbelievable reputation that newspapers even reported that he had killed a crocodile. The latter, likely wartime propaganda, only added to Bong’s notoriety. In 1942, Bong was reprimanded for flying low over San Francisco, circling the Golden Gate Bridge, and buzzing the home of a fellow pilot who had just gotten married. But instead of getting him kicked out of the military, his maverick personality caught the attention of Lt. Gen. George C. Kenney, who hand-picked Bong to serve under his command at 5th Air Force. Bong went to the Pacific and soon accomplished an exemplary combat action record, first piloting a P-47 Thunderbolt, then the P-38 Lightning. He was awarded numerous medals and accolades in his two years of combat duty, including the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, and seven Distinguished Flying Crosses. As his fame grew, so did the legends. An Australian newspaper reported on a daring rescue mission in New Guinea in which Bong was flying overhead while three of his fellow pilots took a small boat across a lake to reach another pilot who had reportedly gotten lost in the jungle. Bong noticed a crocodile trailing close behind his comrades. He engaged the reptile, striking the animal with a 20 mm round and blowing it to smithereens before it could clench its jaws around the splashed pilot and rescue team. However, Ralph Wandrey, a fellow aviator who served as Bong’s wingman, said it likely never happened. P.S. We can all agree that we wish the crocodile story is true, right? #History #WWII #MedalofHonor #Ace #Aviation #Maverick #Pilot #BeLegendary

#LateNightHistory — The Vietnam War’s Audie Murphy: Staff Sgt. Joe Hooper Staff Sgt. Joe Hooper was dubbed “The Vietnam War’s Audie Murphy” and was awarded 37 medals during his two tours of duty to Vietnam. I wrote a play-by-play for @coffeeordiemag in 2020 of how he was awarded the Medal of Honor (I’ll link it in my IG story). At the end of the article, I thought it was important to recognize what happened when he returned home from the war. … Hooper walked around with a $12,000 retirement check in his shoe and hidden wounds from the war that affected his mental health. Among the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War with the Medal of Honor, two Silver Star medals, six Bronze Stars, eight Purple Hearts, and 115 enemy killed in action, Hooper was a hero to his brothers and sisters-in-arms, but a victim of the public perception of Vietnam.  When asked if it was worth it and if he’d do it all again, he replied, “I would, the reason being I thought my abilities helped save lives. But I would tell my children, if [we] were to do this over, ‘Go to Canada. Don’t fight a war you can’t win.’” #History #MedalofHonor #JoeHooper #Vietnam #MentalHealth #BlackRifleCoffee #CoffeeOrDie

Repost from @latenighthistory • #LateNightHistory — Sidney Shachnow: Holocaust Survivor & Army SF Icon (Part 2/2) Shachnow served two tours to Vietnam, first with the 5th Special Forces Group, then later with the 101st Airborne Division. Between his two tours, he would receive two Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts. “Things went pretty well,” Shachnow reflected, regarding one of his tours. “I enjoyed the assignment, even though I got shot twice.” In Shachnow’s next assignment, he served in Berlin with Detachment-A — a secret unit that remained classified until 2014, when the US government officially acknowledged its existence. He later returned in 1989 for the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1994, Shachnow retired from the Army as a major general with 40 years of active service. He was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment — essentially the Green Beret Hall of Fame — in 2007 and was posthumously awarded the Bull Simons Award in 2019, one year after his death. Listen to episode 12 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast featuring fellow Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment, Bob Charest (middle), talk about his friend Sid. Bob is returning for S4 of the podcast, so be on the lookout for that episode! #History #GreenBeret #SpecialForces #DOL #Classified #Legend

#LateNightHistory — Sidney Shachnow: Holocaust Survivor & Army SF Icon (Part 2/2) Shachnow served two tours to Vietnam, first with the 5th Special Forces Group, then later with the 101st Airborne Division. Between his two tours, he would receive two Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts. “Things went pretty well,” Shachnow reflected, regarding one of his tours. “I enjoyed the assignment, even though I got shot twice.” In Shachnow’s next assignment, he served in Berlin with Detachment-A — a secret unit that remained classified until 2014, when the US government officially acknowledged its existence. He later returned in 1989 for the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1994, Shachnow retired from the Army as a major general with 40 years of active service. He was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment — essentially the Green Beret Hall of Fame — in 2007 and was posthumously awarded the Bull Simons Award in 2019, one year after his death. Listen to episode 12 of the #LateNightHistoryPodcast featuring fellow Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment, Bob Charest (middle), talk about his friend Sid. Bob is returning for S4 of the podcast, so be on the lookout for that episode! #History #GreenBeret #SpecialForces #DOL #Classified #Legend

#LateNightHistory — Sidney Shachnow: Holocaust Survivor & Army SF Icon (Part 1/2) Sidney Shachnow compartmentalized the horrors he experienced while imprisoned in a Jewish ghetto during World War II. He authored a book in 2004 called Hope and Honor: A Memoir of a Soldier’s Courage and Survival. It was within these pages he broke his code of silence. “I found it painful and I wasn’t sure anyone would believe me,” he wrote in the preface. Born Schaja Shachnowski in 1934 in Kaunas, Lithuania, Shachnow’s entire family and 40,000 of the Jewish population of his hometown lived in a fenced-off ghetto called Concentration Camp No. 4, Kovno. “There was no infrastructure, no water pipes, no sewage system, and no access to running water,” he wrote. “Not only the brutality of the Gestapo, but the threat of disease was an ever-present terror to the population.” He and his family lived in constant fear for three years before the Soviets reoccupied Lithuania. He survived the Holocaust and went on to have a historic career in the US Army. “I have been involved or played a part in some of the most significant times in history from the beginning of Special Forces, the Vietnam War and the Tet Offensive, to the fall of the Berlin Wall while living in the former home of the Treasurer of the Third Reich as Commander of US Forces,” he wrote. “The irony of circumstance has always been exceptional in my life, from being enemies with the Germans, friends with the Soviets as they rescued me and my family from Kovno, and later enemies of the Russians during the Cold War and protecting West Germany.” Part 2 tomorrow night. #History #Holocaust #Survivor #WWII #Army #SpecialForces #DOL #GreenBeret

#LateNightHistory — The Glorious Antics of OSS Founder Wild Bill Donovan at the White House William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan is most revered for his role as the director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) — the premier paramilitary and intelligence unit that emerged during World War II and served as the precursor to the CIA. Wild Bill, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient, boldly sent strike teams of OSS Jedburghs to conduct commando operations across Europe or unleash psychological warfare campaigns against the Germans. But what is often forgotten about is when Wild Bill test-fired a weapon while inside the White House. By 1944 the OSS Research & Development branch had a breakthrough with a suppressor. Then a general, Wild Bill brought it to the White House and informed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but the president was distracted by other important matters. Wild Bill, not known as a patient man, set up a sandbag and fired 10 rounds from his .22-caliber High Standard suppressed pistol.  When Roosevelt emerged to speak with Donovan, he presented the president with the bullet-riddled sandbag. Much to Wild Bill’s dismay, the president chose to keep the weapon because he was so impressed with the remarkable feat that it had been fired without raising alarm in the most secure building in the country. Wild Bill’s suppressed weapon can be found on display at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York — helping keep alive the legend of Wild Bill Donovan. #History #CIA #OSS #FDR #WhiteHouse #Legend

Repost from @latenighthistory • #LateNightHistory — The Untold History of the Navy’s Chuting Stars Parachute Team You’ve probably seen them parachute into football stadiums, baseball parks, and weekend air shows. Today, the US Navy’s Leap Frogs are an elite parachute demonstration team made up of SEALs, SWCC, and EOD sailors. But in order to properly appreciate the Leap Frogs, one must look into Naval Special Warfare’s historic past. In 1956, Underwater Demolition Team frogmen from UDT-21 pioneered the art of leaping from airplane. In fact, a pair of frogmen in Virginia performed the duty on the weekends for fun. Jim McGee owned a two-seated Aeronca Chief plane. He donned a parachute while his UDT pilot buddy Bruce Welch took the controls. As McGee floated down to Earth under an orange or white canopy, Welch would land and the pair would switch roles. In time, word spread around the UDT community and other frogmen from UDT-21 and UDT-22 joined them. The frogmen wore carpenter overalls, football helmets, and motorcycle goggles. Gloves and stop watches were also common. Eventually, the weekend activity became the South Norfolk Parachute Club. In 1961, the same year the US Army established the “Golden Knights” parachute exhibition team, the US Navy created the “Chuting Stars” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of naval aviation. The team became official later in the decade. #History #LeapFrogs #SEALs #SEALTEAM #Navy #Parachute #UDT #Frogmen #Skydiving

#LateNightHistory — The Untold History of the Navy’s Chuting Stars Parachute Team You’ve probably seen them parachute into football stadiums, baseball parks, and weekend air shows. Today, the US Navy’s Leap Frogs are an elite parachute demonstration team made up of SEALs, SWCC, and EOD sailors. But in order to properly appreciate the Leap Frogs, one must look into Naval Special Warfare’s historic past. In 1956, Underwater Demolition Team frogmen from UDT-21 pioneered the art of leaping from airplane. In fact, a pair of frogmen in Virginia performed the duty on the weekends for fun. Jim McGee owned a two-seated Aeronca Chief plane. He donned a parachute while his UDT pilot buddy Bruce Welch took the controls. As McGee floated down to Earth under an orange or white canopy, Welch would land and the pair would switch roles. In time, word spread around the UDT community and other frogmen from UDT-21 and UDT-22 joined them. The frogmen wore carpenter overalls, football helmets, and motorcycle goggles. Gloves and stop watches were also common. Eventually, the weekend activity became the South Norfolk Parachute Club. In 1961, the same year the US Army established the “Golden Knights” parachute exhibition team, the US Navy created the “Chuting Stars” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of naval aviation. The team became official later in the decade. #History #LeapFrogs #SEALs #SEALTEAM #Navy #Parachute #UDT #Frogmen #Skydiving

#LateNightHistory — Behind The Photo: Henry E. “Red” Erwin’s Medal of Honor “A picture is worth a thousand words” may be a cliché, but when you see the photo of Staff Sgt. Henry E. Erwin being presented with the Medal of Honor while wrapped in bandages in a hospital bed in Guam, surrounded by his teammates, hours after his horrific ordeal, there’s nothing else to say. Erwin’s squadron mates referred to him as “Red,” his family called him “Gene,” and the Air Force forever hailed him as a hero. Erwin, a 24-year-old country boy from Alabama, served as a radioman and rode co-pilot aboard the City of Los Angeles, a B-29 tasked for bombing missions off the southern coast of Japan. On his 11th combat mission, they almost didn’t make it back alive. The plan was to conduct a low-pass flight over a chemical plant in Koriyama, located approximately 120 miles north of Tokyo. Erwin was tasked with dropping a white phosphorus smoke grenade through the floor of the plane to mark the target. As he pulled the pin and dropped it into the chute, the 20-pound grenade malfunctioned, ignited, and exploded in his face. The blast tore off his ear, blinded him, lit his face on fire, and filled the cabin with thick, white smoke. Despite not being able to see, Erwin had the situational awareness to identify the canister burning at 1,300 degrees as it began to melt through the B-29’s metal exterior. He had seconds to make a decision — and he chose to grab it with his bare hands. He clenched it against his body as his uniform disintegrated and the flesh on his arm dwindled to bone. Erwin made it back to the cockpit to heave the bomb out the window before collapsing between the pilots seats. During the chaos, the aviators managed to pull the plane out of a spiraling dive only 300 meters from the water — a crash that would have killed them all.  Continued in the Comments #History #AirForce #MedalofHonor #CoffeeOrDie

#LateNightHistory — US Air Force Triple Ace Robin Olds and His Legendary Mustache Robin Olds was so badass that he single-handedly made it acceptable for Air Force fighter pilots to rock his signature handlebar mustache during the month of March. Many Vietnam-era aviators grew the iconic “bulletproof mustache” because it had lucky superstitions. Naturally, when Air Force Chief of General John P. McConnell told him to shave it off, the legend of Mustache March was born. “Generals visiting Vietnam would kind of laugh at the Mustache,” Olds later commented. “I was far from home. It was a gesture of defiance. The kids on base loved it. Most everybody grew a mustache.” Olds was able to get away with his out-of-regulation grooming standards because he was a no-nonsense, two-war triple ace. To say that it was a morale booster to have Olds orbiting above dogfighting with Nazi planes across Europe and communist Mig-21s over North Vietnam would be an understatement. In World War II, piloting both a P-38 Lightning and a P-51 Mustang, Olds destroyed 13 German planes in the air and 11.5 aircraft on the ground, bringing his total to 24.5 kills.  In Vietnam, military leaders told Olds that if he became an “ace,” he would lose his command because it would be a publicity nightmare to contain. They also specifically stressed that he could not fly more than 100 combat missions. The Maverick’s final tally included 152 combat missions — 105 of them over North Vietnam. Years later when Olds visited the Air Force Academy, young cadets were wearing fake mustaches in his honor. Their homecoming game versus Army was the next day, “and I gave the whole group a quick one-finger salute,” Olds said. “That brought down the house … Over the years, people have asked me why I did it. Hell, it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I was a fighter pilot; they better get used to it.” #History #AirForce #Ace #Legend #FighterPilot #Maverick #MustacheMarch

#LateNightHistory — Major Ralph Bagnold, Long Range Desert Group, North Africa, World War II “Within six weeks we got together a volunteer force of New Zealanders whose equipment had been in a ship sunk by a submarine and so they were at a loose end. The New Zealanders were wonderful people who were used to using trucks and maintaining them. The first trip into enemy territory was in September 1940, and the object was to see if the Italians were preparing for a raid or offensive against southern Egypt. We could read the tracks and see if their outpost at Uweinat in southern Libya, near the Egyptian/Sudan border, was being reinforced. They could have raided Aswan, seized the dam and flooded Egypt. When we met that Italian party in the desert ten years before, we had discussed the idea as a joke. I thought if Lorenzini was still in Libya that he would be capable of carrying out that sort of raid. “We discovered that the Italians were not planning a raid. We captured a small Italian convoy; took about half a dozen men without a shot being fired. This trip was so successful that for the next patrol we doubled our size. When the group was increased in strength it had to have an official name, so we chose the Long Range Desert Group. “Clothing was important, there is a tremendous contrast in temperature between night and day in the desert. The sand radiates the heat, and it can get up to 50 degrees Celsius by day, and below freezing at night. So you need enough clothing and blankets for the night, yet in daytime just enough clothing to stop the sun burning your skin. All we wore was a shirt and shorts. The Arab head-dress was good as it flapped in the wind and kept one cool, and in a sandstorm you could wrap a piece of cloth round your face. We got the head-dress from the Palestine police, because we didn’t want to risk breaking secrecy by putting out a contract in Cairo for Arab head-dress. I had sandals made, the Indian North-West Frontier chapli, a very tough sandal with an open toe, so that if sand got into it you could shoot it out with a kick.” #History #WWII #NorthAfrica #LRDG #SAS #Desert #Egypt #Libya #OralHistory P.S. Does he look like @tomhardy

#LateNightHistory — Capt. Fernandez and the Gas Pipe Gang: How Filipino Guerrillas Resisted the Japanese During World War II Resistance forces that are formed in an instant as a means to fight oppression are typically led by seasoned fighters — military leaders who are hand-picked to train and equip a much larger force in unconventional warfare. Capt. Nieves Fernandez didn’t have experience, but she had moxie. The former school teacher known to her students as Miss Fernandez was a witness to the violence and unfair prosecution against the Filipino populace who had lived under constant fear in Japanese-occupied Visayas, a group of islands in the Philippines, during World War II. The Japanese would subject business owners and the townspeople of Tacloban to scalding-hot or ice-cold baths in an attempt to persuade their decisions through torture. Fernandez had enough of it and convinced men in the local municipality to join her cause. The Waray guerrillas, as they were known to the American forces in the area, were sometimes referenced as “The Gas Pipe Gang,” for their use of improvised weapons such as shotguns fashioned out of gas pipes and loaded with a combination of gunpowder and nails.  For two and a half years, the 38-year-old resistance fighter ran through the port city barefoot and set up ambushes in the forest. The only female guerrilla commander in the Philippines wore a black dress and committed “silent killings” armed with a bolo knife. More than 100 guerrilla fighters joined the cause, equipping spare American rifles and homemade grenades to kill scores of Japanese troops. These hit-and-run skirmishes led to the Japanese issuing a 10,000 pesos bounty on her head. #History #WWII #WomensHistoryMonth #Filipino

#LateNightHistory — Behind The Photo: US Navy SEAL Bob “Deep Divin’” Diecks Pinning 1st Female SCUBA Diver Kati Garner, a 19-year-old Colorado native, left Eastern Illinois University in 1972 with aspirations of a life of adventure in the US Navy. She quickly discovered that few options were available but enlisted anyway, leading her to Personnel School, where she learned “how to sit behind a desk and typewrite all day.”  During her administrative training, one of the instructors asked for volunteers to go out to a San Diego-based UDT/SEAL team to learn how to dive. The petite 5-foot-3, 115-pound Garner raised her hand but was mocked for her unusual and unlikely attempt to gain a slot at a school only offered to men. Everything changed that August when Chief of Naval Operations Elmo Zumalt Jr. led an initiative to open more sea duty billets to women. Garner transferred to the Enlisted Personnel Office in San Diego, and another roster called for volunteers to attend the dive school. Garner put her name in the hat then contacted Chief Bob Diecks, a Vietnam SEAL who once held the world free dive record, at the Recruit Training Center. “She needed stamina,” said Diecks, who became Garner’s coach. “When she started, she couldn’t even run a quarter mile.” Every morning at 0600, Garner and Diecks were at the track where they executed exhaustive conditioning runs, completed repetitive calisthenics exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and flutter kicks, and swam laps in the pool. For three months Diecks tested her mettle, improved her attitude and confidence, and used his experience to get her ready for the selection process for dive school. In November 1973, after completing the month-long dive school, Diecks presented and pinned Garner’s diving badge marking a historic first in the Navy. #History #Navy #NavyDiver #SCUBA #NavySEALs #WomensHistoryMonth

#LateNightHistory — NASA Astronaut Tom Jones Explains Unique Perspective Reaching The Pinnacle of His Career Astronaut Tom Jones flew on four NASA space shuttle missions between 1994 and 2001. Here’s what he had to say: “You can’t forget the bigger picture, which is, hey, you’re a spaceman! Nothing can match that. So after that I think I had a sense of being at peace with my life. I didn’t have to struggle or strive to try to match the last thing that I did. “I thought, I can’t top those four missions. So I’ve been very relaxed ever since. “You know, whenever I get into a stressful situation these days, I think, well, you know, compared to being strapped on a rocket, this isn’t too bad.” #History #NASA #Apollo #Astronaut #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — Why Pianos Were Dropped by Parachute to American GIs in WWII What are some of your other favorite American brands and companies that stepped up in WWII? #History #WWII #Steinway #Piano #MilitaryHistory

#LateNightHistory — Life Reflections From OSS Officer, Professional Sailor, & Hollywood Actor Sterling Hayden “To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea...cruising, it is called. “Voyaging belongs to seamen, you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunates change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it. What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine—and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need—really need? “A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in—and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all—in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. “The years thunder by. The dreams of youth dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?” #History #OSS #WWII #Voyage #Sailor #Adventurer #Explorer #Commando #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — British SOE Wireless Operator David Cottingham Explains Boobytraps in Burmese Jungle “Our job was a killing mission. We used to put grenade traps along the main tracks when they knew any [sic] Japs were coming, lay these grenade traps a 100 yards long, and the [sic] Japs used to walk in and pull the string and away the grenades went, grenades strung together on cortex: an instantaneous explosion. “We concentrated on laying grenade traps in the fireplaces in empty villages, so that when the [sic] Japs cooked their rice, bang! And we got quite a few casualties there. We didn’t bother to go down and see but we could hear the grenades banging. “And we knocked the road traffic off, Japanese moving up to the front line. We’d throw grenades into the back of the trucks.” #History #WWII #SOE #SpecialOperations #Burma #OralHistory #Midjourney

#LateNightHistory — The Owls of World War I’s Frontline Trenches “When I was up in the trenches recently I saw numerous owls; they used to flap about the trenches at night, quite regardless of shells and snipers, getting a harvest of rats and mice, with which the trenches literally swarm. They were the big brown owls. They always disappeared two hours before dawn; I never could make out where to, but I suppose to woods behind the lines.” — TJ Tailby, a member of London’s Carlton Club, told the Daily Mail in March 1916. This picture in particular shows a French soldier with the 92th Infantry Regiment holding an eagle owl in 1916. I don’t believe the presence of owls was a common spectacle. However, not much of a bird expert here. #History #WWI #GreatWar #Owl #Owls #TrenchWarfare #MilitaryHistory #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — Why Clemson Fans Tip With $2 Bills My older brother gave me this $2 bill. On either side of President Thomas Jefferson are two orange tiger paws, the emblem synonymous with the Clemson tigers. My brother and I have been Clemson fans since at least 2009 — the same year he enrolled at the university. Every self-respecting Clemson fan following the football team to away games in another city keeps a stack of these tiger-stamped $2 bills in their wallets, purses, and money clips. The reason behind the tradition is genius. The story begins in the 1970s. For whatever reason, Georgia Tech flat out refused to play Clemson despite the teams playing in Atlanta on 41 different occasions between 1903 and 1973. The matchup had been circled on the schedule for decades as upwards to 15,000 to 20,000 Clemson fans made the trip. When Georgia Tech dropped Clemson from their schedule, George Bennett, an executive director of Clemson’s IPTAY booster club, set out to prove to Atlanta that Clemson fans can bring a major boost to the local economy. His brilliant idea: $2 bills. Clemson fans tipped taxi drivers, bellhops, and bartenders using stacks of $2 bills. “We had so much fun with it, we started taking them to bowl games and stamping them with tiger paws,” Bennett said, “and everywhere we’ve gone since then, people look forward to us bringing the $2 bills.” The cash became a welcomed commodity and are viewed as souvenirs to their owners. Framing one would be good for the man cave. Something I still need to do… #History #2DollarBill #Clemson #ManCave #ClemsonFootball #CollegeGameDay #CollegeFootball

#LateNightHistory — Behind The Photo: Fire Service Line Gun The Boston Fire Department’s Rescue Company 1 had a line gun still in service in the 1980s. Line guns (sometimes called rope rifles) in the fire service were used to expedite rescue operations. Firefighters employed the ropes to hoist tools from building to building or transport equipment from the ground to upper floors of skyscrapers. Before line guns were handheld, these contraptions required much more labor to operate. The US Lifesaving Service — the precursor to the Coast Guard — used the Lyle Gun, a heavy shore-based cannon that fired projectiles over shipwrecked vessels. These projectiles weighed 18 pounds and were made of cast iron with a wrought iron eye bolt attached to a shotline. The shotline or rope was typically made of a waterproof braided linen. #History #BFD #FDNY #Firefighter #Salty #Fire #FirefighterHistory

#LateNightHistory — Pilot in Huey by Howard Brodie “I boarded a ‘Huey,’ a UH-1B attack helicopter. Waist and shoulder straps fastened pilot in place. Burp guns hung from bucket seats. Lifting off, the shuddering ‘gunship’ fostered the feeling of flying with noisy wings on an angel of death.” Howard Brodie was somebody I wish I had the opportunity to meet. He was a revered sketch artist, known for his work documenting intimate moments of combatants across the Pacific, Europe, Korea, Indochina, and Vietnam. He served in the US Army in World War II, but never carried a weapon. Still, he became the recipient of the Bronze Star with valor for lifesaving actions assisting medics in the Battle of the Bulge. Brodie’s fame expanded beyond the battlefield where he would reinvent himself as a courtroom sketch artist. He covered many high-profile criminal trials including the Jack Ruby trial (the guy who killed the guy who assassinated President JFK), the Chicago Seven political activists trial, and the Watergate hearings. #History #HowardBrodie #Art #Sketch #WarArt #WWII #Vietnam #Huey

#LateNightHistory — Method Man Enjoyed SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs So Much He Rapped About It In 2005, SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs was the most popular online game in the universe, or at least so it seemed. The third-person tactical shooter released two years earlier teamed 8 SEALs vs. 8 Terrorists on 22 maps across five objective types. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect was the introduction of a unique feature to the PS2, a push-to-talk headset, designed to immerse gamers into the experience and work as more of a SEAL Team than Rambo. Thus, the headset revolutionized gameplay and contributed to SOCOM’s meteoric rise in popularity. Anybody with a pulse and a PS2 played this game. Even an 11-year-old, then-unknown history writer, who convinced his mom to buy the Mature-rated, 17+ age-restricted commando game from a Gamestop as he cowered outside. But it’s safe to say that I wasn’t the only one who became a diehard SOCOM fanboy. In fact, among its player base were some real showstoppers, including the Navy SEALs themselves (which was ironic to learn years later) and Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man. WU-TANG. WU-TANG. WU-TANG. Method Man enjoyed the game so much that instead of just a mention in a verse, he went further with an entire song dedicated to SOCOM. He cleverly called it “So Calm,” which he released on his 2005 Street Education album. Method Man mentions popular weapons and phrases only those who’ve played would understand. He even mixes in 10 of the most recognizable maps: Enowapi, Crossroads, Vigilance, Desert Glory, Sandstorm, Blizzard, Abandoned, Blood Lake, and Rat’s Nest. One of us. P.S. Who remembers the mini-documentary from the first game? Need a remaster, stat! #History #WUTANG #WutangClan #MethodMan #SOCOM #SOCOM2 #PS2 #Videogames #Gaming #NavySEALs #SEALTEAM

#LateNightHistory — Four Legged-Smoke Eaters: How Dalmatians Became The Official Mascots of the Fire Service One of the oldest traditions still honored in US fire departments is having a Dalmatian in the firehouse. But when did the tradition begin? The leap into the fire service came with the emergence of the horse-drawn fire apparatus in the early 20th century. The Dalmatian’s bark warned passersby they were responding to a fire.  “When a station call comes into an engine house the dog is out the instant the doors are thrown open, barking and prancing about, seemingly at least with the purpose of clearing the sidewalk,” a New York City newspaper called The Sun reported in March 1912. “They tell of one case in which the fire dog tugged at the dress of a little child that had remained standing in front of the door; and of another case in which the dog barked at the heels of a gentleman who hadn’t moved away quickly enough.” Traditionally, when they arrived at the chaotic scene, the dog would keep the horses company to calm their anxiety. The presence of the Dalmatian prevented others from potentially stealing any of the valuable firefighting equipment on the rig. In some instances, they joined in on the action. “They are in danger at fires,” The Sun writes, “for some dogs are great smoke eaters, and go right into the building with the firemen.” #History #Firefighter #BostonFire #FDNY #Dalmatian

#LateNightHistory — The Origin of Dear John Letters & Wartime Breakups Before soldiers could send texts and emails from war zones, long-distance chats were written on postcards and sent in the mail. For Americans serving overseas during wartime, letters from loved ones were a rare reminder of what — and who — was waiting at home. Except when they weren’t. Sometimes American GIs, expecting love notes from a special Valentine sweetheart, opened their mail and read: “Dear John, Sayonara.”    These so-called Dear John letters became prominent during World War II and a public symbol of “female betrayal” in wartime. It was a news story that brought the Dear John phenomenon mainstream. In October 1943, 24-year-old war correspondent Milton Bracker wired a story for publication from Allied Headquarters in North Africa. His featured headline in the New York Times Sunday magazine read, “What to Write the Soldier Overseas.” Bracker’s story included an example of a letter that a GI might receive: “Dear John: I don’t know quite how to begin but I just want to say that Joe Doakes came to town on furlough the other night and he looked very handsome in his uniform, so when he asked me for a date—” Bracker also noted that soldiers would rather receive lousy news than no news at all. #History #DearJohn #ValentinesDay #WWII #Love #Heartbreak #MilitaryHistory

#LateNightHistory — ‘Scotch Watch’ — How An Army Special Forces Commander Solved A Cold War Problem With Goose Guards In 1986, Maj. Gen. Victor Hugo Jr., a former Army Special Forces commander with tours to Vietnam in the 1960s, was channel surfing the Armed Forces Network when a television program featured a story about the “Scotch Watch” in Scotland. This so-called Scotch Watch first gained notoriety in the 1950s because the unusual security detail that patrolled the property of the Ballantine whisky distillery were a bunch of no-nonsense Goose guards. With an idea forming in his mind and a smirk stretching across his face, Hugo ordered his aide, Capt. David Thomas, to travel to Scotland and see if these birds were the real deal. At the time, Hugo was serving as the Commanding General of the 32nd Army Air Defense Command in Darmstadt, Germany. He, too, was aware that well-trained guard dogs were just too damn expensive for patrolling several sensitive military radar and communications installations positioned on the border of Cold War Europe. He hoped the geese were an unconventional solution to his budget problems. Thomas’ visit proved to be successful. He learned the Chinese and Roman geese that made up the Scotch Watch had excellent hearing and eyesight, were noisily territorial to strangers, and flourished on a diet of grass, which was in unlimited supply on the 14-acre property. Thomas was so impressed he returned to Germany with 18 geese — and plenty of whisky. Soon the geese were deployed at three test sites. The training exercises went so well that Hugo contracted 900 more for about $25,000. Some 30 goose platoons were deployed across Europe. P.S. Goose has to be a top five bird, no? Eagle, Owl, Penguin, Hawk, Goose. #History #SpecialForces #GreenBeret #ColdWar #ScotchWatch #Whisky #Scotland #Goose #TalkToMeGoose

Posted @withregram • @latenighthistory #LateNightHistory — The Female War Reporter Who Parachuted Into Vietnam With French Commandos I want to re-introduce Brigitte Friang to new readers who are unaware of her story. Her memoir, Parachutes and Petticoats, is among my favorites. Friang was a total badass. First, during World War II, she fought alongside the French Resistance. There she was shot and wounded after fleeing from a German Gestapo officer, imprisoned in two torture camps, and survived 300-mile death march. After the war, she still had aspirations of becoming a parachutist. So that’s what she did. She became a special correspondent for the French press and joined French commandos in Saigon soon after 1951. Friang accompanied commandos on long patrols into the jungle, often writing about her exploits. Eventually, Friang earned the commandos trust and donned fatigues, combat boots, and a parachute for Operation Castor, the largest airborne mission of the First Indochina War. On Jan. 23, 1954, the French paras celebrated her 30th birthday with a cake and a massive 102mm artillery shell decorated with funny drawings and “Happy Birthday Brigitte!” wrapped in a rosette. Friang went on to author 8 additional books and wrote articles on the Suez Expedition in 1956, accompanied Israeli troops into Jordan and Syria during the Six Day War, and returned to Vietnam to write daily dispatches of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Always a step away from danger, the Viet Cong captured her on two separate occasions, but she was released without harm both times.  This story was originally published in 2020. We had a good run #History #WWII #FrenchResistance #Vietnam #Commando #Parachutist #Paras #BlackRifleCoffee #CoffeeOrDie

#LateNightHistory — The Female War Reporter Who Parachuted Into Vietnam With French Commandos I want to re-introduce Brigitte Friang to new readers who are unaware of her story. Her memoir, Parachutes and Petticoats, is among my favorites. Friang was a total badass. First, during World War II, she fought alongside the French Resistance. There she was shot and wounded after fleeing from a German Gestapo officer, imprisoned in two torture camps, and survived 300-mile death march. After the war, she still had aspirations of becoming a parachutist. So that’s what she did. She became a special correspondent for the French press and joined French commandos in Saigon soon after 1951. Friang accompanied commandos on long patrols into the jungle, often writing about her exploits. Eventually, Friang earned the commandos trust and donned fatigues, combat boots, and a parachute for Operation Castor, the largest airborne mission of the First Indochina War. On Jan. 23, 1954, the French paras celebrated her 30th birthday with a cake and a massive 102mm artillery shell decorated with funny drawings and “Happy Birthday Brigitte!” wrapped in a rosette. Friang went on to author 8 additional books and wrote articles on the Suez Expedition in 1956, accompanied Israeli troops into Jordan and Syria during the Six Day War, and returned to Vietnam to write daily dispatches of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Always a step away from danger, the Viet Cong captured her on two separate occasions, but she was released without harm both times.  This story was originally published in 2020. We had a good run #History #WWII #FrenchResistance #Vietnam #Commando #Parachutist #Paras #BlackRifleCoffee #CoffeeOrDie

#LateNightHistory — Quoting Movie Lines at TOPGUN School Results in This Surprising Penalty See that headline? Looks like I still got it. The “It” being cringy clickbait garbage. But that’s not why you’re still reading. You’re still reading because Top Gun and now Maverick: Top Gun were cool as hell movies spotlighting the real-life aviators from the US Navy’s yada-yada-yada. Before these movies, only nerd aviation enthusiasts and top-shelf pilots knew about the program. After these movies, everybody on the planet wanted to know more about the happenings that occur at the now famous fighter weapons school. Perhaps the strangest story is how instructors enforce a tongue-in-cheek penalty to movie quotes. Former instructor Cmdr. Guy “Bus” Snodgrass authored a leadership book in 2020 following his 20–year naval career. Within the pages he mentioned how students who loudly profess that they “Got the NEED … The NEED For SPEEEED” are penalized via their wallets. According to Snodgrass, each time one says “It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot,” TOPGUN instructors enforce a strict payment of $5. “It is a part of our bylaws that if someone overtly references the movie — it could be a direct quote, it could be something that is really close to a direct quote — that’s an automatic $5 fine,” Snodgrass told Ryan Pickrell of Business Insider. “When you get to TOPGUN, because it is such a professional organization and you want to emphasize that you are at the top of your game, that it’s about professionalism, about good leadership, you don’t turn TOPGUN into a joke by referencing the movie.” That’s a negative, Ghostrider. #History #TOPGUN #Maverick #Goose #Rooster #Navy #DangerZone #MilitaryTrivia #TalkToMeGoose

#LateNightHistory — DMZ Dustoff Pilot Phil Marshall Explains Flying Hueys at Night During Vietnam War “We did not have night vision. We covered everything from Laos to the South China Sea. We had nice beautiful white beaches, we had level plains, and then that grew as farther west went towards Laos, very heavily vegetated in very high mountains, I mean, 2,000 feet high. “We could not see the horizon, but we had some instrument training in flying school and we always said it was just enough to get ourselves killed. The rudimentary navigation equipment that we had, we were able to find our guys on the ground. “I hated flying nights because it scared me to death. The way we found the guys out in the middle of nowhere was you have an instrument landing system that’s designed for use for landing an airport where you can’t see the runway. “I tell him, ‘Okay, I’m inbound, give me a call when you can hear me.’ I see them [flash their light] and I start my approach and this is dangerous because I’m making a slow, deliberate approach to that light. The guys in the back are watching for any obstacles, trees, whatever. But as long as I can see that light, I should not be running into anything. I’m doing all this with the lights out. “When I am pretty sure that I’m getting close to the ground, then I will turn on my landing light so I can see exactly where I’m landing. But I try not to turn it on too soon, because now I’ve told the enemy exactly where I’m at. “We had no choice to fly at night because the guys are out there, they’re dying, or they’re sick, and they need help. I’ve got this magnificent aircraft, and I got a great crew of 18, 19, 20-year-old kids in the back, and that’s our job, go get them.” Episode 16 with Phil Marshall is available everywhere. #History #Dustoff #Vietnam #Huey #OralHistory

#LateNightHistory — How An SR-71 Blackbird Engineer Helped 3rd Graders With A School Project Mrs. Jaffe, as she was known to her third grade students at Ambrose Elementary School in Winchester, Massachusetts, mailed a special package to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Inside was a small paper cutout of a bear, detailed in crayon, wearing a NASA suit and black sunglasses. “Bill” the Travelmate Bear was a part of a class project to learn more about geography. The idea was to have the bear passed from traveler to traveler, who would place postcards and souvenirs in the “kit” with the bear. And the goal was not only to illustrate geography lessons but also to receive NASA classroom materials designed to make learning science and math more fun and interesting. In early March 1996, Bill took flight, first on a research mission aboard an F-18 aircraft to San Antonio, Texas. Then, on March 20, Bill flew in an aircraft that only a select few engineers or pilots had ever had the opportunity to fly in. Bill rested without a seatbelt in SR-71 Blackbird pilot Ed Schneider’s cockpit while Marta Bohn-Meyer, then an SR-71 reconnaissance system operator, sat in the back seat to handle the navigation and imaging systems. Bill, in a span of just one hour and 20 minutes’ flight time, had traveled 1,800 miles over the states of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and California. The following week, Bill hitched a ride aboard a 747 carrying the space shuttle Atlantis back to Florida. The STS-76 landed at Dryden Flight Research Center at 5:29 a.m. on March 31, 1996, after completing a nine-day mission. His final leg home was by US mail from Florida to Mrs. Jaffe’s class back in Massachusetts. #History #SR71 #SpyPlane #Blackbird #Aviation #Geography #FieldTrip #NASA #Massachusetts

#LateNightHistory — How A Maverick & A Yankee Created The Big League Chew Empire On the backside packaging of every Big League Chew reads an origin story. Portland Maverick’s left-hander Rob Nelson, and teammate Jim Bouton, the former New York Yankee All-Star, were sitting in the bullpen in 1977 when Bouton, for the life of him, couldn’t comprehend why any ballplayer would chew and spit tobacco. Nelson turned to his teammate and told him about an idea he had since a kid to make shredded bubblegum. He had a few good names, but Big League Chew was his favorite. As any reasonable baseball player with no knowledge of bubblegum would do, Nelson used a homemade bubblegum kit from an article in People Magazine to make his first batches. He convinced Maverick’s bat boy, Todd Field, to lend him his kitchen and sliced up the gum with a pizza cutter. He had no packaging to spare and emptied foil tobacco pouches instead. It would be two years before Big League Chew found a candy manufacturer that believed in them. “That first deal we signed was only a three-year deal,” Nelson said. “Those first two years, they averaged $13-14 million in sales a year. That might only be a flea on an elephant in terms of Wrigley, but it far exceeded expectations. Instead of three years, we were with Wrigley for three decades.” The cartoon big leaguer on the original packaging depicted Atlanta-based artist Bill Mayer. His likeness was a homerun. “I was coaching my son Jason in little league back then,” he said. “I was kind of a folk hero with all those kids at the ballpark for doing Big League Chew – they all thought it was great.” #History #BigLeagueChew #Chew #Sandlot #Baseball #Bullpen #Entreprenuer #BigLeagueBubbles

42 years ago, Late Night with David Letterman premiered, revealing the ‘Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything’ in the late-night universe. 🌌✨ Two years ago, the Letterman YouTube channel was born, extending the legacy. 🎉 Grateful for the laughter, wit, and the number 42. Thanks, Dave & Company for being timeless. 📺🎙️ #ThanksDave #LettermanLegacy #LateNightHistory #42YearsStrong #letterman