June newsletter – The lessons from 1775
The Battle of Bunker Hill provided several lessons for the Continental Army and George Washington. The main lesson of the battle was that the militiamen and minutemen of the colonies could stand toe-to-toe against the largest, best equipped, and most well-trained army in the world.
May newsletter – The Legacy of the Commandos
Commandos fought in every theater and in nearly every allied army during WWII. The legacy of the commandos extends to the modern-day Special Forces, Rangers, SAS, SBS, and other specialized units in nearly every standing army. Several of the most highly decorated soldiers of the war were commandos. The SOE and OSS led directly to the development of the CIA and influenced the future of MI5 and MI6 in Great Britain.
April newsletter – Persia, Iran, and the Great Game
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 changed the calculus of international relations across the middle east. Fundamentalist philosophy dominating the new Iran created an enmity between the west and Iran that persists.
March newsletter – Human Weakness
History is replete with human conflict. Territorial disputes, vanquishing new lands, enslaving neighbors, lust for gold and other treasures drive the desire for conquest. In many conflicts, the victor is determined by having a larger army, better weapons, or more skilled battlefield leaders. In other cases, the winner is determined through subterfuge, deception, traitors, or espionage.
February newsletter – The Consequences of Kinetic Diplomacy
On June 22, 2025, US forces, augmented by Israeli Defense Forces, conducted Operation Midnight Hammer, a raid on suspected Iranian nuclear weapons sites. The attack consisted of sea-launched cruise missiles, fighter aircraft from both Israel and the US, drones, and B-2 bombers that flew a non-stop mission from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The entire mission lasted 37 hours…
The Persistent Threat
January 1, 2025, began with a terrorist incident in New Orleans. A former US Army soldier conducted a “lone wolf” attack by driving his pickup truck into the crowd on Bourbon Street during the early morning hours. When the truck became immobilized, he began firing a semiautomatic rifle into the crowd…. On Sunday, Dec 14, 2025, two men armed with rifles opened fire at a crowded Hannukah celebration in the resort town of Bondi Beach, Australia.
22 Souls
The film “The Best Years of Our Lives,” released in 1947, was an early attempt to show the effects of long-term stress and combat on the psyche of the service member. It may be the first time that a film portrayed, in an understandable way, the condition we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Remembering Pearl Harbor
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor just before 8 o’clock. In the first wave of the attack, 183 planes swarmed the unsuspecting base, home of the US Pacific Fleet. At 8:10, a 1,700lb armor-piercing bomb penetrated the deck of the USS Arizona, detonating the forward ammunition magazine. The mighty battleship sank into the mud, taking over 1,000 sailors with her.