Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #117, January 23, 2004 |
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This Issue...
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Infinite Wisdom
"Soldiers are prone to exaggeration."
La Triviata
- In 2001 the Swiss army "dismoutned" its last bicycle units.
- The term "batman" for an officer's servant derives from the Medieval Latin "bastum � packsaddle," on which an officer's baggage was commonly carried, which in turn derived from the Greek "basatazein � to carry."
- Half of the 24 Japanese aircraft carriers sunk during World War II, were done in by aircraft from U.S. carriers.
- As of D-Day, June 6, 1944, Hitler's Atlantic Wall included some 9,300 individual defensive works.
- Cardinal Mazarin, who dominated France, 1642-1661, during the youth of Louis XIV, had in early life set out to be a soldier, and risen to captain in the Papal Army, before deciding to become a priest.
- Fully 75-percent of men who tried to enlistm in the Regular Army during the Spanish-American War were rejected as "lacking in legal, mental, moral, or physical qualifications."
- In 1846-1847 the U.S. Navy reported 5,936 instances of flogging, 80 percent of which were somehow related to alcohol abuse.
- In 1986 the mayor of Rome concluded a "treaty of peace" with the mayor of Tunis, the later acting as surrogate for the suburb of Carthage, thus concluding hostilies that had first begun in 264 B.C.
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