Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #160, August 13th, 2007 |
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This Issue...
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Infinite Wisdom
"One bad general is better than two good ones."
La Triviata
- During the Lelantine War (650-630 B.C.), the rival Greek city-states of Eretria and Chalkis agreed to eschew the use of bows, slings, and other missile weapons for the duration, and confining their instruments of slaughter to spears and swords.
- While a cadet at West Pont, Dwight D. Eisenhower was tutored in Spanish by his classmate Luis Ra�l Esteves V�lckers, the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the academy, who actually made general before the future commander-in-chief.
- The Roman general Gaius Marius once said that his arch rival Lucius Cornelius Sulla was both a fox and a lion, and that he feared the fox more.
- Navy's 6-4 defeat of Army in 1893 resulted in so much disorder in the stands � not to mention a pistol duel between a brigadier general and a rear admiral (fortunately with no casualties, as both officers were poor shots) � that President Grover Cleveland banned the contest for five years.
- Janina Lewandowska, an air force second lieutenant, was apparently the only woman to have perished in the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest in 1940.
- The famous Spanish "tercios" that dominated European battlefields for much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, originally received their name � which means "thirds" � because a third of the army was stationed in Naples, a third in Lombardy, and a third in Spain itself.
- While training his troops for the attack on Hong Kong in December 1941, Japanese Lt. Gen. Sakai Takashi of the Twenty-Third Army issued them dark sun glasses, so that they could practice night fighting by day as well as by night.
- Adm. James Mason Reeves, who served as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet, from 1934-1936, was so singularly well-liked an officer that on July 13, 1936, The New York Times ran a obituary to note the passing of his dog, Punch, who was very popular in the service and with the public.
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Portions of "Al
Nofi's CIC" have appeared previously in Military Chronicles,
Copyright � 2005 Military
Chronicles (www.militarychronicles.com), used with permission, all rights
reserved.
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