Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #164, September 10th, 2007 |
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This Issue...
- Infinite Wisdom
- la Triviata
- Short Rounds
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Infinite Wisdom
"I detest war, it spoils armies."
| -- | Grand Duke Constantine Petrovich Romanov |
La Triviata
- Over one thousand veterans of New York’s famed 7th “Silk Stocking” Regiment – later the 107th Infantry – served as officers during World War I.
- The noted Spanish general the Duke of Alba (1507-1582) was so formal that he was wont to address his officers as “Honorable Sirs,” and his enlisted men as “Noble Sirs.”
- During a campaign in Bohemia in A.D. 791, a Frankish army lost 90-percent of its horses to disease.
- Counting non-battle casualties as well as combat losses, it appears that during the American Revolution, proportionately more military physicians died on active service than did line officers.
- So flushed with cash was Uncle Sam during World War II that in October of 1942 the nation's gold mines were closed, in order to release some 2,000 specialized workers for employment in the extraction of other non-ferrous metals, such as copper, zinc, and lead, that were more essential to the war effort.
- In the aftermath of their disastrous war with Japan in 1894-1895, the Chinese, having discovered that their modern rifles did not work very well with the poor quality rounds with which they were supplied, decided to scrap the guns rather than procure new ammo.
- During one of the many intertribal clashes among the warlike Naga of India’s Northeast Frontier, a certain chief who was about to be slain by a foeman took one look at his captor’s dhao – a kind of very large dagger – and said, “Take my dhao, which is sharper, and cut my head off properly.”
- The late Roman general Leo (fl. c. 470-485), is said to have been so dissipated that his goal in life was to have more whores in his army than soldiers.
- The northeastern wing of the British Empire Building, in New York’s Rockefeller Center, is topped by an elegant rooftop garden, which is used just once a year, for a ceremony honoring Commonwealth war dead, on ANZAC Day, April 25th.
More...
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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