By Todd DePastino Baron von Steuben and the Making of a Real Army America has a long tradition of the “citizen-soldier.” The concept is like an equation: they need to balance each other out for it to work. Too much the citizen, then soldiering suffers. Too much the soldier, then the object of the
By Todd DePastino You may have heard the legend of Molly Pitcher, which first appeared in the 1830s as the nation was celebrating the last of the Revolutionary War generation. The nickname “Molly Pitcher” is perfect. “Molly” was 18th century slang for a woman and “Pitcher” conveyed the critical role of water in wartime.
By Lew McDaniel My duty station was at Site 3, Teufelsberg, in West Berlin. Initially, I was an “operator” in the Pit. The Pit was the central area under an inflatable dome covering our antennae. During my “trick” (rotating 8-hour shift), I listened to frequencies assigned by the CHOP (Chief Operator) or scanned to
By Will Mears Two recent Veterans Breakfast Club programs have featured veterans of the Army Security Agency (ASA) whose work was important and behind-the-scenes. Their job was, among other things, to intercept, decode, and interpret enemy communications in real time. It was painstaking, highly technical work, carried out under strict secrecy. And yet, as
The Veterans Breakfast Club mourns the passing of Major General William M. Matz, Jr., U.S. Army (Ret.), a soldier who emerged from childhood paralysis to the highest levels of command and service. We learned of his death from our friend Rich Sherman, who wrote that General Matz passed away in Florida from lung damage
The lithograph that hung in the McKinley family dining room. Combat artist and Army Lieutenant Rudolph Charles von Ripper made it from a sketch he did during the fighting in Anzio, Italy. Staff Sgt. Philip McKinley is the soldier on the field phone. (Jane McKinley) By Jane McKinley Jane McKinley is a
