This story from SeaBee veteran Derek Sansone (NMCB-21, Black Jack Battalion) reinforces my conviction that the SeaBees is the most ingenious branch of the military. My Reserve Navy Seabee Battalion was activated in January 2003 as part of the build-up for the invasion of Iraq. A few months into deployment, 125 of
98-year-old Paul Fairbrook joined VBC Happy Hour on October 4 to talk about his experiences as a “Ritchie Boy” in World War II. Paul fled Nazi Germany with his Jewish family in 1938 and, like our other 98-year-old guest that night, Max Lerner, joined the US Army to exact their revenge against
Another VBC veteran was honored at Heinz Field by Pittsburgh Steelers. During the Sunday night game against the Seahawks, fans cheered as the Jumbotron showed this video and Harry Van Riper walked on the field. Harry, who lost his army to a Viet Cong rocket in 1968, wrote afterward saying he
by Todd DePastino (YouTube screenshot Peter von Panda) Every once in a while, you’re reminded that the US military is, among other things, the world’s largest bureaucracy. I ran across this 26-page brownie recipe first published in 1987, revised in 1990, and updated again in 2003. It’s called “Brownie,
by Ellie DePastino Phu Bai, 1966. EA-3 Mike Wagner & PCSN Carroll Brousssard stand with The Great "Pumkin." Photo by Raymond Cochran. 1966 was the year It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown premiered on national television. The primetime special ended with Linus furious that despite waiting patiently in the
(Canada National Archives) You’re looking at Dr. Alec Douglas, official historian of the Canadian Armed Forces, laying eyes for the first time on the remnants of a German operation almost forty years earlier on the tip of the Labrador Peninsula. On October 22, 1943, German submarine U-537 dropped anchor in
