In this episode, former SEAL Craig “Sawman” Sawyer breaks down what he considers the best in the sniper rifle inventory – The Sawman Signature Series Rifle.
This year at the inaugural LA Fleet Week, three Navy ships and a Coast Guard cutter brought together their top culinary experts for the very first Galley Wars cook-off!
Teams from USS America, USS Champion, USS Wayne E. Meyer, and the USGC Sector in Los Angeles – Long Beach came together for the Steel Beach Burger Challenge.
On August 27, the All American Riders held a motorcycle ride and charity event to raise awareness for veteran assistance programs. The event was called the “Silkies Slow Ride.”
We Are The Mighty’s Weston Scott joined other veterans in a patriotically revealing event where riders donned their “silky” workout shorts for the ride. Let’s just say that they were showing a lot of … freedom.
The purpose of the silkies on motorcycles was to encourage curious onlookers to ask questions and prompt a conversation about veterans issues — particularly the high rate of veteran suicides.
According to some stats, approximately 22 U.S. military veterans take their own lives each day. The men and women of All American Riders invited all veterans with motorcycles to ride through various cities in Southern California in their PT shorts to catch the public eye.
During World War II, the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the 2nd Polish Corps had an unusual soldier among its ranks — a 440-pound Syrian bear named Wojtek.
Wojtek first came to the company as a cub, but over the course of the war he matured and was given the rank of corporal in the Polish army.
Jayson Floyd and Tyler Grey discuss their new documentary “That Which I Love Destroys Me” with Jack Osbourne in part 3 of this 3 part interview with We Are The Mighty.
If you’ve ever taken a Navy advancement exam, chances are you walked out of the testing center feeling more confused than the day the Navy issued aqualfage.
User: Achibon – Yeah, I studied for the last 2.5 months and still felt like a moron during the test. Good luck to you.
User: Furmware – Thank God I’m not the only one who felt like a moron after the test.
User: dcviper – I used to cut mid-70s on the test and I always walked out feeling like an idiot. The test I made E-6 off of I thought I had bombed because I didn’t study. Even our department head, a mustang LCDR, said he thought it was a really difficult test. No one was more surprised than me that May.
After reading the comments above, you could imagine the excitement some sailors get when they find out they passed. Oh the joy! It means more pay, no more being talked down to, and most importantly, no more working parties! Well, maybe not entirely true but there will be fewer.
And then, there are the sailors who’ve taken the test many times. You know who they are, they’re always bitter. This video by Chalee Jr. perfectly captures the attitudes sailors have when passing and failing the advancement exam.
Every December for the past 65 years, a crew of USAF airmen plays Santa Claus for more than 2,000 people living on remote Pacific islands.
Operation Christmas Drop brings critical supplies to more than 56 islands, with 40,000 pounds of supplies donated by service members and their families in the Pentagon’s longest-running humanitarian airlift operation.
Sometimes the span of years can be summed up in one quote.
“One really clear way of understanding the shift in World War I in terms of technology is that soldiers rode in on horses and they left in airplanes,” military historian Dr. Libby H. O’Connell told the History Channel.
World War I saw counties mobilize their industry to produce materials needed for the conflict, (Youtube screenshot)
The fact is, World War I wasn’t just about turning out the instruments of death rapidly but instead, new death dealing technology evolved from the slogging stalemate of the trenches. Some of the technologies that helped end the war didn’t even exist when it started in 1914.
Here are some of the most notable developments.
1. Aircraft
In the early part of World War I, bombing attacks were carried out by dropping mortar rounds from planes. There were various ingenious methods being used to mount machine guns so they wouldn’t shoot off a propeller.
By the end of that war, though, the interrupter gear had been perfected, making the fighter a dominant part of aviation. From the ad hoc arrangement of dropping mortar rounds, large, multi-engine bombers delivered massive payloads on target. The aircraft was a proven weapon of war by the end of World War I.
SPAD XIII at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo)
2. Submarines
Viable submarine technology was in its infancy in World War I. The basics of the diesel-electric boat were worked out, though, and in 1914, an obsolete submarine, the U-9, sent a message by sinking three British armored cruisers in about an hour. That submarine displaced about 600 tons, had four torpedo tubes and eight torpedoes. By the end of the war, German submarines displaced 1,000 tons, had six torpedo tubes and 16 torpedoes.
German U-boats in Kiel. U-20, which sank the Lusitania, is second from the left in the front row. (Library of Congress photo)
3. The machine gun
Hand-cranked Gatling guns had emerged during the American Civil War, but they were still very clumsy affairs. It was Hiram Maxim, though, who came up with the design that would turn the battlefields of World War I into a charnel house. The frontal charges, like Joshua L. Chamberlain’s at Little Round Top, became more about death than glory.
British soldiers fire the Vickers Machine gun during the Battle of the Somme. (Photo: United Kingdom)
4. Tanks
With the rise of the machine gun, troops needed a way to punch through defensive lines. Ideas for the tank had been kicked around, but short-sightedness meant practical designs didn’t arrive on the battlefield until the Battle of the Somme in 1916. By 1918, both sides had tanks, even though Germany’s inventory was very limited.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
5. Chemical Warfare
Another idea to break the deadlock of the trenches was the use of poison gas. While it was effective early on, eventually gas masks were developed to protect troops from toxins. Chemical weapons remain a threat on the battlefield today, with sarin gas recently being used during the Syrian Civil War.
However, unexploded World War I chemical munitions also remain a threat across France and Belgium, according to a 2015 Daily Mail article on the Battle of Verdun.
Photo colorized by Open University. Original black and white photo copyright Library and Archives Canada.
6. Howitzers
The howitzer came about because the artillery of previous eras, mostly focused on providing direct fire, proved inadequate against troops dug into the trenches. The howitzer came into its own in World War I and was able to provide the long range of cannons with a trajectory able to drop the shell in on enemy troops like a mortar. Today, most artillery pieces used by military forces are howitzers.
WWI doughboys with a 155mm howitzer. (National Archives)
So, with that in mind, take a look at the HISTORY video below to learn more about the deadly military technology of World War I.
The Australian Army has found a fairly ingenious way of helping machine gunners hold their weapons steady. Gunners need to be able to do this while standing, and sometimes that can be easier said than done. The Australian Army has come up with a great solution. It’s called the Reaper and it looks pretty rad. The Reaper Weapon Support System (RWS) is a backpack that gunners can wear. It helps redistribute some of the weight from the machine gun across the gunner’s back. That makes it easier to stand, easier to fire, and easier to stay alive.
Ask any gunner what it feels like after a day in the field and they’ll tell you they’re tired. Especially after a long ruck or a never-ending FTX, the last thing a gunner wants to worry about is how to properly fire. The Australian Army uses the RWS to help its soldiers get in more firing practice. And it helps them save reserves and energy for when they really need it. The Reaper helps them get more rounds on target and reduce how far their barrels wander due to flagging arm strength.
The Australian Army has been around since 1901. Some of the colonial forces were officially united in 1903. Since then, the Australian Army has shifted to meet the needs of the country. It has participated in both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. Unit 1916, it was known as the Australian Military Forces. Now it’s officially called the Australian Army. Inventions like the Reaper show that the leadership of the Army is consistently looking for ways to improve the lives of those who are risking theirs for the country’s freedoms.
The Reaper definitely looks pretty sweet sticking over their back like a scorpion’s tail.
Prohibition was a master class in unintended consequences, good or bad.
One of those consequences is NASCAR, which is a pretty good time.
Outlawing alcohol may have seemed like a good idea at a time when saloons dominated the streets, booze corrupted politicians, and alcoholism ran rampant — but the the operative phrase here is definitely, “seemed like.” It was not the best idea. It turns out Americans love a drink and will go to great lengths — and speeds — to get it.
Just as with any other business, moonshiners making illegal “white lightning” in the Appalachian Mountains and foothills needed a way to transport their goods to market, and grandpa’s horse cart just wasn’t gonna cut it. They needed vehicles — but not just any vehicle would do.
So, how do you get hooch from the Appalachians to thirsty partygoers in the big city without attracting undue attention? As fast as possible, of course. But there’s more to it than speed: The cars have to look like your average, off-the-line vehicle. They also have to be able to haul as much product as possible. Shiners figured out the way, creating modified vehicles called “stock” cars.
Even after the official end of Prohibition, illegal distillers still needed to move product while evading authorities. They still needed those fast cars.
Just try driving one of these Ford V8 Model 18s through mountain roads at night. With no headlights. At top speed.
Bootleggers’ vehicles were fitted with advanced shock-absorption systems to protect the glass jars housing their precious cargo as they sped down mountain roads. They also had the back seats removed to fit more product. Most importantly, they had souped-up engines that allowed them to beat the feds in any race when necessary.
Americans have been making illegal whiskey since the 1700s and they probably will never stop.
Prohibition ended in 1933, but the American need for speed and love for automobiles that would come to embody the NASCAR spirit lived on.
“The deeper I looked into the whole thing and the more research I did, the more liquor I found. It was just so foundational,” Daniel Pierce, a history professor at the University of North Carolina told NASCAR. “I knew it played a role, but the thing that surprised me was that it was so much a part of the foundation of the sport.”
Police cleaning out the contents of a bootlegger’s stock car.
Even before the end of Prohibition, rum runners and bootleggers would race their souped-up, stripped-down vehicles on the roads and in the backwoods of the American South.
The sport’s anti-establishment roots were very present in NASCAR’s early days. At one of the earliest stock car races at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, at least five drivers had liquor law violations on their records. There was an uproar over who should be allowed to drive: “hoodlums” or law-abiding citizens?
In 1947, the sport that would soon become the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was codified by France. The first race held by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was on Jun. 19, 1949. Today, the driving sport’s fans now number in the millions. Their drivers are less outlaw and more law-abiding, driving upwards of 200 miles per hour in some speedways… without attracting attention from the feds.
The first few generations of drivers may have had some liquor law violations on their record, but today’s NASCAR drivers have helped turn a sport of “hoodlums” into a show fit for the whole family.
A US Navy aircraft carrier is like a small floating town (a well-armed one), and there’s always something going on. An aircraft carrier never truly sleeps. From reveille to rec time, here a look at what a day in the life of a sailor is like aboard one of these combatant behemoths.
