Category: Odd Facts
Sticker Shock and Awe — The Astronomical Cost of America’s Wars
“The Cost of Major U.S. Wars report provides present-day dollar figures (adjusted for inflation) for every U.S. war from the Revolution to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.” (Originally published in 2013) ARMED CONFLICTS DO HARM to…
Runners – The Untold Story of Wartime Desertion
Eddie Slovik was the first to admit that he wasn’t “cut out for combat duty.” And for a time, the U.S. Army agreed. The 24-year-old Detroit native was initially passed over for military service in World…
The First Sky Soldiers – Meet History’s Earliest Airborne Units
“During the years between the World Wars, armies around the world began organizing their own specially designated paratroop units.” FEW HAVE PROBABLY heard of Gleb Kotelnikov — the genius behind the first modern backpack parachute. In 1911,…
Peaceable Kingdoms – Countries Without Armies
ON MAY 23, 2003, the civilian head of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq issued Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2. The directive called for the immediate dissolution of the 450,000-man Iraqi military. With the stroke…
Declarations of War — Why Do So Many Countries Fight Without Them?
“The overwhelming majority of armed conflicts fought in the past 300 years have been undeclared.” IN ITS NEARLY 250 years of existence, the United States has only fought in five formally declared wars. These include both…
Key West — The Confederate City that Seceded from the Civil War
“Unlike the firebrand secessionists in other Confederate metropolises the citizens of the remote tropical island largely stayed out of the destructive four-year conflict.” KEY WEST, Florida may be the southern-most point in the United States,…
