June 2014 - Argghhh!

There are fourteen Medals awarded for actions on this day, spanning from the Civil War to Vietnam - but skipping WWI, WWII, and Korea, which is kind of interesting.

Clearly, I have another flag delivery to make. SWWBO is at the Bonner Springs Arts Festival (Go! Buy!) and I went to visit. On the way back, I thought I'd stop at Cabela's, where I haven't been in over a year, and the Wyandotte County Museum and the Agriculture Hall of Fame, two places I've never been before. Both the latter are closed on weekends... go figure. That said, as I drove up to the WYCO museum, I found this awaiting me. Meh. I will bring them a flag on Monday.

[NB - I wrote this one before the relative flood of Medals from the war in Afghanistan started flowing, and back when the ones that had been awarded were all posthumous. -the Armorer] While the criteria for the Medal has changed over time, I exalt no Medal holder over another as we should honor the opinion of their contemporaries, and not apply a filter informed from a remove of decades to over a century. But I understand that a lot of these Medals can seem, well, *musty* when most of the people...

There are twelve Medals awarded for actions on this day. As per usual, we open with the Civil War, and a connection that still echoes across the valleys for us today.

...everything starts looking like a nail. Everything. The American Civil Liberties Union has released the results of its year-long study of police militarization. The study looked at 800 deployments of SWAT teams among 20 local, state and federal police agencies in 2011-2012. Among the notable findings: 62 percent of the SWAT raids surveyed were to conduct searches for drugs. Just under 80 percent were to serve a search warrant, meaning eight in 10 SWAT raids were not initiated to apprehend a school...

This caption answers the question of why that Paladin in yesterday's picture was so squeaky clean. "European Activity Set" the new POMCUS* (there was a Legion of Merit for some Colonel there...). oldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division conduct live-fire training during the mortar evaluation program for Combined Resolve II at the U.S. Army Joint Multinational Training Command's training grounds in Grafenwoehr, Germany. This is the first time the unit has conducted...

Three Medals were awarded for actions on the day, one during the Civil War, and two during WWII. A fight during the Siege of Petersburg, 1864, where Union General Grant tries to sever the Weldon Railroad, one of Confederate General Lee's major supply arteries for the Army holding Petersburg, and thus, Richmond. While the Army of the Potomac was able to capture a a segment of the line (after a bitter 5 day fight that started on 23 June) the rebel forces simply stopped the trains short of the the...