May 2010 - Argghhh!

As Athens Convulses in an orgy of violence, me thinks we have found who's stirring all of that trouble...

[Frequent commenter and blogger AW1 Tim provides a guest post today - the Armorer]Private First Class Andrew R. Small, B Co, 1/32 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.Andrew was a friend of my son, and lived up the road in Wiscasset, Maine. He was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2006, and his death was mourned through the area. Almost every store, business, church, school, had a message on their fronts, and hundreds lined the streets to view his funeral procession. His was a life of laughter, mischief...

There are twenty Medals awarded for actions on this day, one of them posthumously. Fifteen from the Civil War, one from the Indian Campaigns, two from the Philippine Insurrection, and two from Vietnam.Civil War. The Wilderness fight in 1864 dominates, though there is one Medal resulting from the difficult task of retrreating the Army of the Potomac from the Chancellorsville area.BINGHAM, HENRY H. Rank and organization: Captain, Company G, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Wilderness...

British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the NATO commander of troops in southern Afghanistan, proposed the idea of awarding soldiers a new decoration...

I'm sure of that!If you need to catch up, click here, and then here and, finally, here. You guys are swimming around this one like sharks around chum. There are those among us who really do know their stuff! That pic is going to remove doubt about *what* it is - so we'll expand the speculation about "whose is it?" As is usually the case in these things - there's a twist in there. One you've already pointed to in your discussions....

Fourty minutes ago (1400hrs EST), at a commemoration to The Netherlands War Dead, there was a moment of panic. Tense testament to the times we live in. Hopefuly Eric will fill us in on this. (Click on the image to play, as there's no embed code) Boq

There are ten Medals awarded for actions on this day, three of them posthumous. Unusually, one of the posthumous awards is to a Civil War soldier.Civil War. In the case of Corporal McVeane, his posthumous award is either because he died in subsequent combat (or the myriad diseases) or other causes before his award was made in 1870. Dead men receive no surrenders, unless perhaps they are El Cid, and strapped to their horse. Upon further digging, it would appear McVeane was a colourful [sic] soldier...