July 2014 - Argghhh!

Say what I will about Jarheads, it still takes balls to go boating on the ocean in a tracked vehicle. PACIFIC OCEAN (July 8, 2014) An amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) assigned to Combat Assault Company, 3rd Marine Regiment, embarks the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47) following small boat operations during the at-sea phase of exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2014. Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating...

Today we open with period of Indian Campaigns. As is usual for the Indian Campaigns - if a fight generated one Medal, it tended to generate several, indicative of the lack of options for recognizing heroic conduct during the era. Battle of the Big Dry Wash , Arizona, is one of those fights. CRUSE, THOMAS Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Big Dry Fork, Ariz., 17 July 1882. Entered service at: Owensboro, Ky. Birth: Owensboro, Ky. Date of issue: 12 July 1892...

U.S. Army Spc. Zac Moore, a mortarman with Mortar Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, sights in an 81 mm mortar tube at an observation post overlooking the Darwazgay Pass in Zabul province, Afghanistan, June 23, 2014. Moore was part of a joint air assault mission conducted with Afghan National Army soldiers assigned to the 1st Kandak, 2nd Battalion, 205th Corps. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Whitney Houston, U.S. Army National Guard/Released)

There are nine Medals awarded for actions on this day in history. First up - the Civil War, a naval action involving USS Ceres and the Battle of Monocacy , Maryland.

The Medal waits until 1876 to show itself, during the Interim Awards, 1871-1898 period, with a sailor saving a drowning shipmate. This is another of those circumstances where today they would be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism not involving combat. I know for you regular readers that gets a little tiresome to read - but take one for the Googlers, who may read only one in the whole series. COREY, WILLIAM Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1853, New York, N.Y. Accredited...

There are nine Medals awarded for actions on this day in history. Today we open with the Indian Campaigns. 6 Medals, the first five of them for the same fight near Fort Selden, New Mexico, in 1873.

I remember back in the day, when periodically a commander would come along and declare that naming your gun/tank/APC was unprofessional and unworthy of "real" soldiers. Then there were the ones who were all, "Well, okay, you can name them, but nothing violent or which might offend Ms. Agnes McGillicuddy, of Hamburg, IA, because she writes letters and I get bitched at." Of course, back in that day, most commanders I recall wouldn't have a clue who Cthulhu was... so they would...