Infinite Wisdom

"Weapons change, but the men who use them change not at all."

--	Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

La Triviata

• Among the dignitaries who spoke at the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 1921, was Crow Chief Plenty Coups, who had served in the Indian Scouts during the Great Sioux War, nearly 50 years earlier.


• Listed on the rolls of the curiously-named HMS “Thomas and Francis” during the 1670s was a “Mr. Bromley,” for whom pay was provided and rations issued, who happened to be the captain’s dog.


• The wheellock firing mechanism used on muskets during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is believed to have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci.


• Quite myopic, Napoleon’s Marshal Louis Nicholas Davout may have been the only French general to wear glasses in combat, having a special pair that fastened securely behind his head, so’s he could lead cavalry charges where they were supposed to go.


• While commanding U.S. occupation forces at Vera Cruz in 1914, Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston not only cleaned up the city's water supply and improved its sewage treatment capabilities, but also arranged to import 2,500 metal garbage cans.


• In March of 1943, in the middle of a battle with Nazi u-boats in the mid-Atlantic, Convoy UC-1’s radios suddenly blurted out, “a woman has been reported running around nude,” a snippet from a police radio call carried thousands of miles by freakish atmospherics from its origin in Buffalo, New York.


• Of approximately 1,500 troops that Uruguay committed to the “War of the Triple Alliance” (1864-1870), that began when Paraguay attacked Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, only about 150 survived to return home when it was all over.


• During the Anglo-Russian Campaign in Naples over the winter of 1805-1806, several Russian soldiers froze to death, the weather in the mountains of “Sunny Italy” being more ferocious than that back home.


• In 1906 the Texas State Militia refused to engage in maneuvers with the Regular Army, because of the presence of the 25th Infantry, a black regiment.

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