The U.S. Flag Code formalizes and unifies the traditional ways in which we give respect to the flag, also contains specific instructions on how the flag is not to be used.

The following is a list of do’s and don’ts associated with Old Glory, the U.S. Flag. Continue reading →

Anyone who’s ever sat down at a Blackjack table or passed a friendly and endless game of War has seen a deck of cards. 54 cards, with 4 suits and 2 optional Jokers is the standard makeup, and it includes all the usual playing card celebrities like the Suicide King and the One-Eyed Jacks (or the knaves if you prefer). However, perhaps the most famous playing card in the entire deck is the Ace of Spades. However, the infamy presented by this card is a relatively recent phenomenon, as the history of playing cards goes. Continue reading →

The First; The Longest; The Last

1. Longest serving combat jet in aviation history, the North American F-100 Super Sabre. The F-100 served from mid-1961 through 1971 in combat in Southeast Asia. The Super Sabre had the USAF’s first recorded “probable” air kill of the war in 1965 against a NVAF MiG-17.
2. The war was America’s last flying aces of the 20th century.
3. First use of the USN’s Brown Water Navy since the US Civil War.
4. First draft riots since the US Civil War.
5. First US President assassinated during a year of war; since the US Civil War. First dividing of the American People since the US Civil War.
6. First war for the Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) B-52 Stratofortress bombers.
7. First war in living color brought into people’s living rooms, via the television (no one had TV’s during WWII, and very rare during the Korean War).
8. Last war in which a conventional “all gunned” battleship fired from the gun line; USS New Jersey.
9. Last war fought by US draftees.
10. Longest US war.
11. First US war fought by mechanized MOUNTED infantrymen on a standard basis.
12. Last war fought with a COL (later General) George S. Patton Jr. (son of WWII George S. Patton Jr.); commander of the 11th ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment) in Vietnam.
13. First war fought with US Army AIRMOBILE Divisions; first helicopter war.
14. First use of factory designed Attack Helicopter (Cobra).
15. First use of the aerial gunships: Spooky (Puff the Magic Dragon), C-119, and the AC-130 SPECTRE.
16. Last war for the Patton series US Army medium tank.
17. Last use of the US Navy’s “Brown Water Navy” (Riverine Forces); first used during the US Civil War (1861-1865).
18. First use of Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers in war.
19. Last use of the US Army/Marine M1 steel helmet; used in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Now replaced by Kevlar.  I guess you can no longer call it a “steel pot.”

Close – but our packs were 80-90 lbs.