My First Combat Patrol

By Richard H. Dick James Before departing camp, I was warned that the terrain surrounding Cai Cai was honeycombed with VC mines, and to be on the alert. No amount of training will give a soldier true battle experience. The only way to get that experience, and learn if you can handle it, is toContinue reading “My First Combat Patrol”

The Korean War Week 86: Koje-do: A Simmering Cauldron – February 10, 1952

An astonishing accusation about chemical weapons by Soviet diplomat Yakov Malik dominates headlines this week, as the POW issue continues to plague ceasefire negotiations. But those are far from the only developments this week. Elsewhere, overcrowding, poor conditions, and lack of firm control escalate tensions at the UN’s Koje-do POW camp, perhaps beginning to precipitateContinue reading “The Korean War Week 86: Koje-do: A Simmering Cauldron – February 10, 1952”

WW 2 Rat Bombs

During World War II, Britain’s Special Operations Executive came up with one of the strangest sabotage ideas of the war: the “explosive rat.” Dead rats were stuffed with plastic explosive and sewn back up so they looked like ordinary carcasses. The plan was to smuggle them near German boiler rooms and coal piles, hoping workersContinue reading “WW 2 Rat Bombs”