The Hero, Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett’s early years were far separated from the fame which he acquired towards the later parts of his life. Son of a strict law-biding father, Davy ran away from home when he was in his teens because he had been caught fighting as school and did not wish to face his father or the consequences.

He would not see his family again until he was 19. Davy lived off the land during this time, hunting, trapping and foraging to find his fare. Finally he returned home and was surprised to find his father had opened a tavern, and that his entire family was just glad to see him again. In 1806 he married his love, Polly Finley who would birth his son and future congressman, John Wesley Crockett.

After a brief stint in the military, where he was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel, Davy set his sights on politics. He was twice elected as a representative in house, from 1826-1828, but after tiring of politics he traveled the countryside, finally relocated to Nacogdoches, Texas in 1836.

Under the provision of the federal government, Davy set out to claim his 4600 acres of land a begin life anew in beautiful Texas. “I have taken the oath of government and have enrolled my name as a volunteer and will set out for the Rio Grande in a few days with the volunteers from the United States.”

When word of William Barret Travis’s troubles at the Alamo reached Davy Crockett, he immediately left to join ranks with them. Davy is known for this famous battle where around 150 soldiers defended the Alamo against an invading Mexican force of more than 1500. Despite an offer from the enemy of a peaceful surrender and safe passage, Davy and Travis choose to fight, losing their lives in the defense of freedom and country.

Gulf War Syndrome

GWS (Gulf War Syndrome), also know as Desert Storm Illness (DSI), was an immune system disorder that was found prevalent in many of the returning soldiers from Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s. Of the more than 700,000 men and women who served in the war, around 210,000 of them have reported symptoms consistent with this illness.

The ailments of this disease included many of the following identifiable and linkable symptoms.

• Fatigue
• Headache
• Memory problems
• Muscle/joint pain
• Diarrhea
• Dyspepsia/indigestion
• Skin problems
• Shortness of breath
• Birth Defects
• Auto-immune disorders
• Restlessness
• Insomnia

There have been many theories and theses tested over the past fifteen years trying to pin-point just what was the specific culprit. The United States tried to determine what may have caused this illness and was able to sum it down to a few possibilities including: Parasitical infection, post combustion from spent nuclear or radioactive munitions, all forms of known chemical weapons and their residue, and finally, a side-effect from the widely administered Anthrax vaccination.

After many years of research, and the surfacing of critical documents which retained information necessary to solve this mystery, many experts have concluded that the primary cause of GWS was from vaccinating our soldiers with the un-tested Anthrax vaccine.

This was brought to the attention to congress in the late 90s when they found out the military had failed to inform them of 20,000 soldiers who all had been diagnosed with GWS shortly after receiving the vaccine. A judge ordered the U.S. to stop administering the vaccine in 2004, deeming it unsafe. However, in 2005 the FDA released a statement saying the re-doctored new version of this vaccine, which is currently being administered to our troops, was safe for human beings to use.

Missile Defense System

In the early 1990’s, following the aftermath of the Cold War and the prerequisites to the first war in Iraq, the U.S. government began implementing what it called Ground-Based Mid-Course Defense (GMD). Using ground based Interceptor missiles in Alaska, the system proved to be semi-effective against preventing ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles) from being launched in a nuclear attack against North America.

Originally they had named the system GMD because in the early stages it was only ground based only. The system was renamed in 2002 to encompass all aspects of missile defense, be it by sea, high altitude or space.

President Ronald Reagan implemented the early working for this system in 1983 with what he called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). However, the new GMD was not intended to be a shield, but rather a system of interception. This new system would use strategically placed interceptor missiles to shoot incoming ICBM’s out of the sky.

The development of this system, very similar to Arrow, the missile defense system Israel uses, received much opposition by surrounding nations. After the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) treaty was signed in 1972 which was introduced by the UN to deter the amassing of nukes in the US, the USSR and China, there was much worldwide debate over the development of this new missile defense system.

Many countries saw it as a form of deterring a deterrent. A vice that is seemingly silly, considering all nuclear powers claim their missiles only exist as a deterrent to other countries that try to invade them. The UN even met in 1999 endorsing a resolution aimed at forcing nations to relinquish their plans of building such systems. To this day Russia, Israel, the U.S. and China have semi-effective missile defense systems in place.

The Battle of Hamburger Hill

Ap Bia Mountain was the host to one of the most famous battles that occurred during the Vietnam Conflict, the battle of Hamburger Hill. The mountain presented very formidable terrain of jungle, bamboo, and elephant grass referred to by the locals as, “the mountain of the crouching beast." Many parts of this mountain were so dense with jungle and overgrowth that there were not many ways to get across it.

The battle on hill 937, took place in 1969 in an operation dubbed “Operation Apache Snow” by the U.S. Military. It was a well planned effort to overwhelm and eliminate the PAVN (People’s Army of Vietnam) after several previous assaults to clear the area had not been as successful.

Three PAVN regiments met with two large U.S. divisions and fought a bloody hillside battle. Narrow pathways, dense jungle, and lack of intelligence made commanding and units and the implementation of tactics very difficult for the U.S. military.

The battle seemed endless, starting on May 1^st, 1969, and was officially concluded on May 11^th of 1969. During the battle and ensuing long after was much political debate as to the justification of taking the hill. A reporter working for the AP (Associated Press) was credited with naming the battle “Hamburger Hill” when he brought attention the American public that we were unnecessarily putting our troops into harms way.

The media frenzy that ensued brought the attention of hill 937 all the way to Congress, where there was much scrutiny over the issue. The U.S. lost 70 soldiers and had more than 300 wounded during the battle, effectively wresting control of the hill from the VC and inflicted massive casualties upon them. However, not even a month later, on June 6^th, General John W. Wright left the hill, as President Johnson began withdrawing our troops from the bloodied jungles of Vietnam.

The Tet Offensive

The Vietnam War was notably one of America’s greater military controversies. Officially it began in 1967 under the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. What created the sparks in the hay, so to speak, was the “Tet Offensive”. The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) joined forces with the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Vietcong or VC) and launched a massive offensive directed at swiftly taking over the government, and eliminating any and all resistance.

The name of the operation, “Tet offensive” was actually of Western coining. The PAVN and VC invaded on 30^th of January, 1968, which was Tết Nguyên Đán -- a hallowed holiday in Vietnam where the people celebrate the lunar New Year; similar to Rosh Ha Shanna in Israel. They choose to strike on this day because it would catch the military of South Vietnam off guard and allow them to effectively coup the government in one swift move.

On this historic day, the PAVN and the VC struck 5 large cities and over 100 towns in an operation that combined both of their forces to make up a massive army that numbered more than 80,000. Of the hundreds of targets they attacked, most were not taken. However they did manage to take many key outposts and wrest control of critical command centers around the country. The biggest surprise to allied forces was the sheer numbers and width of the attack.

Technically, the “Tet Offensive” is considered a failure due to the excessive casualties that were inflicted upon the PAVN and the VC. Additionally, most of the targets they struck they did not take over. However, it did serve to wake up the allied forces and made them realize that these two armies were a very serious threat to the stability of the region. What ensued after this was long and bloody war that would claim more than 500,000 lives, a war that has in principle never officially been ended.

Radiological Weapons

Radiological weapons are a tricky topic to define. Radiology can be a positive thing (food, health, water), but radiology can also be used as a form of weaponry. Radiological warfare is effective when it is used throughout a highly populated area (which is why it is also known as “the city bomb”), and it is largely undetectable until it is too late.

A radiological weapon usually consists of a type of bomb that is loaded with radioactive material. Radiological weapons are not nuclear bombs, since they rely on a different sort of reaction, but their impact can still be devastating depending upon the number of people residing in one specific area. Although this type of weapon appears to be useful, radiological weapons are rarely used within the United States military.

Radiological weapons are deemed useless within the military since any area that has been affected by a radiological weapon cannot be entered. Therefore, if the military were to set off a radiological bomb, they would not be able to attack any remaining enemies for quite awhile after the bomb was detonated. Perhaps, this is precisely why terrorist groups would choose to use radiological weapons as a form of destruction.

Since the only known usage of a radiological weapon occurred under Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq (it proved to be useless), experts do not know what sort of effect this type of bomb would have on a population were it to be used by a terrorist group. Some speculate that a radioactive bomb would cause little harm, while others tend to see this sort of explosion as a fairly large threat. For now, radiological weapons remain on the “weapons of mass destruction” list, and they are outlawed in many countries.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

The phrase “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) is thrown around today’s media freely, but this term is often used incorrectly. Many people are under the false impression that WMDs are a recent phenomenon, but this type of warfare has been around sine the 1930s. The weapons listed underneath this category are vast, but they all tend to have the underlying theme of weapons that can wipe out humongous numbers of people, animals, and plants in a matter of moments.

In order to clarify the actual phrase “weapons of mass destruction,” it should be noted that the term itself was concocted during the year 1937 by Reverend Cosmo Lang. The original meaning of the term was used to address a Christian audience in order to sympathize with war torn Spain and China. At the time of Reverend Lang’s address, no nuclear weaponry was in existence. Today, the term is largely blown out of proportion and used in order to sway voters, or it is used as a means of threat from one nation to another. By military standards, the term is usually used in reference to nuclear weapons, which can be found within many countries today.

Weapons of mass destruction include nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, which are devised solely to wipe out entire populations should the need arise. Most of the time, when the media speaks of a WMD, they are referring to some sort of nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons have been used by the United States, and eight other countries (China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and North Korea) claim to have tested nuclear weaponry.

Along with the United States, many countries are attempting to place a world wide ban on nuclear weaponry, but some countries still tend to make the claim that they have invented nuclear weapons of their own. Many countries throughout the world possess nuclear weapons, but most of them are underneath some sort of weaponry agreement that prohibits them from firing their weapons.