Patrick Shrier

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Cultural Sensitivity?

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Is this Cultural Sensitivity or demeaning to American women? I for one, would refuse to leave the gate in one of these for simple safety reasons if nothing else. I doubt they are made out of Kevlar and seriously doubt they make the locals respect American women any more. The only thing that garners strength in Tribal societies is projecting strength, not adopting the wear of servitude. I also wonder if this photo is not photoshopped, it just does not look right to me. There is something about both the blond and black haired soldier that does not look right. I would almost swear that I have seen the blond … More after the Jump…

Heroe’s Portraits: Sydir Kovpak

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 Sydir Kovpak was a Ukrainian partisan in World War II who fought the Germans behind the lines in the Ukraine and a two-time winner of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Kovpak began his military service in World War I and after that war he joined the Bolsheviks and fought in the Russian Civil War that established the Soviet Union. In World War II he was in command of partisan units in the Ukraine throughout World War II. He led a large band of partisans in the Carpathians in 1943 in an attempt to destroy the oil infrastructure there and deny the oil fields to the Germans. The attempt was … More after the Jump…

Heroe€™s Portraits: Lyudmila Pavlichenko

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Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a female Soviet sniper during World War II.   She is credited with 309 confirmed kills and was awarded the Soviet Union’s highest medal for bravery, the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943.   After being wounded by a mortar in 1942 she was pulled from combat because of her growing fame and was commissioned.   She spent the rest of the war as an instructor at a sniper school.   After the war she completed a degree and spent the rest of her life working as a historian, mostly with the Russian Navy.   Hero of the Soviet Union Citations are very difficult to find, … More after the Jump…

The Charge of the Light Brigade

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Every time I hear the phrase “The Charge of the Light Brigade” I think of The Little Rascals and Alfalfa reciting the poem by Tennyson.   There is more to it than that though.   The Charge of the Light Brigade is perhaps one of the dumbest, yet most celebrated events in military history.   It ranks right up there with Little Big Horn, or lining up the planes at Hickham Field in the military idiocy department in my book. The Charge was not an isolated event, it occurred as part of the larger Battle of Balaclava on October 25th, 1854. Balaclava was one of the opening battles of the Crimean … More after the Jump…

Book Review: The Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger

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Just about everyone has heard of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, it is the work of fiction about World War I. It has been made into a movie several times and is supposed to represent the inhumanity of the war and the hopelessness felt by its participants in the trenches. Ernst Jünger’s, The Storm of Steel by contrast, is a different sort of World War I book entirely. Where Remarque wrote an anti-war novel based on his experiences in the war, Jünger not only did not write an anti-war account of the war he positively relished his time in the trenches. Jünger was wounded six times during … More after the Jump…

The Actual Writing of a Thesis-Part 9

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Well, I figured it is time for another update.   I have made the first round of changes to my rough draft and turned them back in and my thesis made it past my professor and is now in the hands of the second reader.   It went up to the second reader Tuesday and I should get it back sometime next week for corrections, if any.   If there are no corrections needed it will go the department Chair and then I will get a final grade for the thesis and the thesis class.   At that point I will be done with my thesis and should only need … More after the Jump…

Samual Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”

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Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations?, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, pp. 22-49 This article set off a debate in academia that continues to this day. What Huntington argues in the paper is that after the fall of communism in 1989, the world is no longer looking at a standoff between ideologies but that the world will revert to clashes between civilizations. The basic thesis is that the ideological struggle between liberal democracy and communism covered over or subsumed the natural differences between civilizations. He argues that prior to the end of the Cold War the conflicts that shaped history were primarily Western and have gone through three phases since … More after the Jump…

What is an Act of War?

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In light of the beginning of Attacks against Libya and the UN Security Council Resolution authorizing the establishment of a No-Fly Zone over part of Libya I thought it would be useful to have a post about Acts of War and historically what has been considered a legitimate reason to go to war. I will focus this post on the Westphalian System established in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty-Years War that also inaugurated the current system of Sovereign nation-states operative in the world today. The Westphalian System did not spring fully formed in 1648, mainly because it was focused on monarchical and dynastic states and not … More after the Jump…

Talk about Killing Two Birds with One Stone

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Dead Men Risen: The Snipers’ Story For a soldier like me, this is an uplifting story about how a British sniper in Afghanistan killed two insurgents with one round.   I have done that before but not with a sniper rifle, I had to use the 25mm Bushmaster on my Bradley.   I am very impressed by this shot because it is so rare.   That it was achieved using a 7.62mm sniper rifle is even more impressive.   Kudus to these British snipers and may they continue to shoot straight.

Heroe€™s Portraits: Staff Sergeant Stanley Bender, US Army

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Staff Sergeant Stanley Bender, US Army SSG Bender was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in France during World War II.   He climbed on top of a knocked out tank to locate the source of machine-gun fire that had stopped his company’s advance.   Then he led his squad through a ditch to attack the position and started an assault on the German position in which he killed 37 and captured a further 26 German soldiers.   He survived the war and passed away in 1994.   He is buried in Oak Park, WV. His citation is here: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life … More after the Jump…

The Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

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I had to post something about the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan last Friday.   First off, I hope that the death toll does not go as high as they currently fear.   Second, everything I have seen so far about the Japanese reactions to the quake inspires nothing but admiration and respect for the Japanese people.   My prayers go out to all the victims and their families. I am sure that if this disaster had happened in California the news would be full of stories about how the government is not doing enough and where is all the help people are supposed to be receiving from the government … More after the Jump…

Book Review (sort of): Julius Caesar -The Gallic Wars

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Caesar’s Gallic Wars are a series of eight books that Caesar either wrote or had written detailing his actions during the eight years he was the Roman governor in Gaul.   They are best understood as an exercise in propaganda because during the time he was away from Rome the books were an excellent way to keep his name in front of the people in Rome and to enhance his reputation and prestige.   That being said, they are still invaluable as an account of his time there and as a look into the mind of one of the best politicians of the most powerful polity of his age.  It … More after the Jump…

The Actual Writing of a Thesis-Part 8

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I got my rough draft back from my Thesis professor this morning with the first round of requested corrections.   It actually looks much better than I thought it would.   There are not as many corrections as I expected and so I will start working on revising it tonight after I get home from work.   I just quickly glanced at it this morning.   I guess it will take me two or three days to make the requested corrections. After I make corrections and resubmit it as a final version, it will go to a second reader in the history department for a final round of changes.   … More after the Jump…

An Interesting Page

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The Five Myths Archive at the Washington Post is an intriguing site that has some very interesting pieces in it of both contemporary and historical significance. none of them are particularly military that I could see though. *sigh*

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