History
The Dahomey Amazons were given a number of different names, but the Mino, as they were called, were mostly an army recruited from among the king’s wives. They were a large group of 4,000 to 6,000 female warriors. Strangely, they made up about one third of the overall Dahomey military. King Houegbadja, who ruled from 1645 to 1685…the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. They were commonly known as Mino or “our mothers” and were the royal bodyguards of the kings of Dahomey, which is currently the Republic of Benin.
These women might have been the wives of the king, but that did not make 
them wimps. Their training was intense and fierce. They learned survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defenses in military exercises and executing prisoners. Discipline was emphasized. Once trained, the Mino were known to fight with incredible bravery and “audacity.” Due to the profits from the slave trade, they were also armed with Danish flintrocks and Winchester repeaters, which would come in handy when they took on the French army.
The kings recruited both men and women soldiers from foreign captives, though women soldiers were also recruited from free Dahomean women. Some of these “women” enrolled as young as 8 years old, if you can call an 8-year-old girl a woman. Some women in Fon society became soldiers voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled, if their husbands or fathers complained to the king about their behavior. Imagine that…but then times were different. Apparently, membership among the Mino was supposed to teach them to use any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have 
children or be part of married life, although many were legally married to the king. Serving in the Mino offered women the opportunity to “rise to positions of command and influence” in an environment structured for individual empowerment. The Mino were also wealthy and held high status. These women were true fighters and very determined. In a bold move, King Behanzin started a war with France in 1890. Despite being a formidable force, the French lost several major battles against the Mino early on. It just goes to show that women can be warriors too. These women were a long-standing force. The last known member of the Dahomey Amazons died in 1979.
As Christmas approaches, with all of its feasts, we start thinking of all the goodies we will make and eat. For many people, pie is a big part of holiday meals, not to mention other meals year-round. People just simply love pie. They would bake them to share or give as gifts, and especially to have with tea when guests came by, but the one thing I can’t imagine is any kind of worship involving pie. Nevertheless…
In 1644, an English statesman named Oliver Cromwell, came up with the totally irrational idea that pie was a pagan form of pleasure, so he banned pie. The eating of pie, baking pies, even thinking about pie. Well, maybe not exactly, but for the next sixteen years, no one could eat pie. So, like the prohibition years that would come about in the future, the eating of pie went…underground.
I can’t imagine having to bake and eat a pie in secret. For one thing, you can smell a pie baking. The aroma fills the house, and in the 1600s, they didn’t have a conventional oven like we have today. Dutch ovens were the first ovens used for baking. The pot would be embedded in the hot coals and ashes, and then more coals would be placed on its flat lid. Really, any large iron pot could be used as a Dutch oven. Double boilers were also used at this time. This meant that the aroma of the pie filled the area even more, because of the open chimney or the open pit in the outdoors where the pie was baked. I’m not sure if a violation of this new prohibitive law was a fine, jail, or death, but it was certainly something that made people realize that they must really want to bake that pie, if they would take such a risk for the chance to bake one.
Finally, in 1660, the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie baking, and the people rejoiced. I don’t know if 
they went as crazy about getting back to eating pie as they did the end of the Prohibition years, but I would imagine that there were a few gatherings to celebrate the new-found freedom. These days we can’t imagine such a silly idea concerning pie, but with every revelation, there must first have been a misconception. Oliver Cromwell somehow saw something in pie that made him believe the way he did, so seriously that he would make a law. Perhaps, it was his own addiction to pie that made him think it must be bad…not that I know that he was addicted to pie, but people have given up food and drink items for that reason for centuries. In fact, people have had confused ideas when it comes to religion for centuries.
Sometimes, when a country is in turmoil, and there seems to be no way out, the only choice is to have an outside invasion…from a foreign power. Panama was in such a situation in 1989, and so on December 20, 1989, the United States Army spearheaded a carefully planned and well-executed attack designed to overwhelm the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) of dictator Manuel Noriega, who was a convicted drug trafficker and a brutal dictator. He rose to power when he joined the military and then quickly rose through the ranks. He was very motivated, and most likely had a planned agenda from the start. Once he was in power his brutality as well as his interference with activities in the Panama Canal area, got worse and worse. Something had to be done.
The election had been stolen, of course, and the United States, along with several other nations, needed to take back the area from the imposter, and restore the democratically elected government of Guillermo Endara, followed by the arrest of Noriega on drug trafficking charges. This was going to be the largest and most complex combat operation since the Vietnam War. Labeled, Operation Just Cause, and with nearly 26,000 combat troops deployed, just under half being from bases in the United States, the operation began. Two dozen targets were attacked throughout the country that day, using a wide spectrum of tactical operations including Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT), Air-Assault, Airborne, and Special Forces. The operation was carefully planned out and conducted so as to take into account both parts of the mission…the operational aspects, as well as the political implications of forcibly removing Noriega from power. Not everyone in the world would look at this as being a justified operation. Through emphasis on realistic small-unit training, the U.S. Army successfully accomplished its mission. They decisively neutralized Noriega’s forces, restoring the elected democratic government, protecting American lives, and minimizing Panamanian casualties.
Initially planned as a gradual buildup of combat troops from the United States, the plan was significantly 
modified in early 1989 after Noriega increased attempts to intimidate American civilians and soldiers and after he orchestrated assaults against newly elected anti-Noreiga candidates. He was becoming too volatile to be allowed to continue his reign, so President George H W Bush ordered an additional 1,900 combat troops to Panama to increase security of American personnel and property, an operation known as known as Operation Nimrod Dancer…where do they get some of these names? He also appointed General Maxwell Thurman as the new US Southern Command commander. General Thurman envisioned the operation as a rapid take-down of the Panamanian Defense Forces, slightly different than President Bush saw it. Thurman wanted to capture Noriega quickly in order to prevent his troops from moving into the country’s interior in order to form an insurgency.
Training began in May 1989, and the early preparation and training was a key for the success of Operation Just Cause. The 193rd Infantry Brigade, which was the primary combat unit stationed near Panama City, increased the number of live-fire exercises and MOUT training. At that time, there were no MOUT training sites available, so battalion commanders adapted by constructing makeshift buildings for live-fire exercises. Soldiers practiced room-clearing as well as prisoner control, using the barracks. Soon to be sent to Panama…once the operation began, units of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 7th Infantry Division also increased training. The Panamanian Defense units were very close to the location of the American operations, so operational planners and unit commanders took advantage of increased security measures. These training exercises, Code-named Sand Flea, represented deliberate demonstrations of force aimed at securing American facilities. The good news 
was that troops were familiar with their targets, since many of these facilities needed to be secured or were used as staging areas for the invasion. In addition, the exercises were run with such frequency that the enemy became desensitized to rapid movements of troops, helping to maintain the element of surprise that was crucial to success. For me, it still seems like they should have suspected something.
In the end, the careful planning and intensive training paid off. The operation was a good success, despite its complexity. The plan showed the ability to work with the military and political goals to rapidly destroy the enemy’s ability to fight They also managed to fight without needlessly endangering Panamanian lives or property. The training was a great success. The troops were able to quickly adapt to the unforeseen challenges of combat. Major military operations took only five days. Noriega surrendered on January 3rd and by January 12tb, Operation Just Cause was over. In less than a month, the US Army and other American Armed Forces had achieved complete victory.
During their reign of terror, Japan, like Germany had their sights set on world domination. Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong on December 18, 1941, and an immediate slaughter began. The process started with a week of air raids over Hong Kong, which was a British Crown Colony at the time. Then on December 17, Japanese envoys paid a visit to Sir Mark Young, who was at that time, the British governor of Hong Kong.
The envoys’ message was simple: “The British garrison there should simply surrender to the Japanese—resistance was futile.” The envoys were sent home with the following retort: “The governor and commander in chief of Hong Kong declines absolutely to enter into negotiations for the surrender of Hong Kong…”
The unsuccessful negotiations brought a swift wave of Japanese troops, who in retaliation for the refused surrender, landed in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their commander: “Take no prisoners.” The troops quickly overran a volunteer antiaircraft battery, and the Japanese invaders roped together the captured soldiers. In a complete disregard for human life, a complete disregard for the Geneva Convention rules, or any rules of common decency, the Japanese proceeded to bayonet them to death. Even those who offered no 
resistance, such as the Royal Medical Corps, were led up a hill and killed. They showed no mercy, just hate and evil. Following the initial slaughter, the Japanese took control of key reservoirs. With the water under their control, they threatened the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst. With their backs against a wall, the British finally surrendered control of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.
On that same day, the War Powers Act was passed by Congress, authorizing the president to initiate and terminate defense contracts, reconfigure government agencies for wartime priorities, and regulate the freezing of foreign assets. It also permitted him to censor all communications coming in and leaving the country. President Franklin D Roosevelt appointed the executive news director of the Associated Press, Byron Price, as director of censorship. Although invested with the awesome power to restrict and withhold news, Price took no extreme measures, allowing news outlets and radio stations to self-censor, which they did. Most top-secret information, including the construction of the atom 
bomb, remained just that…strangely, but then those were different times.
“The most extreme use of the censorship law seems to have been the restriction of the free flow of “girlie” magazines to servicemen…including Esquire, which the Post Office considered obscene for its occasional saucy cartoons and pinups. Esquire took the Post Office to court, and after three years the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the magazine.” It amazes me just how much times have changed. These days the “girlie” trash is totally acceptable, but truth is censored and lies are allowed. Too bad we are so far out from those days.
We all know what it means to travel faster than the speed of sound…at least in theory. And most of us believe that it takes an airplane to accomplish that feat. That said, I wonder how Hollywood stuntman Stan Barrett felt when, on December 17, 1979, he blasted across a dry lakebed at California’s Edwards Air Force Base in a rocket and missile-powered car, becoming the first man to travel faster than the speed of sound on land. The reality is that there is no proof that he actually accomplished what he set out to do, which was to see if he could go faster than the speed of sound, because unfortunately, the radar scanner was acting up, and so Barrett’s top speed of 739.666 miles per hour by the most reliable measure, ended up being no more than an estimate. In addition, he only drove his rocket car across the lakebed once, while official record guidelines require that it be done twice. Also, none of the spectators heard a sonic boom as Barrett zoomed across the course. Nevertheless, it is believed that he did indeed break the sound barrier.
Barrett, who was a 36-year-old stuntman and ex-lightweight Golden Glove champion, was introduced to auto racing by Paul Newman in 1971. At the time, he was Newman’s stunt double for the film “Sometimes a Great Notion.” Barrett’s car, the $800,000 Budweiser Rocket, was owned by movie director, Hal 
Needham, who was himself a former racer. Needham had broken a nine-year-old world land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats the previous September. The car he drove had a 48,000-horsepower rocket engine and, to give it a little extra kick, a 12,000-horsepower Sidewinder missile.
December 17th was a dry day with temperatures around 20° Fahrenheit. Because of the cold, Barrett would actually have to go faster than the 731.9 miles per hour required, in order to break the sound barrier under those conditions. He started the rocket engine and stepped on the gas. He counted to 12, pushed the button on his steering wheel to fire the Sidewinder, so he could go even faster. After he zoomed past a battery of timing devices, Barrett deployed a parachute to help him slow down. It took only a few seconds for Barrett to blast across the 5¾ mile long lakebed. Most of us would have a hard time wrapping our heads around that.
The run was perfect, but unfortunately, the radar speedometers on the ground malfunctioned. Instead of recording the Rocket’s speed, they captured the speed of a passing truck, which was only 38 miles per hour. They would have to look elsewhere for confirmation, and in the end, the speed estimate came from data by the Air Force, whose scanners seemed to indicate that the Rocket had “probably exceeded the speed of sound.” The controversy over how fast Barrett actually went is still disputed to this day. It took until October 1997 for another driver, in a British car called the Thrust SSC, to officially break the Mach 1 sound barrier.
Any army is going to try attack the enemy in a sneaky way, so that their enemy is not ready…and indeed, has no idea the enemy is even nearby. When it comes to sneak attacks, we often think about the Japanese and Pearl Harbor, but they were not the only ones to do it. The Germans were just as likely to sneak up on their targets as the Japanese.
At approximately 8am on December 16, 1914, Franz von Hipper sent German battle cruisers from his Scouting Squadron to attack the British navy. The attack caught the British completely by surprise, as the Germans began heavy bombardment of Hartlepool and Scarborough…two English port cities on the North 
Sea. In the attack that lasted an hour and a half, the Germans killed more than 130 civilians and wounded another 500. The attack brought a swift and vicious response from the British press, who called the incident another example of German brutality. The German navy countered that the two port cities were valid targets due to their fortified status. It didn’t justify the attack, but it was the excuse the Germans used.
The attack was quickly answered by the British. Two defense batteries in Hartlepool were dispatched to attack the German vessels, damaging three of them, including the heavy cruiser, Blucher. Hipper’s plan was to draw the British forces to pursue them across waters freshly laced with mines. They also had another German fleet, commanded by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, waiting offshore to provide support. The plan fell through when the hoped-for major confrontation did not take place. Instead, the British decided to keep most of their fleet, which had been depleted by the dispatch of their major cruisers to pursue the dangerous squadron of Admiral Maximilian von Spee, in the harbor.
The Scouting Squadron attempted a repeat attack one month later using the same tactics used to surprise the British at Scarborough and Hartlepool. That attempt resulted in the Battle of Dogger Bank, where Hipper’s squadron was defeated, but unfortunately managed to avoid capture. The biggest drawback of a sneak attack is that it can really only be used once. After that the enemy is prepared and watching.
Over time, architecture has taken many turns. Some buildings last for thousands of years, and others struggle to last a hundred years. Also, some structures go through more things that can degrade them, such as the elements and usage. Such as the case with the Silver Bridge. The Silver Bridge was built in 1928 and connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia with Gallipolis, Ohio via US Route 35, taking it over the Ohio River. It was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge. The bridge got its name from the color of its aluminum paint.
The bridge was less that 40 years old when disaster struck on December 15, 1967. It is said that the bridge 
collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic, but that seems extreme to me. How many cars would it take to break a bridge, and how would they all fit on the bridge to make it break? When the bridge came down, 46 people lost their lives. Search and rescue operations were immediately put in place, and 44 people were found, but two of the victims were never found. When the bridge was rebuilt in 1969, it would be both a bridge and a memorial to those who lost their lives that fateful day.
No such disaster can take place without an investigation following it, to determine the cause. The causes of these disasters actually help to correct the flaws so that things like this don’t happen in the future. The investigation into the cause of the Silver Bridge collapse came down to the failure of just one eyebar. I suppose that once that one gave way, the load was too much for the rest of the eyebar links. It was further determined that the eyebar that failed had a 
small defect 0.1 inches deep. The analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it was designed for. Cars were heavier too and there were more of them, putting more strain on the small defect in the eyebar. In addition, the bridge had been poorly maintained, further weakening the structure. These days, bridges can still fail, but they maybe don’t quite as often, and most last longer than 40 years.
Maybe they were just wanting to be home for Christmas, and not knowing exactly how long it would take…while hiding out from the law, that is…the Texas Seven decided to get a jump start on the journey. No, probably not. It wasn’t Christmas with loved ones that was on their minds…it was freedom. On December 13, 2000, seven prisoners dubbed the “Texas Seven” by the media, broke out of maximum-security prison in South Texas, setting off a massive six-week manhunt. The prisoners were Joseph Christopher Garcia, Randy Ethan Halprin, Larry James Harper, Patrick Henry Murphy Jr, Donald Keith Newbury, George Angel Rivas Jr, and Michael Anthony Rodriguez. The escapees overpowered civilian employees and prison guards in the maintenance shop where they worked and stole clothing, guns, and a vehicle. The men left a note saying: “You haven’t heard the last of us yet,” and they were right. These men were convicted of crimes like murder, rape, and robbery. They were set to be executed soon, so they had nothing to lose.
These were not the kind of people that anyone wanted to have running around the state…or anywhere outside of prison walls. Soon after escaping from the Connally Unit lockup in Kenedy, Texas, the fugitives picked up another getaway vehicle. This one provided by the father of one of the men. They robbed a Radio Shack store in Pearland, Texas, coming out with cash and police scanners. On Christmas Eve, the escapees struck a sporting-goods store in Irving, Texas, where they stole a large amount of cash and weapons. In the process, the men killed police officer Aubrey Hawkins, shooting him multiple times with multiple weapons and running him over. Now they really had nothing to lose. Now, they were cop killers on top of everything else. It looked like it was time to get out of Dodge…or in this case, Texas.
The Texas Seven headed to Colorado, where they purchased a motor home and told people they were Christian missionaries. They rented a spot at a trailer park near Woodland Park, Colorado. They were there about a month before things started to fall apart. On January 22, 2001, after seeing the “Texas Seven” profiled on the TV program America’s Most Wanted, someone tipped off the police to the group of seven “missionaries” near Woodland Park. During the raid, ringleader George Rivas was captured along with three of the other men. Larry James Harper decided that he was not going back to prison, so he committed suicide after being surrounded by 
police. Two days later, law enforcement officials closed in on the two remaining escapees at a hotel in Colorado Springs. A standoff ensued, during which the fugitives conducted phone interviews with a TV news station and claimed their escape was a protest against Texas’ criminal justice system. Someone always has to add a bit of drama to justify their new crimes. There was no evidence indicating their claim was justified. The men then surrendered to authorities. Their crime spree was over. Of the six remaining, four have since been executed. Randy Ethan Halprin and Patrick Henry Murphy Jr are currently back at Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas on Death Row awaiting execution.
In the late 1600s, Britain and France both owned property in North America, and they were prone to periodic attacks on the colonies belonging to the other. On December 10, 1690, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony launched an ill-fated attack on Quebec, the result was a near-mutiny that forced the Massachusetts Bay Colony to issue the first paper currency in the history of the Western Hemisphere.
Sometimes, these “little skirmishes” put the governments in a position of a cash flow problem. They sometimes had to resort to IOUs to pay the men. In 1690, during one such war, Governor William Phips of Britain’s Massachusetts Bay Colony made a promise to his men that he could not keep. Phips was just back from a successful invasion of the French colony of Acadia. When it went so well, he decided to raid Quebec City. For their participation, Phips promised his volunteer troops half the loot. This loot was to be in addition to their usual pay. In those days, the soldiers were usually paid in coins, but sometimes shortages of official currency in the colonies forced armies to temporarily issue IOUs. Sometimes, even that was difficult, for lack of paper, so in one case, the men were actually paid with cut-up playing cards. The troops were then allowed to exchange the playing cards for goods and services until they received their actual pay.
As to Phips…he found himself with a rather large dilemma, because while he made a grand promise, the raid was a failure, when he didn’t manage to take the city. He was forced to return to Massachusetts with a damaged fleet and no treasure. With a shortage of coins and nothing else to pay the troops with, Phips faced a potential mutiny. So…out of options, on December 10th, 1690, the General Court of Massachusetts ordered the printing of a limited amount of government-backed, paper currency to pay the soldiers. It was the first such printing of paper money in North America. A few months later, with tax season approaching, a law was passed removing the limit on how much currency could be printed, calling for the immediate printing of more, and permitting the use of paper currency for the payment of taxes, which seems odd considering it had no value.
People didn’t trust the paper currency, making it unpopular for anything except paying taxes and before long, it was phased out. Nevertheless, within a few years, paper currency returned to Massachusetts. The Bank of England began issuing banknotes in 1695, also to pay for war against the French, and they became increasingly common throughout the 18th Century. Paper money has continued to cause controversy throughout the early history of the United States, and in many cases, remains so to this day. It was tied to the value of gold for a surprisingly long time, but in 1973 President Richard Nixon officially ended the international convertibility of the US dollar into gold. The printing of paper currency has always been a bit of a shady venture, because it is almost always done without the backing of gold. Without gold to back up the value of the paper currency, the economy is in danger.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky saw it coming, really. Sometimes it’s rather sad to be right about certain things. Tukhachevsky had been nicknamed the “Red Napoleon,” meaning that he was a popular Soviet military leader in Stalin’s Red Army. Tukhachevsky had no idea just how much more important the ideology would be to Stalin, than loyalty, ability, or anything else.
After his service in World War I of 1914-1917 and in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1923, from 1920 to 1921 Tukhachevsky commanded the Soviet Western Front in the Polish–Soviet War. He was moving up the ranks, and with the Soviet forces under his command, he successfully repelled the Polish forces from Western Ukraine, driving them back into Poland. Nevertheless, the Red Army suffered defeat outside of Warsaw, and the war ended in a Soviet defeat.
Tukhachevsky went on to serve as chief of staff of the Red Army from 1925 through 1928, as assistant in the People’s Commissariat of Defense after 1934, and as commander of the Volga Military District in 1937. He achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935. Still, all of that did not protect him, in fact it put him in more danger, because he was just a little way under Stalin, and that was not going to bode well for him.
Tukhachevsky was arrested in 1936, suspected of being a German spy. The charges included Tukhachevsky’s supposed plot to overthrow Stalin. After he was arrested, the guards coerced a confession out of him. This was at the very beginning of The Great Terror, a term which historians have borrowed from the French Revolution. It refers to the paroxysm of state-organized bloodshed that overwhelmed the Communist Party and Soviet society during the years 1936-1938. It was also known as the Great Purges.
During this time, Stalin actually had over a million of his own soldiers killed for imagined wrongs. Stalin was, in 
reality, half crazy. He was known to pluck a live chicken, just to see the reaction from his men. It wasn’t a really big stretch to move to killing soldiers or civilians, so the Great Terror wasn’t too far out there for him. As for Tukhachevsky, Stalin sentenced him to death in March 1938. He was executed on June 12, 1937. Even the men who had to judge the soldiers in those “sham” trials, were not free from danger. One of them, Ivan Belov said, “Tomorrow, I shall be put in the same place.” Belov was right. He was arrested on January 7, 1938. He was later executed as well. I can’t imagine how insane Stalin must have been. When you think about it, most of the men and women who were under Stalin’s rule, were too terrified to be disloyal.
