Our local WW2 roundtable is, for obvious and painful reasons, running out of WW2 veterans who are willing and able to tell their stories to our audience (averaging 300+ each month).

We would like to expand our scope to include veterans of the Cold War era (1946-1991, for want of a better definition). The Korean Conflict is of

course one source, and Viet Nam will be covered eventually, but I'd

like us to consider other veterans of uniformed and civilian…

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Thanks to Jo Bader for helping me out with an installation problem (my fault, not his). HexDraw is a super product. I am especially fortunate to have access to a large format plotter (100 cm maximum width!), so I use HexDraw to generate large maps for my air-to-air games using Check Your 6! rules. I can generate a new map in literally minutes, using historical aerial photograph or current satellite imagery as a background. Works great!

Thanks, Jo!

Does anyone else have mixed feelings about Walter Cronkite? He was a bit of a father figure for me in my youth, and I shared his enthusiasm for the US space program, but he should have kept his opinions to himself after the Tet Offensive in 1968.

May 10 is an interesting date in military history.



On May 10, 1863, General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson passed away as result of complications from being wounded in a friendly fire incident. Less than two months later, the last hopes of the Confederacy vanished on the fields of Gettysburg, and Jackson's absence was conspicuous.



On May 10, 1940, German forces began their invasion of the Low Countries and France.



On May 10, 1972, Randall "Duke" Cunningham became… Continue

Since when did it become bad practice to arm merchant ships and their crews? "Pirates are generally armed with assault rifles and, increasingly, rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Modern ships' crews are usually unarmed for a number of reasons, among them laws that prevent armed vessels from docking in the ports of many countries."



What silliness. The ONLY way to stop piracy is to stop and KILL enough pirates until the remaining would-be pirates believe they have more to lose than… Continue