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Just hanging out around Surrey, waiting to cross the Channel
(Photo/text via Range Days in France) Scots Guardsman circa 1914/5 at Caterham depot. It shows some great detail. He is armed with an SMLE Mk I with its associated P1907 curved Quillion bayonet. He is...
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Warship Wednesday Feb.1, 2017: The proud (and almost forgotten) Mason
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a...
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Modern paper cartridges for your 19th century hand cannon
I have a Ruger New Army and an old Colt SAA ’73 and love to fire them- but I have to admit they are a tremendous pain to load those old cap and ball guns. Terril James Herbert, one of my fellow writers...
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Got some scratch for a ‘barn find’ P-51?
You can always sit in it and make engine and machine gun sounds… Last flown in 1983, Platinum Fighter Sales has an original and unrestored multi-owner P-51D Mustang up for grabs. Known as the “Cadillac...
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A battered relic of Saipan
Click to big up 1800×301 Japanese Arisaka Type 99 7.7x58mm bolt action rifle with grenade damage and inscribed presentation plaque captured at Saipan 16 June 1944. The “mum” is present on the receiver,...
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Hobo’s Funnies
The MoD has a great write up on Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart KBE, CB, DSO, MC– best known as “Hobo” — one of the most unsung generals of WWII. In the dark days of late summer 1940,...
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Remnants of the Brown Water Navy
click to big up On display at the US Navy (USN) Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument are (left to right) a PBR (Patrol Boat River) Mark II (Mk-2) Patrol Boat, a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) Swift Boat, and an...
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Somewhere over Southeast Kassel, Germany, 73 years ago today
Combat encounter report with German Me 109 completed and signed by pilot Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager dated 4 March 1944: Click to big up
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So I have a bayou bladesmith buddy
Warren likes to beat himself up. I met him a little over a decade ago and he is a fellow LE instructor in everything from niche stuff like ballistic shield training to edged weapon defense as well as,...
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White Sniper: Simo Hayha’ by Tapio Saarelainen
During the 1939-40 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, a hunter and farmer by trade by the name of Simo Hayha returned to his reserve unit and picked up 542 confirmed kills with iron...
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The worst April Fools’ joke you can think of
Here we see, in this image from the Imperial War Museum, RFC armorers issuing Lewis guns with Lewis and Vickers ammunition to observers and pilots of No. 22 Squadron at the aerodrome at Vert Galand, 1...
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Emergency prep: I don’t like the dark edition
A regular right of passage in April– being just around the corner from Hurricane Season ( I am a survivor of direct hits by Frederick, Elena, Georges, Katrina, and Issac), is to replenish my supplies...
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Those Colt Lightnings…
I had an opportunity to speak to a man across the pond about this image lately. Peering from across time, the stern yet pleased assemblage of gentlemen ranging from the junior to the ancient all show...
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Ah, the sights of Spring
Living on the Gulf Coast, Springtime is that wonderful time of year before the oppression of 99-degree/99 percent humidity days inside Hurricane Season. And it looks like the tomatoes are coming in...
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Here endeth the lesson
Wentworth Military Academy and College dates back to 1880, but will not date to 2018 Administrators say a 137-year-old Missouri military academy and college will close after next month because of...
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A conversation with Mr. Parker
Larry A Parker, 74, of Belmont, Ohio, has had a career in the firearms industry that has taken a lifetime but has produced treasures that will endure through the ages. I bumped into Parker at the...
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King Kong and Khe Sanh, 50 years ago
A U.S. Marine shows a message written on the back of his flak vest at the Khe Sanh combat base in Vietnam on Feb. 21, 1968 during the Vietnam War. The quote reads, “Caution: Being a Marine in Khe Sanh...
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An interview with ‘The Oldest Living Graduate’ and the last member of USMA 1933
LTG(R) Ely, (USMA 1933) at the recent West Point Alumni Review The West Point Center for Oral History recently caught up with a living relic of the pre-WWII military academy and interviewed him for...
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Ballistic impressions
A Civil War-era .58 caliber star base 3-ringer Minie ball…now on my desk. Squee! This is your typical Federal 3-ringer in “dropped” condition, with the star inside the base detailing its origin from...
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