That's a good question and one that I have asked myself. After all I have an entire section called MILGEN.HTM which is subdivided into various aspects of (mostly) American military sites on the internet. So isn't this a duplication? There will of course be some overlap but this section is intended to be more than just another internet laundry list of links. At least I hope so.

My best answer is that there are many websites that highlight many of the lesser known points in our military history and they are often hard to find. Those are NOT necessarily events from the Revolutionary time in the 1700s nor are they from little known skirmishes from the Civil War in the 1800s. Many in-fact are quite recent. Well, within a few decades from the present anyway.

It has become a cliche that Americans have a poor sense of our history and very likely a poor understanding of events even as they unfold in the moment. So how would they know about Argentia, Newfoundland and it's role in WW-II and the aftermath of the Cold War. How would they know about the heroic role of the WASPS in WW-II and how many of their members died? Would they know that the First Submarine Base was on Long Island? Matter of fact, do they even know we have bases at Bangor, Washington or at Kings Bay, Georgia and at Groton, Connecticut?

So for this reason I make my own subjective selections of our military history and attempt to do two things: 1) to highlight the "not so well known" and 2) to occasionally take a look at the more prominent memorials - but from a slightly different angle - Normandy and Iwo Jima are two examples.

I am not a "professional" historian but I do know how to ferret out information on the internet. These entries - these little tidbits of information - only begin to scratch the surface; there is much to be found on the internet and these items I list are merely threads to be pulled. That is, if you are so inclined to know more.

As an old college professor once told me, "To get the answers, you need to know what questions to ask".

Perhaps these items presented here will provide you with the right questions. Maybe with a few keywords to start your own search, you can build your history collection. 

Let's face it if you didn't already know about the "Four Chaplains" or the WASPs how would you know to search for information about them?

The section will naturally expand as time goes by with ongoing additions and refinements to existing entries being made. So check back from time to time.

Good luck and good searching.

Sid Harrison - June 2001

PS - HERE I have my own collection of search utilities.