Posts Tagged ‘Troops’
The Black Roots Of Memorial Day
May 26, 2014
(Above: Yale Professor David Blight recounts the 1st Memorial Day organized by Blacks in 1865)
An enlightening read, “The Black Roots of Memorial Day,” relates a historical account with elements common to several U.S. regions’ claiming to be the early birthplace of the National Holiday commemorating America’s fallen soldiers. In addition to several print versions online, surfing YouTube on the topic, you will come across several videos that tell the origin story of Memorial day. Below, after the jump, is the segment produced by the History Channel.
It seems that all origin stories agree that a grassroots movement to decorate the graves of those who died fighting in the Civil War, Union and Confederate, in honor of them giving their lives for what they believed to be their country’s cause, eventually became Decoration Day…which eventually became Memorial Day. Also common to most accounts, holding that the Memorial Day is still more of a ‘Union’ observation, we find several southern states continue to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day.
Offered after the jump is more on “The Black Roots”… But in the end, what matters is what matters to you. Celebrate the holiday as you feel best. Now, you can do so knowing a bit more about the history behind it.
Be safe and thankful for folks looking out for you, then and now.
READ THE FULL REPRINT OF ‘THE BLACK ROOTS OF MEMORIAL DAY’ HERE.
Posted in History, Videos | 
Tags: Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate, Decoration Day, Federal Holiday, Holiday, Memorial Day, Soldiers, Troops, Union | 
1 Comment »
Technology: RoboCopters Poised To Deliver Supplies To Military Troops In Combat (Video)
September 21, 2012
Okay, so the U.S. military has already got unmanned attack drones, like Predator and Reaper, for combat. But what about support for the troops in harm’s way? Truly, battles are won or lost because of logistics – food, firearms, and other field supplies being critical to soldiers… even in this modern age of warfare. Well, the techies have been right on top of this.
Enter the K-MAX “synchropter.†Boasting a payload capacity upwards of 2,900 kg – and the ability to be flown by remote control or by pre-mapped course program – this weird-looking bird is a battlefield dream come true. Weird-looking or not; this tough war-bird is an engineering marvel, too; with two sets of inter-meshing blades, synchronized so as not to hit each other. Per its futuristic design, the rotors turn in opposite directions to cancel out torque, so the copter does not require a tail rotor — which is a hazard that manned copters still have. K-MAX in its final form was borne of a joint venture with Lockheed Martin. By August 2012, the two K-MAXs in test operation had flown 485 autonomous sorties carrying over 900 tons of cargo in places like Afghanistan.
So, how soon will this prototype be available for regular dependable use? How about now’ish? Pretty much proven as a battlefield asset, the above video from The Economist declares K-MAX may have some peacetime applications – from delivering traffic information to delivering your pizza – in the near future. Nice!
(Video after the jump.)
Posted in Technology, Videos | Tags: autonomous, Combat, Deliver, helicopter, K-MAX, Robocopter, Supplies, Troops | 1 Comment »
