The Patriot Files :: Dedicated to the preservation of military history

On June 10th 1952 I crawled onto a crew bus at K-8 Korea for the ride to the Operations tent for my first mission with my new navigator. Captain Black, another B-26 pilot, was already on board and we discussed his mission status while on the way to the flight line.

Note: by James Willard Braly, 13th Bomb Squadron. 8714 Reads

A Window in Time

The date was the 25th of March 1945 and the target was the underground oil facilities at Buchen, Germany (about 6 miles east of Hamburg). The 448th could have easily stood down this day. Yesterday's costly mission took a toll of eight B--24's that were lost to ground fire when we dropped supplies to 40,000 British paratroopers that had just crossed the Rhine River at Wesel, Germany.

Note: by Charles W. "Chuck" Blaney. 10172 Reads

The Battle of Jutland

ON May 31st, 1916, the Grand Fleet and the High Sea Fleet fought the action which has become known as the Battle of Jutland. The despatch describing the battle, as published some weeks later, was not quite in its original form as written by me. After a conference held at the Admiralty, early in June, modifications were made : some of them because it was considered that certain passages might convey useful information to the enemy, and others because it was thought to be undesirable to draw attention to certain features of British design.

Note: by Admiral John Rushworth Jellicoe 9630 Reads

The Devastation of the Genesee Country

Teaogo, Sept. 30, 1779. Sir: -- In mine of the 30th ultimo to His Excellency George Washington, and by him transmitted to Congress, I gave an account of the victory obtained by this army over the enemy at Newtown, on the 29th August. I now do myself the honor to inform Congress of the progress of this army, and the most material occurrences which have since taken place.

Note: by Gen. John Sullivan 9670 Reads

Helicopter Crew Chief

My tour as a Helicopter crew chief in South Vietnam was not one to be remembered by anyone other than myself, certainly not a tour that made me a hero in anyone’s eyes nor my own eyes. It was an interesting experience, one marked by extreme excitement at times and one also marked by extreme boredom and tedious monotony.

Note: by Frank Drinkwine, 187th AHC Tay Ninh RVN 9-70 9-71 22217 Reads

Buried Alive

I have been through a most thrilling experience - one I shall never forget all my life. We had been strafing the enemy for some days, our artillery pounding them all along the line. Suddenly, at 4.53 o'clock on Sunday morning last the order came to charge. We went over the parapet - the whole brigade, save one battalion. Our artillery fire lifted, and our boys calmly walked over to the opposing trenches, a barrage of fire being put behind the lines.

Note: by Sgt Harvey Gale 8682 Reads

Rat Patrol

Ask anybody who served in Vietnam about rats and they tell you all about the size and ferociousness of the rodents. Rats were difficult at best to control and almost impossible to eradicate. One of the keys to successful rat control was keeping your area policed and trash removed.

Note: by Stephen C. Gillis 10657 Reads

Letters from Fort Stephenson

May the 27th 1813
Fort Stephens Lore Sandusky
Affectionate Companion I received your letter this morning of the 23rd instent Which gave me a grate deal of satisfaction to hear that you are well and that Wilson is a good boy. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to hear that the corn is planted and that you expect it will be tended for I did not look for that to be done

Note: by John Hollyday 12117 Reads

Diary of Greece

21 April 1941
Today the sun is shining and Jerry Bombers have left us alone for a couple of hours. So will try and give a little more detail of events since we went into action. We evacuated our original position, overlooking Salonika. on the 9th. Hated leaving, but there was definitely the fear of being surrounded. So E troop remained behind to harrass and fight a rear-guard action.

Note: by Alan Jackson, 5th Field Regiment 8466 Reads

Diary, England & The Somme 1915-16

Preparation in England, 1915

Inspection by General Campbell.

Saturday March 15th on my birthday. Route march to Birmingham from Sutton. General inspection in Calthorpe Park at 2. General Campbell in passing lines asks me what I was before I joined. General salute at 3.30 pm Victoria Square, dismissed at 4pm near Corporation Street.

Note: by William Bernard Whitmore, 1st Birmingham Battalion 11612 Reads

Outpost Hotel

Det 6 was staging out of Song Ong Doc. It was going to be a dark night with no moon, so as we watched the sun slip below the horizon, we knew we would be flying that night. Sure enough, the scramble alarm went off around midnight. The AMY, a series of support barges for PBR's, was the command post for our area of operations. The AMY activated the alarm.

Note: by Jim Plona 9691 Reads

Military Journal, 1775 to 1783

1775 January. - At the precise period when my medical studies and education are completed, under the patronage of Dr. Abner Hersey of Barnstable, and I am contemplating the commencement of a new career in life, I find our country about to be involved in all the horrors of a civil war. A series of arbitrary and oppressive measures, on the part of the mother-country, has long been advancing to that awful crisis, when an appeal to the power of the sword becomes inevitable.

Note: by James Thacher, M.D., Surgeon in the American Army 22666 Reads

Casualty Clearing Station

In April 1918 I volunteered to go to France in response to the urgent call for more surgeons. For twenty years I had been in general practice in a suburb, and did a fair amount of surgery among patients and at the local hospitals. I had also had some war experience as one of the surgeons at the British Red Cross Hospital, Netley, in the first six months of the War, but I had no experience of cases fresh from the battlefield, and the surgical technique which had recently been adopted in dealing with them.

Note: by Captain John A. Hayward 15449 Reads

Square Needles

I had the pleasure of being assigned to Ft Lewis from 3/67 to 6/68. During that time I worked at the post dispensory and occasionally had the bad luck of being assigned to the dreaded "shot line".

Note: By Jim Calbreath 10456 Reads

The sinking of German submarines U-515 and U-68 off Madeira Island

This is a talk on an action which took place in the North Atlantic on Easter Sunday. I'll give you some background before I go into that part of the story. I will give you a general idea of what we were doing. We were Task Group 21.12 operating as a so-called killer group. Our mission was to sink submarines and we attempted to stay at sea in the areas where the submarines were concentrating.

Note: Recollections of Lieutenant Commander Dudley S. Knox, USNR, on destroyer escort USS Chatelain (DE-149). These actions occured the 9th and 10th of April 1944. 14581 Reads

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