Army Recruiter Stuff

Caesar [Gaius Julius Caesar] (100?44 BC), politician,
author, and military commander, was born on 13 Quinctilis
(July) 100 BC, probably at Rome, the son of Gaius Julius
Caesar, a patrician of old but recently undistinguished
family whose brother-in-law was Gaius Marius, and Aurelia,
probably daughter of Lucius Aurelius Cotta (consul in 119
BC). He had two sisters, married to Quintus Pedius and to
Marcus Atius Balbus of Aricia; the latter's grandson,
adopted in Caesar's will, became the emperor Augustus.

Nothing is known of Caesar's education. He was twelve when
his uncle Marius was driven into exile by Sulla's march on
Rome, and thirteen at the time of Marius's vengeful return
with Lucius Cornelius Cinna. When he was fifteen, his father
died; the following year Caesar broke off his engagement to
a girl from a wealthy equestrian family to marry Cinna's
daughter Cornelia (d. 69 BC). In 82 BC Sulla returned
victorious from the east; by now Marius and Cinna were both
dead, and Caesar went into hiding. His relatives
successfully pleaded for his life, but the dictator sourly
commented ?There are many Mariuses in that boy? (?Life of
Caesar?). Caesar left Rome to serve in Asia Minor, where he
was decorated for bravery in the attack on Mytilene. He came
back to Rome at the news of Sulla's death, and announced his
arrival on the political scene with the prosecution
(unsuccessful) of a senior senator for extortion. In 75 BC,
sailing to Rhodes to study rhetoric, he was captured by
pirates; on payment of the ransom, he raised a squadron to
defeat them, and had them crucified.

Caesar's first public office was the elective military
tribunate (probably in 72 BC); in 69 he was quaestor,
serving in Spain; in 65, curule aedile. It was a period of
revived hope for popularis politicians: the Sullan oligarchy
had proved itself corrupt, and the people's tribunes had
regained the powers of which Sulla had stripped them. Caesar
advertised his allegiance by his funeral speech for his aunt
Julia, widow of Marius, in 69 BC, and by restoring to public
view, as aedile, the Marian trophies Sulla had pulled down.
In 63 BC, though still a junior senator, and in competition
with two distinguished ex-consuls, he got himself elected to
the high office of pontifex maximus. He was thirty-seven,
already a formidable politician, and no friend of the
conservative ?establishment? in the senate.

After a stormy praetorship in 62 BC, Caesar's first military
command came with his proconsulship of Further Spain, in
campaigns against the Callaeci and Lusitani conducted with
characteristic decisiveness and dash. He was granted the
right to a triumph, which for most Romans was the height of
ambition. Caesar chose to forgo it. He wanted the
consulship, and by entering the city to declare his
candidacy he had to abandon his military command. His
ambitions were not those of ordinary Romans. After the
consulship there would be a greater command, one like those
the people had conferred on Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey the
Great), whose triumph over the pirates and Mithridates, an
affair of unprecedented splendour, had taken place in 61 BC.

?Caesar has the wind in his sails just now?, wrote Cicero in
June 60 BC (Cicero, ad Atticum, II.1.6). Certainly Caesar's
enemies thought so, and did their best to prevent his
election as consul, or to commit him in advance to a
harmlessly administrative consular command (the forests and
drove-roads of Italy). It was in vain: Caesar was elected
consul for 59 BC, with the powerful backing of Pompey and
Marcus Licinius Crassus, and, having swiftly neutralized his
optimate colleague Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, forced through
a programme of land distribution in the teeth of furious
conservative opposition.

The people's consul was rewarded with an extraordinary
command (like those for Pompey in 67 and 66 BC) passed by a
tribune's law in May 59 BC: he was to have Cisalpine Gaul
and Illyricum (that is, northern Italy and the eastern coast
of the Adriatic) for five years; Pompey subsequently got the
senate to add Gallia Narbonensis (Provence). So the great
campaigns of conquest, to rival Pompey's in Asia, would be
either eastward or north-westward (in modern terms, either
on the middle Danube or in France and Belgium) according to
opportunity. As it turned out, the migration of the Helvetii
took Caesar west and north. He left Rome as proconsul on or
about 19 March 58 BC. When he next entered it, just over
nine years later, it would be as an invader in a civil war.

As consul, Caesar's first act had been to make public the
proceedings of the senate. As proconsul, he reported his
campaigns to the Roman people in annual ?commentaries?,
which have been recognized ever since as masterpieces of
military narrative. First (58 BC), the defeat of the
Helvetii, and of Ariovistus's Germans; second (57), the
defeat of the Nervii (a very close-run thing) and the
conquest of the Belgic peoples; third (56), the conquest of
Brittany and Aquitaine. In three years, Caesar had conquered
to the ocean and the Rhine; now it was time to go beyond.

Again, Caesar kept his options open. The fourth
commentarius, for 55 BC, reports the bridging of the Rhine
and the punitive raid into Germany, and after that the
preliminary expedition to Britain in late summer. Either of
those could be repeated on a larger scale the following
year, for his allies Pompey and Crassus were now consuls,
and the people duly voted him a five-year extension to his
command. Britain was the more glamorous option, an adventure
beyond Ocean itself, and public opinion in Rome was excited
about the conquest of this people at the very ends of the
earth (ultimi Britanni, Catullus, 11.11f).

The show of force in September 55 BC was very nearly a
disaster. Caesar's main cavalry force was unable to make the
crossing; he had the greatest difficulty in getting his two
legions disembarked (near Deal in Kent), against fierce
opposition; four days after the landing a violent storm and
high tides seriously damaged his transports; and when one of
the legions was ambushed, only the last-minute arrival of
reinforcements prevented its total defeat. In the end Caesar
was glad to be able to get back to Gaul in his patched-up
transports before the equinox.

For the main assault the following year Caesar ordered the
building of large numbers of new transport ships, low in
draught to be beached easily, and able to be worked by oars
or sail. In the midsummer of 54 BC he set sail from Portus
Itius (Boulogne) with five legions and 2000 cavalry, in an
armada of 800 ships. Tides and currents made it an awkward
crossing, and oars were needed to get the transports to the
landing place, probably not far from the previous year's,
though this time undefended. The British forces had
withdrawn inland to higher ground; Caesar disembarked, left
his ships at anchor, and marched inland the same night. His
forces had crossed the Stour and captured a British
defensive stronghold, probably Bigbury, when news came that
a storm had driven the ships ashore, with great damage.
Caesar had to return to the coast, organize repairs, send
for replacements from Gaul, and bring the ships on shore
behind a defensive fortification. In the meantime the
Britons had put Cassivellaunus, the powerful king of the
Catuvellauni, in command of their forces.

Resuming his advance through Cantium (Kent), after hard
fighting against well-organized British cavalry and
charioteers, Caesar forced a crossing of the Thames
(possibly at Brentford) and eventually found
Cassivellaunus's fortress and stormed it. Meanwhile, an
attack on the base camp and Caesar's ships was successfully
beaten off. Cassivellaunus asked for terms; Caesar accepted
his surrender, demanded hostages and an annual tribute, and
took his army back to Gaul.

On his return Caesar was told of the death of his only
child, his beloved daughter, Julia, Pompey's wife, in
childbirth in her early twenties. (Julia's mother, Caesar's
first wife, Cornelia, had also died young; his second wife,
Pompeia, was divorced in 62 BC, for not being ?above
suspicion?; he then married Calpurnia, who outlived him?it
was she who had bad dreams on the night before the ides of
March.) He also found dangerous unrest in Gaul, which was
why he had come back so quickly. It soon blew up into
full-scale rebellion in the Belgic lands, with one Roman
winter camp wiped out and another, under Cicero's brother
Quintus, only narrowly saved from the same fate. One and a
half legions, about 7000 men, were lost in the disaster.

It is not known where or when the fifth book of commentaries
was written; Caesar was desperately occupied in the winter
of 54?53 BC. But it contains, among other things, the first
ever account of the geography and ethnography of Britain:
?The island is triangular in shape, with one side facing
Gaul ? The second side faces westward, towards Spain?
(Caesar, v.12?14). As Caesar's contemporary Catullus
confirms (ultima occidentis insula, Catullus, 29.12), the
Romans thought of Britain as in the far west, close to
Spain. It was a fitting scene for a heroic epic, duly
composed by Cicero from material supplied by his brother
(Cicero, Ad Q. fratrem, II.14.2, 16.4, III.7.6). But now
that adventure was over, as Quintus, after his narrow
escape, knew better than most.

Caesar spent the next four years reconquering his conquests.
The great pan-Gallic rebellion of Vercingetorix in 52 BC
came very close to destroying his whole achievement, and him
with it. His enemies in Rome took heart: Crassus was dead,
Pompey could be seduced to their side as the protector of
the republic. They were determined to destroy Caesar, and he
was determined not to be destroyed. In January 49 BC he
threw the dice in the air and marched into Italy.

With his battle-hardened army of veterans, Caesar fought his
civil war against Pompey and the republicans all over the
empire of Rome, and beyond: Spain in 49 BC, Thessaly in 48
(defeating Pompey at Pharsalus), Alexandria in 48?7 (where
he probably wrote the three books of his De bello civili
commentaries), Asia Minor in 47 (?I came, I saw, I
conquered?), and above all north Africa in 46, where Marcus
Porcius Cato, symbol of the old republic, killed himself
after Caesar's victory at Utica. In September 46 BC, by the
then calendar, Caesar at last held the great triumph that
would outshine Pompey's of fifteen years before. He was now
dictator for a ten-year term, with a formidable programme of
projects of which the most lasting was the Julian calendar,
introduced on 1 January 45 BC. But warfare still preoccupied
him: first against Pompey's sons in Spain, won only by a
hair's breadth at the battle of Munda (March 45 BC), and
then a planned campaign against the Parthians, to avenge
Crassus. But by now his autocracy was openly regal, and
deeply offensive to the senate. He was careless of his own
security, trusting perhaps in the luck that had protected
him for so long. The latest of his long line of mistresses
was Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, now conspicuously living in
Rome; in 44 BC he was made dictator for life; the month of
his birth, Quinctilis, was renamed ?July?; a cult of Caesar,
with his own priest (flamen), was instituted. It was too
much. On 15 March he was murdered in the Curia Pompei in
Rome by republican senators under the leadership of Cato's
son-in-law Marcus Junius Brutus.

The body lay where it fell, unworthily fouled with the blood
of a man who had forced his way to the west as far as
Britain and Ocean, and intended to force his way to the east
against the empires of Parthia and India. (Nicolaus of
Damascus, 95)

So Nicolaus of Damascus, writing about twenty years after
the event, sums up the many-sided genius of Caesar in the
way he would probably have wanted, as an imperial conqueror.

In 42 BC Caesar was deified. The heir to his name and
fortune was his great-nephew Gaius Octavius, whom he adopted
in his will as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus and who
dedicated the temple of Divus Julius on 18 Sextilis (later
?August?) 29 BC, immediately after his own triumph over
Cleopatra's Egypt. The young Caesar ?Octavian? became Caesar
Augustus, and thereafter Caesar's name became synonymous
with imperial autocracy throughout the history of Europe.

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599 and
has always been one of his most frequently performed plays.
Shakespeare's source was Plutarch's Lives (written some 150
years after Caesar's death) in the translation by Sir Thomas
North of 1579, or its reprint of 1595. Shakespeare's play
deals with the final days and assassination of Caesar and
shows no interest in his role as Britain's first invader.

Sources

Caesar, Bellum Gallicum, ed. W. Hering (Leipzig, 1987) ?
Suetonius, Divus Iulius, ed. H. E. Butler and M. Cary (1927)
? ?Life of Caesar?, Plutarch's Lives, ed. and trans. B.
Perrin, 7 (1919) ? Cicero, Cicero's Letters to Atticus, ed.
and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, 7 vols. (1965?70) ?
Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem et M. Brutum, ed. D. R.
Shackleton Bailey (1980) ? Catullus, Carmina, ed. R. A. B.
Mynors, Oxford Classical Texts (1958) ? Nicolaus of
Damascus, ?Bios kaisaros?, Die Fragmente der griechischen
Historiker, ed. F. Jacoby (1961), 395?420 ? M. Gelzer,
Caesar: politician and statesman, trans. P. Needham (1968)
[Ger. orig., Caesar: der Politiker und Staatsman, (Munich,
1921)] ? J. A. Crook, A. Lintott, and E. Rawson, eds., The
Cambridge ancient history, 2nd edn, 9 (1994), chaps. 6?11 ?
K. Welch and A. Powell, eds., Julius Caesar as artful
reporter: the war commentaries as political instruments
(1998) ? T. R. Holmes, Ancient Britain and the invasions of
Julius Caesar (1907), chaps. 6?7 ? S. Weinstock, Divus
Julius (1971) ? W. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ed. A.
Humphreys (1984) ? J. Ripley, ?Julius Caesar? on stage in
England and America, 1599?1973 (1980) ? C. Meier, Caesar,
trans. D. McLintock (1995) [Ger. orig., Caesar (Berlin,
1982)]

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Part 1

Swiss Knives Express offers a free knife if you send in a
Swiss Army knife story that gets published or used on their
website. Here are some of the interesting stories and uses
that people have for Swiss Army knives.

Story 1 ? R. Reyes from Keller, TX

I was raised in a non-knife family. The only knives in the
house were kitchen knives and they were incredibly dull.
Both of my parents were raised the same way. Neither one had
a knife phobia, but they were wary of knives. So, when I was
13, I went to the local Target. I then bought a Victorinox
Spartan knife and loved it. My dad, on the other hand,
didn?t. After a long discussion, my mother convinced my dad
to let me keep it. By the next year, every one of my family
members had a Swiss knife or multitool of some sort. I now
have five Victorinox knives that are in rotation for my
every day carrying. My dad thanked me for buying him one the
next week after he used it to disassemble a chair at his
office. I love SAK?s and always will.

Story 2 ? M. Ceranski from Phoenix, AZ

When I was about 10, my dad gave me a Swiss Army knife ?
well, it was a knock off, but I didn?t know that! It?s red
and has a bunch of functions. I?ve always had it with me,
but never really used it, unless we went camping. Then there
was the phase I went through when I thought I could whittle
a kachina doll! My dad had me practice skinning the outside
of a branch to get to the wood inside ? just in case I ever
needed to know! He and my grandfather always carried a
pocket knife, so it seemed normal to me. I?m actually
expanding my collection ? I have one Victorinox and one
Wenger so far.

As a mom of two boys, for the last several months I have had
my original SAK in my pocket: lanyard attached, and clipped
to my belt loop. I?ve used it so much! Dad has cancer and is
on oxygen now, so when we?re out for an appointment and he
needs a new tank, I use it to cut the tape that covers the
holes on the neck of the tank. That happens several times a
week. I also have found it very useful around the house ?
opening packages, letters, CDs, anything taped closed? the
list goes on. My oldest son often says to me ?Mom! Just get
out your knife and CUT it!? I think the last time that
happened was last weekend when out shopping for new shoes
for the kids. He wanted to wear his new ones out of the
store. So, I got my Swiss Army knife out of my pocket,
wondered if security would appear, and cut the plastic that
held the shoes together, and we checked out with the old
shoes in the boxes. No one ever said a word.

Story 3 ? Chris from somewhere in the USA

I was born in 1983. Once I was old enough to understand
things, I started watching MacGyver and fell in love with
not only the show but the knives that he used. The Swiss
Army knife has become something I wanted for years and
finally got one on my 12th birthday. I chose it myself, a
Red SwissChamp. I treasured that knife and used it
constantly.

Swiss Knives Express is the perfect place to select a Swiss
Army knife for yourself or loved one:
http://www.swissknivesexpress.com Groomsmen Gifts - Gunther
Gifts specializes in unique groomsmen gifts and wedding
favors.

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I have interviewed an expert about Army Rangers to find out
about the career. I must caveat my answers by saying; I am
not and never will be an Army Ranger as women are not
allowed to be Rangers. I learned about Rangers 28 years ago
as a Reserve Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) Cadet going
through my initial officer training

The Army Ranger's favorite time of day, I think like most
Soldiers, Rangers look forward to meal time, or rest time
after a mission. What I think is the Army Ranger's main
piece of gear is His weapon. Rangers wear the US Army
uniform appropriate for the environment in which they are
operating. There survival skills as Rangers are trained to
operate in all environments, temperate, desert, mountain and
tropical. They know how to live off the land when necessary.

Well their training takes 9 weeks during which they must
navigate, survive, and conduct clandestine combat missions
in mountains, deserts, swamps, and temperate terrain. There
really aren't different types of Army Rangers. All Rangers
go through the same training. Rangers have different ranks
based on normal military hierarchy. Being an Army Ranger is
just like if you were a pilot. You have to go though all the
training. A ranger is just a different part of the army.
Some will climb up the ladder and one day run there unit
while others get up the ladder faster and choose to just
right out orders.

What other armed forces do Army Rangers fight with? Rangers
will fight with any joint combat unit as required by the
mission. That includes but is not limited to regular Army,
Marines, Navy Seals, Special Operations teams and foreign
nation Special Operations teams. When they get there
missions just like anyone else they still have to carry out
there orders. It dose not matter what other forces that they
have to fight it is just the mission that they get.

Army Rangers do have somethings to help them know where they
are. Rangers can navigate from terrain features and maps.
Today they may use some variation of the global positioning
system, but they can operate without GPS anywhere in the
world. When they go into training they learn this and they
even go out in the woods or where every there co tells them
to go and they are given a map or directors on how to get
back and they need to look out for some things that are put
in the way to stop them from getting where they need to go.

A usual day for an Army Ranger is not what you think.
Currently there is no typical day for a Ranger. The units at
war have different challenges every day. The units in the
States are training to be ready for their next tour in
combat operations and the ones in combat are just trying to
get though there missions with having anyone in there unit
get killed or taken if there missions tends to go right or
not. They are like everyone else that was sent to combat.
All they want to do is come home to their love ones safe and
sound.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for
http://www.WarGear.info/. WarGear.info carries the best
selection of military clothing, war gear, and combat
accessories on the market.

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Details leaked about Modern Warfare 2 !

? All perks will return from MW except eavesdrop and others
will be altered

? All game modes will return from MW and all will have
hardcore versions

? New game mode: Secure (Call of duty version of capture the
flag, however you capture the enemy's Intel)

? New game mode unconfirmed name, similar to search and
destroy, however instead of trying to plant a bomb, you try
to kill a specified enemy

? Solider customization for each class (and each country)

? Sniper with silencers will NOT be in multiplayer

? There are NO bots in local multiplayer

? Similar version to Nazi Zombies, however details are
unknown

? NO guest players online, 1 player per console

? Kill cam save feature

? There is blood and gore

? Offline/Online Co-op

? Vehicles will be in MW2

? Favourite Modern Warfare 1 maps will return

? Helicopters, air strikes, UAV will return

? Red dot sightings will come in different shapes for
multiplayer (circular, square, original)

? Snipers will have special grass camouflage (As seen in
Modern warfare's campaign)

? M16 will return.

? Ak47 and M4 will return

? M40 will return, ACOG damage boost will be fixed

? Scorpion, P90, M21, R700, G3, G360 will not return

? New sniper rifle: SR25M (US Military)

? New Assault rifle: Diemeco C8 (Canadian Military M4
equivalent)

? New Assault rifle: L85A2 (UK Military)

? Total weapons in multiplayer are said to be around 35

? New army tags will be available to add different elements
in campaign (similar to halo skulls)

? Campaign-only weapons

Hopefully all these changes will lead to Modern Warfare 2
being one of the greatest games of all time.

Written by Managing Director of MW2 Gamer Leon Rossiter, for
more information on Modern Warfare 2 Online check out our
Modern Warfare 2 site.

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In the span of over 700 years of the Roman Empire, perhaps
the most important changes that allowed for expansion and
domination came when the imperial Roman army came into
being. Here are some of the new formations that they
implemented after the reforms.

The Wedge was also a very important tactic used by the
Romans. Small or large groups of Legionnaires could form a
triangle, and then use the point to break and open a hole in
the enemy's lines. Troops inside the triangle would also
help reinforce and effectively create a solid "spear point"
to breach the enemy. It was very important in battles to be
able to disrupt and break enemy formations, for it could
very well be the difference between victory and defeat.A
skirmishing formation was also a very effective tactic
implemented by the Romans. The normally tight lines of men
would space and stagger themselves to effectively increase
the apparent size of the unit, sometimes covering as much as
twice the space as a normal cohort would. This tactic was
very useful when they need to make quick attacks and
retreats, or when marching over rough terrain. It also let
friendly troops fall back easily through the lines if
needed.

The repel cavalry stance was extremely effective and
devastating to enemy cavalry. This only required two lines
of men. The first line of soldiers would kneel down and
interlock their large scutum shields to form an impenetrable
wall with their roman pilum pointing up at about a
forty-five degree angle. The line of men behind them placed
their shields on top of the first lines' at a slight slant.
They would have their pilum ready to throw at the
approaching cavalry. This was very effective as horsed do
not willingly charge into a solid wall of shields and spear
points.

Instead, the horse would probably come to a halt before the
line, leaving the legionnaires free to throw their pilum and
massacre the enemy.The last tactical arrangement was called
the Orb, and was used as a last stance defensive formation.
If any number of soldiers was separated from the rest of the
army, or else they became surrounded by the enemy, they
would form a tight circle with officers and archers in the
center and legionnaires on the outside. This required a
highly trained and disciplined army at the individual level,
as this was formation often took place with a small group of
soldiers during the heat of battle.The equipment and armor
saw very important upgrades. They used segemented armor,
called lorica segmentata, roman helmets saw a total overhaul
that allowed for more effective protection, and their
weapons were altered to be more effective. But perhaps the
some of the most important changes came in the form of new
battle formations that made the Roman war machine so
affective. In the following paragraphs we will explore some
of these tactics.

John Hilde is a historical weapons and armor collector and
owns his own online store selling authentic armor and
weapons. Please visit http://www.armorvenue.com to learn
more.

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Treating respect with disrespect

That?s why we put people like this in office. So they can
become mad with power and disrespect the little peons like
brigadier generals. Isn?t America great that way?

But please? PLEASE? whatever you do, never call California
Senator Barbara Boxer ?ma?am.? Because clearly she doesn?t
deserve such good old-fashioned respect. If she votes
against payday loans and cash advance loans as well, I?ll
give her the thumbs down? Caesar-style.

Oh, it?s because she?s ?feisty?

Is that what you call it? Barbara Boxer took it upon herself
to be both disagreeable and disrespectful to Brig. Gen.
Michael Walsh of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Does she
get a pass because she?s a senator? Because she?s ?feisty??
Because she?s a woman? That would be a ?no? hat trick. All
Walsh did was call her ?ma?am,? in a completely innocent
show of respect. See the video below if you don?t believe
me. Yet ?Ma?am? Boxer believes it?s OK not to address Walsh
as ?sir? or by his title. To complete the effect, she should
have referred to him in third person while he was talking at
him.

The lovely conversation as it went down

Thanks to Fox News, you too can learn to speak to others
like Sean Hannity! According to their report, Brig. Gen.
Walsh was testifying on behalf of ?the Louisiana coastal
restoration process in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.? As he
began to answer a question Ma?am Boxer posed to him, Boxer
rudely cut him off:

I do not approve of your disrespect, ma'am

?You know, do me a favor. Could say ?senator? instead of
?ma?am???

?Yes, ma?am,? Walsh interjected. (I like this man already)

?It?s just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so
I?d appreciate it, yes, thank you,? she said.

?Yes, senator,? he responded.

Comfortably numb nomenclature

Thankfully, Brig. Gen. Walsh didn't refer to Boxer by her
Christian name. If he had, there would have been an
full-scale Boxer Rebellion...

Come on, ma?am. Military protocol advises that officers use
?sir? or ?ma?am? when addressing anybody higher than them on
the chain of command. Even though you aren?t military, you
are a senator, as you have fondly reminded us, so the title
is not out of place. And where I come from, I call women
?ma?am? to be respectful. If feminism tells you otherwise,
then feminism is wrong.

One guide on Navy and Coast Guard conduct cited by Fox
suggests that they address people as ?mister? or ?miss? if
they are ?below the rank of commander,? and ?sir? or ?ma?am?
(or a specific title) to address those of equal or higher
rank. Thus, Brig. Gen. Walsh was attempting to treat Barbara
Boxer with respect.

And during that same hearing?

That same day at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee
hearing, ?two Navy officials repeatedly referred to Sen.
Roger Wicker, R-Miss., with the title, ?sir,?? writes Fox
News.

?Yes, sir,? Navy Vice Adm. Bernard McCullough said as he
responded to Senator Wicker?s questions. At no point did Mr.
Wicker call Vice Adm. McCullough to the carpet for a verbal
indiscretion. That?s because no verbal indiscretion was
committed.

What?s your main problem, ma?am? Do you need payday loans
and cash advance for help with a medical condition?

Steve Tarlow is a professional writer for Personal Money
Store. to read more articles from Personal Money Store and
Steve, please follow the link below:

http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/06/18/barbara-boxer-maam/

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1. God Bless the USA: American country musician Lee
Greenwood penned this rousing patritotic song which appeared
on Greenwood?s 1984 album; the song reached No. 7 on the
Billboard magazine charts and was played at the 1984
Republican National Convention. The song was also widely
played during the Gulf War of 1990-1991 to boost service
member and citizen morale.

2. Born in the USA: American folk-rock superstar Bruce
Springsteen?s title track off his 1984 album is a stirring
tale of American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War and
the hardships they faced. This song became an anthem for
the 1980s.

3. America: Neil Diamond wrote and recorded this patriotic
song for the soundtrack of 1980s ?The Jazz Singer.? The song
became a hit in 1981 reaching No. 8 on the Billboard
magazine Hot 100 chart. The song is also known as ?Coming to
America? or ?They?re Coming to America? because of its
immigration theme. Diamond continues to play the song at
concerts often displaying an American flag during his
performances.

4. American Soldier: Country musician Toby Keith penned this
patriotic song for his 2003 album about an American soldier
going off to war with dedication, loyalty and patriotism to
America because ?freedom don?t come free.? The song became
a No. one hit on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Songs
chart.

5. This Land is Your Land: American folk singer Woody
Guthrie penned this patriotic folk song in 1940 with an
existing melody from Irving Berlin?s ?God Bless America.?
The song was brought back to life in the 1960s, when folk
singers Bob Dylan, The Kingston Trio, The New Christy
Minstrels among others, all recorded versions. Bruce
Springsteen also released a live version of it in 1985. The
song continues to be regularly recorded by contemporary
musicians including the Counting Crows, Sharon Jones & The
Dap-Kings and the Dave Matthews Band. Springsteen and Pete
Seeger sang the song on January 18 of this year at We Are
One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln
Memorial.

6. Ballad of the Green Berets: This patriotic balled
co-written and sang by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler reached the
No. 1 spot and stayed there for five weeks in 1966. Sadler
and friend Robin Moore wrote the song about the Green
Berets, an elite special force in the U.S. Army, while
Sadler was recovering from leg wound suffered in the Vietnam
war.

7. America: Paul Simon wrote this patriotic song about two
companions searching for the true meaning of America in the
1960s. Simon and his musical partner Art Garfunkel released
the folk-rock song in 1968.

For more patriotic songs, visit www.subs4soldiers.com

Felicity Grant is a freelance writer in Atlanta.

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The US Army traces its history back to the formation of the
Continental Army on 14 June, 1775.

There are Army wide traditions, and unit level traditions.
Some of these are very serious. We trace the civilian
control of the US Armed Forces to George Washington?s
voluntary release of power after the American Revolution.
The strong tradition of following the orders of our civilian
leadership is also an important part of the culture of the
whole nation. Other traditions are very local, such as the
rights of the Third Infantry to march with fixed bayonets.

Many units in the US Army have strong traditions such as
unit mottoes. When an enlisted man salutes an officer in
many of these units, he will call out the unit motto, such
as ?Can Do!? or ?Twenty Rounds Full.?

There are traditions that have been allowed to die. These
include a deliberate separation of the soldier from society.
Some have mutated. The old cavalry tradition of ?Horse,
Saddle and Rider? was about the order in which a trooper was
to take care of matters. While we don?t have many horses
left in the service, we still expect to take care of our
vehicles, then our personally assigned gear and then
ourselves, in that order.

Then there are traditions that still exist, and are scarcely
noticed. Golf is one of those. Prior to WWII, the officer
corps had more than its fair share of wealthy members. They
liked golf, but in order to justify golf courses on Army
land, more had to play golf than just the wealthy. Golf was
encouraged as a healthy pastime for the whole Army, and as
this gradually seeped into the civilian world, it ceased to
be a mark of how unusual the army was in fondness for golf.

There are traditions which have become famous from the
movies, such as the Rangers with ?Leave no man behind? in
the Ranger Creed. Exposure to this has led to many soldiers
thinking this is just the normal way of doing business.

However, what is certainly the most famous tradition of the
Army is calling cadence. This spread to other services and
nation and even outside of the armed forces. A cadence is a
beat that helps soldiers perform a task in unison.
Originally this might mean marching or loading a musket. The
modern use of the term refers to a chant credited to a
private Ducksworth in 1944, in which each time the soldier?s
left foot hit the ground, he would repeat words called out
by the soldier who was leading the cadence. In the original
case, it was a chant that started with ?Sound off! One, two,
Sound off, Three four? with variations in timing and content
to keep interest up. It was a means of inspiring tired
troops into a bit more enthusiasm. Now there are hundreds of
elaborate cadences, some of which are tied to Army or unit
traditions, others of which are common throughout the Armed
Forces. Seldom will anyone watch a military movie without
some sign of cadence being called.

For more information on the US ARMY please check out the
author's site at http://USARMY.COM

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Today it seems like there's a martial arts school on every
block and many of them are of dubious quality. Most of the
students are children, and they're taught some form of
combat sport. Some schools offer self defense training or
promise a good workout, but few teach real combat martial
arts. There was a time though when people did learn the
practical skills they needed to survive a real street fight.
Among the few instructors who truly understood combat
martial arts and self defense was Charlie Nelson who took
what he learned during World War II, and used it prepare the
average citizen for hand to hand combat.

Charlie Nelson's story begins in upstate New York where he
grew up in a Catholic orphanage, and he joined the United
States Marine Corp at the age of 19. While with the Marines
he would receive the best close combat education possible.
Before any close combat training, Charlie was good boxer.
The first chance he had he joined Marine boxing team. This
is when he learned from Colonel Anthony Drexel Biddle who
had trained Marines in hand to hand combat for World War I.
Biddle, and was teaching FBI agents at Quantico at the time.

As fate would have it, while at Quantico, Nelson would bunk
with John Styers an expert in blade combat who would later
author Cold Steel an excellent book on close combat with
weapons. It was probably here that Nelson first learned the
truth about self defense that would shape his life long view
on combat; a street fight is completely different animal
than a sports match.

Colonel Biddle wouldn't be Nelson's only teacher while in
the Marines though. He would train with Sergeant Patrick
Kelly who had served with the Fourth Marines stationed in
China. Kelly had trained under Dermott O'Neill who also
served in the city of Shanghai which at the time had the
well earned reputation as the most violent city in the
world. The Marines along with troops and police officers
from many other nations assigned to the international city
regularly battled violent street gangs and other criminals
as they tried to maintain law and order as well prevent
insurgences from taking the city. It was here the Marines
would learn many important lessons from William Ewart
Fairbairn and the Shanghai police department.

Even though Nelson wouldn't meet Fairbairn directly,
Fairbairn had a profound influence on how Nelson would learn
to fight. During Fairbairn's time as a police officer in
Shanghai, he made an extensive study of many Asian martial
arts in an effort to create a simple and effective combat
martial arts system. He drew heavily on his Judo and Jujutsu
experience, and stripped away any unnecessary ritual and
movement, revealing a simple system for combat called
Defendu. In addition to hand to hand combat training he also
taught effective shooting and edged weapons methods (the
Fairbairn fighting knife). He would later train spies and
commandos in WWII. Nelson would draw on all of his
influences in order to create his system for self defense,
but he always gave credit to his mentors.

After serving honorably in WWII which included taking part
in the battle of Guadalcanal with the First Marine Division
Nelson retuned to New York and setup the "Charlie Nelson's
School of Self Defense Combat Jujitsu and Karate." At the
second floor school on West 72 Street in New York City the
students would learn how to street fight, and Nelson
abandoned traditional martial arts uniforms in favor of
street clothes because he said that what people really wore
when they fought. Every move he taught could be used by
anyone regardless of size or strength, and all his training
scenarios were grounded in reality based of his research
into actual crimes. He taught people how to "fight not play
games".

Charles Nelson like some many others of his generation is no
longer with us, but his work lives on with us in The Red
Manual. The book is filled with useful techniques that will
work against even the most violent assaults. Nelson makes
martial arts practical to for the average citizen and
teaches them how to deal with attackers armed with knifes,
baseball bats, and even firearms. Even experienced martial
artists like former Army Ranger and police officer Carl
Cestari was taken down by his dirty fighting techniques by a
much older Nelson. Cestari was so impressed he would become
certified in Nelson's system and include many of his
techniques in his own. Unfortunately not everyone took
notice of Nelson's system, but if people did the criminals
would be the ones living in fear. Nelson's methods of self
defense are all but forgotten.

There are a few who still teach some of the principles
handed down by these for fathers of modern day self defense
and reality martial arts. One such organization is The Self
Defense Company. A global network of instructors dedicated
to teaching the systems of proven self defense in programs
that combine these valuable methods of combat with modern
day systems of training.

This article is courtesy of the Self Defense Network
featuring Martial Arts in Renton Washington, Martial Arts in
United Arab Emirates and Martial Arts in Alberta Canada.

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