Tanker's Tuesday: SOVIET TANKS / War Thunder

Could Russia conquer Scandinavia? (2020)

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2020 occurs on Monday, May 25. 

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

Early Observances of Memorial Day

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed Slaves

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Concord/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

Decoration Day

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.

Confederate Memorial Day is still celebrated in several states and will be on Sunday, April 26, 2020 in Florida; on Monday, April 27, 2020 in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and on May 11, 2020, in parts of South Carolina. The practice of commemorating the Confederacy became even more controversial after massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

Memorial Day Traditions

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

Americans also observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a tradition that began with a World War I poem. On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because Memorial Day weekend—the long weekend comprising the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself—unofficially marks the beginning of summer.

Han Solo's DL-44 Heavy Blaster Replica

As an old (gear-head) Traveller player I have an actual naval cutlass , thinking this may make a suitable sci-fi sidearm .....

US Navy Mark VI patrol boat at DIMDEX 2018 - Qatar

The Mark VI is a class of patrol boat in service with the United States Navy, designed to patrol riverine and littoral waters. 

Range‎: ‎750 nmi (860 mi; 1,390 km) at 25 knots; ...

Beam‎: ‎20.5 ft (6.2 m)

Displacement‎: ‎144,000 lb (65,000 kg) (72 tons)

Propulsion‎: ‎MTU 16V2000M94 (x2), 5,200 HP

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Tanker's Tuesday: Dangerous Missions: Tank Crews

In WWII, American tank crews duked it out with Nazi Panzers in a high-explosive duel to the death. The German tanks had thicker armor and better guns than the mainstay of the U.S. armored forces, the M-4 Sherman, in Season 1, "Tank Crews".

The Greatest Star Trek Series You're Not Watching -- Full Episode!

Mecha Monday: Heavy Gear cinematic (part 01)

Tanker's Tuesday : FRENCH TANKS / War Thunder

This video is the latest episode of our "Climbing the ranks" series. In these videos we take a quick stroll through a nation's tech tree, highlighting the most interesting vehicles that you definitely should check out. Today we are going through the ground vehicles of… France.

Mecha Monday Free Heavy Gear Blitz! Field Manual

The Heavy Gear Blitz Field Manual - Core Rulebook Revised is the current rules set for Heavy Gear Blitz. It adds a new and exciting style of game-play to Heavy Gear Blitz! This book takes the field test rules featured in the first 3 issues of our Gear UP eZine and revises the Locked & Loaded rulebook sections with new rules, flow charts for ease of use and new datacards for the Heavy Gear Blitz! miniatures.

The Core Heavy Gear Blitz miniature game rulebook for all players; Requires the use of the Locked & Loaded Rulebook (Northern, Peace River Defense Force, or Leagueless Army Lists), Black Talon Return to Cat's Eye (Black Talon, C.E.F. or Caprice Army Lists), Terra Nova Gambit (Utopian Army List), Perfect Storm NuCoal Field Guide (NuCoal or P.A.K. Army Lists), Forged in Fire Southern Field Guide (Southern Army Lists), or Dream Pod 9's free Gear Garage Software available on our website to build your armies. Also requires the use of six-sided dice (not included) and Dream Pod 9 miniatures. For two or more players, age 8 and older.

Heavy Gear Blitz Field Manual Free

Latest ROCO/1/8th Scale Haul

Picked this up on line from a guy on one of the FB groups I'm on, was a very sweet deal !

Tankers Tuesday: German Invasion of the USSR

On June the 22nd, 1941, the Wehrmacht proceeded with the so-called 'Operation Barbarossa', the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. While able to conquer large amounts of Soviet territory in the early stages of the war, the tides turned for Nazi Germany with the failed siege of the Soviet capital,

Mecha Monday: Heavy Gear Wiki

Heavy Gear is a game universe published since 1994 by Canadian publisher Dream Pod 9. It includes a tabletop tactical wargame, a role-playing game and a lesser known combat card game (Heavy Gear Fighter). The setting is also known through the PC-game incarnations published by Activision in 1997 and 1999, developed after Activision lost the rights to the Battletech/MechWarrior series. It also spawned a 40-episodes, 3D-animated TV series in 2001, which featured a much simplified version of the universe developed in the role-playing game.

Heavy Gear Wiki

Happy Traveller Day!

I kind of got into Traveller backwards, I got talked into playing the original Striker and discovered because of it this very rich background universe. I played that for years untill I moved back to Texas where no one was playing it, they were playing GURPS however....from there it was easy 　 I've found that I like the background history in Gurps Traveller even more than the classic (each to his taste I know 　 )