Infinite Wisdom

"Infantry is the least spectacular arm of the army, yet without it you cannot win a battle."

--	Bernard Law Montgomery

La Triviata

• Louis M. Nuttman, who was born on January 28, 1874, graduated from West Point in 1895, attained a brigadier generalship during World War I, and died on November 4, 1978, at the age of 104 years, nine months, and five days, which makes him the longest lived West Pointer in history.


• In general, trained carrier pigeons, such as were commonly used in most armies from the late-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, were capable of carrying messages at the rate of about 1 kilometer per minute.


• The terrorist attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, occurred exactly 60 years after construction began on the building, on September 11, 1941


• As a result of a series of successful engagements against the French in 1794, Capt. John Maude, of HMS Leopard, a 50 gun ship, realized £33,144 in prize money, over 227 times what the Royal Navy paid him each year.


• So many men attempted to join the army after the “Panic of 1873” that fewer than 20-percent were accepted.


• One of the more interesting recruits who came forward to join the Spanish Foreign Legion when it was formed in 1920 was a Dutch-Javanese woman, “a slender blonde, sweet of voice, and green-eyed” seeking front line duty.


• Although 106 men had graduated from West Point by the end of the War of 1812 (1812-1815), only one alumnus was killed in action during the conflict, 1st Lt. Alexander J. Williams (USMA ’11), son of a former superintendent, who fell at Ft. Erie on August 15, 1814.


• Visiting a British submarine in 1917, Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal Sir William Robertson inquired of the boat’s commander as to whether he liked life aboard the tiny, cramped, dirty vessel, and, upon receiving an affirmative reply, said “Umph, well you’re damned easily pleased.”

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