Wilcox BOSS Xe

Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Happy Independence Day!

Sunday, July 4th, 2021

Nothing memorializes American independence in the national zeitgeist better than this painting by artist John Trumbull.

Although the war for independence from Great Britain had begun in April of 1775, it took over a year for the politicians to catch up and ratify a unified statement all of the colonies could get behind.

On this Independence Day think about those Americans who fought the good fight, in spite of a lack of conviction by many. Their actions honor us as a nation.

FirstSpear Friday Focus: Battle of San Juan 123rd Anniversary and Rough Rider T-Shirt

Friday, July 2nd, 2021

On July 1, 2021, the 123rd anniversary of the epic battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba. FirstSpear pays tribute the Rough Riders and the gallant charge made that day to secure the critical heights. This charge ultimately led to freeing the oppressed peoples of Cuba to pursue their own destiny.

This iconic photo was taken that day after the successful charge. Legendary famous Law Man and Troop CO “Buckey” O’Neil once said, “War is argument, best way to settle it is to kill the other fella.” This emboldened the Rough Riders to continue forward to victory even though he was killed in the assault.

FirstSpear has created an iconic, limited edition commemorative T-shirt with this photo and quote.

For more information, check out: www.first-spear.com/rough-rider.

SCUBAPRO Sunday – Audie Leon Murphy

Sunday, June 20th, 2021

Audie Murphy is one of America’s greatest sons. I don’t really know how else to say it; it seems no matter what you say, it won’t to do him the justice he deserves. Audie was born on 20 June 1925; he came from a large family and his father abandoned them and his mother died when he was a teenager. He left school to pick cotton and hunt rabbits to help support his brothers and sisters. When the U.S. was attacked by the Japanese on 7 December 1941, he tried to enter the Army, Navy, and then the Marine Corp (with the help of his sister who forged his paperwork) and was turned away by them all for being too small. He was eventually allowed to join the Army. Murphy would be awarded every medal for valor the U.S. has in addition to awards and honors from France and Belgium.

Like a lot of people after any war, Audie suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, (even thought that wasn’t a thing back then) at one point it got so bad that he slept with a gun under his pillow, and he also had night terrors so bad he started sleeping in the room above his garage. Most of his nightmares had to do with losing so many of his friends during the war. His passion to save his friends gave him the courage to accomplish all the heroic acts that earned him the decorations he received. His awards include the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star X 2, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star X 2, and Purple Heart X 2, just to name the top few.

In his second career, in Hollywood, he would make over 40 films, including starring as himself in the movie ‘To Hell and Back’. But, like all movies, the book is much better.

I knew I couldn’t do his story justice in the couple of pages I write, so I encourage you to read his book. He was driven more by his love of family and friends than anything else in his life.

Happy Birthday US Army

Monday, June 14th, 2021

The Army is the United States’ first national institution, serving since 1775. Here’s to another 246 years!

Video by SGT Ian Vega-Cerezo,
32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command

National Museum of the US Army to Reopen on June 14

Monday, June 14th, 2021

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army announced today that the National Museum of the United States Army will reopen on June 14, the Army’s 246th birthday. The museum, which is located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, officially opened in November 2020, but was closed temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“June will be a month of celebration as we recognize Army Heritage Month, the Army’s birthday and the reopening of the Army museum,” said John Whitley, acting Secretary of the Army. “As the museum tells the history of our American Soldiers and honors their accomplishments and sacrifices, we will also reflect on their more recent service to our nation, including their contributions to COVID-19 and disaster-relief efforts, and the protection they provide us all.”

The Museum is the first comprehensive and truly national museum to capture, display and interpret the Army’s history by telling stories through the eyes of Soldiers. Its displays and interactive-learning exhibits illustrate the Army’s role in building and defending our nation, as well as Army humanitarian missions and technological and medical breakthroughs built on Army ingenuity.

In addition to the galleries and exhibits, the museum features a multisensory 300-degree theater, a tranquil rooftop garden and hundreds of historic treasures rarely or never-before-seen by the public.

Free, timed-entry tickets are now available through the museum’s website at www.theNMUSA.org. All tickets must be reserved in advance online, and there is a limit of five tickets per request.

The timed-entry tickets are part of the museum’s comprehensive plan, developed according to guidance from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Army’s Public Health Center, to protect the health of its visitors and staff.

For more information, including an interactive map, a list of exhibits, educational programs, a special events calendar and more, please visit www.theNMUSA.org.

By US Army Public Affairs

SCUBAPRO Sunday – First Combat Swimmer Watch

Sunday, June 13th, 2021

In 1860, Officine Panerai was founded in Florence, Italy. The business concentrated on precision instruments like compasses and other nautical equipment for the next sixty years. The Regia Marine, or Royal Italian Navy, came calling in the mid-1930s with a new contract request: a watch suitable for Italian frogmen’s underwater use—the elite Decima Flottiglia MAS Navy Divers. The Italian frogmen were highly skilled commandos specializing in underwater and seaborne attacks on Allied ships during World War II. Unfortunately, Panerai didn’t have a watchmaking facility, so they enlisted the help of a company that did: Rolex. Fortunately for them, Rolex had mastered the waterproof wristwatch with the legendary Rolex Oyster in the previous decade. Upsizing the Rolex Oyster to the wide 47mm case favored by Italian divers was a relatively easy task. The frogmen wanted an oversized watch with a large dial that could be read easily in any weather. Most men’s watches at the time were about 30-35mm in diameter, so a 47mm case was specifically designed for heavy military use rather than as a fashion statement. It was the epitome of “function over design.” They also made a large 60mm case that featured a unique rotating bezel with four studs to signify dive times. It was also capable of withstanding depths of up to 200 meters and an impressive eight-day power reserve, minimizing the frequency of having to wind it.

The first Panerai watches were supplied by Rolex in 1936, although they did not have the distinctive half-moon crown guards that are now associate with Panerai. They resembled older Rolex. The latest Panerai Reference 3646 was the first Panerai to feature the trademark 3,6,9,12 Panerai Radiomir dial developed by Rolex. (The prototype had solid bars at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions, as well as dots at the other hour markers.) The watch’s Radiomir name applied to the Radium material used to illuminate the hands and dial in the dark. Radium was used into the 1950s by watchmakers. Radium is a highly radioactive element that was famously discovered to have caused many female factory workers’ deaths.

Panerai and Rolex later introduced the crown guard to fix the burly dive watches’ only fundamental flaw. They had to be wound manually every day, and the gasket that kept the crown watertight wore out easily with use. The crown guard kept the seal snug and stable while also making the watch more waterproof. The later versions with crown guards were only produced in limited quantities (300), and today all original WWII-era Panerai watches are extremely valuable and collectible.

Panerai watches have illuminated the ocean’s deepest corners, assisting Italian Navy Frogmen on their underwater missions during World War II, and have remained a military secret until recently. On the 19th of December 1941, Italian Navy divers from the X Flottiglia MAS carried out what is known as the Raid on Alexandria. Six Italian frogmen – two per torpedo – straddled their seven-meter-long submersible torpedoes like underwater motorcycle drivers and single-handedly disabled the British battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth as the nearby Norwegian tanker Sagona, and nearly changed the course of the war. This new type of warfare scared the crap out of the Royal Navy.

What they didn’t know at the time was that attack was part of the elite 10th Light Flottila, whose underwater missions wreaked havoc in Alexandria and other Mediterranean objectives. The Italian Navy fleet, led by Fascist dictator Il Duce, was unable to match the British fleet’s size and had to rely on its commando of stealth divers. Between 1940 and 1943, these human torpedoes have performed around 25 missions in the Mediterranean. The commando was nicknamed the Floating Trojan Horse after an assault in Gibraltar’s waters. It was one of the most successful special operations groups in history, with a deadly reputation for its clandestine underwater torpedo operations. Winston Churchill remembered the deadly effectiveness of the “Italians in peculiar diving suits” who had managed to mount limpet bombs to the hulls of Britain’s battleships “with exceptional bravery and ingenuity” in a secret war speech given to a closed House of Commons in April 1942. “One cannot but respect the cold bravery and enterprise of these Italians,” even Admiral Cunningham had to admit.

The divers would direct their explosive cargo to the identified target and remove the delayed action limpet mines from the front of the pig and mount them to the hull of the battleships, using specially built Italian submersible torpedoes known as Siluri a Lenta Corsa (slow-moving torpedoes) but nicknamed pigs due to their poor and slow handling. In the Alexandria Raid case, the divers had to navigate metal nets erected by the British to prevent them from entering the harbor. The frogmen depend on novel luminous devices explicitly produced for the Italian Navy by a Florentine watchmaking company known as Panerai. Panerai was the sole supplier of measurement and precision underwater instruments, such as depth gauges, wrist compasses, detonators, and sights, as well as a substantial luminous waterproof wristwatch known as the Panerai Radiomir, which would gain a place in the iconography of watchmaking.

In 1949 Panerai switched to the less toxic element tritium for its watches and patented it under the Luminor trademark after the poisonous effects of radium were better known. The Panerai Luminor watch, launched in 1950, cemented the company’s reputation as a competent diver’s watchmaker. The huge crown-protecting bridge with a lever to improve the watch’s waterproof properties – something the Luminor family still bears today – was significantly different from the Radiomir model. In the late 1950s, Rolex sold their last watches to Panerai, who sold them to the Egyptian Navy. The Egyptian Navy commissioned a watch known as L’Egiziano in 1956 after reading about these exceptional Panerai watches. It’s an understatement to call this watch big. A large 60mm case featured a unique rotating bezel with four studs to signify immersion periods – capable of withstanding depths of up to 200 meters – and an impressive eight-day power reserve, minimizing the frequency of winding operations. This huge diving companion had a small second’s counter on the dial at 9 o’clock, in addition to the crown-protecting rig.

Rolex was still selling Submariner watches and had little interest in selling dive watches or movements to a rival at the time. As a result, Panerai was still relatively unknown in the watch world in the mid-1990s. Each year, they only produced a small number of watches. But it all began with the Panerai watches of the 1930s and 1940s, which were the first purpose-built Rolex dive watches. So, if you can find a Panerai dive watch from WW2, scoop it up as it should be worth a lot of money. Not like send your kid to college money but maybe an excellent keg party.

Dive watches have come a long way; not only can they monitor your air pressure, but they can tell you when to come up and what your body temperature and heart rate are and can use different dive formulas if you like to tell you all that. SCUBAPROS’s new A2 watch is a full dive computer, waterproof 120m and can do all the above, and it looks cool. Yes, they have come a long way.

What Do You Call It?

Saturday, June 12th, 2021

Did you refer to the Standard Form 65-C (Large) as a Shotgun Envelope or Holey Joe?

SIG SAUER Commemorates U.S. Army’s Birthday with Army Ranger Series Videos

Wednesday, June 9th, 2021

NEWINGTON, N.H., (June 9, 2021) – SIG SAUER, Inc. is proud to present a new four-part video series to commemorate the upcoming birthday of the U.S. Army on Monday, June 14th, and honor the prestigious U.S. Army Rangers with an inside look at the 2021 Best Ranger Competition.

“This year SIG SAUER was afforded the incredible opportunity to present custom M17 pistols as the official trophy pistols of the prestigious Best Ranger Competition,” said Jason St. John, Director, Government Products, SIG SAUER, Inc., and Sergeant First Class (Retired), U.S. Army Ranger. “Through this video series we recognize the U.S. Army and the incredible service and sacrifice of the entire U.S. Army Ranger regiment to our country.”

The SIG SAUER Best Ranger Video Series includes the following episodes:

Episode 1: Rangers Lead the Way: the already released video review of the history and foundation of the U.S. Army Rangers.

Episode 2: Honor: the newly released video reviews the inception of the famed Best Ranger Competition.

• Episode 3: 2021 Best Ranger Competition: an inside look at the grueling 3-day Best Ranger Competition to be released on the birthday of the U.S. Army, June 14th.

• Episode 4: Prestige: an interview with the 2021 Best Ranger Competition winners to be released on Friday, June 18th.

The U.S. Army Best Ranger Competition is a grueling competition that identifies the best, two-man U.S. Army Ranger team on a course that is designed to place extreme demand on each team’s physical, mental, technical and tactical skills and was held in Fort Benning, Georgia, April 16-18, 2021.

Learn more about the SIG Custom Works, U.S. Army Best Ranger Competition M17 Trophy Pistols.