What might be of interest this year is
"12 Strong," based in part on the book
Horse Soldiers about U.S. early involvement
in Afghanistan.

It relates Special Forces linking up with
tribesmen prior to the U.S.'s main
involvement in Afghanistan.

I had the book but unfortunately
never got around to reading it
and loaned it out.

While not the writer for this one, what
caught my attention was that Taylor
Sheridan is in it. He's the writer for
Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind
River.

Right now I'm watching him as Deputy
Chief Hale as I catch up on "Sons of
Anarchy." I'm always years behind
in seeing TV series.

How's that for thread drift right off the bat!

I read the book when it came out and was impressed.
Glad to see it go to the big screen.
A very interesting part of our history not many people were aware of.

Warning however: I just watched the
movie trailer and maybe it's more
Hollywood for action than the actual
events.

Still, it should be interesting.

My wife and I just saw "12 Strong" this afternoon and we both rank it as the best movie of the year so far. It's that good.

The blu-ray will be released on May 1st and it can also be streamed now on Amazon (for $19.99).

I’m no historian, nor expert, but can recommend the movie. I thought it was well done and informative.

Saw the heading & thought it was about the civil war movie with John Wayne & William Holden. Saw that on the big screen with my mom & dad when I was a kid & a bunch of times on TV. Still fun to watch.

When I see that it will be on TV, I tune in for the opening and the song. Haven't watched the movie in a long time, but the theme song is one of my favorites

__________________
Minimize the variables

Many may not know that the Horse Cavalry existed in the U. S. Army through WWII. But to the best of my knowledge, never saw any action during the war. There are still a few horses left in the Army for historical/ceremonial purposes.

When I was in the 1st Cavalry Division back in 1981-84 we had the Horse Platoon, which was a ceremonial unit of Indian War era troopers. I'm assuming they're still around.

I know that both Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston both have ceremonial horse cavalry units. They dress up in Indian War-era uniforms and march in parades, etc.

Three things, only one to do with the original topic.
"John Wayne" raided farther west than he wanted to keep from running into Forest.
I thought at one time there were some regular army troops at Ft. Davis keeping the cavalry outfit going for tourists and such.
I thought I read somewhere that some special forces troops were getting instruction on mule packing when 9/11 happened.
You guys will know a lot more than me about these subjects.
Just drifting around....

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Some men, you just can't reach

The 26th Cavalry Regiment actually engaged in the last horse mounted charge against the Japanese on Bataan in January, 1942.

I remember that the Poles mounted a horse cavalry charge against German infantry in 1939. I don't think that worked out too well for the horses, but it did slow down the German advance briefly. I didn't know of any other WWII cavalry actions. However, the Japanese did have horses with riders in use during their occupation of Manchuria and China. Uncertain if they were called Cavalry or not.

One of my uncles started out in the Horse Cavalry was retrained as a combat engineer and got to go to Anzio. It was no picnic for the Engineers in any part of Italy.

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Common sense isn't.

Wife and I saw the movie after downloading from Amazon. We enjoyed it. Pretty amazing feat those Green Berets pulled off.

I got a couple of good chuckles about using maps to drop bombs from B-52s.

Will definitely rewatch.

__________________
Mike
S&WCA #3065