During the decade 1950 - 1960, US strategic thinking and the capabilities and limitations of our military arsenal drove the establishment of new bases on foreign soil, a development that offered new problems, as the risks of accidents offered unique diplomatic challenges. And accidents did happen, including two involving nuclear weapons at foreign bases in 1956.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.