Well, was it a nuke, or wasn’t it?

Back in 1965, the Navy conducted a series of tests (two underwater ones at San Clemente Is and three surface shots) that simulated an atomic bursts, by building a really, really big pile of conventional explosives (TNT) and yelled “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” while ships were parked on concentric rings around the penninsula of Kaho`olawe Island.

More info on Sailor Hat here.

I know of this, because we used to use the Navy training film to fill classroom time while the training devices for the team trainer were down.

Maybe they just stuffed lots of semtex in a hole and fired it up, just to see what we’d do…It’s called OPDEC (Operational Deception) if they did…

The “Lost Battalion,” the 1st Battalion of the 308th of the 77th “Liberty” Divison of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was trapped behind the German Lines in the Argonne Forest from the 2nd thru the 8th of October. This would be the day, 88 years later, that they would have been back safely form the fight.

Many sites on the net are out there, here is one.

Here is a well done movie I saw a few months back, where I first heard of the story.

600 men went in, led my Major Whittlesey, 200 walked out. Quite a story of tenacity in a pretty hopeless situation. 3 Medal of Honors, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses. That list speaks of plenty of herosim.Secret Passage movie download