SIACHEN GLACIER

The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas, just northeast of the point where the line of control between India and Pakistan ends. It is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world’s non-polar regions. It falls from an altitude of 18,875 feet above sea level down to 11,875 feet above sea level at its terminus. The glacier’s region is the highest battleground on Earth, where Pakistan and India have fought intermittently since April 1984. A cease-fire went into effect in 2003. Even before then, more soldiers were killed every year due to severe weather conditions than enemy fire. India built the world’s highest helipad on the glacier at Point Sonam, 21,000 feet above sea level, to supply its troops. India’s Sonam post is the highest permanently manned post in the world. In 1997, the Indian army established an STD-PCO (subscriber trunk dialing-public call office) to enable soldiers stationed on the glacier to call home. From 1997 until it was replaced by cell service in 2009, it was the world’s highest public telephone booth.

HELIPAD AT SONAM POST ON SIACHEN GLACIER

VETERAN POPULATION BY CONFLICT PERIOD

SHORTEST WAR IN HISTORY

The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted around 40 minutes, and is the shortest war in history. The immediate cause of the war was the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 and the subsequent succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash.

"CAFE GROUND-ZERO" AKA THE PENTAGON HOT DOG STAND

During the Cold War, the Russians always at least 2 missiles aimed at the hot dog stand in the Pentagon’s center courtyard. The Russians thought the hot dog stand was the Pentagon’s most top-secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around the hot dog stand. Reportedly, by using satellite imagery, the Soviets could see groups of U.S. military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance to an underground bunker where the officers going to get their top-secret briefings in a protected area. The hot dog stand was torn down in 2006, and was replaced with a similar structure. The story of Café Ground Zero is typically told to pentagon tourists by tour guides.

CAFE GROUND ZERO

BAT BOMBS

Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40-mile radius. The incendiaries, which were set on timers, would then ignite and start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target. The bat bomb was conceived by a Pennsylvania dentist named Lytle S. Adams, a friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Adams submitted it to the White House in January 1942, where it was subsequently approved by President Roosevelt on the advice of Donald Griffin. By March 1943, a suitable species had been selected. The project was considered serious enough that Louis Fieser, the inventor of military napalm, designed 0.6-ounce and one-ounce incendiary devices to be carried by the bats. A series of tests to answer various operational questions were conducted. In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on May 15, 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released. The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range. More tests were scheduled for mid-1944 but the program was cancelled by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King when he heard that it would likely not be combat ready until mid-1945.

BAT BOMB CANNISTER

Errant bats from the experimental bat bomb set fire to the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Based in New Mexico

USS PHOENIX - GENERAL BELGRANO

USS Phoenix (CL-46), was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn-class cruiser family. After World War II the ship was transferred to Argentina and was ultimately renamed General Belgrano in 1956. General Belgrano was sunk during the Falklands War in 1982 by the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror, the only ship to have been sunk in combat by a nuclear-powered submarine during wartime.

CJTF - OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE AND OPERATION ROUNDUP

B-1 STRIKE ON ISIS CAVE IN ATSHANAN MOUNTAINS, IRAQ ON 15-DEC-2018

Last "Strike" release was for week of Dec. 9 - Dec. 15. Now that President Trump has ordered withdrawal from Syria, are air operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve coming to an end? (JKS)

STRIKE:

A strike, as defined in the coalition release, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect in that location.  For example, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined.

ENGAGEMENT:

An engagement is a separate item that has been destroyed.

WAR ON ISIS/ISIL

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military operation name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including both the campaign in Iraq and the campaign in Syria.

CJTF-OIR OPERATIONS
DATES	STRIKES	ENGAGEMENTS
1-6 Oct 2018	70	102
7-13 Oct 2018	137	225
14-20 Oct 2018	70	109
21-27 Oct 2018	188	293