Veterans of the U.S. military

At one time, in the last century, Americans dabbed charcoal-tinted war paint on their faces and attempted to subdue a combined imperial and civil conflict in Vietnam. The fight was ideological mostly, as wars usually are, and the Americans got lost in the jungle. With the help of helicopters and other devices, the US troops were found and returned home. A demilitarized zone (the DMZ) eventually dissolved and a north Vietnam combined with a south Vietnam. Peace A legacy of

Tomb of Cyrus the Great (all photos are my own) “O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones.” Quote from Cyrus Darius the Great and Palace Guard (National Museum, Tehran) South central Iran, near the new city of Shiraz, is the location of three magnificent edifices, shrouded in mystery, that are treasures of not only Persian cu

The soldiers, some of them anyway, crouched behind their dead horses, huddled together on a bluff by the Little Bighorn River in Montana. As noted previously, the Battle of the Little Bighorn and General Custer's Last Stand have been reported from many viewpoints. Accounts vary and the memories of the storytellers can rightly be questioned and criticized. I came across one not-so-well-known narrative in a highly recommended book, The Great West, edited by Charles Neider (1

I normally am not so affected emotionally when visiting a war memorial that the experience lodges in the back of my mind for months, maybe years, after the encounter. I was afflicted/affected, even sensing a welling of tears, while wandering amongst the hills, grasses, and gravestones scattered about the U.S. Park Service's monument in Montana dedicated to the soldiers and warriors who fought the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. This is not only a place that remem