By Aaron White As a CIA helicopter was loaded with evacuees and lifted off from a rooftop in Saigon in the spring of 1975, an era came to an end. This moment signaled the end of nineteen years of the American war in Vietnam. It marked the end of the jungle combat and long deployments away from home for some. For others, it was the end of years of protests for peace. But it also marked the beginning of a new chapter in America, a chapter defined by veterans coming home--some, only to be met with scorn and distain by their fellow countrymen. But slowly over months and years emotions softened, and there was a need to honor the veterans of Vietnam for their service, heroism, and valor.          Connecticut began celebrating its Veterans a decade after the end of the war. Starting in Wallingford, plans had started being drawn up for a parade in 1973. The parade was eventually held down Center Street in 1985. This marked when Vietnam veterans be...

  By Jason W. Smith My country, ‘tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty Of thee I sing The words floated in the air, its melody carried by a school band over the newly-christened Monitor Square on the morning of May 30, 1906—Memorial Day. Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From every mountain side Let Freedom ring. The assembled crowd must have found those words telling as they recalled Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a New Haven shipbuilder and—apropos of this occasion—financier of the revolutionary ironclad warship USS Monitor . The ship, designed by Swedish inventor John Ericsson with a rotating turret atop an iron-plated hull, met the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia on March 9, 1863 at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Though the battle was a draw, the Monitor had protected the Union blockade. If not for the Monitor , the Morning Journal and Courier observed in 1901, “ there is a question whether our arms might have been successful in achieving the en...

By. Oliver Reinoso Tryon's Raid Following France's entrance into the American Revolutionary War in 1778, the British powers in New York City were fundamentally concerned about protecting the city and its harbor. The military action in the northern states was diminished substantially, and the armies of George Washington and Sir Henry Clinton observed each other watchfully in New York. Washington based his resistance in New Jersey and at West Point, where he protected necessary correspondences and supply links. In 1779,  Clinton hatched an plan that he trusted would persuade General Washington to move his armed force with the goal that he may be occupied with a "general and definitive action." He initially propelled an undertaking in late May that seized Stony Point, New York and Verplanck's Point, opposite sides of a critical traverse of the Hudson River. In spite of the fact that Washington moved extra troops into New York, Clinton felt the positio...