Army History Magazine

Summer 2023 Edition

October 2023

In the Summer 2023 issue of Army History, I am pleased to present two engaging articles, a great selection of book reviews, a visit to the 82d Airborne Division War Memorial Museum, and a look at a unique Army artifact.

The first article, by Alexandre Caillot, explores the activities of the 17th Vermont and 31st Maine Volunteer Infantries before and during the Second Battle of Petersburg. These units mostly were made up of later enlistees and those snapped up by the draft. Other Army soldiers who had been in the service longer often maligned these "late comers." Later, historians disparaged them as well. However, as the author shows, the soldiers in these particular units acquitted themselves well, enduring hardships, forced marches, and brutal battles.

The second article, by Ned Holt, an active-duty Army officer stationed in Okinawa, Japan, examines the role of the 175th Military Police Battalion during the riots in Kansas City, Missouri, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Holt details the planning, deployment, riot patrols, and eventual recall of this Missouri Army National Guard unit. He shows how preparation, planning, and execution of said plans help these troops accomplish their mission in very difficult circumstances.

This issue's Museum Feature pays a visit to the 82d Airborne Division War Memorial Museum at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and offers a glimpse both inside and outside of the museum. The Artifact Spotlight highlights a rare artifact captured during the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Many ISIS fighters wear such rings, and Syrian allies presented this particular example was to the commanding general of XVIII Airborne Corps and Combined Joint Task Force-INHERENT RESOLVE.

In the last issue, I mentioned that we were planning on publishing an article on the battle for Mosul, Iraq in 2016-2017. This article his currently held up in security review but we hope to be able to publish it in the upcoming Fall or Winter 2023 editions.

Readers of Army History may notice that the next few issues will be coming out very close together. This is due to our continuing efforts to get back on track as far as our production schedule is concerned. We hope to resume a normal publishing schedule with regular on time releases early in the new year.

I would also like to encourage our audience to keep an eye out for our Fall 2023 issue as Army History will be celebrating its 40th anniversary. We are very proud of this upcoming milestone and plan to have a couple of celebratory special features. A lot has changed in the last forty years and Army History continues to evolve as we work to provide engaging, interesting, and timely content.

I will end by reminding readers that the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War is approaching that we are still looking for submissions to highlight this important period in our nation's history.

Bryan J. Hockensmith
Managing Editor