American troops training on a Hotchkiss 1914 machine gun in a snow-covered field.

Soldats américains devant un hôpital de campagne - Bataille des Ardennes - 1944

American moral reformers have experienced a lot of fails, but one of the most funny ones has got to be that time when they inadvertently encouraged more soldiers to seek gay men for sex while cracking down on female prostitution during World War One.

So, imagine: New York, 1917 & 1918. The city, being the major port, is filled with soldiers from all over the country. Some of them have never been in a city like this, and all of them are away from their families. And New York offers a lot of vices. 

Suddenly, moral reformers realise that these hordes of unsupervised young men spend their free time on all sorts of entertainment, but namely on prostitutes. Furthermore, god knows what they are up to in Europe (where gay subculture is much bigger than in the States, by the way). Something has to be done. It wasn’t just fears: it was an actual problem, and a big one. In just twelve weeks, according to the Committee for Civilian Cooperation in Combating Venereal Disease, there were 21,742 new cases of venereal disease reported. It incapacitated soldiers and cost the government to keep them in hospitals for up to eight weeks.

And so, the government and different civilian organisations, including YMCA (which inadvertently created gay colonies, but that’s a tale for another time), started a big campaign against venereal diseases. They educated soldiers about their dangers and enforced laws banning their main cause: prostitution. Well, female prostitution.

You see, back then people did not really think that homosexual sex was dangerous. On the contrary, it was perceived as less dangerous, because of course only women could carry venereal diseases. And another interesting detail about that time is that working class men often had sex with fairies and still considered themselves straight. Fairies, or inverts, were the most visible part of New York's gay community: effeminate men who occupied saloons, dance halls, cafeterias and streets, often offering their services to men. As long as a fairy played the “female” role in intercourse and a straight man (who they used to call trade) maintained his masculinity by performing the “male” role, everything was fine and no one was judged or ostracised. In working class society, people tended to have a gender identity rather than a sexual identity. There was no division between heterosexual and homosexual men, but rather between masculine males (“normal” men, often including queers, homosexuals who also maintaned the masculine role, but weren't fairies) and effeminate ones (fairies), who were basically regarded as women and/or third sex combining both male and female elements.

Right, and here are soldiers listening and reading about how they should save their morality and protect their health, and how dangerous prostitutes and simply “loose” women are. The campaign rarely focused on sex without a condom: it was mostly about the dangers of sex with a woman. Soldiers processed all that, understood that they could catch syphilis or other diseases only from women… and went on to have sex with gay men. Who of course were very enthusiastic about confirming that, yes, any man would be absolutely safe with them.

Worth noting that fairies gradually became more available in New York and other big cities during the war. Prostitution was pushed underground, many establishments closed, and the police and civil societies constantly persecuted women who they thought were prostitutes. They did not touch men, however, and suddenly noticed “an apparent increase in male perversion” involving soldiers everywhere. Oops. Sailors meeting fairies wasn’t uncommon before the war, but now they could be seen walking arm in arm and kissing on more or less dark streets. It was just easier for men to find fairies than female prostitutes. Since it was basically the same for them, because the partner was feminine in any case, soldiers and simply working class New Yorkers moved from one option to another.

It was right after the war that the police and moral reformers actually paid attention to the “pervert problem” for the first time. Before that, there were only sporadic raids and arrests. Until the early 1920s, gay men were more actively and severely persecuted, but then focus shifted to other problems caused by Prohibition and for about a decade gay men enjoyed relative peace again.

Bayonets!

Six Days in Fallujah (2023)

I've never actually seen The Devil's Brigade aside from this scene but I'm pretty sure it's the greatest film in history.

Every time I set my VPN to the US I start getting tons of "join the army" ads. Girlie this ain't a good look, I literally just searched "American cultural imperialism", what makes you think I'd want to join the mf army???That's weird enough, but most of them prey on financially vulnerable people by saying that soldiers have access to healthcare and veterans have an easier time getting loans and stuff

Weird /s

Before Ms. Rosa Parks. Their was Sarah Keys Evans. Woman's army Corp private..✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 she was arrested for not giving up her seat. Look up her life story ✊🏾🖤🖤🖤

A group of yoongi Stan’s is called a yoonion

A goat, a mascot of one of the American regiments, wearing a gas mask, 21 November 1918.

Char M4A3 (76) Sherman à l'angle de la rue Schillingsstrasse et Trierbachweg dans le quartier de Gürzenich à Düren tirant sur des allemands retranchés – Campagne de la ligne Siegfried – Bataille de la forêt de Hürtgen – 14 décembre 1944

Photo via https://www.worldwarphotos.info/

You must direct the fire and movement of the entire element and resist the instinct to become just another gun in the fight.

Siege of Peking

September 20, 2023

Hell Let Loose (2019)

My personal experience getting into the US Army

The United States military, officially known as the United States Armed Forces, is the combined military forces of the United States of America. It is one of the largest and most powerful military forces in the world. The U.S. military is responsible for national defense and the protection of U.S. interests both domestically and internationally.