99th Infantry Division (United States)

The 99th Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War II. It played a strategic role in the Battle of the Bulge when its inexperienced troops held fast on the northern shoulder of the German advance, refusing them access to the vital northern road network that led into Belgium.

The 99th Regional Support Command, which is the successor unit of the 99th Infantry Division, is a major general command under the US Army Reserve Command. The command provides base operations support to all Army Reserve Soldiers, units, facilities and equipment for the entire Northeast Region of the Army Reserve, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Base operations includes personnel administration, finance, facilities management, logistics management, maintenance, public affairs and legal support. The 99th Regional Support Command is headquartered at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ. The current commander is Major General Margaret W. Boor, who assumed command Oct. 1, 2013, replacing MG William D. Razz Waff, who was then reassigned as the Headquarters, Department of the Army Deputy G-1, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1.

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In most modern militaries, a division tends to be the smallest combined arms unit capable of independent operations; this is due to its self-sustaining role as a unit with a range of combat troops and suitable combat support forces, which can be arranged into various organic combinations.

While the focus of this article is on army divisions, in naval usage division has a completely different meaning, referring either to an administrative/functional sub-unit of a department (e.g., fire control division of the weapons department) aboard naval and coast guard ships, shore commands, and in naval aviation units (including navy, marine corps, and coast guard aviation), to a sub-unit of several ships within a flotilla or squadron, or to two or three sections of aircraft operating under a designated division leader.

Ferrari Sheppard

Ferrari Sheppard (born March 3) is an American journalist and cultural critic based in Chicago. His notable work includes an exposé for Huffington Post, in which he states "there is no Palestinian-Israeli conflict; there is only oppression." Sheppard's article went viral on the internet and sparked controversy.

Life and career

Early life

Ferrari Sheppard was born Ferrari Elite Sheppard in Chicago and raised in Chicago. Sheppard spent his first year of high school in Greenwood, Mississippi with his grandmother.

Career

Aside from being a journalist, Sheppard is a visual artist, web-designer and briefly attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sheppard has conducted interviews with stars such as M.I.A., Erykah Badu, Saul Williams and Little Dragon for Stop Being Famous, a website he founded in 2009.

November 2014, Sheppard appeared on Anthony Bourdain's travel show The Getaway alongside Yasiin Bey. The pair traveled to Marrakesh, Morocco.

Social and political activism

2010–11: Haiti Earthquake

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties for any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces on the western front, and Germany was largely unable to replace them. German personnel, and later Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement), also sustained heavy losses.

Different forces referred to the battle by different names. The Germans referred to it officially as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine") or usually Ardennenoffensive or Rundstedt-Offensive, while the French named it the Bataille des Ardennes ("Battle of the Ardennes"). The Allies called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was coined by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps and became the most widely used name for the battle.

Loyalty Day

Loyalty Day is observed on May 1 in the United States. It is a day set aside for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.

Loyalty Day is celebrated with parades and ceremonies in several U.S. communities.

History

The holiday was first observed in 1921, during the First Red Scare. It was originally called "Americanization Day," and it was intended to replace the May 1 ("May Day") celebration of the International Workers' Day, which commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago.

During the Second Red Scare, it was recognized by the U.S. Congress on April 27, 1955, and made an official reoccurring holiday on July 18, 1958 (Public Law 85-529). President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1, 1955, the first observance of Loyalty Day. In 1958 Eisenhower urged Congress to move Child Health Day to the First Monday in October, to avoid conflicting with Loyalty Day Loyalty Day has been recognized with an official proclamation every year by every president since its inception as a legal holiday in 1958.