The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-16

famous WAAC or her Qay, CroSBeu the Euphrates on similar bridge. Caesars engineers were expert in building Cor digging) trenches and erecting streets barricades .. The 73 miles of fortified wall which Hadrlan erected in England was started in 122 A. D. and completed in 126 A. D.
 As regards the Signal Corps {. Caesar sent back to Rome via car- rier pigeon the reports of his Gal- lie campaign. |. And we all know the story of the runner who re- ported the battle of Marathon In 400 B. O., then dropped dead True, there were no planes before .he goth Century, but the ancient Per- sians had an air "blitz" all their own. They had trained falcons which would swoop down and scratch out the eyes of vAe eremy troops The Greeks, Pei -.ans, Egyptians and Chaldeans all used military maps, and Genghis Khan, that clever Mongolian, had a troop of Chinese topographers who pre- ceded him on all campaigns and mapped out the terrain over which the Khan intended to fight.
 Heavy artillery was known to the Romans with their Ballista, which had a range of one-half mile, and their Onaga, which had a range of 600 yards Tn 1881 connoneers were firing 100 ID. boulders dis- tance of 900 yards.
 Alexander of Macedonia organized the first squads and platoons in any army up to that time, calling these units phalanXes How ever, probably the first squad or- ganization on record in history Is described upon the tomb of 5ebek- Kha, an Egyptian soldier who served in the army of Pharoah Seo- stress III about 1900 B. c. This soldier has recorded on his tomb the fact that for distinguished serv- ice he was appointed an attend- ant of the king (bodyguard), "and Ills Majesty caused that l should render service as a warrior behind and beside his Majesty, with six men in the court"
 Chaplains are not new in the Army Each Christian knight during the CrusadeS brought along his own private chaplain |. Oliver Cromwell recruited a regi- nent of cavalry known as the "Old 1ro:s.des," most members Of which were clergymen Bishop Le. onidas Polk, an outstanding South- ern clergyman, rose to the rank of General in the Confederate Army.
 Rifle Grenades were used at the siege of stettin fin 1877 and the men assigned to firing the grenaies were kfinown as grenadiers :. Caminelli Vitelli, an Italian, was ex. perimenting with pistols way back oin 1540 and the first bomb was invented by another Italian named shrapnel was used by the British at the battle of Crecy and the fore- runner of our present rifle S.~ht was 6 part of each crosSbow.
 Hash marks" came into vogue iu the Continental Army in the form of a strip of white cloth sewn to .he shoulder Of t..c unifrom. Each strip Of cloth represented three years of service We get the word chcyron from the French "chevrc," meaning a goat-probably because the inverted chevron Of the French troops resembld goats horns Our word colonel Is de. rived from the Latin "coionna," meaning a column and indicating the colonel was commander of a column The co:porals chev. rons date back to the Middle Ages when the artisans who worked on the construction of q castle were permitted to wear two inverted VS Representing the castle roof) as distinction.
 The earliest known form Of mili- tray congcr!ptIon dates back to 200