Over 10,000 Greek mercenaries, hired to help seize the Persian throne, were suddenly abandoned deep in enemy territory in 401 BC after their commander was killed in battle.
Known as the Ten Thousand, these soldiers had been recruited by Cyrus the Younger. He intended to use their formidable fighting skills to depose his own brother, Artaxerxes II, and claim the Persian Empire for himself.
The decisive confrontation came at the Battle of Cunaxa. The Greek hoplites fought with discipline and courage, securing a victory on their section of the battlefield. However, Cyrus, in a reckless charge, was killed.
With Cyrus dead, the Greeks' purpose for being in Persia vanished. They were now a victorious army, yet stranded hundreds of miles from any friendly land, surrounded by a hostile empire.
Their situation worsened significantly when Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap, feigned friendship. He lured the senior Greek generals and officers into a trap under the guise of negotiations, then treacherously had them all executed.
Leaderless and facing what seemed like certain doom, the remaining Greeks could have surrendered. Instead, they found new resolve.
A younger officer, an Athenian named Xenophon, was among those who stepped forward to rally the demoralized troops. New leaders were elected, and they made a bold decision: to fight their way north to the Black Sea and then back to Greece.
What followed was an epic march of survival spanning nearly two years, from 401 BC to 399 BC. The Ten Thousand battled their way through hostile tribes, crossed treacherous mountains, and endured harsh weather and starvation.
Their discipline and tactical adaptability were constantly tested as they fought off pursuing Persian forces and navigated unfamiliar, unforgiving terrain.
One of the most famous moments of their journey was when the vanguard reached a mountain pass and caught sight of the Black Sea, shouting "Thalatta! Thalatta!" ("The Sea! The Sea!") signifying they were nearing Greek-colonized lands.
After an arduous journey of thousands of miles, the majority of the survivors eventually made their way back to Greece.
Their incredible feat of endurance, leadership, and military prowess was recorded by Xenophon himself in his work, Anabasis, which remains a classic of military history and a testament to human resilience.
At 20, she forged documents to save Jewish refugees. The Gestapo tortured her under Klaus BARBIE. She survived concentration camps eating insects and bark. Last week, she died at 100 with full military honors. Her name was Josette MOLLAND, and her story is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage from World War II.
The Art Student Who Became a Forger: In 1943, Josette MOLLAND was 20 years old, studying art in Lyon, France, and designing intricate patterns for silk weavers. She had an artist's eye for detail, a steady hand, and precision skills. France was under NAzI occupation. The Vichy government collaborated with the Germans. Jewish families were being rounded up for deportation. Allied airmen shot down over France faced capture. Resistance fighters needed to move in secret. All of them needed one thing: False identity papers. Josette joined the French Resistance and put her artistic skills to work in the most dangerous way possible: Forgery. She specialized in creating rubber stamps- Official-looking NAzI and Vichy government stamps that made false papers appear authentic. She forged identity documents, travel permits, ration cards. Her work was meticulous. If the forgery was detected, the person carrying it would be arrested, tortured, killed. The forger would face the same fate. Josette worked for the Dutch-Paris network- One of the most successful resistance escape lines, which smuggled over 1,000 Jewish refugees and Allied personnel from the Netherlands through France to safety in Spain and Switzerland. For months, Josette's forgeries helped people escape death. Every stamp she carved, every document she created, was a life potentially saved. But in occupied France, the Gestapo was hunting resistance members relentlessly.
Capture by the Butcher of Lyon:
On 18 March 1944, the Gestapo arrested Josette MOLLAND in Lyon. She was taken to Gestapo headquarters at the Hotel Terminus- The base of Klaus BARBIE, the NAzI SS officer known as the "Butcher of Lyon." BARBIE was notorious for his cruelty. He personally tortured resistance fighters, trying to break them into revealing network contacts. Under his command, countless resistance members were beaten, electrocuted, drowned, and killed. Josette, age 20, was interrogated and tortured. They wanted names. They wanted to know who else was in the network. Who forged the documents? Who helped refugees escape? Where were the safe houses? Josette refused to talk. Despite the torture, despite being a young woman facing men trained in brutality, she gave them nothing. She protected the network. She protected the people she'd helped save. After weeks of torture, she was deported.
Ravensbruck - The Women's Camp:
Josette was sent to Ravensbruck, the main NAzI concentration camp for women in northern Germany. Over 130,000 women were imprisoned there during the war. Approximately 50,000 were killed- By execution, medical experiments, starvation, disease, or being worked to death. French Resistance women were common prisoners. They were marked as political prisoners, subjected to brutal treatment, and often targeted for the harshest punishments. Josette endured beatings, starvation rations, disease, and the constant threat of death. But Ravensbruck was only the beginning.
Holleischen - The Ammunition Factory:
Josette was transferred to Holleischen (Holysov), a forced-labor camp in Czechoslovakia, part of the Flossenburg concentration camp system. At Holleischen, prisoners worked 12+ hour days in an ammunition factory, manufacturing weapons for the NAzI war machine. The work was exhausting, dangerous, and unrelenting. Rations were barely enough to sustain life- Watery soup, crusts of bread, almost no protein. Prisoners were beaten for working too slowly. Many collapsed from exhaustion or starvation. Josette's weight dropped to approximately 60 pounds. Her body was skeletal. Every day, she watched fellow prisoners die. But Josette MOLLAND refused to give up. She survived on whatever she could find- Insects, tree bark, scraps scavenged from anywhere. She organized a prisoner rebellion, attempting to resist even in the camp. She tried to escape multiple times, risking execution. She later wrote:
"What I lived in the camps, I can't even describe it. Unimaginable. If you haven't lived it, you can't understand. Every day we thought would be our last."
But every morning, she was still alive.
Liberation:
On 05 May 1945, U. S. forces liberated Holleischen. Josette MOLLAND, age 21, had barely survived. She weighed under 66 pounds (30k). Her body was ravaged by starvation, beatings, and disease. Many prisoners died in the days after liberation- Their bodies too damaged to recover even with food and medical care. Josette survived. She returned to Lyon and reunited with her mother. Slowly, over months, she regained her strength.
A Life of Testimony:
After the war, Josette married and became Josette MOLLAND-ILINSKY. She raised a family and tried to rebuild a normal life. Like many Holocaust and concentration camp survivors, she initially spoke little about her experiences. The trauma was too immense. The memories too painful. But as years passed and as Holocaust denial began to emerge, Josette understood the importance of testimony. She had witnessed unimaginable evil. She had survived. And she had a responsibility to tell the truth. For over six decades, Josette spoke at schools, museums, and memorial events. She shared her story with thousands of students, ensuring that the next generation would know what happened. She was among approximately 40 remaining recipients (out of 65,000 originally awarded) of the French Resistance medal- One of the last living witnesses to the heroism and horror of that era. In 2016, at age 92, she published her autobiography, "Soif De Vivre" (Thirst For Life). The title said everything. Despite torture, despite camps, despite starvation and brutality, Josette MOLLAND had an unquenchable thirst for life. She refused to let the NAzIs take that from her.
17 February 2024:
Last week, Josette MOLLAND-ILINSKY died at age 100 in a nursing home in Nice, France. She had lived a full century- Eight decades beyond the camps that were meant to kill her. She had raised a family, told her story to generations of students, and ensured that the truth of the Holocaust and the Resistance would not be forgotten. Her funeral was held with full military honors- A tribute befitting a war hero. Christian ESTROSI, the Mayor of Nice, led the ceremonies. A military honor guard stood at attention. The French flag draped her coffin. And as her casket was carried, mourners sang "La Marseillaise" (the French national anthem) and "Chant des Partisans" (the anthem of the French Resistance, the song of those who fought in secret, risking everything for freedom).
It was a fitting tribute. Josette MOLLAND had been a partisan. She had forged documents at age 20 to save lives. She had endured torture and refused to break. She had survived concentration camps. And she had spent the rest of her long life ensuring the world remembered.
Her Legacy:
With Josette's death, the world lost one of its last direct links to the French Resistance and the Holocaust. Each survivor who passes takes with them irreplaceable testimony- Not just facts from books, but lived experience, the truth told by those who were there. Josette's story reminds us:
Courage comes in many forms - A 20-year-old art student with a forger's skill saved lives
Evil must be resisted - Even when resistance means torture and death
The human spirit is unbreakable - Even concentration camps couldn't destroy her thirst for life
Testimony matters - She spent 60+ years ensuring we would never forget
She was 20 when she joined the Resistance. She was 21 when the camps were liberated. She lived to be 100, and spent every year after the war honoring those who didn't survive by telling the truth. "Soif de Vivre" - Thirst for life. That was Josette MOLLAND. Artist. Forger. Resistance fighter. Concentration camp survivor. Witness. Teacher. Hero. She forged documents to save Jews and Allied airmen. She was tortured by Klaus BARBIE's Gestapo. She survived Ravensbruck and Holleischen by eating insects and bark. She refused to die when every circumstance said she should. And she lived to 100, ensuring that generations would know what happened and why it must never happen again. Last week, France buried one of its last Resistance heroes with full military honors, singing the songs of freedom she'd fought for eight decades ago. Rest in peace, Josette MOLLAND-Ilinsky. Your thirst for life inspired us all.
Riley Leroy PITTS (15 October 1937-31 October 1967) was a United States Army Captain and the first African-American officer to receive the Medal Of Honor. The medal was presented posthumously by President Lyndon B. JOHNSON for actions in Ap Dong, Republic of Viet Nam.
Riley Leroy PITTS was born in Fallis, Oklahoma. He attended Wichita State University and graduated in 1960 with a degree in journalism. He married Eula Mae PITTS and had a daughter, Stacie, and a son, Mark, while employed with Boeing. Mark became an active member of the organization "Sons and Daughters In Touch," where he has traveled to Viet Nam to memorialize his father. PITTS is buried in Hillcrest Memory Gardens at Spencer, Oklahoma.
After being commissioned as an officer in the United States Army, he was sent to Viet Nam in December 1966. PITTS had seven years of service in the Army.
In Viet Nam, PITTS served as an information officer until he was transferred to a combat unit. As a Captain, he then served as commander of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. On 31 October 1967, just one month before he was to be rotated back home, his unit was called upon to reinforce another company heavily engaged against a strong enemy force.
Citation
Distinguishing himself by exceptional heroism while serving as company commander during an airmobile assault. Immediately after his company landed in the area, several Viet Cong opened fire with automatic weapons. Despite the enemy fire, Capt. PITTS forcefully led an assault which overran the enemy positions. Shortly thereafter, Capt. PITTS was ordered to move his unit to the north to reinforce another company heavily engaged against a strong enemy force. As Capt. PITTS' company moved forward to engage the enemy, intense fire was received from 3 directions, including fire from 4 enemy bunkers, 2 of which were within 15 meters of Capt. PITTS' position. The severity of the incoming fire prevented Capt. PITTS from maneuvering his company. His rifle fire proving ineffective against the enemy due to the dense jungle foliage, he picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and began pinpointing the targets. Seizing a Chinese Communist grenade which had been taken from a Captured Viet Cong's web gear, Capt. PITTS lobbed the grenade at a bunker to his front, but it hit the dense jungle foliage and rebounded. Without hesitation, Capt. PITTS threw himself on top of the grenade which, fortunately, failed to explode. Capt. PITTS then directed the repositioning of the company to permit friendly artillery to be fired. Upon completion of the artillery fire mission, Capt. PITTS again led his men toward the enemy positions, personally killing at least 1 more Viet Cong. The jungle growth still prevented effective fire to be placed on the enemy bunkers. Capt. PITTS, displaying complete disregard for his life and personal safety, quickly moved to a position which permitted him to place effective fire on the enemy. He maintained a continuous fire, pinpointing the enemy's fortified positions, while at the same time directing and urging his men forward, until he was mortally wounded. Capt. PITTS' conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity at the cost of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the Armed Forces of his country.
17 April 2018. Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 lifted off from New York's LaGuardia Airport at 10:43, bound for Dallas on what should have been a routine Tuesday morning flight.
Twenty minutes later, at 32,000 feet over Pennsylvania, the left engine exploded.
Not failed- Exploded. An uncontained engine failure sent massive metal shrapnel tearing through the fuselage like bullets. One piece struck a window with such force it shattered completely, causing instant, catastrophic decompression.
The cabin pressure vanished in seconds. Oxygen masks dropped. Passengers screamed. And Jennifer RIORDAN, a 43-year-old mother and bank executive sitting in seat 14A, was partially sucked toward the broken window by the violent airflow.
Other passengers desperately pulled her back inside while the plane shook violently, alarms blaring, with one engine gone and the fuselage damaged.
In the cockpit, chaos would have been the expected response.
Instead, there was Captain Tammie Jo SHULTS.
SHULTS wasn't just any commercial pilot. She was a former U.S. Navy combat pilot- One of the first women ever to fly the F/A-18 Hornet, one of the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world. She'd spent years making split-second, life-or-death decisions at speeds most people can't comprehend.
And now, with 148 terrified passengers and crew behind her, a crippled aircraft losing altitude, and a dying woman being desperately resuscitated in the cabin, SHULTS did what she'd been trained to do: she flew.
She immediately took manual control. Assessed the damage. Calculated the descent rate. Identified the nearest suitable airport- Philadelphia, about 20 minutes away. With only one functioning engine and a compromised fuselage, she executed a controlled emergency descent, fighting to keep the plane stable while it screamed toward the ground.
Her voice on the radio to air traffic control was so calm it was almost surreal:
"Southwest 1380, we have part of the aircraft missing. We're going to need to slow down a bit. We'd like to get down to about ten thousand if that's okay."
No panic. No hysteria. Just cool, measured professionalism while managing a potential mass-casualty disaster.
At 11:23, just 20 minutes after the engine exploded, SHULTS landed the crippled Boeing 737 safely at Philadelphia International Airport. Emergency crews were waiting. Passengers evacuated down the slides, shaken but alive.
Tragically, Jennifer RIORDAN died from her injuries despite the heroic efforts of passengers and medical personnel to save her. She was a beloved wife, mother of two, and community leader. Her death was the first passenger fatality on a U.S. airline in nearly a decade.
But because of Tammie Jo SHULTS' extraordinary skill, composure, and training, 148 other people walked off that plane alive.
Passengers later described SHULTS personally walking through the cabin after landing, comforting traumatized travelers, checking on the injured, projecting the same calm strength that had just saved their lives.
Her heroism didn't surprise those who knew her background.
SHULTS had been one of the first women to fly F/A-18 Hornets in the Navy- But military exclusion policies prevented her from flying combat missions despite being fully qualified. So she became an elite instructor pilot, training the men who would go into combat with the skills she'd mastered but wasn't allowed to use in war.
When she left the Navy and joined Southwest Airlines, she brought that same precision, discipline, and unshakable calm to commercial aviation.
On 17 April 2018 all of that training, every high-speed maneuver, every emergency simulation, every impossible decision made in a fighter jet cockpit, came together in 20 minutes that separated life from catastrophe.
The National Transportation Safety Board later concluded that SHULTS' actions were textbook perfect. Passengers called her a hero. The media celebrated her skill.
SHULTS herself remained characteristically humble: "We were simply doing the job we were trained to do."
But the 148 people who survived that day know the truth.
True heroism isn't loud. It's a calm voice on the radio saying "we're going to get down" while Hell is breaking loose around you- And then actually doing it.
Ukraine Pulls Off Largest Hypersonic Kill Streak In History By ‘Song Jamming’
  by Ava J, MARACADDE SHOW 13 November 2025.
Night Watch Turns Russia's Speed
Advantage Into a Fatal Flaw.
  Photo by Ielyzaveta LIUTA.
  When Vladimir PUTIN unveiled the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile in March 2018, he called it “invincible”- A hypersonic weapon with no equal in the world. Former U.S. President Joe BIDEN later acknowledged in 2022 that the missile was “almost impossible to stop.” Those declarations are now haunting both leaders.
   A Ukrainian electronic warfare unit called Night Watch has discovered that Russia’s most celebrated superweapon relies on decades-old Soviet-era technology- And they’re exploiting that weakness with a patriotic song and fake GPS coordinates.
   Night Watch Turns Russia’s Speed Advantage Into a Fatal Flaw
   Night Watch, a Ukrainian electronic warfare team that began as a disorganized group of civilian volunteers in the chaotic early hours of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, has become one of the war’s most consequential units.
   The team told 404 Media that they have intercepted 19 Kinzhal missiles in just two weeks using a jamming system called Lima EW. Rather than attempting to physically destroy missiles traveling at more than 4,000 miles per hour, Night Watch weaponizes the Kinzhal’s greatest strength (its hypersonic speed) against itself.
   How Lima EW Tricks Hypersonic Missiles Into Destroying Themselves
   The Lima system works by generating a disruption field that severs the missile’s connection to GLONASS, Russia’s GPS-equivalent satellite navigation network. “We just send a song…we just make it into binary code, you know, like 010101, and just send it to the Russian navigation system,” a Night Watch representative explained.
   The song is “Our Father Is BANDERA,” a Ukrainian nationalist anthem that references Stepan BANDERA, a figure Russian propaganda frequently invokes to label Ukrainians as Nazis.
   The Missile That Thinks It’s In Peru
   Once the song’s binary code floods the Kinzhal’s navigation receivers, Lima spoofs a fake location signal that makes the missile believe it’s in Lima, Peru. When the confused weapon attempts to correct its course while traveling at speeds exceeding Mach 5, physics delivers the killing blow.
   “The airframe cannot withstand the excessive stress, and the missile naturally fails,” Night Watch said, according to 404 Media.
   Patriot Systems Alone Cannot Stop The Barrage
   Before Lima EW proved its effectiveness, only the American-made Patriot air defense system could intercept Kinzhal missiles- And even that capability was limited. Ukraine first downed a Kinzhal with a Patriot on 04 May 2023 over Kyiv, shattering Russia’s myth of invincibility.
   A Financial Times investigation found that Russia modified the missiles’ terminal flight profiles, resulting in Patriot interception rates around Kyiv plummeting from approximately 37 percent in August to roughly 6 percent in September.
   Russia’s Winter Bombardment Targets Civilian Survival
   The electronic warfare breakthrough comes as Russia wages a systematic campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter temperatures plunge. An overnight attack in early October included 496 drones and 53 missiles, including Kinzhals. Another assault at the end of October involved more than 700 mixed missiles and drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
   On November 25, 2025, Russia launched 464 attack drones and 22 missiles, including Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, in one of the most intense bombardments of the war.
   The Scale of Destruction Russia Is Attempting
   Russian attacks have destroyed nearly 70 percent of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity, according to the think tank Green Deal Ukraina. Power outages now last up to 12 hours daily in some regions as temperatures drop.
   The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission reported that civilian casualties from January to October 2025 were 27 percent higher than during the same period last year, with the toll for the first ten months already exceeding all of 2024.
   Night Watch Discovers the Kinzhal’s Dirty Secret
   When Night Watch analyzed the wreckage of downed Kinzhals, they made a stunning discovery: Russia’s vaunted superweapon uses the same type of navigation receivers found in old Soviet missiles.
   “We discovered that this missile had pretty old type of technology,” Night Watch told 404 Media. “They had the same type of receivers as old Soviet missiles used to have. So there is nothing special, there is nothing new in those types of missiles.”
   Russia’s Failed Countermeasures Only Make Things Worse
   Recognizing the vulnerability, Russia has attempted to defeat Lima by increasing the number of navigation receivers on each missile. “They used to have eight receivers, and right now they have increased it to 12, but it will not help,” Night Watch explained. The most recently intercepted Kinzhal was equipped with 16 receivers (double the original number) yet it still failed.
   According to Night Watch, Russia fundamentally misunderstands how Lima operates: “They think we make the attack on each receiver,” but when a missile enters Lima’s range, “we cover all types of receivers.”
   Why More Receivers Won’t Save the Kinzhal
   Russia’s countermeasure strategy assumes Night Watch targets individual receivers, allowing the missile to frequency-hop to maintain satellite contact. But Lima creates a blanket jamming field that renders all receivers useless simultaneously.
   “It’s physically impossible to connect with another satellite, but they think that it’s possible,” Night Watch said. “That’s why they started with four receivers, and right now it’s 16. I guess in the future we’ll see 24, but it’s pretty useless.”
   The Song Choice Is Psychological Warfare
   Any digital noise would suffice to jam the navigation system, but Night Watch deliberately chose “Our Father Is BANDERA” as a form of psychological warfare. The song, which became a viral sensation in Ukraine during 2021, references Stepan BANDERA, a figure Russian propaganda weaponizes to portray Ukrainians as Nazis. “It’s just kind of a joke,” Night Watch told 404 Media.
   By embedding the anthem in their jamming signal, the Ukrainians are trolling Russia’s propaganda narrative while simultaneously destroying its most expensive missiles.
   A Fraction Of The Cost, Many Times The Impact
   A single Kinzhal missile costs an estimated $2 million to $15 million, depending on the source. The 19 missiles Night Watch downed in two weeks represent potentially tens of millions of dollars in destroyed Russian hardware. Meanwhile, the Lima EW system uses electronic signals rather than expensive interceptor missiles, which can cost $4 million each for Patriot systems.
   The economics strongly favor Ukraine: electronic warfare can protect vast areas without depleting precious ammunition stocks that take months to manufacture and deliver.
   Electronic Warfare Fills A Critical Defense Gap
   Specialists consider Lima EW particularly effective against Russian guided munitions because it was developed specifically for battlefield realities, according to Ukrainian EW operators. The system has demonstrated “particular efficiency in jamming Russian-guided bombs compared to Russian and Western systems,” Night Watch specialists told National Security Journal.
   It represents a homegrown solution to a threat that Western systems struggle to counter consistently.
   Russia’s Superweapon Mythology Crumbles
   PUTIN’S 2018 presentation of “invincible” weapons was designed to project Russian military supremacy and deter Western interference. The Kinzhal was a centerpiece of that narrative, a weapon so fast that no defense could stop it.
   That mythology has now been systematically dismantled by Ukrainian ingenuity, first by Patriot systems in 2023, and now by electronic warfare that exploits fundamental design weaknesses.