Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/December 2022/Articles

Matthew Quay, nominated by Wehwalt: Matt Quay (1833–1904) was a Republican Party politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1887 until 1899 and from 1901 until his death. His control of the Pennsylvania Republican political machine made him one of the most powerful and influential politicians in the country, and he ruled Pennsylvania politics for almost twenty years. As chair of the Republican National Committee and thus party campaign manager, he helped elect Benjamin Harrison as president in 1888 despite his not winning the popular vote. He was also instrumental in the 1900 election of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president. During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army, commanding the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment as a colonel, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Project Waler, nominated by Nick-D: Project Waler was an unsuccessful Australian defence procurement exercise which sought to replace the Australian Army's M113 armoured personnel carriers with more capable armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs). It was initiated in 1980 and cancelled in 1985 without any vehicles being procured. The goal of the project was to replace the Army's M113s during the mid-1990s with between 500 and 1,000 AFVs optimised for Australian conditions and built in Australia. Several years worth of scoping work was carried out, but the project was cancelled by the Australian Government in July 1985 due to concerns over the cost and capabilities of the proposed vehicles.

Ai-Khanoum, nominated by AirshipJungleman29: Ai-Khanoum is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city, whose original name is unknown, was probably founded by an early ruler of the Seleucid Empire and served as a military and economic centre for the rulers of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom until its destruction c. 145 BC. Rediscovered in 1961, the ruins of the city were excavated by a French team of archaeologists until the outbreak of conflict in Afghanistan in the late 1970s. The onset of the Soviet-Afghan War halted scholarly progress, and during the following conflicts in Afghanistan, the site was extensively looted.

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) women working on a Churchill tank at a Royal Army Ordnance Corps depot, 10 October 1942, by Lt. Taylor, War Office official photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden
Nick-D rightfully called this out as a posed publicity photo, which is almost certainly true. But the unfortunate thing about historical imagery is that whatever gets passed down to us is all we get.
Self-portrait of Jeremiah Gurney, restored by Adam Cuerden
Gurney's most famous contribution to the photographing of military history is grabbing a few photos of Abraham Lincoln after his death, which were ordered destroyed... but one copy was kept.
Sigmaringen Castle by Jörg Braukmann
Rebuilt after a fire in 1893, only the towers of the mediaeval fortress remain. The castle and seat of government for the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, this castle also served as the seat of the Vichy French Government after France was liberated by the Allies in the closing months of the Second World War.
B-2 Spirit bomber in flight by Balon Greyjoy
Both a heavy bomber and a stealth bomber, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit uses a two dimensional and seamless design to help it evade detection.

Eileen Collins, nominated by Hawkeye7: Eileen Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel; the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission. Collins was commissioned as an officer in the USAF through Syracuse University's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and served as a a T-38 Talon instructor pilot and C-141 Starlifter pilot. During the American invasion of Grenada in October 1983, her aircraft flew troops of the 82nd Airborne Division to Grenada, and took thirty-six medical students back. From 1986 to 1989, she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot at the U.S. Air Force Academy. In 1989 she became the second woman pilot to attend the USAF Test Pilot School. Collins was selected as a pilot astronaut the next year. She flew the Space Shuttle as pilot in 1995 aboard STS-63. She was also the pilot for STS-84 in 1997. She became the first woman to command a US spacecraft with STS-93, launched in July 1999, and in 2005 she commanded STS-114, NASA's "return to flight" mission after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. She retired from the USAF in January 2005 and from NASA in May 2006.

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What's the rationale behind the Churchill photo being a publicity stunt? Would it not have been the ATS doing the job? Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 20:05, 9 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- The work practices in the photo are insanely unsafe - e.g. notice the workers working on the back of the tank and inside the tank while a turret is being winched into position. I'd be amazed if this was allowed even under wartime OH&S rules. All the workers are also wearing very clean uniforms, which is not consistent with spending any time actually working on a tank. I was an oppose on the nomination as I didn't think it accurately depicted working practices. Nick-D (talk) 00:11, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]