Curated category
Combat occupations
- Special forcesNATO defines special operations as military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equipped forces using…
- CavalryBefore the Iron Age, the battlefield was dominated by light chariots rather than riders. The Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia created these early…
- InfantryThe word infantry entered English usage around the 1570s to describe soldiers who marched and fought on foot. This term derives from Middle French…
- NinjaThe word ninja appears in written records as far back as the late 8th century within poems found in the Man'yōshū. A specific poem from that era reads…
- SamuraiIn 792, the imperial court issued an edict ending most conscription and dissolving the gundan, except for those in outlying regions like Mutsu and Dewa…
- Forward observers in the U.S. militaryIn 1942, the U.S. Army designated a specific officer position with the code number 1189 to serve as a forward observer during World War II.
- GladiatrixA scholiast writing in the 4th or 5th century first used the word gladiatrix to describe a woman. This writer mocked a woman training for the Floralia…