Dear Editor,

I recently purchased the first issue of Military Heritage, and I was amazed at the spectrum of articles in your magazine. I particularly enjoyed reading about Marathon, along with the Soldiers and Weapons columns. I also enjoyed the layout and the many top quality illustrations you have included with the articles.

Some subjects I hope will be discussed in future issues are: Ancient Rome, Greece or Babylon. Also, I believe the Crusades are great points of interest to many people.

I hope future issues are as informative and diverse as the first.

Sincerely,

Greg Rewerts
Blair, NE

Dear Editor,

I received my first copy of Military Heritage this week and after looking it over, I believe you and your staff have done an excellent job in selecting interesting, readable stories for anyone who likes military history. I look forward to my next issue.

Sincerely,

Raymond Laird
Ontario, NY

Dear Editor,

I was pleased to discover your new magazine recently and purchased your August edition.

The appearance of your magazine on the stand is timely as new chapters in military heritage are being recorded in Kosovo and Kashmir. In your upcoming issues I hope Military Heritage will feature articles on the historical backgrounds of these conflicts. An account of the Balkan Crisis of 1912 would be a good place to start, with a separate article on the crisis of 1913 that produced a great world war a year later could be in a later issue. For Kashmir, a piece on the First India-Pakistan War a half century ago would allow an understanding of the origins of today’s conflict in the mountains above the subcontinent.

Another article I would like to see in your magazine would be on Grierson’s Raid in the American Civil War and its significance to the greater Union strategy at Vicksburg in 1863.

Sincerely,

Alan Gasior
Trenton, NJ

Some Harsh Words

Dear Sir:

As a new subscriber to your magazine, I was hoping for a new and refreshing slant on military history, but you’ve come up short! Example:

1) The Civil War: If I wanted to know about certain campaigns, generals, etc., I would go to the Osprey series, or the hard copies, soft copies, or the magazine stand copies (there’s dozens). Your illustrations are poor and laughable.

2) World War II (especially “D-Day”) the above comments goes for that also.

3) Stop rehashing the more popular wars.

4) You seem to focus on readers who are brain dead and never read a book in their lives or experienced it.

5) Whatever topic you focus on, make it clear, not muddled like the feature on Chariot Heroes.

6) Remember you’re in the business to sell your product; there’s a lot of competition out there (and they’re good).

7) Harsh words, you bet, your first magazine was boring!

8) Here’s hoping you straighten out your act!

Sincerely,

H. Lovenson
Rochelle Park, NJ

Well, we’ll take the above letter to be proof that you just can’t please all the people all the time. We don’t intend to “rehash the more popular wars,” but instead provide additional information and insight. At the same time, we continue to cover a variety of periods in each issue. In a year’s worth of issues, readers should find the history of warfare well covered.

Dear Sir:

This first-time MH reader generally enjoyed the October 1999 issue, despite several “clunker” passages which cried out for editing. The need for rewrites is, of course, arguable. This won’t keep me from purchasing future issues of MH, but somebody has to explain how, in the age of spell checking computer programs (not to mention good old fashioned proofreading), the word pontonniers could be spelled two different ways on page 63.

Sincerely,

Wade Petrilak
Warminster, PA

Like all magazines, our goal is to have a typo-free issue – and like all magazines, we find it virtually impossible. (We have found computer spell-check programs to be highly over rated!) However, we continue to strive for perfection.

Web Sites

Dear Editor,

Allow me to offer my sincere congratulations on such a wonderful new magazine! I have read the last few copies of Military Heritage and have been impressed with not only the quality of the writing, but also the “upbeat” use of graphics.

If I could make a suggestion, I would caution you against one thing. Most magazines about military history seem to concentrate on the same two subjects in every single issue: The American Civil War and World War II. These conflicts, although interesting, were certainly not the be all and end all of all military history! I’m not saying that you should shun these subjects altogether, but in my opinion they should be printed in moderation. After all, how many narrations, explanations and descriptions of the Battle of Gettysburg or the D-Day invasion are we readers expected to endure?

Another thing I would like to suggest is including a column about military history web sites. There are hundreds of such sites on the Internet, of greatly varying quality. I think that readers of your magazine would be interested to know exactly what’s out there, and moreover, read your opinions on what are the best military history Web sites in regards to historical accuracy, design, and ease of navigation. It would not be hard to find two or three new Web sites to review every two months.

Sincerely,

Bill Harris
Ontario, Canada

Thanks for your kind comments. As you mentioned, the American Civil War and World War II are popular topics, and readers can expect us to cover these two conflicts on a regular basis. However, we know that many readers are well-read on these two subjects, so we hope to feature stories that give you new information or a fresh interpretation on events you may have read about before.

Perhaps we can find room in future issues to mention Web sites of interest. We’ll take this opportunity to mention that our own Web site is due to go on-line in the next couple of months. We’ll tell you more in an upcoming issue.

Left-handed Marines

Dear Editor,

Just a note to say how much I enjoy your superb magazine. The color work and text are so clear and the articles are varied and detailed.

Being an old printer, I did notice on page 56 of the December 1999 issue that the picture of the Marines on the top left of the page was “flipped,” giving the impression that the Marines were all left handed!

Great magazine. Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,

John H. Newby
Alberta, Canada

Dear Editor,

Thank you for coming into the military history field. I subscribed immediately after reading a copy at Barnes and Nobles.

I am requesting that you do an article on Joe Rochefort, the navy guy who did much of the work on the Japanese Code that pinpointed Midway as the second target after Pearl Harbor. I’ve read some stuff on his code breaking abilities and he should have gotten a Medal of Honor. He is one of my heroes from World War II, and because his work was clandestine, he has not received the recognition he deserves.

Go for it!

Sincerely,

Norm Schultz
Robbinsdale, MN
Blair, NE

Correcting Rommel’s Watch

Nit pickers are just everywhere, aren’t they??

Pretty good magazine overall, as good or better than a lot I’ve seen. But you might want to let Mr. Eric Niderost (Desert Decision, December 1999 issue) know that 2000 hours is 8 pm, not 9 pm.

The magazine seems to be well done. I sure hope you can continue to avoid the problem of rehashing the same old topics that a lot of magazines seem to print over and over again.

Thanks again for the efforts.

Joe Hamlet
Friendswood, TX

Thanks — we’ll tell Mr. Niderost, although we suspect he knows what time 2000 hours is.

Dear Editor,

I was at my grandmother’s house this weekend and was appalled by the lack of appreciation for veterans (my grandfather served in Vietnam). I asked my mother if I could donate to the World War II fund and the family replied, “Why? Would a veteran give you money if you needed something?” And in reply I said, “No, but haven’t they given enough?” I’m interested in learning about ways I can help veterans out and feel Military Heritage will be able to help me. Thanks.

Sincerely,

John Marks
Salem, OH

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