Military Facts

Iceland has no railway system or army!

The US Air Force researched a “Gay Bomb”: A non-lethal bomb containing really strong pheromones that will make the enemy forces attracted to each other. It won the 2007 Ig Nobel Prize.

The U.S. army packs Tabasco pepper sauce in every ration kit that they give to soldiers.

During World War II, the company that would become Uncle Ben's supplied rice to the U.S. Armed Forces under a government contract—their parboiled rice was prized because it could be air-dropped to troops without weevil infestation and cooked faster than regular rice.

During the Cold War, the US had planned to detonate a nuclear weapon on the moon.

Norway has a king penguin as Colonel-in-Chief of their royal guard.

In 1963, the US Military created an artificial ring around Earth, similar to that of the planet Saturn. The ring was made of copper needles and was used for worldwide communications in the case that the Soviets disabled all other methods of communication.

Samsung is also a full time weapons manufacturer.

In 1948, Costa Rica abolished its military and spends the money on education and culture instead.

The first McDonald’s drive-thru was opened near a military base in Arizona “to serve soldiers who weren’t permitted to get out of their cars while wearing fatigues.”

During a war between France and England in 1697, Louis XIV ordered the release of a captured English engineer who had been building a lighthouse. His reasoning: "France is at war with England, not with humanity."

Pepsi ran a commercial showing a Harrier jet for 7 million Pepsi Points. A business student named John Leonard did the math, raised $700,000, and mailed Pepsi a check demanding the jet. Pepsi said no. He sued. A judge ruled "no objective person could reasonably have concluded" the offer was real. Pepsi re-aired the ad with the price changed to 700 million points and a "Just Kidding" disclaimer.

In 1989, the Soviet Union traded Pepsi 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer in exchange for Pepsi products. For a brief moment, PepsiCo had the 6th largest submarine fleet in the world. Pepsi's CEO told the National Security Advisor: "We're disarming the Soviet Union faster than you are."

The US military spent $2.7 billion developing JLENS, a giant radar blimp tethered over Maryland to detect cruise missiles. On its second day of active duty, it broke free of its cable, dragged 6,700 feet of tether across Pennsylvania, knocked out power to 30,000 people, and was shot down by state police in a field. The program was quietly shelved.