Pancho Villa Attacks America
Ninety-three years ago on March 9, 1916 General Francisco Pancho Villa ordered nearly 500 members of his Mexican revolutionary group to make a cross-border attack from Mexico against Columbus, New Mexico USA. This was a very infamous act because of the symbol it posed, an armed group from a foreign country attacking the United States.
They fought a detachment of the 13th Cavalry Regiment (United States), seizing 100 horses and mules, and setting part of the town on fire. Eighteen Americans and about 80 Villistas were 
killed.
In January 1914 John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing was assigned to command the Army 8th Brigade at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He was responsible for security along the U.S.-Mexico border. In March 1916 under the command of General Frederick Funston, Pershing led the 8th Brigade on the failed 1916–17 Punitive Expedition into Mexico in search of the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. During this time George S. Patton served as one of Pershing's aides.
Pershing’s men spent many months chasing Villa around over northern Mexico without ever capturing him. But during this time Pershing and his troops experimented with using airplanes in warfare for the first time. They developed their military skills and got battle hardened, which was to serve them well because World War I was right around the corner.
My maternal grandmother and my grandfather were both telegraphers for the railroad. In March 1916 they were stationed in Columbus, New Mexico. My grandmother had a young child at the time, my aunt June. When Pancho Villa and his men attacked, she and the baby fled into the desert along with some of the other women. She described the attackers as “the drunken Mexicans.” They spent the rest of the night out there in the desert, hoping that the baby would not cry. They were afraid that the Mexicans would come and rape or kill them if they heard the baby crying.
I am now 60 years old, and I heard this story many times from my grandmother while I was a child. I am also now a life member of the Columbus New Mexico Historical Society.
Ninety-three years later Columbus is overrun by U.S. Government Homeland Security people racing around in their new government issue SUVs, there are helicopters flying overhead, and a massive 18 foot tall fence has been built to keep the Mexicans out. The original intent of the wall was to reduce illegal immigration. With the recent upsurge of drug lord killings, violence, and general lawlessness in Mexico some are now viewing the fence as a form of protection from the potentially failed state, The United States of Mexico.
There are also civilian militia out there in the desert trying to assist the U.S. Government. They call themselves the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Many people view them as an ethnocentric and racist group of weirdos.
That is a beautiful part of the Chihuahuan desert out near Columbus, New Mexico. The Tres Hermanas Mountains, Kilbourne’s Hole, and Deming and the Florida Mountains just to the north.
I hope that the Mexican government is able to reign in the corruption, the drug mafia, and institute genuine rule of law. The option of having the military of the United States of America cross the border and enter Mexico to try and help solve the problem is not attractive. The U.S. Military failed horribly the last time they invaded Mexico. They did not achieve their mission then, and if they try another invasion I don’t think it will go any better. In fact, I think the bloodshed, brutality, and beheadings would be far more widespread this time around.
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If the Mexican druggies want to experience the full force and awe of the American Military, all they need to do is continue and increase their kidnapping and killing of Americans on American soil. The military guys kind of get-off on using all their high tech explosive devices, and the arms manufacturers need the work what with the Iraq war winding down.
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