The seemingly endless rows of white marble sprawling across Arlington’s rolling green hills are perfectly uniform. Each row is measured so precisely that not a single plot is askew. Unlike the crosses and Stars of David that fill the American ...
History
Why Today’s Commandos Trace Their Lineage Back to South Africa’s Boer Wars
While Americans may be familiar with modern commando units, such as the Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs, most likely they don’t realize the term "commando" actually originated in South Africa during the Boer Wars. The Boer Wars — the First ...
What Was the Infamous ‘Nimitz Incident’ Mentioned at Congressional UAP Hearing?
On Tuesday, May 17, the UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) Task Force — now calling itself the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, or AOIMSG — took questions from Congress during a hearing on Capitol Hill, speaking ...
Don’t Feed the Lions: The Unbelievable Rescue at the Baghdad Zoo
Without any experience, budget, or evacuation plans, Brendan Whittington-Jones boarded a US Air Force C-130 in Kuwait City bound for Baghdad. It was May 12, 2003, just weeks after Iraq's capital city had fallen to American forces. Aside from a small ...
Stella Rimington: The Real Badass Behind James Bond’s ‘M’
M — played by Dame Judi Dench — tells Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond in their first scene together, “I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War.” She maintains steely eye contact with 007 and tells him in her signature quiet, ...
The Navy’s Elite TOPGUN Flight School Started in a Parking Lot Trailer
The best fighter pilot training course in the world, made famous by the 1986 movie Top Gun, was started inside a trailer docked in a California parking lot. No, seriously. Although officially named the US Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics ...
Did a History Teacher’s ‘Third Wave’ Nazi Social Experiment Go Too Far?
“Strength through discipline! Strength through community! Strength through action! Strength through pride! Strength through insight!” students at Cubberley High School chanted at a rally led by history teacher Ron Jones in April 1967. It was the last ...
3 Billionaires You Didn’t Know Were Vietnam Combat Veterans
Transitioning from the US military can be a tremendous endeavor for many, but some veterans have found purpose through entrepreneurship in their post-service careers. Some veterans have become so successful in their business ventures that they’ve ...
Neil Gray and the Origins of Air Force Special Reconnaissance
Airborne operations in World War II called for specialists capable of determining the weather in austere and dangerous environments. In 1942, Cornelius “Neil” Gray joined the US Army Air Forces. He was selected for an unconventional program that ...
The Plot to Kill Trotsky, Ukraine’s Most Influential Revolutionary
On the sweltering afternoon of Aug. 20, 1940, Jacques Mornard walked up to the gates of an imposing walled compound in Coyoacan, a verdant neighborhood in Mexico City. Despite increased security from an attack three months earlier, the guards allowed ...
Army Resurrects Historic WWII Airborne Division To Dominate the Arctic
The US Army will raise a third airborne division, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville confirmed at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, May 5. The US Army Alaska Headquarters is ...
Combat Tea Party: Why Tea Kettles Are Installed in British Army Tanks
It’s no secret that life inside a tank is dangerous, cramped, and stressful. During combat operations, tank crews sometimes spend days at a time inside their vehicles, unable to stretch their legs or enjoy refreshments. Shortly after World War II, ...
Remembering the Mafia’s Worst Enemy, Letizia Battaglia
When Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia passed away on April 13, 2022, the biggest shock among those of us who have written about her was that she didn’t die at the hands of the Mafia. For nearly five decades she fearlessly fought the criminal ...
Coco Chanel: Global Fashion Icon and Seductive Nazi Agent
In the early years of World War II, Nazi Germany secured a swift victory over Poland, and by June 14, 1940, the Nazi swastika waved over Paris. Just over a week later, France effectively surrendered to the Nazis in an armistice agreement. Hermann ...
Operation Black Buck: The Most Daring Bombing Mission Since World War II
In April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands without warning, sending the British military reeling for a response. The British Royal Air Force quickly dusted off its soon-to-be-retired long-range bombers and enacted a hasty plan ...
Dear Mr. President: 10 Remarkable Letters to the Commander in Chief
Hundreds of letters from supportive and opposing constituents get sent to the president of the United States each year, and many of them ultimately end up in the National Archives. Regardless of politics, the White House encourages children and ...
How Spam Became 1 of America’s Greatest Business Success Stories
While you might think of Spam as a basic canned meat, it’s actually one of the greatest business success stories of all time: Since Hormel Foods Corporation launched the affordable, canned pork product in 1937, it’s sold over eight billion cans in 44 ...
Meet Clark ‘Doc’ Savage, America’s Superhero Savior to Humanity
His name is Clark and his father (later murdered) raised him to be a savior to humanity. He possesses superhuman strength and finely tuned senses. He is the world’s greatest detective, an inventor, chemist, surgeon and martial artist. Villains the ...
How the Rise of the KKK Led to the Fall of Ellis Island
On Aug. 8, 1925, droves of white supremacists filled the streets of Pennsylvania Avenue. Marching past monuments dedicated to the American ideals of justice, liberty, and equality, members of the Ku Klux Klan advocated for a "white Americans first" ...
Harriet Tubman: Spy, Nurse, First US Woman to Command Military Raid
Harriet Tubman was barely 5 feet tall and didn’t have a dime to her name. What she did have was a deep faith and powerful passion for justice that was fueled by a network of Black and white abolitionists determined to end slavery in America. “I ...
Medal of Honor Recipient and Vietnam Vet Kenneth Stumpf Dead at 77
Retired Army Sgt. Maj. Kenneth “Ken” Stumpf, a Medal of Honor recipient, died in Tomah, Wisconsin, on Saturday, April 23, 2022. He was 77. Stumpf, who hailed from Neenah, Wisconsin, was born on Sept. 28, 1944. He once had aspirations of becoming a ...
To the Shores of Tripoli: The Marines’ Daring Raid Against Barbary Pirates
On April 27, 1805, Marine Lt. Presley O’Bannon led a handful of Marines on a daring raid against a Libyan sea fortress held by Barbary pirates. The Marines were ultimately victorious, and when O’Bannon hoisted the 15 stars and 15 stripes of the ...
The Nameless Dead: A Brief History of Dog Tags in the US Military
During the Civil War, American service members worried how their bodies would be properly identified if they were killed in action: a fair concern, considering more than 40% of the Civil War dead remain unidentified. To ease their minds, some ...
World War II Medal of Honor Recipient’s Body Identified After 80 Years in Mass Grave
For almost 80 years, the body of pilot Lt. Col. Addison Earl Baker lay in a mass grave in Romania; he'd been killed in a doomed air raid in an overlooked corner of World War II. In a bomber called Hell’s Wench, he led a flight of B-24 Liberators in ...
Bring Back These Brutal Marine Knife-Fighting Techniques From World War II
Whether armed with aircraft, rifles, or just their hands, Marines are renowned for being tough and capable fighters. The Corps’ lethal reputation stretches back to the days when Marines were tasked with boarding enemy ships, armed only with muskets, ...
How Combat Artist Howard Brodie Sketched His Way From War to the Courtroom
In February 1964, as Jack Ruby stood trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald — the man accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy — a legendary artist sat in the back of the Dallas courtroom, sketching away with his pencil. Howard Brodie — ...
Why Dwight D Eisenhower Ordered the Red Ball Express to Beat the Nazis
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a problem. In June 1944, Allied forces had landed on Normandy Beach in France and were moving east toward Nazi Germany at a clip of sometimes 75 miles (121 kilometers) per day. With most of the French rail system in ...
‘The Pink Panthers’: Why the British SAS Used To Paint Their Camouflaged Land Rovers Pink
Members of the British Special Air Service are considered masters of long-range mobility. Their first operations in the deserts of North Africa during World War II prioritized a need for an off-road vehicle capable of covering hundreds of miles ...
9 of the Most Awesome Nicknames For Military Badasses
A lot of accomplishments in the military get overlooked or rewarded with a couple metal baubles to be worn on the chest. But sometimes, a man leads a couple of invasions and gets to keep his callsign for the rest of his life as a nickname, or someone ...
27 Years Later: The Forgotten Role Urban Search & Rescue Played After the Oklahoma City Bombing
On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols carried out the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil before 9/11. The so-called Oklahoma City bombing against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building claimed the lives of 168 ...