Having a sniper on the battlefield ensures the safety of an allied raiding or assault force. Their ability to covertly take out enemies from long distances has saved numerous lives. Snipers also provide battlefield surveillance, collect intelligence, ...
How the Zippo Lighter Became an Iconic Symbol of the American Warfighter
When the U.S. military entered World War II, American businesses geared their entrepreneurial efforts toward supporting the war effort as a means of survival. This meant the majority of raw materials were used to produce weapons, ammunition, armor, ...
This Fighter Pilot Shot Down More Than 20 Enemy Aircraft, Earning the Title ‘Quad Jungle Ace’
Sitting in the driver’s seat with his foot on the gas, Major Gerald “Jerry” Johnson drove to the Alert Tent in the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 1943, as jeeps carrying other pilots from the 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force ...
The Man Who Single-Handedly Captured More Than 1,000 Japanese Soldiers in Saipan
His commanding officer, Captain John Schwabe, had warned him the night before not to venture out on his own into Japanese territory to capture prisoners of war (POWs). Two days after the invasion of Saipan, commonly referred to as “Suicide Island,” ...
How US Marine Wayne Terwilliger Charged a Japanese Tank Head-On
The nose of their amphibious tank entered the ocean and bobbed through the waves en route toward the reef of Saipan, the largest archipelago among the Northern Mariana Islands. Wayne “Twig” Terwilliger, a radioman assigned to the 2nd Armored ...
Inside 4 Mysterious Radio Stations That Broadcasted Secret Messages
“The chair is against the wall” and “John has a long mustache” were two phrases repeated twice through a radio broadcast in the popular scene of the 1984 cult-classic “Red Dawn.” These phrases were inspired by the real broadcasts sent to bands of ...
Mutt the Cigarette-Delivering French Bulldog & Other Animals of World War I
During World War I, a plethora of “good boys” and dog breeds participated in tasks that would be deemed unusual in today’s modern wars. Among them were dogs who pulled carts with machine guns on the other end, while others hauled supplies. Bruce, a ...
The American Hangman: The Sadistic Executioner of Nazi War Criminals
“Ten men in 103 minutes,” Master Sergeant John C. Woods told the Sioux City Journal on Oct. 19, 1946, three days after the scheduled execution of Nazi war criminals convicted at the Nuremberg Trials. “That’s fast work.” The executioner’s manifest ...
The NFL Quarterback Who Became a World War II Hero, Olympian, & Lands’ End Co-Founder
“Are y’all the suicide squad?” asked a curious U.S. Navy sailor aboard the USS Almaack at a port in New York. “The Amphibious Scouts,” another chimed in. Similar renditions were repeated to other sailors who had arrived with orders assigned to Navy ...
Harlem Hellfighter Henry Johnson’s Heroism Captured in New Graphic Novel
When reading the Medal of Honor citation of a soldier, Marine, sailor, or airman, we often have to fill the gaps with our own imagination in order to recreate the scene unfolding line by line. In the case of Henry Johnson — the World War I Harlem ...
Operation Babylift’s Tragic US Air Force Flight During a Mass Evacuation of Children From Saigon
A C-5A Galaxy transport plane was waiting on the tarmac as women belonging to the Defense Attaché Office (DAO) Saigon and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) escorted 250 South Vietnamese children aboard. "We bucket-brigade-loaded the children right ...
One More Wave: The Navy SEALs Helping Disabled Veterans Heal With Custom Surfboards
Alex West threw his wetsuit and surfboard in the bed of his truck. He had spent the morning surfing off Del Mar on a picturesque Southern California day. After 15 combat deployments, injuries, and relentless stress, the only place ...
5 of the Biggest Naval Battles in Recent History
Over the course of history, major superpowers have all had one thing in common: a powerful navy. Battles at sea have contributed to both the rise and the fall of empires, with individual sailors sometimes being all that stood between victory and ...
The Mi’kmaq Warriors Have Served in the U.S. Military Since America’s Declaration of Independence
On July 19, 1776, delegates signed the Treaty of Watertown signifying a treaty of alliance and friendship between the Mi’kmaq Nation of northern New England and Canada and the United States. During the American Revolution, General George Washington ...
The Battle of Saipan: How Frogmen Provided Safe Passage for Amphibious Landings
Modern day U.S. Navy SEALs have the latest and greatest diving equipment including wetsuits, rebreather oxygen tanks, GPS devices, and all sorts of technology that increases the success of maritime operations. However, during the island-hopping ...
The Two-Man OSS Mission Through the Tibetan Mountains to Contact the Dalai Lama
During World War II, Captain Brooke Dolan and Major Ilia Tolstoy, two Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officers, were chosen for an arduous military-diplomatic mission through India to Tibet and finally to China. Their journey was to make contact ...
5 Weapons of the American Revolution That You May Have Forgotten About
The Boston Massacre in 1770 led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and by 1775, the 13 colonies had banded together against British tyranny. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops traveled from Boston toward Concord, Massachusetts, ...
The Canadian Commander Who Received a Victoria Cross for Heroics in World War I Cavalry Charge
Machine-gun fire ripped through Captain Campbell’s body as he collapsed off his galloping horse while traveling through a gap in enemy barbed wire. Campbell, the commanding officer of the Fort Garry horse-mounted squadron, was in charge of an ...
A Brief History of the CIA in El Salvador During the 1980s
The relationship between the CIA and El Salvador is complicated. The Central American country was controlled by military dictatorships from the 1930s through the Salvadoran Civil War that broke out in 1979. In the time between those years, the nation ...
The Fighting Foresters: U.S. Army Combat Lumberjacks Who Served During World War I
America was late to join World War I compared to the rest of their European allies who were in the midst of desperate trench, chemical, and air warfare. As the U.S. military crossed the Atlantic to enter the fight, wood was still considered a prized ...
The Great Camel Experiment: Inside the U.S. Camel Corps
The unforgivable mountainous terrain, vast deserts, and impassable rivers of the American Southwest were great challenges for the U.S. Army during the expansion in the 1830s. Alternate solutions debated between U.S. Army Lieutenant George H. Crosman ...
How Dr. Seuss Helped Create ‘Private Snafu’ To Entertain Troops During World War II
The U.S. military had its hands full when they entered World War II in 1941, as much of the country's attention was on winning the war. Some animators, illustrators, and painters enlisted their talents as combat artists to document scenes of ...
How Jewish Immigrants Interrogated German POWs and Built Gadgets at P.O. Box 1142
John Gunther Dean was prominently known as a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) where he worked as an ambassador in Cambodia, Denmark, Lebanon, Thailand, and India from the 1960s to the 1980s. The native German immigrated to the United States when ...
Operation Washtub: How Alaskans Were Trained in a Top Secret ‘Stay-Behind’ Program During the Cold War
The Soviet Union and the United States may have been allies during World War II, but during the 1950s, the two nations were in the midst of the Cold War, a stand-off between two of the world’s most influential superpowers that had both nations ...
The ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’: How Vera Lynn Charmed Allied Troops During World War II
While serving on the front lines of World War II, some allied soldiers would go weeks without seeing a woman. They'd often keep Polaroid photos of their girlfriends and wives in their front shirt pockets to provide some semblance of life back home. ...
The History Behind the Juneteenth Holiday
Major General Gordon Granger took to his personal stationery located in the Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, to handwrite General Order No. 3, a historic declaration ending slavery in the entire state that effected some 250,000 slaves. The ...
A Brief History of U.S. Military Camouflage Uniforms
Camouflage uniforms in all of their variations are standard issue for each branch of the U.S. military. However, until recently, that wasn't the case. Although the French pioneered camouflage techniques with vehicles and gun emplacements during World ...
The Shady History of Nazi Ratlines, Covert Programs, and the Escape from Justice
From the largest and most sophisticated militaries in the world to small teams operating behind enemy lines, contingencies are put in place in the event a plan falls apart. When Nazi Germany fell, some of the most notorious war criminals faced ...
From The Manhattan Project to Waffle House Entrepreneur: Tom Forkner’s Rise to Influence
Predominantly located in the Southeastern United States, Waffle House is a breakfast empire with over 1,500 restaurants nationwide. Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, and open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Waffle House was founded ...
Operation Alert: The Civil Defense Drills That Prepared America for Nuclear Attack
“Red alert, attack imminent,” a warning flashed into the headquarters of the civil defense network. Chrysler air raid sirens came to life as more than 200 cities nationwide participated in the biggest air raid drill ever attempted. President Dwight ...