35 years on, IAF pilots recall daring mission to bomb Saddam’s nuke reactor

Thirty-five years after Operation Opera – the Israeli air attack that destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, retired IAF officers and Mossad agents revealed hitherto unknown details of the operation on Friday. In an expose aired on Channel 10, Col. (Ret.) Ze’ev Raz, who led the June 7, 1981 raid, said that Air Force […]

Classic military vehicles a collecting bargain?

Black-and-white photos of endless Allied mechanized columns advancing into Germany hint at the unbelievable numbers of military vehicles built to turn WWII’s tide. That flood of jeeps, tanks, deuce-and-a-half trucks and other motorized vehicles illustrated America’s prodigious industrial might at its apex. It’s a scene that probably inspired more than a few people to get […]

Here’s how 56 Marines took on the Chinese army during the Boxer Rebellion

The U.S. Marine Corps landed in China exactly 116 years ago today. On May 31, 1900, an expeditionary force of 56 Marines and sailors arrived in Beijing to protect the U.S. diplomatic mission in the face of mounting militia attacks in what would be known as the Boxer Rebellion. Over a brutal 55-day siege, the […]

World War II’s Strangest Battle: When Americans and Germans Fought Together

The most extraordinary things about Stephen Harding’s The Last Battle, a truly incredible tale of World War II, are that it hasn’t been told before in English, and that it hasn’t already been made into a blockbuster Hollywood movie. Here are the basic facts: on 5 May 1945—five days after Hitler’s suicide—three Sherman tanks from the […]

The Historical Significance of “Taps”

As for the name “Taps,” the most likely explanation is that it comes from the fact that prior to Butterfield’s bugle call, the lights-out call was followed by three drum beats, dubbed the “Drum-Taps,” as well as “The Taps” and then simply “Taps.”

American Sniper, a Hero Regardless of recent attacks on military record

As a Navy SEAL sniper, Chris Kyle served his country with distinction in some of the worst places and situations imaginable. Most Americans will never know what it’s like to leave the comforts of home for the hot streets of Iraq where everyone is trying to kill you and your friends, and life or death […]

A Misaligned, Misguided, and Misunderstood History: The Vietnam War

It is July 1965, and President Lyndon B. Johnson has made the decision to send troops into Vietnam. U.S. strategy in Vietnam demands a necessary escalation of force. American policy, stemming from Cold War doctrine, and events in Vietnam since at least 1954 have gone unchecked for too long. Yet, U.S. policy is destined to […]

Last U.S. combat flag from Vietnam War up for auction

The last American combat flag from the Vietnam War is being put up for auction. War hero Army Col. Chester Bailey McCoid took the large flag with him when he became the last ground force soldier to leave the South Vietnam port city of Da Nang on March 29, 1973, a month before the fall […]

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki – The “Bomb” and the Advent of the Cold War

United States Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson considered sharing the atomic bomb; in his plan to President Harry Truman. Secretary Stimson expressed a prophetic understanding of the global dynamics of what would soon become an international arms race for dominance of atomic and nuclear armament: The Cold War.  Secretary Stimson’s plan addressed the fundamental […]

Navy vet served on captured German WWII sub

At the height of World War II, German submarines, also known as U-boats, gained a reputation as the terror of the high seas. With more than 1,100 built, Hitler’s U-boat fleet was infamous for disrupting enemy supply lines, sinking more than 2,600 Allied ships during the course of the war, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported. […]