Medal of Honor Monday: Willie Johnston, the 11-Year-Old Who Would Not Drop His Drum
At eleven, Willie Johnston carried his drum through the Seven Days retreat when others tossed their gear to survive.
At eleven, Willie Johnston carried his drum through the Seven Days retreat when others tossed their gear to survive.
Mexico did not flinch because it cared about Maduro, but because his capture proved the United States had stopped negotiating with old assumptions and started enforcing new ones.
Iran unrest, US defense push, and global flashpoints reshape the week. Here’s your Monday morning brief for January 12, 2026.
U.S. pressure is tightening across the Western Hemisphere as Washington warns Cuba, cracks down in Venezuela, Iran’s unrest turns deadlier under blackout conditions, and Minneapolis edges toward federal intervention amid escalating clashes over immigration enforcement.
The Navy finally built a fitness test that looks like the work its most dangerous sailors actually do, not the paperwork they fill out afterward.
American power looks weaker because it is no longer theatrical, but it is still shaping outcomes through pressure and alliances while rivals burn men, money, and legitimacy trying to fight the modern world and their own limits.
Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do first, day after day, because the results everyone admires are built in the boring, uncomfortable work no one sees.
Major John L. Plaster’s SOG is a blunt, first-hand account of MACV-SOG’s small-team missions behind enemy lines that makes Hollywood action look fake by comparison because it’s built on real consequences, brutal odds, and men who did not get to choose how it ended.
The Army broke tradition by commissioning a senior NCO as a captain as Iran’s protests escalated, Venezuela began releasing political prisoners under U.S. pressure, and Alabama authorities captured a suspect after a deadly shooting.
U.S. forces carried out apparent payback strikes on ISIS targets in Syria as Portland investigated a federal agent shooting, Iran’s unrest escalated under heavy security measures, Mexico moved to tighten communications with Washington, and Katy Perry’s high-profile legal fight continued to draw backlash.
Caracas never heard the Maduro regime die, it just woke up to the sound of it missing, because when the CIA owns your pattern of life and Delta owns your front door, history does not knock twice.
The Beretta ARX160 is a piston-driven, modular service rifle designed to fix the real shortcomings exposed by modern combat, emphasizing ambidextrous controls, adaptability, and ease of use while taking a different technical path than newer rifles like the UK’s KS-1.