World War II

By early 1945, the Japanese Empire was shrinking daily and the war had reached its home shores. Less than three and half years after Pearl Harbor, American industrial might was on full display. And it was never more apparent than during the Battle of Okinawa.  The once-proud Japanese Imperial Navy that Americans feared would threaten […]

James Maurice Gavin, born 113 years ago of yesterday, would rise to become the youngest Major General to command a division in World War II. He led the 82nd Airborne during the D-Day invasion, Operation Market-Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. He was known “The Jumping General” or “Jumpin’ Jim,” as he would jump […]

During World War II, many of the best operatives of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), were women. They worked undercover, putting their lives at risk in occupied France, and running agent networks, conducting sabotage, and training the French Maquis.  Many lost their lives or went sent […]

Seventy-five years ago, the entire world was still at war. In Europe, the Allied armies of American, British, Canadian and Free French forces were pushing Germany in the west while huge Soviet armies were driving east into Germany. Other Allied troops were pushing northward up through Italy, putting the Nazis into an ever-tighter circle. In […]

Maj. Light Shin, 173rd Airborne Brigade chaplain, talks with retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Richard Adams, a former 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment paratrooper who was involved in the retaking of Corregidor Island in 1945, during a ceremony to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of U.S. service members regaining control of the island at the U.S. Embassy […]

Marines who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima take a group photo at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, Feb. 14, 2020. Marines and their families got together in honor of the 75th anniversary of the day Marines stormed Iwo Jima in 1945. You can read more about the battle here.

William Orlando Darby is one of the icons of the Army’s Special Operations community. He organized, trained, and led the first of the Army’s Ranger Battalions during World War II. He fought in North Africa, Sicily, and mainland Italy. Later, as the Assistant Division Commander of the 10th Mountain Division, he was killed in action […]

Nancy Wake was given the moniker, “the White Mouse” by the Germans during World War II, for her uncanny ability to escape out of any trap. However, the glamorous female agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was deadly; in one instance she killed an SS guard, taking him out with her bare hands to […]

Chuck Yeager always had the “Right Stuff” regardless if NASA never selected him for the space program. Yeager was a decorated fighter pilot in World War II and became a test pilot and was the first man to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager was born to a farming family on February […]

Today is the birthday of Sterling Hayden, he would have been 103 years old today. Most people when they hear his name think of the crooked cop, Captain McCloskey in “The Godfather”. Working with a rival faction of Mafiosi, Hayden met his end when Michael Corleone shot him in a restaurant. He was also outstanding […]

After the forces of Hitler’s Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that the military create a force that could carry out raids against Nazi-occupied Europe. “Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down […]