This is the first Black American to lead an integrated unit into combat
The Spanish Civil War was a cause célèbre for many around the world. At a time when the future of democracy was uncertain, thousands of volunteers poured into Spain to…
The soil new infantrymen walk on is bloodied from every American war
Deep in the swampland along the Alabama-Georgia border is U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning. It’s home to many beautiful locales, such as Sand Hill, where you’ll hear drill sergeants snapping the civilian out of young infantrymen, and the …
Why American submarines feared this Russian destroyer
Russian ships are often the butt of a joke. The aircraft carrier Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, for instance, has had a long hi…
The 5 worst modern battles to fight as a foot soldier
Let’s be clear — all battles suck for a foot soldier, even the smaller ones. But there were some in recent times that sucked more than others for the lowly grunt, with body counts piling up, bad commanders and leadership with a total lack of resp…
4 American traitors more destructive than Benedict Arnold
What causes someone to betray their country, everyone and everything they’ve ever known, and risk their freedom – and maybe even their life – for some kind of short term…
This German-American industrialist basically built the WWII Navy
Henry J. Kaiser figured out how to refoot an economy focused on razor blades and soda bottles into a Liberty-ship machine. He built 1/3 of all Navy Liberty ships of…
The top 6 reasons civilians back out of military service
Anyone who’s ever served in uniform has probably heard someone say the immortal line: “I would have joined the military, but…”
Lots of civilians make a trip to the recruiter with an eye toward military service, full of patriotic zeal…
How the first American patent was used to make gunpowder
Today, the United States has issued more than 7 million patents — coming in at more than 350,000 issued patents per year, out of around 600,000 annual applications. (That’s down…
The first American on the beach at D-Day served through the Vietnam War
Leonard Schroeder trained his whole career for that moment. A native of Linthicum Heights, Maryland, he attended the University of Maryland with a ROTC scholarship, graduating in June 1941. He…
5 times using food as a weapon helped turn the tide of a battle
Napoleon is credited for saying that an Army marches on its stomach. Whether he actually said that or not is disputed, but whomever did say that was correct: Food is…