Being a POW was not a great way to spend your enlistment in the Civil War, no matter which side you fought on. Depending on which POW camp you ended up locked into, your chances of survival were only slightly better. And if you did die, you probabl…
Ernest “Ernie” K. Tabata was born on Oahu, Hawaii in 1930. The son of Japanese immigrants, he began his military career at the age of 15 with the Hawaiian Territorial Guard. In 1949, he enlisted in the Army and completed combat engineer school at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In June 1950, Tabata was among the first … Continued
In April 1951, Lt. Dave Teich heard a call from about 65 U.S. Army soldiers from the 8th Ranger Company. They were completely cut off from the rest of the main force and some of them were wounded. Meanwhile, some 300,000 Chinese soldiers were on their way to overrun their position. The Rangers were calling … Continued
At the outbreak of the 20th century’s first global conflict, when you might think they’d take anyone who wanted to fight, the British Army was actually turning able-bodied men away. On the surface, that’s nothing new. Armies all over the world turn men away all the time. The U.S. military will turn troops down for … Continued
Credible sources have confirmed that it’s all over. The Apocalypse is nigh. The End Times are upon us.
The trouble started Jun. 16 when Army Chief of Staff Mark A. Milley announced that soldiers at Fort Hood were going to be allowed to r…
Some legends are strange enough to be true, like this Japanese soldier who fought for nearly three decades after the war had ended. Hiroo Onada was a commando class “Futamata” intelligence officer for the Imperial Japanese Army. Originally enlisting in the infantry at 18 years old, by 1944 — at 22 — he made it … Continued
In 2008, filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow directed a film about a hotshot soldier who went above and beyond his bomb disposal duties while deployed to Iraq.
His passion for the job kept him in harm’s way as he defused hundreds of homemade explo…
One of the better-known assumptions about combat is that the side with the greater numbers usually wins. Seems pretty self-explanatory, right? Being outnumbered puts you at an automatic disadvantage. Still, other factors, like experience, equipment, tactics and even weather come into play. Here is a list of famous clashes throughout history with unlikely resolutions. The … Continued
Vito Bertoldo almost didn’t make it into the Army. A former coal miner, he was exempt from the World War II draft due to his bad eyesight. Approved for limited duty after enlisting, he had to get special permission to join the infantry. It’s a good thing he did. In December 1944, Germany launched Operation … Continued
