The Chinook could have been a search and rescue legend
Search-and-rescue choppers have become legendary. Remember the Jolly Green Giants and Pave Hawks? Well, it turns out that there was another helicopter …
This Air Force base is the only one named after a sailor
Air Force bases across the country and around the world are generally named after airmen or their geographic location. For example, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, (formerly Maxwell Field when…
The basic guide to BAH allowances
Basic allowance for housing — commonly known as BAH — is a tax-exempt addition to the service member’s paycheck. Available for active-duty soldiers of a certain rank or reservists and/or…
These 5 famous musicians were also military veterans
Many great musicians have become actors once their singing career has taken off. These wonderful artists also spent time serving their country, either before their careers took off or even…
This Air Force pilot took on an entire anti-aircraft complex – and won
In March 1967, U.S. Air Force Capt. Merlyn Dethlefsen and three other F-105 Thunderchief pilots were tasked to fly 50 miles north of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Once there, they were to destroy the Thai Nguyen Steel Works.
The wo…
7 things we did on deployment we’re totally proud of
When service members return from deployment, their world is never the same. In many cases, veterans’ cultural views and morals change after they’ve seen how a different part of the world works.
For the most part, we step out of our comf…
These twin brothers served in three wars
In November 1942, Cuthbert “Bill” Pattillo and Charles “Buck” Pattillo of Atlanta, Georgia enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. The twin brothers, born just seven minutes apart, completed the…
Why cluster bombs are internationally banned from civilized combat
Cluster munitions are explosives that detonate in the air, dispersing bomblets or submunitions across a vast area to destroy several targets simultaneously. These were commonly used before a 2008 treaty forbidding the…
Restoring honor and releasing the shame of suicide
On December 8, 2021, I almost lost my combat veteran husband to a self-inflicted gun wound—words I never thought would be a part of our story. Immediately following, we lost…
This friendly fire incident hamstrung the P-38
The P-38 Lighting was a superb long-range fighter in all theaters of the war. The plane is best known for the “Zero Dark Thirty” operation of the Pacific Theater – the shoot-down of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto by Capt. Tom Lanphier.
But …