First War Powers Act signed
Less than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 18th, 1941, the First War Powers Act dramatically expanded the president’s authority to direct the national war effort.
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Flag over Fort McHenry
Two days after Plattsburgh, another critical gateway came under fire when British warships bombarded Fort McHenry, guardian of Baltimore’s inner harbor.
Flag raising on Iwo Jima
On February 23rd, 1945, a patrol from the 28th Marine Regiment climbed Mount Suribachi, the volcanic peak dominating the southern end of Iwo Jima, and raised an American flag. A larger flag soon replaced the first, and an Associated Press photographer captured the moment that would become one of the most reproduced images in military history.
Fletcher-class Destroyers
A story of reach, adaptability, and hard fighting told through the destroyer crews who carried the war across the Pacific.
Flight 19 disappears over the Atlantic
The Second World War was over by December 5th, 1945, but military aviation remained a dangerous profession even in training.
Formal end of the Civil War
More than half a century later, another presidency faced the task of closing a different conflict. On August 20th, 1866, President Andrew Johnson issued a formal proclamation declaring that the insurrection in the former Confederate states was at an end, effectively marking the official conclusion of the Civil War. The great campaigns and bloody battles were already over, but this act drew a legal line under four yea
Fort Lee and Washington’s retreat
In the autumn of the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s army reeled from defeat around New York City.
Fort Mims attack
On August 30th, 1813, in the pine woods of the Mississippi Territory, Red Stick Creek warriors tore into the poorly prepared post at Fort Mims.
Founding of the USO
As the world edged closer to global conflict, American leaders recognized that citizen-soldiers and long-service professionals alike would need support far beyond rifles and rations. On February 4th, 1941, several existing civilian welfare organizations joined together under a new umbrella: the United Service Organizations, or USO.
Francis B. Wai
The ramps drop into waist-deep surf and chaos. It is the morning of October 20, 1944, on a stretch of shoreline the maps call Red Beach. Ahead lies a narrow band of sand, beyond it a low palm grove and flooded rice paddies. Somewhere in that green fringe, Japanese guns have the approaches bracketed. As the first waves of soldiers tried to cross, the beach turned into a killing ground.
Francis C. Flaherty
How a 22-year-old Naval Reserve officer on USS Oklahoma chose his shipmates’ lives over his own at Pearl Harbor
Frederick W. Castle
A Medal of Honor story of selfless command in the skies of World War II.
Frederick Walker Castle
High over Europe on Christmas Eve 1944, the sky is crowded with contrails. Hundreds upon hundreds of heavy bombers push east toward German airfields, the engines’ steady thunder mixing with clipped radio calls. At their head is a single Flying Fortress, the air commander’s ship, where Brigadier General Frederick Walker Castle studies the instruments and the grey cloud deck below.
Gato and Balao-class Submarines
A story of reach, endurance, and silent pressure told through the boats, their crews, and the tonnage war beneath the Pacific.
George Benjamin Jr.
The rain-soaked hills of Leyte were already torn open by days of fighting when Company A of the 306th Infantry pushed forward against a Japanese strongpoint that refused to break. Machine guns were dug into the slopes, firing down narrow approaches that funneled every American movement into sheets of bullets. A light tank inched ahead, meant to crack the defenses, but the infantry platoon walking behind it stalled un
George J. Hall
A Medal of Honor story of courage under fire and stubborn infantry grit in the Italian campaign of World War II.
George John Hall
The fields near Anzio were bare and unforgiving—flat, freshly plowed earth broken only by shallow furrows and a few low dikes. On a May morning in 1944, Staff Sergeant George John Hall lay pressed into that thin cover with the rest of his company, the dirt shaking under the hammering of German machine guns. Every time a man tried to crawl forward, grazing fire stitched the ground in front of him. Sniper rounds cracke
George Phillips
Night on Iwo Jima never really felt dark. The sky glowed faintly from flares and burning wreckage, and the volcanic ash underfoot seemed to swallow every step. In a shallow foxhole—a rough, shoulder-deep fighting position scraped into that ash—Private George Phillips stood watch while the rest of his squad finally slept. They had spent the night trading grenades and rifle fire with Japanese troops slipping through th