PEOPLE & COMMANDERS

A Medal of Honor story of sacrifice and steadfast loyalty in the air war over Europe in World War II.

The B-17 was almost home when the choice arrived over the radio: bail out, or try to land a dying airplane. The long mission over Leipzig was behind them, but the bomber itself was torn open—control cables shot away, engines coughing, the fuselage peppered with holes where German fighters had raked the formation. In the cockpit, the copilot lay dead. The pilot, badly wounded, had been dragged from his seat and now drifted in and out of consciousness, strapped down behind the controls.

On May 13th, 1846, Congress responds to President James K. Polk’s war message and formally declares that a state of war exists with Mexico. Skirmishes along the Rio Grande have already led to American and Mexican casualties, and the vote unlocks the use of the regular Army and newly raised volunteers on multiple fronts. Over the next two years, United States forces will fight along the border, across northern Mexico, and in a bold amphibious landing and march on Mexico City.

On this day, George Washington formally accepted the appointment that Congress had offered him to serve as commander in chief of the Continental Army. The colonies had already seen bloodshed at Lexington, Concord, and around Boston, but until this point there had been no single figure responsible for coordinating their military effort. Washington’s acceptance signaled that the rebellion would not be a loose collection of local uprisings but a united struggle with a common command.

In the final winter of the Revolutionary War, Continental Army officers encamped at Newburgh, New York seethed over unpaid wages and uncertain futures. An anonymous circular dated March 10th, 1783 urged them to consider a more forceful stand against Congress, raising the specter of a military challenge to civilian authority. On March 15th, George Washington appeared unannounced at their meeting and asked permission to speak.

A Medal of Honor story of audacity and precision in the skies over the Pacific during World War II.

The morning sky over northern Luzon is deceptively calm. From the cockpit of his sleek reconnaissance Mustang, Major William Arthur Shomo scans the broken clouds, hunting for airfields and antiaircraft positions that his ground commanders need to see. His mission is straightforward on paper: an armed photographic and strafing sweep over the Aparri and Laoag airdromes, far ahead of friendly lines.

How a 22-year-old automatic rifleman kept firing after losing both legs, and saved his platoon in the Philippine mountains of 1945.

How a 23-year-old pilot kept a burning Flying Fortress in the air long enough to save his crew over Nazi-occupied Europe.

In the spring of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany, a dramatic reversal from his earlier campaign slogan of having kept the country out of the conflict. The decision followed Germany’s return to unrestricted submarine warfare, which had sent American ships and sailors to the bottom, and the revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany encouraged Mexico to consider war against the United States.

Even as troops fought through Manila’s streets, the political leaders of the major Allied powers gathered thousands of miles away to shape the end of the war and the uneasy peace to follow. On February 4th, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin opened the Yalta Conference in the Crimean resort city of the same name.

A Medal of Honor story of courage under fire and ultimate sacrifice in the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Early in the Second World War’s Pacific campaign, United States and Filipino forces on Bataan and Corregidor fought a desperate defense against Japanese invasion. With the situation deteriorating and Washington determined to preserve a senior commander for future operations, General Douglas MacArthur received orders to leave the Philippines and take up a new post in Australia.

Before the United States formally entered the Second World War, its leaders faced the challenge of preparing a still-divided public for the scale of the coming struggle. On May 27th, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used a nationwide address to proclaim an “unlimited national emergency,” warning that Axis victories overseas threatened American security. The declaration did not yet mean war, but it unlocked broader mobilization of industry, shipping, and the armed forces.