WEAPONS & WEAPON SYSTEMS

In the middle years of the Vietnam War, American leaders sought ways to weaken the enemy’s ability to move troops and supplies down long, fragile lines of communication. On June 29th, 1966, U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft carried out major attacks on petroleum storage facilities near Hanoi and Haiphong, striking targets that had previously been off-limits or only lightly hit.

A story of reach, listening power, and adaptation told through the crews who rode a jetliner-turned-spyplane into Iraq’s most dangerous airspace.

In the bitter winter of 1944, the Belgian town of Bastogne became a focal point of the last major German offensive in the West.

A 22-year-old heavy machine gunner who held back a German attack in the Battle of the Bulge

A story of exposed convoys, hidden fighters, and the soldiers and medics who kept moving through an urban kill zone.

In early September 1943, the strategic picture in the Mediterranean shifted rapidly.

Along the Gulf Coast, Union planners sought to open a route into Texas by sending a naval expedition and troop transports toward Sabine Pass at the border with Louisiana.

One year after Valcour Island, American forces under General Horatio Gates and field leaders like Benedict Arnold clashed with General John Burgoyne’s army near Bemis Heights, south of Saratoga.

On August 29th, 1862, Union forces under Major General John Pope hurled repeated attacks against Confederate positions near an unfinished railroad grade outside Manassas, Virginia.

As autumn settled over Virginia in 1781, combined American and French armies under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau began the methodical work of besieging Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.

In the early hours of October 31st, 1941, the Clemson-class destroyer USS Reuben James was escorting a convoy near Iceland when a German submarine fired a spread of torpedoes into the formation.

A story of speed, altitude, and evasion told through the crews and missions that defined it.

On this day a fledgling United States Army marched into disaster along the Wabash River in the Northwest Territory.

On November 14th, 1965, helicopters of the United States Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) began landing infantry battalions near the Chu Pong Massif in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnam.

It is the early hours of 10 March 1945 on Luzon in the Philippine Islands. The jungle around the Villa Verde Trail is black and close, broken only by a thin ridge that juts out from a larger hill. On that ridge, just ahead of the main American perimeter, three foxholes scrape a shallow line in the earth. In one of them lies Private First Class Thomas Eugene “Gene” Atkins of Company A, 127th Infantry. His job is simple and deadly: watch the trail and buy time if the enemy comes.

A story of reach and persistence told through the pilots who rode the thin air and the targets they photographed far below.

A story of reach, survivability, and adaptation told through the pilots, crews, and troops who lived and fought under the Huey’s rotors.

By December 15th, 1862, the Army of the Potomac was pulling back across the Rappahannock River after the bloody defeat at Fredericksburg.

In the aftermath of global war, American leaders restructured their armed forces to meet emerging strategic realities.

Not every turning point comes with smoke and cannon fire.

On a bitter, stormy Christmas night, George Washington led a force of Continental soldiers and militia across the ice-choked Delaware River, gambling that a surprise strike could salvage a collapsing cause.

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

On December 29th, 1890, troops of the 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Miniconjou Lakota near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, seeking to disarm them amid fears surrounding the Ghost Dance movement.

A story of stealth, electric power, precision strike, and ambition told through the sailors and systems that defined one of the most unusual warships ever built.