Sixty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, one of the U.S. military’s most unique airplanes is still standing guard in case of catastrophe. The E-4B National Airborne Operations Center — also known as “Nightwatch” — is a flying office for the secretary of defense that uses … Lire la suite

Karl Bodmer was a European of many names and accomplishments, but his reputation received a transatlantic boost in 1832. That year Prince Maximilian, a Prussian explorer, ethnologist and naturalist, was planning an expedition into the North American frontier and, in a rare moment of humility, realized he needed a professional artist to supplement his own … Lire la suite

From the time Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation” on Feb. 24, 2022, his target, Ukraine, proved to be anything but low-hanging fruit. Ferocious though their resistance was, however, it would not have lasted as long as it did — three months and still counting, as of May 2022 — had it … Lire la suite

On March 23, 1820, off Africa’s western coast, Captain Vicente de Llovio of Spanish merchant brig Antelope uneasily watched an unfamiliar vessel enter the Bay of Cabinda. Antelope had been anchored for two weeks in the bay, where the Congo River meets the Atlantic Ocean. De Llovio and his 24-man crew had been sharing the … Lire la suite

One man’s (looted) trash is another’s man’s treasure, or so it was in the case of a woman who walked into a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas, and walked out with a priceless Roman artifact — all for the low, low price of $34.99.  A steal of the century — or centuries — as it … Lire la suite

On May 21, 2021, President Joe Biden presented 1st Lt. Ralph Puckett with the Medal of Honor for valorous action in the Korean War on November 25, 1950. But his story takes on new life in the form of a graphic novel. The latest issue of “Medal of Honor,” an illustrated series produced by the … Lire la suite

EVERY DAY, scores of midshipmen walk down the 7th Wing corridor at the U.S. Naval Academy’s sprawling Bancroft Hall dormitory. As they pass Room 7046, they might notice a plaque on the wall commemorating one of their own, Commander Howard Walter Gilmore, class of 1926. He was a World War II submariner, a Medal of … Lire la suite

“By accident, a great deal [of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book series “The Lord of the Rings”] can be read topically,” Maj. Warren Lewis, brother to C.S. Lewis, wrote in possibly the first ever review of the novel in 1949. “The Shire standing for England, Rohan for France, Gondor the Germany of the future, Sauron for Stalin.”   … Lire la suite

American and British troops facing off against each other at Savannah, Georgia, in 1779 amid the fire and fury of the Revolutionary War would probably never have expected that someday their nations would be politely negotiating over the ownership of some lost cannons — yet that is exactly what has happened following the amazing discovery … Lire la suite

In early 1969, Reconnaissance Team Illinois of the Studies and Observations Group, an elite covert operations unit, encountered North Vietnamese Army soldiers while on a battle damage assessment mission in northeast Cambodia. As the SOG team retreated to its extraction landing zone, Sgts. George Bacon and Newman Ruff laid down suppressing fire. Whenever Bacon stopped … Lire la suite