History

Profiles, explainers, and other stories that dig into military history.

Latest in History

Navy pilot to receive Medal of Honor nearly 75 years after shooting down 4 MiGs

By Jeff Schogol

Posted Yesterday

Family and friends attend a posthumous commission ceremony at Ke’ehi Lagoon Memorial State Park, Honolulu, Hi., Jan. 26, 2026. The ceremony was held to posthumously commission University of Hawaii ROTC cadets who died in combat during WWII. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Peter Bannister)

Labeled ‘aliens’ in World War II, 7 Japanese-American soldiers posthumously commissioned

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Jan 28, 2026

On Aug. 16, 1960, Col. Kittinger stepped from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet. In freefall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 614 mph and temperatures as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit, he opened his parachute at 18,000 feet. (U.S. Air Force photo) (Photo by NASA/Corbis via Getty Images)

When the Air Force had a guy jump from the edge of space

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Jan 20, 2026

NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Italy (Aug. 22, 2021) An Afghan family waits to exit a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella during Operation Allies Refuge Aug. 22, 2021. NAS Sigonella is currently supporting the Department of Defense mission to facilitate the safe departure and relocation of U.S. citizens, Special Immigration Visa recipients, and vulnerable Afghan populations from Afghanistan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel M. Young)

Afghanistan War

Veterans defend Afghan ally programs as Trump closes doors

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Jan 14, 2026

Image: (Original Caption) The Charleston shot was part of Operation Plumbbob and was fired from a balloon on September 28, 1957. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The military once considered using balloons as nuclear weapons systems

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Jan 5, 2026

Technician from Office of Naval Research (ONR) participates in freeflight after extensive testing for the Hiller Flying Platform. The platform was first flown in public in 1955. (Photo by US Navy/Getty Images)

When the military tried to give soldiers personal flying platforms

By Nicholas Slayton

Updated on Jan 1, 2026

Image: Jeep: US soldiers of the 3rd Division having Christmas dinner on the hood of a jeep on the front lines, World War Two, France, December 25th 1943. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

How US troops in World War II celebrated Christmas dinner on the front

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 25, 2025

A mushroom cloud rises from a nuclear weapon test during Operation TUMBLER-SNAPPER. Over two thousand Marines witnessed the event, which was conducted in 1952 at the Nevada Proving Ground.

The Army once considered a nuclear-powered tank built by Chrysler

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 16, 2025

Navy pilot who took out 4 Soviet jets in covered-up mission may get Medal of Honor

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 8, 2025

Bush, Rumsfeld, Trump, Hegseth

As Congress tries to claw back power, the president can still wage war unilaterally

By Jeff Schogol, nicholas Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 8, 2025

World War II veteran Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot Native American, who took part in the Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy) during the D-Day on June 6, 1944, poses on May 4, 2019 in Omaha Beach, western France. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP) (Photo credit should read LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

D-Day vet who moved to Normandy in final years dies at 101

Posted on Dec 4, 2025

Steven Price testifies at the Texas House of Representatives this year, and a photo from his time stationed in Panama in the early 1980s.

A veteran’s service in Panama isn’t covered by the VA. There are hundreds like him.

By Patty Nieberg

Posted on Dec 1, 2025

Description: circa April-May 1923 The destroyers are, from left to right: USS Pruitt (DD-347) USS Stewart (DD-224) USS Preble (DD-345) USS Hulbert (DD-342) and USS William B. Preston (DD-344). The Japan-China Steamship Company (N.K.K. Nisshin Kisen Kaisha) docks are in the foreground, with a river steamer alongside in the center and an ocean-going freighter at right. Many local small craft are also present. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

The Navy’s original island hopping strategy

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Dec 1, 2025

Two U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs, assigned to the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team, fly in formation prior to conducting air-to-air refueling over Utah, July 1, 2025.

Why are so many US military aircraft painted grey?

Posted on Nov 25, 2025

On a snow covered hillside, three members of a US machine gun squad lay exhausted after taking a Communist position. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

On this day 74 years ago, one soldier staged a last stand to protect his unit

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Nov 24, 2025

Four F4U Corsair fighter airplanes return from a combat mission over North Korea and circle the aircraft carrier USS Boxer while waiting for the planes in the next strike force to launch from the deck, September 1951. US Navy photo. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)

That time the Air Force held a Marine hostage for steak

By Nicholas Slayton

Posted on Nov 12, 2025