On this day in 1945, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Isadore “Izzy” Jachman would take on two enemy tanks, single-handedly, forcing them into retreat.   Perhaps the incredible feat wasn’t as surprising as you might think. After all, the young staff sergeant had a personal stake in World War II: His family had fled rising antisemitism in Germany when he was just a toddler. Worse, he was surely worried about his relatives who’d remained behin

At about this time in 1944, an American B-24 Liberator lands in England, having completed a top-secret overnight mission. The plane had been painted black, making it hard to spot against the nighttime sky. The B-24’s ball-turret had also been removed, replaced with a cargo hatch. The objective of the secret flight was simple: Resupply underground resistance forces in Nazi-held territory. The flight was the first of many in an effort that would span months. Taken together, the

On this day in 1992, the “Father of Naval Special Warfare” passes away. Phil Bucklew has been credited with laying the groundwork for many aspects of today’s naval special forces, including the Navy SEALs.   The former Cleveland Ram had been coaching a football game when Pearl Harbor was attacked. News of the Japanese assault was soon announced over the stadium’s loudspeakers. “We were down in the bar [after the game],” he later described, “and someone said, ‘Let’s all join t

On this day in 1951, the only dog to earn a United States Coast Guard NCO rank passes away. Sinbad has been described as a “rough tough and rowdy” dog who was a combination of “liberty-rum-chow hound with a bit of bulldog, Doberman pinscher and whatnot–mostly whatnot.” Sinbad’s life at sea began by accident. Chief Boatswain’s Mate A. A. “Blackie” Roth meant to give the dog to his girlfriend because his shore leave was coming to an end. The landlord wouldn’t let her have a pet

On this day in 1941, Navy nurses scramble to create a memorable Christmas for their patients aboard USS Solace , then anchored at Pearl Harbor. It would be no easy chore: The patients, nurses, and crew were still reeling from the unexpected Japanese attack mere weeks before.   Yet hope and optimism were critical for patients to heal, as Chief Nurse Grace Lally well knew. Thus, in the days after the attack, she’d instructed her nurses to be cheerful. “The nurses smiled, joked,

On this day in 1944, American soldiers should have been at home celebrating Christmas and New Year’s. Instead, they were fighting off one last German push during the Battle of the Bulge. One of these soldiers, Pfc. Melvin Biddle, was a normally soft-spoken man. He later even admitted to being scared during combat. “But I lost a lot of fear because I was out there and couldn’t let the troops down,” he told a journalist in 2008. He needed that attitude on December 23, as he fou

On this day in 1943, a German ace bypasses an opportunity to shoot down a U.S. Army Air Forces pilot. Second Lt. Charles “Charlie” Brown was struggling just to keep his crippled B-17 in the air! “I look out the right window,” Brown would later describe, “and there parked on my right wing is a German BF-109 . . . . I closed my eyes and shook my head as you would with a nightmare. If I close my eyes and open them again, he’ll be gone. Well, I opened them again and he was still

On this day in 1941, Pearl Harbor reels from a surprise Japanese attack. Have you ever thought about the Navy nurses present on that day so long ago? Like many others, those nurses were abruptly shoved into war when Japanese planes unexpectedly descended upon the American base.   It was the opposite of the Hawaiian assignment that, until then, had been a cushy one.   “I thought I was living a charmed life,” Lt. Ruth Erickson later said.  She was at the Naval Hospital and woul

On this day in 1941, the Japanese launch an attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. You already know the basics of the story, but do you know about the 16 men who received Medals of Honor for their bravery so long ago?   Remember: Those boys woke up that morning thinking that the United States was NOT at war. But they leapt into action when called upon to do so.   USS West Virginia, engulfed in flames Some of the acts were relatively simple ones, like staying

On this day in 1941, civilians and military on the Hawaiian island of Oahu enjoy a beautiful day, blissfully unaware that the United States would soon be at war. Have you ever thought about the military nurses stationed at Pearl Harbor that weekend?   They were about to be put in a unique position, yet they had no way of knowing it.   Indeed, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor early on December 7, it marked the first time in American history that Army nurses were at the

On this day in 1944, a hero receives a Medal of Honor. Raymond “Wilkie” Wilkins once aced the written entry exam for West Point, but then he failed the physical requirements for that academy because his teeth were slightly crooked!   Undeterred, he enlisted and began his Army career as a private. From there, he was soon learning to fly at the Air Corps Technical School.   “He wanted to be Army; Army with a capital A,” a Portsmouth Star reporter wrote in 1945. “That is the cor

On this day in 2009, a Medal of Honor recipient passes away. Alejandro Ruiz had perhaps been an unlikely hero? Indeed, he might never have been at Okinawa but for a somewhat humorous legal scrape that he got himself into.   A 20-year-old Ruiz had been transporting cows across Texas in 1944 when he made a spur-of-the-moment decision to propose to his girlfriend, Eliza Martinez. He was supposed to take the cows to Carlsbad, but he detoured to Barstow to find Eliza instead. Perh

On this day in 1943, a former Detroit Lion engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Yet Maurice “Footsie” Britt earned more than just a Medal. He was also the first American to earn the four highest U.S. Army combat decorations for valor, all during a single war.   Even better, he lived to tell his stories.   Britt had been an athlete in college, of course, but he’d also joined the Army Reserve Officer’s Training Corps during his time at the University of

On this day in 1944, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor.  Charles E. Mower was a Wisconsin native and the son of a World War I veteran.   He’d been a football coach before joining the Army and could have gone back to such a life, but “since God has seen fit to change those plans,” Mower’s high school classmate James Theirl concluded, “we know that what Chuck did on that final day was his greatest work.”   That “final day” was November 3, 1944,

On this day in 1944, a soldier engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Private George “Joe” Sakato would not receive his Medal until nearly 56 years after his action.  Even then, he was stunned.   “I couldn’t believe they were going to give me the Medal of Honor,” he said, noting that he only ever saw 90 days of combat. “I was just a recruit. I was just a raw private.”   But it was even more than that. When Sakato joined the Army, he was short and somewha

On this day in 1942, the Battle for Henderson Field begins. Marines in the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines stand as the last line of defense between the Japanese and an all-important airfield on Guadalcanal.   Company C took the brunt of the attack that night, but our Marines staunchly held on.   As the Japanese retreated, someone reportedly hoisted a flag made from an old, white parachute. It bore a skull and crossbones and the words “Suicide Charley, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.”

On this day in 1944, a U.S. Army nurse pens a letter to the American G.I. Frances Slanger’s words would ultimately be published as an editorial in the Stars and Stripes  newspaper.   It meant the world to our boys!   “These Soldiers had been fighting every day since they landed,” historian Bob Welch writes. “They had lost their sense of humanity, lost most of their sense of dignity, and lost their sense of hope. Suddenly, along came this nurse who wrote this letter . . . and

On this day in 1980, a hero passes away. William Soderman’s hometown of West Haven, Connecticut, had long known him as a quiet, hardworking man who would “always see a task through to the end.”   That determination would turn him into a one-man army at the Battle of the Bulge. Would you believe that Soderman took on multiple German tanks, single-handedly?! The move earned him a Medal of Honor.   Pfc. Soderman’s heroism came near Rocherath, Belgium on the night of December 17-

On this day in 1921, a future flying Ace is born in Watertown, Massachusetts. Fred Christensen’s love of flying started early, when a friend’s father took him up in a plane as a teenager.   “From a very early age,” his daughter Diane would explain years later, “he did anything he could to get to the airport or befriend those at school whose dads had planes. As children, we thought he could fly without wings.”   Christensen joined the Army soon after the Japanese attack on Pea

On this day in 1941, USS Kearny participates in an emergency rescue mission—and it would be attacked by the Germans. But wasn’t the United States neutral in World War II at that juncture? The attack on Pearl Harbor and declarations of war on Japan and Germany were still nearly two months away. Believe it or not, several American vessels clashed with the Germans in those months. As early as April 1941, USS Niblack was dropping depth charges to ward off a potential German U-b