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Since its inauguration in 1862, the Medal of Honor has gone through an evolutionary standard. Until World War I, many of the deeds that led to their award were not described in convincing detail. Sometimes it took a witness of the act of heroism to supply those details. An early case in point occurred during the Boxer Rebellion. On Oct. 18, 1899, a Chinese nationalist movement called the Society o...[Read More]

“Marines are made for this — made for the calling only warriors can answer.” The bellowing narrative establishes a familiar aggressive tone in the Marine Corps’ newest ad, one that comes amid the military’s usual slew of philosophical shifts driving the rest of the Pentagon’s (oftentimes unpredictable) recruiting efforts. In their latest creation, the service’s marketing team, which settled on the...[Read More]

Netflix on Tuesday released its four-episode documentary series on the U.S. Marine Corps. Coinciding with the service’s 250th birthday, “Marines” follows the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit — one of just seven Marine expeditionary units and the only permanently forward-deployed Marine expeditionary unit — “as they conduct high-stakes combat exercises in the Pacific,” according to the streaming serv...[Read More]

My Dead Friend Zoe opens with the familiar image of a soldier returning home, but the weight that follows is anything but typical. Directed by Army veteran and filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, the film traces the uneasy civilian life of Merit, an Afghanistan war vet haunted by the ghost of her best friend and fellow soldier, Zoe. What could’ve been a flat metaphor is instead a fully embodied charac...[Read More]

Advocates worry the military’s focus on ‘fit, not fat’ is silencing service members who struggle with their body image.

On May 8, 1945, “der dicke Hermann,” or “Fat Herman” to the German public, stepped out of his vehicle. With the writing on the wall, Hermann Göring, the leader of the Luftwaffe, had surrendered to the Americans. “Twelve years,” he purportedly muttered. “I’ve had a good run for my money.” Now, based on Jack El-Hai’s book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist,” director James Vanderbilt is bringing Göring’...[Read More]

Former U.S. defense officials said the details Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted on a non-government group chat ahead of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen earlier this month represent a serious breach of department policies and could have placed American troops at higher risk. But White House officials insist that senior leaders did nothing wrong and blasted critics for alleged exaggerations and fear-m...[Read More]

Editors Note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service, under the headline “A Massive Fraud Probe, a Botched Investigation, and the Thousands of Soldiers Who Paid.” Subscribe to their newsletter. He lost his job and was kicked out of the Army. The stress cost him his marriage and relationship with his kids. ...[Read More]

Fellow U.S. Marines and military historians know Col. Robert D. Taplett best for his valor during the Korean War. On Sept. 15, 1950, Taplett, commanding the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment, led the initial landing of an amphibious assault at Inchon that resulted in victory for United Nations forces. Later that year, at the Chosin Reservoir, Taplett and the 3/5 Marines, often struggling ag...[Read More]