News
He turned down a trip home from the Korean War, then earned the MOH
On Oct. 28, 1951, 1st Lt. Lloyd Burke was at his unit’s command post, looking at the ticket in his hand. His 13-month tour of duty in Korea was ending and two miles to the rear an airplane was waiting to fly him out. He’d soon be reunited with his wife and infant son back in Arkansas. At that very same time, however, his unit, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, w...[Read More]
He was awarded a Silver Star for a battle the US said never happened
In just one week in February 1968 America would suffer the highest casualties of the Vietnam War — from North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive, the battles of Hue and Quang Tri and the siege of Khe Sanh, the news out of southeast Asia was very bad to dismal. But it wasn’t even the full picture. For decades, the battle of Lima Site 85 — a top-secret American tactical air navigation radar site atop at 5,800-...[Read More]
He was bayoneted in Guam. Shot on Iwo. Now, at 100, he is a sergeant.
At just 16, Frank S. Wright lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He entered the ranks of the 4th Marine Raiders and later the 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division, and went on to fight in Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Guam and Iwo Jima. He was bayoneted in the stomach while liberating Guam and shot in the chest and arm by enemy machine-gun fire during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Days ago, i...[Read More]
He went from mowing FDR’s lawn to the Battle of the Bulge
Ralph J. Osterhoudt, now 96, was 15 when World War II began. His family’s Hudson Valley, New York, farm was just a bicycle ride north of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park estate, where Osterhoudt worked summers. Though a schoolboy, he stepped up to serve, first as a volunteer in the Ground Observer Corps, organized to alert military authorities should enemy aircraft penetrate American sk...[Read More]
Heading Home, NPS Alumni Leading Artemis II Locked In for Return to Earth
Next stop — Earth. Following a historic lunar flyby at a record-setting distance, the Artemis II crew is now on its return journey, with splashdown expected Friday in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 50-60 miles off the coast of San Diego. Awaiting their arrival will be USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26), positioned to recover the astronauts and capsule.
Health care access a top complaint among troops, top enlisted leaders tell lawmakers
Top senior enlisted leaders for the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force told lawmakers Wednesday that access to health care is the most substantive complaint they’re hearing lately from their troops. During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of avail...[Read More]
Health care access a top complaint among troops, top enlisted leaders tell lawmakers
Top senior enlisted leaders for the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force told lawmakers Wednesday that access to health care is the most substantive complaint they’re hearing lately from their troops. During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of avail...[Read More]
Hegseth abruptly summons hundreds of top military leaders to meeting
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the military’s top officers — hundreds of generals and admirals — to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter. The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico....[Read More]
Hegseth aims to cut Kelly’s retirement pay over lawful orders video
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X the expanding punishments for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who participated in a Nov. 18 video that pleaded with service members to refuse illegal orders. Kelly, a retired Navy pilot — along with five other Democratic members of Congress — released the video amid a barrage of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and...[Read More]
Hegseth aims to cut Kelly’s retirement pay over lawful orders video
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X the expanding punishments for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who participated in a Nov. 18 video that pleaded with service members to refuse illegal orders. Kelly, a retired Navy pilot — along with five other Democratic members of Congress — released the video amid a barrage of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and...[Read More]
Hegseth asks Army’s top general to retire, fires two others as Iran war rages
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday asked U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and retire effective immediately, a Pentagon official told Military Times. The abrupt move, one of three significant changes made by Hegseth the same day, cuts short George’s tenure, which began in September 2023, well before the end of the typical four-year term. The Pentagon intends to replac...[Read More]
Hegseth blasts ‘fat troops’ in rare gathering with military brass
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lamented against “fat troops” and “woke” policies Tuesday, pledging to create higher physical fitness and grooming standards with gender neutral, age-normed criteria that match the current male fitness standards. “It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told hundreds of top military leaders during a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia....[Read More]