Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine

Arsenal: Gato and Balao-class Submarines in the Pacific Undersea Campaign, World War II follows United States fleet boats from early desperate patrols off Luzon and in the South China Sea through a grinding tonnage war that strangled Japan’s lifelines. The episode traces how these long-legged submarines were built to solve the problem of vast Pacific distances, how their design and crew routines s...

Headline Wednesday: El Guettar, World War II in North Africa follows the day American tankers and infantry turned a Tunisian valley into a test of everything they had learned since Kasserine Pass. From the ridges around El Guettar to the mine belts and gun pits in the valley floor, this episode looks at how American crews faced seasoned German panzer units under the North African sun. We trace the...

This Week in U.S. Military History: July 7th, 2026–July 13th, 2026 follows a seven-day span where revolution, civil war, empire, and Cold War all intersect through shared calendar dates. Listeners hear Continental soldiers in New York reacting to the words of independence, New Yorkers rioting over the first federal draft, and Union troops fighting a delaying action at Monocacy while a president la...

Beyond the Call: Sergeant Charles E. Mower at Leyte, 1944 follows a nineteen-year-old infantry leader in the brutal Philippine campaign, guiding listeners through a deadly jungle ravine crossing where he stayed exposed in a shallow stream to direct his squad’s fire and break a fortified Japanese position. The story places his final moments within the wider effort to retake the Philippines, then re...

Arsenal: AH-64 Apache in Desert Storm, 1991 follows the United States Army’s main attack helicopter from its low-level night raid on Iraqi radar sites to deep strikes against armored columns in the Gulf War and beyond. This episode traces how the Apache was built to solve the problem of massed Warsaw Pact armor, walks through its development and crew experience, and then follows it into combat ove...

Headline Wednesday: Submarine War in the Pacific, World War II takes you beneath the gray swells and into the steel hulls where a small community of United States submariners waged a quiet, ruthless campaign against Japan’s lifelines. This episode follows the men who hunted tankers and freighters in the dark, threading minefields and depth-charge patterns to cut the flow of fuel, ore, and food tha...

This Week in U.S. Military History: June 30th, 2026–July 6th, 2026 traces a powerful arc from the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the brutal three days at Gettysburg to the hard climb up San Juan Hill and the fall of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. Listeners move from muddy Civil War crossroads at Glendale to the moment the United States Army Air Corps is created, and on to Philippine...

Beyond the Call: Corporal Arthur O. Beyer at Arloncourt, Belgium, 1945 tells the story of a tank destroyer gunner whose solo advance under fire helped break a German defensive line in the closing months of the Second World War. This episode follows Beyer’s life from rural Iowa to the snow-covered ridges of Belgium, tracing the ambush that pinned his armored column, the daring assault that silenced...

Arsenal: F-4 Phantom II in the Air War over Vietnam, 1965–1973 follows the big twin-engine fighter from Rolling Thunder to the Linebacker campaigns, tracing how Phantom crews fought over Hanoi, the Red River delta, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Listeners hear the jet in action under surface-to-air missile fire, the fleet-defense problem it was built to solve, how designers turned that concept into a...

Headline Wednesday: Battle of the Philippine Sea, Second World War, drops you into the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,” when U.S. carrier pilots and submariners shredded Japan’s remaining naval air power over the blue waters west of Saipan. This episode traces the morning radar contacts, the launch of F6F Hellcats from Task Force 58, and the disorganized Japanese raids struggling through layered fig...

This Week in U.S. Military History: June 23rd, 2026–June 29th, 2026 traces how the same week on the calendar links Monmouth’s blistering heat, Little Bighorn’s shock on the Plains, Marines digging Germans out of Belleau Wood, and American troops forcing open the port of Cherbourg. Listeners hear how the Treaty of Versailles tries to lock in peace, how the Korean War erupts almost overnight, and ho...

Beyond the Call: Private Ova A. Kelley at Buri Airstrip, Leyte, 1944 follows a rifleman in World War II’s Pacific campaign as a single, stunning act of courage shatters a Japanese strongpoint and unlocks a stalled American attack. Listeners hear the ground-level narrative of Kelley’s solo charge, the wider fight for Leyte and its vital airfields, and a reflective look at how initiative, responsibi...

Arsenal: B-1B Lancer in Long-Range Strike, the War on Terror follows the United States B one B swing wing bomber from Cold War nuclear alert pads to long nights orbiting over Afghanistan and Iraq. Listeners hear how a jet designed to knife through Soviet air defenses at low level became a precision strike workhorse, hauling deep magazines of guided bombs in support of patrols, convoys, and special...

Headline Wednesday: Battle of the Coral Sea, World War II follows the first carrier-versus-carrier clash where opposing fleets never trade gunfire in sight of one another. American and Japanese task forces probe across a vast stretch of the Coral Sea as pilots launch into gray skies, hunting convoys and carriers that exist only as bearings and radio reports. Port Moresby, Australia’s northern life...

This Week in U.S. Military History: June 16th, 2026–June 22nd, 2026 traces a seven-day span when American arms, policy, and principle all shifted in important ways. Listeners move from Washington accepting command of the Continental Army and the bloody slopes of Bunker Hill to the declaration of war in 1812 and a costly Union setback outside Charleston. Along the way, the story widens to a cavalry...

Beyond the Call: Private Dale Merlin Hansen at Hill 60, Okinawa, 1945 tells the story of a young Marine who crawled alone into withering fire to break open a critical Japanese strongpoint during the brutal fighting on Okinawa in World War II. Listeners hear a ground-level narrative of the assault on Hill 60, the larger campaign that made this ridge so important, and the split-second decisions that...

Arsenal: Los Angeles–class Attack Submarines in the Hunter-Killer Role, the Cold War follows the United States fast attack boats into the deep North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, and other Cold War patrol zones where quiet tracking runs, carrier escort missions, and Tomahawk strikes defined their combat record. Listeners hear how these submarines were designed to solve the problem of faster, quiete...

Headline Wednesday: Sadr City convoys under fire, Iraq War follows the armored trucks and medical teams that threaded past blast walls and markets on Baghdad’s northeast edge, never knowing which corner hid a buried bomb or a waiting shooter. This episode takes you into the narrow streets around Sadr City where militias used alleys, rooftops, and politics to bleed supply lines, and where drivers,...

This Week in U.S. Military History: June 9th, 2026–June 15th, 2026 traces a week when the calendar lines up with the birth of the Continental Army, George Washington’s appointment as commander in chief, and the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. Listeners move from early Civil War clashes at Big Bethel and thundering cavalry at Brandy Station to the brutal close-quarters struggle of Belleau Wood....

Beyond the Call: Corporal Hershel “Woody” Williams at Iwo Jima, 1945 follows a young Marine flamethrower operator as he battles through fortified pillboxes on the black sands of a crucial Pacific island in World War Two, opening a path for his pinned-down company. Listeners hear the larger story of the Iwo Jima campaign, the stalled advance, and the four hours in which Williams repeatedly crossed...

Arsenal: M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer in the Ardennes, 1944–45 follows the United States tank destroyer from icy roads around Bastogne through the last campaigns of the Second World War, showing how speed and a seventy six millimeter gun tried to compensate for thin armor and an open turret. Listeners ride with Hellcat crews as they race to plug gaps in the Battle of the Bulge, hear why the vehicle...

Headline Wednesday: Hamburger Hill, Vietnam War follows the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division up the rain-soaked slopes of Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley, where thick jungle, mud, and deeply dug bunkers turned one numbered ridge into a brutal ten-day ordeal. This episode walks through the moment young infantrymen step off into ankle-deep muck, the first probing firefights on the lower slopes,...

This Week in U.S. Military History: June 2nd, 2026–June 8th, 2026 traces a week when the calendar lines up with turning points from the Lee Resolution for independence and the desperate stand of African American troops at Milliken’s Bend to the crack of Marine rifles in Belleau Wood and carrier decks afire off Midway. Listeners follow United States soldiers into Rome, onto the beaches of Normandy,...

Beyond the Call: Staff Sergeant John C. Sjogren at San Jose Hacienda, 1945 follows an American infantry squad leader on a fortified ridge in the Philippines during World War II, tracing his solo assault on pillboxes, the rescue of a wounded sergeant across open ground, and the destruction of enemy positions that opened the way for his company. The episode sets his actions within the wider Negros c...

Arsenal: OV-10 Bronco over Vietnam, 1960s–1970s follows the twin-boom turboprop into low, circling orbits above jungle firefights, pinned patrols, and tense convoy ambushes during the Vietnam War. The story traces how the Bronco was created to solve the problem of seeing and controlling complex small-unit battles that jets and fragile liaison aircraft could not manage, then walks through its unusu...