Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine

This Week in U.S. Military History: February 10th, 2026–February 16th, 2026 follows a single winter week on the calendar from Tripoli Harbor to Havana, Dresden, Corregidor, and the halls of Congress. Listeners move from Stephen Decatur’s night raid to destroy the captured frigate Philadelphia and the bitter Civil War struggle for Fort Donelson to the sudden loss of USS Maine in Havana Harbor and t...

Beyond the Call: Private First Class Dirk John Cornelius Vlug at Limon, Leyte, 1944 follows an infantryman in World War II who steps alone onto a narrow Philippine road to confront an oncoming column of enemy tanks, turning a likely breakthrough into a line of burning wrecks. This episode presents a vivid narrative of the action, sets it within the brutal Ormoc corridor fighting on Leyte, and refl...

Arsenal: Ohio-class SSBNs in the Sea-Based Nuclear Triad, Cold War and Beyond follows the silent patrols of United States ballistic missile submarines in Cold War oceans and later post Cold War deterrent patrols, where deep water and endless nights replace traditional battlefields. Listeners hear the Ohio class in action on North Atlantic and Pacific patrols, the strategic problem that drove its c...

Headline Wednesday: Abrams vs T-72 in Desert Storm, Gulf War follows the M1 Abrams’ combat debut as it drives into the blacked-out Kuwaiti desert and meets Soviet-designed armor for the first time. This episode takes you from the tank commander’s view through thermal sights to the wider campaign plan that depended on American armor punching through Iraqi lines and shattering Republican Guard forma...

This Week in U.S. Military History: February 3rd, 2026–February 9th, 2026 follows a week where alliances are signed, rivers and islands are seized, and entire theaters of war turn on hard choices and harder fighting. Listeners move from the Treaty of Alliance with France and the Union capture of Fort Henry to the amphibious assault on Roanoke Island and the founding of the USO, then into the icy N...

Beyond the Call: Private First Class Thomas Eugene Atkins at the Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, 1945 follows a lone infantryman holding a shattered ridge against repeated night assaults during the Pacific war, blending front-line tension with the human story of Gene from Campobello, South Carolina. Listeners hear how his quiet leadership, endurance under fire, and refusal to abandon his post shaped the...

Arsenal: B-2 Spirit in Stealth Global Strike, Post-Cold War Era follows the flying wing from dark Atlantic crossings to precision strikes over Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, showing how a bomber built for nuclear deterrence became a global conventional scalpel. Listeners hear the Spirit in action over heavily defended airspace, the problem it was designed to solve against dense radar and missile n...

Headline Wednesday: Opening Night of Desert Storm, Gulf War follows the first hours of the air campaign as coalition aircraft slip into the skies over Baghdad to shatter Iraq’s command system. This episode traces how stealth fighters, cruise missiles, and electronic warfare converged on leadership bunkers, radar sites, and power grids, turning a heavily defended capital into a stunned, half-blind...

This Week in U.S. Military History: January 27th, 2026–February 2nd, 2026 brings together frontier violence, treaty tables, island landings, and the birth of new institutions. Listeners follow a narrative arc from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the vast expansion of American territory to the winter tragedy of the Bear River Massacre and the creation of the United States Coast Guard and the Ar...

Beyond the Call: Private First Class Albert Ernest Schwab at Okinawa Shima, 1945 follows a young Marine flamethrower operator whose solitary assaults on two machine gun nests turn a doomed valley into a narrow, hard-won foothold in the Pacific war. Listeners hear the story of his journey from Tulsa oil fields to the First Marine Division, the desperate fight for a ridgeline on Okinawa, and the spl...

Arsenal: F-15 Eagle in the Air Superiority Role, Cold War to Desert Storm follows the Eagle from early battles over Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley to sweeping Iraqi fighters from the sky in Operation Desert Storm, showing how a purpose built air dominance fighter reshaped modern air combat. Listeners hear the Eagle in action at night over the desert, the painful Vietnam era lessons that drove its design,...

Headline Wednesday: Battle for Hue City, Vietnam War follows Marines, soldiers, and South Vietnamese forces as they fight block by block for a historic imperial capital. This episode walks you into rain-soaked streets along the Perfume River, past shattered shopfronts and into the shadow of the Citadel, where North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units turned temples, houses, and courtyards into strongpo...

This Week in U.S. Military History: January 20th, 2026–January 26th, 2026 traces a remarkable arc from a Revolutionary War mutiny in frozen New Jersey camps to nuclear alert bombers scattering their dangerous cargo over North Carolina. Along the way, you move from Joseph Hooker’s takeover of the battered Army of the Potomac and the quiet arrival of USS Maine in Havana harbor to the first American...

Beyond the Call: Platoon Sergeant Joseph R. Julian at Iwo Jima, 1945 follows a Marine platoon sergeant in World War II’s Pacific campaign as he leads solo assaults against entrenched positions on the island’s black volcanic slopes. The story traces his journey from Massachusetts hometown to drill instructor to frontline leader with the 5th Marine Division, then walks listeners through the desperat...

Arsenal: M41 Walker Bulldog in Armored Reconnaissance, the Cold War follows this fast, hard-hitting light tank from the Bay of Pigs beaches to South Vietnamese ridgelines during Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. Listeners hear the Walker Bulldog in action under fire, the postwar problem it was built to solve, how designers chased speed and firepower on a light chassis, and what life felt like...

Headline Wednesday: Breakout from Chosin, Korean War follows a frozen column of Marines and soldiers fighting their way out of encirclement in the mountains of North Korea. From the narrow road along the Chosin Reservoir to the improvised airstrip at Hagaru-ri and the final push down toward Hungnam, this episode traces how a single lifeline of ice-bound pavement became the difference between survi...

This Week in U.S. Military History: January 13th, 2026–January 19th, 2026 traces a path from a Patriot double–envelopment at Cowpens to the thunder of Operation Desert Storm’s first strikes over Iraq. Along the way, listeners hear how the ratification of the Treaty of Paris turned rebellion into a recognized nation, how Union victories at Mill Springs and Fort Fisher helped secure border states an...

Beyond the Call: Major General James Lewis Day at Sugar Loaf Hill, Okinawa, 1945 follows a young Marine corporal leading a battered group of Marines through four days of relentless combat in one of World War Two’s fiercest island battles. Listeners hear the story of the brutal approach to Sugar Loaf, the desperate defense of a tiny forward position, and the choices that preserved lives under const...

Arsenal: F-117 Nighthawk over Baghdad, Operation Desert Storm follows the world’s first operational stealth attack aircraft from secret Nevada test flights into the heart of Iraq’s air defense network in nineteen ninety one, as lone pilots slip through radar belts to cut command centers, bunkers, and communications hubs out from under a heavily defended capital. Listeners hear how fear of modern s...

Headline Wednesday: The Battle of Tarawa, Second World War, drops you onto the blood-soaked reef where the 2nd Marine Division fought its way toward Betio’s seawall under withering fire. This episode walks through the short, savage struggle for a tiny atoll that carried enormous stakes for America’s Central Pacific drive, from stalled landing craft on the coral to bunker-by-bunker fighting across...

This Week in U.S. Military History: January 6th, 2026–January 12th, 2026 follows a winter week where pamphlets, plantations, harbor channels, and Pacific beaches all share the same dates. You move from the fiery words of “Common Sense” and the gun-smoke at New Orleans to the warning shots at Charleston, Alabama’s secession vote, and Theodore Roosevelt’s passing. The narrative then carries you thro...

Beyond the Call: Staff Sergeant Curtis F. Shoup at Tillet, Belgium, 1945 follows a young infantry leader of the 87th Infantry Division through the snow and shellfire of World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, from the moment his company is pinned on a frozen hillside to his lone advance on a German machine gun that turns near-certain defeat into a chance for survival. This episode weaves the battlefie...

Arsenal: Fletcher-class Destroyers in the Pacific, World War II follows the United States Navy’s most numerous World War Two destroyers from the night battles of the Solomons to the desperate charge off Samar in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, showing how these lean ships fought far above their weight. Listeners hear the weapon in action under fire, the problem it was built to solve as a long-legged mul...

This Week in U.S. Military History: December 30th, 2025–January 5th, 2026 links a single winter week to turning points from Quebec’s snowbound ramparts to the burning streets of Buffalo and Manila. Listeners follow the Continental Army’s daring assaults at Trenton, Assunpink Creek, and Princeton, watch the ironclad USS Monitor vanish in a storm off Cape Hatteras, and hear how the Emancipation Proc...

Beyond the Call: Private First Class John C. Squires at Spaccasassi Creek near Padiglione, Italy, 1944 follows a young infantryman of the United States Army through a night of mines, artillery, and close combat in the Italian campaign of World War II, tracing how his initiative under fire rebuilt a shattered attack and held a fragile foothold against repeated counterattacks. This episode blends a...