Military History

Test pilot Commander Frederick Trapnell flew the prototype for this U.S. Navy carrier-based F6F Hellcat and worked closely with Leroy Grumman as the fighter was rushed through production. Navy Hellcats shot down over 5,000 Japanese aircraft.

Military History

Test Pilot Frederick Trapnell

By Mark Carlson

Today, every U.S. naval aviator who straps into a cockpit owes a debt to a man they never met and few have even heard of—Vice Adm. Read more

“The Hanging of Nathan Hale , New York 1776” by Don Troiani.

Military History

Continental Army Captain Nathan Hale

By Kevin Seabrooke

On the night of September 16, 1776, young Nathan Hale, a captain in the Continental Army, set out across Long Island Sound from his native Connecticut on the armed sloop Schuyler. Read more

Comanche warriors ride into San Antonio, Texas, March 19, 1840, to discuss a potential peace treaty with representatives of the new Republic of Texas.

Military History

The Great Comanche Raid of 1840

By Eric Niderost

It was a colorful spectacle few citizens in San Antonio, Texas, had ever expected to see: a large delegation of Comanches coming in to discuss terms of a possible peace treaty. Read more

Military History

Undisputed King: The Battle of Tewkesbury

By David Alan Johnson

King Edward IV could not have asked for better news. On the evening of May 3, 1471, his scouts reported that the army of his Lancastrian archrival, Queen Margaret of Anjou, was camped a few miles south of the abbey town of Tewkesbury with its back to the River Severn. Read more

Military History

No Mercy! Remembering the Alamo

By Eric Niderost

On Friday, March 4, 1836, Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Perez de Labron ordered a staff conference at his headquarters near San Antonio’s Military Plaza. Read more

Hearty soldiers from Normandy—descendants of Norsemen— looked for challenges and opportunities far from home and found some in Italy. They landed there in the early 11th century and began to assemble dominions for themselves.

Military History

Singing Swords & Charging Warhorses

By Terry Gore

Italy in the mid-11th century was in chaos. Ostensibly held together under the auspices of papal and Holy Roman Empire authority, the peninsula had become a collection of feuding city-states, each under its own local ruler or warlord. Read more

A Soviet admiral—medals at his left breast—kneels in tribute to a fallen heroic Soviet sailor of World War II. Many Soviet medals were adaptations of Czarist medals.

Military History

Soviet Memorabilia

By Peter Suciu

In 1917, after almost three years of hard fighting in World War I, the Romanov dynasty came to an end with the abdication of Czar Nicolas II of Russia. Read more

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