Military Heritage

Summer 2025

Volume 27, No. 2

COVER: Pointing his M-16 in the direction of incoming enemy fire, squad leader Richard Champion, 11th Light Infantry Brigade, shouts commands to his squad while on patrol in Vietnam.

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Weapons

The M-16’s Troubled Debut

By Mark Carlson

Marine Private Jim McGarrah arrived at Phu Bai in South Vietnam in late 1967 and was sent to what was euphemistically called “The Rockpile,” a firebase that overlooked the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Vietnam. Read more

Sophie Scholl stands behind a fence at the Munich rail station before White Rose members Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf depart for the Russian front in July 1942.

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Valor

Hans Scholl

By Kevin Seabrooke

For anyone in Germany who openly opposed Adolf Hitler or the policies of the Nazi party there were three likely outcomes—prison, concentration camp, or execution. Read more

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Uniform

18th Georgia Infantry Regiment, 1862

Art by Keith Rocco

Cap: French chasseur-style gray kepi with blue band.

Coat: Military-style butternut colored greatcoat with brass buttons.

Backpack: Box hardpack knapsack, tarred canvas and leather with wood frame. Read more

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Deborah Sampson: Continental Soldier

By Kelly Bell

Yearning for more out of life than a woman could hope for in her place and time, Deborah Sampson took the only opportunity she could see to fully realize her patriotic ambitions and wanderlust—she cut her waist-length blonde hair, put on men’s clothes and joined the Continental Army to fight for the embryonic country’s independence during the American Revolution. Read more

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Simulation Gaming

Europa Universalis V

By Joseph Luster

If grand strategy is your bread and butter, your plate is going to be especially loaded with the impending return of the Europa Universalis series. Read more

Summer 2025

Military Heritage, Simulation Gaming

Metal Thunder

By Joseph Luster

Developer and publisher Dumbbell Games released the aerial combat game Metal Thunder in Early Access on Steam back in November 2024. Read more

John Paul Strain’s painting, To Fairfax for Christmas, depicts Confederate Brigadier General J.E.B. Stuart on the move after the Battle of Dranesville in 1861.

Summer 2025

Military Heritage

Crossfire at the Crossroads

By Ryan Quint

When his pickets reported Federal troops up ahead in the small crossroads of Dranesville, Virginia, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Read more

Comte de Grasse’s 104-gun French flagship, Ville de Paris, is shown at center surrendering to British Admiral Sir George Rodney’s 98-gun HMS Formidable on the right of this Thomas Mitchell painting, The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782. In reality, de Grasse surrendered to Admiral Samuel Hood of the HMS Barfleur, the bow of which can be seen behind the Ville de Paris.

Summer 2025

Military Heritage

Clash in the Caribbean

By David A. Norris

Unexpected maneuvers by British Admiral George Brydges Rodney had scrambled the traditional engagement formation of the two fleets. Read more

LEFT: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel remains a controversial figure known both as a shrewd, chivalrous, military commander and as Nazi with a potential role in Germany’s atrocities of war. RIGHT: General Dwight D. Eisenhower poses in his eponymous “Eisenhower jacket” or “Ike jacket,”in 1943. The “Wool Field Jacket, M-1944,” as it was officially known, debuted in the European Theater of Operations in November 1944 and was issued to U.S. troops until 1956.

Summer 2025

Military Heritage

Ike vs. the Desert Fox at Normandy

By Flint Whitlock

One of the supreme ironies of World War II was that the outcome of the Allied invasion of France, and ultimately the fate of the European Theater, would be decided by two men—one a highly decorated veteran, the other untested in combat—and it would be the latter that eventually triumphed. Read more

Summer 2025

Military Heritage

Operation Tomahawk: Slamming the Door

By Kelly Bell

The first two tanks crossed the small Changnung river in one piece. As the third was splashing across, though, it hit a mine the first two had barely missed. Read more