Lt. Benjamin Foulois and Orville Wright fly over Virginia countryside in 1909, testing a Wright flier for the U.S. Army. The test was successful and Foulois began a lifetime of promoting U.S. airpower.

Pilots

Benny Delahauf Foulois

By Michael D. Hull

Resembling a “collection of bamboo poles more or less indefinitely attached to a gasoline engine,” the U.S. Read more

Baron Manfred von Richthofen was not the first flyer to be awarded the “Blue Max.” In fact, he waited anxiously for it. The award goes back to the 17th century.

Pilots

The Pour le Mérite

By Robert Whiter

It was early in the year 1917, and a member of the Luftstreiknafte (German Army Air Service), Freiherr (Baron) Manfred von Richthofen, was feeling a trifle disgruntled. Read more

From Around the Network

  • Civil War

    Final Attack at the Battle of Stones River
    Read More
  • Troops of the 11th Battalion wait in the trenches at Arras, France. The battalion was typically hard hit by casualties.

    Book Reviews

    Terrence Loveridge’s ‘ The Road Past Monchy’
    Read More
  • In this March 11, 1945, image, troops and M4 Sherman tanks of the U.S. First Army cross the Ludendorff railroad bridge to the eastern bank of the great Rhine River. The last natural barrier along the western frontier of Germany, the Rhine was also crossed by Allied armies in other locations.

    WWII

    Bridging the Rhine at Remagen: Infantryman Paul Priest Recalls the Historic Crossing
    Read More

  • European Theater

    Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, helped the town of Vimoutiers, France, to rebuild.
    Read More