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A Near-Run Victory at Midway Walter Lord and Gordon Prange considered Midway an incredible, miraculous victory. For Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, the battle doomed Japan. The calculated risks Chester Nimitz took required assembling all possible resources, and still left him with a three to one disadvantage in ships. To appreciate further this tenuous condition note the fate of four Army B-26 medium bombers rushed to Midway. Captain James Collins led the aircraft in torpedo attacks. The pilots had never seen or practiced with aerial torpedoes. They would now only practice takeoffs and landings. Those early B-26’s earned a reputation...

Amy Air Forces Staff Sgt. John H. Canty was laid to rest under blue skies at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, [July 10, 2018] more than seven decades after his plane was shot down over occupied France. More than two dozen family and friends from his native Winsted, Conn., Georgia, Illinois and Nebraska gathered at the chapel for a private service, then Canty’s flag-draped casket was placed on a caisson for the procession to the gravesite for burial with full military honors. A lone drummer kept cadence as an honor guard escorted the horse-drawn caisson down a quiet tree-lined road....

More than four decades after the fall of Saigon, Washington is still holding on to various classified details about its fight in Southeast Asia. Among the Pentagon media arm’s still-secret records are photos and video of updated World War II-era bombers the U.S. Air Force sent to hit Laos. In May 1966, pilots and crews from the 603rd Air Commando Squadron brought eight B-26K Invaders from their base in Louisiana to Nakhon Phanom Air Base in Thailand. Desperate to stem the flow of troops and supplies flowing down the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam, the flying branch had...

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's famous beret is gone. His iconic beard is filthy and matted against skeletal cheekbones. One bushy eyebrow arches over his half-open eyes. As a Bolivian country surgeon methodically saws off his lifeless hands, Che appears vaguely amused. Gustavo Villoldo, a stocky figure in green army fatigues, stands just inside the tiny laundry room where the Cuban revolutionary's corpse rests atop a sink. For five months, the CIA operative has led soldiers hunting Guevara through the rough crags and valleys of southern Bolivia. Less than 24 hours ago, his team had captured and executed him in a village...

Jim Muri thought he was getting together with his buddies for lunch Friday at Gusick’s — something the friends hadn’t done for a while. At 92, Muri, a decorated World War II combat pilot, had been ill but was feeling better and missed his pals. Walking slowly with a cane and with a friend, Yellowstone County Commissioner John Ostlund, at his side, Muri entered the Billings restaurant where friends and fellow pilots had gathered to surprise and honor the decorated veteran. Friday marked the 68th anniversary of Muri’s death-defying flight over a Japanese aircraft carrier on June 4, 1942, during...

Two generations of female pilots embraced in the shade beneath a World War II bomber's wings Wednesday afternoon - those who had flown such aircraft when they were new, during the war, and one flying them now as living history exhibits. Flora Belle Reece and Ty Killen, former members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots corps during World War II, were on hand to greet the restored bombers from the Collings Foundation's "Wings of Freedom" tour as they arrived for a three-day stay at William J. Fox Airfield. "It's great to be back," Killen said. "For a real-life beauty like...

Project engineer Peyton M. Magruder designed the Glenn L. Martin Company's B-26 Marauder in response to an Army Air Corps specification issued in January 1939. This specification also caught the attention of North American Aviation Inc. and that firm responded with the B-25. War fever caused the Air Corps to forego a prototype test stage and both bombers went from the drawing board straight into production. The consequences were deadly for crews that flew the Martin airplane.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...