Despite facing resistance and discrimination, more than 150,000 women served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, performing vital noncombat roles and paving the way for women's permanent inclusion in the US military.
From the hedgerows of Normandy across the rivers of northern France and into the dense forests of the Hürtgen and the Ardennes, Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft cleared the way for the advance of the Allied ground armies.
When World War II began, both the US Army Air Forces and the Royal Air Force Bomber Command developed strategic bombing fleets aimed at destroying Axis morale and its ability to prosecute war.
1st Lt. Shannon Eugene “Gener” Estill comes alive in his letters. His persona emerges from the page in conversations with his wife, Mary Kathryn Taylor Estill.
Mark Stepelton flew in some of the most dangerous environments of the war by escorting bombing aircraft over occupied Europe and conducting air interdiction missions, striking enemy targets deep behind the lines.
In the span of only a few days in October 1943, the US Army Air Forces was forced to reconsider its entire strategic bombing endeavor in the European theater.
The Eighth Air Force’s first penetrating strike into Nazi Germany was a bloody affair that provided lessons for both sides.
A first-generation American of Lebanese descent, James Jabara was intent on being a fighter pilot. Soon, the five foot five airman would make US military aviation history.
Jack Mathis was born the second of three children in San Angelo, Texas, on September 25, 1921.
Kenneth Newton Walker, Brigadier General, US Army Air Corps received the Medal of Honor for his actions during a fatal bombing mission over Rabaul, New Britain, on January 5, 1943.