More than eighty years after the B-24D Liberator named Heaven Can Wait crashed off Awar Point in Papua New Guinea, four of its crew have been accounted for and will finally be returned to the United States.

The liberation of Mindanao was, in some respects, an unnecessary campaign militarily, but it had important political implications, as it enabled the United States to fulfill its promise of independence to the Philippines. 

During the war, nearly 1,100 highly trained women tested, flew, and ferried 12,650 aircraft over 60 million miles as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

Whether it played the role of the “Black Cat,” “Mad Cat,” or “Dumbo,” the PBY Catalina proved itself as one of the most instrumental amphibious planes as it struck fear in the Axis and provided hope for the Allies.

After 80 years, the remains of Private First Class John Henry Newstrom, a US Marine killed during the Battle of Peleliu in 1944, have been identified and will be returned home thanks to a joint recovery effort by the US and Japanese governments.

A multinational team has rediscovered long-lost WWII shipwrecks off Attu Island in Alaska, using sonar, drones, and archival research to document a forgotten underwater battlefield.

Marguerite Frances Hunold, a pioneering aerologist in the US Navy’s WAVES program during World War II, became the first woman in her field to serve in Alaska, where she helped shape naval aviation forecasting in one of the world’s most challenging weather environments.

Controlling the Ryukyu Islands would allow the Americans to finally sever Japan from its South Asian empire.