By Todd DePastino The story about the accidental Tootsie Roll airdrop at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir ranks among the greatest in American military lore. But it probably isn’t true. Legend has it that during the desperate fight at Chosin, Marines ran out of 60-millimeter mortars, useful for delivering high, arcing fire over
PBS North Carolina's "Comic Culture" recently featured a program on famed World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Host Terence Dollard discusses Mauldin's career, life and impact as an editorial cartoonist with biographer Todd DePastino. This conversation with Todd DePastino, author of Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, focuses on Mauldin's World War II cartoons,
By Bob Harbula Ninety-two-year-old Bob Harbula has shared his story at several Veterans Breakfast Club events and in our podcasts over the years. Historian Patrick K. O’Donnell used Bob’s combat narrative in his excellent book, Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story —The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company (Da Capo
By Todd DePastino Last night, Ben Wright, Larry Woods, and I all walked out of the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh together after our 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement Commemoration event. As we filed from the elevator through the first-floor Great Hall, we passed a much-treasured artifact from World War II:
Written by Todd DePastino When a city's motto is Resurgam--Latin for "I shall rise again"--you can guess it's seen tough times. That is true for Portland, Maine, perhaps the hippest town in New England. But the city's trendy restaurants, art galleries, and improbable number of craft breweries mask a dark military history that has
Written by Todd DePastino It was hardly a speech. The 674 spoken words were more like "remarks." But what remarks they were. On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd of 120,000 West Berliners on Rudolph Wilde Platz and, in the German language, declared himself citizen of that partitioned city.
