With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US Army was in sudden need of skilled tradesmen from across the labor market. Blacksmiths and cable splicers, illustrators and x-ray technicians, locomotive engineers and purchasing agents—if the job was done in the civilian world, the Army needed it also. MOS 3170:

Courtesy of Pete Mecca’s Veteran’s Story website archive Simon Ramos came into this world in 1932, one of twelve siblings. His childhood playground, all 566,000 acres of it, was the Y.O. Ranch on the fringes of Kerrville, TX. He recalled, “My dad was from Mexico and worked the Y.O. Ranch as

James Edward Hanger (Library of Congress) The first amputation of the Civil War came at the hands of a 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regimental Surgeon who removed the leg of an 18-year-old college student from the Shenandoah Valley named James E. Hanger. The operation was conducted in a private home

by Dana DelBianco (US Air Force) The Convair B-36 was a remarkable aircraft. But anyone with an even vague idea of what an airplane looks like will see those old photos and ask, “Why are the propellers on backwards?” The short answer: they aren’t. (National Archives) To

Todd DePastino “Contrabands,” escaped slaves enlisted in the Union Army, 1861-1865(courtesy Library of Congress) The Civil War ended slavery. But it didn’t do so everywhere, all at once, on one date. Emancipation came in fits and starts over five full years between 1861-1865. “Juneteenth”—the day in 1865 when enslaved

(American Legion) (American Legion) I somehow missed this an old news item about the discovery of a Vietnam War memorial outside of Philadelphia in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. In 2012, someone was clearing brush at an old bank parking lot and discovered a distinctive Vietnam War monument. No one