True Military

In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer", William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation.

For Bill Fulton, being a soldier was his identity. After an involuntary medical discharge, Fulton was adrift until he started a military surplus store in Anchorage, where he also took on fugitive recovery missions. He took pride in his business. His life was happy and full. But when a customer revealed he planned to attack a military recruiting station, Fulton had to make a choice: turn a blind eye and hope for the best or risk his safety, his reputation, and his business by establishing contact with his customers' archnemesis: the FBI.

In 1983, Roy Radin joined forces with movie producer Robert Evans and Elaine Jacobs, a woman with the ambition to use drug money to buy her way into the movie industry. When Radin's body was found outside Los Angeles, the police had few clues and eventually had to put the investigation on hold.

It's time to revisit 1945 and the final days World War II in a way that no one else ever has. Grab your thinking cap and join author Steve Ubaney in volume two of his five volume "Who Murdered?" book series, where he probes every part of FDR's mysterious death. We have been told all the lies for decades, and now it's time to answer some very pointed questions.

When John Wilkes Booth fired his Derringer point-blank into President Abraham Lincoln's head, he set in motion a series of dramatic consequences that would upend the lives of ordinary Washingtonians and Americans alike. In a split second, the story of a nation was changed. During the hours that followed, America's future would hinge on what happened in a cramped back bedroom at Petersen's Boardinghouse, directly across the street from Ford's Theatre.

This is the true story a woman swindled out of a fortune by her famous ex-Confederate-general husband, Philip Dale Roddey. You will find this story nowhere else in material about Roddey but it was splashed across the nation in newspapers in 1874 and followed closely by the New York Times.

Most Americans are aware that their 16th president was mortally wounded by a man named Booth at a Washington theater in April 1865. These are facts that nobody can dispute. However, a closer look at this history-changing catastrophe raises questions that have still not been fully answered. The passing of the 150th anniversary of the United States' first presidential assassination is an ideal time for students and scholars to consider these questions.

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l'opération Fortitude ("Courage" en français) est le nom de code collectif pour des opérations de désinformation et de diversion menées par les Alliés dans le but de cacher aux Allemands que le lieu du débarquement serait la Normandie, en leur faisant croire qu'il serait effectué ailleurs (Norvège ou Pas de Calais) ; une fois celui-ci lancé, de leur faire croire que ce n'est qu'un débarquement de diversion, afin de retarder l'arrivée de leurs renforts.

Henri Déricourt est un pilote français qui travailla comme agent secret pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il est considéré comme agent triple : recruté par le Special Operations Executive britannique, il fut désigné comme officier des opérations aériennes en France (zone nord), mais il travailla simultanément au profit des services secrets allemands ; il est probable que, dans ce double rôle, il était contrôlé par le MI6... Voici l'histoire peu connue de ce français qui espionnait pour 3 services secrets en même temps...

L'opération Anthropoid est l'opération montée en vue d'assassiner le dignitaire nazi Reinhard Heydrich. L'attentat se déroule à Prague le 27 mai 1942 et Heydrich meurt huit jours après des suites de ses blessures. Planifiée par le Special Operations Executive, le service secret britannique qui soutenait les Résistances européennes lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, cette opération est exécutée par deux soldats tchécoslovaques, entraînés en Grande-Bretagne et parachutés sur le territoire du protectorat de Bohême-Moravie.

L'opération Mincemeat (littéralement "chair à pâté") était un plan britannique organisé par le Système Double Cross durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L'opération doit convaincre les Allemands de leur interception de documents hautement confidentiels qui détaillaient avec précision les futurs plans d'invasion des Balkans et de la Sardaigne, afin d'éloigner de la Sicile - véritable objectif des Alliés - les troupes allemandes.

L'opération Tracer était une opération d'espionnage militaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale ultra secrète basée à Gibraltar, alors colonie britannique et base militaire. L'origine de cette opération venait du plan allemand pour envahir Gibraltar en 1940, connu sous le nom de code d'opération Félix. L'opération Tracer fut conçu par le contre-amiral John Henry Godfrey, le directeur de la Division du renseignement naval de l'Amirauté britannique.

The Archerfish, a diesel powered Balao-class submarine crafted in the 1940s, won a unique, heroic place in military history and the memories of her crew members. Here is her story: from her assembly in New England and her dedication by Eleanor Roosevelt's personal secretary, to her service in World War II, where she broke the back of the Japanese Navy, and her critical role in the Cold War.

Father Emil Kapaun, a humble priest, went far beyond the call of duty during World War II and the Korean War. Often found with the combat medics on the front lines, unarmed, ministering to the wounded, and known for his intense devotion to the soldiers whom he called “my boys,” Kapaun became the most decorated chaplain in US military history, awarded a Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Legion of Merit.

They say history is written by the victors. In the case of the Civil War, that's largely true. But historian Samuel Mitcham brings the Southern point of view to life in Voices from the Confederacy. In it, you will learn about the heroic, the scoundrels, the clever, the vanquished, and the hungry. Rich or poor, black or white, Voices from the Confederacy shares hundreds of poignant and revealing moments during the war between the states.

Caren Stelson brings Sachiko Yasui's story of surviving the atomic bombing of Nagasaki to a young audience. Sachiko's family home was about half a mile from where the atomic bomb fell on August 9, 1945. Her family experienced devastating loss. When they returned to the rubble where their home once stood, her father miraculously found their serving bowl fully intact. This delicate, green, leaf-shaped bowl—which once held their daily meals—now holds memories of the past and serves as a vessel of hope, peace, and new traditions for Sachiko and the surviving members of her family.

The year was 2000. Sierra Leone, in West Africa, had been ravaged by years of civil strife. With the intervention of the United Nations, two companies of the Indian Army were deployed in Kailahun as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Soon, the peaceful mission turned into a war-like standoff between Major Punia's company and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Kailahun, with the Indian peacekeepers cordoned off for seventy-five days without supplies. The only way home was by laying down their weapons.

When Jill Stephenson received the call that her son, Ben Kopp, had been shot in the leg while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, her fear was that he would lose his leg. But soon her fears would be realized in more devastating ways. Due to complications, Ben went into a coma, and eight days later he was pronounced brain-dead. Corporal Ben Kopp, an American hero who was credited with saving the lives of six of his fellow soldiers on the battlefield, was struck down defending his country; he died a ranger, a warrior, and a patriot. And his heroism would not stop at death.

Landing on the Anzio beachhead in February 1944, Phil is put in charge of an Ammunition Pioneer Platoon in the 3rd Infantry Division. Their job: deliver ammunition to the frontline foxholes—a dangerous assignment involving regular forays into No Man’s Land. As Phil fights his way up the Italian boot, into Southern France and across the Rhine River into Germany, he is caught up in some of the most intense combat ever. But it’s what happens in the final stages of the war and his homecoming that makes Phil’s story incredibly special and heartwarming.

On February 15, 1991, Captain Steve Phillis was leading his wingman, Lieutenant Rob Sweet, on their 30th combat mission of Desert Storm flying the A-10 Warthog. They were tasked with attacking Iraq's vaunted Medina Division of the Republican Guards - by far their most dangerous mission of the war. Near the end of their attacks, Rob was forced to eject from his aircraft and began a five-minute parachute ride down to the troops he and Steve had just finished bombing. Steve immediately sprang into action to save the life of his wingman.