One of the things America has done particularly well through its history is turn civilians into soldiers. In World War II, for instance, the U.S. Army went from fewer than 188,000 active-duty members to 8.3 million soldiers who swept victoriously across battlefields around the globe. Vietnam would be a different... read more →

Gen. Lloyd "Fig" Newton has a lot of fascinating stories to tell, having led a life of adventure and distinction serving his country. He is a retired U.S. Air Force four-star general from South Carolina. He flew 269 combat missions in F-4s in the Vietnam War, 79 of them over... read more →

At the start of the fateful year of 1968, then-Capt. Myron Harrington, USMC, was a supply officer in Da Nang, far from the sharp end of the Vietnam War. In February, he was leading a company through the most intense combat of the Tet Offensive. He would receive the Navy... read more →

Tillman Abell, an ROTC-trained Army officer from Wofford College, took command of a platoon with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta on March 28, 1968, when the Tet Offensive was still raging throughout South Vietnam. He would stay there, engaged in frequent combat, until he was seriously wounded... read more →

The 1960s was a time of tremendous economic expansion. It was also a time of ambitious social change, from the Civil Rights Movement to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs. But despite the economic boom that had started after the Second World War, money was still finite, and the... read more →

Craig Van Hout and his comrades in the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, fought the very last major battle Americans experienced during the Vietnam War. Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord is regarded as one of the bloodiest fights of the war. They lost 139 men, and hundreds of others... read more →