News
Twin Air Force pilots connect in refueling flight over the Pacific
5+ hour, 22+ min ago (767+ words) Published Jan 13, 2026 10:47 AM EST Twin pilots met in the sky over the Pacific. On a Dec. 4 training flight in Japan, Air Force Capt. Jordan Wesemann was at the controls of his KC-135 tanker aircraft as his twin brother, Capt. Jared…...
How US troops in World War II celebrated Christmas dinner on the front
2+ week, 5+ day ago (104+ words) Published Dec 25, 2025 8:00 AM EST One hardship faced by World War II troops mirrored life back home: as America recovered from the Great Depression and charged into a wartime economy, rationing was widespread. Fresh vegetables were hard to get, and sugar…...
Could battleships really make a comeback?
1+ mon, 2+ day ago (408+ words) Published Dec 10, 2025 2:09 PM EST The short answer is that modern warfare killed the battleship concept. The longer answer is a story of changing doctrine, new technologies, and the harsh realities of the missile age." In the early stages of World…...
D-Day vet who moved to Normandy in final years dies at 101
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (481+ words) Published Dec 4, 2025 5:23 PM EST "My concern was to get to the beach. I was thinking about survival. I began treating the men on the beach who had made it," he told a Library of Congress interviewer in 2017. Naval gunfire and…...
National Guardsman who died on DC mission remembered as ‘down-to-earth’ and ‘almost like Superman’
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (997+ words) Published Nov 25, 2025 4:32 PM EST James Hill noticed his son Jacob's warm heart at a young age. At Jacob's 9th or 10th birthday, his son was playing "soldiers" in the backyard when his younger sister, Breanna, asked to join in." "He came in…...
On this day 74 years ago, one soldier staged a last stand to protect his unit
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (561+ words) Nicholas Slayton is a contributing editor for Task & Purpose, covering conflict for over 12 years, from the Arab Spring to the war in Ukraine. His previous reporting can be found on the non-profit Aslan Media, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The New…...
Atropia: The Army's biggest inside joke has its own movie
2+ mon, 6+ day ago (508+ words) Published Nov 7, 2025 3:01 PM EST A new movie trailer just dropped for soldiers fortunate enough to survive a month of "war" in the Mojave Desert against one of the Army's most enduring foes. "Atropia," a military satire named after the fictional,…...
An 82nd Airborne pilot took his final flight two years after Iraq drone attack
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (997+ words) Published Oct 24, 2025 1:37 PM EDT Before the injury, Lorna Illerbrunn said her husband would have simply wanted a retirement at a hangar, surrounded by Army helicopters, good friends, sandwiches from Jimmy John's, and cold Miller Lite." Lorna Illerbrunn made sure all…...
A pilot went down in Vietnam to protect secrets. Will he get the Medal of Honor?
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (821+ words) Published Oct 21, 2025 3:41 PM EDT Shortly before his final flight over North Vietnam, Air Force Maj. Robert Lodge told his fellow airmen that if his plane ever went down, he would rather die than risk being captured and possibly divulging information…...
We salute the soldiers who named their tank ‘Divine Intervention’
3+ mon, 4+ day ago (468+ words) Published Oct 9, 2025 9:05 AM EDT Anyone who reads Task & Purpose knows: we adore a good tank name. Sure, we love our friends and families, but not as much as tanks with names like Dropped as a Baby, ASVAB Waiver, and Come…...