TogetherWeServed Blog - The Most Incredible Military Stories

WW1 – When Johnny Comes Marching Home

When war raged through Europe in the summer of 1914, the American public wanted nothing to do with it. Not our war, they said. President Woodrow Wilson agreed. He pledged neutrality for the United States. But over the next few years, three incidents turned public option away from isolationism to one of wanting to take action against Germany and its allies. First was when a German submarine torpedoed the British-owned passenger liner Lusitania without warning, killing 1,2,00 passengers,...

Japanese Soldier Surrenders 30 Years After End of WWII

Military Myths and Legends, World War II

By the summer of 1945, the Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. Its army had been decimated. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated, it's people suffering. After the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack, factions of Japan's supreme war council favored unconditional surrender but the majority resisted. When the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese Emperor Hirohito told the supreme war council...

MCPO Carl Maxie Brashear, U.S. Navy (1948-1979)

Cold War, Military Myths and Legends

Biography Carl Maxie Brashear came from humble beginnings, which gave no hint of the significant course his life would later take. Carl was the sixth of eight children born to sharecroppers McDonald and Gonzella Brashear in rural Tonieville, Kentucky, on January 19, 1931. Even though their home did not have electricity or running water, Brashear remembered a very happy childhood. The children found entertainment in telling jokes and playing with their father. Carl's great uncle was a preacher,...

WW2 – The Bombing of Balikpapan

Battlefield Chronicles, World War II

In the early morning hours of August 13, 1943, twelve US B-24 Liberators from the 380th Bombardment Group (also known as the Flying Circus), began a low approach over the harbor of Balikpapan, Borneo. They were about to break records for the longest bombing run in history. Their 17-hour non-stop flight would take the Japanese completely by surprise and result in destruction in Balikpapan. Intelligence had suggested that Balikpapan refineries were producing half of Japan’s WWII aviation fuel....

Irena Sendler

Profiles in Courage, World War II

Often, non-combatant civilians risk their lives by performing quiet yet extraordinary acts of selflessness and gallantry that require just as much bravery as a soldier charging head-on into enemy fire. Irena Sendler was one such civilian. She was a gentle but determined Polish social worker who managed to smuggle 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War. As amazing as this feat was, she was only internationally honored for her immense bravery toward the end of her...

Historic Japanese Internment Camps At Risk!

Vietnam War – Battle of Camp Bunard (1969)

Battlefield Chronicles, Vietnam War

Gazing out the open cargo doors of the Huey flying over Phouc Long Province, boyish-looking Specialist 4 Robert Pryor took in an endless landscape of mountains, meandering rivers and rolling hills covered with dense evergreen vegetation, bamboo thickets, and triple canopy tropical broadleaf forests. The forbidding wilderness had an odd virginal beauty. It was also one of the most dangerous places in South Vietnam. This sparsely populated highland plateau, nestled along the Cambodian border...

Vietnam War – Operation Crazy Horse (1966)

Battlefield Chronicles, Vietnam War

On May 20, 1966, close to dusk and in a light rain, B Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry (ABN/AMB), 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, commanded by Capt. Roy D. Martin was airlifted by Chinook helicopters (CH-47s) into a small clearing located in the mountains east of the Vinh Thanh Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The clearing had been designated LZ Horse and could accommodate only one CH-47 at a time. The company had been ordered to the LZ to begin operations in search of a large NVA/VC...

VADM John D. Bulkeley, U.S. Navy (1933-1975)

Profiles in Courage, World War II

John D. Bulkeley was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy and one of its most decorated naval officers. Bulkeley received the Medal of Honor for actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was also the PT boat skipper who evacuated General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines. Biography of John D. Bulkeley John D. Bulkeley was born in New York City and grew up on a farm in Hackettstown, New Jersey, where he graduated from Hackettstown High School. He was a 1933...

Boer War: Wolseley And Rorke’s Drift (1879)

Battlefield Chronicles

I recently reviewed a biographical history of the men who flew on the famous Doolittle Raid of 1942 where I professed strong approval of that kind of book. We now must jump back further to the year 1879 for a similar and equally effective work by the respected Zulu War historian James W Bancroft. Heroic Actions of "Rorke Drift" This book, "Rorke's Drift: The Zulu War, 1879", is the sum of decades of work, provides biographies of the men awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions during the...

Helping Veterans Get a Good VA Home Loan

Important Organizations

How to Get the Best Mortgage Rate for Veterans with VA Home Loans Do you want to know how to get the best mortgage rate for veterans, with VA home loans? VA loans can be a valuable tool for veterans and service members to purchase a home without the need for a sizable down-payment. Typically, lenders ask for a 20% down-payment, but in the case of service-members, it can be difficult to gather that much capital. Luckily, there are alternatives. What Are VA Home Loans? VA loans are financial...

Sgt Henry Johnson, U.S. Army (1918-1919) – America’s First World War Hero

Profiles in Courage, World War I

Henry Johnson was a World War I soldier who singlehandedly beat back a German assault while critically wounded. He was a great American hero and received the highest military honor of two different countries. One of those countries, however, his very own, didn't bestow that medal until nearly 100 years after his service in WWI. The honor this man deserved was not awarded by the U.S. government upon his return home, because he was black. But that racism was eventually overcome, if only by the...

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