November 2nd, 1944. 3:47 p.m. Somewhere over Czechoslovakia, Lieutenant Bruce Carr watches the oil pressure gauge drop to zero. Black smoke pours from the cowling of his P-51 Mustang. The...
At 9:27 a.m. on December 13th, 1943, Second Lieutenant Philip Adair pulled his Curtiss P-40N Warhawk into a climbing turn over Assam, India, as 64 Japanese aircraft materialized through the...
This is a historical account of the Battle of Iwo Jima (World War II), told in narrative form and intentionally avoiding graphic detail. On the morning of February 26th, 1945,...
Just after dawn on October 4th, 1943, Colonel Hubert Zemke stood on the hardstand at RAF Halesworth and watched mechanics fuel fifty-two Republic P-47 Thunderbolts for a bomber-escort mission deep...
February 17, 1944. The lagoon at Truk burns under a tropical sky turned black with smoke. On the bridge of USS Iowa, slicing through azure water at thirty-two knots through...
On the morning of July 14, 1944, First Lieutenant Evald Swanson sat in the cockpit of a B-17G Flying Fortress nicknamed Mispa, watching black clouds of flak bloom across the...
On the morning of August 17th, 1942, Captain Paul Gun crouched under the wing of a Douglas A-20 Havoc at Eagle Farm Airfield near Brisbane, watching mechanics weld .50-caliber machine...
The sheriff’s cruiser sat at the curb like it belonged there. Susan stood on the front step in the same faded blue robe she always wore on Sunday mornings, except...
The first thing I saw wasn’t the mansion I built, or the sunlight pouring across the marble. It was a woman on her knees, mopping the floor like her bones...
I never told my son about my monthly salary of $30,000. When he invited me to dinner at his fiancée’s place, I decided to pretend to be poor. The moment...
The palm of his hand cracks against my cheek. Sharp, hot, fast. My head snaps to the side. I taste copper. Blood pools in my mouth where my teeth...
“She isn’t needed by anyone,” my husband said about his eight-year-old daughter. “Just send her back,” my family snapped. “She’s a burden.” I didn’t send her back. I took action....
Cole sprang up in the middle of dinner, hurling a glass of wine at the wall just inches from my daughter’s face. Red splashed across the expensive wallpaper. Then...
My mom begged me to come home for the holidays. I’m Claire Miller. I’m 30. And like an idiot, I actually thought this Christmas might be different. She called me...
“You should go home.” My son said it right there on the wedding dance floor while I was still holding a glass of champagne I hadn’t even set down...
I’m glad to have you here. Follow my story until the end, and comment the city you’re watching from, because what I’m about to tell you changed my life forever....
My name is Natalie, and the day my life really started was the day my parents threw me out like trash on my own birthday. I had just finished...
Ethan walked into my house that Tuesday like he always did—without ringing the doorbell, like he owned the place. I was making coffee when he dropped it on me. “Mom,...
My name is Emily. I am 71 years old, and I never thought that at my age I would have to live through something as horrible as what I’m about...
I was returning from the attorney’s office, my heart pounding so hard I could feel every pulse in my temples. I was seventy-one years old, but in that moment I...