Claire Barrett

6 days ago | militarytimes.com | Claire Barrett

He couldn’t recall how he had gotten there — all Douglas Hegdahl could remember was leaving behind his glasses in his bunk and going up to the top deck of the cruiserCanberra to watch the ship firing its guns off the Gulf of Tonkin. “I can’t tell you how I fell from my ship,” Hegdahl said after his release in 1969. “All I know is, I walked up on the deck.

1 week ago | militarytimes.com | Claire Barrett

It was supposed to be a routine mission. On April 10, 1944, Maj. Donald K. Willis, flying with the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, was tasked with escorting an Allied bombing run on a Nazi aerodrome in Gütersloh, Germany. What was expected to elicit a few hours of adrenaline, however, stretched into two months on the run. While piloting his P-38 Lightning home from his mission, one of Willis’ engines was hit by enemy flak.

3 weeks ago | militarytimes.com | Claire Barrett

Eighty-three years after sinking, the USS Yorktown is still revealing secrets. During an April 19 expedition, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — as part of the Beyond the Blue: Papahānaumokuākea ROV and Mapping project — were using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the storied U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, when they found more than they could have hoped for.

1 month ago | militarytimes.com | Claire Barrett

Editor’s note: April 30, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Military Times is publishing a series of stories commemorating the history of the Vietnam War. It has become an iconic symbol of American involvement in Vietnam: Scores of desperate Vietnamese attempting to board an American UH-1 “Huey” helicopter on the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in the spring of 1975.

1 month ago | militarytimes.com | Claire Barrett

Editor’s note: April 30, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. In commemoration, Military Times is highlighting stories about the Vietnam War. By March 1975, the situation in Vietnam, and South Vietnam specifically, was dire. Gen.