War Stories

Keep Your Feet Dry

By Callie Oettinger | Published: February 13, 2012

It was time to air out.

The men sat down to remove their boots and socks.

Their feet were wet.

Their socks were wet.

Their boots were wet. (more…)

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War Stories

War Stories Become Prologue

By Callie Oettinger | Published: February 6, 2012

It was 1961 and Dwight Eisenhower was still going back to that game in 1912—West Point v. Carlisle.

West Point and Carlisle were winning teams. One featured two future generals—Eisenhower and Omar Bradley—and the other featured all-around athlete and gold-medal-winning Olympian Jim Thorpe and the now-legendary Coach Pop Warner. (more…)

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War Stories

Today’s Boys: Tomorrow’s Warriors

By Callie Oettinger | Published: January 23, 2012

They were “just boys” or “babies” or “young.” Often in war stories, it is the men who are at battle, but the boys who go to war. Those deciding and those fighting are men and boys, as are those leaving and those returning home.

Lieutenant General Samuel Vaughan Wilson, retelling a Civil War story told to him as a child, by his “Auntie Mamie,” who spent much of the Battle of Saylers Creek “crouched on a pile of last fall’s potatoes there on the floor of the basement” in Lockett House, which was in the middle of the battle, and used as a hospital by both sides: (more…)

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