For viewers looking to learn more about the larger-than-life troops depicted on the show, a companion documentary titled “The Bloody Hundredth” is just the ticket.

Directed by Mark Herzog and Laurent Bouzereau, the 62-minute film features interviews with living B-17 bomber pilots who flew some of the war’s most dangerous missions. And while many of the conflict’s air crew members have since passed away, Herzog was able to source previously recorded footage that fit seamlessly within the story.

“We found interviews that were conducted in the ‘80s, the ‘90s, and the 2000s, and then we augmented that with interviewing veterans who were still with us, including John “Lucky” Luckadoo and Bob Wolff, who are both 102,” Herzog told Military Times. “Being able to tell the story to the audience and have them get just a little bit extra beyond what the series can deliver is great.”

One of the biggest challenges, Herzog added, was sifting through the archival combat footage to condense it into something palatable. The flight scenes, he noted, aren’t quite the same as what viewers will see in the television show.

“While our battle sequences in the sky will never be as visceral as what the series portrays, I really love the flight sequences in the series,” he said. “Ours were actual footage filmed on handhelds, so it’s a little hard to see sometimes.”

The documentary is narrated by Hanks, whose steady voice lends authority to the subject matter. It is one of several companion documentaries Herzog has done to supplement other programming. He also produced a documentary for the HBO series “Band of Brothers” and “John Adams.”

“A good story is a good story, no matter when that story happened,” he said. ”A good story can always teach us and enlighten us to what’s going on.”

“The Bloody Hundredth” is available on Apple TV+.

The installation, which moved in February to officially shut down DFAC service on weekends due to lack of use, opted to use newly established kiosks to serve as the sole dining option on Saturdays and Sundays.

Kiosk options, which some soldiers likened to gas station food, include microwaveable meals, cut fruit, and pre-made salads and sandwiches. Each week, the installation puts in an order for the food, which is sourced from the local commissary and delivered on Friday.

Leaders from the installation “acknowledge there was a food shortage at the kiosks over the weekend, and sincerely apologize to the soldiers who were impacted,” Lt. Col. Joey Payton, 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson spokesperson, told Army Times in a statement.

Payton added that the decision to close DFACs on the weekend was the result of staff rarely serving more than 200 meals over that span, while still being required to work full time.

Despite the kiosks now being the sole option for meal card holders on weekends — aside from on-post fast food options — base officials were still surprised by how many soldiers required the food service.

“We were caught off guard with the amount of soldiers that are choosing to use the kiosk,” Payton said.

An unnamed source told the r/Army Reddit, however, that those numbers may have been incorrectly based on a period when a large segment of the division was deployed.

“Since the first week of kiosk operations, we have seen an increase in kiosk usage each weekend and ultimately served approximately 1,850 meals this past weekend,” Payton said.

As a result, kiosks were extremely understocked this weekend.

Photos submitted to r/Army and several Fort Carson Instagram pages show refrigerator shelves that were reportedly emptied on Friday afternoon within 30 minutes to an hour of being stocked. Other images feature leftover items such as Yoplait yogurt, Slim Jims, string cheese or soft drinks, but no meals.

The r/Army moderator, an Army veteran who goes by the moniker Kinmuan, noted that this is not just a food problem but a morale issue.

“If your DFAC utilization is ‘low’, and soldiers are present on base, your DFAC is bad,” he told Army Times. “They should be working to improve the DFAC. Instead, they took a substandard DFAC that’s underperforming and got rid of it.”

He added that the kiosks present other problems because the barracks don’t always offer an environment for cooking or sitting for a meal. And limiting opportunities for soldiers who use meal cards defeats their purpose.

For now, Fort Carson intends to continue improving the kiosk process — rather than pursue a return to any weekend DFAC schedule — by adding more deliveries throughout the weekend if stock is low.

As for those who paid out of pocket over the weekend, Payton noted there is an indemnity process.

“We strongly encourage soldiers who were impacted to submit a missed meal voucher with their units so that they may be reimbursed,” he said.

President Calvin Coolidge presented Torpedoman’s Mate 2nd Class Henry Breault the military’s highest military decoration on March 8, 1924.

Actions in the Panama Canal the year before led Breault to become the silent service’s first Medal of Honor recipient.

On the Atlantic side of the canal, Breault was serving aboard the USS O-5 on Oct. 28, 1923, when a commercial vessel struck the sub, sinking it in less than a minute, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

Breault was in the torpedo room at the time of the collision but managed to make it to the hatch and escape.

But according to Navy General Orders 125 from Feb. 20, 1924, he soon realized a fellow submariner was left behind.

“Upon reaching the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking,” the orders read. “Instead of jumping overboard to save his own life, he returned to the torpedo room to the rescue of a shipmate whom he knew was trapped in the boat.”

That shipmate was Chief Electrician’s Mate Lawrence Brown. The ship’s compartments were flooding fast, but Breault secured the watertight door to the torpedo room, giving the pair precious air and time. Breault locked himself and Brown inside. Safe there, they planned to wait for salvage divers.

Brown’s account made it into an article called “The O-5 is Down!″ by Capt. Julius Grigore, Jr., published in a 1972 edition of the U.S. Naval Institute magazine “Proceedings.”

“Breault and I separated to pound on each of the boat’s sides. In this way, the rescuers would know there were two of us,” Brown recalled. “Breault played a kind of tune with his hammer, indicating to the diver that we were in good shape and cheerful. Neither of us knew Morse Code. We had no food or water, and only a flashlight. We were confident we could stay alive for forty-eight hours.”

It took 31 hours, but the pair was rescued.

“Breault’s shipmate almost certainly would have died had Breault not intervened at the risk to this own life,” note National Medal of Honor Museum records.

This action prompted the vessel’s commanding officer, Lt. Harrison Avery, to submit Breault for a Navy Cross.

Researcher Ryan Walker speculates in a 2022 article that the reason Avery did not recommend the Medal of Honor is because Avery’s lower rank didn’t permit him to do so.

Control Force Commander Rear Adm. Montgomery Taylor ultimately made the adjustment and upgraded the recommendation to a Medal of Honor.

“The unusual heroic conduct of Breault and his devotion to duty, particularly in that he almost surely saved Brown’s life at the risk of his own and in that his devotion to duty saved a [considerable] loss of Government property, deserves recognition,” Taylor wrote.

Breault reenlisted several times and was promoted to the rank of Torpedoman’s Mate 1st Class, according to his service record. His last duty station was at the submarine base in New London, Conn.

He ultimately served in the Navy for 20 years before developing a heart condition, which claimed his life on Dec. 5, 1941. He was 41 years old.

The Vermont state legislature is honoring his service 100 years later with a resolution to be presented on March 15.

Though born in Connecticut, he is accredited to Vermont, according to his citation.

Breault specified that he was from Vermont when he received the award, Bill Mattoon of the Green Mountain Base Submarine Veterans group wrote in an email to Military Times.

“For us Submariners in Vermont, this is a special moment in our history,” Mattoon said.

Now, the Association of the United States Army has released a graphic novel, “Medal of Honor: Ruben Rivers,” about his heroic actions with Able Company under the 761st Tank Battalion during World War II.

Rivers’ unit, more commonly known as the “Black Panthers,” was assigned to Gen. George Patton’s Third Army in Europe. Despite facing racial segregation and prejudice — particularly in the form of Jim Crow laws — the battalion of tankers answered the call to serve its nation.

After forming in 1942, the 761st received its first official orders just after D-Day on June 9, 1944.

“Following additional training at Camp Shank in New York, Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers boarded USS Esperance Bay with his unit on August 27, 1944, and made for the United Kingdom” according to the National WWII Museum’s records. “In Britain, the 761st was outfitted with the latest model of the Sherman, the M4A3 with a 76mm gun.”

Rivers first landed on Omaha Beach in October of 1944. A month later, the tanker battalion was tasked with disrupting German industrial advances in the Saar region of France.

On Nov. 16, Rivers’ tank struck a mine outside Guebling, France. Although he suffered a severe leg injury, he refused medical evacuation and instead commanded another tank into battle just one day later.

“Repeatedly refusing evacuation, Staff Sergeant Rivers continued to direct his tank’s fire at enemy positions beyond the town through the morning of 19 November 1944,” his citation reads.

When met with heavy enemy fire, Able Company commander Capt. David Williams ordered all tanks to seek cover. However, Rivers chose instead to provide cover fire for the company once he identified the location of the German antitank fire.

“While doing so, Staff Sergeant Rivers’ tank was hit, killing him and wounding the rest of the crew,” according to his citation. “Staff Sergeant Rivers’ fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his unit and exemplify the highest traditions of military service.”

Just four days later, Williams recommended Rivers for the Medal of Honor posthumously. However, he knew it was unlikely to go through because Black soldiers at the time were not held in high esteem by the then-segregated Army.

“Williams knew it was a long shot: no African American had been awarded a Medal of Honor for World War I or II at that point,” the National Park Service notes. “Williams made it his life’s mission to see that Rivers was not forgotten.”

On Jan. 13, 1997, Rivers’ sister received his Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton. Williams attended the ceremony, which saw seven African American soldiers receive the highest valor award for their service during World War II.

Rivers was laid to rest in a cemetery in Lorraine, France.

To read AUSA’s graphic novel “Medal of Honor: Ruben Rivers” you can visit www.ausa.org/rivers.

“Running gives me a chance to turn off my brain and not think about a lot of the things that are bothering me day to day,” Johnson told Military Times. “It’s almost like a meditation to me, a chance to relax and reflect.”

And over the next 40 days, the 28-year-old surface warfare officer will have plenty of time to do just that as he attempts a mad dash from Los Angeles to New York City to break the world record for cross-country running. He begins on March 1.

But Johnson is not just racing for to win the world record title. He’s also aiming to bring awareness to military mental health issues and fundraise $1 million for the veteran service organization Team Red, White and Blue.

To complete the challenge, Johnson will need to do roughly 75 miles each day. And although he has his apprehensions, he’s also looking forward to the challenge.

“We’re always afraid to jump into the unknown without knowing how things will go,” he said. “This challenge is the epitome of knowing that failure is almost guaranteed, but here we are still attempting it because we are going to work through all of the challenges thrown our way and just maybe, we come out on the other side better for it.”

Johnson was inspired by current record holder Pete Kostelnick, who did 72 miles a day in 2016. While Johnson was attending Penn State, Kostelnick passed through the campus on his route. Johnson began training for the so-called “transcon” when he began a shore tour in January 2023.

“As I got back into running for the Marine Corps Marathon, the thought of the transcon run came back, but I just didn’t have time to do something like that on sea duty,” he said.

He’s done four official races, and his training consisted of 40-mile runs on the weekends.

“One of the toughest things about what we do in the military is losing the tight knit connections and communities that are formed by service,” he said. “Even still active duty, I struggle with those feelings of isolation at times with a different duty station or the way I am experiencing some issues with my anxiety and depression.”

In China, there are, in fact, consequences for such inhumanities. One Chinese man was recently sentenced to 10 months in prison for ruining the marriage of a People’s Liberation Army soldier after he dated — and moved in with — the soldier’s wife.

“China’s Criminal Law stipulates that anyone cohabiting or marrying another person knowing that he or she is the spouse of a PLA soldier will face imprisonment of up to three years,” according to a report by the South China Morning Post.

The man, identified as “Ma,” reportedly began an affair with a former coworker, named Yuan, who was also, unbeknownst to him, an Army wife. When Yuan told Ma of her marital status and the punishment associated with an extramarital affair, he broke it off.

But Ma just couldn’t stay away, and he and Yuan moved in together a month later. Yuan then filed for divorce from her husband, who was away serving with the PLA.

Yuan’s husband, however, became aware of the affair through home security footage and subsequently turned the pair in to the authorities.

While destroying a military marriage could have resulted in a three-year sentence, Ma was reportedly given a shorter stint in jail because he was honest in court about his situation.

“The punishment is so harsh because the state is obliged not only to give special protection to the marriage of a soldier but also to respect and protect the honour of serving members of the military,” the Post added.

James Patrick Dempsey, 66, who served with the Army in Germany in 1977 and 1978 before being discharged that same year, is now being extradited from his home in Oneida, New York, in connection with the murder of a woman named Bärbel Gansau.

He was arrested after the FBI, working with German authorities, went through Dempsey’s trash and found DNA that matched evidence found at the crime scene.

“Investigators determined that the likelihood of a match was 1 in 270 quadrillion,” according to the extradition document.

New technology led investigators to reopen the cold case. A fingerprint left behind on Gansau’s window was found to be a match for a man in an American database, leading the FBI to Dempsey, who was put in the system after a domestic drunk driving incident in 1979.

Gansau, age 35 when she died, was found on June 11, 1978, in her apartment. She was stabbed 37 times. Semen found on Gansau’s body as well on her bedsheets matched the DNA found in Dempsey’s trash, leading to his arrest.

“The German investigators used DNA trace analysis on several skin and sperm samples obtained at the crime scene,” the document reads. “In 2022, German police investigators compared this DNA from the crime scene to the male DNA found in the trash pull from Dempsey’s U.S. residence.”

According to Army records cited in the extradition document, Dempsey had an alcohol problem while serving and had left rehab shortly before Gansau’s murder.

She reportedly often visited American officers’ clubs in the area and was friendly with some of the soldiers. The extradition sheet, however, notes there is no proof that Gansau and Dempsey engaged in any consensual activities leading up to her death.

Army public affairs did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Syracuse.com reported that Dempsey has been detained at the Broome County Jail while he awaits extradition to Germany.

According to the Daily Beast, German authorities said they would charge Dempsey as a young adult — his age at the time of the alleged crime — despite Dempsey now being in his mid-60s.

The A24 film, which depicts an America in shambles, follows a team of journalists chronicling warring factions across America, according to the film’s description.

In the trailer’s opening scene, Nick Offerman (”The Last of Us”), playing the president of the United States, calls out the actions of an “illegal secessionist government.”

Though little has been offered in the way of film’s plot or the conflict’s backstory, Offerman’s character goes on to label the secessionists as the “Florida Alliance” and the “Western Forces of Texas and California.”

Scenes of tense military action unfold as a haunting, whistled rendition of “America the Beautiful” plays. The overlaid text indicates violence spilling over “from sea to shining shining sea,” before the destruction of the Lincoln Memorial wraps up the trailer.

Wagner Moura (”Narcos”), Kirsten Dunst (“Fargo”) and Jesse Plemons (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) star in the film, which lands in theaters on April 12.

As such, the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Soldier Center’s Combat Feeding Division in Natick, Massachusetts, has turned to advanced technology to address both issues.

In particular, the division is working now to drastically improve the quality of fruits and vegetables in the Meals Ready-to-Eat, more commonly referred to as MREs.

The division has set its sights on a new technique called “vacuum microwave drying” to turn the produce contained in MREs into crunchy snacks rather than vacuum-sealed preservatives.

The Combat Feeding Division has not, as of yet, specified which fruits and vegetables will be included in the process, however.

Julie Edwards, a senior food technologist with the Combat Feeding Division told Military Times, “These components may provide an opportunity increase the number of fresh like fruits and vegetables (meaning that the fruits and veggies retain a bright color and similar shape but are just crunchy) within the MRE if found to be acceptable by Warfighters during an Initial Operational Test and Evaluation.”

Working with a company called BranchOut foods on the technology, the Combat Feeding Division hopes to include these upgraded fruits and vegetables in the close combat assault ration, which is typically used for short, high-intensity deployments.

A public affairs officer for Combat Capabilities Development Command noted, “[Combat Feeding Division] is conducting storage tests of these items to determine if they meet military ration requirements and is leveraging direct feedback from Soldier Center’s in-house Human Research Volunteer soldiers through sensory evaluations to help down select the vegetables to incorporate into ration items that are more appealing to warfighters.”

The main goal is to preserve not only the nutrition of the produce but also its taste. In addition, the division is experimenting with enhancing flavors with spices and seasonings.

“The flavor is retained post processing and there was an opportunity to add additional flavors after the drying step, so the Soldiers taste tested pineapple with chili lime seasoning as well as vegetables with either ranch or buffalo seasoning,” according to another food technologist, Danielle Anderson. “The VMD process changes the texture from soft to crunchy but does not affect flavor significantly.”

However, these greens haven’t yet entered official testing. As a result, soldiers have not weighed on the flavor, texture or overall impression of the food.

“CFD has not conducted the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) on these items yet so there are no comments currently available,” Anderson said.

The timeline for fielding these foods in MREs is, as of this writing, not officially set.

A long-time staple for children and 20-somethings, during the height of the Global War on Terror Pop-Tarts were a coveted treasure. Whether they were traded as valued currency alongside MRE contents or buried under a pile of white socks at the bottom of a care package, for those downrange, they offered a taste of home.

The bringer of that joy, Pop-Tart creator William “Bill” Post, died on Feb. 10 at age 96.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan, native deployed with the U.S. military in the Pacific post-World War II before returning home. There, he resumed his high school job at Hekman Biscuits.

“After serving in the Army Air Corps in occupied Japan, he returned to the part time job at Hekman and also attended Calvin College for 2 years,” according to Post’s obituary.

That biscuit plant would later become what is known today as Keebler. It was there that Post cemented his name in the annals of pastry history. While working as plant manager in the 1960s, Kellogg reached out to him about a collaboration.

“In 1964 I answered the telephone and Kellogg asked if they could come see some of our equipment,” Post told WWMT in 2021. “I said, ‘yeah.’ They came and looked at our plant. … They said they wanted something for the toaster, but they didn’t know how to do it.”

Post set to work figuring out exactly how to make a breakfast food that could easily be cooked in a toaster.

“I assembled an amazing team that developed Kellogg’s concept of a shelf-stable toaster pastry into a fine product that we could bring to market in the span of just four months,” he said.

The result was two dough sheets with filling in the middle. The finishing touch — frosting — wasn’t part of original the plan, but Post’s improvisational decision to glaze the pastry turned out to be a hit.

Post, while testing out the experimental pastries, would bring them home to his children. While he said most of the products were duds in their eyes, the Pop-Tarts were a hit with his family as an after-school treat.

His obituary notes that despite being credited as the inventor of Pop-Tarts, Post always viewed it as a team effort.

At the time, rival Post Consumer Brands was working on a competitor: Country Squares. However, Pop-Tarts made it to market first.

“That’s a funny story. I always say I’m the only Post who worked for Kellogg,” Post joked with WWMT.

Delish reported that a book called “American Food by the Decades” notes that the original the name for these delectable treats was “Fruit Scones,” but the moniker was changed after Andy Warhol and his 1960s pop art inspired the branding.

The original Pop-Tarts, which went to market in November of 1964, came in apple currant, blueberry, cinnamon sugar, and Post’s favorite: strawberry.

Post worked for 41 years at Keebler before moving on as a consultant to Kellogg. He married his high school sweetheart, and they were together for 72 years. The couple retired in Grand Rapids.

“In spite of an extraordinary life and legendary accomplishments, Bill remained a humble man of God with a servant’s heart that seemed to overflow with generosity,” his obituary reads.