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.

Former Naval Information Warfare Center civilian employee James Soriano and defense contractor Russell Thurston allegedly conspired to commit fraud to the tune of more than $100 million, according to an indictment brought by the U.S. Southern District of California.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleges that Soriano used his position to influence contract decisions that favored the company for which Thurston was working. He and his employees allegedly gave Soriano favors and gifts in exchange for contract sway.

Thurston and his subordinates allegedly gave Soriano free meals at restaurants and a ticket to the 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, as well as “jobs for a family member and friends,” according to a U.S. Justice Department release announcing the indictment.

The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and making fraudulent and false statements in tax returns. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, according to the Feds.

Soriano worked at the Naval Information Warfare Center from 2006 to 2019, during which time he served as “contracting officer representative,” the release said. In that role, he was meant to ensure the integrity of contracting process.

“Soriano instead used his considerable influence to steer lucrative contracts to Russell Thurston of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, who was an executive vice president of a company vying for defense contracts with locations in Arlington, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina,” according to the release. “The company provided technical and consulting services in the information technology field.”

In order to hide evidence of the alleged fraud, Soriano and Thurston “would intentionally delete document properties on procurement documents drafted by employees,” according to the release.

Soriano, required by law to disclose yearly gifts as a government employee, also failed to report any such offerings from Thurston’s company. As a result, he also faces three counts of filing false tax returns.

“This indictment reveals callous greed at the cost of taxpayer dollars,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a release announcing this week’s indictment. “This office will vigorously investigate and prosecute fraud that threatens public trust in our institutions.”

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.”

Firefighters are working to contain a large wildfire that broke out along the southern grounds of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado on Sunday afternoon.

The West Monument Creek Fire had burned 168 acres and was 50% contained as of 4:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, after firefighters from the Air Force Academy and Colorado Springs fire departments battled the flames through the night Sunday and into the school week.

“While some hot spots remain, the fire is no longer spreading, and the forecasted precipitation for Feb. 27 bodes well for firefighting operations,” the academy said Monday evening. “The footprint of the fire has not significantly changed from this morning.”

The blaze does not pose a threat to structures on campus, the school said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The academy added Monday evening that crews do not yet have an estimate of when the fire might be contained. It’s unclear what sparked the flames.

USAFA is contining most operations as normal but will remain closed to the public on Tuesday, the academy said. Patient appointments at the school’s main medical facility will be rescheduled. Defense Department ID card holders and contractors may still access the campus.

About 4,000 cadets attend the four-year university, which prepares graduates for careers in the Air Force, Space Force and other armed services.

USAFA spokesperson Dean Miller told Air Force Times that although it might seem odd to see such a blaze in winter, the Colorado Springs area faces the threat of wildfires year-round.

The city’s fire department and the academy have a mutual firefighting agreement that allows them to come together as partners in crises like this.

“They’ve got a robust capability,” Miller said. “We’re grateful to have the mutual aid agreement with the city.”

In this case, the academy’s firefighters are leading the charge while the Fort Carson Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department supports. Together, they have deployed two brush trucks, as well as three helicopters — a UH-60 Black Hawk and two CH-47 Chinooks — to dump more than 14,000 gallons of water on the affected areas, the school said.

The U.S. Forest Service is clearing grass and brush from the steep terrain to stop the fire from spreading further, the academy said.

“This has truly been a team effort from across the region, and a huge thank you to everyone on the front line that is supporting this response,” Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark said. “We are so impressed by the teamwork that has gone into keeping our community and Academy safe.”

Pre-evacuation notices went out Sunday to those living in nearby Douglass Valley and Pine Valley, but have since been rescinded, the school said Monday. Academy residents have not been told to evacuate. The academy has created an emergency response team to help military families and civilian employees affected by the fire.

“The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for the area, and winds are expected to increase today, so residents should monitor local media and official Academy social media sources for updates,” the school added Monday.

Local news outlets also reported fire crews have been battling two separate blazes that have torched hundreds of acres at the Army’s nearby Fort Carson, Colorado, since Sunday morning.

No injuries were reported, and no structures were endangered by either fire, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported Monday.

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.