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+.

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.”

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.

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.

In turn, the ships themselves — in order to hold protected status as noncombatants — must be clearly distinguishable from other naval ships. As such, they are painted white and marked with the symbolic red cross, and the home country’s flag must also prominently wave. In addition, the Geneva Convention specifies that hospital ships must not participate in combat activities of any kind.

“USN/USNS hospital ships have never been armed,” a Naval Heritage and History Command spokesperson told Military Times. “To do so would remove their protections under the Geneva Conventions. The Master-at-Arms and his force aboard hospital ships may have been armed for the typical ‘good order and discipline’ issues (at least during World War II and the Korean War), but that would have been all.”

But today, three scholars with expertise in military medicine have suggested that in the world of hybrid warfare, the rules that govern such ships may put them at risk.

Their paper, “Arming Hospital Ships of the Future: Hybrid Wars Require a Major Change,” was recently published in the journal Military Medicine.

NATO defines hybrid warfare as “an interplay or fusion of conventional as well as unconventional instruments of power and tools of subversion.” For example, the use of disinformation to sow confusion prior to an invasion, or employing proxy forces to attack an adversary.

In essence, it’s the lack of adherence to historically held principles of combat engagement — such as not targeting medical facilities or attacking civilians — that concern the authors of this particular paper.

“In today’s conflicted global environment, the clear identification of hospital ships leaving them relatively undefended and denying encrypted communication is the folly of a bygone era,” wrote researchers Michael S. Baker, Jacob B. Baker and Frederick M. Burkle. “Hospital ships may be targeted because they are brightly lit soft targets that can deliver a large payoff by their destruction.”

However, the aim of the paper is not to suggest offensive weaponry be added to hospital ships of the future, but rather defensive measures.

“The increasing threats from hybrid warfare and unprincipled adversaries to medical platforms and providers of health care demonstrate that hospital ships must be capable of self-defense,” the paper reads.

According to James Holmes, a professor at the Naval War College, the idea is sure to cause controversy, but the point is worth considering at the very least.

“Hospital ships are supposed to be exempt from hostile action under the laws of war, but they are clearly marked, they are completely unarmed, and thus they make easy and high-profile pickings for hybrid warriors,” Holmes said. “When they advocate arming hospital ships, they’re not talking about putting Harpoon or Tomahawk anti-ship missiles on them. That would give them offensive capability, making them into true fighting ships and negating any international legal protections to which they’re entitled.”

He cited the self-defense capabilities of the close-in weapons system, or CIWS, deployed recently by Navy destroyers to defend against Houthi missile attacks in the Red Sea as well as the rolling airframe missiles on aircraft carriers as potential solutions to the hybrid warfare threat.

“The coauthors point to the Russo-Ukraine war to make the case that civilian infrastructure often comes under fire in this mode of warfare,” Holmes added.

But not everyone agrees arming hospital ships, even defensively, is the way to go.

Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher with RAND and a retired Navy surface warfare officer, noted that despite hospitals not being spared from attack in current conflicts, there are alternate paths hospital ships can take.

“I don’t think that arming hospital ships is a particularly sound idea,” he told Military Times.

Martin said he understands the impetus for the paper, but leans more towards the use of security detachments to protect hospital ships, as has been seen with humanitarian assistance and disaster relief deployments.

“As a matter of practice, hospital ships have in fact taken security detachments on [humanitarian assistance and disaster relief] missions for defense against small boats (and possibly drones, although the weapons are crew served weapons for short-range defense),” he said in an email. “However, arming them for anything more extensive is probably impractical.”

The Navy currently has two active-duty hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy. A contract for three new medical vessels in the expeditionary medical ship class are slated to begin construction in 2025.

As this new generation of hospital ships enter production, the paper’s authors are urging the service to reconsider how best to protect them and their crews.

“The U.S. Navy is designing new platforms for medical missions and the debate, no matter how uncomfortable, must now occur among major decision-makers to make them more tactical and defensible,” the paper notes.

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.