Arsenal: Oliver Hazard Perry–Class Frigates in NATO Sea Lanes, the Late Cold War follows the lean guided missile escorts that guarded convoys in the North Atlantic, faced missiles and mines in the Persian Gulf, and rode into Operation Desert Storm beside carriers and battleships. Listeners hear how Cold War arithmetic drove the need for an affordable general purpose frigate, how gas turbines, a single missile rail, and an embarked helicopter shaped the design, and how crews actually lived and fought inside these tight steel towns at sea. The episode traces their combat record, export variants, and long shadow on later frigate programs, with Arsenal as the Friday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, developed by Trackpads.com.

Headline Wednesday: The Second Battle of Fallujah, Iraq War takes listeners back into the most intense urban fighting of the early 2000s, as Marines, soldiers, Iraqi units, and insurgent fighters clash street by street for control of a city that has become the symbol and engine of a wider insurgency. From the eerie November night when assault columns form up on the edge of Fallujah to the first breaches through berms and walls, the story walks through the sights, sounds, and decisions that defined the return to a city many had already fought in once before. Headline Wednesday is the Wednesday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, and the series is developed by Trackpads.com.

Across this episode, the narrative follows the lead up from the first battle and its uneasy end, into the planning for a full scale return, and then into the brutal, block by block fight that follows. Listeners hear how isolation, shaping fires, and small unit adaptation slowly turn the battle, even as the cost in shattered streets and human lives climbs higher with each day of contact. The episode closes by tracing the aftermath, including the short term disruption of a major stronghold and the longer term reality that a single hard won victory could not settle the war’s ultimate outcome. It is a detailed, human focused look at Fallujah that works as both a refresher for study and a way to think through the realities of modern urban combat.

This Week in U.S. Military History: February 17th, 2026–February 23rd, 2026 traces a sweeping arc from nineteenth-century borderlands to the deserts of the Persian Gulf. Listeners move from the Adams–Onís Treaty that brought Florida into the United States orbit, through desperate stands at the Alamo and Buena Vista, to the fall of Columbia and Wilmington as the Civil War’s grip tightens. The story then shifts to the Pacific, where carrier raids smash Truk Lagoon and Marines fight their way onto Iwo Jima and raise the flag on Mount Suribachi.

Across the same seven days, the episode steps back to the home front as Executive Order 9066 reshapes lives under wartime suspicion, then looks upward as Marine aviator John Glenn orbits the Earth and outward as coalition armored columns surge across Kuwait and Iraq in Desert Storm. Throughout, listeners hear how leadership, technology, geography, and hard moral choices intersect in a single week on the calendar. This Week in U.S. Military History is the Tuesday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, developed by Trackpads.com.

Beyond the Call: Brigadier General Frederick Walker Castle at the Christmas Eve Air Raids over Germany, 1944 traces the final mission of an American bomber commander during World War Two, from the frozen skies above the Ardennes to a burning Fortress falling over Belgium. Listeners hear the story of a massive bomber formation sent to shield troops in the Battle of the Bulge, the engine failure that left Castle’s aircraft exposed, and his decision to hold the bombs and stay at the controls so his crew could escape. The episode weaves combat narrative with reflections on duty, restraint, and selfless leadership. Beyond the Call is the Monday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, and the podcast is developed by Trackpads.com.

Arsenal: M109 Self-Propelled Howitzer in Desert Storm, 1991 follows tracked artillery batteries across the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, showing how they moved, fired, and survived alongside armored divisions. Listeners hear the M109 in action on the gun line, the problem it was built to solve for fast moving Cold War armies, the story of its design and evolution into variants like Paladin, and the daily realities of crews living inside a steel box that bucks under recoil. The episode traces its baptism of fire, strengths and weaknesses in combat, and the legacy that lives on in museums, memorials, and modern artillery doctrine. Arsenal is the Friday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, and the podcast is developed by Trackpads.com.

Headline Wednesday: Black Hawk Down, Somalia 1993 follows the October raid over Mogadishu’s Bakara Market, where a quick snatch mission turned into a long urban survival fight around two fallen Black Hawks. From Rangers sprinting to blocking positions to Delta operators pushing through walled compounds, the episode traces how a raid built on speed and surprise collided with dense streets, rising militia fire, and helicopters shot from the sky. Headline Wednesday is the Wednesday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, developed by Trackpads.com.

Across the episode, you hear the full arc of the fight: the humanitarian mission that hardened into a manhunt, the convoys lost in alleyways, the crash-site perimeters that refused to fall, and the armored relief column that finally broke through. We follow small-unit choices under fire and the strategic shock that followed in Washington, showing how one day in Mogadishu reshaped thinking about urban combat and peace enforcement. Use this episode as a focused refresher for your own reading, study, or staff-ride preparation, and pair it with the Dispatch Audio Editions at dispatch.trackpads.com for more battles told this way.

This Week in U.S. Military History: February 10th, 2026–February 16th, 2026 follows a single winter week on the calendar from Tripoli Harbor to Havana, Dresden, Corregidor, and the halls of Congress. Listeners move from Stephen Decatur’s night raid to destroy the captured frigate Philadelphia and the bitter Civil War struggle for Fort Donelson to the sudden loss of USS Maine in Havana Harbor and the charged road to the Spanish-American War. Along the way, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on the frontier frames what it means for a civilian president to learn the hard trade of command.

The story then shifts into the global crises of the twentieth century, with the Yalta conference shaping Allied victory and the postwar map, bombers turning Dresden into a symbol of strategic bombing’s terrible power, and paratroopers and amphibious forces fighting to recapture Corregidor in Manila Bay. The week closes with the Twenty-fifth Amendment, where quiet constitutional language secures continuity of command in the nuclear age. Together, the narrative shows how a single run of February dates can hold daring raids, fiery debates, heavy losses, and careful safeguards for those who carry the burden of national defense.

Beyond the Call: Private First Class Dirk John Cornelius Vlug at Limon, Leyte, 1944 follows an infantryman in World War II who steps alone onto a narrow Philippine road to confront an oncoming column of enemy tanks, turning a likely breakthrough into a line of burning wrecks. This episode presents a vivid narrative of the action, sets it within the brutal Ormoc corridor fighting on Leyte, and reflects on how Vlug’s initiative, sense of responsibility, and calm under fire shaped the outcome for his battalion. Beyond the Call is the Monday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, and the podcast is developed by Trackpads.com.