The U.S. military has left a powerful, often controversial mark on the world. These 30 striking photos reveal a legacy shaped by heroism, conflict, sacrifice, and complexity, challenging us to look beyond the surface of history.
1. 1989: US soldiers look into a prison cell
During the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, American soldiers inspected a secret police prison cell as part of efforts to capture leader Manuel Noriega. The operation aimed to bring Noriega to the U.S. to face criminal charges and to support the installation of democratically elected President Guillermo Endara.
2. 1975: Evacuation
A CIA employee (thought to be O.B. Harnage) helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half-mile from the U.S. Embassy. The fall came two years after the Paris Peace Accords, which saw the U.S. leave the conflict. This moment is also known as the “Liberation of Saigon.”
3. 1975: The fall of Saigon
In April 1975, American Chinook helicopters assisted in the evacuation of Saigon as North Vietnamese troops captured the city, marking the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Known for their speed and capacity, Chinooks had been used throughout the war to transport large numbers of people.
4. 1969: Naval patrol craft
Navy inshore patrol craft (PCF) 43 cruises along a riverbank in the Republic of Vietnam during Operation Slingshot in the Vietnam War. Patrol boats like this one were used to transport troops and secure areas along the Mekong Delta.
5. 1968: Soldier shaving colleague’s head
Hairstylist service was a rarity at the embattled Marine bastion of Khe Sanh, so Marine PFC Robert DuBois of Brooklyn, New York, did the honors for a buddy and shaved the head of Cpl. Efrain Torres of New York outside their bunker. Scores of Communist troops moving toward the Marines’ fortress were killed in napalm and bombing attacks by Allied aircraft.
6. 1967: Soldiers engaged in a long crawl to crest
Members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade fought a grueling battle up Hill 875, suffering heavy casualties over four days of combat. By November 22, they had taken most of the hill, only to face a fortified North Vietnamese position at the top and incoming enemy reinforcements.
7. 1965: American soldiers arriving in Vietnam
Guitar slung over his shoulder, a trooper of the United States 1st Cavalry walks ashore from a landing craft. More than 2,500 cavalrymen arrived in Vietnam, bringing the total of the Army’s First Airmobile Division up to 16,000 men. By 1967, the number of U.S. troops deployed in Vietnam totaled 500,000.
8. 1962: Kennedy and military leaders
President Kennedy meets with U.S. Army officials during the Cuban Missile Crisis of late 1962. The crisis lasted only a matter of weeks and was perhaps the closest the United States and the USSR came to using nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
9. 1951: The Mighty Mo
The battleship USS Missouri bombards Chongjin, North Korea, with her 16-inch guns during a mission to set out the lines of communication between the northern and southern parts of Korea during the Korean War. Chongjin is very close to the Soviet border and the Russian naval base at Vladivostok. Although millions of fighters perished during the war, the Korean War is known as “the forgotten war.”
10. First Indochina War
From 1950 to 1954, the U.S. backed France in the First Indochina War against communist insurgents in Vietnam, supported by China and the USSR. The war escalated into a conventional conflict after 1949, resulting in over a million deaths and setting the stage for the Vietnam War.
11. 1945: Japan surrenders
Following the German surrender in May, the war officially ended on Sept. 2, 1945. Shown here are crowds cheering on the Great White Way, New York City, as President Truman announces the formal signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. A scaled-down version of the Statue of Liberty is in the foreground.
12. 1945: Manhattan skyline
With the Empire State Building and the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop, the aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV-41) and the USS Enterprise (CV-6) make their way to the post-World War II Navy Day review by President Truman on Oct. 27, 1945, in New York. Over 16 million Americans served in the war effort.
13. 1945: Leaving Nordhausen
A survivor of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp was found after its liberation by the U.S. Army in 1945. While it’s commonly said that over 6 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, the true number may be nearly double, though it remains uncertain due to the Nazis’ efforts to conceal their crimes.
14. 1945: Sharing food
An American serviceman shares his rations with two Japanese children in Okinawa, Japan, in 1945. Shortly after the Allied Forces took control of the island of Okinawa, which was to be used as a base for an attack on mainland Japan, the Japanese government gave in and offered an unconditional surrender.
15. 1945: Marine charging during Battle of Okinawa
A U.S. Marine charges forward through Japanese machine gun fire on Okinawa. Marines and infantry of the U.S. 10th Army controlled three-quarters of Okinawa three weeks after landing on the island on March 31, 1945. The allied invasion of Okinawa took three months and included 1,300 U.S. ships. More than 12,000 American servicemen from various branches of the military perished in the fight to take the island.
16. 1945: Raising the flag on Iwo Jima
In a historic moment during the Battle of Iwo Jima, six U.S. Marines from the 5th Division raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. In 2019, the Marine Corps confirmed their identities as Block, Keller, Hayes, Schultz, Sousley, and Strank.
17. 1945: Women’s Army Corp
Major Charity Adams addresses a contingent of the Women’s Army Corps. The group show was known as the Six Triple Eight and was the first group of Black women to be deployed in Europe to sort mail for troops overseas. Though thought to have been set up to fail, they ended up running the most efficient mail service in all of Europe during the war.
18. Circa 1940s: Burial at sea for USS Intrepid casualties
U.S. Navy sailors gather to honor shipmates killed in action with a burial at sea on board the USS Intrepid off Luzon in World War II. The United States reported 291,557 combat deaths throughout the duration of the war. The Navy alone suffered over 100,000 deaths.
19. 1944: Tuskegee Airmen
Tuskegee Airmen, with fighter aircraft, at Tuskegee Army Flying School during World War II, Tuskegee, Alabama, 1944. The success of these airmen helped in the breaking down of racial barriers in the war effort. They were known across Europe and Northern Africa for their heroism and bravery.
20. 1944: Operation Overlord
Pictured here are American assault troops landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, supported by naval gunfire. The battles at Normandy, which paved the way for the invasion of Europe, involved almost a quarter of a million casualties for the Allied Forces.
21. 1944: Paratroopers preparing for D-Day
Resolute faces of paratroopers just before they took off for the initial assault of D-Day, June 6, 1944. The paratrooper in the foreground has just read General Eisenhower’s message of good luck and clasps his bazooka in the other hand. The assault on the beaches at Normandy included the largest airborne force ever deployed up to that date.
22. 1943: Sailor rescuing pilot from a plane wreck
Lt. Walter Chewning, catapult officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, clambers up the side of a downed F6F Hellcat to assist the pilot, Ensign Byron Johnson, from the flaming cockpit. The F6F Hellcat achieved a stunning 19:1 kill ratio during WWII, showing the dominance of the technology and the incredible skill of the pilots.
23. 1943: Medal of honor
On July 16, 1943, Staff Sergeant Maynard Harrison Smith of the U.S. Army Air Forces was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson for his actions as a gunner aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. The medal, the highest military honor, has been awarded 3,515 times.
24. 1943: Lockheed P-38 Lightning
Wing Commander Adrian Warburton DSO DFC (center) poses with the first United States Army Air Forces unit in Malta. American pilots shown from left to right include German, Spencer, Sculpone, Webb, Sugg, and Bury. The United States’ effort involved over 16 million servicemembers.
25. Circa 1940s: Women building a bomber
Women workers assemble the tail fuselage of a B-17F bomber, also known as a “Flying Fortress,” at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. Millions of women worked in factories and volunteered for the Red Cross in order to serve war efforts during WWII.
26. 1942: Battalion of army engineers
Group view of the 41st Corps of Engineers soldiers, an African American army battalion, standing in formation and holding the American flag in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. African American soldiers still fought in segregated units during World War II. The United States military did not desegregate units until 1948.
27. 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
The American destroyer USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, home of the American Pacific Fleet during World War II. The attack from Japan came as a complete surprise and was followed soon after by Italy and Germany declaring war on the United States.
28. 1919: Ship of soldiers returning home
Soldiers on the USS Agamemnon cheer as they return home to Hoboken, New Jersey, from the battlefields of France. The deck of the ship is crowded with cheering soldiers. Over 4.5 million Americans served in the United States’ military war efforts.
29. 1918: Newspaper headlines on Armistice Day
Jubilant Americans in Washington, D.C. show newspaper headlines announcing Germany’s surrender, ending World War I, on November 8, 1918. The United States sent over 1 million troops into Europe alone throughout the war.
30. 1918: Service for war dead
A service is held in Hoboken, New Jersey, for American soldiers who died on the battlefields of France during World War I. The war claimed the lives of over 100,000 American service members and injured more than twice that number.
