Military appreciation, veteran reunions, and stories of national service and heritage.
Patriotism
A scientist snorkeling a shrinking pool on a California creek found baby salmon that shouldn't have been possible — proof that wild coho had spawned naturally in the upper Russian River for the first time in 34 years.
Patriotism
In 1944, neighbors in Old North Dayton, Ohio built a memorial for local WWII veterans — 1,300 schoolkids helped finish paying for it. Eighty years of weather faded it. This June, their neighbors brought it back.
Patriotism
A 98-year-old WWII veteran spent 80 years turning down every honor for his service — until his family secretly arranged a surprise ceremony aboard the USS Midway.
Patriotism
A National Guard dad spent ten months away in Iraq — then came home and surprised each of his five kids separately, one classroom at a time, ending with his two-year-old sprinting into his arms yelling "Daddy!"
Patriotism
Ten previously homeless British veterans spent two weeks this spring restoring a Victorian-era fort in Malta, logging 900 hours of hands-on conservation work — and along the way, found their own path back to purpose and confidence.
Patriotism
A Riverton, Utah woman filmed a struggling stranger through her airplane window and asked the internet if anyone knew who he was. Nine million views later, Navy veteran James Blair — who kept working the tarmac at John Wayne Airport despite failing knees, to help cover his mother's hospice
Patriotism
George Klein enlisted in the Navy at 15, right after Pearl Harbor, and served in the Pacific through WWII's worst fighting — but came home to find he'd never been given the medals he earned. Eighty years later, at age 100, his family tracked down their congressman to finally make it right.
Patriotism
In 1969, 20-year-old Pfc. Garfield Langhorn threw himself on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers in Vietnam — and gave his life. This July, 57 years later, a fellow veteran helped bring him home to rest among the men he served with, with full military honors.
Patriotism
At 99 years old, World War II veteran Glenn Fisher finally received the Purple Heart his country had owed him since 1945 — 81 years after German shrapnel wounded him at the Rhine River. A decades-old reporting error had kept it from him, until people who cared set the record right, just mo