This Week in History December 16th, 2025 – December 22nd, 2025

This Week in U.S. Military History: December 16th, 2025–December 22nd, 2025 invites listeners into a vivid week where snowbound huts at Valley Forge sit beside jet bombers over Hanoi and spacecraft circling the moon. The narrative moves from a Continental Army on the edge of collapse, through the secession crisis and the shattering Union victory at Nashville, to the desperate stand at Bastogne and the sudden loss of General George Patton. Listeners hear how each moment felt to those on the ground and in the air, and how these days reshaped American arms across generations.

Across the same calendar window, the story reaches from the Wright brothers’ fragile first powered flight to Apollo 8 sailing for lunar orbit, from Flying Tigers over China to precision strikes in Operation Desert Fox and the rapid intervention of Operation Just Cause. The episode traces common threads of endurance, improvisation, and technological change, showing how decisions in winter forests, cabinet rooms, and cockpits all echo into today’s force. “This Week in U.S. Military History” is the Tuesday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, developed by Trackpads.com, offering a guided walk through the dates that still shape modern service and strategy.