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They were no elite force. They were just an average lot of men who'd undergone the seemingly magical training process that produces marines. But this proved to be their greatest strength that long and terrible night, fighting one of the truly great final stands in all of history - they were marines.

The raging winds of a nor'easter had propelled the 11-year-old girl over a seaside embankment and trapped her in a chest-deep snowdrift. No one knew she was caught in the storm; no one could hear her desperate cries.

"Excuse me, sir, can I help you?" Mike Gibbs asked as a heavyset man with a duffel bag stepped into the driver's well of his 45-foot-long shuttle bus. "You're not allowed down here while the bus is moving." The man responded by leveling a .38-caliber revolver at the driver's right temple. "We're robbing the bus," he said quietly.

Nathaniel Carter was stunned by the verdict: guilty - with 25 years to life in prison. To the police, it was an open-and-shut case. To Carter's family and a few concerned friends, it would become a crusade for justice.

On June 23, 1997 - barely three weeks after her 18th birthday - Kristen Modafferi, a tall, vivacious brunette, ended her workday and vanished into thin air. An investigation into her disappearance has yet to produce a trace.

After 40 years of marriage, a couple in Prey Veng Province decided that the time had come to part ways - prompting the husband and friends to saw the house in half.

Anonymous hackers recently broke into the official accounts of President Bashar al-Assad, retrieving hundreds of emails and dumping them for all the world to see - and revealing that the ruthless dictator didn't have the ironclad online protection you might've expected.

In hospitals and ad hoc chapels, on patrol and at makeshift altars, military chaplains help American soldiers find peace amid the chaos and danger of the front lines.

Taking a friend's advice, Litty Matthew decided to try the opposite of shopping to boost her mood and escape the sense of constriction that had settled over her life. "And I don't mean just giving to Goodwill, honey," her friend had said. "You should try holding a giveaway."

America's history is rich with tales of legendary entrepreneurs who disregarded the "experts" and risked everything to chase their dreams. But for every well-known Tom Edison or Bill Gates, there are unsung thousands whose vision and perseverance have won them success. Here are some of their stories.

Joe "Rock" Musial was the real deal. He was a hero. As one fellow soldier put it, "Rock was an absolute legend.... I can remember guys in other units, when Rock walked around the perimeter, they'd stare and ask, 'Is what they say about him true?'"

"I knew in my mind it was a bad situation," Spc. Michael Wolfe later explained of that night in Karbala, one of the holiest Islamic cities in Iraq, in December 2004. The events that followed would change his and two other soldiers' lives forever.

Shadows dancing around the table mirrored the excitement in the faces of the children. It was a party - and not just any party. It was New Year's Eve. And for once they were allowed to stay up.

The Best Life Stories by Reader's Digest are 150 of the best hand-picked real-life tales of resilience, joy, and hope - all in 150 words or less! When I was in the navy, I drank like a sailor.

The Best Life Stories by Reader's Digest are 150 of the best hand-picked real-life tales of resilience, joy, and hope - all in 150 words or less! My father had all sorts of interesting friends.

David Shephard, whose wrongful arrest led to 12 years in jail, can't make up for the lost time - but he's determined to try.

I remember the first time I saw Freddie. He was standing in his playpen at the adoption agency where I work, giving me a toothy grin, and I thought, What a beautiful baby. Gathering him into her arms, his boarding mother asked, "Will you be able to find a family for Freddie?" Then I saw it. Freddie had been born without arms.

When we went to bed that night, our little black dog, Santos, lay on the cabin top of our 42-foot ketch, vacating the area only in the worst weather. He touched his nose to Dorothy's face as she bent low to nuzzle him good night. His ardent eyes flared briefly - he worshiped her - then he returned to his duty. We slept easier with Santos aboard. It was his self-appointed mission to ensure that no one, friend or foe, came within 100 yards of Breath without a warning.

Dowsing, a way of locating underground water, lacks any scientific basis, according to most geologists. How, then, do we account for its many successes?

Author Ardis Whitman looks at the ways in which we tend to understand and experience joy, explains the difference between joy and happiness, and offers guidance on how to restore our lives to the eager openness to all the world that is so often the prelude to joy.