Schedule

To the United States and the Soviet Union, Afghanistan was always a pawn in a much bigger game. First the Soviets bought them off and then the US sent in arms.

Mao was the 20th Century's answer to Napoleon: a brilliant tactician, a political and economic theorist, and a statesman who ruled a billion people for three decades.

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. airpower flew past mighty enemies in flaming skies. But the decades saw rickety box kites turn into supersonic jets with apocalyptic firepower fueled with the blood of brave airmen.

While the allies storm France, American forces hit Saipan in the Marianas Island. The Enterprise supports one of the largest and most deadly battles of the Pacific War. Enterprise and her sister carriers nearly wipe out Japanese Naval Airpower.

How do we train our military pilots? What is flak and what is the origin of the word? How did the US pull off the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese during WWII? Did the OSS really use a 1-man submarine named Sleeping Beauty?

R. Lee Ermey rides in an F-15 Eagle, courtesy of the Oregon Air National Guard--and proudly returns all three of his airsickness bags empty! Find out about a wacky single-man vertical flight machine tested in the 1950s.

Host R. Lee Ermey takes viewers on a tour of the Marine Corps Training Command Center, a.k.a. 29 Palms. It's the largest Marine Corps base in the world and covers half-a-million acres of Southern California desert.

Host R. Lee Ermey, dressed in the uniform of a Civil War Marine Corps sergeant, dedicates the entire half-hour to the Civil War, answering a slew of email questions about the guns and gear used in the War between the States.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. airpower flew past mighty enemies in flaming skies. But the decades saw rickety box kites turn into supersonic jets with apocalyptic firepower fueled with the blood of brave airmen.

While the allies storm France, American forces hit Saipan in the Marianas Island. The Enterprise supports one of the largest and most deadly battles of the Pacific War. Enterprise and her sister carriers nearly wipe out Japanese Naval Airpower.

How do we train our military pilots? What is flak and what is the origin of the word? How did the US pull off the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese during WWII? Did the OSS really use a 1-man submarine named Sleeping Beauty?

R. Lee Ermey rides in an F-15 Eagle, courtesy of the Oregon Air National Guard--and proudly returns all three of his airsickness bags empty! Find out about a wacky single-man vertical flight machine tested in the 1950s.

Host R. Lee Ermey takes viewers on a tour of the Marine Corps Training Command Center, a.k.a. 29 Palms. It's the largest Marine Corps base in the world and covers half-a-million acres of Southern California desert.

Host R. Lee Ermey, dressed in the uniform of a Civil War Marine Corps sergeant, dedicates the entire half-hour to the Civil War, answering a slew of email questions about the guns and gear used in the War between the States.

To the United States and the Soviet Union, Afghanistan was always a pawn in a much bigger game. First the Soviets bought them off and then the US sent in arms.

Mao was the 20th Century's answer to Napoleon: a brilliant tactician, a political and economic theorist, and a statesman who ruled a billion people for three decades.

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. airpower flew past mighty enemies in flaming skies. But the decades saw rickety box kites turn into supersonic jets with apocalyptic firepower fueled with the blood of brave airmen.

While the allies storm France, American forces hit Saipan in the Marianas Island. The Enterprise supports one of the largest and most deadly battles of the Pacific War. Enterprise and her sister carriers nearly wipe out Japanese Naval Airpower.

How do we train our military pilots? What is flak and what is the origin of the word? How did the US pull off the daring Doolittle Raid against the Japanese during WWII? Did the OSS really use a 1-man submarine named Sleeping Beauty?

R. Lee Ermey rides in an F-15 Eagle, courtesy of the Oregon Air National Guard--and proudly returns all three of his airsickness bags empty! Find out about a wacky single-man vertical flight machine tested in the 1950s.

Host R. Lee Ermey takes viewers on a tour of the Marine Corps Training Command Center, a.k.a. 29 Palms. It's the largest Marine Corps base in the world and covers half-a-million acres of Southern California desert.

Host R. Lee Ermey, dressed in the uniform of a Civil War Marine Corps sergeant, dedicates the entire half-hour to the Civil War, answering a slew of email questions about the guns and gear used in the War between the States.

R. Lee Ermey compares Civil War rifles from both sides; learns about the first missile fired from the deck of a sub; compares the Navy's Mark 21 deep-sea suit, used for depths as far as 300 feet below surface, to "crush-proof" suits.

How do the Marines train snipers? What kind of hand signals do our soldiers use? How did the Viet Cong manage to bring so many supplies into South Vietnam on the primitive Ho Chi Minh Trail?

What puts the "super" in the Marines' attack helicopter, the AH-1W Super Cobra' As long as we're talking snakes, why are there so many AIM (Air Intercept Missile) Sidewinders' Why do many consider the C-54 Skymaster transport plane the true hero'

Shot on location, R. Lee Ermey reads viewers' questions about the armed forces on air and then sends them out to military experts in the field for answers and brief demonstrations. In this episode, we learn how grenade launchers work.

China's Woodstock turned Kent State: uncovering Tiananmen Square's 1989 massacre and its enduring impact on China.

This is the secret story of "the War to End All Wars" and what happened when the first weapons of mass destruction reached the battlefield.

Assault from the air didn't begin with the era of the airplane. Take a look back at early methods of airborne attack. The kite bomb was a medieval siege weapon that dropped bombs from a kite over cities. We'll build one and test it with startling new insights and success. Ancient bouncing bombs that actually skipped across water--the forerunners of the famous Dam Buster projectiles--terrorized shipping in Turkey in 1453. Learn the secrets of ancient China's whistling arrows--used by commanders to direct the flow of a battle. Investigate the world's earliest rocket-powered explosive missile from the ancient battlefields of China. Finally, in one of the most dramatic tests ever conducted, we'll build the earliest known successful parachute and drops a skydiver from 6,000 feet.

The amazing successes and stunning failures of ancient military engineers have directly affected the weapons and tactics we use today. In fact, an ancient Greek weapon is still used on modern aircraft carriers. How did the Chinese develop a catapult with a firing rate of 10 rounds per second? Did the living horse battlefield torpedoes of the middle ages battlefield actually work? And, how did the great Carthaginian general Hannibal cross the highest mountain range in Europe using equipment still used by today's Special Forces, dissolving solid rocks in his path using an ancient chemical version of dynamite?