The operation marked the first Allied retaliatory strike on the Japanese Home Islands.

To plan the daring mission U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold had tapped Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, the famed air racer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer. Doolittle piloted the lead plane from Hornet. His co-pilot was 26-year-old Lieutenant Richard E. “Dick” Cole.

Neither Doolittle nor any of his men had flown a single combat mission.

When the mission took place, the U.S. fleet in the Pacific was still crippled by the surprise Japanese bombing attack on Pearl Harbor. There was no easy way to attack the Japanese mainland, so Doolittle helped come up with a plan to strip several B-25 bombers down into flying gas cans to give them the range to make it from an aircraft carrier to their targets in Japan.

There was one catch – after dropping their bombs, the 16 planes would not have enough fuel to fly back. Instead, the 80 combat rookies planned to continue on to friendly airfields in China. (By 1942, Japan controlled roughly 25% to 40% of China’s territory, primarily concentrating on major cities, railways, and industrialized coastal areas. The Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, an ally of the U.S., moved its capital to inland Chongqing, maintaining resistance in the west.)

After training in Florida, the Doolittle task force set sail. But the aircraft had to launch 10 hours early after being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat, reducing their range even more. Several of the crews ended up bailing out of their planes after the bombing runs.

Fifteen planes either crashed or the crews bailed out over China when they ran out of fuel due to the early takeoff.  One plane landed in Vladivostok, Soviet Union, where the crew was initially detained, but escaped after a year.

Ultimately, seven crewmembers died – three were killed during the mission; three others were captured and executed, and one died in captivity.

Doolittle’s co-pilot Cole, though, parachuted into a tree in China and managed to catch up with Chinese guerillas operating behind Japanese lines.

The raid did not cause a lot of physical damage in Japan, but the startled Japanese were forced to redeploy their defenses. Americans celebrated; Cole was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and, decades later, the Congressional Gold Medal. Doolittle was promoted and awarded the Medal of Honor.

“Knowing that we did the mission and did it like it was supposed to be done, we felt pretty good about it,” Cole said.

Cole later wrote a book about his service in the war. Proceeds from “Dick Cole’s War” go to a scholarship fund in Doolittle’s name for students in the aviation field.

He also helped make sure the Doolittle Raiders’ legacy will live on. Back in 2016, Cole helped the Air Force announce that the service’s next stealth bomber, the B-21, would officially be called the ‘Raider.’

Jimmy Doolittle officially retired from the Air Force Reserve on Feb. 28, 1959, with the rank of Lieutenant General. He died in 1993 at age 96.

Compiled from a WTVT FOX 13 article published in 2019 and from Google AI.

16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, each with a crew of five, were launched from the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet, in the Pacific Ocean, off Japan.
U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO

An Army Air Force B-25B bomber takes off from USS Hornet (CV-8) at the start of the raid, 18 April 1942. Note men watching from the signal lamp platform at right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Doolittle Raiders air crew during World War II. U.S. Air Force photo.

The plan for the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan. U.S. Air Force.

“An estimated 90% of Iran’s economy is fueled by international trade by sea [primarily by oil exports, Iran’s main source of revenue]. In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, US forces have completely halted all economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement on social media.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said earlier no vessels have breached the blockade since its implementation.

At the same time, reports are emerging of some commercial traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which 20% of the world’s oil exports and 80-90% of Iran’s oil exports travel.

But that commercial traffic doesn’t automatically negate Cooper’s claim.

Two key points:

1. As stated by CENTCOM, the blockade covers all Iranian ports, both inside and outside of the Strait of Hormuz, but not the strait itself. Traffic not related to Iran may cross. Blockading an international waterway is illegal under maritime law.
2. In enforcing the blockade, US forces can interdict ships carrying Iran-linked cargo tens of thousands of miles away. A commercial ship can be targeted in international waters long after it leaves the strait.

Analysts say modern technology allows blockade enforcement at great distances.

“(The US doesn’t) have to put ships in the Persian Gulf to blockade Iran,” said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain.

He noted the 12+ ships CENTCOM says are on blockade duty. Most, if not all, of them are outside the strait. They can carry sophisticated tracking and reconnaissance gear linked to air and space systems.

And at least in the early days of this blockade, oil tankers aren’t going to get far. A fully laden tanker may travel at less than 20 mph. That’s not much faster than the speed of an average bicycle rider.

The US Navy also has the size and scope to pursue any ship getting outside of the Persian Gulf for weeks, anywhere in the world.

“The US blockade on Iranian ports does not have a defined geographic boundary, and the United States can interdict vessels almost anywhere in international waters until they arrive at their final port,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Tuesday.

Earlier this year, as Washington put pressure on the regime of [narco-terrorist dictator] Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, US forces seized a Venezuelan tanker in the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from its originating port.

“Be careful not to interpret (blockade) too literally as a physical interdiction of the strait itself,” said Bjorn Hojgaard, CEO of ship management company Anglo-Eastern.

The ISW also noted the US did grant exceptions from its blockade to humanitarian shipments, and allowed an undetermined “grace period” for neutral ships in Iranian ports to leave.

Six ships that may have been attempting to beat the blockade were stopped, and turned around at the direction of US forces, according to a CENTCOM statement Tuesday.

Meanwhile, CENTCOM said it was employing more than a dozen warships, over 100 aircraft and more than 10,000 personnel in blockade enforcement.

Schuster, the former Navy captain, gave a breakdown of roles for the vessels CENTCOM said were part of the blockade.

• Aircraft carrier: Carries surveillance aircraft and fighter jets for combat air patrols. Also houses a significant command, control, communication and intelligence center.
• Amphibious assault ship: Also conveys surveillance and attack aircraft, another command, control, communication and intelligence center, and hundreds of Marines who can board commercial ships.
• Amphibious transport dock: Will carry more Marines, helicopters, and Osprey transports.
• Dock landing ship: Comes with heavy-lift helicopters and more Marines.
• Destroyers: “They have the sensors, speed and weaponry to detect, intercept and if need be, board, seize and take the offending ship elsewhere,” Schuster said.
• Littoral combat ship: These can conduct mine countermeasures and tracking.

Schuster said the makeup of that force, much of it operating well back from the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian coast, leaves Tehran with limited options to respond.

The small attack boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy are designed for operating in the close confines of the strait and the Persian Gulf, not the open waters of the Arabian Sea and beyond.

Iran likely retains some ballistic and anti-ship cruise missiles despite weeks of US aerial bombardment of the country. But even when they had those in larger numbers, none are known to have hit any US warships operating in the Arabian Sea.

US President Donald Trump said last month that Iran had fired 101 missiles at the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, but all of them were taken out.

Published at CNN on April 15. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

As is customary on Israel’s remembrance days, drivers stood by halted cars along highways and pedestrians came to a standstill, remaining silent and unmoving until the siren…died away.

After the siren sounded, the main state ceremony was held at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem museum, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, other dignitaries, and several Holocaust survivors.

The ceremony took place without an audience, and several portable bomb shelters were placed nearby in case of an incoming missile or rocket alarm.

However, no sirens — apart from the memorial siren — sounded during the event, and the ceremony went ahead as planned.

Netanyahu, Herzog and the other senior officials present laid wreaths upon memorial posts, in honor of the six million Jews who were killed by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II.

The previous evening, Israel ushered in the somber day with a pre-recorded ceremony from Yad Vashem, during which Netanyahu castigated Europe for being “afflicted by deep moral weakness,” saying that Israel is now defending the continent, “which has forgotten so much since the Holocaust.”

He accused Europe of “losing control of its identity, of its values, of its responsibility to defend civilization against barbarism.” …

Meanwhile in Poland, thousands of people from around the world, including some 50 Holocaust survivors and their families, gathered Tuesday afternoon at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp for the 38th annual March of the Living.

Though the planned 1,500-strong Israeli delegation was forced to cancel due to the war with Iran, a dozen survivors from the Jewish state nevertheless were able to make it to Poland.

During the yearly event, participants silently march the 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) distance between the former Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Some 7,000 people from around the world were expected to take part in the march, including survivors of antisemitic attacks in the US, Europe and Australia, who were set to take part in a central torch-lighting ceremony after the march concluded. …

While Monday’s and Tuesday’s main state ceremonies in Israel were either pre-recorded or took place without audiences, local ceremonies were still held across the country, alongside the many small living-room gatherings held each year in which Holocaust survivors are invited to tell their story to the public.

The day, marked on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on January 27, commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

At the start of 2026, there were 111,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). All survivors are at least 80 years old, and 28 percent of them are over 90, the CBS said, based on data from the Holocaust Survivors’ Authority, a government agency that sits under the Prime Minister’s Office.

In January 2025, the authority said there were 123,000 survivors living in Israel.

Dwindling numbers of living eyewitnesses to the Nazi genocide during World War II mean it will be more difficult to transmit the lessons of the Holocaust to the next generation, Holocaust educators say.

Published at Times of Israel on April 14. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

Trump stated on Monday that “34 ships went through the Strait of Hormuz [on Sunday], which is by far the highest number since this foolish closure began.”

Two U.S. Navy destroyers—the USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy— already transited the strait on Saturday and are operating in the Persian Gulf as part of the effort to “ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,” according to CENTCOM.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage, and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” said CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper.

Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days, CENTCOM said.

The news comes as CENTCOM began its blockade on maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on Monday. The blockade “will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” CENTCOM stated.

Published at JNS on April 13. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

US Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians are specialized military experts across all branches (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps) trained to detect, identify, render safe, and dispose of conventional, chemical, biological, nuclear, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) worldwide. They handle high-stakes threats, protecting personnel and infrastructure during both combat and peacetime missions. Watch the first video which includes an interview with Tom Sauer, a former EOD officer and mine expert.

VIDEO #1

The following video details the U.S. naval blockade of Iran, which began on Monday:

VIDEO #2

Iran’s negotiators refused to satisfy America’s demands Saturday in talks in Pakistan, as regime leaders bet that playing the Strait of Hormuz card would get Trump to blink.

Instead, he played it right back at them — announcing his own blockade, so that Iran’s oil exports (which had continued despite the war) will also be blocked.

The prez is thinking outside the box with this blockade and his plans to escort ships through the strait; if necessary, he can later order US forces to take Kharg Island and eviscerate the regime’s power base.

This also guarantees that Tehran’s effort to charge a toll on all tankers crossing the strait will fail — honoring an American commitment to freedom of the seas that goes back to President Thomas Jefferson, the Barbary Pirates and the US Marines’ triumphant excursion “to the shores of Tripoli.”

Of course Iran’s rulers (whoever they are at this point) responded with fresh bluster, vowing a “strong and forceful response” to Trump’s move and huffing that it would end the cease-fire.

Utter bull: Tehran has almost no offensive capabilities left except those that threaten strait shipping, and those assets can now be eliminated as completely and readily as the rest of its navy, missile launchers and drone capabilities already were.

It can’t seriously mine the strait without choking off its own exports, nor can that blockade last once America and its allies’ minesweepers, backed by the US Navy, get down to work.

Trump’s blockade won’t much impact Europe or the Americas, while our Middle Eastern allies are switching to export routes that don’t rely on the strait; it’s Iran and its allies (mainly China) that will now suffer most.

Beijing and its dependents in Moscow will soon regret vetoing the UN Security Council measure to reopen the strait.

Meanwhile, the Iranian hardliners behind this lunacy will face more internal pressure from other regime factions; everything they’ve tried to do has blown up in their faces.

They assumed America would be help captive by conventional wisdom; our president proved them wrong.

Trump once again tried to reach a peaceful settlement; the Iranians again refused. Now they’ll pay yet a higher price for thinking they could get him to chicken out.

Published at NY Post on April. 12. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

Search warrants have led to the discovery of hundreds — sometimes thousands — of marijuana plants inside residential homes. But authorities say the alleged crimes extend beyond illegal cannabis.

“Human trafficking, money laundering, mortgage fraud, bringing illegal pesticides into our state,” Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton told NewsNation.

Morton described the activity as part of what he called an “organized criminal network” operated by a Chinese group here in the U.S.

In July, the DOJ indicted seven Chinese nationals (citizens of China) on charges related to an alleged multimillion-dollar money laundering, alien smuggling [secretly bringing individuals into the U.S. unlawfully] and drug trafficking enterprise. (Read about their crimes here.)

Prosecutors said the scheme involved cultivating and distributing marijuana using interconnected grow houses inside single-family properties in Massachusetts and Maine.

Locals have seen the problem firsthand.

Al Tempesta is the building and code inspector for five towns in rural Maine. He estimates that every town has at least two or three illegal marijuana grow houses.

“The more rural you get, the more you’ll have,” Tempesta said. “They’re everywhere.”

From the outside, he said, the signs are often visible: blacked out windows and an additional power box to bring more energy in to keep the plants climate controlled.

He showed NewsNation one home where he would not approve an electrical upgrade request: “I would not sign the release because they put ‘to cultivate marijuana’ and the town did not vote marijuana in.”

In Corinna, Maine, officials found 3,700 marijuana plants inside a Chinese illegal grow. The operation was located just 50 yards away from the town offices.

Tempesta said some properties are purchased through intermediaries, sometimes with help from local real estate agents.

According to a real estate transfer tax document obtained by the Maine Wire, that same house [Tempest would not apporve an electrical upgrade] was gifted to a person living in China. The preparer listed on the transfer document was Paul Mills, a real estate attorney and eldest brother of Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat.

Paul Mills told NewsNation he had no knowledge of what was happening on the property.

“The broker I worked with in Farmington real estate transactions said she had this person that wanted to convey this to her mother,” Mills said. “That’s the total limit of my involvement whatsoever in the whole thing.”

While it is legal for Maine residents to grow small amounts of marijuana [for personal use], authorities say most of the Chinese nationals caught running illicit grows are applying for — and readily receiving — licenses to grow medical marijuana.

During a legislative meeting last year, John Hudak, director of the state’s Office of Cannabis Policy, admitted it’s a major issue.

“Under very few circumstances do we have the authority to deny individuals from the program after they have been caught up in one of these search warrant executions or because they operate out of an address that previously had a search warrant executed,” Hudak said.

Hudak added that some applicants may view the licensing system as protection.

“They’re applying so they can have a ‘get out of jail free’ card, or what they perceive as a get out of jail free card, to continue to do the operations that they’re doing,” he said, noting that much of the product is being directed out of state.

Steve Robinson, executive editor of the Maine Wire, said state police have repeatedly responded to one large cannabis growing facility he showed NewsNation, including for missing persons reports, hostage situations and armed robberies.

“The state police, in their own incident report — as early as 2021 — said that this facility was controlled by Chinese gangs from New York,” Robinson said. …

Maine Gov. Janet Mills has not addressed the issue much in public remarks. At a March 2024 press conference for the Maine Defense Industry Alliance, when asked about the national security implications of illegal Chinese-operated grow sites, Mills said the question was unrelated to the event.

Sheriff Morton said he wishes the governor would speak more directly about the issue: “It’s concerning to all of us why there’s kind of been silence about it.”

Published at NewsNationNow .com on Feb. 18. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

The U.S. has not drafted anyone into compulsory military service since 1973, but young men still have to register with the Selective Service System in case there is a draft again in the future.

The Selective Service System (SSS), or military draft, was established in 1917 by President Woodrow Wilson after the U.S. entered World War I. Under federal law, most males between 18 and 25 years old are required to register with the Selective Service System. Currently, they have to self-register within 30 days of their 18th birthday, but they’re allowed to register late without penalty until they turn 26.

Failure to register is considered a crime that could disqualify you from student loans, most federal jobs and U.S. citizenship for immigrants, Stars and Stripes reports.

Women are still exempt from registering. And some men are exempt from registering if, for example, they have a medical condition that confines them to home or are in the country on a nonimmigrant visa.

The new rule passed by Congress in the NDAA last year will automatically register eligible men in the system, which “transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” according to the Selective Service System’s website.

Draft registration has declined in recent years, according to The Military Times, in part because federal student loan forms removed the option to register in 2022.

According to the Selective Service System, automatic registration will be in place by December 2026.

The U.S. has drafted soldiers to fight in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The country ended conscription and moved to an all-volunteer military in 1975, but President Jimmy Carter brought back registration for the draft in 1980, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Beyond the automatic draft registration, the updated law makes several other changes.

For example, the bill proposes to amend requirements for public high schools to give access to campus to military recruiters. Under the new language, schools that receive federal funding must give recruiters access “that is equivalent to access provided to such campus to a prospective employer of such students, an institution of higher education, or another recruiter.”

Schools must also allow recruiters to attend at least one career fair or similar event per academic year.

The bill also would increase the number of authorized Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or JROTC, units. Right now, the law calls for between 3,400 and 4,000 units in the high school program. Under the NDAA, that will increase to between 3,600 and 4,200 units.

While JROTC is not officially a recruiting program, military officials and lawmakers have increasingly seen it as an opportunity to build interest in military service and interact with young people who are inclined to serve.

Lawmakers tried to set up automatic draft registration in early versions of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as well. But the provision was scuttled from the version of the bill that became law after influencers, including rapper Cardi B, spread misinformation on social media that the legislation meant Congress would reinstate the draft.

Compiled from articles at LiveNowFox on April 8 (with info from the Selective Service System, Stars and Stripes and The Associated Press) and a Dec. 8, 2025 article published at RollCall.

The State Department said Saturday in a statement that Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Soleimani Afshar “promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the ‘Great Satan,’ and voiced her unflinching support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organization.” She did all this “while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, as attested to by her frequent posting on her recently deleted Instagram account.”

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, the niece of Iranian Revolutionary General Qasem Soleimani lived lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles while promoting Iranian regime propaganda and celebrating attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Secretary Rubio noted on X: “The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”

“As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the U.S. State Department also said in a statement.

Soleimani Afshar’s posts on Instagram and Twitter, captured and republished by numerous news outlets, point to at least the appearance of a life of luxury. Soleimani Afshar regularly published images and videos of herself in what appear to be designer clothes, engaging in activities associated with wealth, including riding in a Hummer and posing for glamour shots in short dresses. Her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny posted photos in a similar, though with even more provocative images.

The irony was not lost on some social media uawea who blasted Soleimani Afshar’s purported support for a regime that restricts women from showing their hair in public while she showed that and more on social media.

Iranian military leader Gen. Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. He was the architect of Iran’s regional terrorist activities and was hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.  [Soleimani was leader of the elite Quds Force, the division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that conducts spying and terrorist operations outside Iran].

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani

After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, American officials called for Soleimani’s  killing over his role in arming terrorists in Iraq with penetrating roadside bombs [IEDs] that killed and maimed almost 2,000 U.S. troops.

Soleimani Afshar came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and was granted asylum in 2019 and got her green card in 2021, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis previously said. Since then, she traveled to Iran four times, disclosing the information in her application last year to become a citizen, Bis said. Hosseiny, 25, came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2015 and was also granted asylum in 2019, then got her green card in 2023, Bis said.

Soleimani Afshar’s trips to Iran demonstrated her claims to need asylum in the U.S. were “fraudulent,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement on X. Her husband has also been barred from entering the U.S.

Soleimani Afshar and Hosseiny are being held in an ICE facility in Pearsall, Texas, according to a searchable database of detainees.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani, [who was employed by Emory University School of Medicine as an associate professor] and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani was killed in an airstrike last month. His daughter and husband are no longer in the country.

Compiled from articles published on April 6 at the Los Angeles Times and CBS News.