As a new military police platoon leader, Robin Fontes unexpectedly found herself present at a turning point of strategic significance. Assigned to the Berlin Brigade, Fontes and her soldiers were part of the American effort to maintain an outpost in the German capital, keep tabs on the Soviets, and stay ready for the start of World War III—all while citizens across Eastern Europe were increasingly demanding additional freedoms and political representation from their communist governments. As tensions inside East Germany continued to rise, Fontes had a front-row view. When the Berlin Wall came down in October 1989, she found herself thrust into a delicate balancing act in the midst of geostrategic uncertainty in a profoundly historic moment.
Few books have had the impact on generations of young soldiers as Jim McDonough’s Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat. First published...
In August 2007, a US Army Special Forces team came under fire while passing through a valley in Afghanistan. The call for support went...
In 2010, Maj. Tyson Walsh was a platoon leader on his first deployment. Just ten days after arriving in Afghanistan, the platoon suffered its...