This Week in History February 17th, 2026 – February 23rd, 2026

This Week in U.S. Military History: February 17th, 2026–February 23rd, 2026 traces a sweeping arc from nineteenth-century borderlands to the deserts of the Persian Gulf. Listeners move from the Adams–Onís Treaty that brought Florida into the United States orbit, through desperate stands at the Alamo and Buena Vista, to the fall of Columbia and Wilmington as the Civil War’s grip tightens. The story then shifts to the Pacific, where carrier raids smash Truk Lagoon and Marines fight their way onto Iwo Jima and raise the flag on Mount Suribachi.

Across the same seven days, the episode steps back to the home front as Executive Order 9066 reshapes lives under wartime suspicion, then looks upward as Marine aviator John Glenn orbits the Earth and outward as coalition armored columns surge across Kuwait and Iraq in Desert Storm. Throughout, listeners hear how leadership, technology, geography, and hard moral choices intersect in a single week on the calendar. This Week in U.S. Military History is the Tuesday feature of Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, developed by Trackpads.com.