Leadership Stories
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Joan of Arc: The Short but Eventful Life of the Maid of Lorraine
A peasant girl from Domremy talked her way to the future king, lifted the siege of Orleans, and saw him crowned before she turned 18.
Oskar Schindler: The Man Who Outwitted Adolf Hitler
A hard-drinking opportunist and Nazi Party member risked everything to save more than 1,000 Jews. John on the imperfect man behind Schindler's List.
Edward R. Murrow's Story and His Enduring Influence on Journalism
From London rooftops during the Blitz to his reports on Senator McCarthy, Edward R. Murrow set a standard of honest reporting. John tells his story.
Samuel Whittemore: The Minuteman Who Proved You're Never Too Old to Fight
At 78 he took on the British column alone behind a stone wall. Shot in the face and bayoneted 13 times, Sam Whittemore lived another 18 years.
Father Damien's Legacy: Leader by Example and "Martyr of Charity"
He volunteered to live among Hawaii's exiled leprosy patients on Molokai, served them for 16 years, and died of the disease himself.
The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Recipients of the Medal of Honor
In April 1862, Union raiders stole the locomotive General and ran it north toward Chattanooga. Six of them became the first Medal of Honor recipients.
G.I. Joe Saved 1,000 Lives
The bird, not the action figure. A U.S. Army pigeon flew 20 miles in 20 minutes in 1943 to stop a bombing raid on British troops.
Marcel Marceau: The Legendary Mime Who Served in the French Resistance, Fought the Nazis, and Saved Children
Before he was the world's most famous mime, Marcel Mangel hid his Jewish roots and smuggled children across the Alps to safety.
Douglas MacArthur: "I Shall Return!" It Didn't Happen Exactly the Way (or Where) You May Have Thought
MacArthur's famous promise wasn't made on a Philippine beach. It came at a small train station in South Australia after a harrowing PT boat escape.
In Memory of Sergeant Stubby: The Most Decorated War Dog of World War I (Who May Have Invented Football's Halftime Show)
A stray found at Yale went to France with the 102nd Infantry, warned of gas, found the wounded, and came home a celebrity.
Wounded Three Times in War, and the Oldest Serving Supreme Court Justice in History
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was wounded at Ball's Bluff, Antietam, and Chancellorsville, then served on the Supreme Court until he was 90.
The Boston Massacre: How It Contributed to the Presumption of Innocence and Reasonable Doubt
A patriot lawyer agreed to defend the British soldiers who fired on a Boston crowd. John Adams risked his reputation for a fair trial.
Was "Ripley's Believe It or Not" Responsible for Our National Anthem?
Key wrote it in 1814, but The Star-Spangled Banner didn't become the national anthem until 1931. A cartoon helped push Congress to act.
A Tale of Two Civil Rights Pioneers
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955. Nine months earlier, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same thing.
Battle of the Bulge Medal of Honor Recipient: Jose Mendoza Lopez
A former boxer and merchant seaman, Sgt. Jose Lopez held off a German attack at Krinkelt with a heavy machine gun and saved his company.
Medal of Honor: Sergeant Bernard Taylor
Ambushed on a mesa in Arizona in 1874, Sgt. Barney Taylor carried his wounded lieutenant half a mile under fire and refused to leave him.
D-Day: 75 Years Later
On the 75th anniversary, John recalls the men who landed in Normandy and the leaders who got them off the beach.
The Men Who Took Down bin Laden
John's tribute to the special operators who took down bin Laden: the best living definition of a team.
July 3, 1863: Pickett's Charge
On the third day at Gettysburg, Lee sent about 13,000 men across open ground at the Union center. Hour by hour, John walks through Pickett's Charge.
Medal of Honor Recipient Timothy O'Connor
No photograph of him survives. An Irish immigrant from Chicago captured a Confederate flag at Malvern in 1864 and earned the Medal of Honor.