When Edward Field was in a plane crash during World War II, an act of altruism saved his life. Field – who grew up gay and Jewish in New York – found a sense of belonging and purpose when he joined the Army.

Growing up as the daughter of a Marine, C.J. Scarlet dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps. When she enlisted in 1981, she was part of the first class of women to receive combat training. But a pervasive culture of sexism and sexual harassment derailed her military career.

When he was 11 years old, Harold Brown decided he wanted to be a pilot. He flew 30 missions during World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black aviators in the U.S. Military.

Brandon Anderson spent nearly five years in the Army, deploying twice to Iraq between 2003 and 2008. But as a gay service member during the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era, he had to live a double life, hiding his relationship with the man he’d loved for more than a decade.

Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson was traveling in a convoy in Iraq in 2003 when her vehicle was attacked. Iraqi forces killed 11 soldiers in her company and captured six, including Johnson. She was held for 22 days, becoming the first Black female prisoner of war in American history.

Edie Meeks joined the Army Nurses Corps in 1968 and deployed to Vietnam, but her year treating wounded soldiers left her bitter about the war and conflicted about her service in the Army.

Now in his 90s, World War II veteran Frank DeVita recalls his experience as a teenager in the Coast Guard, serving on a landing craft transporting infantry to invade Omaha Beach on the coast of Nazi-occupied France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

From an eager recruit to a conscientious objector, Clifton Hicks recalls how his deployment to Iraq in 2003 fundamentally changed his relationship to the military.

As an Army Ranger, Sgt. Nick Irving earned the nickname "The Reaper" while serving as a sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he struggled to come to terms with civilian life once he left the military.