Soldiers of the 301st Military Police US Army Reserve, just arrived at the 65th Regional Readiness Command, Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, community center.

President Barack Obama Attends a Ceremony at Dover Air Force Base

USS FORRESTAL passes through a rainbow while underway in the North Atlantic Ocean on September 18, 1988. 

Image description: The USS Forrestal, an aircraft carrier, passes through a beam of sunlight in the midst of dark clouds. A rainbow appears to be just in front of the ship. 

“Deborah Gannett . . . maketh oath, that she served as a private soldier, under the name of Robert Shurtliff in the war of the revolution . . .” 

Pension and Bounty Land Application of Deborah (Sampson) Gannett, September 14, 1818. 

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Discharge certificate for Private Alexander Stevenson, U.S. Corps of Marines, who served in the Mexican War. September 10, 1848. 

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Women’s Army Corps Cpl. Barbara Fenster (left) and Cpl. Genevieve E. Guethlein secure information from German prisoner of war Pvt. Frederick Bonk, captured in Tunisia. September 7, 1943, at Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation.

Image description: Inside a tent, a young man in a German uniform with “AFRIKAKORPS” on his sleeve stands to the side of a desk. Seated at the desk are two women in Women’s Army Corps uniforms, who are writing. In the background are more desks and more German prisoners of war. 

1st Lieutenant James Reese Europe and the 369th Infantry Regiment Band (the Harlem Hellfighters) play for patients in the American Red Cross Hospital No. 9, Paris, France, September 4, 1918.

Image description: 1st Lieutenant Europe conducts a brass band who are standing in rows outside a building. All of the men are wearing WWI Army uniforms. A sign in the background reads HOTEL TUNIS. This regiment, the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was made up of all Black soldiers. 

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Wreck of German airplane with bomb. Ravetsburg Camp. Ypres Salient and area, September 1, 1918. From the British War Museum. 

Image description: A soldier in a WWI uniform stands in front of the twisted wreckage of an airplane. He is propping up a bomb that is taller than he is. In the background we can see empty ground with a few damaged trees. 

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American soldiers and YMCA women gather for a song at Aix-le-Bains, France, August 27, 1918. 

Image description: About two dozen American soldiers and two women are gathered around a piano. One man is playing, and several people have their mouths open in song. 

A Coast Guard combat cutter protects a convoy of merchant vessels carrying war supplies to Europe. Oil painting by USCG combat artist Hunter Wood, August 25, 1943. 

Image description: Black-and-white image of an oil painting depicting a Coast Guard cutter in a heaving sea. Barely visible in the background mist is a large merchant vessel. 

Rifle barrels being straightened. Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Ill, August 23, 1918. 

Image description: Two men standing in a workroom amid racks and racks of rifle barrels. The men are each holding up a rifle barrel to look through it. The barrel is held in an umbrella-shaped contraption which is probably turned to straighten the barrel. 

Image description: A large light workroom with many racks of rifle barrels in it. Several men look through rifle barrels. 

Map of the Civil War Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi., August 20, 1863. 

Image description: Map of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and surrounding areas, including a loop of the Mississippi River and the terrain around the city. Cross-sections show the Federal and Rebel batteries, and colored lines show the locations of opposing forces. 

“Air Surgeons recommendation that medicinal whiskey be made available all theatres of operation for the issue to Army Air Forces Combat crew members upon their return from serial combat missions or operations, is concurred in.” August 19, 1943.

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Track chart of bombing mission to Schweinfurt, August 17, 1943. 

Image description: Chart of the area between England and Germany, with lines showing the route from English airfields, across the Netherlands and Belgium, and into Germany. Colored dots mark combats, and flags mark flak. 

Members of the U.S. Army 7th Special Forces (Green Berets) prepare to be lifted off the ground in special harnesses as they practice an extraction system designed to withdraw troops by helicopter, August 15, 1978. 

Image description: Two men in camouflage uniforms, with the sleeves rolled up. They are each wearing a harness similar to a parachute harness, and are gripping the chest strap of the other man’s harness. One man has a stoic look on his face, and the other is snarling. 

Marines fuse rounds for 105mm howitzers at the artillery outpost near hill #60, 9 miles north of Da Nang, Vietnam, on August 13, 1968. 

Image description: Two Marines stand in a foxhole that is ringed with sandbags and partially covered with a tent. Another man crouches outside. They are all working on howitzer rounds, which look to be a couple of feet long. Ammunition and parts are stacked in the foxhole, standing on the ground outside, and leaning up against the sandbags. Two of the men are shirtless; the other is wearing a light-colored t-shirt and sunglasses. 

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Marines from Marine Air Logistics Squadron 11 (MALS-11) painted a mural on a road barricade at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, August 12, 2003.

Image description: A concrete road barrier, painted. The background is half American flag and half red with the Marine Corps logo. Superimposed are: Two aircraft, an angry-looking octopus, and “MALS-11”. On the base of the barrier is “Devil fish,” another octopus, and names and nicknames of members of the unit.