Opinion

In 2005, Lance Cpl. Travis Williams lost his squad to an IED. He was the only survivor.

World News

Sole Survivor: Iraq Rescue Mission Ended In Tragedy

3:52pm June 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

In our latest installment of the StoryCorps Military Voices Initiative, we hear from Lance Cpl. Travis Williams. In 2005, while serving in Iraq, Williams lost his 12-man squad lost his squad to an IED. He was the only survivor.

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Op-Ed: Midnight Meals Are Key To Military Morale

4:59pm June 03, 2013

Midnight dinner service will be canceled at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan in June. Officials say it's part of the drawdown process, and though it might not sound like a big deal, former U.S. Army paratrooper David Brown says Marines at Camp Leatherneck stand to lose more than just food.

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Student newspapers may be the latest victims of social media.

Education

High School Newspapers: An Endangered Species

2:49pm June 01, 2013

by Scott Simon

The New York Times reported this week that only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools still has a student newspaper. National figures are only a bit better. NPR's Scott Simon says student newspapers are the latest victims of social media.

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Peter Obetz (left) and Jeff Jarrett met in 1998 and are still close friends. Peter was diagnosed with stage IV esophageal cancer in 2004. He was declared cancer-free in 2009. They visited StoryCorps in Kansas City, Mo.

National

Cherishing The Gift Of Friendship Through A Cancer Bout

8:34am May 31, 2013

by NPR Staff

In 2004, Peter Obetz was in the middle of a divorce when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He says the news was not only a wake-up call for him to change his life, but it also brought him closer to his friend Jeff Jarrett. He's been cancer-free since 2009.

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Elysha O'Brien and her husband, Michael, with their sons. Elysha never learned Spanish but is determined that her children will.

National

Living In Two Worlds, But With Just One Language

12:24am May 31, 2013

by Michele Norris

Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

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Lynda Barry is an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Creativity at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Arts

Cartoonist Lynda Barry Helps College Students Tap Innate Creativity

11:50am May 30, 2013

by NPR Staff

Like most of her work, cartoonist Lynda Barry's course at the University of Wisconsin is unorthodox: No artistic skill is required. In class, and in her own work, the cartoonist aims to strip away the stiffness of adulthood and plug people into their innate creativity.

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Science

Public Opinion On The Record Number Of Female Breadwinners

2:21pm May 29, 2013

A study from the Pew Research Center shows a growing number of women are the family breadwinners. In 40 percent of families with children under 18, the mothers bring home most or all of the household income. The American public still has mixed feelings about moms bringing home the bacon.

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Sports

One More Swing: 'Casey At The Bat'

11:03am May 29, 2013

by Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Frank Deford puts aside his gripes this week to pay tribute to the poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner 125 years ago June 3.

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U.S. Navy sailors form a ceremonial guard at a wreath-laying ceremony to memorialize the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor and pay tribute to the veterans of World War II in front of the Lone Sailor statue at the Naval Memorial in Washington, D.C., in

After WWII, A Letter Of Appreciation That Still Rings True

9:43am May 28, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Recently, Fresh Air contributor Maureen Corrigan found a letter from then-Secretary of War James Forrestal that had been sent to her father after he had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1945. In that letter, she found an expression of gratitude that could serve us well today.

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Sally Edwards (left), 80, and Lue Hutchinson, 71, visited StoryCorps in Cincinnati. Their sons, Jack Edwards and Tom Butts, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

National

Military Moms: A Bond Born From Shared Loss

8:22am May 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Two mothers whose sons were killed during the first Gulf War talk about how they became friends after their sons died. The past 22 years would have been tough without the friendship, because, as one tells the other, "what's in our hearts we share."

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