BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials said Sunday that an airstrike wounded the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such a strike or al-Baghdadi being wounded.

A key aide to the self-described "caliph" reportedly died in the attack.

Iraq's Defense and Interior Ministries issued statements saying al-Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating.

An Interior Ministry intelligence official told The Associated Press that al-Baghdadi was hit during a meeting Saturday with militants in the town of Qaim in Iraq's western Anbar province. The official, citing informants within the militant group, said the strike wounded al-Baghdadi. A senior Iraqi military official also said he learned in operational meetings that al-Baghdadi had been wounded.

Both officials said the operation was carried out by Iraqi security forces. Neither knew the extent of al-Baghdadi's apparent injuries.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential material. State television later also reported that al-Baghdadi had been wounded.

Al-Baghdadi, an ambitious Iraqi militant believed to be in his early 40s, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Since taking the reins of the group in 2010, he has transformed it from a local branch of al-Qaida into an independent transnational military force, positioning himself as perhaps the pre-eminent figure in the global jihadi community.

The reclusive leader is purported to have made only one public appearance, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul, as seen in a video posted online in June. Al-Baghdadi's purported appearance in Mosul came five days after his group declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the territories it holds in Iraq and Syria. The group proclaimed al-Baghdadi its leader and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him.

Since then, part of the Islamic State group's core strategy has been to establish administration over lands that it controls to project an image of itself as a ruler and not just a fighting force. In parts of Syria under its control, the group now administers courts, fixes roads and even polices traffic. It recently imposed a curriculum in schools in its Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, scrapping subjects such as philosophy and chemistry, and fine-tuning the sciences to fit with its ideology.

A U.S.-led coalition has been launching airstrikes on Islamic State militants and facilities in Iraq and Syria for months as part of an effort to give Iraqi forces the time and space to mount a more effective offensive. The Islamic State had gained ground across northern and western Iraq in a lightning advance in June and July, causing several of Iraq's army and police divisions to fall into disarray.

On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 more American troops to bolster Iraqi forces, including into Anbar province, where fighting with Islamic State militants has been fierce. The plan could boost the total number of American troops in Iraq to 3,100. There now are about 1,400 U.S. troops in Iraq, out of the 1,600 previously authorized.

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Tensions between Russia and the West have been steadily growing over the past few months, as there has been a sharp uptick in Russian bombers and fighters flying missions over Europe. This increase in activity has  taken place against the backdrop of a frozen conflict in Ukraine, which has already pitted Russia and the West against each other. 

This rise in tensions, summarized succinctly in a recent brazenly anti-Western Putin speech, has led to Russian aerial incursions being viewed with increased hesitance. 

"What is significant is that across history, most of these incursions have been very small groups of airplanes, sometimes singletons or at most two aircraft,"the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said at a Pentagon briefing.

"What you saw this past week was a larger, more complex formation of aircraft carrying out a little deeper, and I would say a little bit more provocative, flight path."

We have listed below some of the most notable instances of provocative Russian aircraft exercises over the US and US allied territory since March 2013. 

March 29, 2013 — Sweden

Russian military aircraft simulated a large scale bombing run over Stockholm, Sweden. Two Tu-22M3 Backfire heavy bombers, which can carry cruise missiles and nuclear weapons, and four Su-27 Flanker fighter jets flew within 30 to 40 kilometers of Swedish territorial waters before returning to Russia. 

February 24, 2014 — Estonia

On February 24, Estonia's independence day, US F-15Cs intercepted a Russian spy plane. The F-15Cs were in Estonia as part of the NATO rotational force that helps to police the Baltic states' airspace. 

May 2014 — California and Guam 

In a seeming return to Cold War tensions, Russia increased its aerial activity throughout the Pacific. US fighter jets intercepted Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers over Guam and over the Pacific west of the California coast. 

June 2014 — Alaska and California

In the beginning of June, four Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers triggered US air defense systems in Alaska and California. Two of the bombers returned to Russia after being intercepted over the Aleutian islands, while the other two continued to within 50 miles off of the north Californian coast. 

June 2014 — Denmark 

Russia carried out a simulated attack of the Danish island of Bornholm while the island hosted 90,000 guests in a political festival that drew attendees from ranging from politicians to journalists and activists. The Russian planes were equipped with live missiles, and was the most overtly offensive Russian simulated strike against Denmark since the Cold War. 

August 2014 — US 

During a ten day period from the end of July into the beginning of August, Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out at least 16 incursions into US air defense zones in the northwest of the country. The Russian planes included Tu-95 heavy bombers and intelligence aircraft. 

September 2014 — US 

Two Russian strategic bombers carried out simulated cruise missile strikes against the US during a NATO summit in Wales. The Tu-95s flew to an optimum site for launching the missiles in Canada's north east. US fighters were not scrambled to respond to the threat, as the Russian aircraft stayed out of the North American Air Defense Identification Zone. 

October 2014 — Japan

From May 2014 to October 2014, Japan more than doubled the number of times it scrambled aircraft against Russian aircraft. The Japanese aircraft intercepted a mixture of Russian spy planes and bombers, and focused around a ring of contested islands to the north of Japan. 

October 21, 2014 — Estonia

A Russian spy plane violated Estonia's airspace. The Russian Ilyushin-20 flew for about a minute in Estonian airspace before being intercepted by fighters from Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden. 

October 28, 2014 — Baltic Sea

Seven Russian combat aircraft flew over international airspace in the Baltic Sea. German Typhoon fighters intercepted the Russians over the Gulf of Finland. The Russian aircraft did not change course, and were also intercepted by Danish, Swedish, and Finnish forces before they landed in the Russian province of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. 

October 29, 2014 — Baltic Sea, Black Sea, North Sea, and Atlantic Ocean

Portuguese fighter jets intercepted seven Russian jets over the Baltic Sea. Simultaneously, Turkish fighters were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers and two fighters over the Black Sea. 

The English RAF also intercepted eight Russian aircraft over the North Sea. After the interception, the formation split, with the fighters and a tanker returning to Russia while two bombers continued towards the Atlantic. The bombers were later intercepted again by the Portuguese over the Atlantic. 

SEE ALSO: NATO intercepted 26 Russian aircraft in two days

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As China continues its rise to superpower stature, Beijing is trying to rapidly increase its firepower.

China's attempts to seriously upgrade its military — with next-generation fighter jets, ballistic missiles, and advanced naval vessels — is partly aimed at keeping pace with the US.

The two are in a veritable arms race in east Asia. The US engaged in a "pivot to Asia," focusing military and diplomatic attention on an increasingly important part of the world.

Meanwhile, China is trying to expand its territorial reach into the South China Sea, an effort that's already bringing Beijing into conflict with US allies like Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

And China is constantly building its military with a possible invasion of Taiwan in mind.

Already, China has become the world's second-largest military spender, right behind the US. Since 1995, China has increased its defense budget by 500% in real terms. 

Although China's military has a ways to go before it is qualitatively, or even quantitatively, a match for the US, the country's rise has been notable, and counts as one of the major geo-strategic developments of this decade. 

Chengdu J-20

The Chengdu J-20 is China's fifth-generation fighter, its response to the US F-35 and the Russian T-50. The J-20 is a stealth aircraft that is currently in its fourth round of prototypes. 

The J-20 bears striking resemblance to the F-35 and the F-22, likely due to data theft and Chinese imitation of the skeletons of both planes. China may have the design specifications needed to give the J-20 stealth capabilities that are on par with the F-35. 

Although the plane is estimated to have a striking range of 1,000 nautical miles, the aircraft itself is still reliant upon Russian engines and in a relatively early stage of its development.

Shenyang J-31

The Shenyang J-31 is the other fifth-generation aircraft that China is currently developing.

Unlike the J-20, which is heavily based on stolen American plans, the J-31 boasts an indigenous design. The plane is about the same size as the F-35, but has a smaller weapons bay — giving the J-31 improved fuel efficiency and speed. 

The J-31 is also designed to be deployable to China's planned fleet of aircraft carriers. It would join the F-35 as the only two carrier-based stealth fighters in the world. 

The J-31 is scheduled to make its public debut at China's largest commercial and defense airshow in Zhuhai in early November.

Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark

The Shenyang J-15 is a carrier-based fighter aircraft that debuted in 2009. In a 2014 report to Congress, the Pentagon noted that the Fying Shark was conducting full-stops and takeoffs from China's Liaoning aircraft carrier with full weapons payloads. 

When based on the ground, the J-15 should have a combat radius of about 1,200 kilometers. However, since the Liaoning does not provide a useful catapult launch, the aircraft will have a reduced combat radius while operating at sea, the Pentagon reported. 

The Chinese-produced J-15 is based on designs of the Russian Sukhoi Su-33. The plane is a Russian-type design fitted with Chinese radar, engines, and weapons. 

The FBI is investigating a longtime State Department diplomat, Robin Raphel, for allegedly taking home classified information, according to The Washington Post and other media outlets.

Raphel, a former ambassador and a senior adviser on Pakistan issues for the State Department, is a foreign policy fixture in the US government.

The New York Times noted that it was "extremely rare for the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into such a prominent Washington figure."

It is not immediately clear what Raphel is suspected of doing, but she has already had her security credentials revoked as authorities try to determine why she apparently brought classified information home and whether she intended to pass the information to a foreign government. Her home was reportedly raided by law enforcement officials on Friday.

Andrew Rice, a spokesman for Raphel, told The Times that "her nearly 40 years of public service at the highest levels of US diplomacy speak for themselves."

Anonymous US government officials told CNN that the investigation was a counterintelligence one, "which typically refers to allegations of spying on behalf of foreign governments."

A State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement that her department was "cooperating with our law enforcement colleagues on this matter."

Raphel is indirectly connected to at least one other mysterious foreign policy incident. According to The Times, Raphel's former husband and then-ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphel, was killed in a 1988 plane crash with the president of Pakistan, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq.

"There are numerous theories about the cause of the crash," the paper added, "including that it was an assassination and that nerve gas in a canister hidden in a crate of mangoes was dispersed in the plane’s air-conditioning system."

A spokesman for Raphel told the Associated Press last week that Raphel was cooperating with authorities but had not been told she was under investigation.

"She hasn't been told what this investigation is about, if anything," the spokesman said. "She has cooperated with the government and she's confident this will be resolved."

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Even as an undergraduate, Jonathan Yi knew he wanted a sense of adventure in life that a normal office job could never provide.

"I want/wanted a career where I could make a difference in my community," Yi told Business Insider through email. "I knew I wanted to do law enforcement at some point, and was strongly considering other areas, such as joining the LAPD or NYPD, for example. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to become a prosecutor because I felt like that was where I could best be utilized."

This drive for an exemplary life, along with a thirst for adventure, coalesced into a mission to join the military as Yi watched the events of September 11 unfold on television in front of him. 

"September 11 obviously had an impact on me, and I remember watching it unfold while I was home in San Diego," Yi said. "I was in undergraduate school when it occurred ... and I felt unfulfilled or unsatisfied. The idea of being in an office environment, at a desk all day, scared me. I didn’t want to look back in 20 or 30 years and regret not joining the military."

Yi is the first member in his family to have served in the military, though his parents, who emigrated from Korea, have positive memories of the US military dating back to the Korean War.

"[T]he night before my first deployment, my mom would tell me how when she was a little girl, she would wave to the American troops as they drove by," Yi said. "Flash forward a few weeks later, I was doing the same thing – waving to Iraqi children as our convoy thundered by."

The Next Generation

In an effort to balance both his parents' wishes for him to finish school and his own dreams, Yi waited until he graduated from University of California, San Diego with a BA in Psychology to enlist with the Marine Corps in 2006. Eager for adventure and a desire to serve his country almost immediately, Yi took the first posting available: communications.

"I remembered why I entered the military as communications, despite my lack of interest — the communications fields has a high demand in the military, so that was the fastest occupation I could pick," Yi said. "I basically had one month between meeting my recruiter and getting on the bus to [Marine Corps Recruit Depot] San Diego."

This drive to serve led to Yi's serving two tours in Iraq, the first in 2007 and the second in 2008 to 2009. During that time, he served in the Route Clearance Platoon. Route clearance was a critical role for US forces in Iraq, as personnel were responsible for finding and rendering inert Improvised Explosive Devices before they could harm coalition forces or Iraqi civilians.

"During deployment," Yi said, "I was the field radio operator for a route clearance platoon, so my duties included setting up both short-range and long-range communications between our convoy unit and with friendly bases throughout our AO (area of operations).

During Yi's second deployment, he took on the additional responsibility of being a squad leader of the platoon's support squad. 

"Together," said Yi, "we were responsible for making sure that any missions that we were sent on were operationally feasible." 

Two and a half years into Yi's enlistment, his dedication and hard work led to his promotion to the rank of sergeant. In this role, he became responsible for the professional and personal development of the Marines serving below him.

"The idea of 'git 'r done' is something that's popularized in USMC culture," Yi said. "Instead of coming up with excuses, or reasons why you cannot do something, don't bother your supervisor with reasons 'why not,' just tell him when the mission is accomplished."

Lessons For Law School

When Yi left active duty in January 2010, he didn't see any immediate use of his military skills — "There aren’t that many MRAPs to drive, or military radios to set up, or IEDs to detect and disarm," he said — but he got a lot out of the attitude he learned in the Marines.

That attitude helped out when he attended St. John's Law School in Jamaica, Queens. 

"It was difficult for me to listen to fellow students during law school complaining about how much reading they have to do, or how they have no time, or really any sort of whining in general, when the military mentality is to just grit your teeth and bear down," Yi said. 

Today, Yi has a coveted position as an assistant district attorney at the Appeals Bureau at the Queen's County District Attorney's Office. He says his time in the military is still paying off.

"[T]he Marine Corps has these “leadership traits” that they ingrain into you, and I think and try to apply those on a daily basis. One of the most influential ones is 'Know yourself and seek self-improvement.' ... [T]he military taught me that instead of just focusing on my strengths, I should also be trying to shore up my weaknesses."

SEE ALSO: This guy put his finance PhD on hold to become a marine

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Former CIA deputy director Mike Morell thinks the US should be very concerned about new support the Islamic State jihadist group is receiving from radicals in North African countries.

According to a Reuters report on Monday, Egypt's most active militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, released an audio clip last week swearing allegiance to the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). Morell told "CBS This Morning" another group in Libya did the same thing.

"It's not only this group in Egypt; there's also a group in Libya that’s done the same thing," Morell said. "So, this is the first two times that terrorist groups in other parts of the world have given their allegiance to ISIS. I think this is a very big deal."

Morell further warned the groups in Libya and Egypt may soon start attempting to take territory, as the Islamic State has already done in Iraq and Syria.

"It shows the popularity of the group," he said. "It shows the spread of its influence. And what you’ll see as a result is these groups trying to mimic ISIS. So what you’ll see is these groups trying to take territory in the weeks and months ahead."

Click here to watch Morell's full interview on CBS.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies launched a barrage of attacks against Islamic State over the weekend, conducting 23 air strikes in Syria and 18 in Iraq against the militant group since Friday, U.S. Central Command said.

In a statement, U.S. Central Command said the strikes in Syria included 13 aimed near the key border down of Kobani and 10 hit near Dayr Az Zawr.

Centcom said the strikes in Syria hit an ISIS vehicle and five small ISIS units, while destroying an ISIS-occupied building used for ammunition stockpile, an ISIS command and control building, and seven ISIS fighting positions. The strikes also damaged several structures of an ISIS oil collection facility Centcom said was "used to trans-load oil for the black market" near Dayr Az Zawr. 

In Iraq, seven strikes hit near Baiji while others hit in or near Falluja, Mosul, al-Qaim, Haditha, Ramadi and Rutba, according to the statement.

The strikes near Baiji hit three small ISIS units and destroyed an ISIS sniper position and two ISIS vehicles. The strikes in Fallujah hit two small ISIS units and ISIS fighters who were emplacing an improvised explosive device (IED) on a road, while destroying an ISIS vehicle mounted with an anti-aircraft gun. 

Three airstrikes near Mosul hit a small ISIS unit and destroyed an ISIS armed truck and a vehicle convoy. The two airstrikes near al-Qaim destroyed an ISIS armored vehicle and two ISIS checkpoints.

Centcom said all aircraft used to conduct the strikes departed safely. The statement did not mention any targeting of a high-level ISIS convoy including ISIS' self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which Centcom acknowledged over the weekend. 

"I can confirm that coalition aircraft did conduct a series of air strikes yesterday evening in Iraq against what was assessed to be a gathering of ISIL leaders near Mosul," said Patrick Ryder, a Centcom spokesman. 

"We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present."

(Reuters reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Anton Sattler says he could not have made his award-winning CHOSIN documentary or its spin-off graphic novels without what he learned in the Marine Corps.

The Marines taught him how to thrive under stress with limited resources — and how to make order out of chaos.

"Filmmaking is very much that," Sattler told Business Insider. "You need to be able to make quick decisions, especially while making a documentary. You need to be able to make changes and manage the chaos to get the job done." 

In the Marines he learned of a story so powerful that he felt compelled to tell it to a wider audience: the 1950 Chosin Reservoir Campaign, in which 15,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines were surrounded by 120,000 Chinese soldiers in Korea. They fought their way 78 miles to the sea, and rescued 98,000 refugees in the process. 

"If you aren't into the Marine Corps or aren't a military history buff it's not really well known," Sattler said. For the Marine Corps, though, the Chosin campaign is the stuff of legend. This sense of tradition has always played a large part in Sattler's life.

Sattler graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 with a B.A. in film studies and English. Driven by a sense of duty, he immediately enlisted with the Marines. 

"I have a pretty long history of military service in my family. They've served in every military conflict since pretty much the turn of the last century, so after 9/11 it felt like my time to enlist," he said.

Sattler served two tours in Iraq, first as an infantry platoon commander in Al Qa'im and then as a company executive officer in Ramadi. Once he returned to America, Sattler served as an operations officer on recruiting duty in Baltimore. After six years of active duty, Anton transferred to the reserves with a dream of breaking into the film industry.

"I left the Marines in 2008, moved to New York, had a film degree, and I knew I wanted to make movies," he said.

Through a mutual friend, Sattler met fellow Marine Corps veteran Brian Iglesias, who had also served in Ramadi and was interested in making films. They joined together to form Veterans Expeditionary Media. 

"I walked out of the military with enough money to survive for a year, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I cashed it all in to make a movie," Sattler said.

To put together their documentary, CHOSIN, Sattler and Iglesias traveled across the country and interviewed 186 veterans in 27 cities across 14 states. Along this journey the overwhelming kindness of the veterans' families reinforced the idea that familial-type bonds percolate through the military, even after active service is over.

"You're not alone," Sattler said. "You have an extended family of people in the military, or families of people who served in the military, who are happy to help you."

CHOSIN went on to win best documentary at the 2010 GI Film Festival. It has spawned two graphic novels, Chosin: Hold the Line and Chosin: To the Sea. An animated short film, CHOSIN: Baptized by Fire, is due to be released in May 2014.

After CHOSIN premiered in 2010, Sattler decided to return to school for a degree in marketing. He is set to graduate from Baruch College in New York in May 2014.

"Marketing for me seems like a weird arc, but for me it's where creativity and business meet," Sattler said. "Making the film helped me learn how to wear both hats."

Below is a trailer for CHOSIN: 

CHOSIN will be making its cable premier this Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, on the American Heroes Channel at 9pm/8pm Central Time. 

SEE ALSO: 5 Keys To Success That An Entrepreneur Learned In The Marines

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Every small-town tough guy thinks he'd never take treatment like this.

Then when they get down to Parris Island, that small-town tough guy quickly realizes: You will take treatment like this and like it.

Welcome to a behind-the-scenes look at Marine Corps recruit training. Drill Instructors are the thing of legend — I remember, when they finally let us sleep for the first time, about 50 truly harrowing hours from the time we arrived, and those lights shut out, each of us in our racks, I heard a decent handful of grown men crying for their mothers.

I'm not even joking.

Like I said, the thing of legend. These guys spend 13 weeks crushing every undisciplined aspect of a recruit's body into dust.

Their faces are priceless, and at times it takes everything you've got not to laugh.

Showing emotion is strictly forbidden though — Marines call this 'bearing,' and they are regularly graded on it.

The US military has an enormous number of bases dispersed throughout the world and the 50 states.

The Department of Defense's Base Structure Report is an annually published inventory of the US military's thousands of domestic and foreign installations, bases, and property assets. Using the FY 2014 report, we found the most military-heavy states in the US.

This map shows the share of the land area in a state (based on Census Bureau figures) that is part of a military base or installation:

The southwest contains a number of sprawling installations, like Nevada's Nellis Air Force Range, used for testing and training. Hawaii is home to Pearl Harbor and the Navy's Pacific Fleet. Fort Bragg, where many Army commands are headquartered, is a big part of the military presence in North Carolina.

Here's a table showing the amount and share of military land in each state:

The full Department of Defense report can be found here.

SEE ALSO: Some States Have Much Higher Enlistment Rates Than Others

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"Russian TV shows new photo of Edward Snowden playing with his dog Rick (?) somewhere in Russia," BBC News Moscow Correspondent Steve Rosenberg tweeted on Sunday. "Host says: 'Both of them look at ease.'" 

Edward Snowden's latest appearance in Russian media shows the 31-year-old American with a dog named "Rick."

Snowden has been in Russia since June 23, 2013. Here's how he got there:

After arriving in Hong Kong on May 20, 2012, Snowden spent 11 days off the grid before checking into the Mira Hotel under his own name.

He reportedly met with American journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald on June 3 and began publishing stories revealing NSA domestic spying.

On June 9, Snowden revealed himself to the world before reaching out to WikiLeaks for help finding asylum. A few days later, he provided documents revealing "operational details of specific attacks on computers, including internet protocol (IP) addresses, dates of attacks and whether a computer was still being monitored remotely" to Lana Lam of the South China Morning Post.

On June 15, the US asked Hong Kong to provisionally arrest Snowden for the purposes of extradition and subsequently revoked his passport on June 22. WikiLeaks advisor Sarah Harrison flew to Moscow on June 23.

Very little is known about Snowden's discussions with Russian officials in Hong Kong or his living arrangements in Russia. 

Ex-KGB Major Boris Karpichkov believes that Russian spies tricked Snowden into going to Moscow. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that he advised Snowden to go to Russia and stay there because he wouldn't be safe elsewhere.

Anatoly Kucherena, who sits on the public-relations body for the FSB, serves as Snowden's lawyer in Russia. And Russians are masters at weaponizing information.

Here's a look at Snowden's photo opportunities in Russian media since he arrived in Moscow.

July 12, 2013: Snowden announces his plea for Russian asylum at a press conference in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

"Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum," Snowden said in a statement. "These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless."

August 1: Snowden leaves the  Sheremetyevo Airport and heads to an undisclosed location after being granted asylum and a Russian visa.

October 7: A man who at least resembles Snowden is shown grocery shopping.

October 9: Snowden receives an award in Moscow. He is joined by Harrison (2nd R) as well as US whistleblowers (L-R) Coleen Rowley (FBI), Thomas Drake (NSA), Jesselyn Raddack (DoJ) and Ray McGovern (CIA).

October 31, 2013: Snowden is shown on a boat in Moscow with the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in the background.

April 17, 2014: Snowden appears on a nationally-televised interview with Putin ask the Russian President if he spies on Russian citizens. Putin denies doing so.

David Herszenhorn, a Moscow-based reporter for The New York Times, called it a "stunning in-your-face move" by the Kremlin.

August 2014: Snowden is shown visiting Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.

After the release of the documentary "Citizenfour" by Laura Poitras in October — the movie revealed that girlfriend Lindsay Mills has visited Snowden — Russian media released a photo of the two of them at the Bolshoi.

The US Intelligence Community has put together a comprehensive list of Snowden's interviews, statements, and appearances outside of Russian media.

Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who co-authored a history of the Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), told The New York Times last November 2013 that when the FSB "actually got him, they started to handle it their own way. This is the way the security services operate all the time.”

American experts point out that the classified intel in Snowden's brain makes him very appealing to a US adversary like Russia.

"To a foreign intelligence service, Snowden is priceless," Robert Caruso, a former assistant command security manager in the Navy who is now a consultant, told Business Insider. "He can be exploited again and again." 

In any case, it's likely that the former NSA contractor will remain in Russia for the foreseeable future.

"He does not have the training to deal with this kind of situation," Soldatov told Business Insider in January. "Every time, he found himself in some new difficult circumstances and he was forced to make some decision. And long term, it's a very successful thing [for Russia]."

SEE ALSO: Russian Security Expert Explains Why Moscow May Never Let Snowden Go

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The job of a US Marine means much more than knowing how to patrol and shoot a rifle.

The Corps, which celebrates its 239th anniversary on Nov. 10, wants troops who can think clearly under fire and make calm and intelligent decisions.

So it comes as no surprise that the Corps' top officer — a four-star general known as the Commandant — publishes a list of books that Marines of all ranks have to learn from.

The books cover a range of topics, from the warfighting techniques discussed in "Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1: Warfighting" to leadership in "Battlefield Leadership." Even the anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" makes the list.

The Corps has led a recent push for Marines to pick up a book from the always-expanding list, of which you can see in full here. We picked out 12 of our favorites.

This post was originally written by David M. Brooks.

"The Red Badge Of Courage" by Stephen Crane

"The Red Badge Of Courage" is considered a classic of American literature.

This book is recommended for new recruits. It follows a bravado-filled enlisted man who flees in cowardice during the Civil War.

War is easy to romanticize until you're in the middle of it, as Crane's work makes clear. And while the battle scenes in the book still receive high praise for their brutal realism, the author never experienced war firsthand.

Buy it here >

"Making The Corps" by Tom Ricks

In "Making The Corps," journalist Tom Ricks follows a platoon of recruits through the rigorous training of Marine Corps boot camp. Many Marine recruits are fresh out of high school, and this book chronicles the process that transforms young men and women from civilians into Marines.

This book is recommended for midshipmen and officer candidates whose initial training is different from the enlisted Marines they hope to one day lead. If you've ever wondered what life is like in a Marine Corps boot camp, this book gives one of the best accounts.

Buy it here >

"Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" is one of two books by the author on the Commandant's reading list ("Outliers" is the other). Military leaders are often required to make quick decisions with limited information and "Blink" addresses the ability of the mind to make snap decisions as well as the influences that corrupt the decision-making process.

"Blink" also has a fascinating chapter on the Millennium Challenge 2002 exercise where the military brought Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper out of retirement to lead enemy forces in a wargame against the United States. As the book notes, Van Riper thought outside the box in countering his US military foe and obliterated their forces in the exercise.

Van Riper later charged leaders with "rigging" the game and taking away his decision-making power.

Buy it here >

Temperatures during the Korean War’s decisive battle at the Chosin Reservoir in late 1950 were as low as negative 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The terrain was more rugged than most American troops had ever seen.

Allied forces were outnumbered and encircled. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things,” the then commander of the 1st Marine Regiment Col. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller famously said.

The Marines took heavy losses during that battle, primarily due to the elements and otherwise treacherous conditions.

The lessons learned at the Chosin Reservoir led to the inception of what is today known as the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, in 1951. It's located in an isolated 46,000-acre tract deep inside Toiyabe National Forest in northern California.

Nestled in a valley between rugged mountain ranges in California’s Sierra Nevada, MWTC all but mirrors conditions Marines faced on that frozen battlefield decades ago. Today it is the premier training ground for Marines heading into mountainous, high altitude, and or cold weather environments, like the site of the Corps' weapons stocks in Norway— or, until recently, the alpine regions of Afghanistan.

Business Insider visited the Marine Corps premiere facility for preparing its soldiers for the rigors of alpine warfare. Located high in California's Sierra Nevada, not far from Yosemite National Park, it is one of the Corps' most unique installations — set amid spectacular natural beauty.  

Marines at MWTC — founded in 1951, near the height of the Korean War — learn skills like mountain survival, assault climbing, and scout skiing to name just a few.

The MWTC is just to the north of Yosemite National Park, high in the Sierra Nevada ...

Here's an overhead view of the Center ...

Murder is more common in Latin America than in any other part of the world.

That's the most striking takeaway from a ranking of the most violent cities compiled earlier this year by Mexico's Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. The ranking doesn't count deaths in war zones or cities with unavailable data.

Thirty-four of the 50 worst cities were located in the region, including repeat murder capital of the world — San Pedro Sula, Honduras — which saw 187 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013 and is getting steadily worse. A full one-third of global homicides occur in Latin America even though the region has just 8% of the world's population, according to United Nations data.

Drug trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption, and poverty combine to cause the region's elevated violence.

US cities also made the list, led by Detroit at No. 24 and New Orleans at No. 26.

50. Valencia, Venezuela, had 30.04 homicides per 100,000 residents.

49. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, had 30.05 homicides per 100,000 residents.

48. Durban, South Africa, had 32.42 homicides per 100,000 residents.

For decades, Israel has maintained a strict policy of opacity surrounding its nuclear arsenal. The country possesses some of the most powerful weaponry on earth, along with delivery systems that give it the ability to strike far beyond its borders. But its nuclear secrecy prevents it from even acknowledging those weapons' existence — and keeps experts and foreign governments guessing.

And some widely held assumptions about Israel's nuclear weapons might be woefully off-base, according to a recent study by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, both scholars in nuclear security at the Federation of American Scientists.

Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that entered into force in March of 1970, even though Israel likely developed a nuclear capability before that treaty was signed and received significant assistance in its weapons-building efforts from France, a country permitted to posses nukes under the NPT. It hasn't opened its sites to international inspectors or officially declared an arsenal.

So Kristensen and Norris's study is an authoritative analysis of the available information about Israel's nuclear capabilities. Here's what they found:

Israel probably has far fewer nuclear warheads than is generally assumed. 

"Over the past several decades, news media reports, think tanks, authors, and analysts have sized the Israeli nuclear stockpile widely, from 75 warheads up to more than 400 warheads," the authors note.

But according to Kristensen and Norris, estimates that placed the Israeli arsenal in the hundreds assumed that all of the fissile material produced at the country's Dimona reactor would be put towards building nuclear weapons.

The country may have produced enough plutonium for as many as 250 bombs over the years, a number that would be even higher depending on the diversity of Israel's nuclear arsenal — if, for instance, it included lower-yield tactical or battlefield nukes.

But the authors believe that total plutonium production is a "misleading indicator" of arsenal size. The Israelis likely maintain a strategic plutonium reserve. And while very little is actually known about the design of Israeli nukes, the authors believe that based on available historical evidence, "Israel's nuclear posture has not been determined by war-fighting strategy but by deterrence needs."

In other words, the arsenal exists as a guarantor of the country's survival in a worst-case scenario rather than an integrated part of Israeli battlefield doctrine, meaning the country only has use for high-yield bombs that can also be delivered from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. 

The authors assume that Israel wants to keep the size of its nuclear arsenal in line with its number of available long-range delivery systems — a number that doesn't even climb into the low hundreds. They believe Israel has 20-25 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, two nuclear-capable fighter squadrons capable of carrying 20 bombs each, and possibly a small handful of nuclear-capable submarine-based cruise missiles.

The total number of deployable delivery systems comes out to around 80. The authors don't think the Israeli stockpile greatly exceeds that.

Israel probably has fewer nuclear delivery systems than is widely assumed, too. 

Israel has hundreds of combat planes, but the authors conclude "only a small fraction" of F-16 squadrons, "perhaps one or two ... would actually be nuclear-certified with specially trained crews, unique procedures, and modified aircraft."

The authors use satellite analysis of suspected missile facilities at Sdot Micha in the Judean hills (see map) to rebut widely repeated estimates that Israel has 100 nuclear-capable Jericho ballistic missiles: "Images show what appear to be two clusters of what might be caves for mobile Jericho II launchers. The northern cluster includes 14 caves and the southern cluster has nine caves, for a total of 23 caves." They note that this matched the number of suspected Israeli missiles given in a 1969 White House memo.

While Israel is currently developing a third-generation Jericho missile, there are no proven additional facilities where they could store them, and no evidence of underground silos. They conclude that Israel has around two-dozen Jerichos.

As for submarine-based delivery systems, the authors say it's at least possible Israel has developed nuclear capable Harpoon cruise missiles but don't come down conclusively on either side of the question.

Israel may not have any battlefield nukes. Nuclear weapons can come in all shapes and sizes, although building smaller-yield tactical devices or multi-stage thermonuclear warheads requires a degree of trial and error. Israel has never carried out a confirmed nuclear test and the authors note that without a test history or nuclear testing infrastructure it's unlikely they would have the technical knowledge needed to build a diverse array of nukes.

And there's the issue of nuclear weapons doctrine, which has a direct bearing on the type of nukes Israel might develop.

Israel's arsenal is set up as a deterrent against an outside attack, or as a means of possessing a "second strike" capability in the event of an attack that could threaten Israel's existence.

The authors are convinced that Israel's nukes are not an instrument of warfighting, and may not be factored into Israel's tactical calculus. And they "cannot understand why a country that does not have a strategy for fighting nuclear war would need that many types of warheads or warhead designs to deter its potential adversaries."

Unanswered questions. Nuclear secrecy has its benefits. It prevents Israel from being able to carry out provocative nuclear tests, or mobilizing its nuclear infrastructure in other, equally-calculated ways — familiar behavior from nuclear-armed Pakistan, India, and North Korea. It forces Israel to act as if it doesn't have nuclear weapons and to deal with its neighbors as if didn't enjoy the greatest of all possible strategic backstops. Most of all, official secrecy preserves the veneer of a nuclear-free region (however unconvincing in reality) and gives Israel's neighbors an excuse not to go nuclear themselves. 

At the same time, the secrecy policy means that little is really all that conclusively known about the type of warheads Israel possesses, not to mention the country's specific doctrine for their use or their state of deployment or alert at a given time. For instance, it isn't really known whether all or even most of Israel's warheads are actually assembled at a given time.

And so for now, a report like this is the clearest sense of the country's arsenal that's available in public. 

Read the entire report here.

SEE ALSO: Here's where the world's nukes are stored — and what is says about global security

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Veterans Day on November 11 is a time to honor those who have bravely served in the military and thank them for their sacrifice and dedication to their country.

It's also the ideal time to acknowledge the employers that consistently hire from the military community and offer programs to support veterans and their families. 

That's why each November, Victory Media, the publisher of G.I. Jobs, releases its annual list of the 100 most Military Friendly Employers.

The ranking, now in its twelfth year, is compiled using results from a comprehensive, data-driven survey among approximately 5,000 companies (a minimum of $500 million in annual revenue was required to be eligible for the list).

The survey asked these employers more than 100 questions, which assessed their long-term commitment to recruiting and hiring former military personnel, policies for Reserve/Guard members called to active duty, the presence of special programs, and retention rates.

With help from an independent advisory board of industry experts, Victory Media developed the methodology and criteria for the survey, and the results were tested by Ernst & Young.

"It’s critical to isolate and distinguish those companies with the strongest job opportunities, hiring practices, and retention programs for transitioning service members and spouses seeking civilian employment so that candidates are able to conduct an efficient and effective job search," says Sean Collins, vice president of Victory Media and a nine-year Navy veteran. "Our list serves as the defacto post-military employment guide for transitioning service members and their families."

Combined Insurance Company of America, a frequent top performer with more than 40% of its recent hires representing veterans or military spouses, tops the 2015 list of Military Friendly Employers. 

In a press statement released by G.I. Jobs, Brad Bennett, president of Combined Insurance, said that being named the No. 1 military-friendly employer "is a tremendous privilege, and we are honored to be recognized for our initiatives. But more importantly, not only does it mean we are doing things right, it also means we are doing the right things to help our nation's veterans find meaningful employment."

Here's the complete list:

SEE ALSO: 10 Reasons Companies Should Be Hiring Military Veterans

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The London-based European Leadership Network released a report today on the "dangerous brinkmanship" between Russia and the West, one instance of which could have resulted in a passenger plane crash.

The report collates 40 incidents over the past eight months, the most alarming of which was a near-collision in March between a Russian military aircraft and a Scandinavian Airlines plane carrying 132 passengers. The Russian plane wasn't transmitting its position at the time and a potential disaster "was apparently avoided thanks only to good visibility and the alertness of the passenger plane pilots."

Swedish television reported two months later that the country's authorities found reasons to forego opening an investigation — though this perhaps would not have been the case had the incident occurred after the shoot-down of MH17 over Ukraine on July 17, which killed 298 people. Either way, it seems that Russia narrowly avoided an MH17-like disaster during the opening weeks of the still-ongoing Ukraine crisis.

The report categorized two other incidents as high risk: the abduction of Estonian operative Eston Kohver from a border post, and the likely presence of a Russian submarine in Swedish territorial waters (though the hunt for the sub was inconclusive).

NATO pilots have scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft more than 100 times this year, the report cites, about three times more than in 2013. But this year has also seen a series of escalations between Russia and the west, including the annexation of Crimea, and Moscow's assistance to pro-Russian separatists fighting in Ukraine's still-restive east.

"This mix of beefed-up military postures along the NATO-Russia border, more aggressive Russian activities, and the readiness of Western forces to show resolve in the face of the challenge, is ripe with potential for escalation," the report states. 

Yesterday, the investigative journalism site Bellingcat also posted an article presenting additional evidence that the weapon responsible for downing the airliner may have been Russian-supplied.

The Swedish near-miss further demonstrates that the strategic and tactical recklessness which caused the Malaysian plane's destruction was hardly an isolated phenomena.

SEE ALSO: Putin wants total victory in Ukraine — not a "frozen conflict"

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Even at 108 years old, America's oldest living military veteran is enjoying the spotlight on his service and doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Richard Overton, an Army veteran of World War II now living in Austin, Texas, still enjoys cigars and whiskey.

From The Houston Chronicle in November 2013: "He drives and walks without a cane. During a television interview in March, he told a reporter that he doesn't take medicine, smokes cigars every day and takes whiskey in his morning coffee. The key to living to his age, he said, is simply 'staying out of trouble.'

"I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that's it," Overton told Fox News. "Whiskey's a good medicine. It keeps your muscles tender."

In addition to his somewhat unorthodox habits, Overton stays busy throughout the day — trimming trees, helping with horses, and never watches television, according to Fox.

Born May 11, 1906, he is believed to be the oldest living veteran, although it is impossible to verify because not all veterans are registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served in the South Pacific during the war before selling furniture in Austin after discharge and later working in the state Treasurer's Office, according to The Chronicle.

"I've gotten so many letters and so many thank yous and I enjoy every bit of it, but I'm still going to enjoy some more," Overton told The Chronicle.

Mr. Richard Overton, the oldest living veteran. Kids, do not play on his lawn. pic.twitter.com/VQ0twXRdi1

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 10, 2014

Paul Szoldra originally wrote this report.

NOW: How New York's Veterans Day Parade Became 'America's Parade'

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In July 1944, 19-year-old Tom Scardino was wounded twice in one day fighting the Germans in Normandy. Seventy years later, he still finds it too painful to talk about some of the things he saw during his month in combat, which is why even his immediate family members know almost nothing about his experience during one of the pivotal events of the deadliest conflict in history.

At 89 years old, Scardino has agreed to share his story for the first time in an emotional interview with Business Insider.  

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a 16-year-old Scardino was too young to enlist with the older boys in his neighborhood in Hoboken, New Jersey.

“A couple of guys joined the Marines right away,” Scardino recalled. “We were happy for them. This was ’42, and in the latter part, at the end of the year, we got word that both got killed in Guadalcanal.”

Their deaths made him more eager to join up, but his father refused to sign papers that would have allowed him to volunteer at 17 years old. A tailor by trade, he was desperate to keep his son home to help with his business. When Scardino was drafted at 18, his father convinced an optometrist to write a note to draft officials falsely claiming that Scardino, who wore glasses, was going blind.

He gave Scardino the note in an envelope to deliver, but Scardino had other plans.

“When I passed [the draft review] I came home to my sister and father. I said, ‘I’m 1A, I gotta go,’” Scardino recalled, referring to a classification term meaning that a draftee is available immediately for military service. “[My father said,] ‘What do you mean you’re 1A? Didn’t you show them the envelope? I said, ‘Yeah, but the officer said don’t worry about it, if he’s blind we’ll put him in the front.’ I made that up. I was gung ho. I wanted to go.”

Assigned to the U.S. Army’s 90th Infantry Division, 359th Infantry Regiment, Scardino arrived in Britain on March 23, 1944, after a 22-day voyage across the Atlantic. For two months, his unit continued training with frequent marches and maneuvers — while wondering where and when they'd land in France to wrest the continent out of German hands.

D-Day

On June 1, 1944, the unit transferred to a ship that was oppressively hot and cramped.

“We were in a goddamn sardine can,” he recalled. They were supposed to embark on their mission June 5, but bad weather prolonged the invasion until the following morning.

By then, Scardino and his comrades were willing to do anything to get out of the close confines of the crowded ship they’d been stationed on for six days, even if it meant being thrown into battle.

“We were really hopped up and glad to go,” he said. “There was no second thoughts.”

The ship stopped a short distance from the shore of Normandy, where the soldiers, seasick from the rough current in the channel, climbed down ropes to small landing craft that would deliver them to the beaches for the assault.

It was a five to seven-minute ride in the landing craft to Utah Beach, where the first waves of troops with the 4th Infantry Division had already landed.

Scardino expected that  some of the 42 soldiers in his landing craft would become casualties that morning.

“No one talked, not a word, but you used your eyes,” Scardino explained of that short trip to the beach. “A couple times I stared at a guy and this is my thought as I’m looking: ‘Is it you or is it me?’”

Scardino's first sergeant ordered the soldiers in his landing craft to run as fast as they could toward the top of a hill at the end of the beach. He urged them not to stop for any reason, not even to assist a fallen comrade. Their rifles were no match for the German machine gun emplacements firing down at the beach.

“My first thought was, ‘Tommy, you’re not coming back, but you’re going to go down fighting,’” Scardino said. “I just didn’t want to show I was scared, but I was.”

When the craft landed, Scardino ran through ankle-deep water onto the sand as fast as he could, dashing the 50-75 yards across the beach. He was scrawny and only 140 pounds, yet lugged an eight-pound rifle and 90 pounds of equipment on his back.

The German guns were firing from a rise above the beach. They were shrouded in thick smoke, and Scardino saw some Americans fall, including one man he trained with who got struck in the head. But Scardino made it safely to a ditch along a road that provided him temporary cover.

“I still have the smell in my nose," Scardino said. "Of death – the flesh, the blood.”

One of the first soldiers to join Scardino was a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne Division, who jumped in the ditch from the inland direction after parachuting behind enemy lines hours earlier. Scardino's first sergeant also joined him there, in addition to his best friend since basic training, a street-smart 18-year-old from Chicago named Donald.

They reorganized and then crossed a marshy area, where they saw more carnage. “The guys that went before us, there were Germans all over that goddamn creek, on the roads. They [the Americans] all were killed.”

Hedgerows

After that, a “mixed bag” of infantry soldiers, paratroopers, and even armed farmers advanced across flooded fields and an endless succession of six-foot high hedgerows, lines of dense shrubs and trees dividing various farmers’ properties. 

Out of the 42 men in his outfit who had come ashore with him, 14 were killed or wounded by the afternoon of June 6th, according to Scardino.

Because the hedgerows were sharp with thorns, the soldiers had to move single-file through small openings. 

"Now, if the Germans were on the other side, they would gun you down, but we used to send guys out to see if it was clear," Scardino recalled. "The scouts used to go out and say, 'That row is clear.' Okay, we moved up another hedgerow.”

For roughly 15 days, the unit spent the majority of its time in hedgerows, guarding the perimeters in shifts at night while the others slept. Scardino stuck close to his friend Donald, who grew so frustrated from German shelling that he threw away his shovel rather than use it to dig foxholes.

“He said, ‘I don’t need this. I’m not going to dig my grave,’” Scardino recalled.

The only respite from the hedgerows came when the soldiers reached occasional villages, where they would spend a day or two clearing buildings of German snipers before moving onward.

“This is what was hurting: You didn’t stop for a minute," Scardino said. "You didn’t take a deep breath and say, 'OK.' You figured any minute you're going to get killed. That was our thought. Donny used to say, 'Keep going Scar, keep going.'”

But Donald was killed 10 days after D-Day. “When I heard he got it I cried,” Scardino said. “Now I’m pissed off and then the only one that calmed me down was the first sergeant. He said, 'Yankee, you have to wipe it off. It was not your turn, it was his turn.' But I didn't believe that. I was mad.”

Around June 22 the unit reached a village that was more stubbornly defended by the Germans than all the rest. "It was like a headquarters to them or something," Scardino said. The Americans became pinned down for so long that they were holding up the supply lines behind them and running low on ammunition. They finally cleared the town by fighting house-to-house.

This part of his story Scardino will always keep to himself; he choked up immediately upon mentioning the battle and couldn't continue.

“That hurts so bad when I think about it,” he said. “How do you kill a man you never knew?"

Scardino declined to say anything more about this. “This is why I never told anybody or my kids," he added. "I keep seeing that guy, his whole face all the time.

“I’ve never confessed that as long as I’ve lived, and I lived with it,” he finally said after a long pause, before agreeing to skip to later parts of his story.

St. Lo

Scardino's unit had two men assigned to a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) light machine gun, one to operate it and another soldier to carry the ammunition. After the BAR gunner was killed in a firefight, the ammunition man, who had been separated from his own division since D-Day, didn’t pick up the BAR.

Seeing the need for someone to give covering fire from a pile of stones where the BAR gunner had fallen, Scardino abandoned his rifle and took up the light machine gun himself. From then on, he served as the unit’s BAR gunner.

On July 3, the unit advanced on the Normandy town of St. Lo, a key objective for the Allies on their way to central France.

The Germans at St. Lo relied on a notoriously effective 88-millimeter artillery gun, a class of weapon called "eighty-eights" by the Americans who had gotten used to its distinct sounds since D-Day. "When that came, man you hit that ground fast,” Scardino said. 

“It was worse than D-Day,” he said of St. Lo. “I mean, on D-Day we were worrying about the big bunkers and all that stuff. Now you’re fighting tanks, you’re fighting artillery, the eighty-eights were coming in and they were deadly."

Scardino remembers it as a rainy day, filled with the sound of the eighty-eights. “It's always raining in France,” Scardino recalled.

He was running through the grass to get into position with his BAR when a German bullet struck his hand.

A medic bandaged him up in a farmhouse alongside other wounded Americans. But after an enemy counterattack left the farmhouse behind enemy lines, a French civilian evacuated the walking wounded to another building, where Scardino and six other Americans crowded into a hiding space in a basement filled with cognac.

From the hiding spot, Scardino could hear the distinctive sound of the German eighty-eights impacting nearby. The last thing he remembers is the house caving in from a direct hit and someone cutting away at his pants, which were then on fire.

“I thought I was gone. That’s the day I always visualize in my mind – that burning feeling on my legs and all,” he said.

Scardino doesn’t remember being conscious again until the following morning, when he woke up naked on a stretcher atop a jeep, with a blanket shielding him from the rain. Another wounded man lay on a stretcher next to him.

The next thing he remembers is waking in a hospital with his right arm and right leg covered in a cast. Shrapnel from the German eighty-eight round had embedded in both limbs and shattered bone. “I said, ‘Okay, I know I’m going home,’” Scardino recalled of his first thoughts. “But the other part, the infuriating part, was the fact that I’m a cripple.”

Home

But Scardino was wrong; he made a full recovery. Although his hopes of playing major league baseball were gone, doctors installed metal in his arm that allowed him to bend his elbow enough to become a professional bowler later in life. 

While stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland late in the war, Scardino befriended a sergeant named Fred who had a very different reason for leaving France after D-Day.

When military officials learned that two of Fred's brothers had been killed in action and a third was a prisoner of war, they ordered him to return to England for a period of rest. After his arrival, they broke the news and told him he’d never go back to the front.

Fred also had a sister named Flora, who he introduced to Scardino. The trio went to dances together, sparking a relationship that culminated in Scardino's marriage to Flora.

After he was discharged from the army in January 1946, he went back to work as a tailor with his father. But he later regretted that he didn’t stay in the army.

The Scardinos had six children and settled in Mineola, Long Island. He still doesn’t know the fate of the six Americans he hid with in St. Lo when the eighty-eight round struck.

“Everything was so fast. It was 1, 2, 3,” he recalled of that moment 70 years ago. He never kept in touch with any of his comrades.

In 2009, Scardino was walking in an airport in Italy on vacation when he saw a face he instantly recognized.

He stopped. I stopped. And I just walked over to him," Scardino said of that encounter. "I said, 'Is your name Murdott? He said, 'Yeah, are you the kid from New York? I said, 'Yeah.' I grabbed him. I thought he was dead. I thought they blew his head off at the beach. That morning when I was running up I turned my head, he was to my left. I saw the helmet fly off.

Murdott explained that a bullet had indeed struck him at Utah Beach, but his helmet somehow saved his life.

Nowadays, Scardino feels proud that he participated in D-Day. “I truthfully feel very honored to know that I was part of history,” he said.

But when a local school principal recently introduced him as a war hero to a gathering of students, Scardino felt embarrassed.

"This is their generation, that's it. This is their life. I don't know if they care or not."

SEE ALSO: A young army officer copes with the brutal opening days of Iraq's insurgency

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The two-part Fox News documentary "The Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden," airing today, was given a code name to ensure no one within Fox would learn of the huge scoop of the alleged Navy SEAL "Shooter" who killed Bin Laden. 

The code name? "Gatewood."

"If we had to book travel or if we had to order a camera crew we gave it a code name and that code was Gatewood," Washington Correspondent Peter Doocy told Business Insider in an interview. 

Why Gatewood?

Doocy's team wanted to pay homage to Army commander Charles Gatewood who helped capture Apache leader Geronimo in 1886.

On the early morning raid of Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, Commander of SEAL Team 6 Admiral William McRaven relayed word to the CIA that the team had sent a preliminary call of "Geronimo," the code word for the successful killing or capture of Bin Laden.

"I was not clear in that moment whether that mean we had taken Bin Laden prisoner or killed him. I asked for confirmation. Geronimo, he repeated. E.K.I.A" Enemy Killed in Action. A few moments later, the SEALs reappeared on the screen, six of them dragging a body bag to the helicopter," Leon Panetta wrote in his memoir "Worthy Fights: A Memoir Of Leadership In War And Peace." 

After the documentary was announced, a Defense Department spokeswoman gave a statement to Business Insider in which she said former SEALs were bound by military non-disclosure agreements and could face criminal charges for revealing information about the raid.

Fox News will broadcast "The Man Who Killed Osama Bin Laden," over Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. 

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