battlefield trip meaning

‘It just tore my heart out:’ World War II veterans to revisit their battlefields

The Greatest Generation may not have many more opportunities to revisit their battlefields.

By Jeff Schogol | Published May 26, 2023 2:45 PM EDT

• Military Life

In 2006, then-NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards was talking to a group of World War II veterans who wanted to visit Normandy, but they felt they were too old to make the trip.

Edwards volunteered on the spot to take the former paratroopers to France, and they quickly agreed. That brief conversation ultimately resulted in Edwards and some of his friends making their first trip with World War II veterans to the battlefields they had risked their lives on decades ago.

Their trip began in Holland, where U.S. and British paratroopers landed in September 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden, Edwards told Task & Purpose.

“I was blown away by what I saw,” Edwards said. “They created a whole weeklong event for these veterans coming back. When I say the whole country of the Netherlands came out, it was truly amazing. It was an impromptu deal that we made happen. There was a parade that they did with 100 different vehicles. The veterans were just adorned like The Beatles. I was taken back. I didn’t realize the love and appreciation to have the liberators back on the land that they liberated for the Dutch people.”

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That experience was a life-changing event for Edwards, who realized he wanted to give other World War II veterans the opportunity to experience the gratitude of people who live in freedom today because of their service and sacrifices.

In 2018, Edwards founded the Best Defense Foundation , a nonprofit group that also honors veterans from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The foundation has taken more than 100 World War II veterans on battlefield return trips to Europe and the Pacific, and the group has a trip to Normandy for 45 World War II veterans that is scheduled to begin on May 31.

“We want to make sure that this is a moment of closure for them and a way for them to connect with their brothers and sisters that fought alongside them,” said Amanda Thompson, the foundation’s executive director.

Because the average age of the veterans making the trips is 100 years old, they will be accompanied by a staff of medics, paramedics, a physician, and several volunteers including active-duty service members and veterans of the post-9/11 wars, Thompson told Task & Purpose.

The foundation wants to give all World War II veterans the chance to see how much they are appreciated, even if they served in the United States during the war, Thompson said. Two of the veterans scheduled to make the upcoming trip to Normandy were in training during the war and they both said they didn’t feel they deserved any recognition because they didn’t see combat.

“To us, that doesn’t matter because they were prepared to fight and ready to go and step in where needed,” Thompson said.

The foundation does not take the veterans’ family members on battlefield returns, Thompson said. Instead, the veterans are accompanied by trained caretakers to allow them to share their wartime experiences.

For one World War II veteran, revisiting World War II battlefields allowed him to unburden himself of feelings that he could not share with his family, Edwards said. That soldier grew up in a very religious family and was taught “Thou shalt not kill,” so he was haunted by guilt after killing a German soldier.

“He carried this for a long time, and about six years ago he finally told everyone at one of our programs,” Edwards said. “He felt safe enough to let this off and he even said: ‘I was married for 55 years, and I’ve never told anybody this in my life. My wife didn’t know before she passed, but I’m telling this now.’ Being able to share that with his brothers lifted him so high, and it took a big weight off his back, and he’s become a new man since then.”

That man was not the only veteran who experienced feelings of guilt long after the war ended. Edwards recalled how another soldier who was part of the first wave of the D-Day landings at Normandy was able to see Omaha Beach for the first time in 75 years.

The veteran got to see a bunker that he was supposed to destroy with a flamethrower on June 6, 1944.

“I said: What are you feeling right now?” Edwards said. “And you know what he said? He said: ‘I let my team down. I feel terrible that I didn’t reach my objective.’”

Given the average age of World War II veterans, Edwards said he expects next year will mark the final largescale battlefield return trips for the Greatest Generation. Those trips are scheduled to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy and Operation Market Garden.

For decades after World War II, the veterans who took part in the victory came back home and quietly went back to their jobs and raised families, Edwards said. It has only been in the past 25 years or so that younger generations of Americans have realized the scope of their grandfathers’ heroism.

“I’m just really happy in their lifetime that we were able to honor them, because we’ve had relatively 79 years of peace, and it’s because of the Greatest Generation,” Edwards said. “These are all Great Depression babies. They went through so much. And to be able to give this back to them, to say ‘thank you’ in the twilight years of their lives, it’s just truly an amazing opportunity that we’re giving them through the foundation.”

John Foy, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, is one of the veterans who will be taking part in the foundation’s upcoming trip to Normandy. During the war, Foy served under Lt. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army in Company A, 347th Infantry Regiment, 87th Infantry Division.

Foy, 97, said he has made about 10 trips to World War II battlefields so far including a visit to Belgium, where several of his buddies were killed in January 1945.

“I stood there and cried, honestly, at one place in particular where I lost five or six of my real good friends,” Foy told Task & Purpose. “They got killed in that area just outside of Bastogne, a small town called Tillet. It just tore my heart out to be on the same ground that I fought at many years before.”

Foy’s generation is rapidly leaving us. He founded a group of Battle of the Bulge veterans that had 125 members 30 years ago. Now, he’s the only one left.

He said the reason he keeps returning to World War II battlefields is “it just keeps me going.”

“It always seems to bring back a little different from the time before,” Foy said. “Every once in a while, I’ll meet some old friends, guys that I fought with 75, 80 years ago in the Army – or at least guys who had the same experiences that I had. It just kind of reinvigorates me.”

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Jeff Schogol is a senior staff writer for Task & Purpose. He has covered the military for 15 years, with previous bylines at the Express-Times in Easton, Pennsylvania, Stars & Stripes, and Military Times. You can email him at [email protected], direct message @JeffSchogol on Twitter, or reach him on WhatsApp and Signal at 703-909-6488. Contact the author here.

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"It was unlike any experience I've had as a Canadian. Walking on the ground our forefathers fought and died on was by far the most invigorating opportunity in my life."   - Daniel Thompson, Battlefield Traveller, 2006

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Explore a wide range of intriguing tour programs, driven by the important history that we share on battlefields around the world. 

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Proudly Serving Those Who Have Served for Us

Since 1986, the Battlefield Tours have been providing Canadian war veterans and their families with the opportunity to return to battlefields around the world.

We were fortunately wrong to think that visitors to the battlefields of Europe would dwindle after the memories of the war veterans and their presence on tour had faded. Today, the battlefields are being experienced by participants of all ages from many different walks of life.  All with one thing in common – the desire to understand and pay tribute to the men and women who fought and paid the final sacrifice. 

The focus today is to continue to honour the men and women that we had the honour of meeting over the past 30 years - by retracing their footsteps and sharing our priceless knowledge, resource and history with travellers like you, keen on understanding the battlefields that scar Europe, Great Britain, and beyond. 

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A ll prices are listed as with option for air & single supplement. Pricing all includes all entrances, accommodation, and more (as listed in inclusions) 

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Special services and arrangements can be offered for any and all travellers who require mobile assistance. Special services can also be provided for Canadian Student & Military groups.

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All itineraries are designed by our experienced team with the help host destinations and local communities

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Our direct partnerships means you have the flexibility to add on an extension to your travels and more

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For private groups, & special request extensions, or add-ons

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40 military terms and their meanings

According to November 2023 data from the U.S. Department of Defense, there are just over 2 million active-duty and selected reserve members of the military  in America today. Add that to the more than 18 million veterans living in the country and it becomes clear that there is a substantial portion of Americans who speak a language all their own: military, some of which you may be familiar with.

"Alfa, Bravo, Charlie …" is an alphabet you may already know and understand. These words represent the letters A, B, and C in the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, more commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet. It was standardized in 1956 with sounds that are similar in English, French, and Spanish, and the military still uses it today to omit misunderstandings over the radio. If you aren't using it already, this would be a good one to adopt for those customer service calls where you need to read your 17-digit confirmation code that somehow is made up of letters that all sound the same.

Or how about when someone says, "Meet me here at 1400?" The military time system, which uses the 24-hour clock, is another method used to prevent mistakes or confusion between a.m. and p.m. times, as critical missions leave no room for miscommunications. This is another one that may come in handy to civilians with a propensity for setting their alarm at the wrong time or showing up to appointments at 7 p.m. instead of 7 a.m.

The centuries-long history of the U.S. military has allowed those who serve to essentially develop their own language. There is plenty more to unpack regarding that language. Stacker consulted members of various military branches as well as existing military dictionaries to find 40 terms, phrases, acronyms, and nicknames that you may want to add to your repertoire. Some are used in official military procedures, while others are slang terms and acronyms that only members of one branch or another might know. Other terms have crept into the everyday vernacular of civilians, shedding their recognizable military origins while contributing to what some call the "militarization of society."

Read on to learn more about these military terms, their histories, and their sometimes surprising meanings.

One of the more familiar military terms is "AWOL," an acronym for "absent without leave." Someone who takes on this status is gone without permission, typically in the context of abandoning their post.

Azimuth check

An azimuth is an angular measurement in a spherical coordination system. While usually used as a technical term in land navigation, this phrase can generally refer to taking the time to stop and ensure the current task (whatever it may be) is being done right.

A fun-sounding rhyme, "beat feet" means to move from your current location quickly, as in to beat your feet on the pavement.

Bite the bullet

An expression you may already be using, legend has it that this saying was derived from having service members bite a bullet during battlefield surgery to distract them from pain. The aphorism means to accept the inevitable or impending suffering and move past it quickly and with fortitude.

BOG, or boots on the ground, refers to combat troops who are deployed in another country. Though the phrase has been criticized for obscuring the humanity of deployed soldiers by referring to them as "boots," it is still commonly used.

Commonly used in the Marines, "boot" is a somewhat derogatory term for a novice service member, often one who is fresh out of boot camp. Depending on who you ask, it stands for "beginning of one's tour" or "barely out of training."

Another one on the list you may already be using, this phrase is understood to have military origins. The literal meaning is to sit down and eat. "Chow" is a popular word for food for members of the armed forces and is used interchangeably with "mess." Both words lend themselves to dining places: "chow hall" or "mess hall."

"Civvies" is a nickname for civilian (nonmilitary service members) outfits or clothing.

Coup de grace

"Coup de grace" translates in French to "stroke of grace" or "blow of mercy." You may have heard this defined as a mercy kill, but the phrase is also applied to the final action necessary to finish a task.

"Dear John" is when one's significant other breaks up with them through a letter, often when the person is deployed or training away from home. The term (often used as a verb; to "Dear John someone") was popularized by the 2010 film starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum.

Short for dining facility, some military members use "DFAC" to refer to a "chow hall."

"Dud" has been adopted to mean something that does not work. The technical origin is from the Middle English word "dudde," which refers to worn-out clothing and was later expanded to include weapons that were worn out or dysfunctional. Now dud is synonymous with junk and can be applied to anything (or anyone) that does not work as it was supposed to.

Some say the term was applied to weapons from the sound a bomb makes when it does not go off (a "thud" or a "dud").

Exactly what it sounds like, "fangs" is a Marine Corps term for one's teeth.

Fruit salad

Slang for the ribbons and medals on a Marine uniform due to the rich array of colors contrasting with the plain blue uniform.

"FTA" is an acronym for "failure to adapt." Someone can be reprimanded or discharged for this lack of versatility, and some modern workplaces may use this terminology to evaluate employees.

While the origin of "FUBAR" is debated (one source said it was from the German word "furchtbar," meaning frightful or terrible), it has now been popularized to stand for "f****d up beyond all repair/recognition." This term can be heard used famously in movies like "Tango and Cash" and "Saving Private Ryan" and refers to a situation that has gone very wrong.

Full battle rattle

Another rhyme on the list, this one means to be wearing all of your battle gear.

Grab some real estate

A phrase often used to indicate that some sort of physically taxing punishment—often pushups—will ensue. The "real estate" is likely a patch of grass or an area of cement from which you will be expected to complete the punishment.

Groundhog Day

This term refers to repetitive, boring situations. The concept was popularized by a 1993 Bill Murray film of the same name.

Have someone's 6

Meaning to have someone's back, the phrase applies to physically watching the "6 o'clock" of someone on a mission or in battle. Using clock position, the 6 o'clock would indicate behind or below that person.

JAG stands for judge advocate general, or the military's senior-most judicial officer. In the U.S., judge advocates are specially trained in military law and are usually appointed to a specific branch of the armed forces where they provide legal guidance and serve as lawyers in courts-martial. Judge advocates make up the JAG Corps.

Kitchen Police duty, also known as Kitchen Patrol duty, is an often-dreaded task assigned to soldiers that involves preparing food to be cooked, serving meals, and cleaning up the kitchen and dining halls afterward. In the 1980s, some military branches began replacing military personnel on KP duty with civilian workers, ending the infamously hated job.

Short for Military Entrance Processing Stations, these centers are where those interested in enlisting in the military go to be evaluated. At MEPS, prospective enlistees take an exam called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery , which tests whether the military would be a good fit, and, if so, which branch is the best match.

"MREs" are packages of food for combat or other field positions, representing "meals ready to eat."

Oxygen thief

An "oxygen thief" is witty, derogatory slang for someone who talks too much.

A permanent change of station, or PCS, is a normal part of being in the military and involves moving between one station and another or from a station to home. According to the Department of Defense, around a third of those in the military experience a PCS move each year . Most of the time, the cost of relocation is paid for by the government.

PT, also known as physical training, is not just tested during basic training. A Physical Fitness Test is administered several times a year for enlisted soldiers in several branches of the military. Each branch has different requirements for the test, but most involve different variations of running, push-ups, and sit-ups.

"Rack" is slang for bed. Beds in boot camp and on ships are notoriously uncomfortable, with the word rack summoning the vision of an uncomfortable piece of metal.

"Roger" or "Roger that" is used over the radio or phone to indicate that a message has been received and understood.

"Skate" or "skate by" means try not to do work. Some say it stands for "Seek cover, Keep quiet, Accept no responsibility, Take no action, Evade."

"Skivvies" is a nickname for an undershirt or underwear that one wears under their uniform.

To "smoke" someone is to punish, particularly with physical exercise.

Similar to "FUBAR" the actual origin of "SNAFU" is debated, but it has come to mean "situation normal all f****d/fouled up."

Soup sandwich

Another fun one to adopt, a "soup sandwich" is exactly what it sounds like—chaos or a mess. Just picture two pieces of bread holding soup in place.

Temporary Duty assignments are a type of military order that temporarily moves a servicemember away from their permanent duty station for a specific period of time. These can include instances of educational or training opportunities, as well as special missions.

"TS" stands for "top secret." It is often applied to specific pieces of information but is also used in "TS/SCI-cleared," which is a blanket top-secret security clearance.

"Uncle Sam" is a personification of the U.S. government and sometimes the U.S. military. Uncle and Sam begin with the country's letters, and according to legend, it is actually meant to be Samuel Wilson , a meatpacker from New York who lived from 1766–1854.

"Voluntold" is exactly what it sounds like: an oxymoron combining the words volunteer and told. It is something one is asked to do voluntarily, but it has an unspoken understanding that it is not actually optional.

You may read this as hugs and kisses, but "XO" refers to an executive officer. In many militaries, the "XO" is the second in command and often in charge of day-to-day activities.

A "zoomie" is a fun way to say "pilot." In the military, zoomie generally refers specifically to an Air Force member or an Air Force Academy graduate.

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WWI Battlefield Trips for Schools

A WWI battlefield trip offers students the opportunity to experience the surreal settings of wartime conflict. Your history students will benefit from first-hand details of what life was like in combat, with a range of different battlefield trips to some of the most historical sites from the Great War. 

We'll help you to plan the ultimate WWI battlefield trip for your history group. Our team can provide assistance with booking travel, tours, delivering educational materials and more. This ensures you have everything you need for an enrichening and fun learning experience.

Locations of NSTs World War 1 Battlefield trips

Our WWI battlefield trips span many locations, offering history students the chance to explore a selection of symbolic sites from the First World War. These include: 

• In Flanders Fields Museum
• Menin Gate & the Last Post Ceremony

Sanctuary Wood Museum & Hill 62

Passchendaele memorial museum.

• Hooge Crater Museum and Trenches Experience 
• Ypres Walking Tours
• The Somme Battlefield trip

Why book a WWI battlefield trip?

There are countless benefits to booking a WWI battlefield trip for your class. Our battlefield school tours cover the events of the war in considerable historical detail, particularly in the Ypres Salient and Somme regions. First-hand experiences of this historical landscape will help your students appreciate the history of the First World War, helping them to understand the significance of what took place. 

Teachers can benefit from a school trip to a WW1 battlefield too. Students who embark on our battlefield trips take lots of educational value and invaluable experiences that simply can’t be replicated in the classroom. 

The benefits of booking Battlefield Trips with NST

When you book a battlefield trip with NST , you’ll benefit from the following features:  

• Access to NST’s Château d’Ebblinghem - NST’s exclusive school group accommodation on the Opal Coast in Northern France is ideally located for WWI Battlefield trips to French Battlefields and will make your role as group leader that bit easier!
• Subject Experts - All of our Subject Experts are professional academics, historians and writers with incomparable knowledge of their subject area. They have the ability to communicate their learning in a way that will enlighten and stimulate your pupils whilst on a battlefield trip.
• ABTA & ATOL protection - This provides you with financial security and peace of mind that you're protected no matter what.

Get in touch with NST today for more information and advice on planning your ideal WWI battlefield school trip, or take a look at some of our most popular options below.

Browse our curriculum-linked school trips to the First World War Battlefields

We provide lots of subject-specific battlefield trips, designed to combine learning elements of History, English or Religious Studies with the historical context of the WW1 battlefields. Our range of curriculum-linked battlefield school trips includes: 

• English Literature battlefield trips
• Religious Studies battlefield trips
• History - Ypres and the Somme day trips
• History - Ypres and the Somme trips
• History - Medicine and Surgery on the Western Front 

All of our school battlefield trips are created with the aim of delivering value to your students. If there are any areas that you would like us to focus on for your battlefield trip then please get in touch and we will be happy to discuss to get the most educational value out of a school trip. 

History - Ypres & The Somme Battlefield Trips

History - ypres & the somme.

Our established Ypres & the Somme history tour programme covers the events of WWI in the Ypres Salient and Somme regions, enabling your pupils to learn from a wealth of important historical sites and excursions.

Learn more about our  trips to Ypres & the Somme .

History - Medicine & Surgery on the Western Front

For groups studying Medicine and Surgery on the Western Front, our established WWI Battlefields tours programme will give context to the events in the Ypres Salient and Somme regions and allow pupils to gain understanding of medical treatments, developments and historical context of medicine in the early 20th Century.

Learn more about our  medicine & surgery on the Western front trips .

English Literature - Battlefield trips

English literature.

Bring the literature of the war to life for your pupils with an English school trip to the battlefields region and gain an unforgettable insight into the effects of the war on iconic writers.

Learn more about our  English trips to the battlefields . 

Religious Studies

Religious studies.

Our established WWI Battlefields religious study tours give pupils a deeper emotional connection with wartime events, providing them with the opportunity to appreciate the scale of sacrifice.

Learn more about our  religious studies trips to the battlefields .

History - Ypres & The Somme day trips

History - ypres & the somme day trips.

Our battlefields day trip is a great option for groups on a budget. Covering Ypres Salient and the Somme, our established First World War battlefields tour programme enables pupils to learn from a wealth of historical sites.

Learn more about our  battlefields day trips .

Experience a First World War battlefields tour with our short video

First world war battlefield trip highlights - our groups love....

We’ve arranged lots of battlefield school trips for groups and we always receive amazing feedback from teachers and students alike. We’ve selected some of the best WWI trip highlights, with lots of detail on what you and your students can expect during your visit. 

In Flanders Field Museum  

In flanders field museum.

This superb state-of-the-art, interactive museum is now an even richer experience with the updated larger museum. Covering most aspects of the war in Flanders, each visitor will receive a wristband that will take them on a journey in the museum through the eyes of someone who was there.

Sanctuary Wood Museum & Hill 62  

Located close to the original front lines, this fascinating visit shows well-preserved British trenches and covered passageways, as well as a section of the underground tunnel system. The museum consists of two rooms housing many artefacts removed from the battlefields. Plus, a large and rare collection of three-dimensional photo images inside special viewing boxes.

Passchendaele Memorial Museum  

Commemorating the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, this museum has been enlarged. There is now an underground exhibition focusing on the battle, a network of open-air trenches and a new remembrance gallery. A full-day interactive platoon experience is also available; call us for more details.

Hooge Crater Museum and Trenches Experience  

Hooge crater museum and trenches experience.

This is a truly unique tour experience for students. Original artefacts & full-scale reconstructions of battlefield scenes can be found in the Museum Hooge Crater. Sample a must-see selection of weapons from 1914-18, war equipment and photos of all the armies that fought during those four years!

We can reserve a time slot in the trenches just for your group, so you can explore them on your own.

Newfoundland Park  

Newfoundland park.

Newfoundland Park is undoubtedly one of the largest and best-preserved trench memorials on the Western Front. Just outside the park lies Hawthorn Crater and within it are the ‘Danger Tree’ and remains of the British Front Line. The German Front Line can be seen across No Man’s Land.

Thiepval Memorial & Visitor Centre  

Thiepval memorial & visitor centre.

This is the largest memorial for the British missing on the Western Front. The location contains the names of over 73,000 men who died in the Somme section before 20th March 1918 and have no known graves. The visitor centre houses an informative exhibition designed to aid understanding of the history of Thiepval during WWI.

Ypres Walking Tour

This tour of the city includes:

• The Cloth Hall
• St George’s Anglican Church
• The Menin Gate (Britain’s major memorial to its missing)
• The Lille Gate Cemetery - A beautiful example of the work of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Your group will then return to Ypres for an evening meal and attend the daily Last Post Ceremony at The Menin Gate to witness a moving act of remembrance by the people of the city.

Vimy Ridge  

The scene of fierce fighting in 1917, when the Canadians successfully took the ridge from the Germans. Students can take a tour of the tunnels, trenches and cemeteries.

Menin Gate & Last Post Ceremony  

Menin gate & last post ceremony.

The largest and the most important of the British memorials to the Missing in The Salient. The Menin Gate holds the names of 54,896 soldiers of the British Empire. This memorial marked the start of one of the main roads out of Ypres towards the Front Line. Following a meal at a local restaurant, your students will witness the moving ‘Last Post Ceremony’ which takes place every evening at 8pm.

Book your next school battlefield trip with confidence

With NST your peace of mind is guaranteed, thanks to our comprehensive package of financial protection. Our market-leading ‘Book with Confidence’ promise gives you all the reassurance you need when booking and paying for your trip and provide the full range of financial protection measures as recommended by the DfE.    

COVID Cancellation Protection - including full refund option

Extended Payment Terms - to support with financial planning

Financial Security - fully ABTA & ATOL protected

First World War Battlefields school trip experts

We've been arranging First World War battlefield trips since 1967; we take over 10,000 students on battlefield tours each year. Our team regularly visits Ypres and The Somme to really get to know the ins and outs of the area. This ensures we always provide the highest quality accommodation, tours and transport for our trips.

Your school battlefield trip coordinator will use their knowledge to create a bespoke itinerary that's perfectly timed and meets your exact school travel needs.

Planning your first school trip?

If you're planning your first school trip, our essential guide will take you through each step of the process...

• Choosing your destination
• Gaining approval from your Local Authority and/or your Head
• Promoting your tour in school
• Confirming your booking
• Tailor-make your tour
• Completing your risk assessments (including a sample risk assessment)
• Quick reference timeline
• Pre-tour checklist

Explore the WWI Battlefields with our history subject experts

We offer the chance to take one of our history Subject Experts on your battlefields trip. 

Our Subject Experts are former teachers with detailed knowledge of the current curriculum. They are selected to meet your exact tour requirements, helping your group to get even more from their time outside the classroom. Our Subject Experts are passionate about their subject areas, meaning they're well prepared to meet your group's needs.

Additional support, resources & information:

Tour planning service

With NST, you’ll get your own dedicated, knowledgeable Tour Co-ordinator who’ll work with you from start to finish. You’ll benefit from their unrivalled destination knowledge, and their experience gained from working with many other groups too. They’ll tailor-make your itinerary from scratch and take care of everything for you:

• Pulling together an itinerary that runs smoothly
• Planning the right balance of visits every day with realistic timings
• Pre-arranging and pre-booking your visits, entrance tickets, passes and meals

You’ll receive your final itinerary a full 4-weeks before you travel too.

Free school trip promotion pack

We’ll support you and provide everything you need to advertise your school trip around school and to parents. Our free school trip promotion pack consists of:

• Parents’ letter & permission slip template for you to complete A3 posters to promote your trip around school
• PowerPoint presentation templates which you can tailor to your own needs
• Parents’ leaflets covering how NST manage safety, financial protection and details of our travel insurance
• Online parents’ video which showcases the benefits of taking a school trip

For selected destinations, we’ll provide a trip launch web page using video footage and imagery. This web page is provided by a weblink and can be shared with pupils and parents in many ways.

Risk assessment support including preview visits

Risk assessment plays a vitally important part in the planning and organisation on any school tour. Our risk assessment guide aims to help you understand more about your obligations and how you can more effectively manage group safety on your next educational visit and provide you with risk assessments for your trip. 

Planning first school trip

Organising your first school trip can appear to be a daunting process. If you're planning your first school trip, our guide will help to take you through each step of the planning process, answering frequently asked questions and providing tips and support along the way. Our helpful guide covers the following:

View our essential guide to a successful school trip here .

Get live updates on your group's tour location

Locate My Trip uses GPS technology and is the easy, convenient way for your school to follow your location whilst on tour. Specifically designed to provide reassurance to both parents and teachers, NST will know where your group are 24/7. If your schedule needs to change, we’ll put plans in place to keep your tour on track. 

With Locate My Trip your group can also share photos and videos with the school and parents, via a secure link, to keep them updated on your experience whilst you’re away. Watch our short Locate My Trip video here.

Your online school trip organiser - My Tour Manager

Save time and stay on track with your school trip admin with our online orgnaniser - designed to help busy teachers like you. With My Tour Manager, you'll be able to download FREE resources and access trip paperwork online and in one place. Your personalised checklist details what you need to do and by when, plus you'll receive fortnightly reminders too. What's more, you can take all your trip documents on the go whilst on your tour with our app, My Tour Manager-On-the-Go. Find out more and watch out short My Tour Manager video here .

Free classroom resources

We've created a range of free geography resources and educational posters to brighten up your classroom! Take a look at our downloadable posters here .

Brexit & your school trip

Brexit &  your school trip

How will Brexit affect my school trip?

Following the end of the transition period there are several changes that will affect groups travelling with us to the EU.

For more information on these changes, visit our dedicated Brexit page here .

If you're travelling with NST and have any specific questions. please contact your Educational Travel Advisor.

Why choose NST...

Here's why thousands of teachers choose NST each year...

• Unrivalled knowledge

Your dedicated tour co-ordinator will use their unrivalled local knowledge and expertise of the WWI Battlefields to create a tailor-made, curriculum-linked itinerary to meet your group’s exact needs.

• Making it easier for you

With our online school trip organiser, travel app, FREE classroom posters and trip launch resources to support in-school promotion.

• Risk assessment guidance

Our risk assessment guidance will help you to manage group safety on your next educational trip. 

• FREE group leader inspection visits

We offer a free inspection visit to your chosen destination to support your risk assessment planning.

• Value for money

We’re committed to bringing you the best possible value trips to help make every penny count.

• Peace of mind

Your group’s location can be followed with our trip tracking device - Locate My Trip - plus you’ll have 24/7 support from us whilst you’re away.

• More than 50 years’ experience

With over 50 years’ experience, with NST you can rest assured that your group is in safe hands.

• Offsetting carbon emissions

For every trip taken, we'll plant a Maya nut tree in Peru to support reforestation, local communities & biodiversity. Plus, we'll offset an additional tonne of CO2 to guarantee carbon emission reductions. 

Looking for protection on your next school trip? 

Booking with a school travel company is the best way for you to protect parents’ money and give yourself peace of mind.  

Don’t forget – if your school arranges transport, accommodation and other services directly, you’ll be liable under the Package Travel Regulations – meaning you’ll have all the responsibilities of a travel company, both legal and financial.

Financial protection from the moment you book

NST are fully bonded:

Managing safety on school trips

For your protection, NST's independently audited Safety Management System covers:

• 24-hour emergency cover
• Audited accommodation & transport
• Excursions & school visit assessment
• Group leader preview visits to assist with risk assessment planning

We're LOtC Council’s Quality Badge assured

The Department for Education advises schools to always look for the LOtC Quality Badge when choosing a school travel provider.

Students are safe on battlefield trips

There is no need to worry when you book a battlefield tour with NST. With our safety management system you have 24-hour emergency cover on all of your trips incase anything goes wrong giving you peace of mind.

What Congress' $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine could mean for the battlefield

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After months of resistance from Republicans in Congress, President Biden today signed a $95 billion military aid package, which will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. For more details, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so let's start with Ukraine. What exactly is headed their way?

MYRE: Well, the Pentagon immediately announced more than 20 different types of weapons and military equipment that will be headed to Ukraine in this initial tranche worth around $1 billion. Now, the list includes two types of weapons Ukraine says it urgently needs. One is artillery shells. The ground war in Eastern Ukraine is largely an artillery war, and Russia has a huge advantage. Ukrainian military officers talk about Russian artillery fire outnumbering Ukrainian fire by up to 10-1. They say they've had to ration shells, and in some cases, they've run out of ammunition and had to retreat. This has allowed Russia to be on the offensive in recent months.

CHANG: OK, and what's the second type of weapon?

MYRE: The second key weapon is air defense missiles. Ukraine's limited air defenses have performed extremely well over the past two years, but recently it's been more vulnerable to attacks on cities and the power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia recently fired 11 missiles in a sustained attack on a civilian power plant outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainians shot down the first seven incoming missiles. But then they ran out of ammo, and the last four Russian missiles hit the plant and caused power outages.

CHANG: Wow. OK, so are these weapons new or any different in terms of what the U.S. has sent before?

MYRE: Yeah, there's one quite powerful new weapon. It's an ATACMS. It's a U.S. missile that can travel close to 200 miles. Now, just this afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. recently began shipping ATACMS secretly without announcing it, and there are now plans to send more. Another U.S. official said Ukraine has fired these missiles twice in the past week or so against Russian targets in southern Ukraine. Ailsa, this is really a significant development. Ukraine has been pleading for these longer-range weapons, and the Biden administration had been resisting.

CHANG: But how does this type of missile change what Ukraine can do on the battlefield?

MYRE: Well, this will help Ukraine hit valuable Russian targets far beyond the front lines, in particular in southern Ukraine. This would include Russian bases in the Crimean peninsula and Russian ships in the Black Sea. I spoke about this with John Herbst. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who's now at the Atlantic Council. He says Russian leader Vladimir Putin knows this is a potential weak spot.

JOHN HERBST: Putin has a real vulnerability in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He needs to keep his troops supplied there. Ukraine can make that supply route much less efficient and thereby hinder Russian military operations.

CHANG: I mean, I'm listening to you talk, Greg. But I remember last year at this time, we were hearing all about a planned Ukrainian offensive. But it achieved far less than was expected or at least advertised, right? So how should we interpret today's announcement?

MYRE: Well, John Herbst says these U.S. weapons are important. They may not completely change the trajectory of the war. They will give Ukraine the resources needed to keep fighting this year. And he said the gridlock in the U.S. Congress had raised questions about whether the U.S. was prepared to keep leading this effort in Ukraine.

HERBST: You've had this extraordinary spectacle over the last several months of leaders coming from Europe and recently from Japan and other places pleading with the United States to act as the leader of the free world. Unprecedented since the end of World War II. Not a good look for the United States.

MYRE: And he says Ukraine lost soldiers and lost ground over the past six months while this assistance was stuck in Congress, but this package reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

CHANG: OK. And this package, it also includes assistance for both Israel and for Gaza, right? Real quick.

MYRE: That's right. Biden said his support for Israel remains ironclad and he's sending Israel more air defense weapons. He cited the recent air attacks from Iran. The U.S. will also be sending $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said this will be sent as soon as possible and that it must reach the Palestinians there without delay.

CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.

MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

From battlefield to capital: Former FSU President reflects on his days in the Vietnam War

The moment John Thrasher arrived in Vietnam, he started counting down the days until he could leave.

"I was there exactly to the day, 365 days," Thrasher said. "It was a long year."

It was 55 years ago when the retired FSU president, lawyer, lobbyist and former top state lawmaker fought in the divisive war that cost thousands of Americans their lives, but he still remembers most of it.

The U.S. was engulfed in turmoil during the Vietnam War, the 80-year-old said, and veterans weren't greeted with parades or much praise, if any, as they returned.

But on Saturday, Thrasher and 69 other Vietnam War veterans will be honored and get to hear two words that are long overdue: "Welcome home."

Honor Flight Tallahassee — a local branch of the nationwide organization that's dedicated to honoring war veterans — is making its 10th annual trip to Washington, D.C., with a total of 76 veterans who served in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The organization's mission: To bring every veteran to Washington, free of charge, who is capable of going and has never seen the monuments that were built as a tribute to them and the numerous soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty many years ago.

"I'm looking forward to it, I really am," Thrasher said. "Frankly, I think in America generally we don't do enough to honor veterans. And I'm not talking about me now, I don't need that, but there are a lot of these folks that do, and they deserve it."

Although Thrasher has made numerous trips to the nation's capital during his time as a lawmaker, he's never been on an Honor Flight. He applied like the rest of the veterans to be able to experience the monuments with fellow vets.

He said all the monuments are deeply emotionally powerful places. Today, there's a lot of talk about being divided, he said, but the lack of unity seems to dissolve in the presence of these landmarks.

"I think places like that, there are no Republicans or Democrats or other ethnicities or whatever — everybody is an American," he said. "And I think we need more of that."

The trip is a special thing to be part of, and it's even more special to get to share the experience with a loved one, he said. Each veteran has a "guardian" that pairs up with them for the day to help them throughout the trip — Thrasher chose his son, also named John, who was born while he was in Vietnam.

"I think this will be a kind of special bonding trip for him and I, so I'm looking forward to that opportunity," he said.

Diploma to deployment

Fresh out of college, Thrasher, who was 21 at the time, moved to Jacksonville to start his career after graduating from Florida State University. Three months later, he got his Army draft papers, putting his life plans on pause for the next four years.

After his application for a direct commission into the U.S. Army Medical Service Corp in May 1966 was approved, he trained in San Antonio, Texas, and then spent three years abroad in Germany before being shipped to the front lines in Vietnam for his final year of service.

Thrasher was stationed in the central highlands of Pleiku where U.S. troops were defending the country from the North Vietnamese who were infiltrating through the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. He worked in the Fourth Infantry Division as a division surgeon's assistant where it was his job to manage and deploy all the medical units that supported the troops.

He was involved in the U.S. Army Medical Command Vietnam unit, working directly for the chief of staff who worked for the commanding general.

While it was an honor to serve in a higher role with a lot of responsibility, war was still war, and being overseas was a struggle.

"When I went over there, I weighed probably 180 or 190 pounds, and I came back and I weighed 160 pounds," he said. "You just don't eat — I mean there are a lot people worse off than me, but the conditions were not good."

Vietnam was unbearably hot and had volatile monsoon seasons. And not being able to easily communicate with his wife and kids he left behind added to the miserable conditions.

He didn't even know his son was born until two weeks later.

You have to surround yourself with your friends while you're there just to get through, and he said he was fortunate to have found really good friends that made the losses and horrors of war bearable.

"You take every day as a new day," he said. "It's just kind of like life goes on."

'Culture shock'

Coming home was a culture shock.

Initially Thrasher had some regrets about coming home while the war was still waging on, but he acclimated and put the war behind him by immediately throwing himself into his family and his next career.

Four days after safely landing in Seattle, Washington, Thrasher started law school at FSU, which he applied to while he still serving in Vietnam.

After finishing law school, he was elected a state representative, serving as the 90th speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, then became the Republican Party of Florida chair, a state senator, and later FSU's 15th president from 2014 to 2021.

Even now in retirement, he keeps busy by teaching a few classes at FSU's law school and staying involved at The Southern Group, a lobbying firm he helped start.

Thrasher said he had a lot of great experience as a captain in the Army that prepared him for the things he did the rest of his life, and on Saturday he'll get to be surrounded by other veterans whose lives were just as widely impacted by their time in the military as his.

"That's what it's really about, getting to talk to other veterans and exchange stories and memories," he said.

His doctor, who has attended every trip, has been urging him for years to apply to Honor Flight, and Thrasher decided this would be a good year to go while he still could.

"I'm really thankful for the people who helped put it on," he said. "The opportunity to do this is just amazing."

Related: A tale of two Koreas: Ahead of Honor Flight, vets share war stories on, off the front lines

Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at  [email protected] . Follow her on X:  @elenabarreraaa .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: From battlefield to capital: Former FSU President reflects on his days in the Vietnam War

What Congress' $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine could mean for the battlefield

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After months of resistance from Republicans in Congress, President Biden today signed a $95 billion military aid package, which will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. For more details, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so let's start with Ukraine. What exactly is headed their way?

MYRE: Well, the Pentagon immediately announced more than 20 different types of weapons and military equipment that will be headed to Ukraine in this initial tranche worth around $1 billion. Now, the list includes two types of weapons Ukraine says it urgently needs. One is artillery shells. The ground war in Eastern Ukraine is largely an artillery war, and Russia has a huge advantage. Ukrainian military officers talk about Russian artillery fire outnumbering Ukrainian fire by up to 10-1. They say they've had to ration shells, and in some cases, they've run out of ammunition and had to retreat. This has allowed Russia to be on the offensive in recent months.

CHANG: OK, and what's the second type of weapon?

MYRE: The second key weapon is air defense missiles. Ukraine's limited air defenses have performed extremely well over the past two years, but recently it's been more vulnerable to attacks on cities and the power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia recently fired 11 missiles in a sustained attack on a civilian power plant outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainians shot down the first seven incoming missiles. But then they ran out of ammo, and the last four Russian missiles hit the plant and caused power outages.

CHANG: Wow. OK, so are these weapons new or any different in terms of what the U.S. has sent before?

MYRE: Yeah, there's one quite powerful new weapon. It's an ATACMS. It's a U.S. missile that can travel close to 200 miles. Now, just this afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. recently began shipping ATACMS secretly without announcing it, and there are now plans to send more. Another U.S. official said Ukraine has fired these missiles twice in the past week or so against Russian targets in southern Ukraine. Ailsa, this is really a significant development. Ukraine has been pleading for these longer-range weapons, and the Biden administration had been resisting.

CHANG: But how does this type of missile change what Ukraine can do on the battlefield?

MYRE: Well, this will help Ukraine hit valuable Russian targets far beyond the front lines, in particular in southern Ukraine. This would include Russian bases in the Crimean peninsula and Russian ships in the Black Sea. I spoke about this with John Herbst. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who's now at the Atlantic Council. He says Russian leader Vladimir Putin knows this is a potential weak spot.

JOHN HERBST: Putin has a real vulnerability in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He needs to keep his troops supplied there. Ukraine can make that supply route much less efficient and thereby hinder Russian military operations.

CHANG: I mean, I'm listening to you talk, Greg. But I remember last year at this time, we were hearing all about a planned Ukrainian offensive. But it achieved far less than was expected or at least advertised, right? So how should we interpret today's announcement?

MYRE: Well, John Herbst says these U.S. weapons are important. They may not completely change the trajectory of the war. They will give Ukraine the resources needed to keep fighting this year. And he said the gridlock in the U.S. Congress had raised questions about whether the U.S. was prepared to keep leading this effort in Ukraine.

HERBST: You've had this extraordinary spectacle over the last several months of leaders coming from Europe and recently from Japan and other places pleading with the United States to act as the leader of the free world. Unprecedented since the end of World War II. Not a good look for the United States.

MYRE: And he says Ukraine lost soldiers and lost ground over the past six months while this assistance was stuck in Congress, but this package reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

CHANG: OK. And this package, it also includes assistance for both Israel and for Gaza, right? Real quick.

MYRE: That's right. Biden said his support for Israel remains ironclad and he's sending Israel more air defense weapons. He cited the recent air attacks from Iran. The U.S. will also be sending $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said this will be sent as soon as possible and that it must reach the Palestinians there without delay.

CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.

MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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What Congress' $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine could mean for the battlefield

Congress has approved $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine. Here's a look at what it it's likely to include and how it might reshape the battlefield.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After months of resistance from Republicans in Congress, President Biden today signed a $95 billion military aid package, which will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. For more details, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so let's start with Ukraine. What exactly is headed their way?

MYRE: Well, the Pentagon immediately announced more than 20 different types of weapons and military equipment that will be headed to Ukraine in this initial tranche worth around $1 billion. Now, the list includes two types of weapons Ukraine says it urgently needs. One is artillery shells. The ground war in Eastern Ukraine is largely an artillery war, and Russia has a huge advantage. Ukrainian military officers talk about Russian artillery fire outnumbering Ukrainian fire by up to 10-1. They say they've had to ration shells, and in some cases, they've run out of ammunition and had to retreat. This has allowed Russia to be on the offensive in recent months.

CHANG: OK, and what's the second type of weapon?

MYRE: The second key weapon is air defense missiles. Ukraine's limited air defenses have performed extremely well over the past two years, but recently it's been more vulnerable to attacks on cities and the power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia recently fired 11 missiles in a sustained attack on a civilian power plant outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainians shot down the first seven incoming missiles. But then they ran out of ammo, and the last four Russian missiles hit the plant and caused power outages.

CHANG: Wow. OK, so are these weapons new or any different in terms of what the U.S. has sent before?

MYRE: Yeah, there's one quite powerful new weapon. It's an ATACMS. It's a U.S. missile that can travel close to 200 miles. Now, just this afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. recently began shipping ATACMS secretly without announcing it, and there are now plans to send more. Another U.S. official said Ukraine has fired these missiles twice in the past week or so against Russian targets in southern Ukraine. Ailsa, this is really a significant development. Ukraine has been pleading for these longer-range weapons, and the Biden administration had been resisting.

CHANG: But how does this type of missile change what Ukraine can do on the battlefield?

MYRE: Well, this will help Ukraine hit valuable Russian targets far beyond the front lines, in particular in southern Ukraine. This would include Russian bases in the Crimean peninsula and Russian ships in the Black Sea. I spoke about this with John Herbst. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who's now at the Atlantic Council. He says Russian leader Vladimir Putin knows this is a potential weak spot.

JOHN HERBST: Putin has a real vulnerability in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He needs to keep his troops supplied there. Ukraine can make that supply route much less efficient and thereby hinder Russian military operations.

CHANG: I mean, I'm listening to you talk, Greg. But I remember last year at this time, we were hearing all about a planned Ukrainian offensive. But it achieved far less than was expected or at least advertised, right? So how should we interpret today's announcement?

MYRE: Well, John Herbst says these U.S. weapons are important. They may not completely change the trajectory of the war. They will give Ukraine the resources needed to keep fighting this year. And he said the gridlock in the U.S. Congress had raised questions about whether the U.S. was prepared to keep leading this effort in Ukraine.

HERBST: You've had this extraordinary spectacle over the last several months of leaders coming from Europe and recently from Japan and other places pleading with the United States to act as the leader of the free world. Unprecedented since the end of World War II. Not a good look for the United States.

MYRE: And he says Ukraine lost soldiers and lost ground over the past six months while this assistance was stuck in Congress, but this package reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

CHANG: OK. And this package, it also includes assistance for both Israel and for Gaza, right? Real quick.

MYRE: That's right. Biden said his support for Israel remains ironclad and he's sending Israel more air defense weapons. He cited the recent air attacks from Iran. The U.S. will also be sending $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said this will be sent as soon as possible and that it must reach the Palestinians there without delay.

CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.

MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

NATO Puts on a Show of Force in the Shadow of Russia’s War

The alliance’s largest exercises offer a preview of what the opening of a Great Power conflict could look like. How it ends is a different story.

A convoy of military vehicles making its way toward the Polish border from Germany this month. Credit... Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

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By Helene Cooper

Helene Cooper covers national security and military affairs. She traveled with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment from Germany to Poland to report this article.

• April 24, 2024 Updated 3:02 p.m. ET

About 90,000 NATO troops have been training in Europe this spring for the Great Power war that most hope will never come: a clash between Russia and the West with potentially catastrophic consequences.

In Estonia, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Liberty, N.C., jumped out of planes alongside soldiers from Colchester Garrison in Essex, Britain, for “forcible entry” operations. In Lithuania, German soldiers arrived as a brigade stationed outside Germany on a permanent basis for the first time since World War II.

And on the A4 autobahn in eastern Germany, a U.S. Army captain and his Macedonian counterpart rushed toward the Suwalki Gap — the place many war planners predict will be the flashpoint for a NATO war with Russia — hoping the overheated radiator on their Stryker armored combat vehicle wouldn’t kill the engine.

Kaliningrad

All are part of what is supposed to be a tremendous show of force by NATO, its largest since the start of the Cold War, that is meant to send a sharp message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that his ambitions must not venture beyond Ukraine.

But it is also a preview of what the opening beats of a modern Great Power conflict could look like. If NATO and Russia went to war, American and allied troops would initially rush to the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — NATO’s “Eastern Flank”— to try to block penetration by a Russian force.

How that war would end, and how many people might die, is a different story. Tens of millions of people were killed in World War II. This time, the stakes have never been higher. Mr. Putin has brought up the potential for nuclear war several times since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.

National security officials are making plans for cyberwarfare, too, including how to defend U.S. and NATO interests against a possible cyberattack on public infrastructure.

But a European continental ground war has seemed far more possible since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.

“This exercise changes the calculus for our adversaries — that’s the real power of this,” said Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the American general who leads NATO’s Allied Land Command. Mr. Putin, he said, “is watching this and saying, ‘Hmm, maybe I need to think twice here.’”

Russia’s war in Ukraine infuses almost every movement of the exercises, which began in January and will continue through May. It is why some of the American troops experimented with commercial drones that they could weaponize by fixing with explosives, to see how to counter such tactics, much as Russian troops have had to learn how to defend against Ukraine’s use of store-bought drones that have been MacGyvered with explosives.

It is also why the overheated Stryker carrying the two American and Macedonian captains looks almost exactly like all of the other Strykers, with the exception of its lighter machine gun.

In Ukraine, several senior Russian military leaders have been killed. The Kremlin has confirmed seven; Ukraine says 13.

Military officials said that on the battlefield, the Russian top brass made themselves conspicuous. They often appeared rooted in the same place, American military officials said, instead of moving around. Sometimes several command vehicles were hooked together with antennas next to them, almost advertising, one military official said, the presence of Russian generals and officers.

NATO and American military officers don’t want to make the same mistake.

“I think that what we found is that our command and control needs to be more survivable,” said Col. Robert S. McChrystal, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based in Vilseck, Germany, near the Czech border. “We need to be more mobile, and we also need to gain dispersion.”

Standing in a field at an army barracks in Poznan, Poland, and wearing the black Stetson that is customary for the 2nd Cavalry, Colonel McChrystal cut a figure both commanding and incongruous. Like many U.S. military officers, his speech was peppered with military jargon. Unlike many, he frequently interrupted himself, sometimes midsentence, to explain what he meant.

“Now what does that mean?” he said. “Grouping up, as we saw — as everyone saw in the war — does not work. So, can we do things like be in smaller elements that make it harder to locate our command-and-control nodes, so they can last longer?”

Officers with Colonel McChrystal’s regiment now seek to blend in, when they can, with the environment and with their troops.

In some cases, that has even meant using local cellphones instead of big cumbersome military communications devices like hand-held radios operating on frequencies that identify them as military.

This wasn’t an issue during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, because the Taliban and insurgents didn’t have the satellites and spy drones they needed to find battlefield command-and-control nodes.

But Russia has them. That is why during a recent training exercise at the military base at Hohenfels, in southern Germany, more than 70 percent of the command and control were far away — some of them as far back as in the continental United States.

Fox 66, the Stryker carrying the captains, was the command-and-control vehicle for the four-day road-march part of the exercise that made its way to Suwalki, Poland, from Vilseck.

To the untrained eye, all of the military-green armored vehicles looked as though they had the same array of guns and tactical equipment.

But Fox 66 was mounted with a lighter machine gun. In a firefight, it would not be on the front line; it would be directing operations from the back, so it does not need the armor-piercing penetration power of the .50-caliber machine guns mounted on the other vehicles. The two guns are close to indistinguishable from the air.

Inside Fox 66, Capt. Milos Trendevski, fresh from Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, contorted his six-foot frame around the flak jackets, backpacks, rations, guns and equipment crammed inside the vehicle as it made its way toward Poland. The Americans in the vehicle carried language translation devices, but Captain Trendevski didn’t need one.

“We need to see how the U.S. Army does marches like this so our doctrine can be the same,” Captain Trendevski said in English in an interview inside the Stryker.

Just a few inches from him, Capt. Matt Johnson, commander of the Stryker unit, kept up a constant stream of worried questions.

“She burning hot?” he asked the driver, Specialist Sean McGarity.

“225, Sir,” came the answer.

“Slow down a little, see if it goes down.”

Specialist McGarity slowed down and the engine cooled off, and a collective sigh seemed to exhale inside the Stryker.

The Suwalki Gap is a 65-mile, sparsely populated stretch of land straddling Lithuania, Poland, Belarus and the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, the Estonian president at the time, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, came up with the name “Suwalki Gap” to highlight for NATO officials the area’s vulnerability. His move worked: Western military officials quickly adopted the phrase.

Western military officials believe the Suwalki Gap is likely to be the first territory that Moscow would try to take. Russian forces in Kaliningrad, assisted by Russia’s ally Belarus, could move in, isolating the Baltic countries if successful.

The road march is supposed to test how quickly NATO can get troops to the Suwalki Gap.

Captain Johnson said his Stryker, when not overheating, could traverse the 750 miles to Suwalki from Vilseck, where the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment is based, in under two days, but the regiment would lose some vehicles along the way if they tried to travel at the top Stryker speed of 70 m.p.h. A more reasonable speed, he said, is 50 m.p.h.

But such marches often take longer than predicted. It took Fox 66 and the other Strykers in Captain Johnson’s unit more than five hours to get to the Polish border from the German city Frankenberg, in the eastern state Saxony, a trip that was supposed to take three hours.

The road march culminated with a live-fire exercise in a training area near Suwalki, with 1,800 2nd Cavalry troops joining 2,600 troops from nine other countries to establish what the military called an “enhanced forward presence” to protect NATO’s Eastern Flank. The troops blew up pop-up targets and seized territory. American Apache helicopters made passes and gave covering fire, while, from an even higher altitude, Polish F-16 and Italian F-35 fighter jets conducted airstrikes.

NATO’S ability to “bring together these seemingly disparate units from different nations to conduct something so complex is what sets us apart,” said Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Europe and Africa. It was, he said, a demonstration of “combined arms” maneuvering.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to do combined arms, where all parts of a maneuver force — air, land and, sometimes, sea — coordinate and work in concert. Tanks and artillery, and even airstrikes, hit a target before infantry soldiers go in.

General Williams, the NATO land forces commander, said that in the past, such exercises did not name the enemy — there was just a fictitious opponent.

Not so this year. For the first time, “we now, in this year, are actually fighting an exercise against the Russians,” he said. “We fight against our potential adversary.”

Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent. More about Helene Cooper

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

For residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city, daily Russian attacks have escalated fears  but have not brought life to a standstill. Here’s how a battered city  carries on.

The authorities in Poland and Germany have arrested at least five of their citizens  and accused them of spying for Russia or of offering to help Moscow commit violence on European soil, including a “possible attack” on the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The drone combat in Ukraine that is transforming modern warfare has begun taking a deadly toll on one of the most powerful symbols  of American military might — the tank — and threatening to rewrite how it will be used in future conflicts.

Resuming U.S. Military Aid: Weapons from the support package, considered “a lifeline” for Ukraine’s military , could be arriving on the battlefield within days . But experts say it could take weeks before there is a direct impact on the war . What would $60 billion buy ?

World Military Spending: The world spent more on military costs and weapons in 2023  than it had in 35 years, driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the threat of an expanded Russian invasion, according to an independent analysis.

New American Technology: Project Maven was meant to revolutionize modern warfare. But the conflict in Ukraine has underscored  how difficult it is to get 21st-century data into 19th-century trenches.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

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• Apply for funding by filling out a History Field Trip Grant Program Application Form prior to your field trip. (If you have any questions, be sure to check out our FAQ page .)
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• School's financial needs. 
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• The number of students and chaperones participating in said field trip. 
• The thoroughness of the application packet.
• The number of prior field trips the American Battlefield Trust has funded for your school. Classrooms that received a grant in the 2022-2023 school year may not be eligible for a grant in the 2023-2024 school year. 
• The frequency of other approved field trips to a specific battlefield, museum, and other historic site destinations. 
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• Check out our Frequently Asked Questions  for more information. 
• Email us [email protected] . 

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What Congress' $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine could mean for the battlefield

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After months of resistance from Republicans in Congress, President Biden today signed a $95 billion military aid package, which will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. For more details, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so let's start with Ukraine. What exactly is headed their way?

MYRE: Well, the Pentagon immediately announced more than 20 different types of weapons and military equipment that will be headed to Ukraine in this initial tranche worth around $1 billion. Now, the list includes two types of weapons Ukraine says it urgently needs. One is artillery shells. The ground war in Eastern Ukraine is largely an artillery war, and Russia has a huge advantage. Ukrainian military officers talk about Russian artillery fire outnumbering Ukrainian fire by up to 10-1. They say they've had to ration shells, and in some cases, they've run out of ammunition and had to retreat. This has allowed Russia to be on the offensive in recent months.

CHANG: OK, and what's the second type of weapon?

MYRE: The second key weapon is air defense missiles. Ukraine's limited air defenses have performed extremely well over the past two years, but recently it's been more vulnerable to attacks on cities and the power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia recently fired 11 missiles in a sustained attack on a civilian power plant outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainians shot down the first seven incoming missiles. But then they ran out of ammo, and the last four Russian missiles hit the plant and caused power outages.

CHANG: Wow. OK, so are these weapons new or any different in terms of what the U.S. has sent before?

MYRE: Yeah, there's one quite powerful new weapon. It's an ATACMS. It's a U.S. missile that can travel close to 200 miles. Now, just this afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. recently began shipping ATACMS secretly without announcing it, and there are now plans to send more. Another U.S. official said Ukraine has fired these missiles twice in the past week or so against Russian targets in southern Ukraine. Ailsa, this is really a significant development. Ukraine has been pleading for these longer-range weapons, and the Biden administration had been resisting.

CHANG: But how does this type of missile change what Ukraine can do on the battlefield?

MYRE: Well, this will help Ukraine hit valuable Russian targets far beyond the front lines, in particular in southern Ukraine. This would include Russian bases in the Crimean peninsula and Russian ships in the Black Sea. I spoke about this with John Herbst. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who's now at the Atlantic Council. He says Russian leader Vladimir Putin knows this is a potential weak spot.

JOHN HERBST: Putin has a real vulnerability in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He needs to keep his troops supplied there. Ukraine can make that supply route much less efficient and thereby hinder Russian military operations.

CHANG: I mean, I'm listening to you talk, Greg. But I remember last year at this time, we were hearing all about a planned Ukrainian offensive. But it achieved far less than was expected or at least advertised, right? So how should we interpret today's announcement?

MYRE: Well, John Herbst says these U.S. weapons are important. They may not completely change the trajectory of the war. They will give Ukraine the resources needed to keep fighting this year. And he said the gridlock in the U.S. Congress had raised questions about whether the U.S. was prepared to keep leading this effort in Ukraine.

HERBST: You've had this extraordinary spectacle over the last several months of leaders coming from Europe and recently from Japan and other places pleading with the United States to act as the leader of the free world. Unprecedented since the end of World War II. Not a good look for the United States.

MYRE: And he says Ukraine lost soldiers and lost ground over the past six months while this assistance was stuck in Congress, but this package reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

CHANG: OK. And this package, it also includes assistance for both Israel and for Gaza, right? Real quick.

MYRE: That's right. Biden said his support for Israel remains ironclad and he's sending Israel more air defense weapons. He cited the recent air attacks from Iran. The U.S. will also be sending $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said this will be sent as soon as possible and that it must reach the Palestinians there without delay.

CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.

MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

What Congress' $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine could mean for the battlefield

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After months of resistance from Republicans in Congress, President Biden today signed a $95 billion military aid package, which will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. For more details, we're joined now by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Hey, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so let's start with Ukraine. What exactly is headed their way?

MYRE: Well, the Pentagon immediately announced more than 20 different types of weapons and military equipment that will be headed to Ukraine in this initial tranche worth around $1 billion. Now, the list includes two types of weapons Ukraine says it urgently needs. One is artillery shells. The ground war in Eastern Ukraine is largely an artillery war, and Russia has a huge advantage. Ukrainian military officers talk about Russian artillery fire outnumbering Ukrainian fire by up to 10-1. They say they've had to ration shells, and in some cases, they've run out of ammunition and had to retreat. This has allowed Russia to be on the offensive in recent months.

CHANG: OK, and what's the second type of weapon?

MYRE: The second key weapon is air defense missiles. Ukraine's limited air defenses have performed extremely well over the past two years, but recently it's been more vulnerable to attacks on cities and the power grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia recently fired 11 missiles in a sustained attack on a civilian power plant outside the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainians shot down the first seven incoming missiles. But then they ran out of ammo, and the last four Russian missiles hit the plant and caused power outages.

CHANG: Wow. OK, so are these weapons new or any different in terms of what the U.S. has sent before?

MYRE: Yeah, there's one quite powerful new weapon. It's an ATACMS. It's a U.S. missile that can travel close to 200 miles. Now, just this afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. recently began shipping ATACMS secretly without announcing it, and there are now plans to send more. Another U.S. official said Ukraine has fired these missiles twice in the past week or so against Russian targets in southern Ukraine. Ailsa, this is really a significant development. Ukraine has been pleading for these longer-range weapons, and the Biden administration had been resisting.

CHANG: But how does this type of missile change what Ukraine can do on the battlefield?

MYRE: Well, this will help Ukraine hit valuable Russian targets far beyond the front lines, in particular in southern Ukraine. This would include Russian bases in the Crimean peninsula and Russian ships in the Black Sea. I spoke about this with John Herbst. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who's now at the Atlantic Council. He says Russian leader Vladimir Putin knows this is a potential weak spot.

JOHN HERBST: Putin has a real vulnerability in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He needs to keep his troops supplied there. Ukraine can make that supply route much less efficient and thereby hinder Russian military operations.

CHANG: I mean, I'm listening to you talk, Greg. But I remember last year at this time, we were hearing all about a planned Ukrainian offensive. But it achieved far less than was expected or at least advertised, right? So how should we interpret today's announcement?

MYRE: Well, John Herbst says these U.S. weapons are important. They may not completely change the trajectory of the war. They will give Ukraine the resources needed to keep fighting this year. And he said the gridlock in the U.S. Congress had raised questions about whether the U.S. was prepared to keep leading this effort in Ukraine.

HERBST: You've had this extraordinary spectacle over the last several months of leaders coming from Europe and recently from Japan and other places pleading with the United States to act as the leader of the free world. Unprecedented since the end of World War II. Not a good look for the United States.

MYRE: And he says Ukraine lost soldiers and lost ground over the past six months while this assistance was stuck in Congress, but this package reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

CHANG: OK. And this package, it also includes assistance for both Israel and for Gaza, right? Real quick.

MYRE: That's right. Biden said his support for Israel remains ironclad and he's sending Israel more air defense weapons. He cited the recent air attacks from Iran. The U.S. will also be sending $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He said this will be sent as soon as possible and that it must reach the Palestinians there without delay.

CHANG: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much, Greg.

MYRE: Sure thing, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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PUBG will take a nostalgia-infused trip back to its first map in May

Erangel classic blends the “charmingly tacky” elements of the original with modern gameplay improvements..

PUBG: Battlegrounds is somehow old enough to evoke nostalgia. The pioneering battle royale game, which entered Steam Early Access in 2017 , will borrow a page from Fortnite ’s playbook and honor its first map. Erangel Classic will recreate the old-school battlefield from the game’s inception for a limited two-week run in May and June.

Developer and publisher Krafton says the Erangel Classic map will reproduce the original’s concepts, graphics, atmosphere and UI. However, it will blend those with “modern tweaks” to deliver “the enjoyable gameplay experiences that players have grown accustomed to.” In other words, much like remasters of other classic games , the goal is to feel as close to the original as possible without chucking out all of its subtle quality-of-life improvements from the game’s evolution.

If the revamped map idea sounds familiar, Fortnite brought back its original 2018 island map late last year, breaking its records for player counts. (It peaked at 44.7 million players, marking its biggest day ever.) It’s easy to see why Krafton would want a piece of that action.

Specific nods to the original map include foggy and rainy weather to add an air of unpredictability. In addition, you’ll find bench weapons on the starting island (get ready to scramble for your favorite), and all weapons will have reduced recoil to match the original. It will also have a Tommy Gun in the care package, a vintage map UI and a “charmingly tacky font and graphics.”

The tiered rollout will arrive on PCs and consoles at different times, extending the playtime for those who own the game on multiple platforms (perhaps helping Krafton sell a few extra in-game items). Erangel Classic will be available in PUBG: Battlegrounds on PC from May 14 to May 28 and on consoles from May 23 to June 6, replacing the modern Erangel map during those periods. Krafton says the May 14 patch notes will go into more detail about all the map’s changes, so keep an eye out.

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