Chris Hemler spent ten years on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, holding posts with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 2d Marine Aircraft Wing, and U.S. Naval Academy Marine Detachment. In 2019, he was awarded the General Lemuel Shepherd Memorial Dissertation Fellowship and Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Scholarship. He holds a PhD in Military History from Texas A&M University and currently serves as a Principal Advisor with Frontier Design Group.

Articles by Christopher Hemler

Against the backdrop of a wall of smoke from a massive naval barrage, amphibious tractors ferry U.S. Marines to Iwo Jima landing beaches on D-Day, 19 February 1945. Devastating naval gunfire, air bombardments, and artillery fire were key elements of the victory at Iwo.

A Victory of Cooperation

By Chris K. Hemler
February 2025
The hard-fought victory at Iwo Jima came courtesy of the indomitable grit of Marine infantrymen backed by an unstoppable land-sea-air “symphony of destructive firepower.”
Facing stiff resistance, U.S. Marines inch forward into the maw of battle on Saipan, June 1944. The conquest of the Marianas has begun.

Seizing Saipan

By Chris K. Hemler
June 2024
Eighty years ago, Operation Forager—the invasion of the Marianas—was launched with the Battle of Saipan, a brutal struggle that deftly coordinated U.S. land, sea, and air elements on the path ...

Books by Christopher Hemler