The Real Decoy

During the first Gulf War, John Brasfield was an army scout.

Reporter Chris Brookes had always thought the story was a joke: During World War II, a black sailor from the U.S. washed up nearly dead onshore in Newfoundland, and the white nurses—never having seen a black man—thought he was covered in oil and tried to scrub him clean.

In Vietnam, Jeffrey Harris, with one year of grad school, judged which soldiers stayed and which went home.

Stephanie Foo talks with two Army officers with very different political views about the week’s results.

Lots of people in America share actual beds, but almost never see each other; flight attendants have crash pads near airports, oil rig workers carry their own sheets and sleep in shifts in an RV.

Several people who just woke up on red-eye flights talk about their dreams.