Courtney Thompson was devastated after losing her two beloved "heart horses" to old age, leaving her with no plans to find a new horse anytime soon. Understanding how difficult this time was for her, a few close friends recommended she spend some time volunteering at Hope’s Legacy Equine Rescue.

The recoilless rifle was six feet long and weighed over a hundred pounds. It often required three or four Marines to carry it across the battlefields during the Korean War. Lugging it was dangerous, but it was necessary, because that rifle, which the soldiers nicknamed “reckless,” could fire a 75mm shell thousands of yards with surgical-like precision. It was one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ finest munitions. But the commander of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon, Eric Pedersen, knew there had to be a better way to use it on the battlefield in Korea.