Archive for the ‘Army’ Category
Higgins Boat, Iwo Jima, Mount Suribachi, Red Beach, USS Rutland (APA 192)
In Army, U.S. Marine Corps, World War II on February 15, 2013 at 4:38 am
Milt Alligood, on the right, of Englewood, Fla. is pictured with two of his friends aboard the USS Rutland, an attack transport he served on during the second World War. He can’t remember what his buddies’ names are because it’s been so long. Photo provided
Enemy artillery rounds and small-arms fire rained down in the water all around them as they came ashore on “Red Beach,” near the base of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, with U.S. Marines. Seaman/3rd Milt Alligood manned the steel ramp in the bow of the plywood Higgins Boat. He lowered it as the “Leathernecks” charged from their landing craft into the mouth of hell. Read the rest of this entry »
18th Infantry Division, 9th Armored Division, Aaken, D-Day, Easy Red, Fortress Europe, Omaha Beach, Patton's 3rd Army, Remagen, The Big Red 1
In Army, Bronze Star, Silver Star, World War II on December 10, 2010 at 4:38 am
Doc Lawrence Schaeferle waa a small town doctor from Garwin, Iowa who joined the 16th Infantry Division. Aa a captain he patched up wounded soldiers on Omaha Beach during the height of the Normandy Invasion on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The doctor served the entire war in Europe. Photo provided by Chuck Blaine
The citation accompanying his Bronze Star Medal reads:
“LAWRENCE G. SCHAEFERLE, CAPTAIN, Medical Detachment, 32nd Field Artillery Battalion. For heroic achievement in connection with military operations against the enemy in the vicinity of St. Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, 6 June, 1944. Although subjected to heavy enemy fire, Capt. Schaeferle remained on exposed beach, administering first aid and assisting in evacuation of the seriously wounded. His heroic devotion to duty saved many lives. Entitled to wear six bronze battle participation stars on European Theatre Ribbon for campaigns in Sicily, Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe. Awarded the Bronze Star Medal for combat service in France and Bronze Service Arrowhead for Normandy Invasion.”
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10th Mountain Division, Apennines Mountains, BAR, Brenner Pass, DUWKs, General Fridolin von Senger, Josiph Tito, Maj. Gen. George P. Hays, Mount Belvedere, Po River
In Army, World War II on December 6, 2010 at 4:38 am
Recruit Bob Tidwell, Athens, La., is pictured outside his barracks during basic training in 1943. He served with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy. Photo provided
The British tried it, the Canadians tried it and elements of the 5th U.S. Army gave it a shot to no avail. Now it was the American 10th Mountain Division’s turn to take on German Gen. Fridolin von Senger’s entrenched troops in the Apennines Mountains of Italy during the winter of 1944.
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862nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, Aleutian Islands, Attu, Budapest, Fort Dix, Kiska, Okinawa
In Army, World War II on October 25, 2010 at 4:38 am
Julius Hirsch returned from fighting the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands on a 30-day leave before shipping out to fight on Okinawa, and married Anna. This picture was taken in 1944. Photo provided.
Julius Hirsch grew up in the Bronx and went to war almost a year before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He was a member of the 862nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion sent to the Aleutians when the Japanese invaded the barren islands off the Alaskan coast in 1942.
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1st Battalion 44th Artillery G-Battery, DMZ, Dong Ha, RPGs
In Army, Vietnam War on October 20, 2010 at 4:38 am
This is Krusinski on his way to Australia for a little R & R in 1967. He said Australia was great and the people were nice. He spent his time in Vietnam along the DMZ. Photo provided
John Krusinski, Sr. was a 19-year-old draftee who grew up in the Chicago area and went to war in Vietnam in 1967.
He was a member of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 44th Artillery, G-Battery station at a base camp in Dong Ha, along the DMZ separating North and South Vietnam. He spent a year being shot at or shooting at other people.
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1st Special Forces A-Team, 82nd Airborne, Airborne Paratrooper, Bravo Company, C-110 Flying Boxcar, Iron Triangle, Okinawa, The Walking Raiders
In Army, Vietnam War on October 18, 2010 at 4:38 am
This was Pvt. Charlie Householder after he graduated from Jump School at Fort Benning, Ga. in 1953. He was just graduated from high school and was 18 years old. Photo provided
Charlie Householder served in Vietnam in 1969 as a Platoon Sergeant. with the 82nd Airborne Division at first and end up in the 25th Infantry Division in ‘Nam. He retired a decade later as a 1st Sergeant with the 82nd at Fort Bragg, N.C.
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101st Airborne, Berchtesgaden, Field Marshal Hermann Goering, French 2nd Armored Division, Hitler's Eagle's Nest
In Army, World War II on September 27, 2010 at 4:38 am
This was Sgt. Fred Butts when he served with the 290th Engineering Battalion and looted Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps at the close of World War II. Photo provided by Jill Butts
Fred Butts, a Cape Cod industrialist who wintered in Boca Grande, Florida, was the first American soldier to loot Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat high atop Kehlstein Mountain in the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden at the close of World War II. Sixty years later, shortly before his death, he told his family the story which they captured on tape.
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864th Engineering Aviation Battalion, B-Company, Biak Island, New Britain Solomon Islands, Stars and Stripes
In Army, World War II on September 15, 2010 at 4:38 am
Shangri-La it wasn’t. This was Cpl. Kermitt’s camp on a South Pacific island during World War II. He lives in Deep Creek, near Punta Gorda, Fla. and served in the 864th Engineering Aviation Battalion during World War II. Photo provided
When Cpl. Kermitt Hampton’s landing craft hit the beach on New Britain Island in the South Pacific during World War II the Japanese knew they were coming and had a deadly trap waiting on the beach for the American forces.
“It was 5 a.m. on Christmas Day 1943 and the weather was stormy. The boat I was in was supposed to be in the third wave that came ashore, but it got caught by a wave and was pushed ashore first,” the 87-year-old former construction engineer from Deep Creek, near Punta Gorda, Fla. said. “When the gate on the front of the landing craft dropped down the Japs opened fire. All the guys trying to make it out the front of the boat didn’t make it.
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Bolivian Special Forces, Forward Edge, Green Beret, Ortega, Ranger, Sandinistas, Special Forces
In Army, Vietnam War on September 13, 2010 at 5:00 am
Looking a lot like Cervantes’ Don Quixote Gerald Kelly, a Green Beret officer working for the Organization of American States in 1969 during the “Soccer War” between Honduras and El Salvador, keeps the peace atop his steed. Photo provided
When Gerald Kelly went to war in Vietnam in 1968 he was a young Army 1st. lieutenant with little or no experience. By the time he retired from the service two decades later he was a light colonel, Latin American expert, Green Beret and an Airborne Ranger who served in Special Forces in the Americas.
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196 Aviation Battalion, Goodpasture, WACS, West Point
In Army, WACS on August 25, 2010 at 5:00 am
Ruth Russell is pictured in her 20s while serving as a sergeant in Germany in the late 1970s with the 3rd Armored Division Artillery.
When Ruth Russell of Charlotte Ratchets, south of Punta Gorda, joined the Army in 1973 it was still known as the Women’s Army Corps. In short, the WACs. Read the rest of this entry »
5th Armored, 75th Medical Battalion, Ardennes, Battle of the Bulge, D-Day plus 6, Hurtgen Forest, Normandy, Patton's 3rd Army, Remagen, Rhineland, River Elbe, St. Lo, Utah Beach
In Army, Bronze Star, World War II on August 18, 2010 at 4:38 am
Sgt. Ed Erving of Port Charlotte, Fla. is pictured at the wheel of his ambulance somewhere in Germany during World War II. Photo provided
He landed on Utah Beach on D-Day plus 6, took part in the breakout at St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge, Hurtgen Forest, Remagen and stopped at the Elbe River near Berlin at war’s end.
Edwin Erving of Port Charlotte, Fla. was trained as an ambulance driver and medic attached to the 5th Armored Division in World War II. He landed at Utah Beach in Normandy, France on D-Day plus 6 with the 5th Armored.
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