Sgt. Ron York stands in front of his hooch at the 34th Combat Engineers base camp at Puloy, Vietnam about 65 miles from Saigon. He was in ‘Nam in 1969-70. Photo provided
Halfway through his senior year in high school Ron York, who grew up in Griffith, Ind., decided he had had enough education and joined the Army. In June 1969 he arrived in Vietnam a member of the 34th Combat Engineers. Read the rest of this entry »
Pvt. Alex Haak is shown in the foreground painting murals for the 43rd Infantry Division’s mess hall in Germany in 1953 when he served in headquarter’s company. Photo provided
Alex Haak was 8-years-old when the German Army defeated the much smaller Dutch Army in May 1940 and marched into Amsterdam, Netherlands his home town and occupied the country for five years. As World War II progressed conditions for him and his family and friends grew worse and worse.
Robin Gulikers of Maastricht, the Netherlands was 15-years-old when this picture was taken of him placing flowers on the grave of Pfc. Robert Ramsdell in the American Military Cemetery in Holland. He is part of a Dutch group that puts flowers on the graves of American servicemen killed liberating their country during World War II. Photo provided
Since he was 13, almost a decade ago, Robin Gulikers of the Netherlands has placed flowers on the grave of Pfc. Robert Ramsdell buried in the American Military Cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands. It’s become a monthly ritual for the teenager, part of the Dutch “Fallen Not Forgotten” program honoring American servicemen killed in action whiled liberating Holland from the Germans in World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. George Sutherland is pictured with one of his 5 light tanks with a Nazi flag draped over the front. His platoon spearheaded Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army advance across Europe during World War II. Sutherland’s tank squad was part of the 10th Armored Division. Photo provided
George Sutherland of Port Charlotte, Fla. was in the vanguard of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army atop his light tank fighting his way into Germany during the closing months of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Marvin Aronow is pictured with his Purple Heart medal and the clip from his .30 caliber carbine pierced by an enemy bullet during a firefight to take a hill away from the enemy during the Korean War. Sun photo by Don Moore
The day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, 1951, Marvin Aronow from Bronx, N.Y. was drafted. He wound up in Korea as a member of I-Company, 31st Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.
“It wasn’t my idea to get drafted. When I got put in the Army I told them, ‘My teeth were bad.’ They said, ‘Here’s a rifle. You don’t have to bite the enemy with your teeth.’ Then I said, ‘I’ve got bad eyes.’ They replied, ‘We’re gonna put you up real close to the enemy.’
“They did.” Read the rest of this entry »
The war for Sgt. Clyde Housel of Reverwood subdivision in Port Charlotte, Fla. is over when this picture of the 20-year-old soldier was taken in Reams, France in 1945. Note he’s wearing the Combat Infantryman’s Badge on his chest. Photo provided
Former Sgt. Clyde Housel of Port Charlotte, Fla. found himself in the snow and cold huddled in a foxhole along the Siegfried Line searching for Germans to shoot with his 1903 Springfield sniper rifle and scope on Dec. 16, 1944. He was a 1st Army sniper. Read the rest of this entry »
Everett Charles early in his Navy career. He joined in 1950, right out of high school. Photo provided
Everett Charles of Vizcaya Lakes mobile home park in El Jobean skippered a PBR (Patrol Boat River) that prowled the Upper Saigon River hunting for North Vietnam Army regulars and Vietcong irregulars moving enemy supplies into South Vietnam. He made 216 combat patrols as captain, plus an additional 89 patrols into enemy territory as an advisor aboard South Vietnamese gun boats during the three years he served over there. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. Sandy Branzei holds a Chinese pistol he took off a dead officer killed during
the attack on “Boomerang Hill” in the “Iron Triangle” during the final weeks of the Korean War in 1953. Photo provided
A month before the armistice was signed in July 1953, putting the Korean War on hold, Sgt. Sandy Branzei was in a bunker with his .30 caliber machine-gun atop “Boomerang Hill” when his unit, King Company, 7th Regiment, 3rd Division, was attacked and overrun by waves of Chinese soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Pfc. Louis Basso shortly after graduating from Army boot camp in 1940. He was 19-years-old. Photo provided
Louis Basso of Venice, Fla. was a 155 mm gunner who served in Battery A, 258th Field Artillery Battalion attached to Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army that fought the Germans across France and into the “Fatherland” during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Andy Hawkinson was a teenage MP in this picture just before he was sent to Eniwetok Island in the Pacific in 1957 where dozens of atomic blasts were set off. Photo provided
Andy Hawkinson is the last of a dying breed. He is one of the last of an estimated 400,000 American soldiers who took part in atomic bomb testing during World War II and throughout the Cold War up to 1992. Read the rest of this entry »
George Phillips of North Port, Fla. is pictured with a shadow box full of his World War II medals and his sergeant stripes. He served in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army. Sun photo by Don Moore
George Phillips of North Port, Fla. was an 18-year-old soldier serving in Company G, 347th Regiment, 87th Infantry Division, part of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Pvt. Bob Balch of Venice, Fla. is pictured shortly after he graduated from boot camp at Camp Shelby, Miss. in 1943. He served in Gen. Mark Clark’s 5th Army in Europe as a member of the 85th Division. Photo provided
It was Pfc. Bob Balch’s job to retrieve the spent brass shells as they ejected from the breach of a 105 millimeter Howitzer. He was a cannonier, a hot shell man, and a member of a six-man crew that serviced a cannon in the 85th Infantry Division, part of Gen. Mark Clark’s 5th Army fighting in Italy during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
West Point graduate Bryan Coward, left, is sworn in during the Oath of Officership commissioning ceremony May 26, 2007 after commencement exercises. Sun photo by Sarah Coward
Second Lt. Bryan Coward officially became an officer and a gentleman May 26, 2007 upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, together with 977 classmates — members all of the “Long Gray Line.” Read the rest of this entry »
Cpl. Mick Johnson, a member of the 1st Cavalry Division, sits at a 105 mm Howitzer emplacement at Landing Zone Jamie near Tay Ninh, Vietnam in 1969 shortly before they were almost overrun by North Vietnam Army troops. He’s holding an M-79 Grenade Launcher. Photo provided by Betsy Brach
Mick Johnson of Bird Bay subdivision in Venice, Fla. was “sluffing off” on a football scholarship at Philadelphia’s Villanova University in 1968. At the end of the school year he was drafted as a minor league pitcher by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I played a half season with the Dodgers. In September ’68 I lost my military deferment when I dropped out of college and was drafted into the Army at the height of the Vietnam War,” the 64-year-old local resident said. “After eight weeks of basic at Fort Bragg, N.C. and several more weeks of artillery training at Fort Sill, Okla. I was sent to San Francisco and put on a TWA flight to Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »
John Schoell of Port Charlotte, Fla. was 17 when he signed up with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team in 1950. He made two combat jumps during the Korean War. Photo provided
John Schoell of Port Charlotte, Fla. took part in the first combat jump involving American paratroopers since World War II. He was as a member of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, and jumped on Oct. 20, 1950, near Sunchon, North Korea — just over the 38th Parallel dividing the North from the South. Read the rest of this entry »
Don and Jan Smally of Sarasota, Fla. are pictured in their Army uniforms shortly after they got married during World War II. Photo provided
Don Smally was a sergeant in the 283rd Ordinance and Ballistic Technical Service Detachment, fighting in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Arturo Rodriguez-Martin, a Port Charlotte, Fla. family doctor, returned from a tour of duty with the 5501st U.S. Army Field Hospital. Photo provided
Arturo Rodriguez-Martin recently returned from a three-month tour as a U.S. Army Reserve doctor. Read the rest of this entry »
Command Sgt. Maj. John Gay was third in line to be named Sergeant-Major of the Armies. He served his country in three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Photo provided
When Melitta Gay of Venice called me a while back and said she was going through all her late husband’s stuff from a 31-year military career that spanned World War II, Korea and Vietnam and wanted me to come check it out for possible inclusion in the Sun, I was perplexed. He had already gone on to Valhalla 18 years ago like all good warriors, so what did she want me to do?
“Come see me,” she said. “I have more than enough information to make a long story about my husband for your newspaper.” Read the rest of this entry »
1st Lt. William Standish is pictured after WWII wearing his Combat Infantryman’s Badge and his ribbons indicating he fought in four major campaigns and received the Silver and Bronze Star medals. Photo provided
It was 1st Lt. William Standish’s worst nightmare. He and the men in his platoon were charging a German-held house in the fog atop Hill 566, just south of Bologna, Italy, during World War II. The fog lifted and they were standing in the open, 50 feet away from an enemy machine-gun position. Read the rest of this entry »
Pvt. Ted Sannella of Port Charlotte, Fla. was a member of H-Company, 120th Infantry, 1st Army at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Photo provided by Ted Sannella
It was a cold, rainy, muddy night in November 1944, Sgt. Ted Sannella was on duty at 1st Army’s Headquarters near Aachen, Germany as Allied forces began their final push into the “Fatherland” near the close of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Maurice Forgotson’s mortar platoon taken immediately after VE Day, probably somewhere near Hannover, Germany. He isn’t in the picture. Photo provided by Maurice Forgotson
Maurice Forgotson, of Gulf View mobile home park on Burnt Store Road, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. was a forward observer with a mortar platoon. It was part of the 84th Infantry Division, attached to Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Mike Meehan of Englewood, Fla. is shown in this 1951 photo when he when he took part in the Korean War. He was 22-years-old. Photo provided
Michael Meehan of Englewood, Fla. received a Silver Star, the third highest commendation awarded an American soldier for gallantry under enemy fire, when his unit, the 17th Regiment of the 7th Division, was trying to capture a hill held by North Koreans. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Pvt. Bill Price of Port Charlotte, Fla. about the time he graduated from boot camp at 20 in 1942. Photo provided by Bill Price
Bill Price, who lives in Oxford House, Port Charlotte, was driving a 2 1/2-ton Army truck onto the beach at Normandy, France, D-Day, 60 years ago in June. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. Andy Pace of Port Charlotte, Fla. is pictured at 19 in 1943 after graduating from boot camp at Fort Polk, La. He served with the 58th Armored Infantry Battalion, part of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in World War II. Photo provided
Andy Pace of Port Charlotte, Fla. served as a member of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in World War II. He was a battalion radio operator for Headquarters Company, 58th Armored Infantry Battalion, 8th Armored Division. Read the rest of this entry »
Staff Sgt. Ray Jewett received three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart as a combat photographer in Vietnam during his two tours of duty. He almost died after being shot in the neck by an enemy bullet during a battle at Black Virgin Mountain while filming a Special Forces unit in 1964. Photo provided by Dick Hornyak
Staff Sgt. Raymond Jewett was a combat photographer in July 1964 attached to the U.S. military Assistance Command in Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »
Marilyn Monroe visits 7th Infantry Division soldiers along the DMZ in Korea in February 1954. She toured the country putting on shows for servicemen even though she and Joe Dimaggio were supposed to be on a honeymoon in Japan. Photo provided by Roger Burton
Roger Burton is no war hero. In fact, he missed the whole war.
The infantry corporal was a couple of weeks too late for the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, one of the nastiest engagements of the Korean War. Read the rest of this entry »
At the close of the war, while William Nickell was waiting to be shipped home, he became the 83rd Infantry Division’s middleweight boxing champ. He is shown standing at the far right. The other two fighters with him are Allan Hope and Abe Hoffman, (left to right). Squatting is Claude Clark, their trainer. Photo provided
“I saw a 60-ton German Tiger tank about 100-feet away. It had nine machine guns and one 88 mm cannon pointing right at us,” Sgt. William Nickell of Punta Gorda, Fla. wrote in his World War II memoirs. Read the rest of this entry »
Gen. I.D. White, commander of the 8th Army, presents Alexander in 1956 with an award for her services in Korea. Photo provided
With her wispy white hair, her frail body and her tiny voice, Harriette Moore is the epitome of someone’s grandmother. Looks can be deceiving.
Capt. Leo F. Gowen was a surgeon who served in an aid station near the front lines in Gen. Courtney Hodges’ 1st Army during World War II. Photo provided by John Neal, Jr.
U.S. Army Capt. Leo F. Gowen of Nanticoke, Pa., was a surgeon in an aid station behind the front lines in the 9th Medical Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment of Gen. Courtney H. Hodges 1st Army that fought through Europe during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Bill Tannatt of Englwood, Fla. and Milton Dorr of Worcester, Mass., are pictured in their early 20s when they were fighting through Europe during World War II. Photo provided
Bill Tannatt of Englewood, Fla. and Milton Dorr of Worcester, Mass., started out as members of the Yankee Division, the Massachusetts National Guard’s 26th Infantry Division, and ended up in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division of the 5th Army during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Military experts watch a simulated atomic bomb explosion, like one that might have been made by an artillery shell, at the Naval Training Device Center in New York State where Tom Peterson served late in his 25-year service career. Photo provided by Tom Peterson
Tom Peterson’s baptism of fire came during the Battle of the Bulge, the biggest battle on the Western Front during World War II. He was a young 2nd lieutenant commanding a platoon of M-4 tanks, part of the 781st Tank Battalion attached to the 7th Army. Read the rest of this entry »
Here he is a second lieutenant serving in the Second World War. Clark received the Silver Star for gallantry under fire during WWII. Photo provided by Al Clark
Col. Al R. Clark of Port Charlotte, Fla. joined the Oregon National Guard in 1935 at the age of 15. Before his 33-year regular Army career was over, he saw action on the front lines in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Dan Byrd is pictured with “Prince” his sentry guard dog in Vietnam in 1965. Photo provided by Dan Byrd
Dan Byrd lived an idyllic life growing up as a kid on Longboat Key off Sarasota, Fla. half a century ago. In those days, he hunted rabbits on the key with his .22-caliber rifle while his mom and dad ran the bait shop and hamburger stand on the south end of the New Pass Bridge connecting the key with City Island. Read the rest of this entry »
When Elmer Watson arrived in Marseille, France aboard a victory ship he was a medic in the 242nd Infantry Regiment. His unit made it to the war in Europe on Dec. 11, 1944, just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. Lawrence Stout of Englewood, Fla. at 20 when he served in as a clerk typist and German POW guard at Camp Buckner, N.C. during World War II. Photo provided
Lawrence Stout of Lemon Bay mobile home park in Englewood, Fla. never fired a rifle in World War II. Because he could type he was made a clerk typist after completing boot camp at Camp Buckner, N.C. in February 1943. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul Elliott, who lives in the North Port, Fla. area, looks at a bronze bust of Le Loi, the 14th Century emperor of Vietnam. He purchased the bronze in a curio shop in Nha Trang, South Vietnam when he served in Vietnam in 1965 with the 524th Military Intelligence Unit. Sun photo by Don Moore
Paul Elliott was trained as a Russian linguist and military intelligence agent and when he went to Vietnam in 1966. He had to use those skills and more to ferret out saboteurs trying to sneak into Camp McDermott — the main supply base for the 1st Logistical Command that provided American forces with most of their equipment during the war. Read the rest of this entry »
Keith Des of Englewood, Fla. was 20 when this picture of him was taken in front of a Pontiac Silver Streak after World War II. He had returned from 28 days on the front line with Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army, and recovered from his war wounds. Photo provided
Pfc. Keith Des Ermia only fought as a replacement soldier in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II for 28 days before he was severely wounded by shrapnel from a German 88. He spent the next eight months recovering from his war wounds in hospitals in England and the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. Mike Labick of Kings Gate subdivision in Port Charlotte, Fla. is pictured in his Army uniform at the end of World War II. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. Photo provided
The first day former Sgt. Mike Labick arrived in Normandy in September 1944 he wound up in a front line foxhole at Saint-Lo as a newly-minted member of Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army. Read the rest of this entry »
An American soldier talks to several Japanese who surrendered months after U.S. forces had captured the island. Note the white flag over the shoulder of the enemy soldier at the left. Photo provided by Walter Mitchell
Cpl. Walter Mitchell of Englewood, Fla. turned part of Guadalcanal, a major South Pacific battlefield in World War II, into a 5,000-acre truck farm once Japanese troops had been defeated. Read the rest of this entry »
John Salvani is pictured with his younger brother, Geno, who served aboard am LST (Landing Ship Tank) in the Pacific during World War II. The picture was taken in front of their parents’ Detroit, Mich. home. Photo provided
John Silvani grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Detroit, Mich., graduated from high school about the time World War II began and went to work at the Ford plant in Dearborn as a teenage tool-and-die maker after receiving a military deferment. Read the rest of this entry »
Floyd Gantzer holds a Nazi flag outside the apartment his anti-tank unit was living in in Berlin. Photo provided by Floyd Gantzer
Trained as a paratrooper at Fort Benning, Ga., in July 1944, former Pfc. Floyd Gantzer was attached to the 193rd Glider Infantry Regiment, part of the 17th Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in January 1945 during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Cpl. John Flower of Englewood, Fla. became the manager of the bowling alley on Adak in the Aleutian Islands during the “Cold War” in 1946 when he served for a year in the Army in the north country. Photo provided
John Flower of Oak Forrest subdivision Englewood, Fla. said facetiously, “I was a corporal in the U.S. Army’s ‘Fighting 69th, PX Detachment’ on Adak, in the Aleutian Islands in 1946″. He ran a bowling alley for the troops on the godforsaken atoll. Read the rest of this entry »
Harold Hewitt holds his 10 month old son, Craig, shortly after returning from the second World War while his wife, Rosemary, stands at his elbow. Beside them in the picture is their 1941 Ford “Super Deluxe” coupe. The couple has been married for 64 years. Photo provided
A couple of months after D-Day, 2nd Lt. Harold Hewitt of Port Charlotte, Fla. landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, with the 252nd Engineers Battalion, part of Gen. William “Tex” Simpson’s 9th Army fighting in Europe during World War II.
This was Abraham Coleman as a 17 year old recruit who signed up and eventually went to war some 60 years ago. He grew up in Punta Gorda, Fla. Photo provided
Former Cpl. Abraham Coleman joined the U.S. Army in 1947 at 17, “just to get the hell away from Punta Gorda.” He wanted to find a better life with more opportunities for a young black man than living in a small Southern town. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Al Partridge, at far right, with three of his buddies during a year long training at Camp Hale, near Vail, Colo. Photo provided
A harmonica stopped a bullet from hitting Pcf. Al Partridge ‘s heart during the 5th Army’s assault in Italy’s Apennine Mountains in January 1944. Read the rest of this entry »
This badly damaged picture of Pfc. Bill Waits of Nocatee, Fla. is his only service picture. He served in the Army’s 26th Division with Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in France and spent seven months in a German POW camp before he was liberated along with another 110,000 other Allied prisoners. Photo.provided
The steel-plated gold cover on the outside of Bill Waits’ “Heart Shield Bible” he carried in his breast pocket while a rifleman in the 26th Infantry Division during the Allied invasion of France in the closing months of World War II was inscribed in flowing script: “May this keep you from harm.” Read the rest of this entry »
Ray Kari, who winters at Lettuce Lake Campground south of Arcadia, Fla., had an “out of body experience” after being shot while serving as a medic in the Pacific Theatre in World War II. Sun photo by Jeffery Langlois
Pvt. Ray Kari was the youngest, least-trained medic in Company B, 169th Infantry, 43rd Division when he waded ashore in the middle of the night on a small attol just off New Georgia Island in the southwest Pacific a lifetime ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Wesley Norman Jackson is pictured in his World War I Army uniform before he was shipped over seas to drive an ambulance through France during the 18 months he spent in World War I more than 90 years ago. Photo provided
A Farewell to Arms, tells the story of Lt. Frederic Henry, the main character in Hemingway’s novel about a World War I ambulance driver who deserts his unit because he can no longer face the maiming and killing on the front lines he had to endure. Anne Hilliard of Arcadia, Fla. whose father, Wesley Norman Jackson, was also a WW I ambulance driver in France during the war, went AWOL to Monte Carlo for three days to escape the carnage, but returned to his unit and faced his superiors. Read the rest of this entry »
1st Lt. Bette Horstman at a hospital unit in Saipan at the close of World War II. Photo provided
Bette Horstman of Port Charlotte, Fla. was a physical therapist who graduated from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. near the end of World War II, joined the Army and was sent to Saipan as a 2nd lieutenant to help the troops recover from war wounds. Read the rest of this entry »
Sgt. Nolan stands on the wing of the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter he maintained for 2nd Lt. Mike McGraph, in the cockpit, as he gets ready to take off on a mission in Europe during World War II. Photo provided.
Richard Nolan of Deep Creek, Fla. enlisted in the Army a year before the United States entered World War II, never dreaming it would be a six-year, world-shattering event for him and the rest of the human race. Read the rest of this entry »
