Cpl. Robert Robb receives the Purple Heart from his platoon commander, Capt. Birney Adams, at a ceremony in Korea during the war. Photo provided
Cpl. Robert Robb was a sniper attached to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division in Korea during the war. His unit took Hill 749, a volcanic mound known as the ‘Punchbowl,’ away from a regiment of North Koreans holding the high ground in mid-September 1951. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Harold Tyler’s unit checks out the remains of Sugar Loaf Hill, the deadliest Japanese fortification on Okinawa. It resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Marines and soldiers who tried to capture it. Photo provided
Pfc. Harold Tyler of Crystal Bay Condominiums, Lake Suzy, Fla. was in Charley Company, 1st Battalion, 29th Regiment, 6th Marine Division on Palm Sunday morning, April 1, 1945, when his unit charged ashore on Okinawa, the biggest Pacific island battle of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Bill Ditto in his Class A dress uniform in recent years. He was a drummer in a burial service at Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery near Berkeley Springs, W. Va. Photo provided
Before Bill Ditto of Englewood, Fla. went aboard the battleship USS Missouri as a Marine guard in 1949, growing up in West Virginia, he had never seen the sea or a ship the size of the “Mighty Mo.” Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
Chris Eaton of Venice, Fla. was part of a special contingent of “Leathernecks” who presided at military funerals held in Arlington National Cemetery, at the Tuesday evening Sunset Parade in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial in the cemetery and at the Friday Night Parade outside the home of the Marine Corps Commandant in Washington, D.C. Photo provided
Chris Eaton was a spit and polish Marine. The lance corporal was a member of Alpha Company, Marine Barracks Washington, D.C. His company was part of a special contingent of “Leathernecks” who presided at military funerals held in Arlington National Cemetery, at Tuesday evening Sunset Parade in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial in the cemetery and at the Friday Night Parade outside the home of the Marine Corps Commandant near 8th and I-Street in D.C.
Ernie O’Brien was photographed in his Marine Corps full dress uniform at a recent funeral he attended in Port Charlotte, Fla. Sun photo by Don Moore
In his dark blue Marine dress uniform trimmed with red piping, wearing white gloves and a white hat, Ernie O’Brien of Port Charlotte, Fla. stands ramrod straight at 87. He looks as if he could hit the beach at Guadalcanal, as he did more than 65 years ago. His silver mustache adds a touch of manliness to a face that has seen war up close and personal. Read the rest of this entry »
Ken Budd looks at a scrapbook of photos taken during his four trips to Guadalcanal since 1985 searching for his brother, Robert. Sun photo by Don Moore
Ken Budd has an obsession.
For 25 years he’s been trying to locate the remains of his older brother who was killed on Guadalcanal during World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. j.g. Vernon Martens served in Marine legend “Chesty” Puller’s battalion during the battles for Guadalcanal and New Briton in the Pacific during World War II. Sun photo by Don Moore
Lt. j.g. Vernon Martens United States Marine Corps was in the first wave of “Leathernecks” on the beach at Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942. A doctor in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, he came ashore with his 1906 Springfield rifle in one hand and his medical supplies in the other. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Bob Hemingway served as a light machine-gunner in the 2nd Marine Division during the 1960s. Here he’s horsing around with the .30-caliber gun for the camera. Photo provided
Bob Hemingway of Lake Suzy, near Port Charlotte, Fla. was a junior in high school in New Haven, Conn. when he dropped out of school and joined the Marine Corps. He ended up in the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division stationed at Camp Lajeune, N.C. Read the rest of this entry »
Twelve-year-old Slade Tully talked to his dad, Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Michael Joseph Tully, by phone from Baghdad for the last time Aug. 18, 2007. The sergeant was killed by a roadside bomb. Read the rest of this entry »
Lt. Ken Heitel of Venice, Fla. picture in his A-4E “Skyhawk” jet fighter. He flew off the deck of the carrier Independence during the “Cold War” of the 1970s. Photo provided by Ken Heitel
Ken Heitel was a “Cold War Warrior.” He flew an A-4E “Skyhawk,” jet fighter off the USS Independence, a Forrestal Class carrier, as a Marine Corps aviator serving in the Mediterranean during the early 1970s. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul Gailey sits on the wing of a Corsair. He was a crew chief in Marine Air Group 31 during the Pacific war. It was his responsibility: Keep the fighters flying. Photo provided by Paul Gailey
Paul Gailey, of Burnt Store Marina, Fla., was a crew chief in Marine Air Group 31, Squadron VMF-441, during the Battle of Okinawa, the last major island battle in the Pacific in World War II. As a sergeant, it was his job to keep his squadron of F4U Corsair fighters airborne. Read the rest of this entry »
This snapshot of Ivar Svenson and Ann Byerlein was taken in Da Nang just before Ann completed her year in South Vietnam working at a civilian hospital and headed back to the States. He was serving in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. Photo provided
Col. Ivar Svenson, United States Marine Corps, was in charge of plans and operations for the III Marine Amphibious Force headquarters unit stationed in Da Nang, South Vietnam in 1968. Ann Byerlein was head nurse of the intensive care unit at Da Nang Provincial Hospital in May of that year, during the height of the Vietnam War. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt Craig is pictured in his dress blues near the conclusion of his 20 years of service in the United States Marine Corps. Photo provided
Rodger Craig had just graduated from high school in 1950 and signed up to be a Marine about the time the Korean War started. He was in boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. when war broke out. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Pfc. Homer Beach shortly after graduating from Parris Island, S. C. in 1942. Photo provided
Homer Beach was a “Buffalo,” amphibious vehicle driver, in the 3rd Marine Division. The 20-year-old corporal drove assault troops ashore on Guam, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima during World World II. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Frank Garcia is pictured in the back row, second from the right in this Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper published during World War II. Photo provided
A week after the Japanese bombed the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, dragging the United States into World War II, Frank Garcia joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt. Wally Weber returns from a mission in his Corsair fighter. When this picture was shot, he was flying from Peleliu Island in the Pacific. Photo provided
Wally Weber of Burnt Store Country Club didn’t have to sweat the draft during World War II. His father was the chairman of the local draft board in the little town in Oklahoma where he grew up. Read the rest of this entry »
Three Douglas Dauntless SBD gunners were saddled up and ready to fly. Clark is on the left. With him is Jimmy Kiester of Germantown, Ohio in the center and Frank Hunt, who lived in Punta Gorda until he died recently. Photo provided by Mel Clark
“We were flying over Rabaul at 15,000 feet and went into a dive in our (Douglas Dauntless) SBD dive bombers. Suddenly, I saw this Japanese Zero coming toward me. The pilot looked right at me as I started firing,” former Sgt. Mel Clark recalled six decades later. Read the rest of this entry »
This is Russell Holland’s Parris Island graduation picture taken in Nov. 1943 according to the information at the bottom of the photograph. He is the Marine holding the M-1 rifle in the top row 2nd from the right. Photo provided
Russell Holland of Punta Gorda Isles, Fla. was a corporal in the 5th Marine Division on Feb. 19, 1945, when his unit went ashore on the first day of the battle for Iwo Jima. It was one of the major battles in the Pacific during the closing months of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Skip Libby is pictured in his Marine Corp graduation picture taken in 1963 after surviving Parris Island, S.C. boot camp. He was among the first Marines to be sent to Vietnam in 1965. Photo provided
Two days after graduating from high school in 1963 Skip Libby of La Casa mobile home park in North Port, Fla. joined the Marines and went to Parris Island, S.C. for basic training. Two years later he was sent to Vietnam as a member of the 3rd Marine Division, the first division of Marines in country. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Robert Martin at 18 when he ws a member of Marine Dive Bomber Squadron 234, which fought in the Pacific during the Second World War. Photo provided
More than 60 years ago, former Sgt. Robert Martin of Englewood, Fla. was a back seat gunner in a Douglas Dauntless SBD single-engine dive bomber flying against Japanese fortifications on Bougainville in the New Georgia Islands in the Pacific during World War II. He was a member of Marine Dive Bomber Squadron 234. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt. John Campbell is shown when he worked for the Marine Corps in the Philadelphia, Pa. area during the 1950s. He served 28 years in the Corps. Photo provided
John Campbell was gung-ho to join the Marine Corp. He quit high school in his sophomore year at 17 and became a “Leatherneck” in 1946. Read the rest of this entry »
This group of American prisoners were captured by the Chinese during the Korean war and shipped to the Soviet Union as POWs. They were released at the end of the war in 1953. Photo provided
Charlie Kukla arrived in Korea in June 1950 as a 19-year-old “grunt” in the 1st Marine Division.
Within a week he was a prisoner of war. Read the rest of this entry »
Pvt. Jim Mazy of Englewood, Fla. is pictured as an 18-year-old Marine who took part in the first major battle in Vietnam involving American forces called “Operation Starlite” on Aug. 18, 1965. Photo provided
Jim Mazy, who lives south of Englewood, Fla. was a radio operator in Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He was wounded in “Operation Starlite,” the first major battle of the Vietnam War between American forces and the Viet Cong near Chu Lai, South Vietnam in 1965. Read the rest of this entry »
Lance Cpl. Chali Wolfrom talks with his wife, Nicole, in front of his grandmother's home in North Port, Fla.. The Marine just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. Sun photo by Don Moore
Lance Cpl. Chali Wolfrom, a 20-year-old Marine and North Port, Fla. High School graduate, has just returned from a six-month tour of duty in Ramadi, Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
This was John Carlson of Punta Gorda, Fla. about the time he completed his carrier landing training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1956. He was 22. Photo provided
John Carlson has 30,000 plus hours of time flying Marine Corps fighter-bombers and transport planes around the country and throughout the world for 22 years and another 35 years piloting jets for Northwest Airlines. Read the rest of this entry »
Bob Crossley of Venice, Fla. holds a Japanese battle flag taken from a dead Japanese Marine during the Battle of Iwo Jima 60 years ago this month. Note the tiger's head at the upper left hand corner. He believes this indicates the Marine who owned it may have fought in China before he died at Iwo Jima. The flag is signed by all the men in the company. Sun photo by Don Moore
U.S. Marine Pfc. Bob Crossley of Venice, Fla. hit the beach on Iwo Jima in a Higgins boat in the third wave on Feb. 19, 1945. He was a member of the 5th Marine Division, 26th Regiment, 2nd Battalion D-Company. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Pvt. Lawrence Houle of Port Charlotte after graduating from Parris Island, Marine Corps boot camp at 18 in 1943. Photo provided
Lawrence Houle joined the Marine Corps in 1943 after graduating from high school in Grosvenordale, Conn. He first served with the 4th Marine Division during the invasion of the Marshal Islands. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt. Tom Smith of Sarasota, Fla. served with the 1st Marine Division in Vietnam. He is pictured with an enemy AK-47 assault rifle while holding a skull. This picture was taken at Quang Tri, Vietnam, at the division's rear area. Photo provided
Capt. Tom Smith United States Marine Corps wrote this account of his tour in Vietnam:
“On July 1, 1968, while serving as platoon commander of 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 27th Marines, I received orders for a mission. It was a four-day, three-night patrol to establish various platoon patrol bases and then conduct numerous small unit patrols out of them. Read the rest of this entry »
Frank Bloom shortly after graduating from flight school during World War II. Photo provided
Frank Bloom joined the Marine Corps Aviation Cadet Program while still in high school and learned to fly F4U Corsair fighters during World War II. He was called back during the Korean War. Read the rest of this entry »
Nick Melone of Port Charlotte, Fla. holds a Japanese battle flag he captured as a Marine while fighting during the Battle of Saipan in the closing months of World War II. Sun photo by Don Moore
Nick Melone of Port Charlotte, Fla. sat in a big gray cushy chair, a tether running from his nose to a nearby oxygen bottle. He reached for a folded flag stuffed in the top of a blue plastic storage tub of World War II memorabilia. The 89-year-old Marine sergeant shook the folds out of the white cotton flag with a bright red sun in the center - it was a Japanese battle flag signed by members of the enemy soldier’s unit. Read the rest of this entry »
For the past year, in addition to writing war stories about local veterans, I’ve provided DVD interviews of these same veterans to the Library of Congress’ “Veterans History Project.”
This week I reached a milestone in these interviews. A couple of days ago I sent 25 DVDs and supporting material on each disk to the Library of Congress. That’s a total for the year of 100 interviews, 100 DVDs the “Veterans History Project” has received since this time last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Marines on Iwo Jima hold Japanese battle flag souvenirs taken from the bodies of dead enemy soldiers. Almost every Japanese marine went into battle carrying a battle flag. Photo provided
Robert Stilson of Alameda Isles Mobile Home Park in Englewood, Fla. was a 19-year-old Marine Corps corporal who charged ashore from a Higgins Boat onto the black sandy beach at Iwo Jima on the first first day in the second wave –Feb. 19, 1945– to play his part in one of the major battles in the Pacific during the closing months of World War II.
Marines put up the second American flag atop Mount Suribachi and take down the first flag on Feb. 23, 1945 during the Battle of Iwo Jima near the end of World War II. Photo provided by Dick Honyak
Dick Honyak walked into the Charlotte Sun newspaper office in Englewood, Fla. six years ago and dropped a big, thick, loose leaf notebook full of 8 by 10 black and white photographs on my desk. The historic photos were of the Marines taking Iwo Jima from the Japanese at the close of World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
Capt. John Murphy of Punta Gorda, Fla. prepares to land his Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopter on a battlefield somewhere in Vietnam. Photo provided
John Thomas Murphy was a Marine pilot who flew helicopters and observation planes in Vietnam during his two combat tours. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross on each deployment while piloting an H-34 helicopter and a OV-10 Bronco twin-engine spotter plane into withering North Vietnam Army fire.
This was Pvt. John Thomas of Port Charlotte, Fla. shortly after he got out of Marine boot camp at 22. He was sent to Pearl Harbor where he spent most of WW II. Photo provided.
John Henry Thomas was a Marine who served in the Pacific during World War II, but never fired a shot in battle. He was a carpenter before the war who worked in the woodworking shop at the Marine Corps barracks in Pearl Harbor almost a year after the Japanese bombed the Pacific Fleet at Pearl dragging the United States into war. Read the rest of this entry »
President Harry Truman is all smiles as he presents Sgt. William Harrell U.S. Marine Corps with the Medal of Honor shortly after World War II. Photo provided
To everyone else, Sgt. William Harrell was a war hero. He was the recipient of the Medal of Honor, “…for conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” at Iwo Jima during World War II. To Gary Harrell he was just dad. Read the rest of this entry »
Pfc. Hector Cafferata of Venice, Fla. is pictured with the Medal of Honor. He will tell you he was no hero; he was just saving his backside when he killed over 100 enemy soldiers in the battle for “Fox Hill” during the early months of the Korean War.
Pvt. Hector Cafferata was a 20-year-old green Marine replacement. He joined Fox Company’s 2nd Platoon a few days before the first wave of Chinese troops attacked his listening post at the Toktong Pass during the early months of the Korean War that cold November night half a century ago . Read the rest of this entry »
2nd Lt. William Magill is shown in his F-4U Corsair. For 15 months he flew the plane on 89 combat missions, as represented by the bombs painted on its side. Photo provided by Bill Magill
Father Bill Magill of Venice, Fla. was a “Devil Dog.” He flew a Corsair, F-4U fighter, in the Pacific during World War II before he began working for the Lord.
The former Marine aviator and retired Episcopal priest was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-111. “Devil Dogs” is what they called themselves. He saw action in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands in the Central Pacific from December 1943 until March 1945.
“Our job was to bomb and strafe everything and keep the Japanese‘s heads down,” said Magill, 85. “The first thing we did was shoot up their planes on the ground and then we would pound the heck out of them with bombs.”
By the time his tour was finished he logged 89 combat missions. The side of his Corsair was covered with yellow bombs, one for each mission.
The first flag goes up on Iwo. This flag-raising most people don’t know anything about. The famous picture of the 2nd flag-raising captured by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal that made the front page of hundreds of newspapers in the US amounted to nothing, according to the men who put it up. Photo by Sgt. Lou Lowery/Leatherneck Magazine
The light cruiser Vicksburg laid a half-mile off the beach at Iwo Jima. Her 5-inch and 8-inch guns had pounded Mount Suribachi and the surround shoreline for days. Read the rest of this entry »
Randy Smith is pictured at 19, shortly after he completed boot camp. He thought he was a pretty gung-ho “Jarhead.” Photo provided by Randy Smith
Cpl. Randy Smith knew the war in South Vietnam was over when he was ordered to take down the American flag at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Read the rest of this entry »
Gini Westfall of Port Charlotte, Fla. fingers her Gold Star Mother’s pin on her collar as she stares at her son’s name on “The Moving Wall” that came to Fort Myers, Fla. Her 21-year-old son, Bronson, was killed in Vietnam in June 1967. Photo by Chris Crook
She emerged slowly from the car with cane in hand and walked hunched over along a serpentine concrete path. At its end was The Wall. Read the rest of this entry »
