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Jim Hester, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Sept. 21, 2005) Jim Hester of Bryan was an Army lifer. That was interrupted by four years he spent in the Air Force. He served one tour in Germany and three tours of Vietnam. He was a medic and a nurse. He was wounded three times and earned several commendations. After 9/11, he re-upped and trained troops to serve in the war on terror. He’s proud of his 35-year career in uniform.
Ed Higgins, U.S. Air Force, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 14, 2008) Meet Ed Higgins of College Station. As a World War II forward navigator on six B-17 missions over Europe, he experienced his share of uncertain moments -- like his very first mission to Brandenburg (the gateway to Berlin) a navigator of the number two plane in a 1000 plane group. There were 3 missions where the beaches at Royan, France was the target, then over Dresden and finally Ingolstadt. After his tour of Europe he be became a pilot and as a captain was the ranking student officer in-flight training at Bryan Air Force Base.
Henry Hill, U.S. Air Force, Viet Nam (A&M Class of ‘56) (Interviewed Feb.7, 2008) Technically Colonel Henry Hill is retired, but actually he's never been busier. We could do a whole show on Henry Hill’s service since his military service ended. But let's meet Colonel Henry Hill, the Vietnam B–37 pilot, who flew 360 missions, including some of the most dangerous missions during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Duke Hobbs, Army/Air Force, World War II (A&M Class of '47) (Interviewed June 5, 2008) Duke Hobbs' career in service includes his service with the 79th Infantry in Europe during World War II and later in the Air Force working reconnaissance in Europe during the Cold War. Texas A&M class of 1947. He's a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who recalls the unbearable cold of that winter of 1945. He was a member of a traveling variety show postwar the show was called "You've Had It Joe".
Fred Holland, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Aug.2, 2007) “You call, we haul” was the motto of boat pool 15, a Navy unit during World War II where Fred Holland of Bryan was first a Coxswain and then a motor mechanic. His job in the Pacific was to transport Marines onto the beaches on LCMs. LCM were best known as the landing craft that delivered troops to the beaches of France on D-Day, but they were also critical in the Pacific Campaign.
Lannes Hope, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Oct. 26, 2005) Col. Lannes Hope did not land on Omaha Beach on D-Day, but he watched he watched it happen from off-shore that day. The next day, June 7, 1944, (D+1), his unit brought the first tanks to Normandy. An eyewitness to what Hollywood called “The Longest Day” and an eyewitness to the horror of death the invasion left behind. A west Texas boy and a musician and a member of the Texas Tech band of the 1940’s.
Gen. Ted Hopgood, Marines, Vietnam (Interviewed Sept. 4, 2008) General Ted Hopgood’s 31-year career in the Marine Corps was followed by six years as Commandant of Cadets at Texas A&M. He had three tours of Vietnam, the first one with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Kilo Company on the ground, in combat. One of his earliest battles was the most intense. His recollections of his career are vivid, especially his time in the National Military Command Center during the start of Operation Desert Storm.
Gen. Ted Hopgood, Marines, Vietnam (Interviewed Sept. 4, 2008) General Ted Hopgood’s 31-year career in the Marine Corps was followed by six years as Commandant of Cadets at Texas A&M. He had three tours of Vietnam, the first one with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Kilo Company on the ground, in combat. One of his earliest battles was the most intense. His recollections of his career are vivid, especially his time in the National Military Command Center during the start of Operation Desert Storm.
Louis Hudson, U.S. Army, World War II (A&M Class of '44) (Interviewed Nov. 15, 2005) Texas A&M sophomore Louis Hudson was sitting in the campus theater when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Indeed the theater manager came out to tell the patrons about the attack that started the U.S. involvement in World War II. Louis Hudson was a paratrooper who got his training at Fort Benning, Georgia. His career included jumping over the lines during Normandy into St Mere Eglise and later as a paratrooper, part of the US mission Operations Market Garden. His is truly a remarkable story.
Dr. Jeffrey Huffman, U.S. Army, Iraq (Interviewed May 27, 2011) Dr. Jeffrey Huffman is also Lt. Col. Jeffrey Huffman is a urologist at the College Station Medical Center. His story is about as unique as they come because it was age 51, after the attacks of Sept. 11th, 2001, that Dr. Huffman heard President Bush speak to congress and the country and tell them that this war effort in Iraq would take the help of all Americans. So it then that Dr. Huffman knew the President was speaking to him. He also knew there was a critical shortage of surgeons in the war zone so he closed his practice and his tenured professor position at Southern Cal, where he’d been for 21 years, got commissioned for the first time into the military, and in 2005 was sent to the American Military Hospital in Balad, about 45 miles north of Baghdad. That was a five-month tour during the surge. In 2009, he returned for a three-month tour. Dr. Huffman fixed people, American military, Iraqi military and civilians, and yes, even the enemy, Al-qaeda. That’s just part of his amazing story. Dr. Huffman was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the President of the United States.
Carl Huss, Army Air Corps, WW II (Interviewed June 4, 2009) Carl Huss joined the Army Air Corp before US involvement in World War II started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was just looking to learn a trade, and indeed he did. As a radioman stationed first for nearly 3 years in Alaska, then in the Philippines near war’s end. He became pretty well versed in American- Russian relations during the War and that’s just a part of his fascinating story of service.
Dale Jackson, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 12, 2009) Soon after Dale Jackson entered the Army at Age 18, he was shipped off to Omaha, Nebraska for Ordnance Repair School, learning how to fix military equipment and vehicles. Just 15 months after he entered the service, on 6 June 1944, he would find himself at another Omaha -- Omaha Beach, part of the 3rd Wave at Normandy on D-Day. He recalls that historical event with amazing clarity because he was there, because he was wounded there, because he served there. He says he was there when General Eisenhower addressed the paratroopers the day before the invasion and indeed identifies himself in one of the War’s most famous photographs.
Jules Jacquin, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 22, 2007) Jules Jacquin of College Station is one of many proud Aggies whose education was interrupted by World War II. But there was plenty to learn in the Army, as a member of Company K of the 102nd Infantry Division that swept through France, Belgium and Holland on its way to Germany near war’s end.
Mike Jarvis, U.S. Army, Iraq (A&M Class of 2006) (Interviewed Nov. 2, 2005) Mike Jarvis, with the Texas A&M Veterans Association, talks about what Texas A&M does for its students who have served and are returning for their education, or are about to start service. Jarvis served in Germany and Bosnia in the mid-90s as a combat engineer. He blew stuff up and built robots that did it. He started his service at the age of 17.
Ivo Junek, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 21, 2008) Before Ivo Junek enlisted in the Army, he was a member of the Tree Army, also known as the Civilian Conservation Corps. A member of the 91st Infantry Division in the European Theater, he spent most of his combat days in Italy. While he was serving in Europe, his three brothers served in World War II in the Pacific. Ivo was a Snook native.
Gordon Kennedy, U.S. Army, Korea/Vietnam (Interviewed Jan. 29, 2009) Gordon Kennedy had seen a lot of the world during his 31 years of military service. Service that included a 15-month tour during in Korea during that War, and then a year in Saigon, near the end of the Vietnam War. When he left his final tour of duty, in Jamaica, he had hardly even heard of Bryan, Texas...It was his next duty assignment as an intelligence specialist. He and his wife Lucille were married some 60 years.
Bill Kling, Army, WW II, A&M Class of 1949 (Interviewed Feb. 22, 2006) Bill “BJ” Kling started Kling Engineering in 1975 but by then his own surveying skills had been tapped in most every arena you can imagine, including in World War II as an infantry soldier with the 102nd. His unit sailed overseas late in the European campaign in 1944, in time for the Battle of the Bulge and in time to witness the surrender of thousands of German troops -- many soldiers who were interrogated by Bill Kling. After the war, Bill Kling entered Texas A&M as a 30-year-old freshman. After the war he met Florace and they were married for some 60 years.
Frank Kocman, U.S. Army, WW II (March 25, 2005) It was December 1944 and America's involvement in World War II was in its fourth winter. Rewind seven months and teenager Frank Kocman Jr. had just graduated from Stephen F Austin High School and Uncle Sam was already calling. In fact Frank needed a student deferment just to finish high school. By July, 18-year-old Frank Kocman was drafted and was on his way to Fort Sam Houston and on to what he thought training to fight the Japanese in the South Pacific but that changed.. It was a fast track from high school to the front lines of the war.
Edward and Yolanda Kozlowski, U.S. Air Force/Army, WW II (Interviewed together Oct. 12, 2005) By the end of World War II Capt. Edward Kozlowski had flown 88 missions over the combat territory of the European Theater. His life's path took him from his boyhood farm in Wisconsin, through his military service as a pathfinder navigator, to Houston and NASA. That's where he designed and installed the heat shields used on the Apollo missions. But perhaps his most rewarding mission was that to win the heart of Yolanda Frisch, an Army nurse in World War II. That too was no easy challenge. Yolanda Frisch of the 100th Evacuation Hospital, always set up near the front lines; following Patton's Army through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. She was a triage and a surgical nurse. Both former Texas A&M employees both have passed away now but their story is indeed a testament to the bravery and determination of all those men and women who served for freedom.
Durwood Lewis, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam (A&M Class of ‘60) (Interviewed Jan. 24, 2007) Maj. Durwood Lewis was a F-4 back-seater who saw a great deal in his 12-month assignment in Vietnam. It was one year out of more than 20 years of service in the U.S. Air Force.
