Could not complete log in. Possible causes and solutions are:
Cookies are not set, which might happen if you've never visited this website before.
Please open https://avalon.library.tamu.edu/ in a new window, then come back and refresh this page.
An ad blocker is preventing successful login.
Please disable ad blockers for this site then refresh this page.
Jon Bennett, KAMU TV/Station Manager (Interviewed 2010) This Show was with KAMU Station Manager Jon Bennett, talking about the more than five years of Veterans of the Valley. Just a review of what at the time, was 145 shows.
Noble Goza, U.S. Marines, WW II (Interviewed July 15, 2010) Noble Goza is a World War II Veteran for sure, although by the time he was drafted in 1945, little did he know that the war was about to end. His 4th Marines Division has been sent to Maui as replacement troops for the 4th Marines survivors returning from Iwo Jima. While training for what everyone figured would be a ground war with Japan, the bomb was dropped -- and soon after, the war was over. He spent another year in Hawaii and soon was discharged thinking he’d never ever see combat. He was quite wrong. Fast forward to 1950 when then Marine reserve Noble Goza was re-deployed, this time the fast track to Korea, were he was on an LST to the Cliffs at Inchon. Then later to North Korea where his 7th Marines Division was on its way to the Chosin Reservoir when he was wounded and his military service came to a quicker than expected end. His is a fascinating story of service in two wars.
Richard Richardson, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Dec.10, 2009) Richard Richardson of Bryan tells an impressive story of his short time in Europe during World War II, near the end of that campaign in 1945. He talks about that and his training in Triple A (Anti Aircraft Artillery). He was stationed at Camp Wallace in Galveston County when Pearl Harbor was attacked, even shipped to California in case the Japanese attacked the mainland. He arrived in Europe too late to experience combat but served his country proudly. Even at age 95, Richard enjoyed a round of golf twice a week and regularly shot his age or lower.
Rene Ramirez, Marines, Iraq (Interviewed Dec. 2, 2009) Rene Ramirez served as a 26-year Marine in Norway, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was a radio operator in communications with a tank battalion and the USS Guam. This show focused on his work with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Texas Veterans Commission. He helps operate the College Station Outpatient Clinic for Veterans.
David West, U.S. Navy, Vietnam (Interviewed Nov. 19, 2009) David West joined the Navy and started out chasing hurricanes from 1956 to 1958. Later he says as a Navy Seal he was wounded in Vietnam but says that chasing hurricanes was some of the scariest stuff he did in the service. He was sent to Vietnam in February 1969 Landing in Saigon. Wounded in Vietnam before training in Vietnam he was at Malta training with the British Navy. David West lived in Navasota before his death.
Norman Beal, U.S. Marines, Korea (Interviewed Oct. 29, 2009) Some call it the forgotten war, but Norman Beal of rural Brazos County has not forgotten a thing about his 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines assault on the Korean coast in 1950. Nor has he forgotten the horror in the cold of that winter, scaling the cliffs at the beaches of Incheon, nor the card game that kept him in Korea to fight even longer. The Korean war cost 54,000 American lives and another 8000 were missing and Norman Beal counts himself very lucky to have survived to tell his story of service.
Robert Fliedner, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Oct. 22, 2009) Robert Fliedner had pretty much decided that the Army didn't want him after his high school graduation in 1940. He had tried to enlist twice but poor eyesight disqualified him both times. But then after the US got involved in World War II, after Pearl Harbor, his eyesight must have improved because he was drafted. First assigned to limited service, then General service and then to duty in both the European and Pacific theaters of the war, Robert Fliedner built stuff -- camps for incoming inventory, sewer lines for those camps, tank farms to store gasoline, and he maintained gasoline pump stations that pumped fuel to the front lines. His overseas duty started in England, then landing in Normandy at Utah Beach, and it ended more than two years later at Bataan, in the Pacific.
Bill Harper, Operation Ivy, Post WW II (Interviewed Oct. 10, 2010) Bill Harper does not have any real war stories to tell from his two hitches and more than five years in military service, but the one that he does tell is indeed a witness to history. November 1st, 1952, from the deck of the USS Estes near Eniwetok Island in the Marshall Islands, Bill Harper was one of those who watched the result of “Operation Ivy” -- the very first Hydrogen Bomb Explosion. Bill Harper has never discussed his specific duties in regard to Operation Ivy, and he never will. But he can describe in detail the incredible site and effect of the detonation of a bomb some 500 times more powerful than the Atomic Bomb that ended World War II some seven years earlier. And there are other fascinating stories to tell... like how he got to Texas by sailing down the Illinois and the Mighty Mississippi Rivers from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico.
Ray Akins, U.S. Marines, WW II (Interviewed Oct. 8, 2009) Most every World War II Veteran counts themselves lucky to have survived to tell their story when so many did not. Ray Akins’ service came near the war’s end, but included 82 days fighting in the Pacific’s bloodiest battle... Okinawa. The battle that killed more than 12,000 Americans and left another 36,000 wounded. As a member of a special weapons unit in the 1st Marine Division, his was the third wave to storm the beach that April 1st, 1945. Okinawa was to be a main staging area for the ground assault on Japan that never happened because of the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here are some of Ray Akins’ war Stories, but some of his stories of a legendary 38-year high school football coaching career, one that produced a quarterback named Marty Akins who went on to run Darrell Royal’s wishbone attack at Texas. And he’ll talk about Ray Akins, the proud Grandfather of another quarterback you may recognize... a fella named Drew Brees.
Ray Akins, U.S. Marines, WW II (Interviewed Oct. 8, 2009) Most every World War II Veteran counts themselves lucky to have survived to tell their story when so many did not. Ray Akins’ service came near the war’s end, but included 82 days fighting in the Pacific’s bloodiest battle... Okinawa. The battle that killed more than 12,000 Americans and left another 36,000 wounded. As a member of a special weapons unit in the 1st Marine Division, his was the third wave to storm the beach that April 1st, 1945. Okinawa was to be a main staging area for the ground assault on Japan that never happened because of the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here are some of Ray Akins’ war Stories, but some of his stories of a legendary 38-year high school football coaching career, one that produced a quarterback named Marty Akins who went on to run Darrell Royal’s wishbone attack at Texas. And he’ll talk about Ray Akins, the proud Grandfather of another quarterback you may recognize... a fella named Drew Brees.
