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Frank Litterst entered Texas A&M in the fall of 1939, a proud member of the Class of '43 (the Class that won the War.). He was a Ross Volunteer and the Commander of Battery “A” Coast Artillery. During World War II, Frank's class left A&M en masse prior to graduation, and Frank was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served in New Guinea as an artillery officer from 1943 to 1945.
Frank Dickey, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed June 28, 2006) Frank Dickey refuses to call himself a hero but most might disagree. He says that in Vietnam he fought alongside heroes but he, like many who went, who fought, who came home, prefers to reserve the label hero for those who did not come home. He was not an officer, nor a company commander nor a Phantom pilot. Frank Dickey’s role in Vietnam was as the guy who laid his rifle on the line with every patrol -- just infantry army soldier, search and destroy, chopping away at the jungle in search of the enemy. Yet by many standards a hero and it's our honor to have spoken with him on Veterans of the Valley.
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.
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.
Freddie Wolters, U.S. Army, World War II (A&M Class of 1944) (Interviewed April 10, 2008) Freddie Wolters served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima before his unit would have been deployed for a bloody ground fight, but still he has stories to tell, many of how he didn't always do things by the book. He was a freshman member of Homer Norton's 1940 A&M football team.
Garland Bayliss, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed June 17, 2010) Join the Navy and see the World! And indeed Lt. Commander Garland Bayliss of College Station saw most of it in his two-year service aboard Auxiliary Personnel 149, a Troop Transport Ship during World War II. It was a vessel built only as a transport and ferried up to 3,000 from one town or island to another. It took some back home from war and some from home into war. He was on the water both in the Pacific and Atlantic for two years and traveled some 125,000 Nautical Miles. In all Garland Bayliss spent 30 years in the Navy and the reserves and then later spent 34 years as professor of history at Texas A&M.
Gary Banta, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Feb. 11, 2010) Gary Banta joined the Army in 1967, well into the Vietnam War. he both drove and rode shotgun on truck convoys, delivering supplies to the hotspots where choppers and aircraft could not land. It was a year tour that certainly had it’s danger. Later he was assigned to Ft. Knox where he did indeed see the gold! And he was a chaplain’s assistant in Germany.
Gene Barber, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed May 9, 2007) Gene Barber served the people of Williamson County as its sheriff for seven years, sold cars and lumber and delivered the mail in the years before that. But that all came after his 33 year months at sea, serving aboard the carrier USS Corregidor during four major battles of World War II’s Pacific Campaign. Plus, you will not find a bigger Bob Wills fan. They were both born in Kosse, Texas.
George Cox, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed May 4, 2005) 23-year-old tank commander George Cox of rural Brazos County, was a member of the 746th Battalion when he starred the horror of the war straight in the face. June of 1944 was when George Cox was one of those who lived to tell the story of D-Day and the stand made at beaches called Juno, Gold, Sword, Omaha and Utah. He recounts the final months of the war, when he earned his Purple Heart and Silver Star as a player in five major battles.
Gerald McCaskill, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed September 18, 2008) When Gerald McCaskill boarded the Battleship USS Tennessee in June of 1944, it was the first ship he had ever seen. He would see plenty of it over the next 15 months, including combat action throughout World War II’s Pacific theater. The Tennessee had already seen plenty of warfare, including on 7 December 1941, docked at Pearl Harbor alongside the ill-fated West Virginia and Arizona on that day that will live in infamy. Over HIS time on the Tennessee, it’s travels took it to Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Guadalcanal, Palau, the Philippines, back to Pearl Harbor and Saipan and within a mile of the beaches of Iwo Jima for that Marine invasion to Mt. Suribachi.. on to Okinawa, and eventually to Japan. The Tennessee was badly damaged at least twice after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack at Tinian and later a suicide attack to the quarterdeck.
