Date: 2005 - TAMU - Avalon Media System Search Results

Date:: 2005-06-15
Main contributors:: Adams, Billy Joe
Summary:: Billy Joe Adams, U.S. Army, WW II (A&M Class of ‘41) (Interviewed June 15, 2005) Retired Lt. Col. Billy Joe Adams was a veteran of the fighting in the European Theater during World War II and of post-conflict Korea. During World War II, he was assigned to the A Battery of the 414th Field Artillery Battalion. He was the Field Operations Officer for the 414th.

Date:: 2005-08-24
Main contributors:: Anderson, John
Summary:: John Anderson, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Aug. 25, 2005) John Anderson is quick to say that his one year duty in Vietnam was not combat filled. He did not fly the gunships but he flew above them, in his 01 single engine bird dog aircraft, guiding the gunships and identifying landing zones. He was with the 75 Rangers

Date:: 2005-03-01
Main contributors:: Cooper, Jim
Summary:: Dr. Jim Cooper, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed March 1, 2005) Dr. Jim Cooper practiced medicine in the Brazos Valley for nearly 60 years and was a Navy doctor who served from ship to ship during both World War II and Korea. He is quick to say that he did not serve in combat during either year but was instrumental in saving the lives of those who did.

Date:: 2005-05-04
Main contributors:: Cox, George
Summary:: 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.

Date:: 2005-06-08
Main contributors:: Edmonds, W. S.
Summary:: W.S. Edmonds, U.S. Army, World War II (A&M Class of ‘38) (Interviewed June 8, 2005) World War II was won by men and women all pulling their weight, doing their job, whether was fighting on the front lines or serving in the chow lines. When Bryan’s W.S. Edmonds, A&M class of 1938, enlisted in 1942 (just two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor), he had field artillery in mind. He spent a lot of his time in the Army training ragtag replacements stateside for overseas duty. But when his branch’s orders were changed to postal duty in Louisiana, that was not how W.S. wanted to spend the war. If he was going to stay in the states, he wanted to be where the action was so he got himself transferred to Washington DC, the Pentagon, a part of the Army’s Courier Transport Service. It was mostly top secret and it had to get from one place to another, and W.S. Edmonds was one of the soldiers the Army depended on to get it there. He is a past commander of the American Legion and a member of the VFW.

Date:: 2005-11-09
Main contributors:: Eyre, Ed
Summary:: Ed Eyre, U.S. Marines, WW II (Interviewed Nov. 9, 2005) December 19, 1941 and Ed Eyre was among the first to volunteer for service following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It took a while and a little maneuvering to get where he wanted to be -- as a Marine. He wanted to fight for his country in the Pacific and eventually he found himself in the middle of it as a member of the 5th Marine Division, 28th Regimental Weapons Company. Charging the sands on D-Day at Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. He saw that US flag flying atop Mount Suribachi -- The flag etched in American pride by the famous photograph of the Marines who mounted it there. He fought day and night and he would fight for 10 days, until shrapnel from a mortar round eventually ended his combat service. Ed Eyre was a winner of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart -- live out his life in rural Brazos county.

Date:: 2005-06-22
Main contributors:: Franze, R. F. “Sonny”
Summary:: R.F. “Sonny” Franze, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed June 22, 2005) “Sonny” Franze recalled well leaving his farm near Kurten and going into the Army -- learning to climb telephone poles and set communication wire and eventually taking that training across the North Atlantic to Europe front lines. He landed at Normandy on D+10 and that led to bravery that won him five Bronze Stars. He also saw the horror that his unit discovered at the concentration camp called Buchenwald.

Date:: 2005-06-01
Main contributors:: Gammon, Spec
Summary:: Spec Gammon, U.S. Army, World War II (Interviewed June 1, 2005) Army Infantry Tech Sergeant Spec Gammon was the long-time Sports Information Director at Texas A&M, but long before that, he fought as an Army Infantry soldier in World War II in Europe. He was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. He speaks highly of the British soldiers he met and people who endured so much destruction during the war, and he recalls the weather during the Bulge. “I’ve never been so cold in my life”, he says.

Date:: 2005-08-31
Main contributors:: Hanson, Al
Summary:: Al Hanson, Army Air Corps, WW II (Interviewed Aug. 31, 2005) It was on Al and Ruby Hanson's backyard porch that Tom Turbiville first started his passion for telling the story of Brazos Valley Veterans. Al Hanson was a radio operator of the 55th troop carrier squadron US Army Air Corps. He lost count of how many air missions he flew in World War II -- his craft delivering supplies to the troops on practically every island of the Pacific Campaign.

Date:: 2005-09-21
Main contributors:: Hester, Jim
Summary:: 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.

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