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Chicano journalist, Armando B. Rendon, was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and author of The Chicano Manifesto. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Rendon discusses his participation within the Chicano Movement and his understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Aurora Quevedo was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and an early participant of the Chicano Student Movement. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Quevedo discusses her participation within the Chicano Movement and her understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Dr. David Hayes-Bautista was an early participant of the Chicano Movement, Third World Liberation Front, and advocate of Chicano/a health. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Hayes-Bautista discusses his participation within the Chicano Movement and his understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Felix J. Alvarez was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and an early member of El Teatro Campesino. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Alvarez discusses his participation within the Chicano Movement and his understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Lily Alvarez was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and an early member of El Teatro Campesino. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Alvarez discusses her participation within the Chicano Movement and her understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Luis Valdez was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and an original co-founder of El Teatro Campesino. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Valdez discusses his participation within the Chicano Movement and his understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Guadalupe Frias was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and participated in the Chicano Student Movement. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Frias discusses her participation within the Chicano Movement and her understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Guadalupe Olguin was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and an early member of El Teatro Campesino and the Brown Berets. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Olguin discusses her participation within the Chicano Movement and her understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
Lupe Valdez was an early participant of the Chicano Movement and El Teatro Campesino, of which she is still associated. The purpose of this interview was to better understand mestizaje ideology and its popularity during the height of the Chicano Movement. Valdez discusses her participation within the Chicano Movement and her understanding of the concept of mestizaje.
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.
Leroy Balmain, Merchant Marines/Air Force, WW II/Korea (Interviewed March 17, 2011) Leroy Balmain was in boot camp at Catalena Island when the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. As a Merchant Marine and later in the Air Force, he did not see combat duty but served his country first as a fireman aboard the SS Alfred C. True and then eventually as an Administrative Supervisor. He and his wife Marita were married in 1946 and his assignments took them from Alaska to Topeka to Alabama to Washington DC to Shreveport to the Philippines and finally back to the States and in 1972 to Bryan, where he served four years as an Air Force Recruiter. After he retired from the service, he spent 19 years as Executive Director for the Better Business Bureau here. So you see his entire adult life has been one of service.
Dick Deiterich, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed March 10, 2011) The path that Dick Deiterich took from Bloomsburg Pennsylvania to the Brazos Valley included an 18-month hitch in the Army that started soon after Japan surrendered but before President Truman officially declared the end of hostilities in December 1946. So he served stateside, sent from base to base and eventually to Fort Knox, Kentucky to help forward mail to returning servicemen and those heading back overseas for post-war duty. His is one of those stories of service that he might not call remarkable but we call essential as it was for anyone who gave up the important time of their youth to serve their country.
Thomas Hatfield, Rudder Author (Interviewed March 4, 2011) It was natural that Thomas Hatfield would write the definitive biography of General Earl Rudder. Afterall, as a student he worked summers at the Texas Land Office when General Rudder was its commissioner and later served in an Army reserve unit that was under Rudder’s command. But that’s not why Thomas Hatfield wrote the book “Rudder: From Leader to Legend”. You see Thomas Hatfield is a life long educator and like General Rudder, was a college president and now is one of the foremost historians on World War II and military history. He is a senior research fellow at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas and is director of its Military History Institute.
Bill Adams, U.S. Air Force, Korea (Interviewed March 3, 2011) Bill Adams wanted to be in the Air Force in 1950 but really had no designs on being a mechanic. But that where the Air Force needed him so he learned the craft and for the next four years kept B-29s in the air. Not in frigid Korea where the war was going on but among other places in steaming hot Saudi Arabia. Bill Adams is one of those many veterans who served his country not in combat but in still needed jobs that kept America safe
Mike Southerland, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Jan. 26, 2011) The Brazos Valley and particularly residents of Bryan know Mike Southerland for his service on the Bryan City Council since 2006. Many others though know of his 22 1/2 years of military service in the U.S. Army. One year of that, from Feb 1969 to Feb 1970, was spent as a chopper Pilot in Vietnam, flying some 900 hours of mainly what they called Ash and Trash missions between Chu-Li and 80 miles south of Da Nang. There are some stories to tell of reconnaissance, transport and occasional assault. After Viet Nam, Mike Southerland spent another 19 years in uniform, ending his military career stationed at Bryan’s 420th Engineering Brigade, under General Al Jones.
P.K. Carlton, U.S. Air Force, Pentagon on 9/11 (Interviewed Aug. 19, 2010) Lt. General P.K. Carlton Jr’s career of service in the United States Air Force is without doubt one of the most compelling and fascinating that we’ve ever had the honor to share on Veterans of the Valley and we will hear it over the next two editions of our show. The son of a World War II B-29 pilot who eventually commanded the Air Force’s Military Airlift, P.K. Carlton Jr. knew as early as age 8 that he wanted to be in the Air Force and wanted to fly. But a Depth Perception problem on his flight physical sent him on another path...medicine...surgery... and a career that placed him in a position to help create and implement changes that indeed have saved the lives of literally countless numbers of military personnel, indeed surgical methods and concepts that he and his teams have brought to exist, are saving lives right now in Afghanistan and Iraq. We sadly hear every day of the numbers who have died. You’re about to hear things you don’t know about the numbers who have lived. He is the former Surgeon General of the Air Force and since his retirement in the winter of 2002, General Carlton has been Director of Homeland Security for the Texas A&M Health Science Center.
Dr. Gordon Pratt, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Aug. 5, 2010) Not every World War II Veteran served overseas as they had jobs or were being trained for essential jobs stateside. Such was the case for Dr. Gordon Pratt, who joined the Navy in 1943 and was put in the V-12 program. It was a College Training Program that sent future commissioned Officers to colleges and Universities to complete their training and to help the war effort as a result of their education. Between 1943 and 1946, more than 125,000 men were enrolled in V-12. They included such servicemen as Football Coach George Allen, Sen. Howard Baker, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Johnny Carson, and Jack Lemmon.... and a dental student named Gordon Pratt from Dallas. After the war, he served as the dentist for nearly two years on board the USS President Adams, a World War II Transport Ship. And then later at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Dr. Pratt practiced for 40 years as a dentist in Bryan until he retired in 1997 and one of his five children, Gordon Pratt, Jr., has been a dentist here for nearly 25 years.
Bob Gallery, U.S. Army, WW II, (Interviewed July 21, 2010) Bob Gallery was just 17 years old in 1944 and didn’t know that he was about to take the fast track from his home in Saginaw, Michigan to a Foxhole on the front lines of the War in Europe. But that’s pretty much exactly what happened when he was drafted into the Army near war’s end. A 38-year resident of Bryan, Bob Gallery’s 99th Infantry saw conflict eyeball-to-eyeball as he puts it, and counts himself fortunate to have come home uninjured.. indeed to have come home at all, as so many who served did not.
Mike Sherman, A&M Head Football Coach, Iraq Trip (Interviewed July 20, 2010) This is indeed a special Veterans of the Valley because instead of visiting with a Veteran, Aggie Head Football Coach Mike Sherman and I are going to talk about those who are serving our country right now. In May, Coach Sherman, with the tremendous help of the Aggie Network, had the opportunity to visit Iraq to see first hand the work of the brave men and women there; and to get a personal view of the day-to-day challenges they endure while proudly wearing American military uniforms. And as you can guess, he met with plenty of Aggies on his 6-day stay that took him from Kuwait to Camp Adder, to Camp Victory, to Camp Prosperity. As he wrote in his journal, he discovered the outstanding leadership we have in Iraq, the horrible quality of life the Iraqi people endured for so many years under Saddam Hussein, the passion that our military have for their job and their service, and the passion that they have for football.
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.
Alfred “Whitey” Birdwell, U.S. Army, WW II Interviewed May 27, 2010 Alfred “Whitey” Birdwell was a Sherman tank driver in World War II's European Theater, after D-Day, but during the final push and in the Battle of the Bulge and until victory in Europe. He was overseas just more than a year but probably covered more miles per day served than just about anyone. He vividly recalls when he drove the first American tank over the Rhine River for the 3rd Armoured to spearhead. A Purple Heart recipient, he drove a tank every day except for those 10 days he was laid up because of shrapnel wounds.
Chuck Sippial, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam (Interviewed March 25, 2010) Chuck Sippial has been a significant part of Texas A&M’s administrative family for some 15 years, as Vice President for Administration and more recently in charge of facilities, where he now works for the A&M System. The story you may not know is that of Colonel Chuck Sippial, United States Air Force officer for 22 years. It was a fascinating career that included a nine-month tour at Pleiku Air Base during the Vietnam War -- also two tours in Europe, first at Madrid, Spain and then later at Ramstein AFB in Germany. He served several stateside tours where his expertise and education as a Civil Engineer paved a path to both his military and civilian careers.
Dr. Rex Davis, Navy, Air Force, Army, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 18, 2010) Dr. Rex Davis tells an incredible story of service that includes action in both World War II, where he was aboard an LCS during the invasion of Okinawa, and later his service as a medical doctor in Viet Nam. He served in the Navy, the Air Force and the Army. Between World War II and Nam he returned home to Gidding, Texas, finished high school, college and med school before starting his career as a doctor. An accomplished writer, Dr. Davis has penned many of his accounts of service in the form of fascinating short stories. We will read from some of those as we visit with Dr. Rex Davis.
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.
Hazel Von Roeder, U.S. Air Force, WW II/Korea (Interviewed Jan. 27, 2010) As much as she wanted to, and even volunteered to.... Hazel Von Roeder’s tours of duty during World War II and Korea never sent her overseas. But as any veteran will tell you, stateside service was just as essential to the war effort as any other. Hazel’s skills as an Army nurse took her to Fort Bliss’ famed William Beaumont Army Hospital during World War II, an then to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio as a Flight Nurse with the 1734th MATS during the Korean Conflict. Her story of service is indeed one of courage and dedication.
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.
Larry Stewart, U.S. Navy, Vietnam (A&M Class of ‘65) (Interviewed Sept. 8, 2009) Most local folks know Larry Stewart today for his public service as a member of the College Station City Council. But long before he ever even thought about entering local politics, he served 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a Pilot, most of those years flying the P-3 Patrol Plane. A 1965 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, the first six months of his service was flying missions out of the Philippines to Vietnam during the war. The remaining 19-plus years sent him most anywhere there was an 8,000-foot runway. He spent 2 1/2 years based on the carrier USS Lexington. “The Lex” as it’s well-known today to many a tourist to the Corpus Christi Bay area. It’s a fascinating military career.
Keith Youngblood, U.S. Army, Iraq (Interview August 20, 2009) Keith Youngblood packed an incredible life of service into the 20 years between 1987 and 2007. His service started in Germany, continued with 5 months in Operations Desert Storm, and back to Iraq for Operation Intrinsic Action. He served two years working part-time in President Clinton's Communications Detail, three years back at A&M as a Military Advisor, and finally back to Iraq for 13 months as a Military Marksman in a Roving Sniper Unit. Keith Youngblood also tells his personal story of battling PTSD.
James Wade, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed Aug.6, 2009) James Wade arrived in Europe and there was only two more months of fighting and left in World War II. But in that short time, plus the time he spent there in occupational duty, he saw plenty of what now you read about in history books. That included serving guard duty over the witnesses of the Nuremberg trials. The stories don't in there. Here is James Wade of College Station.
Charles Smith, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed July 16, 2009) Charles Smith grew up in Bryan and graduated from E.A. Kemp in 1960. He served 20 years in the U.S. Army and 22 years with the Postal Service. In the Army between 1960 and 1981, He served one tour in Vietnam as a Recon Squad Leader but his duty was cut short by a bout with Malaria. He also served four tours in Germany and one in South Korea.
H.J. Marsh, U.S. Army, WW II/Korea (Interviewed June 25, 2009) H.J. Marsh considered his timing quite fortunate. A 1945 high school graduate of San Jacinto High School, by the time he joined the Army, World War II was over. His unit served occupational duty in postwar Korea and while he says there was not much action at that time, his service was still valuable in keeping the peace that had been hard earned in the Pacific Theater. Korea, after all, was under Japanese rule during the war -- and after the war, the split between North and South Korea was even more defined. HJ Marsh says it was then that he first heard the word communism, during his service between World War II and the Korean War, which started in 1950.
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.
Jim Robbins, U.S. Army, Vietnam/Desert Storm (Interviewed May 28, 2009) You can tell by just spending few minutes with Jim Robbins that he is quote proud of his 38 years of military service to our country. And we all should be. A veteran helicopter pilot of the Vietnam War and later in El Salvador and Operation Desert Storm, his federal service included mostly Army duty, but he also had Marine basic training, worked for the Navy, the FAA, and did service in the National Guard. But perhaps his most compelling story, is how his life changed in 1998, three years after he retired from military service.
C.O. Smith, U.S. Coast Guard, Korea (Interviewed March 5, 2009) C.O. Smith, Texas A&M Class of 1950, is proud of the role that the United States Coast Guard played in World War II. On board the Coast Guard Cutter Bramble, C.O. Smith spent 4 years at sea, almost making it to Europe before mechanical problems sent them to Puerto Rico to dry dock and then through the Panama Canal and to the Pacific and Alaska, where his crew supplied Navy Seabees who were building the Loran Stations.
Jeff Bailey, U.S. Army, Viet Nam (Interviewed Feb. 26, 2009) This is the incredible story of service of First Sergeant Jeff Bailey of Bryan -- a 20-year Army veteran who served overseas in Germany twice, in Korea, and two tours of Viet Nam, first with the 18th Infantry and later with the 12th Cav. He was wounded during each Viet Nam deployment, earning 2 Purple Hearts and the Silver Star, among many other awards and medals. Between his Vietnam Tours, he served on the streets of Southside Chicago, helping to diffuse the devastating riots in the days following the April 4, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also served three years at Ft. Greeley Alaska, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. As you can imagine, his is a remarkable story of service.
Jeff Bailey, U.S. Army, Viet Nam (Interviewed Feb. 26, 2009) This is the incredible story of service of First Sergeant Jeff Bailey of Bryan -- a 20-year Army veteran who served overseas in Germany twice, in Korea, and two tours of Viet Nam, first with the 18th Infantry and later with the 12th Cav. He was wounded during each Viet Nam deployment, earning 2 Purple Hearts and the Silver Star, among many other awards and medals. Between his Vietnam Tours, he served on the streets of Southside Chicago, helping to diffuse the devastating riots in the days following the April 4, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also served three years at Ft. Greeley Alaska, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. As you can imagine, his is a remarkable 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.
Frank Buell, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 5, 2009) World War II, of course, was fought primarily in Europe and the Pacific, but there was never any guarantee that the enemy from either side would not find its way to United States shores. Frank Buell got permission from his mother to enter the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. That was 14 June 1944, just 14 months before Japan surrendered. While waiting for an opening to go to flight school, we was assigned as a bombardier, flying B-24s and later PB4Y2s. Out of 24 crews, his was one of four assigned to stay stateside and train, while at the same time guarding the east coast from deployments mainly in Florida.
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.
