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Sgt. Shawn Gannon: Iraq was a waste of time, we accomplished nothing over there

June 4, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Former Sgt. Shawn Gannon of Punta Gorda spent most of his 18 months in Iraq during 2007 and 2008 searching for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) along MSR Tampa, the main road that bisects the war-weary country. Over there he served in Alpha Battery, 182nd Field Artillery Battalion, a National Guard unit out of Detroit, Mich., […]
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Capt. Noel Hyde Served in Naval Hospitals Around the World for 25 Years

June 6, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Like his father and grandfather before him, Noel Hyde graduated from pharmacy school. But he did his elders one better, Noel joined the U.S. Navy’s Service Corps in the pharmacy department and served 25 years retiring as a Navy captain. It was 1968 when he graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University during the height of […]
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1st Lt. Charley Maloney barely survived Battle of the Bulge in WW II

June 9, 2013, 11:38 pm
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The commendation accompanying 1st. Lt. Charles Maloney’s Bronze Star and Purple Heart doesn’t tell the whole story about the terrible time he and his heavy-machine-gun outfit had in the Hürtgen Forest along the German-Belgium border during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. It reads: “First Lieutenant, CHARLES E. MALONEY, 01052057, Infantry, Company H, […]
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Bob McDonald was ‘Screaming Eagle’ who served in peacetime 101st Airborne

June 11, 2013, 11:38 pm
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A belt buckle from his cousin’s Army Airborne uniform is what helped launch Bob McDonald’s service career in the “Screaming Eagles,” the 101st Airborne, and propelled him into becoming an avid collector of military paraphernalia for life. “My cousin was in the 187th Regimental Combat Team in Korea. He made two combat jumps–one in North […]
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Ray Jasica to deliver nuclear bomb to Russian sub pens during Cold War

June 13, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Ray Jasica, who now lives in Punta Gorda, Fla. was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in Marine Corps Aviation after graduating from training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1954. After he got his wings, he was sent to a squadron of F9F “Panther” jet fighters based at El Toro Naval Air Station in Southern California. […]
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For 60 years ex-Navy Cmdr. Bob Thomas has served his country and his God

June 18, 2013, 11:38 pm
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After graduating from Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1951, Ensign Bob Thomas served as a navigator aboard a Navy P-2V, twin-engine “Neptune” bomber. He flew intelligence missions with the “Blue Goose Squadron,” VP-22, part of the “Formosa Straits Patrol Force” that surveilled the China coast. It was during one of Thomas’ 47 missions aboard a […]
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Merchant Seaman Arthur Card crossed the Atlantic 30 times during WW II

June 20, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Arthur Card of North Port, Fla. made 30 trips across the Atlantic during the closing months of World War II ferrying troops, equipment and supplies to the war front in North Africa and Europe as a member of the U.S. Merchant Marines. He was a crewman on several Liberty ships and a World War I […]
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The ‘music man’ goes to war – Les Barth was gunner in tank destroyer

June 23, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Les Barth was no soldier. He was a music man. Being a gunner in a tank destroyer in Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army during World War II was the furthest thing from his mind a lifetime ago. He was 19 years old when drafted in January 1943. Before Uncle Sam got a hold of […]
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Chief Master Sgt. Terry Keene kept the Air Force flying for three decades

June 25, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Chief Master Sgt. Terry Keene’s primary duty during his 30 years in the military was keeping some of the most deadly airplanes in the U.S. Air Force’s arsenal ready for war. He began his service as a teenage would-be aviation mechanic fresh out of Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Fla. in 1977. Keene retired […]
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Seaman Felix De Rosa served in WW II aboard many ships that crossed the Atlantic

June 27, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Able-bodied Seaman Felix De Rosa from Orange, N.J. spent most of his time in World War II in U.S. Army’s Floating Transportation. He sailed from ports along the east coast of the U.S. to ports in England. From the continent bringing supplies and soldiers to fight the war and returning wounded servicemen to the U.S. […]
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Ranger returns home

June 30, 2013, 11:38 pm
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It was a gray, rainy Friday, but Lance and Nancy Hendershot of Englewood, Fla. couldn’t care less. At their Oceanspray Boulevard home, the sun was shining brightly. Their son, Spc. Justin Hendershot, an Airborne Ranger, had just returned home from a 50-day deployment in Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 75 Ranger Regiment based in Hunter […]
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Andy Hackleman served in 18th Airborne Corps during Granada invasion

July 4, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Andy Hackleman was a clerk typist attached to the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps. He had just graduated from jump school at Fort Benning, Ga., when his unit, together with a contingent of Marines, was deployed in October 1983 to Granada to quell a communist takeover of the country. Hackleman and the Army airborne troops stormed […]
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Sgt. Dave Rockow in 82nd Airborne during peacetime became recruiter and vets service officer

July 7, 2013, 10:38 pm
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Dave Rockow has dedicated his entire adult life to the military, service personnel and veterans. He joined the 82nd Airborne as an 18-year-old, spent four years in the paratroopers, got out re-upped in the regular Army and spent almost 20 years as a National Guard recruiter, these past three years he has worked as an […]
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He joined the Marines to be the best and discovered Babylon while fighting in Iraq

July 9, 2013, 11:38 pm
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Randall Martin of Port Charlotte,Fla. joined the Marine Corps because he wanted to be part of the best. He went to Iraq on Super Bowl Sunday 2002 and  served three tours there as a member of the 7th Engineering Support Battalion. “We gave the people of Iraq the right to vote. But the most important […]
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Harold Power couldn’t get in the military during WW II so he joined the Merchant Marines

July 11, 2013, 10:38 pm
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Harold Power wasn’t physically fit enough to join any of the five military service branches during World War II. They turned him down because he had a bad back. At 18 he got in the U.S. Merchant Marines. He joined the outfit with the highest casualty rate, percentage-wise, in the second World War. During the […]
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Ernie Pyle most beloved reporter in WWII – He was killed by a sniper on Ie Shima Island

July 14, 2013, 10:38 pm
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I was interviewing Giff  Stowell of La Casa mobile home park in North Port, Fla. about his adventures in a B-24 “Liberator” bomber in the Pacific during World War II. He had a handful of old war snapshots sitting on his dining room table. Included in the pictures was an almost unknown shot of Japanese […]
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Billy Reid was destined to be ‘Screaming Eagle’ serving in Special Forces in Vietnam

July 16, 2013, 10:38 pm
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Billy Reid was born to be in the 101st Airborne, the “Screaming Eagles,” and an Army Ranger in Vietnam. He followed in the footsteps of Claude and Joe, his older brothers, were paratroopers in the Korean war. Claude also saw action in Vietnam with the 5th Special Forces. Billy forged his mother’s name and joined […]
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Jim Heskett of Punta Gorda was a multi-faceted airman and ‘Cold War’ warrior

July 17, 2013, 10:38 pm
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Jim Heskett got his mother to sign him into the Air Force in 1958 when he was 17. It was the start of a military career that lasted more than two decades and took him across the country and around the world performing a variety of jobs for Uncle Sam. He took basic at Lackland […]
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Shrapnel hit his Corsair on mission over Tokyo – 2nd Lt. Jack LeBoeuf thought ‘it was the end’

July 21, 2013, 10:38 pm
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It was Feb. 22, 1945; 2nd Lt. Jack LeBoeuf was flying his Corsair fighter from the deck of the carrier USS Essex as a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 213. Destination, Tokyo! “We were sent on the Tokyo mission to protect our TBMs torpedo bombers (Douglas TBM Devastators),” the 83-year-old Port Charlotte Marine recalled. “The […]
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John Schiro saw 37 engagements in Pacific aboard USS Independence in WW II

July 23, 2013, 10:38 pm
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John Schiro sailed into battle aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) shortly after she was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in August 1943 as a member of the engine room’s “Black Gang.” When he left the carrier at war’s end he was the chief machinist-mate in the forward engine-room. During his nearly two […]
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