1st Lt. Bob Akers of Burnt Store nearly shot down in F-86 fighter over Grand...
Bob Akers of Burnt Store Marine was learning to be a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force in 1956, between the Korean and the Vietnam War, when two airliners collided in midair over the Grand Canyon on...
View ArticleMarine Cpl. Ray Kelley led his machine-gun team through hell in Vietnam
Ray Kelley of Port Charlotte was the leader of a four-man machine-gun squad in Vietnam. During his tour in 1966 and ’67 he was involved in 24 operations including one firefight where he received the...
View ArticleHarry Ewald of Venice served in Vietnam in ’67-’68 with 19th Engineering...
Harry Ewald of Venice, Fla. was a 12-Bravo in Vietnam, a grunt with a shovel, a member of the 19th Combat Engineering Battalion. He got there in November 1967. “We took a C-141 transport plane from...
View ArticleLance Cpl. Lou Piazza of Venice got Navy Commendation Medal for saving...
Lance Corporal Lou Piazza of Venice served with Delta Company, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in Vietnam in1968. He signed up right out of high school and was sent to Marine Corps boot camp in San...
View Article1st Lt. Howard Catley of Venice spent two years in Vietnam with 101st...
Shortly after graduating from the University of Rhode Island in ’69 with an education degree in hand and 2nd lieutenant bars on his shoulders. Howard Catley of Venice was sent to Vietnam with the 101st...
View ArticleJim Hunter of Englewood was scout dog handler with 25th Infantry Division in...
Within months after losing his college draft deferment in 1968 Jim Hunter, who lives in Sandpiper Key Condominiums on the way to Englewood Beach, Fla., found himself working his German Shepherd scout...
View ArticleKen Leff of Rotunda West served 24 years in Navy aboard everything from...
During his 24 years of service in the U.S. Navy Ken Leff of Rotunda West began his service in 1969 in little ships and ended it in battleships and aircraft carriers in the ’90s. He spent almost 2½...
View Article1st. Lt Roger Petersen received 2 Purple Hearts and 2 Silver Stars fighting...
Roger Petersen who lives in Grand Palm subdivision in Venice, Fla. received two Silver Stars for service within 24 hours of each other while fighting in the jungle of Vietnam along the Cambodian...
View ArticleLt. Susan Petersen of Grand Palm subdivision in Venice was Army nurse in Vietnam
Susan Petersen of Grand Palm subdivision in Venice graduated from St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio in 1967 with an RN degree. The Vietnam war was heating up. “The military services were...
View ArticleFrom Port Charlotte to Lebanon: Teacher was a Marine when embassy was bombed
After graduating from Charlotte High School, Florida, in 1981, Walter Whisenant went into the Marine Corps. He took basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. He transferred to Twenty-nine Palms,...
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