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2nd. Lt. Marie Sgriccia was 18 when she signed up in 1944 to be an Army Air...
In 1939, the year Marie Sgriccia graduated from high school, the 17-year-old had to wait a year before attending college to become a registered nurse because they wouldn’t take her until she was at...
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Pfc. Joe Falis served with the 718th Signal Air Warning Company in WWII
Joe Falis tried to sign up for the service the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Trouble was, he was only 17 and he had to have his parents’ permission. “My older brother, Mike, who was...
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Arcadia soldier served in top-secret communications unit in Vietnam
Lee St. John was a bit of a contradiction in Vietnam. He was a Baptist kid from Arcadia, Fla. who ran a liquor warehouse in ‘Nam. He was a small arms specialist who never fired a shot until he wound up...
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Cpl. Don Schmitt served in 47th Combat Engineers on Okinawa during WW II
Don Schmitt of Maple Leaf Estates, Port Charlotte, Fla. was trained as a combat engineer and sent to Okinawa during the final days of World War II. He was a corporal who served with the Army’s 47th...
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Sgt. Rudy Raymond of Bay Isles Estates fought in Battle of Okinawa during WW II
Sgt. Rudy Raymond of Bay Lake Estates mobile home park in Nokomis, Fla. arrived just in time to take part in the biggest battle in the Pacific Theatre during World War II–Okinawa. He was a member of...
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Pfc. Keith Jones fought in ‘Battle of Bulge’ as 3rd Army’s advance across Europe
Keith Jones was too skinny to get in the Navy in 1942, but the Army took him anyway despite his lack of weight. He became a member of the 87th Infantry Division, part of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army...
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Tommy Hammond joined the Air Force in 1950 after his girlfriend jilted him
Because his high school sweetheart jilted him Tommy Hammond of Shell Creek mobile home park, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. decided to join the Seabees. He was 17, the date was 1950– the year the Korean...
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Les Thompson lost his destroyer during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944
Les Thompson says he’s no war hero. He was just a seaman 1st class who served aboard the USS Abner Read, a destroyer sunk by a Japanese kamikaze at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 during the...
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Mom fought on front lines in Iraq War – Cpl. Gwen Sieg spearheaded the 3rd...
Cpl. Gwen Sieg returned home afer six months on the front lines in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division after fighting her way through the desert and into Baghdad. Proudly waiting her homecoming were...
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Spc. 4 Dutch Dutcher of Polynesian Gardens was a 9th Division cook in Vietnam
Dutch Dutcher was a 17-year-old wise-guy from Brockton, Mass. when he signed up for the Army with a friend in 1967. “We were going in the service under the buddy system, but I screwed up. I was...
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Joe Comeaux flew C-130 transports in Vietnam with 776 Tactical Airlift Squadron
Joe Comeaux of Punta Gorda got out of high school in ’69, just in time for the last of the Vietnam War. “I was in ROTC in college taking pilot’s training. I was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Air...
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Cpl. George Walther was part of Eli Wallach’s play: ‘Is This The Army?’...
Cpl. George Walther of Englewood worked as part of Lt. Eli Wallach’s crew helping produce “Is This The Army?” during World War II in Europe. The yet-to-be-famous Hollywood actor appeared in the play...
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CWO-4 Bill Wyld served 41 years in Naval Reserve aboard 21 different ships
During his 41 years in the Naval Reserves Chief Warrant Officer-4 (CWO-4) Bill Wyld Jr. of Port Charlotte, Fla. may have served on more ships than just about anyone in the service. From 1948 until he...
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Sgt. Derek Nelson served 3 1/2 years in Vietnam from 68-71
Derek Nelson of North Port, Fla. served 3 1/2 years in Vietnam. He first went there in 1967 as an 18-year-old member of the 9th Infantry Division located in the Macon Delta. During his second tour in...
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Billy Willis was an Army sergeant-major who saw action during 3 tours in Vietnam
Bill Willis was a Command Sergeant Major, a 30-year-man in the United States Army–a lifer. The 84-year-old retired enlisted man who lives with his wife, Angie, in the massive Jacaranda-Trace apartment...
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Bob Weiler was waist-gunner on B-29 bomber shot down over Osaka in WW II
Bob Weiler was the left waist-gunner on a B-29 Flying Fortress dubbed “Sky Scrapper,” part of the 44th Bomb Squadron, 40th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, based on Guam in the Mariana Islands bombing Japan...
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Bud Gerow served with ‘Merrill’s Marauders’ in Burma during WW II
“Merrill’s Marauders” is what newspaper reporters who covered their exploits a lifetime ago during World War II called them. Officially they were the “5307th Composite Unit Provisional,” a long-range...
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Dick Trott worked with ‘Navajo Code Talkers’ during Battle of Iwo Jima in WW II
Dick Trott, who lives in the Jacaranda Trace Apartments in Venice, came ashore on Feb. 19, 1945 in the second wave with the 5th Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was a corporal...
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World War II hero’s burial
A caisson flanked by an honor guard and drawn by six matching brown horses held Harold Sandler’s remains in a steel-gray casket draped with an American flag. The eight soldiers in impeccable Army dress...
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David Eshelman was command sergeant major in 82nd and 101st Airborne
Most of David Eshelman’s 29 years in the service were spent as an airborne trooper. In 1979 he retired a command sergeant major, the highest rank an enlisted man in the U.S Army can achieve. A month...
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