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Captured at the Battle of the Bulge – Jerry Meadows fought in the 106th...
Staff Sgt. Jerry Meadows was in the 106th Infantry Division. He was in charge of a .30-caliber machine gun unit dug in on a hill along the German border on Dec. 19, 1944, during the opening days of the...
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Pfc. Cliff Birdsall becomes Führer’s ‘guest’ during ‘Battle of Bulge’ in WW II
During his freshman year at the University of Ohio in 1943 Cliff Birdsall of Punta Gorda was drafted into the U.S. Army in the middle of World War II. A few months later he found himself fighting in...
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Pfc. Cliff Birdsall becomes Führer’s ‘guest’ during ‘Battle of Bulge’ in WW II
Originally posted on War Tales:Pvt. Cliff Birdsall about the time he got out of boot camp in 1943 at 19. He became a gunner with the 106th Infantry Division in Europe during the Second World War. Photo...
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Bill Hallo was Adm. ‘Bull’ Halsey’s favorite sailor aboard USS South Dakota...
Bill Hallo of North Port, Fla. fired the 16-inch main guns on the stern of the battleship USS South Dakota in some of the major battles in the Pacific during World War II. He was aboard ship firing...
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She was a WAAF – Elizabeth Adams was radar mechanic in the Royal Air Force in...
Elizabeth Adams of North Port was “Rosie the Riveter’s” English cousin during World War II. Adams became a member of the WAAFs — Women’s Auxiliary Air Force — attached to the Royal Air Force shortly...
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Lt. Col. Jeff Ponkratz’s job: Keep civilian government operational in war zones
For more than three decades Lt. Col. Jeff Ponkratz of Punta Gorda Isles served as an Army Reservist in the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion based in Green Bay, Wis. His job in the military was one of...
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B-17 bomber shot down in flames – Sgt. Jim Estrep’s plane falls prey to ME-109
“We caught it on our third trip. All three of our flights were over Berlin,” James Estrep of Englewood recalled. Sixty years ago this month he was the left waist gunner in a Flying Fortress that was...
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P-47 Thunderbolt pilot shot down ME-109, destroyed enemy ammo train
Bernard Knoll of Port Charlotte Village mobile home park flew 104 combat missions in a “P-47 Thunderbolt” fighter plane during World War II. On one mission, he shot down a German fighter in a quick but...
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‘Lil’ Hiawatha ‘ barely survived the mission – Capt. Al Miller flew shotgun...
NOTE: I received this story from Thelma Miller of Venice,Fla., widow of Al Miller Jr., who flew as a copilot aboard the B-24 “Liberator” bomber in the Pacific during World War II. He wrote the story...
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Venice war hero dies – Everett Driggers earned the Bronze Star, founded an...
Everett W. Driggers was a quiet man whose friends and relatives say should be remembered for his devotion to God, country, family and work. He never did anything particularly important except fight in...
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Pfc. Walter Tatko gets Distinguished Service Cross for destroying 2 German...
It was while Walter Tatko of Venice, Fla. was serving in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in France during World War II he and a buddy, Pfc. Frank Zalewski, knocked out a couple of German halftracks...
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Marine who fought at Iwo Jima makes last trip home
Ray Richards’ latest battle is as tough as the one he fought more than 60 years ago, when, as an 18-year-old Marine in the 3rd Marine Division, he saw action and was wounded at the start of the Battle...
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Henry Cwiklinski shook hands with Gen. MacArthur at Leyte during WW II
Henry Cwiklinski of Indigo Isles in Englewood, Fla. was in the second wave that attacked the Japanese-held island of Leyte in the Philippines on Oct. 20, 1944 during World War II. He was a member of...
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Two tours in WWII on 66 missions
In 1940, Ralph Bates, of Port Charlotte, was 18 when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. Before he completed flight training in Canada, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The young aviator...
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He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day plus one
Pfc. Al Meersman was behind quad-fifty caliber machine guns mounted on a halftrack when it rolled out of an LST onto Omaha Beach on D-Day plus one, June 7, 1944. Eleven months later he and his four...
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Ensign Jim Julian launched first wave of Navy drones
When Jim Julian flipped the switch, cranking up a small remote-controlled helicopter on the deck of a Navy destroyer, he became a part of history that stretches to the increasing use of drones in...
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Sgt. Bill Langley was radio operator on B-29 bomber during WW II
The big, black, bold two-deck headline across the top of the front page of the Baltimore News-Post for Thursday, June 15,1944 read: U.S. B-29s BOMB JAPAN; GIANT PLANES’ 1st RAID WASHINGTON (AP)–The...
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Seabee built airstrip in the Aleutians during World War II
Willis Brumhall spent World War II in the Aleutians building emergency runways as a member of the 46th Seabee Battalion for Russian pilots ferrying American made planes from Canada across the Bering...
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Bill Reddel skippered ship that launched 1st U.S. communication satellite in ’63
Capt. Willard “Bill” Reddel of Paradise Park south of Punta Gorda, Fla. was captain of the satellite communication ship USNS Kingsport when it helped put the first worldwide communications satellite in...
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Bobbie Caho called ‘Gremlin’ by his buddies in the 106th Artillery Battalion...
At 5-ft, 3-inches tall, Bobbie Caho was the shortest soldier in 106th Artillery Battalion attached to the 27th Infantry Division at the battles of Saipan and Okinawa in the Pacific during World War II....
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