Gurio Vincenti of Punta Gorda was first a Navy steward then a Navy ’SEAL’
Gurio Vincenti of Punta Gorda came to the U.S. with his family from Italy in 1966, he was eighteen-years-old at the time. After high school and a couple of years at a junior college he enlisted in the...
View ArticleLt. Col. Gary Butson joined the Air Force to fight ‘The Evil Empire’
In the 1980s Lt. Col. Gary Butson (Ret.) of North Port helped President Ronald Reagan develop “Star Wars.” This was this program that caused the Soviet Union to go broke trying to compete with the U.S....
View ArticleAirman Francis Williams trained to fix F-100 Jet Fighters’ RADAR, but put...
Francis Williams of Port Charlotte graduated from high school in 1954 in St. Clair, Mich. The following year he joined the Air Force and trained as a RADAR technician. He thought he would be repairing...
View ArticleMaster Chief Arthur Ortner saw world as Navy Seabee in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam
On Aug. 19, 1966 Master Chief Arthur Ortner retired from the Seabees. By then he had constructed buildings of all shapes and sizes all over the world for the Navy during his 20 years of service. “They...
View ArticleFormer Marine Maj. David Good flew UH-34 ‘copter in Vietnam, A4- ‘Sky Hawk’...
David Good of Port Charlotte joined the Marine Aviation Cadet Program a year out of high school in 1961. He went to basic training at the San Diego Recruit Depot and took advanced infantry training at...
View ArticleMaj. Jerry Allen joined Strategic Air Command in time for ’62 ’Cuban Missile...
When 2nd. Lt. Jerry Allen of Punta Gorda graduated from aviation cadet training in the Air Force in the early ‘60s his timing was perfect. The “Cuban Missile Crisis” erupted and he became a navigator...
View Article101st Airborne trooper returns to Vietnam after 50 years
Returning to Vietnam was no sentimental journey for Bob Ruybal after 50 years. The 71-year-old North Port resident was a member of the 101st Airborne Division chewed up on “Hamburger Hill” by North...
View ArticleFormer Petty Officer Ray Gomes aboard carrier USS Enterprise when it blew up...
Ray Gomes of Gulf Cove subdivision, Port Charlotte was a nuclear reactor operator aboard the USS Enterprise, America’s fist atomic aircraft carrier. He was aboard when tragedy struck the Navy’s largest...
View ArticleWarren Tuggle of Punta Gorda and family run out of Miss. by KKK in ’47
Warren Tuggle of Punta and his family were run out of Biloxi, Miss. 65 years ago by the Ku Klux Klan. The Tuggle family was black and Warren was a 17-year-old high school graduate in 1947 when they...
View ArticleCpl. Robert Jones fought on Okinawa with the 1st Marine Division
Robert Jones of Florida Pines Mobile Home Court in Venice recalls the war years like they were yesterday. He saw action in the Pacific during World War II in New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, New Britain,...
View ArticleRemote island became ‘vacation’ for sailor
Emil Partak of Venice, Fla. went to Kwajalein Atoll during his early years in the Navy. He signed up in 1956, immediately after graduating from dental college at Loyola University in Chicago. Shortly...
View ArticleWO-2 Robert Rodenhouse flew with the ‘Cat Killers’ in Vietnam in ’71-72
With a low draft number of 43, Robert Rodenhouse of Venice, Fla. knew he was about to be drafted in 1970 during the middle of the Vietnam War. So he volunteered for the Army. After basic at For Knox,...
View ArticleScott Lawson was disc jockey aboard helicopter carrier USS New Orleans
Scott Lawson was a dis jockey in the U.S. Navy. From ’91 to ’95 he was the voice of the USS New Orleans, a helicopter carrier, based in San Diego used by the Marines. “I never had great high school...
View ArticleSgt. Doug Nichols of Englewood spent only 4 months in Vietnam because his...
Because his mother was dying of cancer back home, Sgt. Doug Nichols of Englewood, Fla. spent four months in Vietnam during the war. He was assigned to the Americal Division: Company A, 4th Battalion,...
View ArticleCol. Victor Simpson flew last bombing missions during Vietnam War in Cambodia
After graduating from the University of New Mexico retired Col. Victor Simpson, who now lives in Punta Gorda Isles subdivision, went into the Marine Corps in 1969. He followed in the footsteps of his...
View ArticleFormer Sgt. Richard Uhlich ran APC in Vietnam with 9th Infantry division
A few weeks after graduating from the Manhattan School of Visual Arts in ’67 Richard Uhlich of Englewood Isles got his draft notice. He was headed for Vietnam. “I took basic at Fort Jackson, S.C. and I...
View ArticleVeteran served in Iraq, Afghanistan
Tyler Crane of Port Charlotte spent nine years in the Army. Some of his service was in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was there until injured by a suicide bomber who drove a truck into their firebase in the...
View Article‘Rap’ Peavy of Venice Acres spent nearly 19-months in Vietnam War running a...
In 1967 “Rap” Peavy of Venice Acres was attending the University of South Florida in Tampa when he had to drop out of school because his stepfather suffered a heart attack and he had to get a job to...
View ArticleCpl Robert Jones fought on Okinawa with the 1st Marine Division
Robert Jones of Florida Pines Mobile Home Court in Venice recalls the war years like they were yesterday. He saw action in the Pacific during World War II in New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, New Britain,...
View ArticleWilliam Moultrie of Englewood served aboard the USS Inchon during Vietnam War
William Moultrie of Overbrook Gardens subdivision in Englewood, Fla. enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 18 when he was attending community college in Northern Virginia in 1965. “My dad, who was a...
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