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Sgt. Hugh Bennett was radio operator on B-24 dubbed: ‘The Hard Way’ in WW II
Hugh Bennett of Englewood, Fla. was a radio operator on a B-17 “Liberator” bomber dubbed “The Hard Way.” They were part of the 854th Bomb Squadron, 491st Bomb Group, 14th Wing of the 8th Air Force...
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Pfc. Tony Mercurio goes to Korean War toothless and battles VA for next 60 years
Tony Mercurio of Punta Gorda, Fla., who served in the 24th Infantry Division as a gun-toting, front line rifleman near the end of the Korean War, spent the remainder of his life fighting the Veterans...
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14th Armored Division liberated a number of German POW camps during WWII
The 14th Armored Division arrived in Marseille, France, on Oct. 29, 1944, and went into battle two weeks later at Maritime Alps along the French-Italian border under Maj. Gen. Vernon Pritchard as part...
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A Savannah hurricane is what Helen Salins remembers most about WWII
Helen Salins of Polynesian Village in north Englewood, Fla. joined the WAVES during World War II. She was 25 and already a talented artist and a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in...
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Lt. Rich Entlich fought in Vietnam in black pajamas and flip-flops for the...
After graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1963, Lt. Rich Entlich found himself in Vietnam working for MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) after completing Airborne and...
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Col. Jim Bowden got his baptism of fire on ‘Jane Russell Hill’ in Korea in ’52
After graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1951 with a degree in math and an ROTC commission as a 2nd lieutenant, Jim Bowden was sent to Korea in ’52. “I was the commander of Company B,...
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He flew 1st mission in B-17 to Japanese base at Rabaul – Lt. Col. John...
Five days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, 2nd Lt. John Pickering graduated from the U.S. Army Aviation Cadet Program. He had his wings, but he wasn’t qualified to fly anything...
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Jack Sanzalone was a command master chief in the U.S. Navy, a rare breed
Jack Sanzalone of Port Charlotte, Fla. spent almost three decades under the sea in atomic attack submarines keeping an eye on America’s enemies as the boat combed the deep searching for adversaries....
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Sgt. Spearin injured in 3rd Army’s capture of Baghdad
Sgt. Richard Spearin is every bit the Multiple Launch Rocket System gunner as he stares out of a picture on a photo wall at Lemon Bay High School in Englewood, Fla. of former students now serving in...
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He fought with Gen. Patton in France – Cpl. Richard Erdley wounded while...
Pvt. Richard Erdley was a member of the 35th Infantry Division, part of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army, in World War II. He was wounded at the battle for Nancy, France shortly after the general’s 3rd...
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Col. Jim Fraser of Port Charlotte, Fla. graduated near top of his ’47 West...
Jim Fraser already had two years of college behind him at the Missouri School of Mines when he got a chance to take a competitive exam in 1944, along with 360 other potential candidates, for the United...
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Jack Bohan was CIA agent before working for Defense Intelligence Agency 3...
Before he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, Jack Bohan of Englewood, Fla. began his second hitch in the Navy serving aboard a destroyer during the Korean...
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Tom Poole was a CIA commander in Laos during the ‘Secret War’– He fought at...
Tom Poole was a Green Beret, a member of the Special Forces, in Vietnam in 1964. Later he became a Central Intelligence operative in Laos commanding mercenaries along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the...
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Airman Carter Endsley was a jet engine mechanic during ‘Cold War’ in Europe
Carter Endsley of Punta Gorda Isles kept the F-100 “Super Sabre” jet fighter planes of the 48th Tactical Fighter-Bomber Wing in the air during the “Cold War” in Europe in the 1950s and ’60s. For four...
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Capt. Mike Clarity was skipper of destroyer, USS Cochrane and Port Commander...
During his 30 year Naval career Mike Clarity of Punta Gorda, Fla. was the skipper of a guided missile destroyer and the Port Commander at Pearl Harbor by the time he retired from the service. His love...
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Brian Nethery returns to Big Red One in Iraq War
Spc. 4 Brian Nethery is headed back to Iraq after 15 days’ rest and relaxation following eight months in the thick of it with the “Big Red One,” the 1st Infantry Division, stationed at Balad,...
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A Marine at Guadalcanal – Pfc. John O’Donnell was in the 1st Marine Division
Guadalcanal was where the Japanese were stopped in their westward advance by American air, land and sea power. Former Marine Pfc. John O’Donnell, 84, of Holiday Park in Englewood, Fla. was a tiny part...
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‘J. Edgar Hoover thought I was directly responsible for JFK’s death:’ FBI...
Because, today Friday, Nov. 22 is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we thought it was appropriate to provide our readers something special they probably had not...
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Port Charlotte, Fla. man fought his way through France during WW II
The old man sitting on his purple electric scooter in his son’s Port Charlotte, Fla. home was once a sniper in the 10th Armored “Tiger” Division when it landed in France shortly after D-Day during...
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Lt. Jean Clough was an Army nurse who served in North Africa & Italy during...
Jean Clough graduated from high school in 1938 at 17, but she couldn’t get into nursing school at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. until she was 18. It was a long year’s wait. It would be 1943...
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