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Sgt. Dusek fought in Korea’s Chorwon Valley; got Silver Star in Vietnam
It was the middle of the Korean War, August 1952, when Charles Dusek enlisted the U.S. Army. He was 19-years-old at the time living with his family in Chicago. “They shipped us from Fort Sheridan, Ill....
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He’s part of West Point’s Long Gray Line – Charlotte native is a junior at...
Sgt . Bryan Coward is in an elite group. He’s part of a handful of local students attending one of the United States’ military academies. Coward is midway through his junior year at West Point. He is a...
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Bob Pulver was a medic with the 1st Marine Division during the Cuban Missile...
“I knew things were getting serious when they issued us corpsmen morphine as we got off the C-130 transport at Guantanamo Bay,” Bob Pulver of Heritage Lake condominiums in Port Charlotte, a former...
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Dec. 7, 1942 was bad day for Sgt. James Broner – His brother was killed, he...
For James Broner of Englewood, Fla., Dec. 7, 1942 is a day he will always remember. That was the day his older brother was killed by a Japanese machine gunner and he lost his left leg to a sniper’s...
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Englewood man served on the ‘most boring’ Air Force base in the world
Pfc. Dave Lea of Englewood, Fla. spent much of his time in the service in the most boring place on the planet — Thule, Greenland. It was 1956 and absolutely nothing was going on except the “Cold War.”...
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Former Sgt. Jiggs Yeager remembers Gen. Patton at ‘Battle of the Bulge’
Jiggs Yeager was a sergeant in the 39th Signal Battalion attached to the 26th Yankee Division, part of Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe during World War II. The 94-year-old Port Charlotte. Fla....
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Dutch teenager put flowers on WWII soldier’s grave
Near the end of World War II, when Aggie Konings of Port Charlotte was a 15-year-old teenager living in Limburg, Holland, she volunteered to put flowers on the grave of an American soldier who had...
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He flew the longest bomber mission of WW II in a B-29 over Japan – Capt....
It was Capt. Harold Keathley’s 33rd combat mission flying “Skookum,” a B-29 “Superfortress” over Japan loaded with incendiary bombs. The target: Aomori, located along the coast of Honshu, the...
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Sgt. Tippy Burgess USMC never fired shot in anger in Pacific during WW II
Tippy Burgess of Viscaya Mobile Home Park in El Jobean, Fla. joined the Marine Corps right out of high school in 1939. His parents had passed away and his older brother was doing his best to keep what...
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### He flew a C-47 Transport from Bougainville in WWII
Bill Cunningham of Viscaya Lakes Mobile Home Park in El Jobean was in his early 20s when he signed up for the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in July 1942. He was sent to Siena College in Loudernville,...
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Lt. Col. Mary Chalifour served in bases around the world as an Air Force nurse
Mary Chalifour of Port Charlotte, Fla. joined the Air Force Nursing Corps on a whim for three years in 1958. She and a friend she graduated with from nursing college in North Carolina decided to give...
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Bill Gomes a science and math teacher at Charlotte High says the Army made...
Until he was 18 and graduated from Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Fla. in 1974 Bill Gomes spent most of his time in the saddle punching cows on ranches in Charlotte and De Soto counties. He was...
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‘Screaming Eagle’ wounded during Battle of the Bulge
More than half a century after he was shot in the back and hand in two major World War II engagements, the 77-year-old Punta Gorda, Fla. retiree still has trouble talking about what he went through....
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Pfc. Bill Jordan served aboard landing craft at Iwo Jima
Bill Jordan and Dick Boos were Marine Corps buddies. Jordan was a “DUKW,” landing craft, driver and Boos a medic. Jordan survived World War II. Boos didn’t. He fell in the black, volcanic sand of Iwo...
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Sgt. John Ross in 173rd Airborne Brigade, took part in biggest battle in...
John Ross of Port Charlotte, Fla. was a 19-year-old “grunt” in 1967 when sent to South Vietnam as a member of the173rd Airborne Brigade, part of the 82nd Airborne Regement. His unit fought a major...
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He served in WW II, Korea and Vietnam – Col. Paul Vnencak fought at Iwo Jima...
Long before his squad slogged through the black volcanic beach on Iwo Jima in February 1945, Sgt. Paul Vnencak, who winters in Port Charlotte, had seen considerable action as a member of the 3rd...
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He fought the Japanese in the Aleutians – Master Sgt. Frank Keegan was in the...
Almost a year after four Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, the Japanese troops that went ashore at the same time on Attu Island in the...
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Pfc. Ron Heurlin shot 3 times in Vietnam serving with Big Red 1
In January 1966 Pfc. Ron Heurlin of Punta Gorda, Fla. flew into Tan Son Nhat Airbase in Saigon, Vietnam. He was a member of Company B, 28th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division known as “The Black Lions.”...
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1st Lt. Andy Carrico and the 511th Parachute Infantry fought the Japanese on...
1st Lt. Andy Carrico’s D-Company platoon, part of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, trained for five months on New Guinea in preparation for their assault on the Japanese-held island of Leyte....
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Norm Holloway had Navy’s best job, he cooked aboard Carrier Independence
Norm Holloway of Venice, Fla. had the best job in the Navy, he said. He was a cook aboard the carrier USS Independence (CV-62) during the Vietnam War era. He and 74 other cooks provided food for the...
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