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Cpl. Al Beyer attached to 3rd Armored Division going toe-to-toe with Soviets...
Former Cpl. Al Beyer of Port Charlotte, Fla. ended up protecting Europe and the rest of the NATO countries from the Soviet troops along the German-Russian border in 1968 instead of going to Vietnam...
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USS Billfish sent Japanese tanker to bottom
It was late in the war. Petty Officer 3rd Class Don Alger was on his first combat patrol aboard the USS Billfish (SS-286) sailing into Japanese waters. He was scared. Alger was a 18-year-old helmsman...
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‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was Bill Grant’s plane
“Puff the Magic Dragon” was a big hit in the early ’60′s for Peter, Paul and Mary. It was also a big hit about the same time in a different sort of way for Airman 1st Class Bill Grant who now lives in...
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Elbert Bishop and crew of ‘Betty-J’ watched mushroom cloud rise over Nagasaki
It was their last mission aboard “Betty-J,” a B-24 four-engine bomber named for the pilot, Jack Bates’ wife, that Elbert Bishop of Paradise Park, east of Punta Gorda, remembers most. The crew was part...
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Christ Nielsen was crewman aboard Navy rescue helicopter during Vietnam War
Christ Nielsen of Punta Gorda, Fla. was a “Seadevil.” He was a member of U.S. Navy Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Seven that rescued downed pilots and seamen in trouble off the coast of Vietnam...
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Airman 1st Class John Perdue decoded secret North Korean codes during war
Airman 1st Class John Perdue of Punta Gorda, Fla. spent most of his four years in the U.S. Air Force decoding secret messages from the North Korean Air Force during the Korean War of the 1950s. After...
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2nd Lt. Dick Hughes flew B-25 “Mitchell” bomber on 30 combat missions in WW II
Dick Hughes of Paradise Park RV Resort south of Punta Gorda, Fla. flew a B-25, “Mitchell,” twin-engine bomber on 30 combat missions while serving in the 12th Air Force in Europe during World War II. He...
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Fred Stuenkel knew their Chinook chopper was in trouble with a dozen bullet...
Fred Stuenkel graduated from Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Fla. in 1965. He continued his education at Manatee Junior College in Bradenton, a few miles north up Florida’s west coast, until his...
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Richard Johnson gets ‘Silver Star’ for turning on carrier’s sprinklers and...
Richard Johnson of Circlewood, a south Venice subdivision, escaped with his life when a couple of Japanese kamikazes aircraft struck the Carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) within minutes of each other the...
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Bob Goff joined the Army in 1948 to escape being a fisherman or farmer
Bob Goff grew up in Placida, south of Englewood, Fla., joined the Army at 16 after he dropped out of Venice-Nokomis High School in 10th grade. He lied about his age and signed up for the service,...
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Jim Manning served aboard the USS Sea Devil, one of the hottest subs in WW II
Two friends who served in the submarine service before Jim Manning talked him into signing up for the Navy and going to sub school when the time came. He didn’t regret it. “After boot camp at Great...
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Sgt. Jack Freeman remembers Tet Offensive at Bien Hoa Air Force Base in 1968
Tet was the big battle former Air Force Sgt. Jack Freeman of Port Charlotte, Fla recalls most vividly during his year-long deployment to Vietnam. Some 80,000 North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong troops...
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‘Radio Bamiyan’ brings 21st Century to rural Afghanistan – Sgt. Joe Smith...
“Radio Bamiyan” is what it’s unofficially called. The tiny, 400-watt station established six months ago by Staff Sgt. Joe Smith, chief of the U.S. Army Psychological Operations group stationed there,...
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Howard Mack of Venice served in the Navy, Coast Guard and Army
Like millions of other young men before and after him, Howard Mack joined the Navy right out of high school. It was 1954, he was 18, and the Korean war had been over for a year. After basic at...
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Larry Cote of Holiday Park III in Englewood kept Ted Williams fighter flying...
Larry Cote of Holiday Park III in Englewood, Fla. former Marine Corps sergeant, kept baseball great Ted Williams’ F9F “Panther” jet fighter plane in the air while serving as an airplane mechanic with...
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Operation Allen Brook was Cpl. Neal Gettle’s defining moment in May ’68
Operation Allen Brook in May 1968 was the worst of the numerous combat operations Cpl. Neal Gettle of Gulf Cove participated in during his 14 months of service with the Marine Corps in Vietnam....
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Chet Buckenmaier spent 10 years working on B-1A bomber during ‘Cold War’
Chet Buckenmaier comes from a military family. His grandfather rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” in Cuba during the Spanish American War of 1898. His uncle was a Navy fighter pilot in World...
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John Ardolino faced the Cuban Missile Crisis
John Ardolino of Burnt Store Marina, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. served a couple of years as a member of Company B, 25th Signal Battalion in Germany during the early 1960s. He and his buddies strung...
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Sgt. Dick Samuelson of Tangerine Woods kept B-24s flying over Germany
Dick Samuelson of Tangerine Woods in Englewood, Fla. admits “I was no big war hero.” He joined the Army Air Corps during the last 18 months of World War II after graduating from high school in...
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Capt. Johnson: the Piper Cub beat the Germans – As a military plane it had no...
The Piper Cub, used as an artillery spotter plane, did more to defeat the German Army in World War II then any other American airplane, according to Capt. John Johnson. “The Air Force just went over...
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