Clik here to view.
Sgt. Glenn Magner fought at Metz &‘Battle of Bulge’ during WW II
In 1942 when Glenn Magner of Tangerine Woods mobile home park in Englewood, Fla. enlisted in the Army he was 16-years-old. He told them he was 20 and got away with it. For the next 22 months he trained...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ed Hutcheson of Burnt Store in Air Force Intelligence during ‘Cuban Missile...
Ed Hutcheson of Burnt Store Marine, south of Punta Gorda, was an airman first class working for Air Force Intelligence. His job was to intercept secret messages sent by his Soviet counterpart about the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Capt. Glen Berree started out a Navy pilot and ended up a destroyer skipper
Glen Berree spent the first two decades of his life as a Navy brat. His father was a fighter ace in World War II with nine kills to his credit. The next quarter century Berree carved out a career as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sgt. Gasper Buffa survived Battle of Midway 72 years ago today
Seventy-two years ago today MSgt. Gasper Buffa, a resident of Lexington Manor Assisted Living facility in Port Charlotte, Fla. served with the 1st Marine Division on Midway Island in the Pacific. He...
View ArticleClik here to view.
William McWha fought in five European Campaigns, was wounded in two
Pfc. William McWha, Serial No. 31305306, was a replacement soldier. He was one of the tens of thousands of American infantrymen from the “Repo Depot” who were put on the front lines in the heat of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Boatswain’s-mate Clarence Moore of Englewood towed ‘Nimitz’s Secret’ to...
They called it “Nimitz’s Secret.” All 10, 100-foot-long steel sections were towed by ship from San Francisco to Espiritus Santo, the main island in the New Hebrides chain. This floating steel dry dock...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Petty Officer 1st Class Ida Scherf taught men aerial gunnery during WW II
In 1943 Ida Scherf was a Maine school teacher when she made a commitment to the war effort. She joined the WAVES, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. The 23-year-old school teacher was part...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bob Burdick flew as top turret gunner on Ventura patrol plane in Pacific...
Bob Burdick was a top turret gunner on a PV-1 Ventura patrol plane in the Pacific during World War II. The 88-year-old former gunner who now lives in Port Charlotte, Fla. with his wife, Maryan, saw...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Guadalcanal was his first assignment, Okinawa his last – Oscar Hettema was a...
By the time World War II ended, Oscar Hettema of Port Charlotte, Fla. had seen a lot of this world as a chief warrant officer in the Navy Seabees. He first saw combat in June 1942 at Guadalcanal, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Larry Rhodes of Venice was gunner on B-29 bomber flying over Tokyo during WW II
Larry Rhodes of Venice grew up in Far Rockaway, N.Y. Just out of high school in 1941 he went to work for Republic Aviation building P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighter planes on Long Island, N.Y. for World War...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sgt. James Lunn had finger on Hawk Missile’s fire button during ‘Cold War’
For much of his five years in the Army James Lunn was within arms length of the firing button for ground to air guided missile. He was an Army’s fire control specialist for land-based “Hawk Missiles”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sgt. Bob Herres bailed out of his B-24 bomber over Ploesti in WW II
It was dark and eerie when he climbed out of the sack at 4 a.m, shaved and ate a breakfast of powdered eggs, Spam and coffee. Then he and the rest of the 10-man crew of “Shack Happy,” a B-24 bomber,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bill Donaldson and all the seniors boys in his high school signed up to serve...
When the Germans marched into Poland in 1939 starting World War II, Bill Donaldson and all the other young men in his senior class at Strong Vincent High School in Erie, Pa. went down to the local...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sgt. John Spatharos’ bomber called ‘Steak & Eggs’ crashed in Coral Sea in WW II
When Sgt. John Spatharos of Tangerine Woods, Englewood, Fla. climbed aboard an A-20, twin-engine attack bomber dubbed “Steak and Eggs” at Kila Airstrip on the island of New Guinea during World War II...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mom smuggled Brownie camera to Machinist-Mate Warren Hope in cake
Shortly after graduating from high school in 1943 at 17 in Philadelphia, Pa., Warren Hope of Gulf Cove, in Charlotte County, Fla. joined the Seabees. His parents had to sign him into the service...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Earl Thompson joined the Navy in 1945 at 17, but pretty much missed all of WW II
It was July 22, 1945 when Earl Thompson, a Navy fireman who now lives in Port Charlotte, Fla. sailed into Buckner Bay aboard a transport ship that dropped anchor off Okinawa. The 17-year-old swabbie...
View ArticleClik here to view.
40 Months at the Front
The inscription on the front of the white ball cap siting on the coffee tale says it all: “America’s most Decorated 34th Infantry Division.” Below the inscription was an irregular shaped patch showing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Steve Logsdon fought North Koreans at ‘Pusan Perimeter’ during Korean War
Steve Logsdon of Rotonda, Fla. joined the Army at 17, shortly after graduating from high school, just in time for the start of the Korean War. He went from basic training to the front line holding...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retired Lt. Art Rimback is a man with many military secrets he doesn’t talk...
Art Rimback, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., had a military and civilian career afterwards that was pretty much a closed book. He did a bunch of secret stuff he doesn’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dale Davis got in Naval aviation 2 days after Hiroshima was bombed ending WW II
Dale Davis of Punta Gorda, Fla. got into Naval aviation on June 8, 1945. It was two days after Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets dropped the first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan from a B-29, four-engine bomber...
View Article