Military Campaign Stories

SGT Marie (Phelan) Vedder, U.S. Army (1999-2007)

SGT Marie (Phelan) Vedder, U.S. Army (1999-2007)

Riskiest Moment: Was there any specific incident during your military service when you felt your life was at risk? What were the circumstances, and what was the outcome?:

We are all gathering outside of our rooms, ready to mount up when, seemingly out of nowhere, the wind blows with a startling ferocity. The doors all slam at once, as a blanket of silt lifts off of the tiled floor in a sort of miraculous display of unity, hovers momentarily mid-air, and then returns again to its resting place, leaving behind a cloud in the corridor. The building seems to have breathed in sharply, before spewing chaos in a sudden exhalation of violent illness. My confusion lacks the appropriate measure of fear; my complete ignorance of what is unfolding around me shields me from panic. I feel only that the seconds have collapsed, that our every movement and sensation is stifled by the thickness of the dust in the air, resulting in a painfully slow resolution to my question: what has just happened? My eyes are fixed on Mari’s. She is talking. She is the only one talking, but I cannot hear her over the cacophonous ringing in my ears. Sir! Sir, what about Michaels and Sa’ad? They are outside.

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PV1 Fred Miller, U.S. Army (1976-1999)

PV1 Fred Miller, U.S. Army (1976-1999)

Riskiest Moment: Was there any specific incident during your Military service when you felt your life was at risk? What were the circumstances and what was the outcome?:

February 3, 1979 – WINTERFORGE 79. I was assigned to the Joint Visitor’s Bureau to drive visiting dignitaries and their liaison officers around to view the REFORGER exercise area in M151A1 Jeeps. On the night of February 3, the Liaison Officer I was assigned to ordered me to return to our base at Katterbach Airfield, near Ansbach. It was late and raining hard, so visibility was very poor. Last I r

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Civil War – Battle of Chickamauga (1863)

Civil War – Battle of Chickamauga (1863)

Chickamauga, a bloody Civil War battle, fought near the Chickamauga Creek in Georgia. The Battle of Chickamauga ended in a victory for Confederate forces and resulted in 34,000 casualties. It marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, known as the Chickamauga Campaign. It is widely considered to be the second deadliest battle of the Civil War, following the Battle of Gettysburg.  In the summer of 1863, Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans led his Union Army of the Cumberland from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, towards Chattanooga, 140 miles to the south. Chattanooga was an important rail junction for the South. The goal was to use the Federal army of about 60,000 to surround the city and cut off escape for Gen. Braxton Bragg and his Army of the Tennessee numbering about 40,000. As the Union Army approached Chattanooga in early September, Bragg and his army abandoned the city and retreated to Chickamauga Creek, just 12 miles away. There they awaited...

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PFC Hugh Hefner, U.S. Army (1944-1946)

PFC Hugh Hefner, U.S. Army (1944-1946)

It's well-known that the late Hugh Hefner was the founder of one of history's most iconic global brands. He transformed the adult entertainment industry with his groundbreaking publication Playboy. Less widely reported, however, is his contribution to the war effort during World War II. Just seven years before he created Playboy magazine from his kitchen table, Hefner joined the Army, serving as an infantry clerk and drawing cartoons for various military newspapers.  Hugh Hefner's Early Years Hugh Marston Hefner, born on April 9, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois, was the eldest of two sons born to Grace and Glenn Hefner, who were strict Methodists. His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English. Through his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. Hefner went to Sayre Elementary School and then to Steinmetz High School, where, reportedly, his IQ was 152 though his academic performance was generally modest. He developed an...

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Ernie Pyle – Famous WWII War Correspondent

Ernie Pyle – Famous WWII War Correspondent

American journalist Ernest Taylor "Ernie" Pyle was one of the most famous war correspondents of WWII. Using his folksy writing style, Pyle connected with his readers and brought the realities of the battlefront to living rooms across America. At his peak, his columns appeared in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers. His devoted readers included political and military leaders and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. His coverage of campaigns in North Africa, Italy, and France earned him a Pulitzer Prize. While reporting on the war in the Pacific Theater in April 1945, Pyle was killed by enemy machine-gun fire on the Japanese island of le Shima. Born August 3, 1900, in Dana, Indiana, Pyle grew up on a farm. After graduation from high school, he longed for adventure and registered for the WWI Draft and joined the US Naval Reserve. WWI ended before he got a chance to see the world, so Pyle enrolled in journalism classes at Indiana University after returning home. One semester shy of graduation,...

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What Rotten EGGS by Daniel M. White

What Rotten EGGS by Daniel M. White

During World War II, the Coast Guard built its LORAN, or long-range navigation systems, a network of land-based transmitting stations that would give military ships and aircraft a means of accurately navigating to their destinations.  After the war, the LORAN became the primary means by which the entire world navigated the oceans. LORAN stations were built wherever there was local support for them, but those who worked at these remote locations often found themselves far from home, isolated, and lonesome.  The LORAN on Iwo Jima was operated by the Coast Guard from World War II until it was taken over by the Japanese government in 1994. Coast Guard veteran Daniel M. White's book “What Rotten EGGS” is a fictional work based on true stories about USCG LORAN during the period after the Second World War. The book follows a Coast Guard Lieutenant as he begins a tour as the new commanding officer of the LORAN Station on Iwo Jima, Japan. While he wasn't sure what to expect on the remote...

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The True Story of The Great Escape

The True Story of The Great Escape

More than likely, many of us have seen the 1963 American World War II epic film "The Great Escape" based on a real escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW Camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Sir Richard Attenborough. The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the real mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Zagan, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. As in any films depicting real events, many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, and the role of American personnel in both the planning and the escape was largely fabricated. The actual escape attempt took place one night in late March 1944 when 76 Allied Airmen escape through a tunnel from their Prisoner of War Camp deep in occupied Poland. Their aim was not only to get back to...

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Civil War – The Battle of Glendale: The Day the South Nearly Won (1862)

Civil War – The Battle of Glendale: The Day the South Nearly Won (1862)

It has become an accepted historical fact that the South could not have won the American Civil War. The North's advantages in finance, population, railroads, manufacturing, technology, and naval assets, among others, are often cited as prohibitively decisive. Yes, the South had the advantage of fighting on the defensive, this with interior lines, but those two meager pluses appear dwarfed by the North's overwhelming strategic advantages, hence defeat virtually a foregone conclusion. But if strategic advantage alone was always decisive in warfare, then names like Marathon, Cowpens, Rorke's Drift, and Cannae would today be meaningless, and they are not. The Battle of Glendale is One of Seven Days Battles of Civil War Indeed, there are times when the decided underdog wins in war, and there was one day in 1862 when the stars aligned, so to speak, to offer the South a victory of such magnitude that the Civil War might have ended in its favor. It was June 30, 1862, and for days the Federal...

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SFC Ronald Rosser, U.S. Army  (1946-1962) – Medal of Honor Recipient

SFC Ronald Rosser, U.S. Army (1946-1962) – Medal of Honor Recipient

Medal of Honor Recipient Ronald Rosser passed away on Wednesday Aug 26, 2020 in Bumpus Mills, Tenessee at the age of 90 from issues related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was awarded the medal for his bravery during the Korean War. Ronald Rosser was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1929. His father was a coal miner. When he turned 17, his mother gave birth to twins. He decided there wasn't enough room for him at home, so he followed his brother into the military in 1946. He served for three years and was a part of the occupations of Japan and Germany after World War II. When he left the Army, he returned home to work in the coal mines alongside his father. Rosser's younger brother, Richard, was killed in action during the Korean War. Rosser re-enlisted out of a sense of vengeance. "…I made up my mind that you can't kill my brother and get away with it," he said. Ronald Rosser's Service in the Korean War During the war, his platoon was charged with capturing a hill from the Chinese and...

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‘Only Son’ Law and the Draft

‘Only Son’ Law and the Draft

This military urban legend is only as old as World War II, and probably because out of so many Americans registered for the war, a relatively small number were actually drafted for the war. It makes sense that more than a handful might not understand why they weren't called up to serve or what the rules for being called up or passed over might be.  Only Son Being Exempt from the Draft When the war ended, a number of myths and legends began to circulate. Stories about things that happened during the war were repeated time and again, spreading far and wide. Most of them were true - or started out as true. Like a large game of veteran telephone, some stories got a little distorted. The legend of only children being exempt from the draft is one of those stories that began with a true story but morphed into something else entirely.  Over the course of World War II, 49 million men registered for the draft in the United States. More than 407,000 service members were killed, and...

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Service Reflections of Capt Bill Darrow, U.S. Marine Corps (1963-1983)

Service Reflections of Capt Bill Darrow, U.S. Marine Corps (1963-1983)

Both my parents were in the Navy during WWII. My Mother was one of the first WAVES, and my Dad was a POW at Bataan and an officer in the Navy. I have three brothers who were all in the Navy during the Korean War. During my grade school years, I attended Peekskill Military Academy in NY and was further schooled at home with Calvert School. I graduated from High School in Belvidere, NJ.
At 17, I briefly attended a Business School in Pennsylvania but soon got bored. Then, I decided to join the Navy and carry on the family tradition. There was a long narrow hallway in the post office where the recruiters were located, with the Navy recruiter on my right and the Marine Corps recruiter on my left. I stood in the hall between the two offices. Turning to my right to go into the Navy recruiting office, I noticed that the Navy Chief was wearing a soiled uniform. Next to him was a coffee pot that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the Spanish American War. He was overweight and didn’t seem to be too interested in the young man beginning to enter his office. Just before I walked into that somewhat messy office, I heard someone with a deep, commanding voice speak to someone else he called Corporal. I turned and saw the most chiseled-faced, lean man with a very short neat haircut and wearing a shirt with creases in it that could cut your finger on. I couldn’t help but stare at the very clean office with posters of fighting men, jets, carved Marine Corps logos, and an NCO sword hung neatly on the wall. Another man with fewer stripes on his shirt walked across the office

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Once a Warrior by Jake Wood

Once a Warrior by Jake Wood

When Marine sniper Jake Wood arrived in the States after two bloody tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was not leaving war behind him - far from it. Ten years after returning home, Jake's unit lost more men to suicide than to enemy hands overseas.  He watched in horror as his best friend and fellow Marine, Clay Hunt, plunged into depression upon returning, stripped of his purpose, community, and sense of identity. Despite Jake's attempts to intervene, Clay died by suicide, alone. Reeling, Jake remembered how only one thing had given Clay a measure of hope: joining him in Haiti on a ragtag mission to save lives immediately following the 2010 earthquake. His military training had rendered him unusually effective in high-stakes situations. What if there was a way to help stricken communities while providing a new mission to veterans? In this inspiring memoir, Jake recounts how, over the past 10 years, he and his team have recruited over 130,000 volunteers to his disaster response...

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