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Military Campaign Stories

SSgt Bernice Frankel (Bea Arthur), U.S. Marine Corps (1943-1945)

SSgt Bernice Frankel (Bea Arthur), U.S. Marine Corps (1943-1945)

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Bernice Frankel, better known as Bea Arthur, of the U.S. Marine Corps between 1943 and 1945, went on to be one of television’s best-loved sitcom stars. As one of the nation’s beloved Golden Girls, she was outspoken in and out of the character of Dorothy Zbornak, advocating for the rights of women and minorities. Yet she was also an intensely private person who kept many details of her life to herself for decades. Bea Arthur’s Military Career Bea Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in May 1922 to a Jewish family living in Brooklyn, New York. Her family relocated to Cambridge, Maryland in 1933, where her parents opened a women’s clothing store. Bernice developed a medical condition called coagulopathy at the age of 16. Her family sent her to boarding school for her health. After high school, she spent a year at Blackstone College for Girls in Virginia before entering the workforce. According to her official military personnel file, she had held previous jobs as a food analyst at a Maryland...

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Service Reflections of SFC Joseph Wilson, Jr., U.S. Army (1967-1990)

Service Reflections of SFC Joseph Wilson, Jr., U.S. Army (1967-1990)

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My father was a WWII Navy veteran (1945-47). In 1964 – 65 I became a Cadet with the Civil Air Patrol in the Borah Cadet Squadron in Boise, Idaho, and later with the Gowen Field Cadet Squadron also in Boise, Idaho.Despite them being similarly reserved and not the type of men to brag, I could hardly wait to visit them so I could beg them to tell me war stories. The experiences they shared with me made a lasting impression during my early childhood, which further aroused my desire to serve my country.

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WW2 – D-Day – The Longest Day

WW2 – D-Day – The Longest Day

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It was a cloudy, breezy morning on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 as the largest seaborne invasion in history began when British, Canadian and American troops set off across the unpredictable, dangerous English Channel from Portsmouth, England. Their destination: the beaches at Normandy, France. As the 5000-ship convoy carrying over 150,000 men and nearly 30,000 vehicles made its way across the choppy channel, thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. More than 300 planes dropped 13,000 bombs over coastal Normandy immediately in advance of the invasion. Naval guns fired volley after volley on and behind the beaches. Allied infantry and armored divisions began landing on the coast of France starting at 06:30. They landed under heavy, deadly fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach...

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Maj Richard Bong, U.S. Army Air Forces (1941–1945)

Maj Richard Bong, U.S. Army Air Forces (1941–1945)

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Richard Ira "Dick" Bong, was born September 24, 1920, in St. Mary's hospital in Superior, Wisconsin. He was the first of nine children born to Carl T. Bong and Dora Bryce Bong, living on a farm near the small town of Poplar, Wisconsin, about 20 miles southeast of Superior. Dick's father came to the United States from Sweden at the age of seven, and his mother was of Scots-English descent. Dick grew up on the family farm and attended the Poplar Grade School. Richard Bong then attended the Poplar High School, which consisted of only three grades. Consequently, he completed his senior year at the Superior Central High School in 1938 by commuting 44 miles round-trip. Bong's interest in aviation began in 1928 when President Coolidge was vacationing near Superior and established a summer White House in the Superior High School. His mail was delivered to him daily by an airplane. Dick was fascinated. Later, he recalled that the mail plane "flew right over our house, and I knew then that I...

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Vietnam Beyond by Gerald E. Augustine

Vietnam Beyond by Gerald E. Augustine

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When Gerald Augustine shipped off to Vietnam in 1966, he brought a 1949 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye box camera at the behest of his mother. It turned out to be a great decision.  About the Author of Vietnam Beyond He used the camera to document his experiences during and after the Vietnam War, and some of these images are included in his new book, "Vietnam Beyond." A Middletown, Connecticut native, Augustine graduated from high school in 1963 and went on to study at Central Connecticut State University and the University of Connecticut. He was soon drafted into the Army in 1965, serving with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade. On August 4, 1966, he was sent to Vietnam.  Augustine spent much of his time in Southeast Asia in combat. As a machine gunner, this meant ambush patrols, search-and-destroy missions, and helicopter assaults. He got a brief reprieve from the jungles only because an eye injury forced him to go to Saigon for surgery. There, he realized how far removed the...

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Famous Navy Unit: HA(L)-3 Seawolves

Famous Navy Unit: HA(L)-3 Seawolves

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Steeped in the political turmoil of an unpopular war and faced with unfamiliar terrain, embedded enemy supply practices, and tactics keying on stealth, by 1965, the US faced new and novel threats from Viet Cong forces with no ready recourse. Striving for any means to achieve supremacy, the Army turned to tried-and-true tactics while seeking a breakthrough military strategy. The answer, formation of the all-volunteer Navy Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 3 (HA(L)-3), quickly renowned by their call sign "Seawolf." Utilizing hand-me-down equipment acquired from the Army and newly trained personnel, HA(L)-3 would go on to become the most highly decorated squadron in naval aviation history. During the squadron's five-year tenure, the Seawolves flew more than 120,000 missions with two-hundred wounded and forty-four KIA, earning the following commendations and landmark recognition. But just how was such unprecedented success possible in the face of antiquated equipment and the absence of...

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Service Reflections of CPT Kent Whitman, U.S. Army (1967-1987)

Service Reflections of CPT Kent Whitman, U.S. Army (1967-1987)

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Vietnam cranking up made it easy for me to select ROTC as my elective course while attending the University of Mass Amherst with a college deferment. We need the draft back. I knew I would be called to go after college, so I decided to do it as an Officer. I did well in ROTC, so I was offered a Regular Army Commission instead of the Reserve commission.
Despite them being similarly reserved and not the type of men to brag, I could hardly wait to visit them so I could beg them to tell me war stories. The experiences they shared with me made a lasting impression during my early childhood, which further aroused my desire to serve my country.

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SSgt William Hart Pitsenbarger, U.S. Air Force (1962-1966)

SSgt William Hart Pitsenbarger, U.S. Air Force (1962-1966)

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Born in 1944 in Piqua, Ohio, William Hart Pitsenbarger was an ambitious only child. He wanted to quit high school to join the U.S. Army Special Forces' "Green Berets," but his parents convinced him to stay in school. After graduating in 1962, Pitsenbarger decided to join the Air Force and on New Year's Eve 1962, he was on a train bound for basic training in San Antonio, Texas. Pitsenbarger's Early Life and Education During his basic training in early 1963, "Pits" - as he was known to his friends - learned his military skills in a series of demanding schools. After Air Force basic training, he volunteered for pararescue work and embarked on a rigorous training program, which included U.S. Army parachute school, survival school, a rescue and survival medical course, and the U.S. Navy's scuba diving school. More Air Force rescue training and jungle survival school followed. His final training was in air crash rescue and firefighting.  His first assigned was to the Rescue Squadron...

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