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The Twins Platoons by Christy W. Sauro Jr.

The Twins Platoons by Christy W. Sauro Jr.

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As a symbol of patriotism and public support during a time when anti-Vietnam war sentiments were growing, the Minnesota Twins baseball team and Marine Corps recruiters in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area came up with the idea of the team sponsoring a recruit platoon to be named the 'Twins Platoon." A letter sent out to area Marine recruits informed them they would be sworn in on TV at pregame ceremonies the night of June 28, 1967. Among those receiving the letter was the author, Christy Sauro Jr. On the designated night, over one hundred young men and four young women stood in the open field in a casually fashioned "civilian" formation and were sworn in. By the end of the sixth inning, the new recruits were hustled out to waiting buses, sped away to the World Chamberlain Field Airport, boarded an American Flyers chartered flight, lifted off the Minneapolis runway and flew into the blackened night for San Diego. Before dawn the next day, the recruits of the Twins Platoon were standing...

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Cpl Eugene Hackman (Gene Hackman), U.S.Marine Corps (1946 – 1951)

Cpl Eugene Hackman (Gene Hackman), U.S.Marine Corps (1946 – 1951)

Gene Hackman was an American actor known for his rugged looks and emotionally honest performances. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, he became one of Hollywood’s most revered talents, earning five Academy Award nominations and winning two. Hackman starred in some of the most iconic films in cinema history, including The French Connection, The Conversation, and Unforgiven. Before his rise to fame, he served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Though his passing in 2025 marked the end of an era, his legacy as both an actor and a veteran remains unforgettable. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Hackman’s remarkable career and his military service. Gene Hackman’s Early Life Gene (Eugene Allen Hackman) was born on January 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, USA. He was the eldest of three children born to Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth. Hackman's father was a newspaper pressman and his mother worked as a waitress. The family moved...

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Restless Hearts by Dennis Baker

Restless Hearts by Dennis Baker

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Dennis Baker fictional novel takes the reader into a highly detailed, realistic setting that is invaded by something that breaks the rules of our real-world - five fallen warriors get a chance to return home as they search for closure to their unfinished lives. Using the names of real live heroes who once fought for our country beginning with WWI to the current day, Baker's story takes us to the depths of our emotion of sorrow for those who are gone and joy for the outcome of the choices in their journeys to their past lives. The main character is Pete Baker, a Navy SEAL, and his teammate Lt. Frankie Leonardo, who is killed in Afghanistan. Escorting Frankie's body back to the United States, the plane runs into extremely turbulent weather, causing Pete to get knocked out for the entire 10-hour trip. That's when Frankie reappears and takes Pete on an adventure to Arlington Cemetery, where they meet warriors killed in all of America's wars. From the hundreds gather there, Pete chooses...

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Col Frank Capra, U.S. Army (1918-1945)

Col Frank Capra, U.S. Army (1918-1945)

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Frank Capra, who served in the US Army between 1918 and 1945, is perhaps most well-known for his direction of classic Americana films It’s A Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. However, his greatest contribution to American culture may be the documentary series he produced during World War II for the Allied forces: Why We Fight. Born in Bisacquino, Sicily, in 1897, Francesco Rosario Capra was the youngest of seven children born to the Capra household: humble fruit growers. In 1903, the family emigrated to the United States, spending 13 days in the degrading squalor of steerage. This experience profoundly affected young Francesco. On arriving in the US, the Capras moved to the East Side of Los Angeles. Capra’s father worked as a fruit picker, and Capra himself sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until graduation. Instead of entering the workforce, he enrolled in the California Institute of Technology. Sadly, his father died in 1916, so to avoid draining too much of...

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Spearhead by Adam Makos

Spearhead by Adam Makos

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Have you read Spearhead by Adam Makos? When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner's seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He's a natural-born shooter. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art "super tank," one of twenty in the European theater. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That's how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle...

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Lt Tom Ewell, U.S. Navy (1942-1945)

Lt Tom Ewell, U.S. Navy (1942-1945)

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Tom Ewell, of the United States Navy between 1942 and 1945, interrupted a successful career as a stage actor in order to protect the merchant shipping vital to the country’s war effort as part of the US Navy Armed Guard. Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Kentucky during the year 1909, he was expected to join the family professions (either law or tobacco and whiskey dealing) but instead pursued acting. In 1928, he began acting in summer stock while attending the University of Wisconsin. Determined to defy the Depression and make a success of himself, in 1931, at the age of 22, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Actors Studio. Making ends meet while waiting for his break was rough going. He washed dishes, sold cigars and magazines and operated elevators while looking for work on the stage. He eventually made his Broadway debut in 1934 with the production They Shall Not Die, and began accumulating more credits from there. Tom Ewell’s Military Career Ewell had built momentum as a...

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Walk In My Combat Boots by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

Walk In My Combat Boots by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

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James Patterson, the author of "Walk In My Combat Boots", is the worldwide, best-selling creator of the "Alex Cross" and "Michael Bennett" series of books. Matt Eversmann is a U.S. Army veteran who received the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for leading a team of Rangers in Somalia in 1993. His exploits were depicted in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down". The two teamed up to create a touching, thoughtful book about the U.S. military, the people who join it, and veterans of three separate eras of conflict, "Walk In My Combat Boots," on bookshelves on Feb. 8.  "Walk In My Combat Boots" is a series of short stories, as told by veterans themselves. The stories cover the entire lifecycle of the veteran experience, starting before becoming a recruit, to war stories, to answering questions about military service from one's children.  Patterson said he was inspired to write the book after watching veterans' interviews and realizing he'd never heard stories from his own veteran family...

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Baghdad Underground Railroad by Steve Miska

Baghdad Underground Railroad by Steve Miska

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In 2007, Iraq was mired in a nearly country-wide civil war. The United States military needed Iraqis to help them quell the violence between Sunni and Shia militias who were tearing the country apart and ambushing American troops.  Bodies were turning up in the streets overnight, IEDs were a constant threat to U.S. forces, and innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire. Thousands of Iraqis, most with no military training, risked their lives to be interpreters for American military units throughout the country.  Their services proved invaluable in the years to come, and they became part of the “family” of the American men and women with whom they served. At home, however, they and their close relatives faced violence, death threats, and other reprisals for aiding the United States. Death Squads roamed the streets and raided homes to find, intimidate and kill Iraqi interpreters.  To incentivize Iraqis to continue their service, Congress authorized special visas for...

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Col Pierre Julien Ortiz, U.S.Marine Corps (1942-1954)

Col Pierre Julien Ortiz, U.S.Marine Corps (1942-1954)

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The first thoughts that come to mind when one thinks about World War II Marines is them landing on bloody beaches and fighting in steamy jungles of the Pacific. But this was not the role of Marine Pierre Julien Ortiz, who served in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. His exploits and dare-devil attitude were things of fiction yet they were all real. He was an American and a Frenchman with a Spanish name and he lived in remarkable times and did remarkable things. His life was a series of rousing adventures that were the basis for several Hollywood screenplays. He was a ship's mate, a race car driver, a decorated French Foreign Legionnaire with two awards of the Croix de Guerre, a World War II Marine officer with two Navy Crosses and two Purple Hearts, a member of the covert Office of Strategic Services and captured by the Germans only to escape and three years later be captured again - and he was a Hollywood movie actor. He spoke five languages including French, German and Arabic....

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With The Old Breed by E. B. Sledge

With The Old Breed by E. B. Sledge

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Sledge's memoir gives a firsthand and unapologetically honest perspective on the Pacific Theater of World War II. His memoir is a front-line account of infantry combat in the Pacific War. It brings the reader into the island hopping, the jungle heat and rain, the filth and malaise, the fear of potential "banzai attacks," and the hopelessness and loss of humanity that so uniquely characterized the campaign in the Pacific. Sledge wrote starkly of the brutality displayed by Japanese soldiers during the battles and of the hatred that both sides harbored for each other. In Sledge's words, "This was a brutish, primitive hatred, as characteristic of the horror of war in the Pacific as the palm trees and the islands." Sledge describes one instance in which he and a comrade came across the mutilated bodies of three Marines, butchered and with severed genitals stuffed into their mouths. He also describes the behavior of some Marines towards dead Japanese, including the removal of gold teeth...

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PV2 Robert Duvall, U.S. Army (1953 – 1954)

PV2 Robert Duvall, U.S. Army (1953 – 1954)

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Robert Duvall is best known for his 70-plus years in Hollywood, playing such iconic military roles as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now," Maj. Frank Burns in "M*A*S*H" and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in the TV miniseries "Ike: The War Years." But did you know that before his acting career took off, Robert Duvall served in the Army, shortly after the end of the Korean War?  Robert Duvall’s Early Life Actor and filmmaker Robert Duvall was born in San Diego, but grew up a Navy brat — an endearing term for a child whose parent is on active military duty. Duvall's father was Navy Rear Admiral William Howard Duvall. His tenure included the time of the Tailhook scandal; he and Rear Admiral John E. Gordon were tasked with conducting the investigation. Robert Duvall’s mother was a relative of American Civil War General Robert E. Lee, and a member of the Lee Family of Virginia, while his father was a descendant of settler Mareen Duvall. Admiral Duvall wanted young Robert to attend...

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The X-15 Rocket Plane by Michelle Evans

The X-15 Rocket Plane by Michelle Evans

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When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into low-earth orbit in 1957, it set the Space Race in full motion. The United States was determined to break the barriers of man's entry into space and dominate this undiscovered country.  While NASA projects Mercury, Gemini, and especially Apollo are often remembered and celebrated, a little-remembered partnership between the US Air Force and NASA brought an incredible new aircraft, arguably the first-ever manned spacecraft, to life: the X-15. Author Michelle Evans' 2013 book "The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space" brings new life to the story of the X-15, those who flew the powerful plane, and the men and women who made the X-15 possible, in the air, on the ground, and behind the scenes.  The X-15 was a hypersonic, rocket-powered airplane capable of flying as high as 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, meeting the internationally-accepted boundary of space. It was capable of...

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