The Christy Collection

Military Stories and Articles

Service Reflections of SPC Justin Olson U.S. Army (2003-2006)

Service Reflections of SPC Justin Olson U.S. Army (2003-2006)

I joined after September 11th after the two towers fell. I wanted to be a pilot. There were no current positions, so I was going to be an aircraft mechanic. There were also no positions, so I was offered the 63 Alpha Abrams system maintainer main battle tank mechanic position. I said, “But that’s the opposite; tanks are heavy. Aircraft are light.” I was told the main battle tank had the same AGT 1500 turbine engine as the Blackhawk helicopter. I was told I could double mosQ to aircraft engines after 3 years, and that’s the first people that I would look to for pilots. So I looked at it like a six-year-goal. My military career didn’t quite pan out that way. I went to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for unique training for five and a half months, then 2 weeks of hometown recruiting back in Utah and Ogden. I got married. I then reported for duty in December 2003 to Fort Hood, Texas, where within a short few months, I was already at the real head and leaving for Iraq, where being wounded doesn’t take mechanic would end my career. Luckily, I got to use my skills while using my post-911 GI Bill to go to college at Texas State Technical College as an aircraft mechanic, where I also got to do my initial flights. That’s not currently what I do today.

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Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, U.S. Army (1953-1978)

Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, U.S. Army (1953-1978)

During the early morning hours of May 15, 1967, personnel of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, were ambushed in the Song Tra Cau riverbed near the Duc Pho District in the South Central Coast of Vietnam by an estimated battalion-sized force of the North Vietnamese Army. The NVA attacked with numerous automatic weapons, machine guns, mortars, and recoilless rifles from a fortified complex of deeply embedded tunnels and bunkers that were effectively shielded from counter fire. Maj....

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