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The Christy Collection

Military Stories and Articles

VADM John D. Bulkeley, U.S. Navy (1933-1975)

VADM John D. Bulkeley, U.S. Navy (1933-1975)

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John D. Bulkeley was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy and one of its most decorated naval officers. Bulkeley received the Medal of Honor for actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was also the PT boat skipper who evacuated General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines.  VADM John D. Bulkeley Led Daring WWII Missions John D. Bulkeley was born in New York City and grew up on a farm in Hackettstown, New Jersey, where he graduated from Hackettstown High...

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Korean War – Sacrifice And Survival at Chosin Reservoir

Korean War – Sacrifice And Survival at Chosin Reservoir

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For 19-year-old Pat Finn, a Minnesota Marine with Item Co, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, the night seemed colder and darker than any of the others he'd experienced since landing in Korea. His Battalion had just arrived at a desolate, frozen lake he would remember for the rest of his life: the Chosin Reservoir. Chosin Reservoir Hit by a Devastating Surprise Attack As the sun went down on November 27, 1950, and temperatures sank to 20 degrees below zero, Marines at Yudam-ni, a small village on the...

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Valentine’s Day by Charles A. Van Bibber

Valentine’s Day by Charles A. Van Bibber

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In the late nineteen sixties, the author made a life-altering journey that led him out of Texas and into the U.S. Marine Corps and eventually into the jungles of Vietnam as a machine gunner during the tumultuous year 1968.   'Valentine's Day' (so named because Van Bidder's unit, 2nd Battalion, 27th Marine Regiment, departed Camp Pendleton for Vietnam on February 14, 1968) is a very excellent read.  What makes it so is the straightforward accounting by the author on the horror,...

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PFC Vicki M. Taylor, U.S. Marines (1980-1981)

PFC Vicki M. Taylor, U.S. Marines (1980-1981)

On December 6, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq which was then one of the most volatile cities in the world Major Megan Malia McClung was killed in action when an IED struck her Humvee during a mission escorting journalists embedded with Marine forces. She was 34. What made her presence on that convoy so powerful was this: she didn t have to be there. She was the senior public affairs officer in the region she could have delegated the mission. But Megan believed leaders share risk, not avoid it. She believed in showing the world what our Marines were doing and standing beside them while they did it.

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Cpl William Thomas Perkins Jr., U.S.M.C. (1966-1967) – Vietnam War Combat Photographer

Cpl William Thomas Perkins Jr., U.S.M.C. (1966-1967) – Vietnam War Combat Photographer

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The only Medal of Honor to be awarded to a combat photographer is now on display in the Medal of Honor Gallery in the "Price of Freedom" exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. William Perkins Jr’s Medal of Honor at the Smithsonian Marine Cpl. William Thomas Perkins Jr. died at the age of 20 on Oct. 12, 1967, when he flung himself on a grenade to preserve the lives of three other Marines during Operation Medina, a Marine search and destroy operation in Quang Tri...

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Iraq War – The Battle of Abu Ghraib

Iraq War – The Battle of Abu Ghraib

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Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was notorious long before U.S. troops were found guilty of abusing detainees there. Originally built in the 1960s, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used the site to house and later execute political prisoners. He closed the prison in 2002, but when the U.S.-led Coalition ousted Hussein by force in 2003, it was reopened. Because Coalition forces used it as an internment camp, it also became a forward operating base – and a target for insurgents.  The Battle of Abu...

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LT Michael P. Murphy, U.S. Navy (2000–2005)

LT Michael P. Murphy, U.S. Navy (2000–2005)

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Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or not, you might have heard about "The Murph Challenge." Every Memorial Day, veterans, military members, and fitness nuts around the country pledge to take the challenge. It not only helps remember the courage and sacrifice of Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy, but also helps send military-connected individuals to college through the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation. Lt. Michael P. Murphy Leads SEAL Mission in Afghanistan To call the...

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Service Reflections of HM2 Bill Sheehan, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1970)

Service Reflections of HM2 Bill Sheehan, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1970)

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Just a few days after graduating from high school, I left for college for the Summer Quarter at Ohio State. I wasn’t ready for college. I was only ranked 51 out of 99 in my high school class. I was in Pre-Med and took Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I lasted three quarters and then flunked out. They called it Academic Dismissal. I knew I would be drafted since it was in 1966, and all healthy, able, non-students without wives and families were feeding the war machine in Vietnam.

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MAJ Mark Nunn, U.S. Army (1988-2010)

MAJ Mark Nunn, U.S. Army (1988-2010)

Did Any of Your Parents or Grandparents Serve? What Facts or Stories Do You Remember About Their Service?:

My father, 1st Lieutenant Omar Nunn, flew the C-47 Transport Plane in the Pacific off Saipan during WWII. On Oct 12, 1944, he landed on Peleliu while the battle still raged and was confronted by a platoon of ragged Marines. Although they were filthy, dirty, skinny from starvation and dehydration, with clothes torn to tatters, they had an air of excitement and anticipation about them.

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To Hear Silence by Ronald W. Hoffman

To Hear Silence by Ronald W. Hoffman

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Five years ago, the author returned to Vietnam on a battlefield tour with his wife, Nancy. In a conversation with the guide, Bill Stilwagen, he mentioned how his unit had accomplished a lot in its first 13 months in-country, yet when he looked on the internet, he couldn’t find anything. Stilwagen challenged him by saying, “Why don’t you write a book about it?” Hoffman took the challenge seriously.

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Service Reflections of JOC Arthur Frith, U.S. Navy (1970-1991)

Service Reflections of JOC Arthur Frith, U.S. Navy (1970-1991)

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Several things influenced my decision to join the Navy. Two other classmates and I at Lemoore High School were considering joining the Air Force. Being a “Navy Brat”, I was looking at being stationed someplace I’d not lived where my father had been stationed in the Navy. We completed the physical and paperwork and had a date in July to enlist and head for San Antonio. However, when the time arrived, I received a call from the Air Force recruiter saying that my date had been moved to October. Given the fact that I’d quit my job at Boy Scout summer camp, quit my jobs with the Fresno Bee and Lemoore Advance, and the fact that Dad was PCSing to NAS Memphis in September, I had very few options other than the Draft. I drove to Visalia, picked up my package from the Air Force recruiter, and walked down the hall to the Navy’s office. There was a Chief sitting at a desk. I put my folder in front of him and asked, “Chief, how soon can I enlist?” He looked it over, looked up at me, and said: “What about tomorrow? I asked him if I could use his phone. I called Dad at his office back on NAS Lemoore: “Hey. Do you have anything going on tomorrow?” He said, “Nope.” “Good. You’re taking me up to Fresno to swear me in the Navy.” It was off to RTC San Diego the following afternoon.

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