The Christy Collection

Military Stories and Articles

SGT Mark Reisetter, U.S. Army (1969-1970)

SGT Mark Reisetter, U.S. Army (1969-1970)

Which individual(s) from your time in the military stand out as having had the most positive impact on you and why?:

1SGT Robert L. Millirons (a WWII, Korean War, and 3rd-Tour Vietnam Veteran) was a bare-chested old soldier sitting against a tombstone in the lowlands of Thua Thien Province when he sounded a commanding “Troop” in my direction as I reported to my company. I left Camp Eagle as an individual replacement in January of 1970 bound for where C Company, 1/327th Infantry, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division was located.

read more
Service Reflections of SP4 Orlando Maione, U.S. Army (1958-1961)

Service Reflections of SP4 Orlando Maione, U.S. Army (1958-1961)

I was 22 years old and just finished my fourth year as a student in a five-year program for a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, IN. In June of that year, I received my draft notice. I went to the local draft board with my university catalog showing the program I was in was a five-year program; my parents canceled the check for the fifth-year tuition and explained that I didn’t want to get out of the draft. I was perfectly willing to serve but wanted to finish my college education and a one-year deferment.

read more
WW2 – The Heroes Of Eager Beavers

WW2 – The Heroes Of Eager Beavers

In 1943, several U.S. airmen went on a suicide mission. Two men, who were part of Eager Beavers, on the mission were awarded a Medal of Honor - the only time in WWII that two men received the same award for the same engagement. Interestingly, their careers didn't start out well. Biography of Lt Col Jay Zeamer Jr. Jay Zeamer, Jr. got his wings in 1941 at Langley Field. All his classmates became pilots and got their own planes and crews, but not Zeamer. Although he could fly and had a passion...

read more
Backtracking in Brown Water by Rolland E. Kidder

Backtracking in Brown Water by Rolland E. Kidder

The market is flooded with books written about Vietnam. Many follow the same path in their storytelling, beginning with their youth, entry into the military, their war experiences, returning home, and how they feel today about that journey. This book does some of that, but it is different in more ways. The author takes us on a voyage spanning his wartime service as a U.S. Navy patrol boat officer in Vietnam's Mekong Delta to his recent return trip to Vietnam and finally, to the most poignant...

read more
Secret Soldiers by Philip Gerard

Secret Soldiers by Philip Gerard

They were masters of the craft of illusion and deception, and their greatest disappearing act was to vanish from history. The men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops were recruited to become phantom warriors in a ghost army to help win the Battle of Europe. A thousand strong, they fought in more campaigns, from D Day to the Rhine River, with more Allied armies, than any other unit in the European Theater of Operations - yet, not even their fellow American soldiers were aware of their...

read more
A3C Michael Bell, U.S. Air Force (1963-1966)

A3C Michael Bell, U.S. Air Force (1963-1966)

Where did you go to Boot Camp/ Basic Training? What specific memories do you have of instructors, fellow recruits and any rigorous training?:

Lackland, in winter…

I quit my high school senior year in South Bend on the November day JFK was assassinated. Being a foster kid and ward of Cook County court I was given one choice; enlist or go back to school. I chose USAF because my uncle had been in blue working on Boxcars in Japan during Korea, and everyone else in the family going back to the 1700s had been Army. I scored high on “Abstract Reasoning” – as my wife and kids would attest still holds true 60 years later. In almost exactly one month I found myself in Indianapolis taking the physical, and the oath with about 20 other guys my age. After spending that night in a seedy hotel part of the city, we were put on the civilian equivalent of a C-131 (aka T-29) Samaritan recip. Bound south vector to San Antonio, at age 17; my first airplane ride, and into the unkowable.

read more
WW2 – The Liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

WW2 – The Liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

On January 27 1945 the Soviet Army pried open the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and liberated some 7,000 emaciated prisoners. About 58,000 others had been hurriedly marched westward before the Soviet Army approached. Auschwitz, the German word for the Polish town of Oswiecim, was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp during WWII. It consisted of a concentration camp, a labor camp, and large gas chambers and crematoria. More than 1.3 million people...

read more
Is the M2 “Ma Deuce” An Illegal Weapon of War?

Is the M2 “Ma Deuce” An Illegal Weapon of War?

The M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun has been a favorite heavy infantry weapon since the end of World War I. That the weapon has remained in the U.S. arsenal for so long is a testament to its power and flexibility. And no wonder - it was designed by the legendary John Browning himself.  Although the M2 has come in many variants over the years, it has still proven an effective weapon from the last days of World War l, into World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and into...

read more
Service Reflections of CAPT Rex Conger, U.S. Navy (1966-2008)

Service Reflections of CAPT Rex Conger, U.S. Navy (1966-2008)

It was my Senior Year in high school. My dad was a history teacher and the Vice-Principal at my high school, so I didn’t get away with much.

I worked in a Grocery Store and delivered Sealtest Milk door to door on Saturdays and during school breaks. I also played the organ in a rock band most Saturday nights. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career, and I knew that we could not afford college, so I was trying to decide what I would do.

There was a footlocker in one of our closets that had my dad’s old uniforms in it, and I had played “dress up” years ago with those uniforms. My dad had served during WWII in the Navy as an officer – and I began to think that the Navy could give me a way to get away from home and perhaps provide me with a “Career” – little did I know!

Vietnam was going on – but I, and the guys I hung around with, really didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. And I was still too young to be “Drafted!” So I talked to my dad and found him “more patriotic than I ever realized.” He said it was my choice – but – he thought it would be good for me to “mature” and perhaps I would find my career choice. I didn’t talk much to my buddies – but I did talk to the Navy Recruiter. As I remember, the recruiter had me on a Bus shortly after that – I passed the Physical and was on my way to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, two hours from home.

read more
Service Reflections of CPL George Wick, U.S. Marine Corps (1965-1969)

Service Reflections of CPL George Wick, U.S. Marine Corps (1965-1969)

The primary influences were Uncle Sam’s draft notice and my older brother Dave. My older brother Dave was serving in the Marine Corps at the time. So, I asked him how the Marines were, and he said, “it is not too bad.” I knew nothing about any of the service branches at the time. Therefore, his opinion meant a lot to me. Thus, the decision to join the Marine Corps came from my older brother Dave and Uncle Sam. I remember many times in boot camp thinking; if this is not too bad, it must be going to get a lot worse.

read more
Service Reflections of SSG John Cihak, U.S. Army (1969-1989)

Service Reflections of SSG John Cihak, U.S. Army (1969-1989)

Truth be told, I went to get away from home “a Payton Place” My parents were not the best, and I was the oldest; I had to get up, cook breakfast every day, go to school, then to work and home to cook dinner, wash dishes and help my brother and sisters with their homework, then I could do mine. This was five days a week, and on weekends I did my chores and went to work, still doing the cooking and laundry. I also paid my parents to rent to live in the garage with an old car that did not rum, sleeping on two-foot lockers. There was physical abuse and sexual abuse in this family.

My BIO father was a drunk in the USAF; his law was his leather belt using either end and a 2×4. When my parents separated, I had to stay with him and two sisters; my brother and one sister went with my mother. My father once threw me out the 2nd story window for talking to my mother, telling her how we were doing (remember, we were not allowed friends as we thought this was normal). On top of all this, my mother was sleeping around with my uncle (my father’s brother), so I wanted to get away.

I had an uncle John who had been in the Marines during WWII, and so I went to get in; they turned me down, not believing my age, and those of us who went to Nam knew the Army took anyone who had teeth, two eyes, two ears, four limbs with all five on each, and anyone who could shout, so my life began well by Payton Place and hello Vietnam I volunteered for the draft early with my friend Don.

read more