The Christy Collection

Military Stories and Articles

Service Reflections of SFC John Westlake, U.S. Army (1967-2010)

Service Reflections of SFC John Westlake, U.S. Army (1967-2010)

I was influenced by a few factors. I was brought up in a patriotic New England family. I had uncles who fought in Vietnam, Korea, and WWII, and my grandfather on my mother’s side fought in WWI. I remember as a young boy going with most of them to the local Memorial Day parade. We would always stand near a bridge where the parade would stop and a wreath would be thrown into the water.
The other factor that influenced me was the 6 o’clock news. As I was growing up in the ’60s, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the daily body count of US GI’s and Viet Cong would always be announced. I remember how it bothered me when there were more GI’s killed on any given day than VC. My mind was made up just as I started high school. I wanted to go over there and even the odds. Having grown up on a farm and already having handled rifles and shotguns, I felt I was ready.

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Service Reflections of SGT Thomas Harvey, U.S. Marine Corps (1970-1973)

Service Reflections of SGT Thomas Harvey, U.S. Marine Corps (1970-1973)

There were several reasons why I chose military service in general and the Marines in particular. My father was an engineer on a B-29 in WWII. He felt that his military experience was a major turning point in his life. He encouraged me to consider military service and actively lobbied that I should apply to the USMA.
I chose the Marines to make a statement that I supported the Vietnam War. I attended an elite college prep school where it was fashionable to be anti-war and anti-military. I supported America’s role in Vietnam and the worldwide battle against communism. Many members of my mothers family lived under communist oppression in Poland and I felt it was my duty to defend the American way of life. I had heard horror stories as to the break down in the Army and felt that Marine discipline, training, and esprit de corps was superior to all the other armed forces. Also, I felt challenged to do something big and demanding. I could have easily hidden out in college until the war was over but I chose a more difficult route.

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Service Reflections of ETCS Dale Hower, U.S. Navy (1968-1988)

Service Reflections of ETCS Dale Hower, U.S. Navy (1968-1988)

My father James D. Hower, Sr, had a short Navy career of 9 months. He enlisted near the end of WWII and was stationed at Camp Peary, Virginia. He and my mother lived a small apartment in what is now Colonial Williamsburg. When the war ended he was offered an early out when the armed services were down sizing. Throughout my youth, he often mentioned that he wished he would have stayed in.
Although his time in the Navy was limited he encouraged me and my brother to pursue a career in the military. My older brother, James D. Hower, Jr. had a 15-year career in the Navy. He went to boot camp at Great Lakes, obtained an appointment to the Naval Academy from our congressman, went to Naval Academy Preparatory School in Bainbridge MD and then on to Annapolis, graduating in 1971. He separated from the Navy as a Lieutenant.
Through his and my father’s urging, I eventually joined the Navy while still a senior in high school under the delayed entry program. Like my father and brother, we were employed in the textile industry and worked at the same mill. Unlike my father, we had the opportunity to leave the small town Pennsylvania mill worker life and see the world.

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American GIs Battle a German Sniper in Snowy WWII Thriller ‘Recon’

American GIs Battle a German Sniper in Snowy WWII Thriller ‘Recon’

"Recon," a good old-fashioned World War II movie, turns out to be one of the few films that are trying to make a big impact in theaters this fall.  The movie follows four American soldiers over the course of a day after they are sent on a possible suicide mission over a mountain. An old Italian partisan leads them, and no one can be sure of his loyalties. The men witnessed their Sergeant kill an Italian civilian just before this assignment, so no one really knows whether they are supposed...

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WW2 – D-Day Landings: The 82nd and 101st Airborne

WW2 – D-Day Landings: The 82nd and 101st Airborne

The amphibious landings of D-Day were hours away when the first combat missions by the US Army started in France. The Normandy invasion, also called Operation Overlord or D-Day, began with a large-scale parachute drop that included 13,100 Soldiers of the 82nd and the 101st Airborne Divisions. During the night in the early hours of June 6th, 1944, the attack occurred and was the vanguard of the Allied operations in Normandy. What Was the Mission of the US 101st and 82nd Airborne...

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Eileen Nearne – British WWII Heroine

Eileen Nearne – British WWII Heroine

The "Croix de Guerre" or "Cross of War," is a French military decoration honoring people for their resistance against the Nazis in WWII. Furthermore, being appointed a "Member of the Order of the British Empire" by King George VI for services rendered in France during the enemy occupation was a high British honor. Any man who was awarded such honors must have been a remarkable one. Only, in this case, we are dealing with a woman and a brave and tenacious one at that. The Perilous Life of...

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Service Reflections of CWO2 Jon Nolan, U.S. Coast Guard (1988-2011)

Service Reflections of CWO2 Jon Nolan, U.S. Coast Guard (1988-2011)

PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents CWO2 Jon Nolan's legacy of his military service from 1988 to 2011. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to...

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Service Reflections of SGT Michael Fouts, U.S. Army (1972-1976)

Service Reflections of SGT Michael Fouts, U.S. Army (1972-1976)

PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The following Reflections represents SGT Michael Fouts's legacy of his military service from 1972 to 1976. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The following Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to...

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Witness to the Storm by Werner T. Angress

Witness to the Storm by Werner T. Angress

On June 6, 1944, Werner T. Angress parachuted down from a C-47 into German-occupied France with the 82nd Airborne Division. Nine days later, he was captured behind enemy lines and, concealing his identity as a German-born Jew, became a prisoner of war. Eventually, he was freed by US forces, rejoined the fight, crossed Europe as a battlefield interrogator, and participated in a concentration camp's liberation. Although he was an American soldier, less than ten years before, he had been an...

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Service Reflections of CPL Dan Olson,  U.S. Marine Corps (2009-2013)

Service Reflections of CPL Dan Olson, U.S. Marine Corps (2009-2013)

As a child, I always wanted to be a Marine and spent many hours watching movies and playing “war” with friends in the backyard wearing surplus WWII, Korea, and Vietnam apparel and gear given to me by my “uncle” Jr. The late 90s, while I was in high school, was a relative time of peace, and the few people I did see joining the military were doing it for college money, which, while making sense to me, also kind of soured the idea for me. In my senior year in 2000, the Army National Guard ran a recruiting event in the quad area at lunch, and a friend and I added our names to a list to get more information; my mother always told me that the military would brainwash me and that I was flat-footed and wouldn’t be accepted anyway (I’m not flat-footed) and when that Army Sgt called the house I heard my mother quickly give him a piece of her mind and then abruptly hang up on him, and that was the end of that, I wasn’t fully committed to the idea myself and had apprehensions and concerns about whether I’d be up to military life and honestly was unsure that I even had what it takes to make it through boot camp. After high school, I worked for my family, got engaged, and took out a loan for my first home. Then September 11th happened. I was angry, and silly as it may sound, I was filled with guilt as I saw on the news the brave men and women my age who answered the call to service both before and during this unprecedented time in our country. Still, I had obligations here at home and continued on my current course at the time. Years passed, and I grew older and feared that my youth would quickly pass me by. Then, the economic recession of 2008 hit.

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Service Reflections of ETC Julius Marold, U.S. Navy (1964-1985)

Service Reflections of ETC Julius Marold, U.S. Navy (1964-1985)

As a child, I had always had an interest in the Navy. My parents had been in the Army during WWII, so they couldn’t understand why I was so fascinated by all things Navy. My favorite TV shows were Silent Service, Men of Annapolis, Navy Log, Victory at Sea, and McHale’s Navy. I had a stack of paperback books about the Navy. I liked the idea of going into submarines, but my vision wasn’t good enough. After registering for the draft in 1964, my next stop was the Navy Recruiting Office in Babylon, New York. He wasn’t in, so I went to the one in Hempstead. The SMC in charge was in, so I signed up with him, and at the end of September, I was off to Great Lakes RTC.

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