Billy was a Ration Breakdown Specialist in Vietnam, figuring out how much of each ration of meat, vegetables, etc. each company would get. His career after the service was just as full.
Carl Gatto attended Lewis College for Aircraft Maintenance, which led to a career in the military in which he was a UH-1 Helicopter Crew Chief, Aircraft Inspector, Platoon Sergeant, Helicopter Maintenance Instructor, and 1SG. of UH-60 Assault Helicopter Company.
Robert Anderson was an RTO in the jungles of Vietnam. On the morning of July 6, 1970, Rob’s life was forever changed when he was wounded in a firefight. He earned a Bronze Star that day coordinating the evacuation for himself and five other soldiers.
Doug Strasburg says he was born with the ‘go fast’ gene. He loved figuring out how car engines worked. So naturally, when he entered the Army, he was trained as a heavy equipment operator driving very slow bulldozers in Vietnam.
We often hear the battle cry of “ NO MAN LEFT BEHIND“, but seldom have the opportunity to meet an individual who performed this mission. SP4 Edward Johnson was wounded in his left shoulder on December 18, 1965, for which he later was awarded the Purple Heart.
First Sergeant Charles, “Chuck,” Bosko served in the US Army as a Combat Medic during the Vietnam War. Before Chuck joined the military, multiple relatives of his also proudly served our country, including his father, who served in the South Pacific during WWII as a Combat Engineer.
This is the story of three sons of Our Lady Of Guadalupe who also fought in Vietnam. They came home with deep emotional scars. But theirs’ is also a story of love, loyalty, and healing.
Terry Welch says he’s lived a charmed life. It does seem that way. Despite being wounded twice during his one-year tour in Vietnam, multiple skydives and almost crashing his Cessna airplane, his life has certainly been charmed and interesting.
Brandt’s path started in January 1969 with basic training at Ft. Polk, La. In March he transferred to Ft. Wolters, Texas, to begin the six-month long Warrant Officer Candidate (WOC) school, which included helicopter training in the OH-23 Raven.
William Maxie Blair, who goes by Max, grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Englewood neighborhood. He has a younger brother who also served in the Army during Vietnam. Both brothers will be traveling together with Honor Flight Chicago in October.
Chris Argianas was born in Cicero, Illinois on April 3, 1934. Both of Chris’ parents were immigrants from Greece. Chris and his family stayed in Cicero for twelve years before moving to Brookfield, Illinois, where his parents had their own little family store.
Growing up, Gilbert High dreamed of being a journalist or perhaps a teacher, and while he didn’t envision the Army being the key to achieving those goals, that’s exactly what happened.
For a long time, Frank Trout didn’t know the whole story of how he was shot in the head and left for dead on a riverbed in a thick, black, steaming Vietnamese jungle. Or how he was later sealed and zipped into a body bag—yet managed to make it out alive.
Even a decade before Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome got its official name, PFC Arnie Oskin was immersed in evaluating and helping traumatized soldiers coming home from Vietnam.
For some, service is a choice; for Doug Vines, it was a calling woven into the fabric of his family. Guided by an unwavering sense of duty, he followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, trading a college campus for the jungles of Vietnam in 1969.
Glen Heinold spent a year in Cu Chi, Vietnam, without being fired at by the enemy. He was an ambulance driver on the Army base, and when asked, drove the medics to the local villages.
At the age of 21, Robert boarded a plane and headed off to Vietnam. His plane stopped in Japan, where he saw an episode of the Lone Ranger in Japanese and thought it was pretty funny. But the fun would soon end.
After JFK was assassinated, Joe decided that while he believed killing was a sin, he was willing to volunteer to serve in the military if that would put him in a position to potentially protect a good man like Kennedy.
It’s the silence that the old soldier remembers most vividly. The still quiet that hung like a cloud over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whether under the hot, humid, blue sky or alone in the black Virginia night.
As was customary for an 18-year-old, Larry reported to the draft board in late October 1966 just after his birthday. He looked around and spied a rack of pamphlets each featuring Army service options. One caught his attention: “You can learn to fly.”