During his first two years of service, Army life was pretty good for Mike Ahasic. Everything changed during his third year, however, when he served in Vietnam. More than 50 years later, his emotions are still raw.
When Laurel and Craig Schilling walked down the aisle in May of 1972, they had no idea their plan to return to college safely ensconced in married student housing was never meant to be.
Jerry Zabel was born in 1947 just outside of Munich, Germany. His mother and father, who met shortly after World War II while working at a clothing factory, were both survivors of the Holocaust; having endured life in concentration camps at the forefront.
Imagine a family of eleven children reared on the near west side of Chicago which sent all the men, brothers and brothers-in-law alike, into service of our country. This is the Latham family legacy.
Dr. Richard Lee was sure of one thing as he shipped out for Vietnam in May of 1969. “I knew I was going to die,” he says with the calm, matter-of-fact assurance of a seasoned clinician accustomed to facing hard truths.
It was a childhood plagued with asthma and multiple hospital stays that first put the thought of nursing into Denise O’Leary Kennedy’s head. She saw so many nurses during those early years she couldn’t help but admire them.
Dr. Stuart Poticha grew up on the north side of Chicago near Wrigley Field. His father was a flight surgeon in the Marine Corps during World War II.
Donald Clarke was born near Boston in 1948 and grew up next to the Revere Beach amusement park and boardwalk. His family has a strong history of fighting for the United States.
Colonel (Retired) Dennis Shea embodies citizenship. Dennis’s military story begins as a freshman at Depaul University. Freshmen were required to participate in ROTC.
John Wander was born in 1941 and raised in Downers Grove. His parents were both the children of immigrants, and they both faced significant challenges when they were growing up.
Sarge was on patrol in Vietnam walking point with his M-60 down a narrow trail. A tracer round whizzed, cracked, past him to his right. He immediately rotated his body to the left when a second round hit him in the chest exiting through his back just missing his lung.
Daniel Edward Sowonik was born on October 16, 1947. For the first 14 years of his life (as an only child) Daniel lived in a small town in Wisconsin, north of Wisconsin Dells, with his parents and grandparents.
When you drive up to the lovely Lemont home of Dick and Pat O'Connor, you are greeted by blooming flowers in a meticulously landscaped yard, a White Sox flag in the front garden, and the U.S. flag flying high.
Lessons learned in a war zone can last you a lifetime, assuming you make it home alive. Sergeant Dick Hanson learned quickly that taking pictures from the turret of a tank on the front lines of Korea can get you killed.
Jerome Koutny was sent to Vietnam as an infantryman and then volunteered for one of the more dangerous jobs as a tunnel rat, looking for the enemy by going into their tunnels.
Robert “Bob” Gatenby’s wife and family thought he was comfortably stationed in a base camp during his time in Vietnam. His reality, however, was the exact opposite.
Bob Carnagey arrived in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. Even though he was a non-combatant, he said death was all around him
This story begins with a young boy from the southside of Chicago. As he lies in his bed, looking at the church steeples just outside his bedroom window, he dreams of one day becoming a Catholic priest.
When James stepped off the plane from Vietnam and his feet touched the ground in Hawaii, he got on his knees and kissed the ground. He remembers thinking to himself “you are the luckiest SOB alive”.
Dennis' first deployment came in 1968, in Turkey on the Black Sea Coast. He was responsible for monitoring missiles and spacecraft. There was only one adversary when he was first deployed; there were two at the end of his service.