Glenn Hall, affectionately known as Rufus, was born in Idlewild, Tennessee. Rufus was the middle child of a family of seven. Idlewild was a small farm town of about 300 people.
Born 99 years ago this March, Kenneth “Ken” Molnaire grew up in Chicago. Living in Edison Park he attended Ebinger School, graduating in 1939.
Donna Cooley enlisted in the Army at a time when military duties that were traditionally done by men started opening up to women. She said “it was a tough time for women because the Army wasn’t prepared and didn’t know what to do with us.”
Major John Ashford knew he was in a bad situation on that dangerous day in Bosnia in 1996. What he didn’t know was how fast it was going to go from bad to worse.
“I was, and still am, proud, humbled and honored to have been chosen to be a Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
Ignacio ‘Nacho’ says he’s a Navy man that never set foot on a ship. Still, he’s proud of his naval service as a crew chief on a C-121 Constellation known as the Typhoon Tracker that traveled throughout the Pacific.
It would be an understatement to say that Larry Krog always made up his own mind.
Harry DeBruin grew up in a house with a horse stable near Lansing, IL. His family owned 50 horses and they boarded an additional 50 horses.
While political powers battled for supremacy during the Cold War, Airman Jesse Kimp was just trying to keep warm while serving late night guard duty in Alaska Territory.
Joseph Lombardi was born in Chicago in 1947 and raised in the Cragin neighborhood on the northwest side of the city. His father had served under George Patton in World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
Roger Dexter was born in Melrose Park, Illinois in 1945, the fourth of five children. His father served in the Army in World War II but was never sent overseas, in part because of the large number of children he had.
Longtime Honor Flight Chicago volunteer James “Jim” Parker usually wears an orange shirt on flight days, signifying his role in supporting the honored veterans. On flight day this month, Jim will put on a gray shirt, symbolizing he’s one of the veterans being celebrated on HFC flight #110.
It was the uniform that first caught her eye. Not the bell bottoms that the boys wore, but the deep blue, tailored cut of the WAVE uniform that brought Gloria Harnett Kerzner to the Navy recruitment office in 1944.
James Sawyer called himself a reluctant soldier but he said there was never a question in his mind that he wouldn’t report to the induction center when he was drafted in 1970.
Charles Ohrn was born in Chicago and grew up in the suburb of Park Ridge. He was the middle son of three boys and had one sister. His older brother served in the US Army in Germany and his younger brother in the US Navy, based in Iceland.
Bastille Day, July 14, 1966, a day Duane Buttell, Jr. will remember forever! He was flying in the lead F-4 of four fighters tasked to provide MiG cover for three F-105s (“Thuds”) attacking surface to air missile (SAM) sites near Hanoi.
The Navy is a family affair for the Hoders. James Sr. and James Jr. have the distinction of being just the second father/son duo to fly as honored veterans together on an Honor Flight Chicago mission.
“I had the best time of my life. I would do it all over and I wouldn’t change nothin. I got to see the world and I’ve got brothers.” Those are the words of Scott Phillips 50 years after serving aboard the USS Ticonderoga in the early 1970s.
Coming from a multi-generation family of coal miners, Fred was born in Hazard, Kentucky, to Columbus and Lois Jean Cagle. Watching his father going to work in the mines during his younger years, Fred attended school and assisted his mother with chores around the house.
On August 5, 1967, Jim Davidson’s draft notice arrived in the mail. Six months later, he was an Army grunt in Vietnam. Now, some 56 years later, he remembers the details of every firefight he was in and still can’t get his arms around the fact he made it home while many of his brothers in arms didn’t.