Veteran Stories
Civil War 1862 Diary Union
Sgt. Henry W. Tisdale enlisted in Company I, Thirty-Fifth Regiment,Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on July 10, 1862 at the age of 25. Sgt. Tisdale kept a very detailed diary of his service from 1662 t0 1865. His son and his sons wife typed and bound the diary in 1926. Please click on the picture and you will see the diary.
Civil War 1861 Diary Confederate
Pvt. L. Leon of the Charlotte Grays, Company C, First North Carolina Regiment, recounted his service in the Confederacy from 1861, and titled it "Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier. Put. Leon copyright and published the diary in 1913. Please click on the picture and you can read his story.
Spanish-American War Diary 1898
Pvt. George Edgar Cripps of the 34th Michigan Volunteer Infantry left Michigan in June of 1898 bound for Cuba.This diary is re-typed from the handwritten diary he left. You will greatly enjoy his account of time spent from Michigan to Cuba and back. Please click on the picture to read his diary.
First World War 11/11/1918
Charles Normington was in Paris France and recounted in a letter to his mother the jubilation of the war being declared ended. Just click on the above picture and under "First-Hand Accounts" click on the letter from Paris 11 Nov 1918, to view his letter.
WWII "Loose Lips Sink Ships"
Induction Center in Baltimore, Maryland 1942. And actually all inductees were told especially 'what not to do', because "loose lips could sink ships'. So click on the picture and choose 'World War II' at top of site and choose the heading "loose lips sink ships', and get the whole story of induction education.
Korean War Diary entries 1951
The Battle that started the Korean War and Trials and Tribulations are a few of the true events taken from many soldiers diaries during the Korean War years.
Soldier Stories Military Alumni UVA
Delta Co. Hwy 1 in Iraq, March 2003
MarineCorps Maj. Seth W.B. Folsom
Most of us have scarcely a clue about what a soldier’s day-to-day life is like. While you may not know what it’s like to interrogate an insurgent or jump out of bed at 3 a.m. and don a gas mask, some of your fellow alumni do. In recent years, an average of 45 to 70 graduates each year from UVA’s ROTC programs entered military service. Still more alumni join up later.
Camp Taji Iraq , 2006 & 2008
Lara Yacus Chapman (Col ’05)
One particularly rewarding job I had was being the officer in charge at the main gate to Camp Taji.
IED's from Baghdad to Balad
Frank J. Snyder (Engr ’92) Major, Army
Iraq 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
But at times, it’s amazing how quickly time can grind to a halt. I remember being out on a convoy at 2 or 3 a.m. going from Baghdad to Balad. Three kilometers ahead of us, the night sky lit up twice, indicating an IED strike
John T. "Hap" Arnold (Engr '88)
Lieutenant Colonel, Air Force
Iraq, Combined Air Operati
Ryan P. McDermott, (GSBA ' 08)
Captain, Army
In Iraq 2003
Platoon Leader, 3rd Infantry Division
Brian T. Watkins (Com '95)
Major, Army
In Iraq 2004, 2005
Helicopter Pilot OH-58D Kiowa mission to focus on finding insurgents causing probl
Gen. Westmoreland initiated plan to use nukes in Vietnam
In many ways, Khe Sanh was the Vietnam War in a nutshell:
Recently, the New York Times ran an extraordinary article about the Vietnam War.
In it were facts that have only recently come to light and illustrate exactly how frustrated the American military and political leadership were with the war and each other.
This news was that General William Westmoreland, overall American military commander in Vietnam from 1968-1972, activated a plan to move and potentially use nuclear weapons against the North Vietnamese.
Recently declassified documents show that Westmoreland was increasingly nervous about the outcome of the siege of Khe Sanh, one of the biggest and longest battles of America’s involvement in Vietnam.
In the end the engagement, which lasted from January to June 1968, proved indecisive. The Vietnamese communists failed to dislodge the Americans from their strategic base, and US forces withdrew from the area voluntarily after the siege had been lifted.
Westmoreland also communicated with other generals, such as General Earle Wheeler,Joint Chiefs Chair
As often happens in Washington, there was a leak, and the National Security adviser to President Johnson found out about the “Fracture Jaw” discussions. Of course, he notified Lyndon Johnson right away.
Johnson had grown exceedingly suspicious of the military as the Vietnam War went on, and with good reasons. Among them were the constant promises of victory, followed by requests for billions of more dollars to win the war.
When Johnson found out about “Fracture Jaw” he was furious, and immediately issued an order to Westmoreland that left no room for misunderstanding.
White Feather: The Most Feared,Fearless Sniper in Vietnam
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An American hero can be a complex beast. In some cases the title is controversial, particularly when it comes to military service.
Carlos Hathcock is one of those heroes. He served his country with distinction during the Vietnam War (1955 – 75) across 2 tours. Yet he did that as a sniper, a role which had a controversial reputation even among military ranks.
A 1987 profile in The Washington Post sums up the attitude, writing that the sniper was “an affront to the Gary Cooper mentality, the idea that in ‘High Noon’ — or America — the sheriff never draws first.”
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“Hathcock, who had done everything asked of him and more, felt unfairly stigmatized. ‘I was simply doing my job,’ he says. ‘I was just doing what they told me to do. Maybe being a sniper is something that only another sniper really can understand.’”
By the time he came home for good — and still a young man at 27 — he had 93 confirmed kills under his belt, with many more unverified. His marksmanship was beyond doubt, and in some respects Hathcock sounded like something out of a movie.
Veteran's Pokemon battles help him fight back after TBI
WOW ! The power of video games
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To find out more of this compelling story about the battle over TBI, just click this link to get the whole story
