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.
The Story of Rick Rescorla, Vietnam Vet and 9/11 Hero
Retired Army Reserve Col. Cyril Richard "Rick" Rescorla, credited with saving many lives during 9/11
13 September 2019,article by Richard Sisk, Military.com
The late Army Col. Rick Rescorla, a legend in Vietnam who acted heroically as a civilian in the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, will receive the posthumous award of the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation's second-highest civilian award after the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the president said this week.
"Rick earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam," President Donald Trump said at the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial ceremony Wednesday. " ... On the day of the attack, Rick died while leading countless others to safety. His selfless actions saved approximately 2,700 lives."
"Today, I am honored to announce that I will soon be awarding the late Rick Rescorla the Presidential Citizens Medal for his extraordinary sacrifice," Trump added
More about Col. Rescorla
A photo of Rescorla as a grizzled lieutenant in Vietnam, moving forward with bayonet fixed during the horrific 1965 battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, became one of the iconic images of the war.
The photo was used on the cover of the gripping account of the battle written by veteran United Press International correspondent Joe Galloway, with Army Lt. Gen. Harold Moore, in the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young."
In the prologue, Galloway wrote: "This, then, is our testament and our tribute to 234 Americans who died beside us in Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Albany in the Valley of Death, 1965."
The book was made into the movie "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson in the role of Moore. Rescorla would later say he wouldn't see it.
"All the heroes are dead," he said.
There is a life-sized monument to Rescorla, modeled after the Vietnam photo, at the National Infantry Museum's Memorial Walk of Honor near Fort Benning, Georgia.
He volunteered for WWII so his family wouldn't be interned
Kenneth Higashi was assigned to the 442nd Combat Team
Sept.1, 2019
Jim Holland, Rapid City Journal
SPEARFISH, S.D. — Kenneth Higashi sat at attention, only his use of a wheelchair keeping him from rising to receive France’s highest civil and military distinction, the Legion of Honor, before grateful family, friends and neighbors.
Higashi, 97, a second-generation Japanese-American man from Spearfish, sat stoically as Guillaume Lacroix, consul general of France for the Midwest, pinned the Chevalier De La Legion D’Honneur on his sweater on behalf of the French Republic.
"A debt that France owes America's greatest generation for their service in World War II is a debt that the French people will never be able to repay in full," Lacroix said. "The French people will never, ever forget the sacrifice of Mr. Higashi, of all the men and women who served in Europe for their country, but also for my country."
2nd Generation Japanese-American receives Frances highest Military distinction, "Legion of Honor"
Japanese-American families, particularly those on the West Coast, were forced to uproot their lives, ordered to give up their homes and businesses, and forced into relocation centers or internment camps.Government officials also visited the Higashi family in Spearfish and ordered them to give up their shotgun and radio.
They told Kenneth and his older brother, Clarence, that their family could avoid being moved to a camp if one of them enlisted in the military.
Kenneth volunteered.
"He thought it better that his brother stay and work as a mechanic to provide for their family," Master of Ceremonies Gregory Dias said.
He recorded 437 WWII Veterans' Stories & is now retiring
15 September 2019 article by Ron Devlin, Reading Eagle, Pa.
READING, Pa. -- You won't find a book entitled "The History of World War II" by Larry Miller.
But Miller, 73, a retired Reading management consultant, is every bit a historian as Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation."
Quietly, without fanfare, Miller has interviewed 437 veterans of World War II in the last eight years.
The video-taped interviews are on file at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Working out of a tiny office at his north Reading home, Miller has recorded what might be called "A History of World War II From the Bottom Up."
In meticulous, first person fashion, he has crafted a vision of the war from the soldiers, sailors and Marines who fought it.
In Miller's recordings, GIs tell their stories in their own words.
"I'd tell them," he recalls, "just tell your story in a way your grandchildren can listen to."
No Heroes Present
One characteristic that all World War II vets shared, Miller found, was humility.
Even when having performed outstanding deeds, he said, they disliked being called heroes.
They were just doing their job, they'd tell him. The real heroes were the ones who didn't make it home.
"Most of them were very humble and did not want a fuss made over them," Miller said. "They almost despised the word hero."
In interviews that lasted up to two hours, Miller listened with wonder to often compelling stories of personal sacrifice. Often, he'd wonder what he would have done had he been in their shoes.
He always ended the interview the same way: "Thank you for your service."
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
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
Additional Information
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 Advocates Upper Photo Gallery
Main Building Re-Construction, Lower Gallery
I refuse to die in here:the marine now fighting deportation
Sat. 7 September 2019 by Sam Levin, Journalist 'The Guardian'
Jose Segovia Benitez survived two tours of duty with the US Marine Corps, a bomb blast, and a traumatic brain injury.
But the US is not helping him recover. On the contrary, the government may be leading him to his death.
Segovia is currently imprisoned at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in Adelanto, California where he says he is being denied critical medical and mental health care. The 38-year-old veteran is facing deportation to El Salvador, a country he left when he was three years old and where his loved ones fear he could be killed.
“I’m not going to die here. I refuse to die here,” Segovia said on a recent morning, wearing a red jail uniform and seated in a cramped room with no windows to the outside.
During his 21 months of detention in the southern California facility, Ice has failed to provide adequate care for Segovia’s serious heart condition, denied him proper treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and repeatedly placed him in isolation, according to the former marine and his lawyers. The consequences, they fear, could be fatal.
Segovia is one of fifteen current detainees who filed a federal lawsuit against Ice last month alleging medical neglect and horrific conditions that rise to the level of “torture”. He is also one of the estimated thousands of veterans who have faced deportation over the years despite their service to the country.
Life after war:'I tried to seek help'
Segovia, who became a legal permanent resident soon after arriving in the US as a child, became interested in the military at a very young age.
Raised in Long Beach, a city just south of Los Angeles, he has early memories of playing with toy soldiers. In high school, he was different from his peers and drawn to the discipline of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, a US Army program for students.
At age 18 in 1999, one week after he graduated high school, he enlisted in the marines.
“I joined not to go to war, because nobody ever signs up for that,” he said.
But then war happened.
He was deployed as part of the initial Iraq invasion in 2003, ultimately completing two tours of duty.