Veterans Chronicles

John 'Lucky" Luckadoo wanted to join the war effort against Nazi Germany even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He and a friend hatched a plan to join the service in Canada until Lucky's father refused to allow it. But his friend went through with it. After Pearl Harbor, while in his first year at college, Luckadoo joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. Before long he was assigned to be a co-pi...

Dakota Meyer decided to have some fun with the U.S. Marine recruiter visiting his high school. Within minutes he had a change of heart and signed up to serve. Meyer would serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a horrific day in September 2009 would change his life forever. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Meyer shares the very difficult story of watching from a a mile away as his fellow Marin...

Russell "Rusty" Schweikart grew up with a great interest in aviation and watching the planes fly around Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. So it was no surprise when he joined the U.S. Air Force and was trained as a fighter pilot. He later joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard. But in 1963, he was selected as a NASA astronaut and was soon on track to be part of the Apollo program to...

Howard Hill attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and went on to flight training, where he became a radio intercept officer (RIO). Deployed to Vietnam as a backseater on an F-4, Hill flew many missions, including one that earned him his first Silver Star before being shot down two months later. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Col. Hill details that successful mission in October 1967. He th...

Whitey Johnson was a farm kid from Minnesota who had the chance to fly a crop duster when he was a teenager. The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he stood in line to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Johnson describes his excitement at being assigned to the Flying Tigers, serving on the Shanghai Raids and his heart-pounding drama of being shot do...

Randy Bresnik was born into a family that already had an aviation legacy. His father was a U.S. Army Air Cavalry helicopter pilot in Vietnam and his grandfather spent five years as the official photographer for Amelia Earhart. But Bresnik would chart his own path, attending The Citadel as a Navy ROTC student and ultimately choosing the U.S. Marine Corps. He has flown 86 different types of planes b...

Brendan Quisenberry grew up with a deep appreciation for military service, as both his father and grandfather were veterans. As a sophomore in high school when terrorists struck the U.S. on 9/11, he knew he needed to serve. A couple of years later he joined the U.S. Army and by 2004 he was on his first deployment overseas - this one to Iraq. Following that deployment, Quisenberry successfully comp...

Harrison Schmitt's father was a geologist but it wasn't until college thatSchmitt decided to follow in his dad's footsteps. By the mid-1960's, Schmitt had a Ph. D and was working at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center. Before long, NASA was looking for geologists to advise on the upcoming lunar missions. Schmitt then advised the Apollo 11 crew on what to look for and to bring home. An...

Ray Hildreth joined the U.S. Marine Corps in an effort to shape up after a brush with the law as a teenager. He joined during the Vietnam War, never once thinking he would be sent overseas. But after a grueling basic training period, Marine recon training, and sniper school, he was soon on his way to Okinawa to prepare for service in Vietnam. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Hildreth expl...

Ramon "Tony" Nadal continued a proud family legacy when he was accepted into West Point after high school. Nadal's father was one the first Puerto Rican graduates of the U.S. Military Academy back in 1928. After his commissioning and officer training, Nadal quickly pursued special forces training with the Army Rangers and Pathfinders among others. Eventually that elite training made him an ideal c...

David Marshall was 16 years old and lying in a New York hospital room after suffering a sports injury when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Upon turning seventeen the following year, he was drafted into the Army, intially trained as a medic before assigned as an engineer in the infantry - specifically the 84th Infantry Division. The unit deployed to England i...

Paul Cunningham graduated from high school in 1948 and had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. After some convincing from the local Air Force recruiter, he was off to train as a radar repairman. Just two years later, he was at war halfway around the world in Korea. In this edition of "Veterans Chonicles," Cunningham describes his work assembling, repairing, and moving radar equipment as th...

Giovanni Renteria was in New York City undergoing training for Morgan Stanley in their offices inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center. On day two of the three-week program, Renteria and his colleagues finished their first session early. He and another employee headed downstairs for some coffee. While down there, they saw the debris falling after the first airliner struck the North Tower....

Joe Mantegna grew up around multiple family members who were combat veterans of World War II. He tried to become a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War but was dismissed due to poor eyesight. But for more than 20 years, Mantegna has been a very active supporter of our active duty military, veterans, and families of the fallen. Since 2002, he has been a part of the National Memoria...

You may know him best as country music star Craig Morgan. But for 17 years, including 10 years on active duty, Craig Morgan Greer served our nation in the U.S. Army. He spent time with both the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions. Morgan is also a veteran of Operation Just Cause, the U.S. mission in Panama in December 1989. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Morgan shares why he joined the Ar...

Frank Blount was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1960 upon graduation from Florida State University and completion of its ROTC program. Over the next 20 years, Blount would pilot planes carrying everyone from the President of the United States to heroes of our space program to precocious kids. He would also see intense action as a gunship pilot in Vietnam. In this edition of "Veterans Chro...

Charlie Plumb ended up in the U.S. Navy because money was tight for his family and it was a big economic relief when he was recommended and accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy. Upon commissioning from Annapolis and competion of flight school, Plumb would soon be flying an F-4. Little did he know what awaited him just a few years later in Vietnam. Plumb was deployed to the war zone in November 1966....

William Walter joined the U.S. Air Force in 1976. Two years later he arrived at Hurlburt Field in Florida for AC-130 gunship training. Over the next couple of decades, his serice in Air Force special operations would place him on missions from Operation Eagle Claw to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran to Operation Just Cause in Panama to Operation Desert Storm, among several others. In this edition of "...

Michelle Curran was a teenager when she was mesmerized by the roar and power of military jets. Soon she was off to ROTC in college. Within just a few years, she would be at war in Afghanistan and eventually become the lead solo pilot for the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Maj. Curran takes us inside her role in providing "Danger Close" air support for our al...

Charlie Duke attended the U.S. Naval Academy but accepted a commission into the U.S. Air Force upon graduation. After early assignments, including service near Berlin in the tumultuous days of the early 1960's, Duke was accepted as a NASA astronaut as the United States pressed on towards President Kennedy's goal of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to the earth before the end of t...

While not a veteran himself, actor and director Gary Sinise is now synonymous with devotion to our active duty military, our veterans, and their families. Sinise turned 18 years old shortly after the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Vietnam. However, hearing the stories of service in Vietnam from his wife's brothers instilled a deep appreciation for those who served and a desire to help them - espec...

Ed Hubbard has been fascinated by flight since he can remember. When he was a kid, his parents dropped him off to watch planes at the local airfield for hours at a time. He joined the Air Force Reserves in hopes of becoming a pilot. He later went on active duty, became an officer and earned his wings. While serving in Europe in the mid-1960s, orders came for Hubbard to take his family back to the...

Ronald Webb was commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer through the ROTC program at Indiana University. First trained as a navigator, Webb later received his pilots' wings in 1966. Soon, he was off to Vietnam, flying missions out of Da Nang with the 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On most missions, he served as the "backseater" to Korean War double ace pilot Frederick C. "Boots" Blesse. On June 11, 1...

John Raaen, Jr. entered the U.S. Military Academy in the summer of 1939, just weeks before World War II broke out in Europe. During his four years at West Point, there was no question his class would be going to war. Commissioned in 1943, Raaen soon joined the elite Army Rangers. Just a year later, as a captain, Raaen led men ashore at Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. He is believed to...

Just before 8 a.m. on June 6, 1944, U.S. Army Captain John Raaen, Jr., of the 5th Ranger Battalion, landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy as the Allies launched their campaign to breach Adolf Hitler's Atlantic Wall and work to free Europe from Nazi tyranny. In our previous edition, Raaen, who is believed to be the last living American officer from Omaha Beach, described the extensive preparations for...