Veterans Chronicles

John Raaen, Jr. grew up in an Army family and his father was a West Point graduate. Long before World War II, the Raaens were family friends with the Eisenhowers, the Bradleys, and other figures who would become household names in World War II. In 1939, Raaen followed in his father's footsteps and enrolled at West Point just as war was about to engulf Europe. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicle...

Bernie Oder joined the U.S. Air Force in 1972 when his number came up among the final names in the military draft. While serving as a supply clerk in the Philippines, Oder became friends with service members in special operations and decided to pursue that for his own career. After rigorous training in many disciplines, Oder was soon part of Air Force special operations. In this edition of "Vetera...

When college wasn't working out, Mike Sarraille decided to become a U.S. Marine when he became friends with a recon Marine and was impressed by his humble confidence. Saraille also become a recon Marine as well as a sniper. But a couple years later, after being encouraged to become an officer, he entered BUD/s training and became a U.S. Navy SEAL. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," LCDR Sar...

Donald Banks enlisted through the Draft Board to join the U.S. Army and then jumped at the chance to serve in the 82nd Airborne Division. After very difficult paratrooper training, Banks soon found himself jumping into Normandy on D-Day and later fighting in the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden and at the Battle of the Bulge. In this edition, Banks shares some of his memories of serv...

George Ferkes could not pass up the opportunity to fly in the U.S. Air Force. After finishing flight school in 1970, he soon found himself in the skies over Vietnam. Ferkes flew in support of Operation Lam Son 719/Dewey Canyon II and the Siege of Fire Support Base Fuller. Less than a decade later, Ferkes was co-piloting an MC-130 gunship as part of Operation Eagle Claw in the mission designed to r...

In February 1945, Willie Clemons, Jr. joined the U.S. Navy while still 17 years old. Within just a couple of months, he was off to the Pacific Theater. Within a few more months, the Japanese surrendered and the war was over. After leaving the military, Clemons returned to the Navy in 1953 and served in the Korean theater. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Clemons discusses why he joined th...

Vern Staley wanted to join the military at age 17 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His father refused to sign off, telling him to finish high school and accurately predicting "there'll be plenty of war left as soon as you get out of school." After graduating, Staley was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to the 70th Infantry Division. He went through basic training and was then...

Ken Guyer joined the U.S. Navy when he was 17 years old. It was 1967, and he was eager to join the fight in Vietnam. Once he turned 18, he was on his way there and was soon serving as a gunner on a five-man crew aboard a Navy picket boat patrolling Da Nang Harbor and the Da Nang River. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Guyer explains why he loved serving on the picket boats so much, interd...

Dewayne Rudd joined the U.S. Air Force with a dream of one day becoming an astronaut and flying to space. Instead he became a versatile pilot the military and NASA would turn to on some of their most important projects, including a U-2 reconnaissance pilot, a test pilot during the development of the B-2 Stealth Bomber, and the chief test pilot for the space shuttle crew escape system following the...

Lockered "Bud" Gahs was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. In late 1944, he deployed to France with the 42nd Infantry Division, which was dubbed "The Rainbow." Over the next several months, Gahs experienced intense combat all the way to Munich and the end of the war. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gahs gives us great detail on one of his early combat experiences...as roughl...

Henry Greenbaum was born in Poland in 1928. He was one of nine children. Even before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Greenbaum's family sensed that trouble was coming. One of his sisters had married and moved to the U.S. two years earlier. In addition to the invasion, Henry's father died and the family scrambled to make ends meet. But before long, some members of his family were dead. Others...

Matt Cable joined the Montana National Guard shortly after graduating from high school because he just wanted to move on with his life. Little did he know at the time that saving his own life would be by far the biggest challenge he would face in the years to come. But he did live. In fact, Cable is thriving. And in 2022, he won two gold medals, a silver, and four bronze in the Invictus Games. In...

Richard Hamilton was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. He was trained as a radio man on a B-17 bomber crew. After arriving in England, he took part in eight successful bombing missions, but often dealt with the harrowing anti-aircraft fore coming from the Germans. The ninth mission turned out much differently. The bomber was severely damaged and Hamilton and several other crew members...

When John Cahill graduated from high school, college was not an option for him. He knew that meant he would soon be drafted. So he decided to enlist, and his U.S. Army veteran father convinced him to join the Navy. Cahill was soon disappointed that all of his preferred assignments were rejected. He would be working as a bolilerman aboard the destroyer USS Buck. In this edition of "Veterans Chronic...

Al Hansen joined the U.S. Navy when he was 16 years old, both to serve his country and to help his mother keep a roof over her head. Initially trained as a dive bomber, Hansen was later shifted to a B-24 crew, where he served as a waist gunner in the Pacific theater from 1944 through the end of World War II. It's an assignment change that Hansen firmly believes to be the reason he survived the war...

Both of August O'Niell's parents served in the U.S. Air Force, and he followed suit thinking of a few years of service would pay for his college education. Instead, O'Niell overcame huge odds to become a member of a pararesue team, known as the PJ's. In Afghanistan, he and his team came under daily fire rescuing service members are others who were wounded or in precarious situations. However, that...

George Elliott joined the U.S. Army National Guard when he was just sixteen because he told recruiters he was seventeen. Before turning twenty, Elliott would be in Korea, serving as a driver for troops and supplies. His duties took him into the intense fighting near a critical airport, Heartbreak Ridge and other engagements. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Elliott shares what it was like...

Ludwig Faistenhammer was born in Germany but his family moved to the U.S. before the Nazis rose to power. After the U.S. entered World War II, he joined the Army, never once deterred by having to fight the nation in which he was born. He would later be among the first in the Army to join Special Forces. He also served in Korea and Vietnam. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Faistenhammer ta...

Paul "Bud" Haedike was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943. Before long he was assigned as a togglier bombardier on a B-17 bomber crew. From the final months of 1944 into 1945, Sgt. Haedike took part in 23 bombing missions over Europe, and none of those missions came with a guarantee he would return to base safely. In fact, Haedike remembers cooks at his base in England telling crews to e...

Jim Leavelle had a front row seat to two of the most shocking moments of the 20th Century, serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Whitney when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and serving as a homicide detective for the Dallas Police Department when President John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963. Leavelle is most famous for being handcuffed to Kennedy assassin Lee...

Jack Moran grew up in Wisconsin, joined the Army, and was deployed to France in the autumn of 1944. Over the next several months, Moran his his fellow soldiers in the 87th Infantry Division would see brutal combat throughout the Allied push into the heart of Germany. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Moran takes us back to the westrrn front in vivid detail. He begins with his shocking intr...

Bob Edwards went through the Army ROTC program at Lafayette College and was commissioned as an officer in 1960. Soon, he was on his way to Germany at a very sensitive time in the Cold War as Berlin was divided in 1961 and became a focal point of the Cold War once again. Shortly after that deployment, Edwards was assigned to a new unit testing whether air assets could move troops and equipment as w...

Retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Steve Ritchie excelled at every level in the Air Force, from the gridiron at the Air Force Academy to flight training to the skies over Vietnam. Fifty years after his second tour of duty in Vietnam, Gen. Ritchie remains the most recent ace among American fighter pilots. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gen. Ritchie tells us why football taught him...

From a young age, Mike Dowe knew that he wanted to attend the U.S. Military Academy and serve our nation in uniform. In 1950, he graduated from West Point and was immediately sent to Korea. After months of successfully pushing the North Koreans back to the north, American forces suddenly faced an endless surge of enemy Chinese soldiers pouring across the border. In this edition of "Veterans Chroni...

James Livingston entered the ROTC program when he entered college. A decade later, he was in Vietnam as a company commander, leading his fellow Marines into battle against the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. His actions in the vicious 1968 battle of Dai Do would result in the Medal of Honor. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gen. Livingston takes us through the combat that day, in...