Veterans Chronicles

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...

John Harris jumped at the chance to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II as soon as the demand was lifted that required two years of college. Soon Harris was in Florida, proving himself in the P-51 and being just one of nine in his flight class who didn't wash out. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles, Capt. Harris takes us with him to the China-Burma-India theater. He describes the...

Jim Downing joined the U.S. Navy in 1931 because the pay was very attractive at the depths of the Great Depression. After training he would be assigned to the brand new USS West Virginia, serving on 16-inch guns and as postmaster for the ship. Ten years later, on December 7, 1941, Downing was at a meeting on shore at Pearl Harbor when word came that the Pacific Fleet was under attack. In this edit...

Walter "Joe" Marm joined the Army to avoid being drafted. Before long he was assigned to a brand new division training for a new type of warfare. It was called the 1st Cavalry Air Mobile Division. And instead of moving by jeep or troop transport trucks, the men in this division would arrive by helicopter. Soon the new approach would be tested in Vietnam. In this edition, Col. Marm explains his rol...

You may know Rob Riggle best as a very successful actor and comedian, but he is also a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps with three significant overseas deployments under his belt. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Riggle explains his unusual path of serving his nation while simultaneously pursuing a career in the arts and how his time in the Marine Corps turned out to be critical t...

Frank Weisser entered the U.S. Naval Academy focused on becoming a Navy SEAL. But his superior officers informed hum he would be of greater value as an aviator. Working his way up to flying F/A 18 Hornets after flight school, Weisser would go on to serve in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters before joining the elite Blue Angels and, more recently, serving as one of the pilots for "Top Gun: Maverick...

Richard Halferty was at college in Missouri when he learned that his brother had been killed while serving with the U.S. Army in Korea. As his parents' last surviving son, Halferty could be excused from military service but he refused to consider it. In this edition of Veterans Chronicles," Capt. Halferty discusses his service aboard the USS Yarnall, which pounded targets in Korea, his emotional r...

Michael Peyton grew up in a family with a legacy of military service. As a young man he joined the Navy for one simple reason: he wanted to be a SEAL. In more than two decades that followed, Peyton and his fellow SEALs deployed four times to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Peyton describes the very rigorous SEAL training process and how he passed BUD/s trai...

Pete Cannon joined the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1965. Soon he was training to fly a variety of helicopters and two years later he was flying missions in Vietnam. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Cannon explains why he was able to master flying helicopters when many fixed wing pilots struggled greatly. He also describes the many different assignments he flew i...

Both of Tom Harper's grandfathers served in the military and one of them later made a career out of repairing military helicopters in Florida. After seeing that world up close, Harper knew he wanted to join the military - although his future would be in ground forces. He finished basic training right before the 9/11 attacks and was ready and willing to be part of the fight that followed. In this e...

Gloria Harnett Kerzner was just weeks shy of her 18th birthday when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Like most other Americans, she wanted to help the war effort. The U.S. Navy created the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES, in 1942 replace the tens of thousands of Navy personnel who were deployed to Europe and the Pacific. Gloria was eager to enlist. But she had to wait u...

Japanese-Americans were largely forbidden from serving in the Pacific theater in World War II over concerns about their loyalty in a war against their ancestral homeland. But a small number of soldiers did serve there as interrogators and translators and played a pivotal role in thwarting Japanese plans and saving American lives in several critical locations. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicle...

Elliot Ackerman knew at a young age that he wanted to be in the military. He wanted to serve his country and he wanted a job where it was imperative to succeed. After completing the ROTC program at college, Ackerman was commissioned as a a Marine Corps officer in 2003. The next six years would bring five tours of duty between Iraq and Afghanistan. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Ackerman...

When Cecil Phipps joined the U.S. Army, he signed up for overseas deployments so he could see the world. Before long, the U.S. would be at war in Korea and Phipps would be among the first troops there. He arrived in August 1950 and would stay there for more than three years - most of that time as a prisoner of war. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Phipps describes the rapid U.S. advance i...

Ralph Gastelum grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and never experienced much of a winter before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. His first real winter would be spent in Korea in some of the most bitterly cold temperatures that American forces have ever experienced - at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Sgt. Gastelum, takes us along as he recalls the Inchon Landing. He...