U.S. Navy Lieutenant Otis Wheeler Jr. describes a time during World War II when he and his fellow soldiers had to fly a search and rescue mission on Christmas Day; a mission in which he was the only one to return from. Continue reading
In this laconic letter of Lincolnesque eloquence is the barbed challenge of the soldier to the scoffers of democracy’s virility and courage. Selfish interest is completely submerged. Before the war, Lt. Robert Hardart was boxing champion, cheer leader and captain of the cross-country track team at Fordham University. His classmates … Continue reading
Ethel LaSalle served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II from 1944 to 1945. The Women’s Army Corps became a full status branch of the Army in 1943, with around 150,000 women serving in it during World War II. Women who served in the WAC were the … Continue reading
Captain Ed “RIV” Hrivnak of the U.S. Air Force Reserve describes his experience of Operation Iraqi Freedom: “What my crew saw was a very up-close, personal human experience.” Hrivnak and his team took care of wounded soldiers on their plane–culminating in his unit evacuating 7,000 people within five months. U.S. … Continue reading
U.S. veteran Gerald M. Boe, the guard for Hermann Göring during the Nuremberg Trials, shares his memories of that time. Göring was one of the surviving leaders of the Third Reich and the highest-ranking Nazi to be tried at the Nuremberg Trials where he was convicted of war crimes and … Continue reading
Bill Boving, who served in the U.S. infantry during World War II, recalls his time as a guard during the Nuremberg Trials. Boving sat in on some of the days and mentions how it dragged on for a long time–noting that some people after a few months felt it was … Continue reading
“First of all, I want you to know that I’m really cheerful and looking forward to getting home and learning to live a kind of new and different life. Instead of being blue and discouraged…Now I’ll tell you what happened to me. So kind of brace yourself…” After sustaining severe … Continue reading
Survivors of the Bataan Death March describe what they went through when they were forcibly transferred from Mariveles to San Fernando in the Philippines during World War II. These American soldiers describe walking many miles each day in the blistering heat, while some days they would just sit in the … Continue reading
Veterans recount the ferocious and bloody 1944 battle that saw the U.S. retake the island of Guam from the Japanese. Over twenty thousand died on the small western pacific island in a conflict that lasted twenty days and highlighted the ferocity of the war in the Pacific as American forces … Continue reading
“Hemingway was here for a few days—but once you meet him you’re not likely to forget him…” During the Spanish Civil War, many foreign volunteers arrived in Spain in order to try to prevent the Spanish Republican government from falling to fascism. This is a letter from a female American … Continue reading
