. . When Andy Nigut first saw his face after the wounding, he was horrified. A Vietnamese rocket propelled grenade had removed nearly 80% of his jaw and most of his teeth. He breathed through his neck, and his tongue was stitched down. He couldn’t scream, even if he wanted to.
. . Jack Naughton served with the US Marine Corps from July 3, 1944 until 1946. He fought as an infantryman at Marshall Island, Guam, and Iwo Jima as well as China and other locations throughout the Pacific.
. . Donald J. Myers was a recent graduate of John Carroll University in Cleveland when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He decided to enlist in the Marines — “I wanted to join the best,” he says — and entered officer training at Quantico. As his outbound ship passed under the
. . When Jack Morrow left Kittanning, Pennsylvania to fight in WWII, he was a seventeen year-old volunteer. “I wanted to go into the military,” he says, “and my parents gave me their permission.” This was 1943. After basic training, Jack was sent to radar school and then to the Pacific.
. . Ron McKeon of Ambridge, Pennsylvania served in the United States Marine Corps from 1972 to 1980. He was attached to the 3rd and 1st Marine Divisions, Twentynine Palms, California, and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. Ron also attended the Armed Forces School of Music in
. . In 1942 Jack McGavern was a 34-year-old father of two girls, ages 10 and 5, when he told his wife he wanted to join the Marines. He had a good job and a good life living in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Pittsburgh. But he felt called to serve
