. . Larry Googins Larry Googins is a native of Portland, Maine, raised by his widowed mother and grandmother. As a kid, his family avidly followed the Korean War through radio reports. A decade later, news about Vietnam came by way of black and white television. “When I went to
. . During Rudy Golling’s long military career, he served first in the Army during WW II and then in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He retired from active duty in 1974, after thirty years of service. Air Force work is often technical and highly skilled; Rudy’s
. . People tend to think of the Vietnam War as a ground and air war—jungle skirmishes, napalm, villages aflame, rice patty strafing. But the navy’s surface fleet played a significant role in the war effort as well. Some sailors served in the demure but omnipresent “brown water navy,” patrolling the
. . Michael Flournoy “I did a lot of crazy, dumb, and stupid things while in Vietnam; but none of those things were wrong,” says Pittsburgh’s Michael Flournoy of his duty in Vietnam. War is chaos. It goes against nature. “You are trained to do things that are not what
. . Rick Erisman Rick Erisman of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania joined the navy, serving as a radioman from 1969 to 1973. As to why he enlisted in the service after graduating college in North Carolina he admits, “I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I did want to
. . Virginia Eberharter Long before World War II caught the attention of the United States, Virginia M. Eberharter of Connellsville, PA wanted to be a nurse; she wanted to be of service to people in need. It was such a determined decision for a young high school freshman, but
