. . Frank Niklas reluctantly joined the Army in 1942 and became a member of the 2nd Infantry “Indianhead” Division. He landed on Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944, D+1. In September, while his division was in a defensive position at St. Vith, Frank was thrown into air and knocked unconscious
. . Ernest Nigrelli served in the Army Air Corps during WW II. When his aircraft was badly destroyed on a mission, his captain ordered him to bail out. It was the first time he had ever jumped from an airplane, and he was the only survivor. The VBC does
. . 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.
. . Immediately after graduating high school, George Morgan left his family and friends behind to serve in the Army during WW II. It was what everybody was doing, he says, there was nothing left at home to do. But during his training he developed debilitating pneumonia and was in line
