. . 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
. . Augie Friedrich Augie Friedrich was a tail gunner in the Army Air Corp during WWII. He completed thirty-five missions, but his third mission was one of the most memorable. They had taken some gunfire on the mission and it was rough going—an engine was out, the intercom was
. . Wendell Freeland Wendell Freeland was a member of the famed group of African American WWII flyers we now call the Tuskegee Airmen. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 as a student at Howard University. A bright and ambitious student who grew up in a poor, segregated
. . George Freas George served with the US Navy during WWII. missing video/audio
. . Charlie Frank Charlie Frank, Sr. of Rochester, Pennsylvania was drafted in late 1942, picking up the 94th Infantry in Kansas for a year of training. He finally came ashore in Europe D+94 at Omaha Beach, “still littered with helmets and rifles.” Charlie and The Pilgrim Division would then endure more
. . John Francis John Francis of Blairsville, Pennsylvania was an engineering student at Penn State during WWII. Sign up to join the army now, an ROTC commander urged him, and he’d get some credit for his schooling before being drafted. It seemed like a deal. After basic and artillery
