Streamed live on March 30, 2026
Tonight on Veterans Breakfast Club, we’re honored to host two World War II veterans whose experiences span two very different—and equally demanding—fronts of the war.
Richard “Dick” Inlow served as a U.S. Navy Seabee in the Pacific, including at the Battle of Peleliu in 1944—one of the toughest and most controversial campaigns of the war. As a member of the Navy’s Construction Battalions, Inlow helped build and repair the infrastructure that made amphibious warfare possible—airstrips, roads, and supply lines—often under fire. Seabees like Inlow landed alongside Marines, working in combat zones to keep operations moving forward. At Peleliu, a battle expected to last days but stretching into months, that work came at a high cost.
James “Jim” Rasmussen served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a B-17 navigator with the 100th Bomb Group—the famed “Bloody Hundredth”—based in England. Assigned to the 349th Bomb Squadron in late 1944, Rasmussen flew 33 combat missions over Europe, including raids against heavily defended targets in Germany. His first mission in January 1945 nearly ended in disaster when his crew ran out of fuel and was forced to land at an Allied fighter base in France. Like many navigators, Rasmussen carried enormous responsibility—guiding his crew through flak, fighters, and weather to the target and back.
Together, their stories remind us how wide the war really was—from coral islands in the Pacific to the cold skies over Europe—and how many different kinds of service it took to win it.
Join us as both men share their experiences in their own words.
#WWII #Seabees #Peleliu #100thBombGroup #BloodyHundredth #B17 #VeteransStories #PacificWar #AirWar #OralHistory #VBC
