He told his father that he was tired of school and he wanted to join the Marines. Dave Thomason joined in 1973 thinking that he would probably be sent to Vietnam. However, during basic training, his aptitude for technical skills set him apart from the crowd and he was offered […]
He would fall victim to the drafts of the late 1960s, but Harold Schneider thought he’d get ahead of the inevitable. His parents signed his early enlistment forms when he was just 17, and he enlisted in the Navy hoping that would keep him out of Vietnam. But after photography […]
Wallace Holmer, 96, said a simple prayer, “Lord, I don’t want to come home with my arms and legs blown off.” The 18 year old draftee entered the Navy in 1943 and found himself stationed on an LST, a Landing Ship Tank. It’s purpose, to drop soldiers and machines of […]
He fell in love at first sight with a sleek fighter jet. And that infatuation led Jim Horsely’s aviation career to quickly advance as he fought the NVA in north Vietnam, performing harrowing missions and narrow escapes while many of his friends didn’t. Back in states, he was accepted into […]
With a rich history of military service in his family, Richard Harley joined to do his part in the Korean War. He enlisted in the Navy and took up the dangerous position of Catapult Launcher. In 1952, the USS Rendova and it’s crew, including Harley, returned to the US and […]
Just weeks before getting his pilot wings, Jim Kraft got word that the Squadron he was supposed to report to in Vietnam was destroyed. Reassigned to the Naval Missile Center Point Mugu, the new orders he received changed the course of his life in a very unexpected way. BONUS MATERIAL […]
