Frank Pomroy joined the U.S. Marine Corps and fought in two of the most critical battles in the Pacific theater of World War II. In this first of our two-part feature on Mr. Pomroy, Frank takes us inside the battle for Guadalcanal. Pomroy describes the horrendous living and food conditions he suffered through as well as the intense fighting against the Japanese, the difficulty of getting American forces off the island, and his poignant trip back more than four decades later.
Mar 16, 2022•28 min
Robert Owens joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 16 by telling recruiters he was 18. Soon he would be joining the other young black men as part of the Montford Point Marines, a unit that was created after an order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt but still kept U.S. Marines segregated. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Owens discusses why he joined the Marines at such a young age, why his first day of training made him wonder if he had made a big mistake, guarding Japanese POW's on G...
Mar 09, 2022•36 min
Oliver Nickle originally intended to join the U.S. Navy but ultimately enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17 after his parents gave their approval. He served as a weapons company man in the 5th U.S. Marine Division but perhaps his most vivid memories are of the frigid cold and snow. After deployments to Naples and Okinawa, among others, Nickle served as operations chief of the 3rd Marine Regiment in Vietnam and also served with the joint staff in Hawaii, which he considers the most eye-o...
Mar 02, 2022•35 min
John Billings was hooked on flying when he was three years old, so when it came time to serve in World War II, the Army Air Forces was a natural fit. He came a B-24 bomber pilot but later served on clandestine missions for the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Billings describes his bombing missions, getting recruited for the OSS, how his first secret mission had a terrible conclusion, and his role in the mission made famous by the ...
Feb 23, 2022•27 min
A member of the 101st Airborne Division, Kayla Williams was among the very first American forces to enter Iraq in 2003 and roll from Kuwait to Baghdad within a matter of weeks. While serving there she also met her future husband, Brian McGough. In the fall of 2003, Brian's convoy was attacked. At first, doctors did not expect him to live and then they doubted his ability to care for himself. He proved them wrong. In the midst of Brian's recovery from serious head injuries and Kayla's own reinteg...
Feb 16, 2022•36 min
Mathias "Matt" Gutman came from a military family and joined the U.S. Navy shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He became a coxswain on LST 553, delivering men and equipment under fire on several amphibious landings. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gutman takes us through his first landing at Peleliu all the way to Okinawa and beyond. He also describes what it's like to land under fire and then turn around and go back to sea, and he shares the feeling of jubilation when t...
Feb 09, 2022•30 min
Lewis Varvel joined the U.S. Navy because he didn't want to be in the Army, but his service during World War II would still be harrowing and consequential. Varvel enlisted prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, to be part of the original crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. After arriving on the west coast, Varvel and the Hornet headed into the Pacific to play a critical role in the fight against imperial Japan. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Va...
Feb 02, 2022•31 min
Jack Holder joined the U.S. Navy fresh out of high school in 1940. He arrived in Pearl Harbor in December of that year. Twelve months later he was diving into a ditch to avoid the strafing of Japanese pilots. He remembers thinking, "God, please don't let me die in this ditch." In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Holder walks us through his memories of the horrific Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, his role at the critical Battle of Midway, patrolling the skies over Guadalcanal, and being tr...
Jan 26, 2022•34 min
On January 16, 2022, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Charles McGee died at the age of 102. His story is one of profound courage, excellence in service, and inspiring personal character. McGee joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. At the time, however, McGee and the other black pilots were deemed unworthy to be in units with their white counterparts. In this edition of "Veterans Chonicles," McGee details the outstanding service record of Tuskegee pilots in World War II, the...
Jan 19, 2022•52 min
Yoshio Nakamura grew up working on his family's farm in California. Despite the Great Depression, it was a good life and Nakamura had many friends as a teenager. But his life changed drastically after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Less than three months later, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Americans of Japanese descent on the west coast into internment camps out of fear of their loyalty to Japan. In this episode, Nakamura describes the indignity of that designation...
Jan 12, 2022•36 min
Fred Clifton Berry, Jr. joined the U.S. Force in 1948 due to his interest in radio and airplanes. He soon found himself in Germany and in the middle of a major international drama - the Berlin Airlift. Berry tells us about the critical importance of quality air traffic control during that ordeal both in delivering goods and in protecting pilots from their Soviet adversaries. Berry later left the Air Force and subsequently joined the U.S. Army. Years later, he was deployed to Vietnam with the 196...
Jan 05, 2022•35 min
Ned Connor was planning to join the ground forces of the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. But he soon found out he wasn't going to make that decision. After ending up in the Navy, Connor was assigned to the Seabees. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Connor shares his story of service in the Pacific Theater, mostly on New Guinea, as a winch operator loading and unloading cargo ships. He also shares the leadership and life lessons he took from his years in the service and applied to hi...
Dec 29, 2021•36 min
Andrew Faltum started as a detective for the Chicago Police Department but by the early 1970's he decided it was time for a change. Faltum joined the Navy in hopes of becoming an aviation officer but a medical evaluation forced a change in plans. Instead he became an intelligence officer while on active duty and for another two decades in the reserves. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Faltum shares his experiences aboard the USS Midway in 1975 and the frantic effort to save some 3,000 V...
Dec 22, 2021•38 min
Michael "Mickey Ganitch" Ganitch grew up in Ohio and joined the U.S. Navy in early 1941, as he puts it, to dodge being drafted into the Army. Less than a year later, he had a front row seat for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while in the crow's nest aboard the USS Pennsylvania as it sat in dry dock off Battleship Row. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Ganitch describes the attack in detail, how it could have been even worse, the refurbishing of the USS Pennsylvania and the key role ...
Dec 15, 2021•33 min
Frank Emond joined the U.S. Navy in 1938 after learning it was looking for musicians. Three years later, Emond was standing on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania and watched in horror as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. Eighty years after the day of infamy that triggered the U.S. entry into World War II, Emond shares what he saw during the attack, how he and the other sailors aboard the USS Pensylvania responded, his gruesome duties following the attack, and his service after the ship wa...
Dec 07, 2021•32 min
David Devaney enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1983. After surviving boot camp, he soon pursued the opportunity to become a U.S. Marine sniper and was part of the early invasion of Iraq in March 2003. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," SgtMaj Devaney shares his memories at Parris Island both in training and as a drill sergeant. He also talks about what it takes to become a sniper, dealing with Iraqi forces and sandstorms in the early days of the Iraq War, and the mindset necessary to ...
Dec 01, 2021•35 min
Charles Strange didn't initially want his son, Michael, to join the military. But when Michael turned 18, he joined the U.S. Navy and soon became an expert in cryptography, serving alongside Navy SEALs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Michael Strange was part of the mission that targeted and killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. But just three months later, Michael and dozens of other elite forces were killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicl...
Nov 24, 2021•36 min
Douglas Dillard joined the U.S. Army at age 16, determined to help the U.S. win World War II. By the end of his military career decades later, Dillard had parachuted into combat, fought in one of the fiercest battles on the western front, and eventually became one of the Army's critical leaders in military intelligence. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Dillard describes jumping into southern France as part of Operation Dragoon in August 1944, fighting the Nazis and the frigid temperatur...
Nov 17, 2021•44 min
Eugene Groves joined the U.S. Marine Corps when he was 17, in part to get out of his racially charged town. Groves then trained at Montford Point at Camp Lejeune, where the USMC first began accepting black Marines just a few years earlier. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Groves details his service in the Korean War, how he and the other Montford Point Marines responded to discrimination even after the official integration of the military, and the tremendous progress he's seen since tha...
Nov 10, 2021•33 min
David Bellavia grew up hearing his grandfather's stories of fighting in Normandy during World War II. Sixty years later, Bellavia would be fighting urban warfare in the streets of Fallujah in Iraq and his actions in November 2004 would earn him the Medal of Honor. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Bellavia shares what house-to-house fighting was like in Iraq and the mindset needed to do it well. You'll also hear how Bellavia saved his squad by eliminating five enemy fighters as they came...
Nov 03, 2021•31 min
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Gade graduated from West Point and eventually served as a tank company commander as part of the Second Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005. While serving there, Gade was wounded twice. The second set of injuries nearly killed him and did lead to the amputation of his right leg. Exactly one year after that horrific attack, Col. Gade began graduate school and became a triathlete. He also took an intense interest in the veterans benefits program, which he believ...
Oct 27, 2021•56 min
Frank Athanason wanted to join the Navy in 1945, but when the two men in front of him passed out from receiving shots in the arm and he didn't, he was assigned to the Army instead. Over the next 32 years, Athanason would serve in three wars, be deployed to Korea and Vietnam and have critical roles in two other international crises. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Col. Athanason takes us into his as an artillery officer and describes the action that earned him a Silver Star and a Purple...
Oct 20, 2021•47 min
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. Marine Corps set out to create the first two battalions of Marine Raiders. These well-trained, elite commando units quickly proved themselves better than the best Japanese troops on Guadalcanal and on the surrounding islands known as Tulagi and Makin Atoll. Two more battalions were soon created but the raiders were disbanded when the realities of war demanded it. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles", we'll speak with Carole ...
Oct 13, 2021•43 min
Last week, we presented our first interview with retired U.S. Army Green Beret Lt. Col. Scott Mann to discuss his military service, including several years in Afghanistan. Several weeks ago, Col. Mann was also part of a determined effort to rescue Afghan friends and allies while evacuation flight were still available at the airport in Kabul. This private effort was dubbed "The Pineapple Express." In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," you'll hear how Mann and others used their many contacts t...
Oct 06, 2021•39 min
Scott Mann knew he wanted to be a Green Beret when he was 14 years old. It would be another 10 years before he could realize that dream. A few years later, our nation suffered the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, like thousands of other American service members, Scott Mann would be headed to war. In this first half of our profile of Col. Mann, he takes us into the life of a Green Beret and how it is different from other special forces, how he balanced his desire for revenge against the terrorists wit...
Sep 29, 2021•39 min
For more than 30 years, the United States government considered Iva Toguri a traitor to our nation for her actions during World War II. Many Americans might still think of her that way, since they think of her as the radio host American troops labeled "Tokyo Rose". But the truth tells a completely different story. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," we'll share the story of Iva Toguri, an American woman who got trapped in Japan during the war and wound up as a host playing music during pro...
Sep 24, 2021•20 min
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered military planners to strike at the heart of Japan. This daring bombing mission was entrusted to Col. James Doolittle of the U.S. Army Air Corps. On April 18, 16 bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet, with each bomber carrying five crew members. The engineer on the 15th bomber was Edward Saylor. Mr. Saylor shared his story with us at the American Veterans Center conference in Was...
Sep 22, 2021•33 min
Patrick Henry reluctantly joined the ROTC program at Seattle University and hated just about every minute of it. Within the next decade he would be witness to a chilling,seminal moment in the Cold War and serve two tours in Vietnam and be awarded the Medal of Honor. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gen. Brady shares his deployment to Berlin and how life there changed drastically when the communists erected the Berlin Wall. He also takes us through his training as a helicopter pilot and ...
Sep 15, 2021•35 min
Retired U.S. Army Brigadier Gen. Don Bolduc served 36 years in uniform, most of it in special forces, and spent ten tours of duty in Afghanistan. While there he earned five bronze stars and two purple hearts. He also rose to one of the top command positions for special forces in the Afghan theater. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gen. Bolduc, details what it was like to be among the first Americans on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11, his time as a horse soldier there, the strategi...
Sep 08, 2021•52 min
Andrew Biggio grew up in Boston as part of a family steeped in military service. In fact, he is named for his great uncle, who was killed in action in Italy during World War II. Andrew joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006 and was deployed as a rifleman to Iraq in 2008 and later to Afghanistan. After leaving the Marine Corps in 2012, Biggio wanted to learn what really happened to his great uncle. That quest turned into a much bigger odyssey, as he interviewed scores of World War II veterans from ...
Sep 01, 2021•44 min
