Fred Gallert was born in Winnipeg, Canada on July 17, 1921. When he was two years old his family moved to Saint Joseph, Michigan and he grew up there. After the U.S. was dragged into WWII in 1941 he was drafted into the Army in June 1942 and received…

Joseph Gabrosek Jr.was born in 1924 in Barberton, Ohio. He grew up there and graduated from high school there. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1942 and went through the multiple stages of flight training at different bases, and finished…

Alvena Franzen was born in Salamanca, New York, in 1919 and grew up there. Prior to the war she attended nursing school in Bradford, Pennsylvania and graduated from that in 1941. She enrolled in the American Red Cross Nursing Service and was…

Kenneth Farris was born in Pernell, Oklahoma in 1923. He grew up there and after graduating from high school in 1942 he worked as a civilian worker at an airfield in Texas. In January 1943 he received his draft letter and he was inducted into the…

Hank DeYoung born in 1928 in Spring Lake, Michigan. He left high school in the tenth grade and worked with his father in his father's construction business as a business partner. In the summer of 1950 he received his draft notice and on December 15,…

Nelson DeYoung is a World War II veteran who was born on November 11, 1924. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was drafted on March 4, 1943. He started off training to go into the Medical Corps until he became a cook in the Army. He served at…

Richard DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1926. He grew up in Grand Rapids and graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School. After graduating he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and after being processed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois was…

John DeBoer was born in 1924 in Paterson New Jersey and before the war he worked as tool and die apprentice. He enlisted in 1943 and trained in Sampson New York. He was sent to radio school and was assigned to the destroyer USS John D. Edwards as a…

David Corradetti was born in Woodbury, New Jersey on January 1st, 1950. He graduated high school in 1968 and decided not to pursue college because he had a feeling he was going to be drafted. David was drafted in April of 1969 and did his basic…

Jack Cole was born on August 23, 1948. He joined the Army as a light vehicle driver and drove trucks in a convoy that traveled and brought supplies to the battle at Dac Tho. Jack occasionally drove the gun trucks while traveling in the convoy. While…

Dr. James Clark is a veteran of the Cold War who was born on September 7, 1939 in Oak Park, Illinois. He attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and joined the Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps there. When he graduated in June 1961…

Ms. Le was born in Saigon in 1970 to an American father and Vietnamese mother. Her father had to leave, and her mother struggled to make a living, especially when the communists took over. A program called ODC allowed them to leave Vietnam, go to the…

James H. Childress enlisted in the Navy in October 1943. He trained in Spokane, Washington

Don Chaffee was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939 and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. He attended Middlebury College and completed the Army ROTC program there, graduating in 1960 and taking his commission. He trained as a supply officer at Fort Lee,…

James Carr grew up in Chicago and joined the Navy in 1945 at age 17 as a first class seaman. He received raining at Great Lakes Naval Station, and worked there as a dispersing clerk handling payroll for sailors being discharged after World War II. He…

Dr. Edward Byrd was born in 1940 in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended George Washington University and was accepted into the medical school there graduating in 1965. All medical school graduates at the time were expected…

David Burkholder was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 21, 1926. He grew up there and on August 24, 1944 he enlisted in the Navy Hospital Corps. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He received further medical…

Dr. Robert Browne was born in Coldwater, Michigan on November 12, 1924. He grew up in Coldwater and Lansing, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan prior to enlisting in the Aviation Cadet Program of the Army Air Force in November (or…

Robert Boyer was born in Conway, Arkansas, in 1918. He moved around with his parents growing up before settling in Saginaw, Michigan. After graduating from high school in 1936 he attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a master's…

Susan Ryan Bowers is the widow of Vietnam War veteran Steven Bowers. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and then grew up in Florida. She met Steven in 1963 after a deployment to Europe. He was in the Navy as a bombardier/navigator for an A5 Vigilante…

Wilbur Bouwkamp served in the US Army between 1941 and 1945. After basic training, he was assigned to the 10 Armored Division, where he served on a recovery vehicle, a tank adapted to tow damaged tanks back to friendly lines where they could be…

Wallace Bouchard was born on July 1, 1927 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Army Air Force Reserve in 1944, but was ejected from that in spring 1945 due to the Second World War ending. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday on July 1, 1945…

Willard Bosserman served in World War II as a mechanic in the Army. He was drafted in 1943 and worked in a maintenance company attached to the 87th Division, and then to the 66th Division. His company shipped to Europe in December, 1944, and took…

Robert Borey was born in Flint, Michigan in 1920. He finished high school in 1938 and went to work, and enlisted in the Navy right after Pearl Harbor. He trained at Great Lakes, Illinois, and became a hospital corpsman. He was assigned first to a…