Veterans History Project
1714 items
- Notes:
- Mark Doren was born in 1919 in Kent City, Michigan and served into the Army in World War II. He was drafted into the Army and attended basic training in Florida and was then sent to Europe. He served in the 6th Armored in France and Germany as a mechanic, and was part of the group that liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
- Date Created:
- 2004-06-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Henry Lee Helmink of Holland, Michigan, enlisted in 1943 and served during World War II as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. He flew C-46 and C-47 transport aircraft between bases in Burma, India and China, and would drop supplies to troops in the field.
- Date Created:
- 2010-04-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jim Kloosterman served in the US Navy in 1965 and 1966. He served as a radioman on the carrier USS Independence, spending much of his time decrypting Soviet radio traffic. During his tour, his ship saw action off the coast of Vietnam, and then served in the Mediterranean.
- Date Created:
- 2005-02-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- John Pimm was born in Connecticut in 1924 and graduated from a small country school in 1941. John then went on to a military college in Northfield, Vermont. The entire college enlisted in the service on September 14, 1942. John went through the Army Specialized Training Program in Nebraska and then Combat Engineer Training in Texas. He shipped over to England at the end of 1944, and then served at the end of the Bulge campaign and the advance through Germany to Czechoslovakia.
- Date Created:
- 2008-10-25T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Francisco Vega was born in San Antonio, Texas. He tried to enlist in the military immediately after Pearl Harbor, but was initially rejected because of his Mexican ancestry. He eventually did enlist in the Army Air Corps, and began a long process in which he used his talents and persuasive skills to find increasingly interesting assignments, eventually training as a teletype operator with a signals unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was eventually part of Eisenhower's headquarters.
- Date Created:
- 2008-03-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Clarence Szejbach was born in Traverse City, Michigan on September 19, 1948. When he was 19 years old he was drafted into the Army. He was deployed to Vietnam and served in the 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. He spent his first month as a rifleman, but served as a radio operator for the platoon sergeant, the platoon leader, and the company commander. He served in Tay Ninh Province. His unit served at Fire Support Base Crook on the Cambodian border, and on June 5, 1969 the Viet Cong launched a massive attack on the base. The next day a Viet Cong militant tried to ambush the patrol with grenades. Clarence threw a grenade back saving his unit, but cost him his right hand. For his heroic action he was eventually awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He returned to the United States and recovered at home and at Valley Forge Hospital, Pennsylvania before being discharged from the Army.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- J.W. Hurst was born in July 1918. After enlisting in the military, Hurst bounced around training, including going into the Air Corps, going to paratroop training and finally receiving training in artillery. Hurst served with the First Army Task Force and participated in the landing on Omaha beach and the campaign in France.
- Date Created:
- 2005-05-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Dwight Jamison was born in Big Rapids, Michigan on February 15, 1928. He served in the Michigan National Guard as a teenager and enlisted in the Army in 1946. He received his basic training at Camp Polk, Louisiana and after that was deployed to Japan. He served at a hospital in Japan during the Korean War, helping with supplies and bringing wounded soldiers from a nearby airstrip to the hospital for treatment. He was also sent to an area near Pusan, Korea to help establish a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. In 1951 he returned to the United States after four and a half years in Japan and served at Camp Stoneman, California.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gary Doublestein was born on November 15, 1952, in Plainwell, Michigan. In early 1970 he enlisted in the Navy, and in June reported for basic training at Naval Training Center San Diego, California. He went to Hospital Corps School at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, and was then stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. Gary stayed at Camp Pendleton for a year and was then assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk. His first cruise on the Kitty Hawk lasted from April 1972 to November 1972. In that first cruise, he witnessed combat flights into Vietnam as well as a mutiny on the ship. He returned to the United States and was stationed at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, until he rejoined the Kitty Hawk. His second cruise lasted from November 1973 to June 1974 and he was aboard ship when one of the engine rooms exploded. He left the Navy in June 1974, and enlisted in the Air Force in the late 1970s (c. 1978) to pay for medical school. He was stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, for three years and resigned his commission in 1991. In 2003, he enlisted in the Army Reserve. He served at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in 2005, at Camp Bucca, Iraq, in 2006, at Tikrit, Iraq, in 2008, and and his final deployment was in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. He retired from the Army Reserve on November 15, 2012.
- Date Created:
- 2017-01-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gerald France was born in 1925 in New York City. He grew up on Governor's Island, New York City, the home of the 16th Infantry Regiment. He left high school in 1944 to join the Army Air Corps. He qualified for flight training and went through the early stages of it, but was reassigned to armament school due to a lack of need for pilots. He trained at different bases and joined a B-17 crew that flew to England in April, 1945, joining the 490th Bomb Group at Eye Air Station. They flew several missions over Germany and against isolated German forts in France. When the war ended, they flew relief missions, including ferrying political prisoners.
- Date Created:
- 2014-09-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)