Posted: 8:24 PM One of the most vulnerable situations anyone can face is to be a stranger in a strange land. John Millhollan faced more than only a strange land. He faced an entire night spent in the jungles of enemy territory during the Vietnam War.
Posted: 3:39 PM When Robert Spoede was in elementary school, his teacher asked him a question surely everyone in his or her lifetime has heard, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Updated: 2:35 PM Any visitor would not have any hesitation in assuming the current financial adviser was once a Vietnam pilot. A tougher assumption to make would be to know that this veteran was a couple of close calls away from never being in College Station at all.
Updated: 3:01 PM Major Durwood Lewis spent thousands of hours in the air during the Vietnam War, and came away with hundreds of stories to tell -- including a few close calls.
Updated: 4:41 PM There are many crucial roles that soldiers perform in overseas duties, and Major Mark White carried out an important task in his two tours in Iraq.
Updated: 6:49 PM For his service to his country, Duke Hobbs not only received a Purple Heart, he was also awarded a Bronze Star for bravery. The Aggie's military career began when he joined the Army in 1944, after finishing his freshman year.
Updated: 12:19 PM When Pearl Harbor was attacked on the morning of December 7, 1941, Frank Litterst, Jr. was a junior at Texas A&M University. The attack shocked the American people and led the way for the United States to enter World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor also led the way for the Class of 43, which Litterst was a member of to be commissioned en masse.
Updated: 10:55 PM Frank Kocman served his country during World War Two. He's a born and raised Brazos County resident who says the time he spent in the service forever changed his life.
Updated: 10:46 AM In the summer of 1968, David Marion of Bryan began his one-year tour in Vietnam with the US Army.
Posted: 11:07 AM A native of Cameron, Texas, Henry Hill graduated from Texas A&M, class of 1956. He enlisted in the Air Force and began active duty that same year.
Posted: 11:00 AM Don Nicholas arrived at Texas A&M in the fall of 1944, and after a short stint in the Air Force during World War II, he returned to A&M in 1947. That year, he donned the maroon and white on the football field under then-coach Homer Norton as a quarterback for the Aggies.
Posted: 2:08 PM Lieutenant Colonel Brian Parker came from Baltimore, where he attended the University of Maryland on a track scholarship after high school...and it was there that an ROTC instructor guided him on the path that would lead to a distinguished 20-year military career.
Posted: 2:04 PM Jules Jacquin stepped off a train from El Paso, Texas in College Station in 1942 with dreams of earning a degree in engineering. Those dreams were put on hold after he joined the enlisted reserves at Texas A&M. He was called up in 1943 and after training, he was sent to Camp Swift near Elgin, Texas, where he joined the 102nd Infrantry.
Updated: 10:46 PM Bob Wilkinson of Bryan joined the service in 1949 right out of high school, after he was in on the tail end of Korea, he was stationed near Beeville, Texas, to train in flying helicopters.
Updated: 4:02 PM After the Japanese surrender, near the end of World War II, Douglass Starr was aboard the USS Nicholas, a destroyer ship that performed taxi service for the Japanese delegation during the famous signing of the surrender agreement aboard the USS Missouri.
Updated: 8:23 PM Curt Burns graduated from Texas A&M in 1952 and joined the Air Force, where he was put on active duty during the Korean War.
Updated: 5:06 PM Douglass Starr went into the service in World War II at age 17, and had to wait until his 18th birthday to be deployed. He was sent to sonar school in San Diego and assigned to the destroyer class ship, the U.S.S. Nicholas in 1943.
Updated: 5:04 PM Ty Newton of College Station could have pursued a pro sports career if he hadn't loved flying more than he loved baseball. He was pretty good at both but flying was in his blood.
Updated: 5:03 PM Fair to say World War II could not have been fought, much less won, had it not been for those who built the runways, the huts, the medical units, the bridges... in the Pacific Campaign, that was the job of the Naval Construction Battalions...The Seabees!
Updated: 5:24 PM Second Lieutenant Bob Middleton, A&M class of 1951, fought on the front lines of Heartbreak Ridge, where they did battle mostly in the pitch dark of night and often in the snow. Bob Middleton left Korea with memories fo close calls, survival, and the Army's Silver Star medal.
Updated: 5:00 PM Holly Rees was born and raised in Prescott, Arizona and graduated in 1944. The Monday after his high school graduation, he was on his way to Phoenix for his pre-induction physical.
Updated: 5:00 PM Many people in Bryan-College Station know Jim Gordon as a retired pharmacist, who practiced in the Brazos Valley for over 40 years. But, what some people might not know is that Jim served in the Air Force during World War II, and was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he incurred while on a mission to Austria.
Updated: 4:24 PM Wilson Dickey can speak first hand of the day-to-day danger faced by the soldiers in Iraq. He's been there. Pulling anti-sniper and anti IED duty on the most dangerous streets on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Updated: 4:59 PM Vic Reid grew up being exposed to all things military. So, when he came of age during the Vietnam conflict, it was only natural that he join up and do his part.
Updated: 1:26 PM For one local man, jumping out of planes into hostile territory wasn't acting - Bryan's Louis Hudson lived it. A member of the 82nd airborne division, Hudson jumped in several major battles on the European front during World War II.
