Magdelyn Applewhite – An FA-18 Welcome and Farewell
Magdelyn Applewhite joined the Navy with a high school friend, and they were the first women to integrate VFA-136, the Knighthawks, at NAS Oceana in Virginia. She describes her responsibilities as an 18-year-old and being capped for her hard work. She enjoyed mentoring others and ended her career where she began, at NAS Oceana.
Sarah Merwin McLevy – Holidays, Loss, and Yellow Ribbons
Sarah Merwin McLevy is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served as a support operations officer with the 927th battalion in Iraq. She describes the importance of the holidays for the deployed service members and tells about how one guard member used civilian acquired skills to upgrade a maintenance facility. She also tells the […]
Robert Wallace – Plotting a Path to the Future
Retired Army Colonel Robert Wallace enlisted in 1948 and was sent to work at General MacArthur’s headquarters in Occupied Japan, where he personally printed the plans for the Invasion of Inchon. He later learned about computers at DODCI, worked at the Pentagon, and became the director of the Combat Service Support System in Fort Hood, […]
Richard Erickson – Crash Course in Surviving the DMZ
Richard Erickson, a medevac helicopter pilot, tells the story of the night his and another helicopter crashed in the DMZ in Vietnam.
Richard Erickson – One Limb Down, Two Thumbs Up
Richard Erickson describes what it was like being a medevac helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He tells a story about flying a man with an injured leg to the hospital ship.
John Lovejoy – Making Friends in High Places
Dr. John Lovejoy recounts his time as a physician in the Navy, where he operated on VIPs and attended the inauguration of President Nixon.
William Burkett – Truths Come Out When Walls Come Down
William Burkett describes being sent to learn Russian in Monterey, California after graduating from basic training. He worked in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down and was also on a task force to recover U.S. aircraft shot down by the Soviet Union. He recounts finding the body of pilot John Dunham, taking his Naval […]
Kathleen Dile – More Effort, Less Recognition
Kathleen Dile describes some of the gender discrimination she faced during her time in the Air Force.
Gerald Timoney – The Camera is Mightier Than the Gun
Gerald Timoney recounts his interactions with the Taliban while he was part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.