Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate Carl Brashear grew up on a farm in Kentucky as part of a sharecropper family. After being educated in segregated schools, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1948 and underwent recruit training at Great Lakes, IL. After initial duty as a...
Colonel Katherine Amelia Towle (April 30, 1898 – March 1, 1986) was the second Director of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve (USMCWR) and the first Director of Women Marines. Towle was born in Towle, California on April 30, 1898. (The town was named...
Staff Sergeant John P. Jones was born March 12, 1977 and was raised in Enid, OK. He joined the United States Marine Corps in July 1995, and underwent recruit training at MCRD San Diego. He completed recruit training and was assigned to SOI west at Camp Pendleton, CA...
Stanley W. “Swede” Vejtasa is the only World War II carrier pilot to receive Navy Crosses for both dive bombing and aerial combat. Born in Montana in 1914, Vejtasa attended both Montana State College and the University of Montana. He enlisted in the Navy...
