I went into the Navy in 1966 and never learned to swim. People ask me today, “How could you be in the Navy and not know how to swim?” The answer is really quite simple: all I had to do was jump off the deep end and float to the other side. And of course,...
Second Lieutenant John. P. Bobo was not in an enviable position on March 30, 1967, when his company was ambushed by Viet Cong. Heavy machine-gun and mortar fire rained down. Outnumbered and outgunned, Bobo’s team took heavy casualties. A mortar blew off the...
Throwing yourself on a grenade. This idea has become a cultural and mythological cliché, akin to the idea of a cowboy showdown at high noon. Something that maybe happened once or twice, but has been so exaggerated in pop culture as to have entered the realm of myth....
The phrase “One-Man Army” is over-used, but if anyone deserves the moniker, it’s Platoon Sergeant Joseph Randolph Julian. During the siege of the Iwo Jima, Julian’s platoon inadvertently stumbled onto one of the many hidden mini-fortifications...
Shasta County has a new fire chief. Former Chief Mike Hebrard has taken a new job as an assistant region chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Bret Gouvea, the incident commander for July’s Carr Fire and an assistant chief up...
