Col Edward “Eddie” Rickenbacker

Nov 30, 2017 | Army

Eddie Rickenbacker was a WWI world-famous pilot and war hero. He also drove a race car and was very skilled. During WWII, “Eddie was off in a B-17 bomber plane” and had planned to go to Hawaii with his crew: Hans Adamson, Bill Cherry, Jim Whittaker, John...

PVT Benjamin Alvarado

Nov 23, 2017 | Army

A combat newbie, Private Benjamin Alvarado was part of the second wave of troops to arrive on D-Day, landing on the Easy Red section of Omaha Beach. In his memoir, he described the adrenaline-filled first moments of the invasion. Continuing into the French countryside...

SPARS Alice “Jo” Lawson

Nov 21, 2017 | Coast Guard

As World War II was coming to a close, Lawson enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard SPARS, a women’s reservist unit. Lawson said, “I thought that was an adventure and it was.” She would spend two years with the Coast Guard, working at a Navy Air Station...

MAJ James Mitsuo Furukawa

Nov 16, 2017 | Army

Even though he was a civilian, James Mitsuo Furukawa had an eyewitness view of the war’s mayhem from the beginning. The Hawaiian-born son of Japanese parents, he was 16 years old and working in construction at the time of the attack. Seeing planes flying overhead on...

Mary Lucile Cain

Nov 14, 2017 | Army

Born Sept. 25, 1921 in Quincy, Florida, Cain joined the Army Nurse Corps in July of 1943 and was transported to Camp Robinson in Arkansas after basic training. Cain, who had attended nursing school, said her decision to sign up was made partly because fellow nursing...