Col Nathaniel G. Raley

Sep 16, 2017 | Air Force, Army

Raley, 84, was “hooked” on becoming a pilot at age 7 after he and his father flew in a barnstorming World War I biplane in their home town of Demopolis. A flight with an instructor at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, at age 13 further fed Raley’s...

RDML Grace Hopper

Sep 14, 2017 | Navy

At the outbreak of WWII, Hopper signed up to join WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), a part of the U.S. Naval Reserve. Her application was initially rejected because she was deemed too old and too thin per enlistment standards. Determined, Hopper...

Sgt Phyllis Marie Aloisio Capelle

Sep 12, 2017 | Marines

During World War II, 21-year-old Phyllis Aloisio was working in a factory but determined she could better help the effort by joining the WACs. Told she was too young, she joined the Marines, and when she tested well enough to become a machinist’s mate, she was...

LTC Sidney Algernon Riches, Sr.

Sep 11, 2017 | Army

Sidney Riches’ attraction to the Army was in part inspired by his late uncle’s service in World War I. Riches enlisted in 1940, seeing extensive duty in the Pacific. In a letter to his father in 1942, he wrote, “Sure hate to think of leaving and...

PFC Giles G. McCoy

Sep 9, 2017 | Marines

After surviving three of the Pacific Theater’s most harrowing campaigns and a kamikaze attack, Marine Giles McCoy thought the worst was over when his ship returned to the States for repairs in the summer of 1945. But that ship, the heavy cruiser USS...