Donald Morrison was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin in 1926 and in his early childhood years he attended the Brick Church Grade School in Walworth County. In March 1935, his family moved to Sharon Township and they were living on a farm there in 1944 when Donald graduated from High School in Darien. He wanted to go into the Navy right after high school, but didnt pass the physical. Donalds father told him that if he really wanted to get into military service he would have to leave the farm and take a job in town, because the draft board would not take farmers because of their importance to the war effort. He took his fathers advice, got a job, and immediately got drafted....
Patriot Stories from the United States Marine Corps
PRESTON HALEY
Preston G. Haley was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1978. He grew up in suburban Austintown, and went through Saint Josephs Grade School. Then when he was in 9th grade the Haley family moved to Stow, Ohio. Preston graduated from Stow High School in 1996 and then attended Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio for one year. After the 1997 Spring semester, he left OSU and returned home to take a job in Stow. For the next four years Preston worked in either Stow or Columbus, moving back and forth as he changed jobs several times. Then he joined the Army. He had signed up shortly before 9/11 and was inducted from Broadview Heights, Ohio on October 10, 2001. He took Basic Training...
ROLAND K. “KEN” TOWERY
Corregidor POW Survivor Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Roland Kenneth (Ken) Towery was born in 1923 in Smithville, Mississippi. The following year his family moved to Texas where Ken grew up on a farm in Willacy County near Raymondville. In 1937 they moved near San Antonio where they farmed land on the Medina River. On his eighteenth birthday, Ken enlisted in the Army. He says, I wanted to see the world and signed up asking for service as far away from home as the Army could send me. Ken Towery was inducted at Fort Sam Houston, Texas on January 26, 1941. After a brief delay enroute at Angels Island in San Francisco bay, he sailed on the troop ship, USS Republic, on...
ARTHUR (ART) RICE
"Bataan Death March Survivor Past Senior Vice Commander, Chapter 1919 (USAF, WWII, Pacific) Article March 2005 Arthur Rice was born in 1916 in Janesville, Wisconsin. His family moved from Janesville to Milwaukee and Art grew up there, attending Roosevelt Junior High School, North Division High School, and then graduating from Vocational School. He was eighteen when he enlisted in the Army at Fort MacArthur, California in July 1935. His first unit of assignment was Battery B, 59th Coast Artillery on topside Corregidor Island guarding Manila Bay. He returned to the United States in August 1937 and was discharged. After a break in service, Art says, I let an old WWI veteran...
ROBERT (BOB) BERNSTEIN, M.D.
Major General, United States Army, Medical Corps, Retired Commissioner of Health, Texas Department of Health, Retired Surgeon, Chapter 1919 Robert Bernstein was born in New York City, New York in 1920. His parents, Morris and Rose Bernstein, lived in nearby Yonkers, Westchester County, and Robert grew up there, graduating from Yonkers High School in the Class of 1937. He enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and graduated there with a B.A. degree in 1942. He then entered the University of Louisville School of Medicine, training to be a medical doctor under the Army Specialized Training Program. The students in the program were in the Army as PFCs, wore...
HORACE P. WILLIAMS
A Modern day "Buffalo Soldier" Horace Williams is a civilian employee working at Camp Mabry. He served two tours in Vietnam and was wounded at CU CHI on February 10, 1966 while serving in Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry (Wolfhounds), 25th Infantry Division. As an Army Vietnam veteran and a resident of Austin, Texas, that puts Horace squarely in the middle of the most populous demographic group of Chapter 1919 of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, nothing particularly noteworthy about that. But, he does something truly special and unique for a member of our veterans group. Early in the morning on any given weekend, Horace gets up and dresses in his authentic...
GRANVIL RAY G.R.” WILLIAMS
Granvil Ray Williams was born in Big Spring, Texas in 1919. When he was very young, his family moved to San Antonio where he spent his "growing-up" years. He enlisted In the Navy in December 1939. He was sent by train to San Diego, California for basic training. He was then immediately assigned to the Battleship, U.S.S. West Virginia, with homeport of Long Beach, California. He says, We trained often in the open ocean and were frequently in and out of Pearl Harbor. The entire Sixth Fleet had conducted night battle exercises and returned to Pearl Harbor on Dec 5, 1941 when Granvil mailed a letter back home to his fiancé, Helen Creswell. He had an approved leave that was...
GONZALO GARZA
Called the Horatio Alger of education, this is the story of Dr Gonzalo Garza. The Austin American Statesman did a feature (January 1999) that was titled The Namesakes For Austin High Schools, complete with photos (inset) which we have excerpted here. Of course, Travis County is named for Colonel William Barret Travis, and the City of Austin is named for Stephen F. Austin, also known as the father of Texas. Like Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie also died in the Alamo. In that rare company, and centered in the assemblage of pictures, is a photo of Dr. Gonzalo Garza, Phd. and Patriot of Chapter 1919, the only living member of the group. Here is what the American -...
ARTHUR MANN – USMC – Vietnam
Arthur Mann was in the Brown Water Navy, and the engineer aboard the type of small river patrol boat made famous in the movie Apocalypse Now. He earned a Silver Star along with his three awards of the Purple Heart. Here is that story in brief. In 1967 and 1968, Arthur Mann was assigned to the ARMY-NAVY MOBILE RIVERINE FORCE, RIVER DIVISION NINE, RIVER ASSAULT FLOTILLA ONE (CTF117). Almost everyone in Vietnam simply knew them as the "Riverine Force". Petty Officer Arthur Mann was the Engineer on Assault Support Patrol Boat 91-3, that operated on the waterways of the Mekong Delta and the Rung Sat Special Zone, and was variously based at Dong Tam and My Tho, while...