Patriot Stories
Chapter 1919’s Patriots are combat wounded veterans from every battlefield (or at least every theatre of operations) where American troops have fought, from the first shots fired in WWII up to the present time. The personal experiences of these veterans are individually interesting and collectively awesome. Their stories, strung together, would be a wonderful part of American History. Biographical Sketches of some of our nearly 600 chapter members start on this page.
The Purple Heart is awarded for sacrifice, not for heroism; however, many who receive it were doing heroic service when wounded.
Famous or not, proud of them all, Chapter 1919 is looking for more combat wounded veterans to sign up!
Patriot Stories By Service
Most Recent Patriot Stories
From Our Newsletter
RONALD W. SELLERS – ARMY – Vietnam
In November 1972, an aircraft from the 36th Bomb Wing, home based at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, went down in history as the first B-52 Bomber ever lost in combat to enemy fire. Ron Sellers was one of three wounded among the 6-man crew when his plane was...
ED GARR – Army – Korea
Ed Garr lives in Ocala, Florida, but he chose to join the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter in Austin, Texas. He did that just to renew his ties with two fellow Marine Corps veterans whose connections with him came out of two different wars. Ed Garr was a...
HERBERT SPIRO – ARMY – WWII
This is a Horatio Alger story if there ever was one. Escaping from Germany and the coming holocaust just before the outbreak of WWII, Herberts family settled in San Antonio, Texas. He enlisted and returned to Europe with the 11th Armored Division and was wounded in...
JACK B. WARDEN – ARMY – Korea
Jack saw 222 days of continuous action in Europe and had advanced from being the youngest man and the junior Private to being the battlefield commissioned Platoon Leader, in the same Platoon; all without a scratch. Until just before war's end, his men had believed he...
L.C. CASTRO – ARMY – WWII
The Gold Star mother of this Castro family of Austin, Texas sent four sons off to WWII, three of whom were awarded the Purple Heart. L.C.'s brother, Arthur, wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, died many years ago, but brother, Joe, a combat medic wounded on Saipan, is...
LESLIE R. HEREFORD, JR – Army – WWII
Leslie says he was in combat for 15 minutes, and in the hospital for 22 months. As disabled veteran, amputee, he obtained a graduate degree, had a long and successful working career, and lived his life to the fullest. Leslie Hereford, Jr. was born in 1921 in Tow,...
ROBERT H. HARWOOD – ARMY – WWII
Robert H. (Bob) Harwood was born in Milam County, Texas. His family lived at Gause and Bob graduated from the nearby High School in Hearne. Bob was working on road construction when he first met Roberta Cole, a Southwest Texas State College girl on a weekend visit to...
STEVE CONDITT
This Navy WWII veteran survived the sinking of the Cruiser, ASTORIA in the battle of Savo Island, off Guadalcanal. Later, Steve served with distinction aboard the new Cruiser SANTA FE. He then traveled and made public speeches in War Bond Drives with the famous screen...
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,...
RUFUS DYE, JR.
This is a fighter pilots story, shot down behind enemy lines, parachuted into the middle of a major German withdrawal, and pedaled to safety by a French boy on his bicycle. In WWII, Lieutenant Rufus Dye was a 9th Air Force fighter pilot in the 392nd Squadron, 367th...
J. D. STALLINGS – ARMY – WWII
This colorful figure became a rodeo performer at age 7, a horse cavalryman (Texas National Guard) at age 14, a skilled trick-rider as a teenager, and was a stunt rider for Republic Pictures in 1930s western movies. He was also wounded eight times in the Pacific while...
JOHN M. BRYANT – ARMY – WWII
John suffered a grievous wound in the air over occupied France that put him out of the war. Over 50 years later he and his wife became the subject of a personal interest story in the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. This is his story. John Bryant...