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
MARTIN L. ALLDAY
(Army, WWII, Pacific) Article January 2005 Martin L. Allday was born in El Dorado, Arkansas in 1926. When he was three years old his family moved to Waco, Texas, and after five years there moved again to Austin. His father died there in 1935 and his mother then...
JACK SALTER
Jack Salter was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1924. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on June 4, 1942 in Phoenix, Arizona with term of service for the duration of the National Emergency. He would soon become part of an elite raiding force in the Pacific...
ALAN BABIN
(This is a continuing story still in progress) Alan Richard Babin, Jr. was born in 1980 at Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio, Texas. When he was five years old his parents moved to Bakersfield, California. His only sibling, sister, Christy, was born after Alan had...
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,...
MANUEL CASTILLO
Manuel Castillo was born in South Austin in 1922 and, except for his WWII service in the Army, has lived there for his entire lifetime. Manuels father was a painter, but the times were hard. There was seldom enough money from that work, so most years the Castillos...
STEPHEN J. BODNAR
Stephen J. Bodnar was born in Carteret, New Jersey. He grew up there and graduated from Carteret High School in the Class of 1943. He enlisted in the Army shortly afterward and was inducted into the Army Specialized Training Program in October 1943. Under that...
ROBERT A. HEFFORD
Robert A. Hefford was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1933. His family lived in Melrose, north of Boston throughout his childhood years. After graduating from Melrose High School, Bob then went through Northeastern University, in Boston, where he graduated in June...
FLETCHER W. HARRIS. JR.
Fletcher Harris, Jr. was born in 1923 on Galveston Island, and is justly proud of the local area appellation, BOI, which stands for Born on the Island. He received reserve officer training at Castle Heights Military Academy and in August 1941 was commissioned...
RAYMOND M. DIAZ
Raymond Diaz was born in Austin, Texas in 1946. He grew up in a Spanish language home in South Austin and that made life difficult for him in his early years in English-only elementary school. He graduated from Travis High School in the spring of 1966 and soon...
JOHN E. PRICE
John E. Price was born in 1923. He graduated from high school in Oklahoma City and went to Dallas, where he worked for American Optical. He enrolled at Texas A&M and it wasn't until after receiving his draft notice that he finally got his parent's permission to enlist...
JOHN STAVAST
John is a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. His experiences could fill a book, but, this article will only detail one very moving experience that he had in France with the infantry in WWII, and a few facts about his nearly 6 years as a POW during the war in...
HOWARD M. McKINNEY
Howard McKinney was born in Fort Worth in 1945. He spent his early childhood in Granbury, Texas and then the family moved to Stephenville when he was in elementary school. Howard graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville in May 1967 with a B.S. degree...