Veterans
Veterans
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VETERANS
Helped build Liberty ships during WW II
During World War II, Bellingham-born Jack Moen was a foreman at the California Shipbuilding Corp. shipyard at Terminal Island, in Los Angeles. The photograph shows the Labor Day 1942 launching of the SS Samuel Gompers, a Liberty ship. The vessel was torpedoed and sunk six months later off of New...
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VETERANS
Veteran says patrolling Vietnam's rivers was a deadly assignment
Squalicum High School teacher Greg Newman served with the U.S. Navy patrolling rivers in Vietnam for enemy activity in the surrounding jungle. Here is his story.
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VETERANS
Bellingham man stood guard when 'unknowns' buried at Arlington tomb
Dick Stark of Bellingham served as a member of the 3rd Infantry, the Army's famous Old Guard that guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and performed at other ceremonies. Here is his story.
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VETERANS
WW II veteran from Bellingham was in three beachhead landings in Europe
Dave Butenschoen of Bellingham had three brothers who saw combat during World War II: George, in the Navy; Oscar, a tank commander in the Army; and Robert, in the infantry with the Army. This is George's story:
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VETERANS
Not all victims of war die in battle, says Bellingham veteran
In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.
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VETERANS
Nervous times in Japan at start of Korean War
I was in the Army in Japan on detached service to the Air Force at Johnson Air Force Base when the Korean War began on June 25, 1950. There were 25 Army Morse code intercept operators learning the business of intercepting radio transmissions and helping the 1st Radio Squadron Mobile with their mission...
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VETERANS
Bellingham man recalls chance encounter of a brotherly kind
Drafted in 1943, I reported to Fort Lewis and trained in Camp Maxey, Texas. I was assigned to the 776th Field Artillery Battalion, a 155 mm howitzer unit with three batteries for a total of 12 guns. I was in service battery, about five or six trucks, to supply ammunition for them.
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VETERANS
Bellingham veteran still seeking compensation for Merchant Marines
I joined the U.S. Maritime Service in 1945 and I was trained at Catalina Island, Calif. Upon completion of training, I passed the Coast Guard test and was issued "fireman water tender oiler" and was assigned a Z number. It would still be valid today, except steam power is extinct.
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VETERANS
Bellingham woman in WAC band horrified by discrimination against black colleague
Joan "Jo" Myers underwent basic training in 1950 at Fort Lee, Va., with Company B, the first integrated company in the Women's Army Corp.
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VETERANS
Knowledge of Japanese language, culture crucial to WW II success in the Pacific
Knowledge of the Japanese language and culture by the U.S. military was crucial in prosecuting the Pacific military effort in the Second World War. Bellingham residents Irwin and Carole Slesnick published a book in 2006 about the use of Japanese interpreters during the war and during the occupation...







