Army Veteran Sam French co-wrote “I Fly” with Don Goodman and Matt Dame. The song opens with French remembering that, like most males of his generation, he was drafted into service. French was just 21 in 1969, and he “wanted to have a choice, didn't want to be one of those front line-boys."
Korean War Veteran and Purple Heart recipient Don Van Elzen finds happiness in eating apples, spending time with family and serving his country.
Rae Mary Leff served for 14 years in the Navy as a nurse, learning much about life while treating servicemen in Vietnam.
Gary Gordon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions performed during the Battle of Mogadishu, which was portrayed in Black Hawk Down.
Marine Corps Veteran Daniel Dunn used music and art therapy to subdue his anger and pain at the National Veterans Creative Arts Competition & Festival.
Few photographers were as inventive or celebrated as Neil C. Montanus, the most prolific of mid-century Kodak’s Colorama photographers.
Vern Buol, a WW II Veteran who served in the Army Air Corps, later became a pro scout for the Chicago Bears, one of the most storied teams in the NFL.
Claire Lee Chennault, a U.S. major general who commanded the U.S. Army Air Forces in China during World War II, led the First American Volunteer Group, AKA the “Flying Tigers.”
Clifton Arnesen enlisted to escape his troubled childhood but was discharged due to his sexuality. Later he became an advocate for LGBT troops.
Richard DeLeon thought that his upbringing in New York had toughened him up, but everything he saw on those streets could not compare with the battlefields of Vietnam.
Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian Marine and one of the last surviving members of the Iwo Jima flag raising in World War II.
Track star Louis Zamperini served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and suffered as a prisoner of war in Japan under the “The Bird.”