Last month, in our Support Our Troops column, we featured a World War II story on four Army chaplains who perished on the SS Dorchester on Feb. 3, 1943.  After the ship was torpedoed they helped soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own lifejackets when the supply ran out. The chaplains joined arms, said prayers and sang hymns as they went down with the ship.  [Read more…]

By Paula Green 

“As I swam away from the ship, I looked back. The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets.”      — Grady Clark, survivor  [Read more…]

By Paula Green 

           Germany started World War II by invading Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. The battle raged on for six long years, and on Sept. 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered, which ended World War II.  [Read more…]

        When most people hear the word POW (prisoner of war), they often think of men, but that is not always the case. This month, we introduce you to Irene Kierski, 91, of Wilkins Township, who is the oldest living female POW from World War II in the Pittsburgh area. She served in the Polish Army for four years under the command of the British.  [Read more…]

By Paula Green 

 You don’t attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault.                                                                                                                  James Hillman 

          The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. In March 1965, President Lyndon Johnson sent the first combat troops to South Vietnam in response to a Viet Cong attack on the U.S. air base in Pleiku. The war ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control two years later. More than 3 million people were killed in the conflict including over 58,000 Americans.  [Read more…]