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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Max Della Pia held a number of positions in his Air Force career but the most surprising may have been when he lucked into a job as commander of the 109th Airlift Wing. This is the only unit that operates the heavy cargo aircraft equipped with skis.

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  Michael Boyce - Marines +3 Total Videos

  USMC, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expedition Brigade, 1st-4th Air Wings

  Mr. Boyce discusses working with many Kurds and Iraqi civilians for about a year following the end of the first Gulf War.

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  George Carrigan - Air Force +3 Total Videos

  1944th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron

  It was hard to find a job after World War II with all the returning service members out there doing the same. George Carrigan and two buddies went to enlist in the Army but all the recruiters were out for lunch except the Air Force. He talked them into signing up and forgetting about their paratrooper dreams.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  While on a training mission in Greenland, Wing Commander Max Della Pia had to rush to respond when a popular crew member suffered a heart attack. The man was out on the ice for a training exercise. Could they get there in time? Part 1 of 2.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  Gary Howard was just hanging around after high school learning carpentry when a friend suggested he enlist. He asked a recruiter if he could be a carpenter in the Army. Sure, but there's a six month wait to begin. I want to go now, though. Another recruiter leaned in and said, you look like a cop.

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  George Carrigan - Air Force +3 Total Videos

  1944th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron

  While stationed in Cold War Germany, George Carrigan met a German girl and they planned to get married. When he talked to the chaplain, he was asked if he realized he was consorting with the enemy. This did not deter him.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Everyone was devastated. They had rushed to a remote site in Greenland to evacuate a crew member who had suffered a heart attack but they were too late. Wing Commander Max Della Pia was determined to bend regulations to get the deceased man home quickly. Part 2 of 2.

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  Danielle Ingram - Air Force +10 Total Videos

  Air Force Nurse Corps

  As soon as Danielle Ingram joined the Air Force Nurse Corps, Desert Shield and Desert Storm happened. She was needed elsewhere, though, as an instructor of the Air Force's unique in-flight health care procedures. Then, she had a memorable assignment to Gitmo.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  Vietnam was winding down when Gary Howard enlisted. He remembers watching the news every night because he had cousins there. At the recruiter's office, they told him he could pick his duty station if he did well on tests. I don't care where, came the response. Well, are you married and do you like beer?

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  When Max Della Pia retired as a full Colonel, the governor of his state gave him a brevet promotion to Brigadier General in the Air National Guard. It didn't mean much but at least it was better than being kicked out! He was very fond of the Air Force Band and he recalls the time they played a request for him.

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  Danielle Ingram - Air Force +10 Total Videos

  Air Force Nurse Corps

  The facility at Gitmo was receiving lots of boat people from Haiti and civilians from Cuba as well. Air Force Nurse Danielle Ingram treated them for their ailments and then one day she found a stable on the grounds with some horses that were being ignored.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  The tension between East and West in Cold War Berlin was a very palpable thing. Gary Howard served as an MP there and he had a constant worry that things could blow up quickly.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After decades of great effort by the military to keep us safe from the new dangers in the world, long time Air Force officer and pilot Max Della Pia has become very disillusioned with the current leadership in Washington.

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  George Carrigan - Air Force +3 Total Videos

  1944th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron

  The class before his and the class after his were all sent to Korea but George Carrigan's entire class of radar maintenance technicians were sent to Germany. He found it to be much like America in some ways but it was also the front line in the Cold War.

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  Danielle Ingram - Air Force +10 Total Videos

  Air Force Nurse Corps

  Every time Danielle Ingram returned from overseas, she was struck by how the poverty and deprivation she'd seen contrasted with the relative opulence of America. After an eye-opening assignment at Gitmo, she went to Honduras on a similar medical mission, this time in a jungle.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Max Della Pia was sixteen years old and speaking at a Rotary luncheon about his desire to attend the Air Force Academy. A man came up to him afterward and ridiculed his speech. He never forgot that guy but he did go to the Academy and have a long career as a pilot and commander.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  As an MP in Cold War Berlin, Gary Howard witnessed the stark divide of East and West. His job was mostly regular police work but there were occasional incidents, like the time one of the MP's tried to smuggle his girlfriend out of East Berlin.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  In the years following the Vietnam era, Don Cope served in multiple places around the world for the Air Force, running aircraft maintenance operations and teaching. After he left the service, he continued doing the same in the private sector.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  The difference was like night and day. When MP Gary Howard would cross into East Berlin, it was very dismal. The cars were all the same and the people reticent. But the exchange rate made the shopping and restaurants a bargain. His encounters with Russians were very business like. They were both doing a job.

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  George Carrigan - Air Force +3 Total Videos

  1944th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron

  The war damage had been cleaned up on the free side of the Berlin Wall but the other side looked pretty bad, according to radar technician George Carrigan. His unit operated and maintained the ground control radar and control towers at the air base in Erding. He recalls when a secret U2 reconnaissance plane made an emergency landing.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  The skills he learned as an MP in the Army helped Gary Howard thrive in his new career of law enforcement. He started as an entry level officer and rose to head the department as Sheriff.

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  Don Cope - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Don Cope loved the military life. It was a challenge but very rewarding. He only retired from the Air Force because his next assignment would have separated him from his family.

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  Gary Howard - Army +6 Total Videos

  287th Military Police Company

  After two-plus years in Berlin, MP Gary Howard was asked if he wanted to re-enlist and he asked, can I stay here? He decided to get out and joined the sherriff's department when he got home. He fit right in.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  He nearly left the Air Force Academy to go to law school but an instructor talked him out of it. Max Della Pia graduated and became a C-130 pilot but he left the service after five years and became an attorney. He was practicing his new profession when the Gulf War broke out and he felt the call back to service.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Wounded three times as a PFC in Vietnam, John Bates came back to the Corps as an officer. He briefly talks about his time in Desert Storm, and remembers the chaos of the week following the attacks on 9/11.

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After the Gulf War, C-130 pilot Max Della Pia went to the Reserves while practicing law but then he was offered a position in Washington as a military legislative assistant to Senator Carl Levin. This led to other assignments in the Capital, including one where his efforts led to an important veteran health care reform.

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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Army

  In 1946, Clarence Dodd left the Merchant Marines and went back to the farm. He was called back to service in 1952 and sent to cryptography school on the strength of his test scores. He never used this skill while he was in the Army. They put him in personnel instead.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The Marines sent him home after he received three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. John Bates then served a few months at Camp Horno before they sent him home. He was not done with the Corps, though, and would return as an officer.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  It was a bad sandstorm. It blew away all the tents and injured one soldier's cornea. For Paul Berry it was just another fact of life in the desert, like scorpions. His ambulance company was the designated "dirty" company that kept going in case of a chemical or nuclear attack and, as the youngest private, he had a special duty that no one would want. (Caution: strong language)

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  Max Della Pia - Air Force +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Max Della Pia was at a retirement ceremony for a friend when someone asked, why does the General talk about you like a favorite son? He then heard the tale of a complicated air drop training mission which was plagued by problems but was still successful.