GREEN COVE SPRINGS — Eighteen years ago, on their way to church on Sunday mornings, Kristen Burke and her husband would go out of their way to drive through a neighborhood called Russell Landing to admire the houses perched on rolling green lawns. Located about 50 miles northeast of Gainesville …
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In the heart of Gainesville, there is a place where time stops, rewinds and folds over itself. The Theatre of Memory Museum, located at 1705 NW 6th Street, is the home of thousands of artifacts ranging from Philippine seashells to clocks that tick backward. Teapots from different dynasties are stacked …
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On Feb. 6, 1968, Hammett Bowen Junior left Ocala to enlist in the U.S. Army and fight in the Vietnam War.
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Tony Magnifico is a U.S. Marine veteran of Vietnam, boxing trainer, retired construction worker and husband to a Vietnamese woman he met on a return trip to the country.
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A UF student recounts what it was like growing up in Vietnam after the war. Read his story at WUFT.org.
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David Willkomm served toward the end of the American ground-based conflict in Vietnam, and by then, he witnessed a sad breakdown of G.I. morale within his unit. Drug use, racial tension, and alcoholism were all too common, according to Willkomm, who later became a counselor at the Gainesville Veterans Affairs …
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Raymond Harris’ service was unlike that of any other veteran interviewed for this series. He was a member of a unit called MACV-SOG, or Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Special Operations Group. His job was “running recon,” gathering intelligence about North Vietnamese military operations, often behind enemy lines. Harris later …
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Lewis Alston’s military career was over by age 19. His time as a reconnaissance scout in the U.S. Marine Corps ended after he was wounded, but he faced what turned out to be a 15-year struggle to leave “a dark place — very, very dark.” He’s battled the effects of …
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With the name of John Wayne Edwards, there were times as an Army soldier on patrol in the jungles of Vietnam that he felt invincible. Edwards was twice wounded and is a Purple Heart recipient. Today, he says he maintains his pledge to God made in a firefight in Vietnam: …
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Lorne Lister arrived back in the United States from serving in the Navy in Vietnam in 1969. He thought he had left the experience behind him, until a trip to the doctor’s office in 1992 revealed multiple malignant tumors on his prostate — an effect of his exposure to Agent Orange …
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