Quentin Aanenson, the 5th of 6 children, was born on April 21, 1921, on a 160 acre farm five miles from Luverne. His grandparents had come to America from Norway and both of his parents grew up speaking Norwegian at home. He graduated from high school in 1939 attended the . . .

Pete Arias was born in 1923, one of nine siblings born to Mexican immigrants. He was raised on a farm in Los Angeles County and joined the Marines one month after Pearl Harbor. He heard about an elite commando unit begin formed and decided to volunteer. After an interview, he . . .

Maurice Bell was born in Mississippi on February 17, 1925, and grew up in the northeast corner of the state. Throughout 1942, he traveled around the country with his father on a construction crew that was building army camps. While in Indiana in early 1942, he met and started dating . . .

Earl Burke was born in Sacramento on August 18, 1923 and graduated from McClatchy High School. His only sibling, his older brother, Thomas, served in the Army Air Corps, and was killed on a training mission in Puerto Rico in October of 1942. Earl enlisted in the Army a few . . .

Ward Chamberlin was born August 4, 1921 and grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut. The son of a successful corporate lawyer who was a decorated veteran of World War One, Chamberlin was a junior and captain of the soccer team at Princeton when America entered World War Two. He was determined . . .

Corado "Babe" Ciarlo grew up in Waterbury, and lived with his family at 1032 North Main Street. His parents had immigrated to America from Italy, and his father, Tomaso, ran a successful grocery store and butcher’s shop. But in 1937, Tomaso passed away, leaving his widow, Martina, to care for . . .

Olga Ciarlo was born in 1921 in Waterbury, and lived with her family at 1032 North Main Street. Her parents had immigrated to America from Italy, and her father, Tomaso, ran a successful grocery store and butcher’s shop. But in 1937, Tomaso passed away, leaving his widow, Martina, to care . . .

Tom Ciarlo was born in Waterbury on November 20, 1926, and lived at 1032 North Main Street. After 11th grade, he left high school and went to work at the Waterbury Farrel Foundry and Machine Company. His parents had immigrated to America from Italy, and his father, Tomaso, ran a . . .

Barbara Covington was born on February 16, 1924 in Sacramento. Her mother's family came to Oroville, California in the 1870s. Her father James William Covington had been president of the NAACP in Sacramento in the 1920s, but died when Covington was 3-1/2 years old. Covington moved with . . .

Anne DeVico was born June 6, 1925, on Union Street in Waterbury’s North End, one of six children born to Italian immigrants. Her father had come to America from Naples at 16 and worked as a tailor. One of her good friends from the neighborhood was Babe Ciarlo. . .

Walter Ehlers was born on a farm in Junction City, Kansas on May 7, 1921, and enlisted in the Army in October of 1940, along with his older brother, Roland. Both men were assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, 30th Infantry Regiment – Walter was trained as a mortarman, while . . .

James Fahey grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, the youngest of four orphaned children. Two of his brothers, John and Joe, had been in the Navy at Pearl Harbor and had survived. James signed on the following year and became a seaman first class aboard the USS Montpelier. He hoped to . . .

John Hope Franklin is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, and for seven years was Professor of Legal History in the Law School at Duke University. He is a native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Fisk University. He received the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in history from . . .

Glenn Dowling Frazier was born December 1, 1923 and grew up in the little farming town of Fort Deposit, Alabama. In the summer of 1941, he discovered that the girl he loved was interested in someone else. Frazier was so angry and upset that when the . . .

Paul Fussell was born on March 22, l924, in Pasadena, California, the son of a successful corporate lawyer. On May 6, 1943, he was a student at Pomona College when he was called to active duty. He graduated from Officer Candidate School in May, 1944 . Now a 2nd Lieutenant, . . .

Thomas M. Galloway an only child, was born December 14, 1923 and grew up in Mobile, Alabama. His father was in charge of the United States Lighthouse Service Supply Base located in Mobile which serviced lights and aids to navigation along the Gulf Coast. Tom entered the army in the . . .

Leo Goldberg was born in Manhattan on July 25, 1919, and grew up in Brooklyn. He tried to enlist in the army after he graduated from high school but was rejected because of poor eyesight. After a series of low-paying jobs, Goldberg headed to Waterbury in July of 1940, hoping . . .

John Gray was born in his grandparents' home in Chickasaw, Alabama on November 27, 1924, and was living in Mobile when the war began. His father had left the family and gone north to work in the steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio. His mother worked as a cook and housekeeper. . .

Jeroline Green was born and raised in Coffeyville, Kansas. After high school, she enrolled in junior college for a time, and in the summer of 1943, decided to visit a friend who was living in Sacramento. She arrived in August, intending to stay for a few weeks. Instead, she quickly . . .

Jackie Greer was born February 18, 1923 in northern Louisiana. Her father was a teacher and school principal. She spent a year at Monroe Louisiana Junior College, then attended Louisiana Tech in Ruston. In the summer of l941 after her second year of college, Greer's father was . . .