A Marine's Story: Captain Alfred Hiram Agan

-
Captain Alfred Hiram Agan was born on July 6, 1919, in Carterville Iowa.  He attended Iowa State University before enlisting in the US Marine Corps in 1942.

He trained as a Corsair pilot and was the first marine pilot to use a proximity fuse.

Captian Alfred Agan would die in service on January 20, 1951, after his plane was damaged during a bombing run near Inchon South Korea.

He rests at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetry in San Diego Calfornia.

Location: Cartersville, IA 50469, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Airman's Story: Major General Jeanne M. Holm

-
Image
Major General Jeanne Marjorie Holm was born on June 23, 1921, in Portland Oregon. She loved to ski (both water and snow) and would remain active in both sports throughout her life  She also worked as a professional silversmith prior to her enlistment.

On May 14, 1942, Congress approved the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and by July, Major General Holm had enlisted.  She completed Officers Candidate School in 1943.

During WWII, Major General Holm was assigned to the Women's Army Training Center where she first commanded a basic training company and then a training regiment. After the war, she commanded the 106th WAC Hospital company.  She briefly left active duty to complete her education at Lewis and Clark College but returned to active duty in 1948 to command a Woman's Auxilary Corps company at Fort Lee.

In 1949 she was transferred to the US Air Force and was sent to the Erding Air Depot in Germany where she served first as the Assistant Director of Plans a…
Read more

A Soldier's Story: Sergeant Dashiell Hammett

-
Image
Dashiell Hammett was born on May 27, 1894,  he was raised in Baltimore and Philadelphia.  He left school at the age of 13, working at odd jobs before joining the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

Sergeant Hammett worked as a Pinkerton detective from 1915 to 1922, taking 1918 to enlist in the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps. 

During his enlistment, Sergeant Hammett contracted the Spanish Flu and then Tuberculosis, which would plague him for the rest of his life.

Unable to maintain his career as a detective, Sergeant Hammett began publishing detective novels, including The Maltese Falcon.

In addition to his writing, he was also a left-wing activist, and, during 1930, joined the Communist party.

Despite his political affiliations and tuberculosis, he managed to re-enlist in the U.S. Army in 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Sergeant Hammett was assigned as editor of the Army newspaper The Adakian.  He also co-authored, with Sergeant Robert Colodny, The Battle of the Aleutians, under…
Read more

An Airman's Story: Staff Sergeant Charlton Heston

-
Image
Born on October 4, 1923, in the sleepy suburbs outside Chicago, Charlton Heston spent his childhood in the woods of Northern Michigan, returning to the Chicago area later, graduating from New Trier High School and Northwestern University on a drama scholarship.

Sergeant Charlton Heston joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1944, spending his enlistment as a radio operator and machine gunner for the 77th Bombardment squadron's B-25 Mitchells in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

After his enlistment ended, Sergeant Heston worked as a highly prolific actor, starring in more than 80 productions, including The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, and Planet of the Apes (1968 version).  During his career, he was known for his support of the Civil Rights Movement, joining a picket line outside of a segregated Oklahoma City Theater showing El Cid. He was also spotted picketing segregated Oklahoma City restaurants during the same trip.  Sergeant Heston was also a vocal Second Amendment supporter.

He died…
Read more