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We seemed to have enough energy to power a small city as we marched from downtown St. Petersburg through a half-dozen neighborhoods. I’d say most of the hundreds of people in the crowd ranged in age from late teens to mid-30s. I was an outlier. Many of us wore face masks and some people held … Continue reading George Floyd: A peaceful protest
About six miles south of Ocala, in a wide jungle of a median of the divided U.S. 441, you will find symbols of Florida's greed and racism hidden in the trees: Four bridge stanchions built in 1935 for the never-completed boondoggle known as the Cross Florida Barge Canal.
Roughly 680 of America’s remaining World War II veterans die every day. Learn about some of the last of the Greatest Generation.
A little before 4 a.m. on December 7, 1941, J.C. Alston was wakened by a fellow sailor as he slept in a bunk on the USS California, the lead ship moored to docks adjacent to Ford Island in the middle of Pearl Harbor. It was Alston’s turn to take up watch on the port side … Continue reading J.C. Alston: A boy at Pearl Harbor
Shortly after sunrise, Seaman 1st Class Richard Cunningham and two other sailors, Earl Kuhn and Bill Morris, boarded a wooden boat tethered to their battleship, the USS West Virginia. They got underway at 7:50 a.m. and motored across the placid water. Theirs was a most routine assignment that morning: cross the harbor to a dock … Continue reading Richard Cunningham and December 7, 1941
Melvin Waters is legally blind, a result of suffering from macular degeneration. But he can still see and smell that time in late April 1945 when he came upon the Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northwest Germany. Historians say about 70,000 Jews, Russians, and other prisoners died at Bergen-Belsen during World War II. Among those who … Continue reading Holocaust camp liberator: Melvin Waters
Richard Overton was born May 11, 1906. That makes him 107. While notable itself, what is most interesting is Overton is the oldest World War II in Texas. That's according to Allen Bergeron, City of Austin veterans consultant, who says Overton also may be the oldest WWII veteran living in the country. (The Department of … Continue reading Richard Overton: Texas’ oldest World War II veteran
Martha was bold: She snuck on a test flight Lt. Dick Cole piloted during World War II. Then Martha initiated a date with Dick. He was flabbergasted. She was beautiful and he thought she was too good for him. They wed two weeks later and were married for nearly 60 years until Martha died in … Continue reading Sidebar: When Dick met Martha
A video (55 seconds) I shot in the museum about the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack 71 years ago. Below: a photo of four survivors who attended yesterday's ceremony to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor. The gentlemen -- all gracious and generous and kind men -- are wearing tan caps. Left to right … Continue reading Survivors
It was Sunday morning, about 10 minutes before 8 o'clock, seventy-one years ago. U.S. warships were tied up in the port of Honolulu. Vernon Kelly was aboard the USS Honolulu, a light cruiser. He was reading the comics in the newspaper. Katzenjammer Kids was his favorite. Richard Cunningham had just left the battleship USS West … Continue reading Dec. 7, 1941 circa 2012
Charles Boisseau 