BRIDGEPORT — It wasn’t just the rockets screaming death or the enemy lying in wait that worried Marines. In the barracks there were the rats whose bites on your ankles would waken you from a deep ...

Hue, South Vietnam, February 1968: A wounded Marine lies bleeding in a vacant villa as a fellow Marine, also wounded, tries to tend to his wounds. Several Marines from D Company, 1st Battalion, 5th ...

Somewhere near Dien Ban, South Vietnam, November 25, 1968: Pfc. Richard Villareal, left, and Lance Cpl. K.D. Johnson Jr. of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, relieved of their wet and ...

Cpl. Stephen Austin, who grew up in Porterville, after his first tour in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Allen Austin Special to The Bee The Marines were under heavy enemy fire on June 8, 1968 in Vietnam ...

A flag bearing the signatures of many of the men Sgt. Dennis Grueneich, 67, served with in Vietnam from February 1968 to March of 1969 remain clearly visible. "I can look at this and tell you if they ...

Half a century later, Dorothy Mack was no less startled than she was the first time a 21-gun salute sounded in honor of her late husband. The former Dorothy Stephens married Allen Glenn Mack on Dec.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller presents the Navy Cross to Neily Esposito, daughter of Cpl. Stephen E. Austin, in Alexandria, Virginia, July 21. Cpl. Austin was killed in 1968 ...