World War II Identities Honored

JOE FOSS PAGE

Joe Foss was born in 1915 to a Norwegian-Scots family in South Dakota. He learned hunting and marksmanship at a young age. Joe Foss was inspired by Charles Lindbergh, especially after he saw Lindy at an airport near Sioux Falls. Five years later he watched a Marine squadron put on a dazzling exhibition, led by Capt. Clayton Jerome, future wartime Director of Marine Corps Aviation. In 1934, Joe began his college education in Sioux Falls, but he had to drop out to help his mother run the family farm. However he scraped up $65 for private flying lessons. Five years later he entered the University of South Dakota again and supported himself by waiting on tables. In his senior year he also completed a civilian pilot training program before he graduated with a Business degree in 1940. When he graduated he enlisted in the Marine Corps reserves as an aviation cadet. Seven months later, he earned his Marine wings at Pensacola and was commissioned a second lieutenant. For the next nine months he was a \"plowback\" flight instructor. He was at Pensacola when he was notified about Pearl Harbor, and since he was Officer of the Day, he was placed in charge of base security. Thus he prepared to defend Pensacola from Jap invaders, riding around the perimeter on a bicycle. He was then ordered to the aerial photographers school and assigned to a VMO-1, a photo reconnaissance squadron. But he insisted he wanted fighter pilot duty, even after being told he was to old at the age of 27. After lengthy lobbying with Aircraft Carrier Training Group, he learned all about the new F4F Wildcat, logging over 150 flight hours in June and July. When he finished training, he became executive officer of VMF-121. Three weeks later, he was on his way to the South Pacific, where Americans were fighting t change the momentum of the war. Arriving in the South Pacific, VMF-121 was loaded aboard the escort carrier Copahee. Joe Foss fits well into this book because he is an example of an ambitious leader and at this time of need thats what was very important. Joe Foss was one of the success stories of his age. He represented his generation well and is commended with a story in this book.

GEORGE SHULTZ

George Shultz was a man who accomplished many things in his life. He graduated from Princeton University in 1942 and received

a B.A. degree in economics. That year he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served through 1945. In 1949, Shultz earned a Ph.D. degree in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Shultz holds honorary degrees from the universities of Columbia, Notre Dame, Loyola, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Princeton, Carnegie-Mellon, City University of New York, Yeshiva, Northwestern, Technion, Tel Aviv, Weizmann Institute of Science, Baruch College of New York, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tbilisi State University in the Republic of Georgia, and Keio University in Tokyo. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1948 to 1957. He took a year off in 1955 to serve as senior staff economist on the President\'s Council of Economic Advisers during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower.In 1957, Shultz was appointed professor of industrial relations at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He was named dean of the Graduate School of Business in 1962. From 1968 to 1969, he was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Shultz served in the administration of President Richard Nixon as secretary of labor for eighteen months, from 1969 to June 1970, at which time he was appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget. In 1974, he left government service to become president and director of Bechtel Group until 1982. While at Bechtel, he joined the faculty of Stanford University on a part-time basis. Shultz was chairman of President Ronald Reagan\'s Economic Policy Advisory Board until he was appointed as U.S. secretary of state.He became as secretary of the Treasury in May 1972 and served until May 1974. During that period he also served as chairman of the Council on Economic Policy. As chairman of the East-West Trade Policy Committee, Shultz traveled to Moscow in 1973 and negotiated a series of trade protocols with the Soviet Union. He also represented the United States at the Tokyo meeting of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He is one of the most ambitious men of his time and deserves to be in this book for all the work he has done in his life. It shows his hard work and dedication and represnts his time well.

CHARLES O VAN GORDER

Charles O. Van Gorder was a special part of D-Day. He was a 31-year-old captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in June 1944. He was a graduate of the University of Tennessee Medical School. He\'d already served in North Africa when he volunteered to be part of a two-man surgical team that would try something new for D-Day. It would be part of the 101st Airborne assault force setting up medical facilities in the middle of the fighting instead of safely behind the Allied lines. They knew that soldiers would be injured every minute and that it would be better if they set up closer to battle so immidiate attention could save more lives.Captain Van Gorder and his colleagues were loaded onto gliders for the flight across the English Channel and into Normandy. In a matter of hours on June 6, 1944, Van Gorder and his fellow doctors had setup an operating facility, this would forshadow the MASH units aka the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals.These units saved many lives because the medical attention was immidiate and on the spot.They were located in a French chateau. They converted the milk storage room to an operating room, and by late that afternoon the chateau grounds were covered with hundreds of wounded young Americans. Van Gorder and the other surgeons operated around the clock for 36 hours, always wearing their helmets because the chateau was often in the line of fire. It was a frantic scene that even now, more than 50 years later, Dr. Van Gorder cannot remove from his memory. His unit stayed with the 101st over the next six months as it fought its way across Europe, headed for the heart of Germany. They were in the heat of the battle during the long siege in Belgium, and during the Battle of the Bulge.In December 1944, Dr. Van Gorder and his colleague and friend, Dr. John Rodda, were in the middle of surgery when their makeshift operating room came under heavy fire from the German forces. They were taken prisoner on December 19, 1944. Van Gorder is was a great figure for this generation. He exemplified hard work, bravery, and patriotism. His story deserves to be in this book because of the great actions hes done for the country and for humans in general. He was