2025 Gala Honoree – Charles Pettit
Charles Pettit was born in June 1925 to Charles and Gertrude Pettit in his grandmother’s house on a farm in Illinois, which he grew up working on. His interest in […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Roger Krakow
Roger Krakow was born October 3, 1923, in Davenport, IA, and grew up there. He joined Army ROTC while enrolled at Iowa State because it offered a three-year deferment from […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Peter D. Behenna
Pete Behenna was born on July 22, 1926, in Somerville, MA, as the second-to-last of 13 children. He became interested in airplanes at age 6 after seeing a biplane fly. […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Joe Peterburs
Colonel Joseph “Joe” Anthony Peterburs was born on November 25, 1924, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Joe enlisted in the Army Air Corps on November 30, 1942, at the age of […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Jack Jacobs
Jack Jacobs had the desire to become an attorney. So, he came up with a plan: join the Army, sign up for airborne and do a three-year stint to earn […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Gary Sinise
“While we can never do enough for our defenders and their loved ones, we can always do a little more.” – Gary Sinise Gary Alan Sinise is an American […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Colin S. Bell
Colin S Bell (Distinguished Flying Cross – AE), born in 1921, joined the Royal Air Force towards the end of 1940 and received flying training in the United States prior […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Arthur “Mick” Dawson
Born in the County of Norfolk, England, in 1928, Mick Dawson left Litcham Secondary Modern School at the age of 14 in December 1942. A wartime airfield for the American […]
2025 Gala Honoree – Lydia van Vogt
Lydia van Vogt, maiden name “Bereginsky,” was born in Crimea in 1927. Linda and her family escaped from Crimea during the Russian Civil War, living in Romania and Poland and […]