Born in 1925, Jimmy Gentry was one of nine children who grew up in a working-class family in Franklin, TN during the Great Depression. Entering the US Army in 1944, Gentry served the duration of the war with the 2nd Battalion, 232nd Infantry Regiment, Easy Company of the famed 42nd Infantry Division and was awarded two Bronze Stars for heroic actions in two separate engagements. Gentry was with the division when it liberated Dachau concentration camp in April 1945. In 2002 Gentry authored a chronicle of his wartime experiences called “An American Life”.

Roger Spooner, a Georgia native, enlisted in the US Navy in October 1941, looking for a change from life on the farm. The attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the US into the war two months later. Spooner saw his first action on the USS Yorktown in the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942), and was one of just 85 survivors when the ship sank at the Battle of Midway. Returning to the States on survivor leave, he enrolled in submarine school, and spent the remainder of the war as a machinist on the USS Jack. Shortly before his discharge, Spooner married his wife, Eloise—then returned to farming back home in Georgia.

Roy Nicoloff first attempted to join the Marines at age 16 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Undeterred by rejection, he successfully enlisted the following year. Nicoloff saw action on the bloody battlefields of Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa, and following Japan’s surrender was deployed with the post-war occupying force. Returning home to Indianapolis in late 1945, he finished his highschool degree and began work as a printer, serving a final year in the Marines during the Korean War. Today Nicoloff remains active sharing his wartime stories and connecting with fellow Marines across the country.