Veterans day

GLEN ALLEN — He was only 20 and out for the summer from the University of West Alabama in Livingston when he went to check on his draft status.
You see, the Vietnam War was underway, and Billy Mack Spann of Winfield knew his time would come.
“They said, ‘You’re next’ and sure enough, when I got back home, I had my draft notice,” he noted. “I knew I was going to Vietnam, because that was the hottest part of the conflict.”

Program will be Army Sergeant Major James “J.O.” Duke.
HAMILTON — We’d like to remind all veterans and their families of the “Third Annual Marion County Veterans Day Program” on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Bevill Business & Community Center on the campus of Bevill State Community College-Hamilton at 1333 Military St. S., Hamilton, AL 35570.

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer
APRIL 1, 1945, OKINAWA, JAPAN —  World War II was ending. The war in Europe was drawing to a close with Germany on the verge of surrender, and now the island of Okinawa stood as the final barrier between U.S. forces and the Japanese mainland.
After over a week of naval bombardment, U.S. troops made landfall. It would be one of the bloodiest battles of the war in the Pacific, with U.S. troops sustaining around 50,000 casualties as the battle raged through April and May, then into June.

WINFIELD - “I’m lucky to be alive and that’s what I convey in this book,” Lt. Larry Hunter (Ret.) said holding his newly published book, Fire Mission, Fire Mission!, while sitting in the den of his Winfield home.
Two large boxes filled with copies of the book sit nearby.
The book is about Hunter’s experiences during his tour of duty in Vietnam, “Where I almost lost my life,” Hunter said.
This weekend and the following Tuesday, Hunter will be speaking and signing copies of his book at various Veterans Day events around Marion and Winston counties.