Our dad, Marvin, grew up in Atwood, Kansas. For his senior year in high school, he attended Kemper Military Academy in Missouri. He then enrolled in the University of Kansas (KU), majoring in business administration and completing two years in the Army ROTC program. In the fall of 1942, following his third year at KU, Marvin decided to move to Wichita and join the Cessna Aircraft Company. He received training in blueprint reading and became a chief dispatcher in the production control department. At the time, Cessna was building the CG-4, a military glider, and Marvin aspired to join the Army’s Glider Corps. Perhaps fate was on his side as he was turned down due to his poor eyesight. The gliders, being made of inexpensive wood and metal, proved to be perilous to those who flew them in the European theatre. Three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Marvin was inducted into the Army Air Forces at age 22. He served for three years and 18 days. Most of his time was spent training pilots in a “Link Trainer,” a flight simulator made famous during World War II as a key pilot training aid by almost every combatant nation. Created out of the need for a safe way to teach new pilots how to fly by instruments, more than 500,000 U.S. pilots were trained on Link simulators, as were pilots from Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan and the USSR. Marvin became certified as a Link Trainer Instructor in both instrument flying and celestial navigation. He was assigned to several stations: Chanute Field in Illinois (130 miles south of Chicago); Geiger Field, in Spokane, Washington; and Peterson Field, near Colorado Springs. Following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, Marvin, perhaps out of a desire to do greater good, joined the Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps and received special training in Camouflage, Demolition, and Mines at Holabird Signal Depot in Baltimore. We remember him sharing how, in the middle of a class session, a man ran in, fired a 45 automatic pistol several times at the instructor and ran out. The instructor, who had collapsed on the floor, rose to his feet and said, “OK – write down the details of what you just witnessed.” Marvin explained, “We learned some Japanese, how to cover our tracks when doing counter-intelligence work, and other ‘cloak and dagger’ secrets.” When his service ended in 1946, Marvin returned to Wichita and went to work in his father’s mortgage finance business. Over the next 60 years, he transformed the family business into Fidelity Bank, which today is in its fourth generation of Bastian family ownership with his grandson, Aaron, at the helm.

Beatrice Yvonne Biesterfeld Cormeau, was  born in Shaghia, China to parents of Belgium and Scottish decent, leading her to be educated in both languages. She married Charles Cormeau, an account, who joined The Rifles in 1940. Being wounded, Charles returned home only to be killed when their home was bombed. She avoided being hurt when a bathtub turned over to cover her head. However, she lost her unborn baby. Vyonne Cormeau decided to take her husband's place and joined the WAAF. She placed her two year-old daughter in a convent and declared, "she wanted to do something to save France from  the Nazis." Cormeau soon got a promotion and took SOE (Special Operations Executive) training.

Cormeau became a wireless operator who "night" parachuted into France on August, 22, 1943. She sent a record of 400 transmissions in 13 months - the highest of any SOE wireless operator. She could transmit 18 - 22 words per minute in morse code where an average operator would transmit 12 words. She was called a "Pianist" in operators slang. Cormeau used the code names, Annette, Fairy and Sarafari. She was acclaimed for the quality and quantity of her wireless transmissions. She made arrangements for arms and supplies to be dropped to allied forces and for cutting of telephone and power lines that isolated the Wehrmacht G Garrison near Toulouse. 

Cormeau often cycles miles between locations to transmit. The wireless machine weighing 31 pounds was cumbersome. Later she was provided with an 8 pound machine which fit in her briefcase. At one point, Cormeau transmitted from a remote village with no running water, for six months. It was an unusual practice for wireless operators as normally they kept moving to avoid detection heading to a new location every 3 days. The Germans became aware a female wireless operator was transmitting. She was almost arrested after being betrayed by another operator coded named "Rudolph" ; however, Cormeau continued to operate despite accurately sketched wanted posters of her posted in the neighborhood where she was working. 

Cormeau identified herself as a traveling district nurse. On one trip, she and her boss were stopped at a roadblock with guns pressed to their backs. Cormeau was able to convince the troops her radio set was an X-ray machine and they resumed their travel.

Cormeau worked a total of thirteen months evading arrest. At one point, she was shot in the leg by a German Patrol but escaped and saved her wireless. Her dress, with bullet hole and briefcase are displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London. After the war, Cormeau was reunited with her daughter and worked as a translator for the SOE for a time. 

Courtesy of IWM and This is Your Life show

The eldest of four, Bob was born July 22, 1923, to Doran and Bina (Talbott) Dole. During the Great Depression, his family moved into the basement of their small frame house and rented out the main floor. He took many odd jobs as a boy, including as a soda jerk. Graduating high school in 1941, he enrolled in the University of Kansas, earning a coveted spot on the Jayhawks' basketball team and joining the Kappa Sigma fraternity. His studies interrupted by WWII, Bob joined the Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps and was trained as an anti-tank gunner. After officer candidate training, he was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the 10th Mountain Division as platoon leader. On Apr 14, 1945, his company ran into intense enemy fire while attempting to take Hill 913 in Northern Italy. Witnessing his radioman go down, he jumped up and pulled his lifeless form into the foxhole. Jumping out again, he was hit in the back by German machine-gun fire. After waiting nine hours on the battlefield for evacuation, he was not expected to live. Extensive wounds paralyzed his right arm. Bob began his recovery at the Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, MI. It now houses federal offices and is known as the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center, named for him and two fellow disabled veterans. Twice decorated for heroism, Bob received two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star Medal with combat 'V' for valor. Knowing the family did not have the funds, his hometown of Russell raised the money for his operations and rehabilitation. Later, clear he would never realize his boyhood dream of becoming a doctor, he set new goals to study law and give back to the people who had done so much during his four year recovery. Bob attended the University of Arizona from 1948-1951 and earned his law degree from Washburn University in 1952. With no memorial dedicated to those who served in WWII, he sought to make sure an appropriate monument was built before too many more of the 'greatest generation' passed away. As President of the WWII Memorial Commission, he was active in fundraising and building public support. He also served one term in the state legislature, four as Russell County Attorney, four in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate from 1968-1996, was President Ford's 1976 running mate, and the 1996 Republican presidential candidate. In 1996 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After retiring from public office, he re-entered private law practice. Dole has written several books, including one on jokes told by the Presidents of the United States, in which he ranks them according to their level of humor, and also published his biography, 'One Soldier's Story: A Memoir.' On July 22, 2003, the Bob Dole Institute of Politics was dedicated on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence. Former Sen. Bob Dole received the Congressional Gold Medal on January 17, 2018, in recognition of his service to the nation as a 'soldier, legislator and statesman.” Although he left the Army as a captain, in 2019 Congress voted to promote Dole to Colonel in honor of his service. Bob has been married to former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Hanford Dole since 1975. During his Ike's Soldiers interview, Dole stated, 'Eisenhower was my personal hero.'

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, TX, on October 14, 1890. The Eisenhower family returned to Kansas when he was less than two years old. Young Ike grew up in Abilene, KS, where his boyhood home stands today. Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, in June 1911 and graduated with the Class of 1915. Second Lieutenant Eisenhower's first assignment was at Fort Sam Houston, TX. In the years that followed Eisenhower's duties included the Army's 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy, the Tank Corps, the American Battle Monuments Commission, and training recruits for World War I. In 1916, he married Mamie Geneva Doud in Denver CO. His Panama service (1922-24) introduced him to General Fox Conner who took him under his wing and encouraged him to read widely in history, military science, and philosophy and was instrumental in Eisenhower's acceptance by the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, KS. Eisenhower graduated first in the 1926 class of 245 officers. After assignments in the War Department (1929-35), he accompanied Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines as an assistant military advisor; his principal duty was training the Filipino Army. After returning to the U.S. in 1940, Ike made his reputation as a great tactician in the U.S. Army's Louisiana Maneuvers of September 1941. Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Brig. General Eisenhower was placed in charge of plans for the Pacific Theater by Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall. Two months later, Marshall promoted him to chief of the War Plans Division where he received his second star. In June 1942, Marshall sent Eisenhower to England on a special mission to build cooperation among the Allies as Commanding General, U.S. Army, European Theater. Eisenhower arrived in England on June 24, 1942, and except for a brief stateside visit in January 1944, he was separated from his family until June 1945, following the end of the war in Europe. He served as Commanding General of Allied Forces Europe and planned and oversaw the Normandy Invasion on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. Eisenhower was promoted to 5-star rank in December 1944. He accepted the surrender of the Nazi Germany on V-E Day, May 7, 1945. General Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from November 1945 until February 1948. He resigned from the Army on February 7, 1948 to serve as president of Columbia University in New York City. In 1950, at President Truman's request, Eisenhower took a leave of absence from Columbia to serve in Paris, France, as the first commanding general of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On June 1, 1952, Eisenhower returned to the United States to announce his candidacy President of the United States. Dwight D. Eisenhower served as our 34th President from January 1953-January 1961. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969 and is buried in the Place of Meditation on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene KS.

Edward (Ned) Goodnow attended Hotchkiss School on a full scholarship. He graduated in three years, in June 1943. Goodnow entered Princeton a week later, completed his freshman year that December, and entered the United States Army the following month. After training as a rifleman, Goodnow shipped out to Europe with the 99th Infantry Division. They arrived in France on November 3, 1944 and were on the front lines in Belgium facing the German army within a week. Officially designated the "Checkerboard" division after the design of its shoulder patch, soon the inexperienced group quickly picked up the informal nickname of the "Battle Babies". The green 99th successfully held its position during the six-week battle. By the beginning of March, the 99th had crossed the Rhine into Germany. Goodnow was wounded February 11, 1945 and was awarded the purple heart.

After the war, Goodnow returned to Princeton and graduated in 1949. He joined the investment firm of Kidder, Peabody & Co., but was called back into service after the outbreak of the Korean War. He served as a First Lieutenant in the 42nd Field Artillery Battalion of the 4th Infantry Division as part of the formation of the NATO Forces in Europe. After deployment, Goodnow returned to Kidder where he remained until 1969 when he co-founded Goodnow Gray & Co., a financial firm in Darien Connecticut. Goodnow continues at the helm of its successor, Goodnow Investment Group, LLC. Courtesy of the Goodnow Investment Group and Darien Times

Wendell DeMand Gugler. I was inducted into the Army on July 23, 1943, after having graduated from Abilene (Kansas) High School that spring. Since I had volunteered for the ski troops through the National Ski Patrol Association in New York City, I was immediately assigned to Company E of the 85th Mountain Infantry at Camp Hale, Colorado. Camp Hale was situated at 9,000 feet in the Pando Valley, and was surrounded by mountains ranging up to 14,000 feet. The first several weeks were spent in basic training. Then our mountaineering began which included proper walking, hiking, camping, rock climbing and rappelling. Hiking was done with a ninety pound rucksack and rifle, and when the snow came we added long wooden cross country skis and poles. In June, 1944, the 10th Mountain Division, composed of the 85th, 86th, and 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment and supporting units, was sent to Camp Swift, near Austin, Texas. There the Division added some heavier weapons and we had some 'Flat-land' training and training with Army mules. In December, 1944, the Division was transferred to Virginia where we boarded a ship bound for Naples, Italy. My unit boarded LCI craft for a shorter voyage to Leghorn. The Allied advance had been stalled by German troops who were entrenched in the Apennine Mountains. In the area to which the 10th Mountain was assigned, Mount Belvedere overlooked Highway 64, one of the primary highways between Florence and Bologna. German artillery on Mount Belvedere and a series of peaks named Riva Ridge blocked traffic on the highway. Four other divisions had been unable to dislodge the Germans. Using our mountain training, we took Belvedere on February 19,1945, by sending a battalion of men from the 86th up to the 1500 foot Riva Ridge on ropes, surprising the Germans while other units made frontal assaults. We led the Allies through the remaining Apennines and through the PO Valley, ending in the Italian Alps around Lake Garda. On May 2, 1945, the Germans in Italy surrendered. In 114 days of combat, 992 mountaineers had lost their lives; 4154 were wounded. The 10th Mountain was then sent to occupy the area around Udine to protect it from Yugoslavian troops. In July the 10th was ordered back to the United States for further training in preparation for the invasion of Japan. On August 14, 1945, I walked in the door of my parents' home as President Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Japan. I was honorably discharged on February 8, 1946, after spending my entire wartime service in Company E. I received awards including a Combat Infantry Badge and two Battle Stars.

Nelson W. Dayhoff, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Dayhoff, graduated from Abilene High School, Abilene, Kansas, in 1938. After graduation, he went to Kansas State University in Manhattan for one and a half years. Instead of being drafted, he wanted to become a navy pilot. He enlisted on July 8, 1941. After taking his preflight training at Fairfax Field in Kansas City, he was sent to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he received his navy wings in June 1942. A short time later, he went to Hawaii where he served for several months. Nelson contacted yellow jaundice and spent some time in the hospital in New Zealand. Then came the big surprise. They were sent home for a thirty day leave. After his furlough at home, he spent time at Alameda, California, taking some very intensive advanced training in the Navy's fastest Hellcat fighter plane. Nelson married Doris Edwards in Piedmont, California, before going back overseas. The heaviest combat occurred at sea during the afternoon and evening of October 14, 1944 near Formosa. Seven Hornet Hellcats under Lieutenant Nelson Dayhoff came up against an incoming raid of about 12 Judy dive bombers escorted by 15 to 20 Zekes and Tonys. Dayhoff's radio quit working before the interception. Mr. and Mrs. Kayhoff received a telegram saying Lt. Nelson Dayhoff was missing following action.

On September 13, 1940, shortly after the start of Germany’s bombing campaign on the towns and cities of Britain, five high explosive bombs were dropped on Buckingham Palace. The Royal Chapel, inner quadrangle and Palace gates were hit, and several workmen were injured. Rather than flee the city under attack, King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth, remained at Buckingham Palace in solidarity with those living through the Blitz. This was a highly symbolic decision and received much attention in the press. The royal couple visited areas of London which had been devastated by air raids, speaking to residents and members of the local emergency services. The Queen took a keen interest in what was being done to help people who had lost their homes. After Buckingham Palace was bombed, she is reported to have said: 'I am glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye.' Princess Elizabeth was just 13 years old when war broke out on September 3, 1939. Like many children living in London, Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were evacuated to avoid the dangers of bombing raids. They were sent to Windsor Castle, approximately 20 miles outside of London. The young princesses were two of over three million people—mainly children—who left cities for the safety of small towns and the countryside over the course of the war. The government’s Children’s Overseas Reception Board also evacuated over 2,600 children to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. On October 13, 1940, in response to this mass movement of people, Princess Elizabeth gave her first address from the drawing room of Windsor Castle as part of the BBC’s Children’s Hour in an attempt to boost public morale. She spoke directly to the children who had been separated from their families as part of the evacuation scheme. “Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you, as we know from experience what it means to be away from those you love most of all. To you living in new surroundings, we send a message of true sympathy and at the same time we would like to thank the kind people who have welcomed you to their homes in the country.” Hear Princess Elizabeth’s address to the children of the United Kingdom in this Smithsonian Magazine video. Public responses to this broadcast varied. Interviewers from the social research project Mass Observation took to the streets to ask people what they thought in an effort to gauge the reaction of the British public. Out of 57 people surveyed, 38 had heard the broadcast. More than 20 people positively commented how “charming,” “sweet,” “beautiful,” or “lovely” Princess Elizabeth sounded, but also that she spoke “very clearly,” was “wonderful,” and “did very well.” Most people assumed that the speech had been written for her and suggested it was “propaganda” or “a way to ‘keep the population quiet.’” However, several newspapers reported positively on the speech and included a photograph of the two princesses at the microphone. As the war progressed, Princess Elizabeth championed more aspects of wartime life and resilience. In 1943, she was photographed tending her allotments at Windsor Castle as part of the government’s “Dig for Victory” campaign, in which people were urged to use gardens and every spare piece of land to grow vegetables to help combat food shortages. Before the Second World War, Britain had relied on food imports from across the world, but when the war started, shipping was threatened by enemy submarines and warships. This resulted in food shortages and led to rationing of foods such as meat, butter cheese, eggs, and sugar. On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Princess Elizabeth undertook her first inspection of a military regiment during a parade at Windsor Castle. She had been given the role of honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, which symbolized her military involvement in the war effort. When Princess Elizabeth turned 18 in 1944, she insisted upon joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the women’s branch of the British Army. For several years during the war, Britain had conscripted women to join the war effort. Unmarried women under 30 had to join the armed forces or work on the land or in industry. King George made sure that his daughter was not given a special rank in the Army. She started as a second subaltern in the ATS and was later promoted to Junior Commander, the equivalent of Captain. Princess Elizabeth, as a 2nd Subaltern in the ATS, leans against a vehicle during training. Imperial War Museum, TR 2835. Princess Elizabeth began her training as a mechanic in March 1945. She undertook a driving and vehicle maintenance course at Aldershot, qualifying on April 14. Newspapers at the time dubbed her “Princess Auto Mechanic.” There were a wide range of jobs available to female soldiers in the ATS as cooks, telephonists, drivers, postal workers, searchlight operators, and ammunition inspectors. Some women served as part of anti-aircraft units, although they were not allowed to fire the guns. The jobs were dangerous, and during the course of the war, 335 ATS women were killed and many more injured. By June 1945, there were around 200,000 members of the ATS from across the British Empire serving on the home front and in many overseas theaters of war. While Princess Elizabeth spent the majority of her days at the training facility, it was close enough to Windsor Castle that the princess would return there each evening rather than sleep at the camp with her fellow ATS members. The King and Queen and Princess Margaret visited Princess Elizabeth at the Mechanical Transport Training Section in Camberley, Surrey, and watched her learn about engine maintenance. When describing the visit to LIFE Magazine, the Princess commented “I never knew there was quite so much advance preparation [for a royal visit] ...I’ll know another time.” Princess Elizabeth (leaning over the vehicle) shows her father the King and Princess Margaret her work on a car engine. Image from the Imperial War Museum collection, H 41641. As part of her ATS training, Princess Elizabeth underwent a course in driving instruction. Image from the Imperial War Museum collection, H 41661. On May 8, 1945, the war in Europe ended. In London, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate, flooding Trafalgar Square and the Mall leading up to Buckingham Palace where the King and Queen greeted them from the balcony. As the light began to fade and the celebrations looked to continue into the night, Princess Elizabeth, dressed in her ATS uniform, slipped into the crowds with her sister to enjoy the festivities. In 1985, the now Queen spoke to the BBC about how she tried to avoid being spotted, “I remember we were terrified of being recognized so I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes.” She described the “lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, and all of us were swept along by tides of happiness and relief.” There are even reports that the princesses joined a conga dance through the Ritz Hotel as they celebrated with the crowds. “I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.” she recalled.

"Courtesy of National WW2 Museum"