True American Heroes

Roffie Burt - In The Middle of The Tet Offensive

Roffie Burt - an engineer who wore both Air Force and Army uniforms during his military career that including a year in Vietnam during the height of the conflict. Nowadays Burt has put in countless hours giving tours of the Brookhaven Military Memorial Museum.

Naval Aviator Jerry Jones

Former Naval Aviator Jerry Jones talks about his experiences as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, flying reconnaissance planes against the Soviets, and his post-service life as a pilot for FedEx.

Tony Biagi, from War to Watercolors

“Professional artists don’t get inspired. If you wait to get inspired you’ll starve to death,” he said. Tony Biagi is a bit of a pragmatist. He does what works, and it’s been working now for well over 40 years. Biagi, a decorated veteran, discovered his artistic gift after he was injured and hospitalized on a mission in Vietnam. During his two-month stay in the hospital, Biagi became despondent and prayedthat God would be with him. One day, God answered his prayers when a Red Cross worker visited Biagi and gave him a paint by numbers set. Biagi enjoyed the gift and quickly began putting it to use. However, he soon abandoned the elementary painting books and began looking through magazines for new material. Before long, hospital patients and Army officials were soliciting Biagi for personal paintings. After completing a painting, he would give the work away free of charge. Biagi soon realized that there was quite a market for his artwork. Upon his return to America, Biagi began painting each evening after returning from the office. Each day he would follow the same routine. He’d come home, eat supper and retire to his upstairs studio where he would work continuously for four to five hours. His wife soon brought to his attention that he was making more money painting at night and on weekends than he did during the week. Biagi requested a discharge from the U.S. Army and never looked back. Since the late 60s, Biagi has painted professionally and has completed between 80 and 90 prints. He has sold most of them. A few originals remain hanging from the wall of his home. Also adorning the walls of his residence are many of his limited edition prints. Although Biagi has specialized in wildlife painting, he has recently incorporated this subject matter into other medium such as sculpting and wood carving. Biagi’s other interests include Civil War-era paintings. Biagi has painted university campuses by commission and has sold original works to individuals and corporations throughout the United States and Europe.

WW2 Paratrooper Richard Weaver, Part 2: Push Into Germany

During World War II, the 17th Airborne Division earned more Medals of Honor than any other airborne division and sustained casualties nearly double the daily combat average of the other airborne divisions. In the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge, the troopers of the 17th entered combat in waist-high snow with poor intelligence and inadequate artillery support, facing two German panzer armies in a bloody combat on a narrow, high-rimmed road known as Dead Man's Ridge. In early March 1945, the division participated in Operation Varsity, the last airborne operation of the war, executing a daylight jump into the Ruhr heartland, across the Rhine River.

WW2 Paratrooper Richard Weaver, Part 1: From Gettysburg to The Battle of the Bulge

The local draft board told Richard Weaver it might be six or seven months before he was inducted to serve in World War II, but the 18-year-old enlisted right away along with his buddies from Delone Catholic High School. Weaver, now 98, who grew up and still resides in Bonneauville, was the star of this past weekend’s annual meeting of the Scions of the 17th Airborne. The organization was founded by family members and descendants of the men who served in the famed division. The 17th fought in the Battle of the Bulge and its members landed by parachute and unpowered glider in Operation Varsity, the largest airborne assault in history. Weaver is one of 23 known living veterans of the division, said his son-in-law Dennis Neal, who is chair of the Scions Membership and Marketing Committee. Operation Varsity was essentially “the end of the war” for the Germans, Weaver said Friday, 78 years to the day after it happened. The engine-less gliders, whose landings he described as “a controlled crash,” were not the soldiers’ favored option. “I’m not flying in one of those,” Weaver had said at the time, but his captain thought otherwise. “I could have had my ticket punched 20 times in one day, but I’m still here,” Weaver said of his three years of service in Europe. Weaver recounted numerous memories of the time when he and his compatriots “kept taking town after town back from the Germans.” Weaver, a technical sergeant attached to the division’s headquarters, once found himself among several officers at Haltern, Germany, including Maj. Gen. William Miley, the airborne strategy innovator who led the 17th. The general was on the phone. He hung up and said, “Gentlemen, I think we’d better go in the basement now.” Within moments, a shell destroyed the back half of the building, he said. The next shell took out some trees and a couple of jeeps. The next “hit right where we were standing five minutes before. I’ve never heard such a noise in my life,” Weaver said. “I never thanked my general for saving my life” until last fall, when Weaver made it a point to visit Miley’s grave in Mississippi. Weaver’s story about Miley was recounted during a ceremony to dedicate a memorial to the general at the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, N.C., said the Scions’ secretary, Ed Siergiej. Weaver visited the grave with Neal and his daughter, Eileen Neal, who live near the site. Eileen is one of the 11 children Weaver had with his wife Jeanne. She wrote in his high school yearbook that she hoped to marry and have a dozen children. “I told her I was the man for the job,” he said. The couple also reared two foster children. “When you’ve got so many, what’s a couple more?” Weaver said. Weaver supported the family by working as a plasterer. He worked in many local homes, including that of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. Weaver said he has attended four reunions, including one in Belgium and Germany, hosted by the Scions, who work to preserve and honor the memory of the 17th’s contributions to Allied victory.