Veterans Day 2024 - Virtual Tribute to County Veterans
We proudly pay tribute to the Veterans living in our County who have served our country in the U.S. uniformed and armed services. We also solemnly remember and pay tribute to the County’s fallen service members who have died in service to our country on our Fallen Heroes site.
The records show these men and women as enlisting, being originally from, or having at one time lived in Montgomery County, Maryland. We consider the U.S. Department of Defense home of entry records as the official designation of military residency.
Please click on the tabs below:
World War II (September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945)
John Henry Chaney
John Chaney was drafted into the Marines in World War II and was assigned to the 8th Field Regiment, which was attached to the 5th Marine Division. The 8th Field Regiment unit was formed after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1941 requiring all branches of the military to accept people of color. Blacks had served in nearly every American conflict before then, but the Marine Corps was the last branch of the military to officially allow them into its ranks. During the war, Chaney, transported ammunition as part of an all-black unit. He witnessed the hoisting of the flag at Iwo Jima. On June 28, 2012, 368 former Montford Point Marines, including Chaney, received the Congressional Gold Medal for their part in desegregating the Marine Corps and the military as a whole. Currently resides in Boyds, Maryland. View full profile
Charles Frazier
Charles Frazier graduated from Lincoln High School in Rockville in 1944, the County’s then-only black high school. He was immediately drafted and served in the 8th Field Regiment Unit, 5th Marine Division after training at Montford Point, N.C. The Montford Point Marines were the first blacks to serve in the Marine Corps. On Feruary 22, 1945, Frazier landed on Iwo Jima. The black unit at first was kept separate from the white Marines, but during battle, they all served together. On June 28, 2012, he was among the former Montford Point Marines to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. Currently resides in Germantown, Maryland. View full profile
Herman "Mike" Johnson
Herman Johnson entered into the armed services during World War II and proudly served with the 92nd Infantry Division, an African-American infantry division of the U.S. Army that served in both World War I and World War II. After a short return to civilian life, he re-enlisted with the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War and at age 51 in the Vietnam War. During his military career, Johnson earned 15 various medals with the most distinguished being the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He completed 24 years of service and retired at the rank of Staff Sergeant. Johnson previously resided in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He passed away at the age of 82 on November 29, 1998.
Martha I. Lyman
Martha Lyman served for over two years in the U.S. Army during World War II in Naples, Italy, with the support staff for the 5th Army as a stenographer. She participated in the campaigns of Naples-Foggia and Rome-Arno. Lyman received the European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal with 2 Bronze Service Stars, Good Conduct Medal and WAAC Service Ribbon. Following her military service, she returned to Europe to work 2 years in Frankfurt, Germany as a civilian with the U.S. Occupation Forces. Lyman, maiden name Landon, was born and raised in Marion, Ohio. She moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 2015 to be closer to her family in Bethesda. Prior to moving to Maryland, she lived in Chappaqua, New York, for 50 years.
William J. Macker
William J. Macker served as a Corporal in the U.S. Army who landed on Omaha Beach the morning of June 6, 1944 (D-Day) as part of the 467th AAA Weapons Battalion and later served in 5 major campaigns. He was a recipient of the Presidential Unit Citation. Macker worked for PEPCO, retiring after 39 years of service. He resided in Bethesda, Maryland and passed away in 2010 at the age of 85. Macker was the husband of Patricia F. Macker; father of Ann Marie Macker, John (Nancy) Macker, Margaret (Wayne) Jaquith, Mary Kay (Mark) Gillespie, Patricia (John) Winter, William Macker, Joseph (Sandra) Macker. He was extremely proud of his 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.
Peter T. Magnanelli
Peter Magnanelli served in the U.S. Army as a Private during World War II from 1942 to 1945. He was the first resident registered for the draft by lottery in Bethesda, Maryland at the start of World War II. Magnanelli was a combat engineer who fought in North Africa and throughout Europe. He was wounded, received the Purple Heart, and was honorably discharged. Although Magnanelli lives in Frederick, Maryland in retirement, he lived and worked most of his life in Montgomery County, Maryland. He grew up in Bethesda and worked for the US Government as a machinist at the David Taylor Model Basin. He graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and later married and stayed a resident of Bethesda until about three years ago. Magnanelli is a patriot and proud of his military service to his country and his life-long residency in Montgomery County. He passed away on February 21, 2022 at the age of 102.
Bernard Patlen
Bernard Patlen graduated in 1943 from Roosevelt High School and enlisted that summer in the U.S. Army. He began duty in November 1943 with Medical Corps training in Texas for 10 months. Patlen started overseas in September 1944 as an unattached replacement in southwest England. In November, he was deployed to France and Belgium. On New Year's Day 1945, he was attached to the 424th Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, which remained after the 422nd and 423rd were captured in the Battle of the Bulge. As a Medical Aid Man (medic), he served in eastern Belgium, including a battle at Medell, then in the Rhine Valley of Germany as a POW guard. Patlen received a combat medical badge and a Purple Heart. After the war, he received a B. A. in Education from George Washington University. He has been a Montgomery County resident for most years since 1953 and currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Richard Remp
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Richard "Sarge" Remp, a stalwart patriot, dedicated 23 years to serving his community, state, and nation. His remarkable Marine Corps journey commenced in 1944, a mere 17-year-old, bravely enlisting during the crucible of World War II's Pacific theater. Notably, as WWII concluded, Sarge's unwavering commitment led him to remain in the Corps, embarking on the turbulent Korean War, where he served on the peninsula until the conflict's conclusion. With his enduring devotion to duty, Sarge's career in the Corps persisted. In a new era, he was deployed to the tumultuous landscape of South Vietnam, where he dutifully served. His lifelong dedication to the principles of the Marine Corps embodies the essence of a true American hero. Remp currently resides in Poolesville, Maryland.
Terry T. Shima
Terry Shima, whose parents emigrated from Japan, was 19 years old and living outside of Hilo, Hawaii when the attacks on Pearl Harbor occurred. There was “mass hysteria against all persons of Japanese ancestry. We were viewed as collaborators and saboteurs.” Yet young nisei — second-generation Japanese Americans — remained intensely loyal. “While the government had given up on the Japanese Americans, we did not lose faith in America,” Shima says. Many of his fellow Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. In October 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to Naples, Italy in 1945 to serve with the 442nd Regiment Combat Team (RCT), an all Japanese-American unit. After the war, Shima went on to serve in the U.S. foreign service for 30 years. He then headed the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA), an organization formed to make sure that the accomplishments of the 442nd RCT and of individual veterans in subsequent wars would never be forgotten. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. Shima turned 99 years old on January 20, 2022. He currently resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland. View full profile
William Harvey Zeigler
William Zeigler was drafted into the Army on December 8, 1941 - one day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor—and served through November 1945. He was a private first class in the 329th segregated unit that protected supplies needed on the front lines of Europe. His grandfather escaped slavery in South Carolina in the 1860s through the Underground Railroad. At age 25, Zeigler returned to Montgomery County and joined the NAACP. He worked as a youth director to help young African Americans and organized a Montgomery County group to attend the historic 1963 March on Washington. Zeigler, who founded an AMVETS chapter in Frederick, earned numerous honors, including induction into the Montgomery County Human Rights Hall of Fame. Zeigler lived in Damascus, Maryland. He passed away on April 5, 2022 at the age of 101. View full profile
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If you would like to share your story or the story of a friend or family member, please either fill out our Google form or fill out the PDF form. Questions can be directed to MCCVA@montgomerycountymd.gov.
For more information please call 240-777-1252 (V) or email MCCVA@montgomerycountymd.gov
