About the Hall of Fame

The Squadron inducts local area veterans into the unit’s Hall of Fame to honor them for the sacrifices they have made for the freedom we all enjoy in our great country. One of the Squadrons mission is to establish and maintain a permanent presence in the community so as to preserve and illustrate the Coastal Bend's involvement in the history of those men and women who served in the past and still serve in today’s military.

Nominating Criteria

The nominating criteria for the Hall of Fame is: A South Texas veteran, active or retired, living or deceased, that exemplified themselves while serving our country on active duty.

The veteran can be from any service branch, including the Coast Guard and Merchant Marines. The veteran can be any rate or rank with varied military experiences. If you look at our Hall of Fame members you will see that we have honored veterans with a wide area of experiences. Our Hall of Fame members include highly decorated high ranking officer as well as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines that nobody has ever heard of…. they all served honorably in order to protect and preserve our freedom that we all enjoy today with many paying the ultimate price.

Submitting a Nomination

The information can be submitted by the veteran, a friend or a family member. Information can be submitted via e-mail, mail or hand delivered.

Although we don’t have a form for submitting information to the Squadron, the following is some basic information that should be included:

  • Veteran's Full Name
  • A good quality photograph of the veteran in uniform
  • Personal: Birthday, present age, Hometown, high school, college, civilian jobs, family (before &after war)
  • Branch of Service, Dates of Service, Rank/Rate
  • War, Dates and Place of Services
  • A biography of memorable service experiences and stories
  • List all medals, ribbons with devices (oak leaf clusters, service stars) patches – include pictures
  • Text citation for the veteran's highest combat decoration (or non-combat decoration)
  • Describe why our young people should not regard WWII era as “Ancient history” and irrelevant.
  • Why do we need to learn and preserve the history from so long ago?

The following is list of questions and answers that other veterans have included:

  • What were you trained to do?
  • What were some of the major campaigns you were involved with?
  • Were you wounded or saw others wounded?
  • How close did you come to the enemy?
  • Where you captured or prisoner of war?
  • Where were you on December 7, 1941 and what went through your mind?
  • What was going through your mind in combat?
  • What did you talk about with your buddies?
  • Did your families know what you were doing? How did the deal with your absence?
  • How was the food?
  • Although it was wartime, do you have any fond, happy or pleasant memories?
  • What was your motivation to keep going? Were there times when you felt like giving up?
  • Where were you when the war ended? How did you feel?
  • Do you find it hard to talk about or watch documentaries about war today?