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1942 – / 1922 – 2001
Richard Charles Brenneman (born March 25, 1942): the Military Times Hall of Valor gives Brenneman's birth and his home of record both as Mishawaka. An Air Force officer, he was shot down over North Vietnam on November 8, 1967, and was held as a prisoner of war until his release on March 14, 1973, in the homecoming that ended American captivity in that war. His Silver Star was not for the shootdown: the citation honors gallantry and intrepidity in action on November 13, 1967, five days after his capture, while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam — decoration for conduct inside the prison system, the hardest kind to document and the kind this section prints at citation strength and no stronger. He also holds the Prisoner of War Medal. The Wars leg owns his service roll; the man — born here, homed here, decorated for what he did in a cell — is recorded here at the size the Hall of Valor record supports.
William J. Kelly (1922 – February 21, 2001): the Hall of Valor gives Kelly's birth as Mishawaka, and his course runs from the ball turret of a B-24 — he flew as an enlisted ball-turret gunner in the Second World War and was discharged a staff sergeant — through law school to a commission in 1950 and a second career as an Air Force legal officer, retiring in 1983 as a major general with the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit on his record. His home of record in later life was Lawrence, Massachusetts; the birth is Mishawaka's, and the arc from a turret gunner's ball to a general's stars is printed here at the strength of the valor record that carries it.
Sources:
- Military Times, Hall of Valor, records for Richard Charles Brenneman (birth and home: Mishawaka; POW November 8, 1967 – March 14, 1973; Silver Star citation of November 13, 1967) and William J. Kelly (born Mishawaka 1922; B-24 ball-turret gunner; retired major general 1983; Distinguished Service Medal and Legion of Merit)