Natick Pegasus

Paul Carew joined the Marine Corps shortly after graduating from Natick High School in 1970. Trained to be a radio operator, Carew joined the 2nd Battalion, "Hotel Company." 4th Marines, as part of support for a helicopter force based on the USS Tripoli. He went on missions to Vietnam and Thailand, as well as the Philippines and Japan. As of the interview in 2021, Carew is the Veterans Services Officer for the Town of Natick

Andrew DeFrancesco joined the Marine Coprs shortly after graduating from Don Bosco High School in Boston. He was a member of the Force Reconnaissance Unit; his training included scuba diving and parachuting. He servied in Okinawa, Australia, and Vietnam

"Doc" Blaney joined the Army on his 18th birthday in 1943. Trained as a medic and a paratrooper, he parachuted onto Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion at Normandy; he would spend the next six days treating the wounded in an old chapel. He was also at the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he joined the Air Force and served during the Korean War in photo intelligence

Lt. Col. Kari Otto joined the Army in 1985 to help pay for college. From ROTC at Colorado State University to garrison commander at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems, known locally as Natick Labs, Otto tells of her experiences as a combat engineer building base camps in Belize, Cuba, Bosnia, Egypt and Afghanistan. She also describes her reaction to 9/11 and what it was like to be transferred from Afghanistan to Natick in 2008. For her, serving in the...

Dan Callanan left Malden Catholic High School in February 1943 to join the Marine Corps, because his father had served with the Marines during World War I. Callanan wouild be trained as an aerial photographer, and would serve in North Carolina, Florida and at Midway Island in the Pacific Theater.

"How can I make your job easier?" was the directive that guided Nick Zallas through a 40 year career in the military. He served with National Guard and Reserve units in the Army and Air Force in communications and military police. Zallas was part of a response unit during the Blizzard of 1978 in Boston, as well as the Ramstein Air Show disaster in German in 1988. He retired from the Air Force Reserves in 2009 with the rank of colonel

James Martin had just become a teacher in the Boston Public Schools when he joined the Marines in early 1967. He would be sent to Officers Candidates School in Quantico, Va.; he would receive further training in infantry and communications before he was sent to Vietnam. He would serve with the 11th Marines in a variety of duties, from signal officer to bartender

Michael Hamm joined the u.S. Army in 1982. He served as a radar operator with the 26th Infantry Division Mechanized, 32nd AddCom and the 1st Infantry Division in Georgia and Kansas as well as in Spangdalem, West Germany.