VOM – April 2025
Thomas Raymond Rogers U.S. Navy 1981 – Thomas Raymond Rogers was born on 1 April 1958 in Phillippi, West Virginia (WV), and grew up on a dairy farm outside of Lumberport, WV. He graduated from Lumberport High School in 1975 and attended West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, where he
VOM – April 2024
Candice E. Ganser U.S. Navy 1997 – 2023 A native of Apalachin, New York, Candice enlisted in the Navy in August 1997. She completed bootcamp at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, then attended Seaman “A” School. In November 1997, she reported onboard USS CAMDEN (AOE-2), homeported in Bremerton, Washington.
VOM – July 2023
Ronald Dale Boling U.S. Navy 1986 – 2013 Ronald Dale Boling is a native of Sevierville, Tennessee. He enlisted in the Navy in January 1986 as an undesignated seaman. Following boot camp, he was stationed onboard the USS Norfolk (SSN-714) as a deck seaman. He received approval to become a
VOM – March 2025
Robert (Bob) Vern Lakey U.S. Navy Back in the 5O’s, young men were subject to the four-year draft. When Bob was an Indiana high school senior, one of his teachers was a Reserve Officer. He talked some of the young men into joining the Reserves instead of waiting for their
VOM – November 2023
Georgia Kathrine Desjarlais U.S. Navy Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., to Lowell and Lucy Lawson, Kathy was raised in Fayette County, where she joined the Navy at 17, shortly before graduating from high school. Since Hospital Corpsman “A” school “female billets” were filled for the near future, Kathy signed up for
VOM – June 2023
William “Bill” Joseph Maillet, Jr. U.S. Navy 1954 – 1962 / 1967 – 1978 Born December 14, 1936, in Rumford, Maine, Bill was the oldest boy and one of seven children. Growing up, he worked on his grandfather’s farm feeding and milking cows and helping with the planting. When not
VOM – August 2025
Sami Lynn Phillips U.S. Navy 1978 – 2020 Retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Sami Lynn Phillips was born on Oct. 29, 1960, in Elgin, Illinois. After her June 1978 graduation from Palatine High School in Palatine, IL, she joined the Navy Delayed Enlistment Program and turned eighteen during bootcamp at
VOM – August 2023
Kirk Phillip Snyder U.S. Navy 1969 – 1989 Kirk was born on 28 June 1949 in Towanda, Penn. He grew up in Montrose, Penn., where he graduated from Montrose Area High School in 1967. He was accepted to Boome Technical Community College in Johnson City, New York, where he earned
VOM – July 2025
Valarie R. Bennett U.S. Navy 1966 – 2004 Valarie was born in May 1966 in Tuskegee, Ala., the third of her mother’s four children. The name on her birth certificate was Blank Blank Bennett, a common way to complete a birth certificate for a baby not expected to survive. Eighteen years
VOM – March 2023
Brian J. Styer U.S. Navy 1985 – 1996 Brian J. Styer grew up on a farm in rural Pennsylvania and was a 1985 graduate of Warrior Run High School in Turbotville, PA. Despite receiving a full-ride scholarship to college, college life had to wait. The invasion of Grenada and the