Today's Features

Norma Bailey is celebrating more than her birthday today – she’s celebrating life. 

Two years after having a double mastectomy, she has bounced back stronger than ever, but says she couldn’t have done it without her awesome support system of her husband and six kids, four of which are adopted.  She knew something was wrong in the spring of 2014, she said, when she felt a burning pain in her chest that wouldn’t go away, and when she went to have it checked out, she got the news that every women fear: breast cancer. 

My last column constituted a diversion from the series based on my Marine Corps Journals. It described the harrowing experiences endured by a young marine who was crammed with other prisoners of war in the hold of a Japanese freighter. Despite this unimaginable stress, he survived and possessed the strength of character to live a full and productive life.

Now I return to the routine barracks life in the Marine Corps in 1939, on the cusp of World War II.