H.R. Herring, U.S. Navy

On Jan. 1, 1944, Bob Herring Sr. was 18 years old and working in Encampment when his boss told him he would not have to go into the military. He had Herring deferred - Herring would not have to join the conflict which had already taken the lives of several of his friends and neighbors in Encampment.

While this would typically be a message of relief for most people, but it was different for Herring.

No one, not even his boss, was going to keep him from joining the war effort.

"I unloaded on him with a bunch of foul language. I told him he couldn't do that to me," Herring said.

Herring quit his...