Andy Rychkun, 86: Andy Rychkun enlisted in the Marines in 1942. "You were completely alone," he says. "You just took things as they came." He went to Pearl Harbor in 1943 and worked on a supply ship to support the invasion of Japan. Rychkun's job was to keep the communication lines open between the front and the forward command positions, which meant running a hard wire back and forth and repairing it when it was cut or blown up. In the process, he made two landings on Japanese-held islands, the Marshalls and the Marianas. He returned to Circle in May 1946, but there was no real homecoming. People would say, "Oh, you made it." Says Rychkun: "Well, sure I made it. I'm here. But it didn't bother me because I was home, and there was no more killing." He learned much from his war days. "You are halfway around the world, and you saw different people and how they live. I put in my 2 cents, and I hope it helped."
This winter, U.S. News & World Report photographer Jim Lo Scalzo drove the length of the U.S.-Mexican border from El Paso, Texas, to San Diego, Calif.
(3/10/06)
Yemen, an impoverished Muslim nation on the Arabian Peninsula, became a surprising U.S. ally in the wake of September 11. A look at the country and its people
(3/3/06)
