For most people who serve in the military, it's not a career.

Patricia Tuggle grew up in the St. Louis area, went to the University of Missouri, and started out her adult life teaching in the classroom before joining the Army.

In the late 1920's, a young boy in Perry County, Missouri, looked up at the sky, saw a plane and enthusiastically said, "I'm going to do that one day."

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (KMOV.com) -- Not all who have served America in uniform in wartime have been in a military uniform.

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- Like many young adults in the early 1950's, Helen Kevrick had a family member who had served in World War II.

Jack Taylor served aboard the USS Enterprise in World War II before he built one of the most successful and profitable companies, Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- Carl, Clinton, Clifford and Jack are old friends. They all served in World War II and flew in B-29s.

St. Louis resident Tulia Declue grew up in the suburbs of Paris and lived through the Nazi occupation of her country, which she describes as horrific. 

On the day his father turned 101, the son of a local World War Two veteran wanted make sure he knows how grateful is his country is to him.

A local veteran who fought in one of the most pivotal conflicts during World War II, the Battle of the Bulge, recently had the opportunity to visit the battlefields which helped turned the tide of the war.