IN THE PIPELINE:

Sitting in a cozy Virginia living room on a crisp autumn afternoon, I could not be happier than who I am spending time with: Retired Rear Adm. Frank Gallo. He’s my uncle, my godfather, and while I’m proud of him all the time, around Veterans Day the feeling crystallizes even more.

He still serves his country so faithfully and with such selflessness that I wanted to acknowledge his bravery. But with Veterans Day next week, I also wanted to let you know about some of the heroes with Huntington Beach roots.

Vi Cowden, a 35-year Huntington Beach resident, describes herself as a former “little girl on the prairie.� Originally from South Dakota, she dreamed of flying as long as she could remember.

“I’d watch the hawks fly above the fields,� she smiles, “and think, my God, if I could just do that.�

In 1942, a local barnstormer taught Vi to fly, and the rest is history. World War II was declared, and she wanted to serve her country. There was no program for female fliers, and so she contacted Washington to see what she could do to help. Soon, a program for female pilots opened, and Vi was on board.

Trained in Texas for the Air Force, she’d soon be picking up planes at the factory, taking them to training fields or places of demarcation — whatever helped the cause. She said she’d have loved to fly combat missions but was not allowed. Then the men came home after the war and they wanted their jobs back, so Vi and her legion of other female fliers were deactivated.

“We didn’t get our benefits for 33 years,� she says. “But we survived, and now feel we encouraged a lot of young women to take up flying. One-thousand, seventy-four of us made it through the training back then, and today many of us stay in touch.�

Vi’s favorite plane to fly was the P-51, the fastest plane then.

“I was the first woman to deliver a P-51 to the Tuskegee Airmen,� she said. “It went 445 per hour. One time when I took off, I thought, the quicker you got up, the better chance you had to survive. So I blast off once and a guy on the radio calls and says, ‘Identify yourself.’ I do, and he says, ‘No woman can fly like that!’�

She still co-pilots from time to time, has been voted into various flight halls of fame and has been honored many times over for her skill and accomplishments. Incredibly, several years ago, she even went skydiving on her 89th birthday.

Moving on from one interesting woman to another: Local Diane Gilliam now lives and works in Arizona as a civilian intelligence instructor. She joined the Army National Guard in 2000, and after a stint at the 40th Infantry Division at Los Alamitos training in Army intelligence, she was sent to Afghanistan, where she interrogated Afghani prisoners. On Nov. 23, 2003, the helicopter Gilliam and 12 others were traveling in suffered an engine failure. Five died in the horrific crash, Gilliam suffered multiple physical injuries and today experiences post-traumatic stress disorder.

But in talking to her, there are no regrets. She’s a tough, funny young woman who manages to keep it all in perspective while focusing on the future.

Today from Fort Huachuca where she teaches (she moved there in January), Gilliam says she wants to give back to a new generation and help them help their country. I know she makes her mom, Anita, proud — Anita, Surf City also salutes you.

Then there’s Harold Tor, whom your kids might know. After all, for years he’s been visiting local schools to talk about his life, and the kids love him. In 1944, the New Yorker faked his age to enlist in the Army (he was just 16 then).

He told me, “In Bensonhurst [N.Y.] where I lived, there was a billboard that read ‘They serve their country.’

“On it, they had blue stars near the names of kids who were serving. In 1943, then into ’44 — the blue stars started turning into gold stars. That meant they were getting killed. Kids who played stickball in my neighborhood.�

Soon, Harold was a paratrooper, and then he was off to New Guinea, the Philippines and the island of Luzon. In April 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur declared the area secure and the campaign over. Three days later, Tor’s squad was ordered to the Lake Taal area to inform Japanese troops that the war was over. But the Japanese answered with fire, and in the attack, Tor’s hand was blown off.

After the war, Tor produced movies and appeared as an extra in about 30 films. He’s a pilot, he’s raced boats, and today he and his wife, Donna, live in a beautiful home near the water.

A few years ago, Harold had a heart attack. Upon his return home from the hospital, he found 700 postcards from some students he had recently spoken to.

He cried then, and recounting the story today, it still seems to get to him.

In 1954, President Eisenhower proclaimed Nov. 11 as Veterans Day. In a letter he said, “I have every confidence that our Nation will respond wholeheartedly in the appropriate observance of Veterans Day.�

And I hope everyone complies.

To these fine men and women I wrote about, and to all of the others (including my uncle Fred DelGuidice who served in the Marines in World War II), thank you.

We are indebted to you for your sacrifices.

CHRIS EPTING is the author of 14 books, including “Vanishing Orange County,â€� released this week. You can write him at [email protected].