By Debbie Gregory.

We want to share a few more famous Veterans who passed in 2018.

• Alene Duerk, who passed away in July at age 98, became the first female admiral in the U.S. Navy. She was also the director of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps from 1970 to 1975.

• Arthur Andrew Kelm, better known as 50’s heartthrob Tab Hunter, enlisted in the Coast Guard at age 15, lying about his real age in order to get in. When his real age was discovered, Hunter was discharged by the Coast Guard. Shortly afterwards, he began his acting career. His breakthrough came in 1955 when he was cast as Marine Corps service member Danny in the World War II drama Battle Cry. He died in July just days before his 87th birthday.

• Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays. He received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. Simon signed up with the Army Air Force Reserve from 1945 to 1946 and studied at NYU and eventually at the University of Denver, where he was stationed as a corporal at Lowry Air Force base. He passed away in August at the age of 91.

• Senator John Sidney McCain III was an American hero, a statesman and military officer who served as a United States Senator from Arizona from January 1987 until his death in September at the age of 81. The Navy veteran survived five years as a prisoner in Vietnam and went on to become the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2008. The Arizona state senator was also chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

• Actor Bill Daily was best known for his work on legendary sitcoms such as ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and ‘The Bob Newhart Show’. He served in the Army during the Korean War, eventually ending up in an entertainment unit. Daily passed away from natural causes in September at the age of 91.

• Gary Kurtz was an American filmmaker whose list of credits includes ‘American Graffiti’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, ‘The Dark Crystal’ and ‘Return to Oz’. A Marine Corps veteran, Kurtz was reportedly a conscientious objector who refused to carry a loaded weapon in Vietnam. He died in September at the age of 78.

• Al Matthews, a Vietnam War Marine Corps veteran, made his mark in many movies, but is probably best remembered for his performance as the cigar-chewing Gunnery Sergeant Apone in the movie ‘Aliens’. Matthews died in September at age 75.

• Lithuanian-born Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow was a legendary Special Forces officer, revered by Green Berets everywhere. Shachnow passed away in September at the age of 83. He was imprisoned in a German concentration camp that was liberated by the Soviet Army. In 1950, he immigrated to the U.S. and enlisted as an Army infantry soldier. He served more than 30 years as a Green Beret.

• Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics, died in November at the age of 95. Lee enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps shortly after hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a lineman for the Signal Corps before the Army realized his writing skills and moved him into technical writing and doing posters.