tool name
closeWhen 70 veterans from the Mountaintop area gathered Sunday to be honored by American Legion Cartwright-Martin Post 813, the Centre Daily Times asked them to talk about their military service.
Here’s what they had to say:
Cy Starcovic served in the Army from 1962 to 1964, stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. He was responsible for computations for a nuclear warhead, calculating the range.
“We always prayed that we’d never have to use it,” he said. “Thank God.”
“I got on the ship, and I didn’t think I was going to make it back, because we had to go through a typhoon. And I thought, ‘Oh, brother. The good Lord takes me over there, there’s no way in heck he’s going to bring me back,’ ” saidAndrew Kachik,of Clarence, who served as a military police officer in the Army. He was stationed in Korea in 1953 and 1954.
“The community supporting the troops, that means a lot. You have World War II from up ’til now, and you can see the generations of the people that fought together and served together. It’s cool to see over the years what they’ve done,” saidClay Ammerman, a Bald Eagle Area High School graduate who served with the Pennsylvania National Guard in Iraq.
“I had about 30 days to go and my buddy had less than a week. And he got killed,” saidRichard Glace,from Morrisdale. He served in the Army from 1966 to 1969, with a tour in Vietnam. “And when you came back from Vietnam, it was like nobody wanted to talk to you. They didn’t want nothing to do with us. I said, today was the nicest day I’ve had since I ever came back.”
“I was a 17-year-old boy when I went into the service. I wasn’t street smart or nothing,” saidGregg Watson, of Snow Shoe. He served at a naval repair base in New Orleans in 1945 and 1946. “Just clerical work, nothing challenging about it. My biggest challenge was making the baseball team at the Naval repair base. We played all over the South.”
“It taught me respect,” saidGeorge Walker,of Clarence, who served in the Army from 1958 to 1961. He spent time in Greenland, which was “very boring.”
“My dad was a World War I veteran. I had a couple uncles in the Civil War. ... I’m just one of the guys that kept on with it (the tradition),” said Nelson Whitsel,of Snow Shoe. He served as a Marine during World War II in the South Pacific from 1943 to 1945.
In Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@