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Times-shamrock communiTy newspapers 149 Penn Avenue Scranton, PA 18503 Phone: (570) 348-9185 Fax: (570) 207-3448
November 12, 2015
www.abingtonsuburban.com
A Long Wait
ON THE INSIDE The latest happenings in our area Page 3
SUBURBAN
WWII veteran finally fulfills promise to comrades by Jo Ann Walczak
SPECIAL TO THE ABINGTON SUBURBAN
A simple ceremony was held recently. Joseph “Joe” Jones of Clarks Summit gathered some of his children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren around him in his grandson’s living room. When they were all together, Jones raised a glass of champagne and toasted four men. Jones had made a promise to these men more than over 70 years before. He was the last man standing. Jones is one of the oldest members of the Clarks Summit Veterans of Foreign Wars post: he turned 95 this week. But his memories of five young infantry men, a troop ship, a world war across the Atlantic and a promise have remained vivid and powerful. On Dec. 12, 1941, Bob Smith, Francis Swint, William Samiec, Harold Navarre and Jones, fresh from radio and communications school, boarded a liberty ship in New Jersey with thousands of other young men for some unknown location. They met for the first time during that stormy crossing. Death was on everybody’s mind. So the five youths made a pledge to one another: they would stick together, and the last one of the five to come out alive would get a magnum of champagne and celebrate each member of their small fraternity. Seventy-three years later, it would fall to Jones to get the champagne. He had enlisted in 1940 as an infantry man with the 109th, Company B, out of Scranton, and attend radio school at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. When he arrived with his buddies in North Africa, they became part of the 977th Signal Service Company, serving in the U.S. 2nd Corp under General Dwight Eisenhower and General George Patton. The 977th was responsible for all of the complex communications facilities throughout the Mediterranean theatre. Their job would be to establish new radio installations whenever the headquarters moved. Francis, William, Bob, Harold and Joe would eventually head across the Mediter-
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Joseph Jones toasts his departed comrades.
ranean and take part in the invasion of Sicily. The quintet installed, operated and maintained radio and message centers for the Allies during the Italian invasion. The Allied advance continued to northern Italy, and the Germans surrendered there on May 2, 1945. “Some came right into our camp. They just came in, sat down, and had coffee with us because the war was over,” Jones recalled. Joe came home from the war, married his sweetheart, Annette Evans, and fathered three daughters, and had a career with General Electric in Scranton and with WDAU-TV (now WYOU) as an engineer. This year he survived a heart valve replacement, a stroke and the removal of a portion of his colon because of cancer. His doctors marveled at his recoveries. Now, he enjoys daily walks around Clarks Summit, golf whenever he
can find a partner, lunch at the Abington Senior Center, Tuesday morning “Prime Time” at Parker Hill Community Church and his five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Bob, Harold, Bill, Francis all came home from the war with Joe, and through the ensuing years, the band of brothers continued communication, though usually not with Morse code. Through the second half of the 20th century, Joe would receive notice that one or the other of his group had passed. This year Bob Smith, Joe’s last war buddy, died, leaving Joe as the last man standing. Purchasing the magnum of champagne was bittersweet for Joe — he has fond memories of good men who watched his back in a world war. But he kept his word. “To the courage, friendship and memory of my war buddies,” he said. “Francis, William, Harold and Bob. Thank you, Lord, for each of these men.”