WE SALUTE OUR LOCAL HEROES
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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Stories of Honor 2021 wraps up with section and front door salutes By Sarah Gerrein, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer. Photos and cover photo by Jon Gitchoff
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e all have stories to tell, but some of the most riveting and powerful are those of the servicemen and women of the armed forces. For its sixth year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Stories of Honor series sought nominations from the public followed by a committee selecting those that were featured each week in the Post-Dispatch and online at STLtoday.com. This year’s stories contained accounts of military service, ranging from service during WWII to present day duty in Iraq and Pakistan. The 12 unique individuals featured were inspired to serve by an innate desire to help their country and others. There is nurse, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Navy and a member of the Merchant Marines.
Many continue to serve veterans as a funeral honor guard at Jefferson Barracks cemetery, as a real-estate agent and as a teacher. No two stories are alike, but they all shared courage, dedication, sacrifice and service to country. Due to coronavirus concerns, each recipient’s family and friends gathered as a group to celebrate their service for a special front door salute. Watch the celebration video at STLtoday.com/storiesofhonor. The program, sponsored by Soldiers Memorial Military Museum, allows us to tell their stories and celebrate their service. Soldiers Memorial Military Museum offers programs and outreach services including special exhibits, tours, services for the military community, school programs and lectures.
MARY BETH FAUCHEUX AND FAMILY
STORIES OF HONOR RECIPIENTS: Joshua Adams-Parker Mandy Barginear Keontra Campbell Tyler Dunn Mary Beth Faucheux Bill Laskowitz
Jennie Miller Ally Minks Victor Ponce Michael Schormann Rufus Shannon Mary Wheeler
Stories are told from the nominee’s point of view. This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had no role in its creation or display. For more information about Brand Ave. Studios, contact sales@brandavestudios.com. SARAH GERREIN / content director / 314-340-8014, sgerrein@brandavestudios.com DENISE KOSAREK / art director / 314-657-3312, dkosarek@brandavestudios.com NATALIE BARBIERI / designer / 314-340-8097, nbarbieri@brandavestudios.com KEVIN HART / STL Post Media vice president of sales / 314-340-8508, khart@stlpostmedia.com RUFUS SHANNON
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TERESA GRIFFIN / Lee Enterprises, Inc. vice president of publisher experience / 314-340-8909, teresa.griffin@lee.net
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WGU Missouri Offers Scholarships, Opportunities for Veterans WGU Missouri is honored to support our veterans and military families and provide them with an affordable and flexible pathway to earning their degrees and advancing their careers. As a nonprofit, fully online university, WGU is committed to honoring these local heroes who are interested in furthering their education and advancing their skill sets. The university is regularly ranked among the nation’s most military-friendly colleges and universities and is dedicated to helping servicemen and women apply their knowledge and life experiences toward a high-quality degree that will open career opportunities in the high-demand fields of business, healthcare, K–12 education, or information technology.
Veterans are typically eligible for benefits that more than cover WGU’s low-cost, flat-rate tuition of about $3,500 per six-month term. WGU’s degree programs are approved for VA education benefits under the GI Bill, and for tuition assistance for active-duty, reserve and National Guard service members. WGU also offers many scholarship opportunities specifically designed for veterans, active-duty military service members, and their families. WGU’s competency-based learning model is ideal for adult learners – especially veterans and their families – because it allows students to study and learn on their own schedule and at their own pace. Students can apply what they’ve learned at work, in the service, and in previous courses to move quickly through what
they already know, while taking the time they need to focus on what they still need to learn. WGU faculty members work one-on-one with students as mentors, offering guidance, support, and individualized instruction. While the university’s degree programs are rigorous and challenging, competency-based learning makes it possible for students to accelerate their programs, saving both time and money. WGU is a proud supporter of our military and salutes our veterans who have made countless sacrifices to serve our country and ensure the safety of us all. For more information, visit missouri.wgu.edu or call 855.948.8493.
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We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. James A. Garfield
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JoshuaAdams-Parker U.S. MARINE CORPS By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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oining the military was a family tradition for Joshua Adams-Parker, who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17. His dad was in the Navy Reserves, his uncles served during Vietnam, and his grandfather and great uncles served during World War II.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LORI ROSE JOSHUA ADAMS-PARKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS
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“It just seemed like something I was destined to do,” said Adams-Parker, 35. “When I was younger, my grandpa always told me he was one of the first people to be in Auschwitz (after it was liberated). It was like this other world, and it just intrigued me. I looked up to him. I thought he was a hero.”
Then one day during a second-hour math class at Lindbergh High School, shocking news cemented his plans. Terrorists had struck on American soil. “Sept. 11 just really kicked it into high gear that I wanted to join the military,” Adams-Parker said. “I remember it very well.” BEST OF THE BEST Two years later as a junior in high school, Adams-Parker signed on for the Delayed Entry Program and officially committed himself to serving his country after graduation. He chose the Marine Corps because he wanted to see the world and be among the “best of the best.” As a high school wrestler and football player, he said he was physically ready for the Marine Corps’ boot camp at Camp Pendleton. “It was tough, but nothing that I wasn’t expecting,” he said. He earned high marks in academics and PT and was selected for military police training at Fort Leonard Wood. His first duty station was in Japan for two years, where he served as an MP at a Marine Corps air station. Shortly after returning to Camp Pendleton in 2007, he received orders to deploy again in support of the war in Iraq. This time he served six months with a field infantry unit based at Al Waleed, patrolling and manning checkpoints on the border with Syria. If it hadn’t been for a knee injury sustained while on patrol in Iraq, Cpl. Adams-Parker might have stayed in the Marines for his entire career. The discipline of military life and the service of police work appealed to him.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY JOSHUA ADAMS-PARKER JOSHUA ADAMS-PARKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS
TRANSITIONING TO COLLEGE LIFE After leaving the military in 2008, Adams-Parker turned his attention to family and education. Today, he is married with two small children and lives in High Ridge. He also attends Webster University, where he majors in interactive digital media and minors in photography. At Webster, Adams-Parker volunteers as treasurer of the student veteran organization, which helps student veterans transition to college life, directs them to resources and provides a meeting place for them to gather. As a non-traditional student, he hopes to influence younger students to work hard toward a better future. “I am enjoying being an older student,” he said. “I feel as if I am a role model to some students showing it’s not too late to change your life to something new if you are willing to work for it.”
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Mandy Barginear ARMY NATIONAL GUARD By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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taff Sgt. Mandy Barginear knew she would face hard times when she signed up to serve in the Army National Guard, but one of the toughest roles ended up being the most rewarding. In the months after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated much of the small nation of Haiti in 2010, killing thousands of its citizens and displacing millions more, Barginear and her Missouri National Guard military police unit were part of a massive humanitarian response to bring aid to the overwhelmed and impoverished nation. The misery was everywhere she turned — dead bodies, crumpled buildings, makeshift
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MANDY BARGINEAR BARGINEAR AT CHEMICAL ADVANCED LEADER SCHOOL
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shelters, chaos and confusion. “It was scary,” she said. “There were riots, there was theft, there was no infrastructure. They needed a lot of help.” Barginear was squad leader for her group of 11 men. A helicopter dropped them off each day in a different remote mountain top throughout the region to provide security for aid workers distributing supplies and providing health care. “I loved it because it was a situation where I absolutely did not want to go,” she said. “But the people there were so thankful to have us there, it [helped overcome] any fear I had. And I was able to make a difference.” A SENSE OF DIRECTION Barginear, 41, enlisted in the National Guard during her junior year at McCluer North High School. She completed basic training during the summer before her senior year and reported the following summer for MP training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. “I joined because I had really no sense of direction,” she said. “I just really needed something to give me direction in life and give me a plan.” She chose the National Guard over other branches
because it seemed to offer the most benefits, including the opportunity to serve her own community by responding to the natural disasters and other events that affected her neighbors here at home. “It’s also a really good way for a young person to see if the military life fits them,” she said. TRUE GRIT She went on to serve in a company trained to assist in chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear events and now is an Active Guard Reserve soldier providing full-time administrative and training support for a cyber-protection team based at Jefferson Barracks. Today she lives in Lake St. Louis with her husband, who previously served in the Marines, and their two children. “My husband holds the family together during all of this,” she said. “I could not do it without him.” The military gave her structure and leadership roles that she could not envision as a teenager and developed a toughness she didn’t know she possessed, she said. “You have to have a certain amount of grit inside of you to be a woman in the military,” she said. “It’s made me do things that I truly did not believe I could do. It made me a stronger person.”
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY LORI ROSE AMANDA “MANDY” BARGINEAR, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD
The toughness she developed led her to complete eight weeks of Accelerated Officer Candidate School with a sprained and fractured ankle. “I learned your body is capable of doing so much more than you believe,” she said. “It was painful but at the time it’s just such a rush, you don’t want to quit.” The broken ankle, achieving her MBA while active duty, leading a battalion through a safety award program, helping an MP unit be the first National Guard company to complete live nerve agent training, devising nursing plans for new moms who are soldiers — all are accomplishments she hopes will inspire others, especially women. “They are all things I thought I could not do, but somehow I did,” she said. “I’m just an average female. If I can do it, they can as well.”
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Keontra Campbell U.S. ARMY RESERVE By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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is passion for cooking put Capt. Keontra Campbell on the path to a life of service. From preparing food for family and friends, to teaching high school students and young adults, to serving in the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve, Campbell continues to expand the ways in which he ministers to others. “The Army has shaped my idea of service to mankind,” he said. “As an officer now with 16 years of service, it’s through the lens of always being committed to service.” Growing up in Florida and spending time among the culinary sights and smells of the kitchens of his mother and grandmother, Campbell, now 33, discovered the first step along his path of service.
“At some point, as the mentee, I out-mastered the master and I started cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners all by myself in high school,” he said. “Even in college, I would cook for my friends. It’s therapy for me now.” FINDING HIS CALLING AS A TEACHER When he enlisted in the Florida Army National Guard at age 17, Campbell signed on as a cook. But after arriving on campus at Florida A&M University and joining the Army’s ROTC program, he felt a calling to serve in a new way, as a teacher. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education and a commission as an officer in the National Guard. That led to jobs in Florida and Georgia,
PHOTO PROVIDED BY KEONTRA CAMPBELL KEONTRA CAMPBELL GETTING PINNED AS A SECOND LIEUTENANT IN THE U.S. ARMY BY HIS PARENTS, 2011
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teaching psychology and sociology to high school students, while serving as a part-time soldier in the Army National Guard. As a teacher, he saw his mission as two-fold: guiding his students through the material, but also preparing them for life. He said some students from less-privileged backgrounds needed extra care, so he regularly took laundry home to wash, brought extra food for the hungry and allowed an occasional catnap in class. “If they were sleeping in class, I knew they’d had a long night,” he said. “I tried to teach them not to succumb to the hand of cards they’d been dealt. I wanted to help them grow past their current situations and learn how to cope with stress.” A PLATOON LEADER WHO CONTINUED TEACHING AND LEARNING When Campbell was deployed with the National Guard in 2013 with a field artillery unit based in Qatar, he served as a platoon leader responsible for the soldiers serving under him. He also continued classroom teaching as an instructor for an ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) improvement course. Additionally, he studied for and passed his GRE for admittance to graduate school. Today he is working toward
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY KEONTRA CAMPBELL KEONTRA CAMPBELL, U.S. ARMY RESERVE
completion of his PhD. In 2016, Campbell was hired as an instruction designer for the Department of Homeland Security, preparing courses and materials for first responders and others. For the last three years, he has worked full-time as a training specialist for the Army Reserve’s 620th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in St. Louis. In July, he and his family will take on a new assignment in Gainesville, Florida, where Campbell will serve as a movement control officer for the 257th Movement Control Battalion, which coordinates the movement of military personnel and equipment. Wherever he goes, he hopes to coach, motivate and inspire those around him to put others first, whether as a cook, a teacher, a soldier or a father. “It’s all part of God’s plan for me,” he said. “I hope to always be able to be of service.”
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Tyler Dunn U.S. ARMY By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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fter terrorists struck the World Trade Center on 9/11 when Tyler Dunn was a freshman in high school, he felt anger, pain and sadness. He watched as many of his friends joined the military after graduation, but Dunn kept to his plan of going to college to become a history teacher. After a couple of years on campus, though, he decided to change course. He needed discipline and purpose in life and wasn’t finding it in a freewheeling college life, he said. “I needed to grow up,” he said. “And I
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TYLER DUNN TYLER DUNN (LEFT), IRAQ, 2009
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didn’t like the idea of being in college when my friends were deployed.” So he dropped out of Missouri State University and enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman in 2008. “I think it was the best thing I ever did for myself,” said Dunn, now 34 and a resident of St. Peters. “It matures you, it teaches you responsibility, it gives you leadership roles and when you’re deployed, your people are counting on you.” Through two deployments in Iraq as a gunner and squad leader, Cpl. Dunn grew as a person and as a leader. He received two Army Achievement Medals and the Army Commendation Medal. And despite continuing pain and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder tied to his service in Mosul in 2008 and Amarah in 2010, he would not trade the experience for anything. A PRIORITY FOR TAKING CARE OF FELLOW SOLDIERS After completing his service in the Army in 2011, Dunn went back to college, this time to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to study finance. Today he is a wealth advisor with Aspen Wealth
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LORI ROSE TYLER DUNN, U.S. ARMY
Strategies, but he places a high priority on helping fellow veterans cope with life after service — especially since the loss of one of his best Army buddies in 2015 to an overdose. “I’ve actually lost count of how many people I know who have overdosed or committed suicide, but that one hurt the most,” he said. Dunn knows first-hand how difficult it can be for veterans to connect with the available resources when they leave the service. It took him two years to be enrolled in a sleep study with the VA. Today, he says, service at the VA has improved and wait times are shorter but it still can be overwhelming. “You need a good support system,” he said. “You feel very secluded and lonely when you get out. And the VA can be a tough place to navigate.”
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WE NEED TO HELP EACH OTHER During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dunn realized many veterans and others, especially in the service industry, were struggling to make ends meet. So he organized a Thanksgiving and Christmas meal giveaway for about 50 people in his community. He hopes to carry on the tradition in future years. Throughout the year, he spends many hours reaching out to dozens of fellow veterans to make sure they are caring for themselves and connecting with resources they need to lead healthy, productive civilian lives. Dunn believes that even though you may leave the service, you never leave your fellow soldiers behind. “It stays with you,” he said. “We need to help each other.”
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Mary Beth Faucheux U.S. NAVY By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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ike any young nurse fresh out of college, Mary Beth Faucheux wanted to serve others. But she never pictured herself serving in the Navy. Then a brochure arrived in the mail, and the words “You and the Navy, Full Speed Ahead” caught her imagination. “I wanted a challenge,” she said. “I wanted an adventure.” Faucheux, 22 at the time, soon joined the Navy Nurse Corps and found that adventure wasn’t all she received in exchange for her commitment. By serving her country and caring for those who defend us, she improved the lives of others as well as her own. “I really feel like it gave me not only
leadership qualities but it gave me confidence, too,” she said. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d say 1,000 percent yes.” Today, Faucheux, 53, of St. Charles, is a clinical performance nurse for Sound Physicians, a group of hospitalists, at SSM DePaul Health Center. In her role, she works with physicians and hospital staff to improve quality of care for patients during their stay. Throughout her civilian career, she has worked in a number of leadership roles in health care, from hospitals to physician’s offices to an insurance company. “I really owe it to the Navy,” she said. “It shapes who you are. You feel like you can take on anything, and things don’t seem so
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARY BETH FAUCHEUX FAUCHEUX (MIDDLE RIGHT) AND FELLOW SAILORS WITH THEIR AWARD FOR PASS-IN-REVIEW LEADERSHIP AT OFFICER INDOCTRINATION SCHOOL IN NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
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daunting. It gives you that confidence to try new things and really put yourself out there.” HISTORIC NAVY NURSE CORPS Nurses have long cared for sick and injured service members, but it wasn’t until the early 1900s that the Army and Navy Nurse Corps were established, bringing them officially into the fold. The first Navy nurses were all women and assigned only to the Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C. Today, they include both women and men who serve at hospitals and clinics around the world. They fly with wounded from the front lines and provide care aboard hospital ships. They provide aid during humanitarian missions and help those affected by natural disasters at home and abroad. And, since 1947, they have been commissioned officers. AN ADVANTAGE For Faucheux, who grew up in St. Louis and earned her RN degree from Deaconess College of Nursing, joining the Navy as an ensign accelerated both her training and experience. After attending officer indoctrination school, she was stationed at Oakland Naval Hospital in California. There she helped fill a void left by the deployment of active duty nurses to the USNS Mercy, a hospital ship sent to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARY BETH FAUCHEUX MARY BETH FAUCHEUX, U.S. NAVY
During her active-duty service from 1991 to 1994, Faucheux advanced to lieutenant and served as division officer of the neonatal intensive care unit. She also met her future husband, who was also in the Navy. When they left the service they returned to her hometown to raise their family. As a civilian, Faucheux found her Navy experience and training gave her a competitive edge in the job market. “It really put me in a great spot when I was trying to find a job,” she said. “The type of experience I had on my resume as a 26-yearold was pretty phenomenal. My career really took off from there.” Her GI benefits helped her earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. And her Navy training instilled in her an incomparable work ethic. “You learn to be on time, to dress sharp. You learn your superiors are in charge and you owe them respect,” she said.
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Personal celebrations of extraordinary service By Sarah Gerrein, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer. Photos by Jon Gitchoff
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n years past, our Story of Honor recipients were celebrated at a dinner banquet. Due to coronavirus concerns once again this year, each recipient’s family and friends gathered at the honoree’s residence to celebrate their service with a special Front Door Salute. The Salutes ranged from small gatherings of immediate family to almost 30 friends and relatives (socially distanced, of course). Many celebrations included colleagues and supervisors in uniform, while others had entire families full of service members in attendance. One family made sure to include past generations of veterans with framed photos of their father, uncle and a great uncle. After taking it all in, 2021 honoree Rufus Shannon quipped, “With all this hero talk, my family is going to have to start showing me a little more respect.” Well-earned respect, indeed. View the celebration video at STLtoday.com/storiesofhonor.
BILL LASKOWITZ
MARY BETH FAUCHEUX (L) RECEIVES HER PLAQUE FROM ERICA MILLS OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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KEONTRA CAMPBELL (CENTER) WITH DENEEN WILLIAMS, HIS WIFE LENISHA CAMPBELL, EVERETT REA AND TRAVIS PATTERSON
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TYLER DUNN AND DAUGHTER ON A VIRTUAL SALUTE CALL WITH LILY DOWLING OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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VICTOR PONCE AND FAMILY
MARY WHEELER
JENNIE MILLER
MICHAEL SCHORMANN
JOSHUA ADAMS-PARKER AND FAMILY
RUFUS SHANNON (CENTER) WITH FELLOW AMERICAN LEGION POST 77 MEMBERS DARLENE COATS AND DON CLARKE
ALLISON MINKS (CENTER) WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CENTERPOINTE HOSPITAL STAFF
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Bill Laskowitz U.S. MERCHANT MARINE By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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t was Christmas Eve 1944 on a Liberty ship in the Persian Gulf. Bill Laskowitz, in service with the U.S. Merchant Marine, pulled out his ever-present harmonica and played “Silent Night” while the men gathered around and hummed along. “I can still remember the sky was absolutely clear and filled with stars like diamonds,” Laskowitz, now 95, recalled. “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was just beautiful. Can you imagine 60-some people humming ‘Silent Night?’” It was a small, peaceful moment in a tour of duty filled with danger, rough seas and hard work.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PATRICIA ELKO LASKOWITZ , 2006
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VOLUNTEERING TO SERVE Joining the Merchant Marine had not been Laskowitz’ first choice. At 18, the young St. Louisan dreamed of joining the Army Air Corps but failed the physical because, though he had never missed it, he was born without a pectoral muscle. On the streetcar home, he noticed an advertisement for the Merchant Marine. The all-civilian service was desperate for volunteers to man the hastily built Liberty ships carrying vital supplies such as ammunition, K-rations, tanks and troops to battlefields on the other side of the world. After training in Florida, Laskowitz set sail on the first of many such cargo ships, the S.S. Juan de Fuca. His travels between 1943 and 1946 took him to Europe, Africa, Central America and many places in between. “I’ve sailed in every ocean and around the world twice,” he said. DANGEROUS DUTY Life aboard a Liberty ship during World War II was dangerous. Rogue waves could sweep a man overboard while rough seas could make one sick. Enemy U-boats and submarines were constantly on the prowl while ships were targeted by hostile forces on land and in the sky. Though the ships sailed in huge convoys, those on the perimeter were the most exposed. Laskowitz said the ships that brought up the rear were said to be in “coffin corner.” The work was hard. If you were assigned to the engine room, there was always the fear of explosion. If on deck, you faced all kinds
of weather. One trip kept Laskowitz at sea for 13 months. “You never slept right at night,” he said. “There was always one alarm after another.” Once when his ship was carrying two locomotives and two coal cars on deck, a large wave nearly knocked Laskowitz overboard. The ship’s solid railing had been removed to bring the equipment onboard and had been replaced with only a chain and stanchions. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PATRICIA ELKO “All of a sudden a wave came over and took BILL LASKOWITZ IN HIS MERCHANT MARINE UNIFORM, WHICH HE PURCHASED HIMSELF AS THEY WERE NOT PROVIDED TO MEMBERS. my feet from under me,” he said. “My feet were in the water and I’m holding on to this stanWWII-era mariners. It was already too late chion for dear life. They tell you, if you fall for many of the wartime heroes. overboard in a convoy [ship], there’s nobody Laskowitz returned to St. Louis after the to pick you up.” war, married and raised five daughters where he enjoyed a long career as an electrician. WARTIME SERVICE BUT But the lack of recognition for his wartime NO RECOGNITION valor still bothers him. Mariners served alongside Navy gun crews “We had the highest mortality rate of on Liberty ships, but they were not issued uniany of the services,” Laskowitz said. “People forms or weapons. And unlike Navy personwere torpedoed, lost at sea, any number of nel, mariners such as Laskowitz who served things. Some were even prisoners of war. Yet honorably were denied a veteran’s benefits — every Fourth of July, it’s always Army, Navy, no GI Bill and no flag to drape your casket. Marine Corps this and that, and never any It wasn’t until 1988 that the Defense mention of Merchant Marine. And without Department, under pressure from a federthe Merchant Marine, nobody would have al court ruling, granted veteran status to had any supplies over there.”
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Jennie Miller U.S. ARMY By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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ennie Miller married her high school sweetheart and followed him into the military, first as a Marine Corps wife, then as a soldier. As a Marine wife, Miller relocated with her husband from one duty station to another. While raising a young son, she found work at a factory during the day and went to college at night and she dreamed of helping people with mental health problems. But as the marriage began to unravel, Miller found the pace of working, parenting and going to school unmanageable. “I thought, this is going to be my life if I don’t do something different,” she said. So at
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JENNIE MILLER JENNIE MILLER, AIT
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age 26, with a 7-year-old son, a marriage that was ending, and a future that looked rocky, she enlisted in the U.S. Army. “I had really liked the military life and I decided to join,” Miller said. “I knew it would give me opportunities and it would help us start over.” As it turned out, it was one of the best decisions of her life, she said. “It’s a great opportunity for people who have limited opportunities,” she said. “If you don’t see a way out of your situation and you don’t have the money to survive financially or you feel like your life is going nowhere, the military is a great option. It matures you. It helps you learn what you’re good at and what you’re capable of.” Today, retired Sgt. Miller, 62, of St. Louis, looks back on that time with pride. With a sign-on bonus and her student loans paid off, she was starting over in a new career that the Army chose for her — diesel mechanics. “I didn’t mind it,” she said. “I had never planned on being a mechanic but it brought all these bonuses and fortunately for me, I got stationed in Hawaii. That was great.” During her nearly eight years with the Army, Miller’s primary role was as a clerk for the Army maintenance management system, dealing with equipment readiness, first with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LORI ROSE JENNIFER “JENNIE” MILLER, U.S. ARMY
later at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with shorter stints in Korea and Saudi Arabia. I HADN’T KNOW THAT ABOUT MYSELF Serving in the Army, she said, broadened her horizons and helped shape who she is today. She met people from other walks of life, gained leadership experience, learned new skills that continue to serve her well and discovered that she was stronger than she knew. “I had never been very physically active,”she said. “But I found out I was physically strong. I hadn’t know that about myself. I remember when I graduated from AIT (Advanced Individual Training) I graduated at the top of my class with one of the highest PT scores.”
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Today, Miller is married to her second husband, who is also a retired Army sergeant. Her son served in the Army Reserves in Afghanistan and Iraq and her stepson served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. With veteran benefits, Miller completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and has served in the mental health field for more than 20 years as a compliance specialist for Independence Center, which provides outpatient and residential care for the mentally ill. Her military training carries through to this day. A supervisor once told her that she taught him a valuable lesson about hiring veterans: “He told me one of the things he learned from me is people with a military background have a good work ethic.”
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Ally Minks U.S. AIR FORCE By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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rriving in the pitch-black at an unknown air base only weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, 21-year-old Allison “Ally” Minks was nervous. “The not knowing was the scariest part,” she said. “We were not prepared. I’d only shot a weapon twice. I was not GI Jane.” It wasn’t an experience she had imagined when she joined the U.S. Air Force in July 2000. At the time, she hoped to earn her way to an education and maybe a lifelong career with the military. “I thought that it was going to be a great way to see the world and get my education,” she said. “Not a lot of people I knew in my hometown went to college. I wanted to meet new people. I had a gypsy soul.”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALLY MINKS
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After training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Airman Minks was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as part of a logistics unit responsible for managing the traffic of supplies and people around the world. She threw herself into the job and made her mark by spray-painting cheerful messages onto pallets of goods such as cashews and beef jerky bound for servicemen and women around the world: “Be safe,” “Come back home,” “We’re proud of you.” OUR LIVES ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE Then came Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists struck the World Trade Center. “We were in the chow hall watching TV,” she said. “The news came on and everybody stopped — we were all just kids, and we were looking at each other like, ‘Our lives are about to change.’” Within weeks, her supervisor was asking for two volunteers to deploy as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Up went her hand. “I was so green,” said Minks, now 40 and director of clinical services at Centerpointe Hospital in St. Charles. “I had no experience at all. I was just going to go learn. I was just going to go prove myself.” She and her male colleague had three days to pack, though they didn’t know where they were headed. It wasn’t until after their arrival that they learned their home away from home was an air base in Pakistan — not Afghanistan — and their role was to support the U.S. military’s Predator drone program. Still, her whereabouts were top-secret and she could only tell her family: “I’m deployed.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALLY MINKS ALLY MINKS AT U.S. AIR FORCE BASIC TRAINING, JULY 2000
It’s hot. I’m safe and I’m going to be safe.” The climate was brutal in Jacobabad, which is known as one of the hottest spots in the world. Minks suffered in the heat from mysterious health problems that years later were diagnosed as multiple sclerosis, she said. AMAZING, STRONG FEMALE LEADERS After five months in Pakistan, Minks returned to her base in Montana and then finished her four years of active duty with a year at Ramstein Air Base in Germany as a senior airman. “I thrived there,” she said. “I had amazing, strong female leaders and it was a wakeup call for me that I could be a leader, too.” Her newfound confidence gave her the
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courage to go to college to become a mental health counselor. She said she was inspired seeing the struggles with mental health, substance abuse, homelessness and joblessness that many of her fellow veterans were experiencing. Today, as clinical director at Centerpointe, Minks says the leadership skills she developed in the Air Force serve her well. “The happiest part of my job is helping other people grow, hiring and training and giving first jobs and promotions, and growing future leaders,” she said. “I would love to see more young leaders, especially females, go into the military,” she said. “Keep breaking the glass ceilings, keep busting down the doors of the boys club. Every single female leader out there should realize that some little girl somewhere is watching them.”
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Victor Ponce U.S. ARMY By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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ictor Ponce likes to face challenges head-on. As a young man, he wanted to go to technical school to learn auto mechanics but he didn’t want to saddle his family with student loans. “I thought to myself, if I go to this school, there’s no guarantee that I’ll have a job afterward,” he said. “So I decided maybe the military was the best route for me.” Ponce’s high school shop teacher, a retired major, had impressed upon him the benefits of a military life: travel, money for education, health care, early retirement. But connecting
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VICTOR PONCE VICTOR PONCE, U.S. ARMY
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with a recruiter in his small town near El Paso, Texas, where many of the students were from Spanish-speaking families like his, enlisting was a challenge in and of itself. A 25-YEAR ARMY CAREER Thanks to the persistence of one U.S. Army recruiter, Sgt. 1st Class Ponce ended up serving his country for 25 years and in turn recruiting several hundred young men and women to follow in his footsteps. Ponce, now 50 and a real estate agent in O’Fallon, Mo., enlisted in 1990 and was trained as a Patriot missile operator and maintainer and stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia and later Bahrain, where he served as platoon sergeant with an intense amount of responsibility in a rapid deployment situation to a location that wasn’t yet set up to house soldiers. Over that five-month deployment, he said, his unit had to evaluate, build and develop a site to provide protection for the naval base there. “We did a phenomenal job,” he said. “I’m proud of my soldiers. It was a challenge keeping soldiers motivated, making sure everybody was doing OK, and building a site from scratch. It was a deployment I can never forget.” A NEW CHALLENGE In 2004, Ponce faced a new type of challenge: recruiting soldiers during a time when the United States was at war in Iraq and struggling to meet recruitment numbers. Recruiters in the field were facing enormous stress levels, Ponce said. “It’s a very
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VICTOR PONCE VICTOR PONCE, U.S. ARMY
tough job,” he said. “The sacrifices, the work, the sacrifices of your families, the late hours, the traveling. Soldiers get burned out.” From El Paso to Albuquerque to Los Angeles to Indiana, Ponce was sent to boost results at struggling recruiting stations. Looking back now, he estimates he personally enlisted as many as 400 soldiers during the second half of his military career assigned to the United States Amy Recruiting Command. FROM RECRUITING TO REAL ESTATE Since retiring from the Army in 2015, Ponce has transferred those skills to real estate. “In the recruiter courses I [received] a lot of sales training,” he said. “You learn how to talk to people, how to overcome rejection, how to lead them through the process,” he said. “On the business side, you learn how
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to set goals, be competitive, adapt, think outside the box. All the things the military taught me have helped make me successful in real estate.” Ponce is especially interested in helping veterans as well as members of the area’s growing Hispanic population to buy their first homes. He earned the Military Relocation Professional certification and serves as president of the St. Louis chapter of the Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals. “The most satisfying thing to me is I’m still serving,” Ponce said. “When you’re in the military you don’t really think about it — you’re doing your job. But you’re serving your country, and now you’re serving your community. I’ve had grown men cry in my office because they never believed they could ever be a homeowner.”
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Michael Schormann U.S. AIR FORCE, AIR NATIONAL GUARD By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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wo days before the first case of coronavirus was reported in the United States, Mike Schormann was deployed to the Middle East in the nation’s fight against terrorism. As the pandemic took over the world’s news cycles, Schormann was thousands of miles away — from both his civilian job as lead of crisis management at Spire Inc. and from his wife and three daughters as they adjusted to life under stay-at-home orders. Tensions were already heightened in the Middle East when he deployed to Qatar in January 2020. A U.S. airstrike had killed top Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani, and Iran had retaliated with a barrage of missiles fired at two Iraqi bases hosting U.S. troops. Amid these stressors, Senior Master Sgt. Schormann, 39, of Eureka, focused on his
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHAEL SCHORMANN MICHAEL SCHORMANN, 2006
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mission: support a multi-national intelligence team working to target ISIS terrorists and safeguard American and coalition forces and civilians throughout the region. Thanks to his contributions during that six-month deployment, Schormann was named the Air National Guard’s 2020 Senior Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year for Illinois, where he serves as superintendent for the Intelligence Directorate assigned to the Air Component Operations Squadron, 183rd Wing in Springfield. And that puts him in the running to be named one of the Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year, an honor reserved for a select few, based on superior leadership, job performance and personal achievements. Those winners will likely be announced this summer. “Winning Senior Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year for my unit, group, wing and state has been a true highlight of my career with the military,” Schormann said. “I’m extremely grateful for this recognition and know none of this could have been achieved alone.” Schormann is quick to credit his wife, Angela, for carrying the burdens of managing a family during a global pandemic And he said he would not have been able to do his job with the Air Force so well without the support of his team at Spire, which worked to manage the effects of
COVID-19 on its thousands of employees and customers. “My wife was my rock,” he said. “And Spire was absolutely amazing. Everybody here really appreciates military service. It freed me up mentally to stay focused on my mission in Qatar.” INSPIRED BY 9/11 Schormann joined the Air National Guard in 2004. He was inspired by the experiences of his father, uncles and an older brother who had served in the military. But the biggest motivator was Sept. 11, 2001. “Growing up, I would always hear stories from my family about their experiences seeing the world and understanding how it shaped them and who they are,” he said. “But 9/11 was an emotional trigger, to see that happen to our country. That was a calling. My father was too old to serve and he was talking about it, and I decided I could do something about it.” Following his training, Schormann volunteered for a number of active-duty assignments and served in a multitude of intelligence support roles, including at the Pentagon and in Afghanistan. One of the most dramatic experiences came in 2008 when he was assigned to the Air Operations Center at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. His team was working in support of a secret operation to rescue three American contractors and 12 other hostages being held
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHAEL SCHORMANN MICHAEL SCHORMANN, U.S. AIR FORCE, AIR NATIONAL GUARD
by rebels in the jungles of Colombia. One of those hostages was Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who had been in captivity for six years. “It was amazing,” Schormann said. “At the operations center you have all these big screens everywhere and you’re communicating with the [rescuers] in the helicopters. When we heard they were safe, that place erupted. That was one of the highlights of my military career.” Another was being named an outstanding airman. “It’s been a humbling experience knowing there are other nominees that are equally capable, if not more [capable], of winning this award,” he said. “My girls think I’m famous. I think I’ll let them believe this for as long as I can.”
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Rufus Shannon U.S. ARMY By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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very Thursday, rain or shine, if there are veterans to be honored with a military funeral at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Rufus Shannon and his team are there to provide a proper send-off. Along with other volunteers from his American Legion post, Shannon is part of the first all-Black military funeral honor guard at Jefferson Barracks. His team provides the solemn three-volley salute and the haunting bugle call of taps, sometimes five or six times a day. “I do it because this is what I’m supposed to do,” said Shannon, 68, a U.S. Army veteran. “It’s an opportunity to give back — it’s a need. I have such great empathy for the veterans, young and old, for their sacrifices and
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RUFUS SHANNON RUFUS SHANNON, U.S. ARMY
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their lives and their families’ sacrifices. You just try to do your best to make sure that every veteran gets the very best, because there’s no do-over. “It’s just one of those things you take pride in,” he said. “One day someone will be doing that for me.” PART OF BEING AMERICAN Shannon is a vice commander of the American Legion’s Tom Powell Post No. 77, the nation’s oldest African-American post. It was organized in 1919 — the same year the Legion was founded — by 15 Black veterans. The post was named for Tom Powell, a World War I veteran from Georgia. Powell rode a freight car to Chicago to enlist in the
Army after being rejected by recruiters in the South. He went on to serve as an Army messenger in France, where he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Shannon joined the post years ago as a way to give back for the blessings in his life, he said. “It’s all part of being American,” he said. “If all you’re living for is yourself, then you’re not living.” Shannon grew up in St. Louis and had planned to enlist in the Army after high school. Instead, he was drafted in 1972. After boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, Shannon was sent to Fort Polk in Louisiana for advanced infantry training in preparation for the jungles of Southeast Asia. As it turned out, a sprained ankle helped keep him out of harm’s way, and his typing skills landed him in a clerk’s role for the remainder of his time in the Army. After his discharge, he served in the Reserve for another three years, attaining the rank of specialist. YOU SEE A LOT OF SADNESS He has since worked in data entry, construction and real estate, but his passion is for service to others. As a member of Post 77, he is chairman of youth programs and hopes to revitalize those efforts as the effects
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY RUFUS SHANNON RUFUS SHANNON, U.S. ARMY
of the pandemic lessen. He has volunteered at COVID-19 vaccination events, veteran ceremonies and with local charities. He also has been involved in the restoration of historic Greenwood Cemetery — one of the oldest commercial cemeteries for African-Americans in the area — with many graves of veterans from the Civil War through the Korean War. Inspiration comes from those he serves alongside, Shannon said, especially those who have persevered through tougher challenges than he has faced. “I’ve met hundreds of volunteers from all walks of life who are inspiring to me,” he said. “Some of them have been at it a lifetime. “You see a lot of sadness,” he said. “You have to be able to look at your blessings and know that you have to pay it forward.”
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Mary Wheeler U.S. NAVAL RESERVE (WAVES) By Lori Rose, Brand Ave. Studios Contributing Writer
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he career opportunities open to St. Louisan Mary Wheeler in 1942 were limited. But with the stroke of a pen, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into being the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. The President’s signing of the Navy Women’s Reserve Act created this division of the U.S. Navy just for women. The WAVES was designed to free up officers and enlisted men
for sea duty during World War II by replacing them in shore jobs with women. It was just the adventure Wheeler, at age 20, was looking for. “The job I had was boring,” said Wheeler, now 99 and a resident of St. Ann. “I worked at Stix Baer & Fuller. I worked in the office but I wasn’t very good at typing. I didn’t want to do office work and when I heard about [the WAVES] I thought, well this might be for me.”
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LORI ROSE WHEELER, PRESENT DAY, PROUDLY HOLDS HER U.S. NAVAL RESERVE (WAVES) UNIFORM.
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TYPIST, SEAMSTRESS OR JOIN THE NAVY Wheeler was the oldest daughter of 10 siblings. Three brothers were serving in the Navy and Army. College wasn’t an option, and the only jobs open were for typists or seamstresses, neither of which appealed to her. “I didn’t know what to do with my life and I thought, well if [the government] is going to pay for my education, I guess I’ll do that,” she said. “I didn’t ever really know what I was going into.” Because she wasn’t yet 21, she first needed her father’s permission to join. Next, she had to quickly gain 2 pounds to reach the 98-pound requirement.
Someone advised her to eat as many bananas as she could before weighin, and so she did. “I can’t look at bananas to this day,” Wheeler said. THOUSANDS OF FEMALE SEAMEN JOINED THE WAVES It was January 1943 and already thousands of women across the country had signed on with the WAVES, some as officers and many like Wheeler as enlisted seamen. They served at hundreds of stations across the United States and in Hawaii and Alaska, in a wide variety of jobs, from maintaining aircraft and checking parachutes to breaking codes, forecasting weather and working in naval hospitals. Wheeler’s first stop was six weeks of classroom training, or indoctrination school, at Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa.) From there she was sent to Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, where she worked as a lab technician in a dispensary, drawing blood and handling X-rays, “just learning as you go.” The work interested her, so when she returned to St. Louis after her discharge as a pharmacist mate 2nd class in November 1945, she used her GI Bill benefits to attend Gradwohl Lab School and became a certified
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARY WHEELER MARY WHEELER, U.S. NAVAL RESERVE (WAVES), CIRCA 1944
medical technologist. She later married and stayed home to raise seven children. After the children became more independent, she returned to the lab and finished her career at John Cochran Veterans Hospital, retiring in her 70s. Though Wheeler doesn’t often talk about her role in the WAVES, her family members are proud that she helped open the door to women in the military. At one point, more than 80,000 women served in the WAVES. After the war, Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, allowing women to gain permanent status in all military branches. Today, more than 15 percent of the active-duty force is made up of women.
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COURAGE AND SACRIFICE HAVE A HISTORY.
Downtown St. Louis Open Wednesday–Sunday, 10am–5pm
Free admission. Plan your visit at mohistory.org/memorial-visits. PG 20
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