Stories of Honor 2018

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SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

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By Grace Moore MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

In its third year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Stories of Honor or series series recounts recounts the the honorhonorable able tales tales of of local local American American heroes. heroes. The The series series contains contains true accounts ranging from true accounts ranging from the valorous tales of WWII the valorous tales of WWII and Vietnam to the present and narratives Vietnam toof the present day bravery in day narratives of bravery Iraq and A fg han istan. Thin is Iraq Afghanistan.

This year,and we received nearly 80 enyear, we received nearlyof80milientries detailing stories tries detailingmen stories military service and of women and their selfless that tary service men actions and women help their keep us free today. and selfless actions that

help keep us free today.

The applicant pool was nar-

rowedapplicant down to unique The pool21was narindividuals who relayed the rowed down to 21 unique ups-and-downs of deployment, individuals relayed training andwho civilian life the at ups-and-downs of deployment, length. These stories persontraining andmembers civilian aslife at alize service more length.

These stories personthan just the bravest of the alize service as more brave, but members also community than just who the continue bravest to of give the members back theiralso neighbors, famibrave,to but community lies and peers. members who continue to give back to their neighbors, famiActive lies andduty peers.and military vet-

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Several partnerships and sponsors allowed service men and women women from from different different and eras, wars, wars, and and branches branches of of eras, service to to join join together together and and service celebrate one one another. another. celebrate Community Coffee Company

Community CoffeebyCompany has been operated four genhas been operated by four generations of the Saurage family erations the Saurage since its ofinception, andfamily they since its inception, and they understand the importance understand importance of family andthe giving back. Of the approximately 2.2back. million of family and giving Of men and women 2.2 whomillion serve the approximately in theand United States military, men women who serve nearly 400,000 are stationed in the United States military, abroad,400,000 far fromare their homes nearly stationed and their families.

Communiabroad, far from their homes ty Coffee thinks that’s a good and their Communireason to families. send a care package ty Coffee thinks that’s a good their way. reason to send a care package their way. Scripts is a proud Express

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum is a state-of-the-art museum facility facility in in downtown downtown museum St. Louis St. Louis that that honors honors military military service, veterans service, veterans and and their their families.

Soldiers Memorial families.

Soldiers Memorial shares American military histoshares American military ry through the lens of St.histoLoury through the lens of St. Louis. Following a multimillion is. Following a multimillion dollar revitalization, the St. dollar landmark revitalization, the St. Louis is reopening Louis landmark is under reopening the November 3, 2018 November 3,leadership 2018 under operational of the Missouri Historical Society. operational leadership of the

Missouri Historical Society.

STORIES STORIESOF OFHONOR HONORIS ISPUBLISHED PUBLISHED BY

BY THE THE MARKETING CONTENT CONTENTTEAM TEAMOF OFTHE THEST. ST. LOUIS LOUIS POST-DISPATCH POST-DISPATCH SarahGerrein Gerrein/ /content contentproduction production manager manager // 314-340-8014 314-340-8014 Sarah sgerrein@stltoday.com sgerrein@stltoday.com GraceMoore Moore/ /marketing marketingcontent content intern intern // 314-657-3310 314-657-3310 Grace gmoore@stltoday.com gmoore@stltoday.com DeniseKosarek Kosarek/ /art artdirector director// 314-657-3312 314-657-3312 Denise dkosarek@stltoday.com dkosarek@stltoday.com AmyBuelt Buelt/ /designer designer//314-657-3307 314-657-3307 // abuelt@stltoday.com abuelt@stltoday.com Amy DonnaBischoff Bischoff/ /vice vicepresident president of of sales sales and and marketing marketing Donna 314-340-8529/ /dbischoff@post-dispatch.com dbischoff@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8529 TeresaGriffin Griffin/ /vice vicepresident presidentdigital digital strategy strategy Teresa 314-340-8909/ /tgriffin@stltoday.com tgriffin@stltoday.com 314-340-8909

sponsor of several nonprofit Express Scripts a proud organizations that isserve our military and women and sponsor men of several nonprofit their families. The organizations that company’s serve our charitable giving, through military men and womenCorand porate GivingThe programs and their families. company’s through Federal Pharmacy Sercharitable giving, through Corvices reflects their porateDivision, Giving programs and values as a company and a through Federal Pharmacy Sercommitment to give back to vicesmilitary Division, reflects their the community.

erans alike were honored on July where gathered Active19duty andthey military vettogether with their friends erans alike were honored on and families at The National July 19 where they gathered Personnel Records Center together with friends in St. Louis for their a celebratory and families at The National dinner ceremony. The event Personnel Records remarks Center began with gracious in Louis for a celebratory

by St. Donna Bischoff, vice presidinner ceremony.

The event dent of sales and marketing at the St.with Louis Post-Dispatch. began gracious remarks Each honoree watched vidby Donna Bischoff, vice apresieo conveying their own story dent of sales and marketing at of service and sacrifice before the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. publicly accepting an Each honoree watched award a vidfor conveying their courageous acts.story eo their own

ton University in St. Louis is University College proud to participate in in theArts Yellow Sciences Ribbon Program, which & at Washingallows qualifiedin veterans ton University St. Louis to is attend University College full proud to participate in the Yeltime Ribbon with no out-of-pocket exlow Program, which pense for tuition and mandaallows qualified veterans to tory fees. attend University College full

of service and sacrifice before publicly accepting an award for their courageous acts.

time with no out-of-pocket expense for tuition and mandatory fees.

values as a company and a commitment to give back to University College in Arts the military community. & Sciences at Washing-

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SALUTING OUR HEROES Castle Contracting is proud to support our nation’s veterans, all current and active military members and first responders.

Congratulations to all the heroes being saluted in Stories of Honor.

We honor your sacrifice and dedication and thank you for your service.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Community Coffee is a proud Sponsor of

It has been an honor to support the St. Louis military community as an official sponsor of Stories of Honor.

CommunityCoffeeCompanyhasbeencommitted to honoring the men and women who serve our nation through our Military Match program.

This program helps us give back to those who sacrifice so much for our country.

Learn more here: http://www.communitycoffee.com/blog SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

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Tim Ale Alexander U.S. Army

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

e doesn’t know why wh he didn’tt strap in as H regulations dictated, but that one decision may have saved his life.

He was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Army Staff Sgt. Tim Alexander was a sniper atop a Humvee traveling outside Basra in southern Iraq on Oct. 29, 2005, when an IED hidden in the sand detonated, destroying the vehicle, killing the four soldiers inside and blasting Alexander some 45 feet through the hot, dusty air.

“I was going to work when I heard on the radio about the first plane hitting,” Alexander says.

“Then, I was getting out of the car when the second plane hit. By that point, we all knew it was something big. We didn’t know what or who, but we knew the stuff had hit the fan, and we knew we were going. We didn’t care where we were going, but we were ready. We took it personally. It was like, ‘You’re not going to come into our house and do that.’”

“All I remember is hearing the explosion and seeing the flash and seeing the sky,” the Glen Carbon man says. “The next thing I know I woke up in Germany.”

Alexander, now 46, doesn’t remember the fighting that ensued, in which two more American soldiers were injured, or the helicopter flight to Baghdad, where doctors put him in a medically induced coma and transferred him to a military hospital in Germany. He had broken his back in six places.

“We had vehicles in front of us clearing (improvised explosive devices) but you knew every day when you went outside the wire there was a chance they could miss something,” he said.

“I still don’t know why I didn’t strap myself in that day. I’ve racked my brain. I can’t say why.”

Alexander grew up in Collinsville, unsure what he wanted to do with his life. When he graduated from high school in June 1990, he felt a call to serve. “I knew I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself,” he says.

After basic training at Fort Polk, La., followed by jump school and infantry school, he landed at Fort Sill, Okla. A few months later, his unit deployed overseas to serve during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He served in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait over the course of those years.

“Then things were pretty uneventful until Sept.

11 happened,” he says.

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Every single time, he was ready to go back.

“It was payback for the thousands of lives we lost on Sept. 11,” he says. “Those people got up that morning and they had no clue what was going to happen to them on that beautiful, sunny day.”

He didn’t know any of the victims personally, “but to me, it was like they were all family.”

Even after being injured and spending 18 months recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Alexander was itching to go back on duty. But his injuries prohibited him from serving anywhere but at a desk.

“No offense,” he says he told his superiors, “but I didn’t go into the Army to sit behind a desk.”

That left a medical retirement as his only option. So he returned home, again unsure what to do with himself and still in severe pain, which persists today. “I was in a really dark place,” he says. “I didn’t want to do anything.

I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I felt like I failed.”

“I got involved with the Disabled American Veterans - they were the ones that helped me with my disability claim and helped me get my head out of the funk,” Alexander says. “We do whatever we can to help veterans. Pretty much whatever a veteran needs, we try to get it for them.”

He now serves as the commander of DAV Chapter 90 in Glen Carbon, where he helps disabled veterans connect with the benefits and services earned through military service and provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies. Married with three stepchildren, he also works full time for the Veterans Assistance Commission in Madison County.

“We do whatever we can do to help veterans. Pretty much whatever a veteran needs, we try to get it for them.”

Helping veterans know they are not forgotten.

That is the mission now.

“There are so many veterans out there who need help and they don’t know who to turn to,” he says. “We have a whole generation coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan now. They come home and they feel lost and they feel like nobody cares. It hurts my heart.”

Eventually his new mission became clear: to help other veterans like himself. Especially those who might be casting about as he was, hurting both physically and emotionally.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

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Philip Car Carroll U.S. Army

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

at Jefferson Barracks iss the th closWestorking thing to a platoon for Philip Carroll.

Every day when he goes to work, U.S. Army veteran Philip Carroll checks in on his buddy, Vincent Winston.

Spc. Carroll now works as a groundskeeper at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Pvt. Winston is buried there.

“We’re his family,” Carroll said, standing near Winston’s headstone. It’s decorated with the usual tributes to a fallen soldier: an empty whiskey bottle, a beer can, a tin of chewing tobacco and a few coins that show someone has been to visit. “If I’m working in this section, I’ll come sit with him for a few minutes, but I see him every day.”

Carroll grew up in west St. Louis County and enlisted in the Army in 2005. At the time, his legal adopted name was Philip Kopfensteiner.

He was 19 and his older brother, Josh Carroll, was in the Army and about to be deployed to Iraq.

“I was young and naive and watched too many movies,” Carroll said. “My brother was doing something great for this country, and I didn’t want him to do it alone.”

While his brother was serving in Iraq, Carroll’s first deployment was to Korea. Afterward, he was sent to Fort Hood before being deployed to southern Afghanistan in June 2008.

Carroll was one of four men critically wounded when their Humvee rolled over a roadside bomb near Kandahar in Afghanistan in 2008.

Winston was killed in the explosion, and Carroll still wonders what he could have done to save him, despite his own severe burns.

On Sept. 4, 2008, while Carroll, Winston, Lt. Sam Brown, gunner Kevin Jensen and driver Mike Debolt were rushing to help another platoon that had been ambushed and was under fire, their vehicle suddenly blew up.

“The sadness I feel is overwhelming,” he said.

“My job here provides a lot of therapy for me.”

Carroll was seated behind the driver, Winston beside him.

Now 32, Carroll remembers meeting Winston for the first time when he joined Winston’s platoon in 2007. Carroll was a forward observer, tasked with being the “eyes” of the infantry to direct artillery and mortar fire at an enemy target.

“I covered my face with my hands. It felt like somebody was kicking me in the chest,” he said. “There was a big boom, ringing in my ears, and I remember feeling really hot.”

“When I was assigned to that platoon, they didn’t have a forward observer,” he said. “I had to do what I could to gain their trust and friendship. Winston was the very first person to start talking to me.”

A common bond The two soon discovered they were both from St. Louis, though Winston had moved here from Memphis just a year before enlisting.

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“He cared deeply about his friends,” Carroll said. “We were the same age. He was my closest friend.”

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He remembers getting out of the vehicle and trying to pull off his gear and hearing Jensen scream at him, “You’re still on fire!”

“He tackled me and pushed my face in the dirt,” Carroll said. When he looked up, Jensen was running toward Brown, who was engulfed in flames. Jensen tackled Brown and Carroll helped smother the flames, he said.

safety. As they began taking on enemy fire, the ammunition in their vehicle started exploding.

“Winston was still in the vehicle,” Carroll said.

“There was nothing we could do.”

“My job here provides a lot of therapy for me.”

Carroll suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns on his hands, face, neck, shoulders and back. He and the others spent months at Brooke Army Medical Center being treated for their injuries; all received Purple Hearts.

Carroll was able to finish out his service in 2009 with rear detachment duty.

Today, Carroll and his girlfriend have two young boys who help keep his survivor’s guilt at bay. Since 2016, he has found solace working close to Winston and the thousands of other veterans buried at Jefferson Barracks.

“Working here is the closest thing to a platoon that I’ve been around,” he said of his colleagues, many of whom are also veterans with combat experience. “There’s a common bond.

We all know where our minds go when we are home at night. There’s nothing but respect here.”

“There was nothing we could do” Other soldiers rushed in to pull the wounded to

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

By Lori Rose

Frank ank C Coker U.S. Army

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

.S. Army Spc. Frank Coker shared the U homegrown tomatoes his family shipped him in Vietnam, played Johnny Cash on a 50cent guitar and proudly flew the Sooner state flag over his hooch.

Those are the memories from his time at Landing Zone Sally that bring a smile.

So many others bring tears.

The wounded he pulled from the battlefield and loaded up on a chopper, the ones he had to leave behind, and the loss of so many young men — those images replay in his mind every day.

“He was running for the bunker and he slipped.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a plastic green shamrock,” Coker said. “He picked it up and made it to the bunker. I took it to Vietnam and wore it every day. It was something to believe in.”

In Vietnam, Coker served as an aircraft mechanic and crew chief on a combat helicopter.

As a mechanic, he kept the helicopters patched up and operating between the front lines and the LZ Sally. As crew chief, he was also part of the four-man crew aboard the helicopter and did whatever job was needed, from mechanic to door gunner to combat medic. He was even trained as a pilot just in case.

“When you pick up wounded or deceased, and they’re younger than you or the same age — you can only take so many, it’s just unbelievable,” he said. “You take the ones that have a chance to make it. You’re looking down and there’s kids saying ‘take me, take me.’ We did all we could, but not a day goes by that I don’t think about what we could have done differently.”

“In Vietnam, it didn’t really matter what your rank was, when you were asked to do something, you did it,” said Coker, who earned the Bronze Star and Army Commendation medals for meritorious service in combat. “We did what we had to do to survive.”

Coker, now a retired railroad worker living in Troy, Ill., was a small-town boy from eastern Oklahoma when he signed up for the Army in 1966. His father and uncles served in World War II and Korea and he wanted to make them proud.

When he wasn’t working, Coker remembers teaching himself to play Johnny Cash songs on a 50-cent guitar he bought in Da Nang and eating green tomatoes that his family shipped him from Oklahoma.

“My dad was a Navy Seabee in World War II. He built runways in Okinawa,” said Coker, now 71. “He was a hero to me, and I looked up to him. He was a very hard worker and influenced me a lot. I was proud to do my service.”

A shamrock for good luck Before Coker shipped out to Vietnam in 1967, his father gave him a shamrock to wear on his dog tags for good luck. He’d worn it himself in Japan after finding it on the beach during the Battle of Okinawa.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Green tomatoes from home

“By the time they got there, they were good if they weren’t squashed,” he said. “I’d eat one and take the rest over to the mess hall. Only once or twice were they a little mashed.”

His family also shipped him an Oklahoma state flag, which caught the attention of a fellow Oklahoman, Sgt. 1st Class Joe Dean Helvey, who was in charge of Coker and the other mechanics. Helvey was a fair boss and a friend to everyone, Coker said.

May 1968, and Coker had just left Helvey’s office to go pick up his mail when a young private walked into the tent. He wanted to go home.

“Sgt. Helvey said, ‘Son, you can’t go home, you just got here a couple of months ago,’” he remembered. The next thing Coker knew, the soldier pulled a grenade from behind his back and blew up the tent, killing himself and Helvey and sending everyone else diving for safety.

The loss of a good man Fifty years later, the loss still brings tears to Coker’s eyes. He often thinks about what he would say if he ever got a chance to meet Helvey’s son.

“I would tell him what kind of father he had and what a wonderful man he was,” Coker said.

“I don’t think I did enough to protect him. He was my boss and I would have done anything he asked of me.”

When Coker was discharged in 1970, he went home to his family in Oklahoma. “I ate some good fried squirrel and fried quail, and I was so happy to be home. I didn’t want to talk about the war for a long time.”

But before his dad died, Coker finally did open up to his father about what happened in Vietnam. Today, he tries to remember his father’s advice, though it’s hard.

“He said, ‘You can’t go on living and worrying about whether you did enough.’ I’ve tried to release it, but I’ve not been able to,” Coker said.

Helvey ended up being at the center of one of Coker’s worst memories from Vietnam. It was STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

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Ashly ly C Cox

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

shly Cox joined the Missouri uri Army A National Guard to earn money for college and a car, but soon found it gave her more than she imagined — a full-time career, a way to serve her country at home and abroad, and a passion for helping veterans through physical fitness.

Staff Sgt. Cox, now 31, is a graphic designer employed full-time by the National Guard. But she remains a citizen-soldier, ready to mobilize whenever called upon by state or federal government. In her free time, she focuses on using physical fitness to help veterans find good health and success in their civilian lives.

“Just as our society has become unhealthy, that can happen in our military population as well, especially when they have experienced traumatic events,” she said. “Those things can take a big toll on your health and mental capacity.”

Cox, who grew up in St. Charles County, was 17 when she joined the Guard.

“I wanted my first car, and I wanted to find a way to pay for college,” she said. “I was young and naive, but I fell in love with the military life very quickly. What was originally supposed to be my six years of service has turned into 14.”

An eye-opening experience Soon after completing basic training, Cox volunteered to support hurricane and flood relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. That experience of helping others in their time of need was an eye-opener for Cox, who saw just how meaningful her time in the National Guard was going to be.

Since then, she has sought out challenges and leadership roles within the National Guard while completing a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a master’s in organizational management.

In 2011, Cox went to work full-time for the Guard as an administrative technician at Whiteman Air Force Base, while still training one weekend a month and two weeks a year, just as she has done since she joined the Guard.

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Missouri Army National Guard The following year she switched to aviation, becoming certified as a repair specialist for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and graduating with honors, the only female in her class.

Ready for all challenges “I wanted more challenges; I wanted to do it all,” she said. “I thought, it can’t be easy, so I’m going to try it.”

Cox was deployed in 2013 to Afghanistan, where in addition to repairing helicopters, she was responsible for hosting competitions and events to increase soldiers’ morale through physical fitness.

“I wore a lot of hats,” she said. “I tried to be a good leader and keep people motivated while they were away from their families.”

When she returned to the states, she accepted yet another job, this time helping with the development of the newly created Show-Me Guard Officer Leadership Development program at Southeast Missouri State University. The program allows students to earn a degree while serving as future officers in the Missouri National Guard.

“I have a passion for learning and teaching others,” she said.

Today she works as a marketing and graphics coordinator for the Missouri National Guard’s recruiting headquarters in Jefferson City.

Through one such group, Combat Boots and High Heels, Cox organized a free event called #Yoga4Vets in Jefferson City to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder. She hopes to make it an annual event; the next one is set for June 10 in the Carnahan Memorial Garden on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion.

“I hope the event grows so that we can do it in other cities,” she said. “The goal is for people to find meditation in yoga as a method of stress release and to promote a positive mental well-being.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, as many as 20 percent of veterans suffer from PTSD in a given year. Many battle depression or substance abuse or struggle to adjust to civilian life.

To help beat those numbers, Cox also volunteers with FitOps, a program that aims to help veterans gain confidence and find purpose and employment through physical fitness.

FitOps, which stands for Fitness Operatives, builds on the physical and leadership skills veterans acquired in the military and trains them as personal trainers who will in turn help improve the lives of others.

A focus on fitness She’s still a citizen-soldier and one of her roles is to train newly enlisted soldiers on proper fitness skills to prepare them for the rigors of basic training and beyond.

Cox went through the program herself and graduated with honors.

“I travel around the state visiting with soon-tobe soldiers, teaching them proper form and nutrition so they start off healthy and they don’t injure themselves,” she said.

“I’m a big believer that if you treat your body well and you feel well, that’s how you will be perceived, and that’s how you will treat others,” she said. “I think it’s all connected.”

In addition, she volunteers for several nonprofits that work to improve the lives of veterans.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Ryan an Durban U.S. Marine Corps

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

R

yan Durban had two goals: get a college degree, and then serve his country as an officer in the armed forces.

He was right on track, starting his second year at Benedictine College when terrorists struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Suddenly, he had a new plan.

“When 9/11 happened, I was in a Shakespearian English class,” Durban said. “I still remember that day very vividly, watching the news in the student center. We were all standing there in quiet disbelief.”

“When one airplane didn’t make its target because the brave people on the plane fought back, it hit me. I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t wait to join.”

At St. John Vianney High School and in college, Durban was a multi-sport athlete, running cross-country and track, swimming and playing hockey and rugby. He knew he was tough, so he chose the Marines because of their reputation for strength and tenacity.

Wounded in Iraq After boot camp and training as a rifleman, Durban arrived at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. By 2004, he was on his way to Iraq. Six months later, while on foot patrol, Cpl. Durban was knocked unconscious in an explosion and seriously wounded.

Durban, 35, of south St. Louis County, said he remembers little of what happened that day.

What he does recall is enduring four spinal surgeries over the next several years, as well as knee surgery, shoulder surgery and an operation to remove several feet of damaged veins from his left leg.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Two rods, six screws and three titanium discs now reside in his lower back along with bone harvested from his pelvis. “I was very active,” he said. “The hardest part for me was not being able to do the things I enjoyed.”

After his discharge, Durban was able to finish his biochemistry degree and went to work for Pfizer Inc. doing research on pharmaceuticals. After his last spinal fusion surgery in 2014, Durban was beginning to feel like his old self.

Another battle Then came a new foe.

Last year, shortly after he married and hoped to start a family with his wife, Beth, Durban was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. The diagnosis came after repeated bouts of pneumonia and strep throat that became increasingly difficult to recover from. The illnesses caused him to miss so much work that he was unable to continue at Pfizer.

“I kept getting sick,” he said. “I’d never had strep throat or pneumonia. By the third time I had it, it was taking four to six weeks to recover. I was missing a lot of work.”

Even on the Durbans’ honeymoon to Punta Cana in 2016, Ryan spiked a 105-degree fever that landed him in a Dominican Republic hospital, cutting the wedding trip short.

After his fifth time with pneumonia and strep, doctors ordered a needle biopsy of an enlarged lymph node under his left arm. It showed no cancer, but just seven weeks later, when he was sick again, doctors ordered a full biopsy. This time the diagnosis was different: Stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma. The cancer had spread to his liver and lungs.

After six months of high-dose chemotherapy, Durban is in remission. He said his doctor told him his chance of survival beyond five years was 50 percent.

“No luck at all” A few weeks ago, there was a new wrinkle.

Durban was diagnosed with epilepsy after his wife came home to find him lying on the living room floor unconscious.

“My mom likes to say if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” he said.

The epilepsy diagnosis has set him back again.

Though he was feeling better after chemotherapy, the newly diagnosed epilepsy prevents him from driving.

This summer, he plans to take online courses in computer science so he can work from home.

He misses his work and the camaraderie at Pfizer, where he enjoyed leading a veterans group called Veterans in Pfizer. As president of the group, he organized fundraisers and coupon drives, made care packages to send to soldiers overseas and lined up volunteers to help with the Greater St. Louis Honor Flight program.

“It was a lot of fun because I hadn’t been in an active group for a long time,” he said. “I enjoyed getting people involved, raising money and helping troops and their families. I’m not sure if anyone is running the group now.”

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SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Ralph Goldstick Goldsticker

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

U.S. Army Air Forces

alph Goldsticker Jr. was cl clerking att a dry goods store in downtown St. Louis when R the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He knew he would soon be called up to join other young men heading off to war.

He pictured himself as an aviator, though he’d never stepped foot on a plane. But figuring the air was a safer and more glamorous place to be than the ground, the 20-year-old signed up for the Aviation Cadet Corps, a program originally created by the U.S. Army.

“I’d seen too many movies with Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart,” said Goldsticker, now 96 and living in Creve Coeur. “I was thinking I wanted to be an officer. I didn’t want to be in the infantry.”

The second lieutenant known as “Goldie” ended up serving as a bombardier on a B-17 Flying Fortress. He flew 35 missions in 1944, including two on D-Day. Most of those missions over Europe were aboard a heavy bomber dubbed Deuces Wild, flying out of Deopham Green, near Norwich, England.

Every mission put him directly in harm’s way.

The 10-man crew on a B-17 faced attacks from enemy fighters as well as heavy antiaircraft fire.

Thousands of airmen were shot down as they attempted to destroy Nazi-controlled oil refineries, railroads and other industrial and military targets.

Goldsticker’s job as bombardier had him seated in the clear Plexiglas nose of the bomber with a clear view of the dangers he faced, two .50-caliber machine guns at his disposal and the responsibility for hitting and destroying the intended target. Though the Deuces Wild often returned to base with damage from flak, Goldsticker was never wounded.

“I was always scared,” he said. “Every time I went up, I figured I was going to die.”

D-Day skies were cloudy Late in the evening on June 5, 1944, Goldsticker and his crew were called in for a briefing about

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

the impending assault on the beaches of Normandy.

“We took off about 2 a.m.,” he remembered. “It was cloudy that morning and we couldn’t see much. Because there were so many planes in the air, we had to fly into Scotland to get into formation.”

After dropping its payload on Sword Beach, one of the five coastal landing areas, the bomber headed home to refuel. Then it was back over the channel to destroy a railroad junction further inland at Argentan.

“Now we could see everything,” Goldsticker said. “Someone said you could walk from England to France on boats, there were that many.”

“We were in the air 14 1/2 hours that day,” he added. “It was a long day for us but for the poor guys on the ground, it was a different story.

Those are the real heroes.”

Damage control over Munich Only once was a member of Goldsticker’s crew wounded. It was July 31, 1944, at 27,000 feet above Munich, when a burst of flak directly beneath the plane knocked out two of its four engines and ripped 70 holes through its skin.

One piece of flak pierced the armored seat of the co-pilot, tore through his upper leg and out through the roof.

“I got the first aid kit and gave him a shot of morphine and sprinkled sulphur on it,” Goldsticker said. “We couldn’t keep up with the formation with only two engines. We were sitting ducks for the Germans.”

The crew tried to fly into Switzerland but it was fogged in, so they limped back to England, tossing out everything that wasn’t nailed down to lighten the load.

Afterward, Goldsticker wrote home to his mother that he had used the first-aid skills he learned in Boy Scouts to keep pressure on the co-pilot’s wounds for the three and a half hours it took to return to England. At 27,000 feet, blood would freeze, he said, but as the plane lost altitude it began to flow.

Keeper of history Now retired as a clothing manufacturer’s rep, Goldsticker enjoys speaking to students and other groups about his wartime experiences. He clearly remembers details of his missions and shares memorabilia such as letters, maps and even the tiny pin of the first bomb he dropped on D-Day. One letter home described the time his crew was stranded in Russia after the Germans bombed the Poltava airfield. Forty-eight American bombers were parked wingtip to wingtip. All but one was destroyed, he said.

The attack began about midnight. The airmen sleeping in tents around the perimeter of the airfield fled into the night, diving into slit trenches for cover. “I ran about a quarter mile and found a Russian family hiding in a trench and dove in there with them,” Goldsticker said.

The setback forced the Americans into downtime until a transport plane arrived. Goldsticker wrote home to his parents: “There isn’t much to do around here except eat and sleep. Last night I went to a Russian operetta. I don’t know if it was good or not, but the singing and dancing was OK.” Goldsticker finished out his service in 1945 but served in the Reserves until 1958. He was promoted to captain during the Korean War but was never called to active duty. Today, he plays bridge four or five times a week and volunteers as a greeter at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

He says he’s not a hero, but others do. He has the medals from three different countries to prove it.

In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross and five Army 8th Air Force service medals, he also received a medal from Russia. Three years ago, the French government bestowed upon him its highest distinction — the Legion of Honor medal — for risking his life to help liberate France from the Nazis.

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

11

Emir Hadzic U.S. Marine Corps

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

mir Hadzic and his family il immigrated E to the United States to escape the conflict in their native Bosnia. He soon enlisted

Honor in serving

Growing up during the Bosnian War, the military was ever present. There were plenty of times as a Bosnian in a Serbian-held re“I felt a calling,” he said. “The United States gion that he found himself in life-threatenallowed me to start anew, and now Ameri- ing situations. ca’s sons and daughters were going to my native country risking life and limb. I felt like I “The military wasn’t exactly a foreign conneeded to be a part of that.” cept to me,” Hadzic said. “But the experience from war showed me that there’s a great Hadzic joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serv- deal of honor in serving your nation.” ing 20 years for a country he wasn’t born in.

Now retired as a gunnery sergeant, his sense When he and his mother and younger brothof duty, loyalty and gratitude to his adopted er arrived in California in 1995, Hadzic was home still play a major role in his life. These just 17. As soon as he obtained his green days, Hadzic, now 40, serves St. Louis Coun- card, he enlisted, acting on what he felt was ty as a police officer. an obligation to give back. in the military hoping to go right back.

Hadzic chose the Marines because of its rep- “When I came to the United States, the best utation as a fearsome fighting force, ready at of America was on full display,” he said. a moment’s notice. His service included two “Everybody was very warm and welcomed tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and us with open arms. I can’t tell you how much various non-combat deployments at home I valued every ‘Welcome to America’ and and abroad. handshake I received.”

Eventually he did serve in Bosnia as part of NATO’s Security Cooperation mission, and his native countrymen welcomed him.

Hadzic’s service as an infantryman — especially tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he built relationships with people in the communities where he worked — helped “These missions were designed to profes- steer him to his post-military career as a posionalize and help develop Bosnian military lice officer. up to NATO standards,” he said. “Bosnian military personnel were extremely pleased to “Marines have such a great relationship with see me as part of the NATO cadre and eager people abroad,” he said. “We were patrolling to cooperate in all of our assignments.” our routes, basically like cops on a beat.”

He said he was impressed with the Bosnian military’s improvements since the war, as well as its ability to be a multiethnic, single entity in a country where interethnic instability had in some cases been promoted by local government officials.

12

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

a Marine Corps recruiter for several years.

He was lined up for a job in sales but couldn’t shake the idea that he was meant to continue his life of service.

Within months, he dropped out of the corporate world and entered the St. Louis County police academy. News stories of the schisms splitting police and communities further galvanized his desire to become a public servant at home.

“The experience of war showed me that there’s a great deal of honor in serving your nation.”

“I heard many stories about what went on in Ferguson,” he said. “It was pretty disheartening that something like that could be happening in St. Louis to people who risk their lives to keep us safe. That was an extra motivation for me to keep on doing what I do.”

“Serving as a Marine was an honor, as is being a police officer today,” he said.

To protect and serve at home Soon after he retired as a Marine, Hadzic and his wife settled in west St. Louis County, where they now live with their two sons.

Some of his extended family had relocated to St. Louis and he also had worked here as SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Richard d Hastings

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

ichard “Rick” Hastings Jr. wanted to serve R his country as his father and grandfather had done before him.

“It ran in the family,” Hastings said. “You might say it was a calling.”

Hastings’ grandfather served during World War II and lost an arm fighting in the Pacific. His father signed up to go to Vietnam and came home with a Purple Heart for each of his three tours.

But Hastings’ own military career got off to a rocky start when he shattered his leg, ankle and foot in a night jump during training at Fort Benning, Ga. The injury forced him to chart a new course toward serving, but he persevered as a combat engineer with the Individual Ready Reserve during Desert Storm.

U.S. Army Reserve

when Iraq invaded Kuwait and American troops were being prepared to go overseas as part of Operation Desert Shield, he volunteered again.

“We stuck it out,” he said. “We dug some fox holes around the tractor trailer and took turns trying to sleep” until they were retrieved by a squad of Marines.

“I wanted to go,” he said. “I thought I still had something to give.

A struggle to get by

Landing in a sandstorm

After his discharge in 1993, Hastings struggled with physical and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder. He worked on and off at a series of manual labor jobs that

He enlisted as part of the Individual Ready Reserve and was called up just before Christmas 1990. Before the start of the new year, he landed in a full-blown sandstorm in Saudi Arabia, something that became a familiar sight over the next few months as he transported tanks and other heavy equipment from camp to camp.

“They bounced me around wherever they needed me,” he said.

Facing a different battle Following the Gulf War, the St. Louis County man found himself battling a different war — one filled with the struggles of unemployment, homelessness, family stress, physical pain and mental health issues.

“It hit me hard,” the 52-year-old Hastings said.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one.”

Hastings was 17 when he signed up for the National Guard. With the Junior ROTC training he’d completed in high school, he entered the service as a private first class. After boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood, he was sent to Fort Benning for Jump School training. He had dreams of being an Airborne Ranger like his father.

But on his second jump he landed wrong, shattering his leg so badly doctors told him he would never walk without a cane. He spent nine months in a non-weight bearing, full-leg cast and was discharged from the National Guard.

Hastings still wanted to serve, though. In 1990 SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Hastings said he would spend two or three weeks out in the desert at a time and quickly learned that a huge Mack truck hauling 80 tons of equipment was a pretty big target, even traveling 70 mph. It was best to keep going, he said, through sandstorms, oil fires and even herds of sheep, because “even if you could stop, you’d sink.”

On one trip, his truck rolled over an IED that destroyed the rear of his trailer, but he kept moving forward on eight wheels. When he steered out of the “hot zone” he was able to stop and make in-the-field repairs that allowed him to hobble back to camp.

“I got unloaded, they gave me another trailer and I went back out,” he said.

Another time, he and another soldier transporting a Bradley tank were separated from their convoy in a sandstorm when the truck’s rear axle snapped. They ground to a halt and were stranded for three days in a combat zone with only six MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and fewer than a dozen bottles of water between them.

“I wanted to go. I thought I still had something to give.”

took a toll on his health, and at one point found himself homeless after a broken marriage.

After health problems landed him in the hospital in 2008, Hastings reached out to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office looking for help. She put him in touch with a veterans’ attorney who helped him get approved for full disability benefits.

Hastings considers himself one of the lucky ones. Thousands of veterans who served were traumatized by their experiences, and too many are not receiving the help they deserve, he said.

He hopes his story will help other veterans reach out for the assistance they deserve.

“Never give up,” he would tell them. “Never surrender.”

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

13

SuperJam playing on stage in 2017.

Sponsored content and photos provided by Community Coffee

VETERANS C HELPING VETERANS

ommunity Coffee Company has been operated by four generations of the Saurage family since its inception, and they understand the importance of family. “As a family-owned and operated company, we understand the difference family makes,” said David Belanger, president and CEO of Community Coffee Company.

This year, Community Coffee is partnering with Songs4Soldiers (S4S) who also puts families 14

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

first. The local organization’s mission is ‘to enrich the lives of combat veterans and their families who have limited resources … honoring their service through effective assistance in everyday situations.’ Songs4Soldiers aids in funding various needs such as mortgage payments, home repairs and medical bills — among many others.

Dustin Row is the founder of Songs4Solders; he’s also a musician and a veteran. Row’s original idea was to start by helping “4” veterans a year. Since 2013, the all-volunteer led nonprofit SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

organization has assisted close to 320 veterans and disbursed over $400,000.

A SECOND CHANCE So far this year, the nonprofit has assisted in a variety of ways. An Army veteran of Iraq had both vehicles break down simultaneously; S4S provided him a donated vehicle. An Air Force veteran moved closer to her children and used up all of her funds to make the move; S4S helped her with groceries.

A Navy veteran needed repairs to his home; S4S helped repair his furnace. An Army National Guard veteran had some unexpected home repairs; S4S assisted with one mortgage payment.

The list of requests are endless, but fortunately, so are the responses.

“Veterans in need often feel alone,” Row said. “When a veteran or family member reaches out to us, they talk to a person, not a machine. Songs4Soldiers exists to give veterans a second chance. We operate on a moral code of taking care of one another — just like on the battlefield.”

MEANINGFUL PARTNERSHIPS Many veterans often seek employment assistance after their service ends. Through a partnership with Home Depot, S4S encourages unemployed veterans to apply and assists with the application process.

Home Depot has hired more than 55,000 veterans since 2012.

Home Depot provides a work SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Volunteers and committee members surrounding Bret Michaels at the 2017 concert.

National Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.

include a Kids Zone featuring bounce houses, balloons and interactive projects.

“This concert isn’t just any other concert,” Row said. “This annual weekend benefit concert creates a year of kindness, hope and above all, gratitude. Not only for veterans, but for the community, donors and volunteers.”

A team of Home Depot volunteers help a WW2 Veteran on a home-remodeling project.

environment that values the skills learned through military services while providing the needed flexibility.

The partnership with Home Depot also extends to home repair projects. Some of the requests received are considered bigger projects. “We partner with the local Home Depot store and their workers come out and work on these larger projects,” Row said. “It’s considered part of our Songs4Soldiers Team Depot Foundation Project. These projects don’t cost us anything!”

MORE THAN JUST A CONCERT Songs4Soldiers will be hosting their 6th annual benefit concert October 5 and 6 at Bolm-Schuhkraft City Park in Columbia, Illinois. The band lineup for Friday evening will feature Diamond Rio and Granger Smith, along with two local acts; Elliott Pearson and Clusterpluck. Saturday brings SuperJam, Pettycash Junction and Kim Massie, along with local acts; Dazed n’ Confused STL, Whiskey Dixon, The Dave Glover Band and Steve Ewing. Saturday will also

“Great service means exceeding customer expectations, giving back to our local communities generously and supporting our employees and partners in every way we can,” Belanger said.

Every penny raised goes directly to aiding and assisting veterans.

Community Coffee is a proud sponsor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Stories of Honor program. Community Coffee’s Military Match program supports troops by doubling online coffee orders and sending care packages to active-duty military, with over 6.1 million cups of coffee donated this past year.

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

15

Jim Hellmann

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

U.S. Marine Corps

emories still flood od back nearly a 70 years M later, often when he least expects it, sometimes in the form of nightmares.

James “Jim” Hellmann Sr. finally set down his memories from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, writing in longhand on a stack of papers at his O’Fallon, Mo., kitchen table, in an effort to share his experience with his four grown children for the first time.

of his service boxing against other Marines and playing baseball for the Corps.

When the Korean War began in June 1950, Cpl. Hellmann and his fellow “jocks” were thrown into the infantry and shipped off to Korea.

“They said, ‘you’re a machine gun squad leader now. Here’s the manual,’” Hellmann remembered.

A Purple Heart

“You just keep it to yourself,” Hellmann said.

He thinks back to December 1950, his fellow Marines outnumbered and hemmed in by the Chinese in the frigid mountains of North Korea, the fierce fight to escape, the dead and dying, the unforgiving cold, the frostbite and the exhaustion that marked that time in history. “I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Despite the horrors of “yesterday” and the nightmares that still disturb his rest, Hellmann says he can’t help but feel compassion for the enemy soldiers he faced. So many were killed, wounded or froze to death in some of the most brutal conditions imaginable.

“They had families, they had a desire to go home just like we did,” he said. “They were suffering and trying to survive, too.”

Hellmann, now 86 and retired from the printing business, grew up in St. Louis during the Depression. He was the oldest in a family of five whose father, a plumber, was drafted into the Army at age 38. The elder Hellmann served two years in France in the medical corps during World War II, leaving 12-year-old Jim to help support the family with whatever odd jobs he could find.

After his return from the war, his father expected Hellmann to work with him as a plumber, but Hellmann had other ideas. A month shy of his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. It was 1948, and with no inkling of trouble brewing, Hellmann spent the first months 16

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

By late September, Hellmann and the 1st Marines had landed at Inchon and liberated Seoul from the North Koreans in a bloody battle that earned Hellmann a Purple Heart after he was hit by a grenade. “It felt like a thousand small pieces of rock and metal hitting my body,” he wrote in his memories. “I was stunned, but stayed on my gun.”

After three days at the aid station, where medics picked shrapnel out of his body with tweezers, Hellmann was back on duty. The worst was yet to come.

Within weeks, the Marines were shipped to the other side of the Korean peninsula and disembarked to begin a long march north toward the Chosin Reservoir. Temperatures dipped to 35 degrees below zero; rations, weapons and fingers froze. The ground was so hard the men resorted to picks and chisels to dig fox holes.

By the end of November, Marines and other UN forces found themselves surrounded and outnumbered by Chinese troops in an epic, 17day battle. Cut off from supplies and suffering from the bitter cold with parkas and boots that were ill-suited for such extreme temperatures, they dug in as best they could.

“The Chinese came at us in hordes,” Hellmann said. “We held them off and the dead were piling up in front of our lines. The ground was littered with Chinese.”

With their own casualties mounting from combat and cold, the Marines turned to go back the way they had come: a long, torturous 78-mile march down a narrow mountain road.

“There were cliffs on one side and sheer dropoffs on the other,” Hellmann said. “The Chinese dug in on the cliffs, sniping and throwing grenades down on us. At night, we would rotate going up the cliffs to kick them out. There was heavy snow and the going was slow.”

“God was in my corner” Columns of Marines were trailed by thousands of refugees suffering as well. After days of fighting off snipers, Hellmann collapsed on the frozen road.

“We were all in a daze,” he said. “I fell, and I remember it was a relief. Guys going by would kick me to see if I was alive.”

Tempted to give up, Hellmann knew he couldn’t. “I don’t think I ever gave up on the idea that God was in my corner.”

As they drew closer to Hungnam, where Navy ships waited to evacuate the UN troops, Hellmann’s outfit ran across an Army convoy that had been ambushed and killed. Cans of frozen fruit littered the road, along with the dead.

“Despite the circumstances, we thought we were in heaven,” he said. “I remember cutting my hand trying to open a can of frozen peaches with my knife. Those were the best icy peaches I’ve ever had.”

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17

Larry yH Helm

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

U.S. Marine Corps

ust weeks after landing in the South VietnamJHelm ese jungle, U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Larry was in the fight of his life.

entery that he was sent to recuperate in Japan.

He said his weight had dropped to 89 pounds.

In the dark of the early morning hours on May 8, 1970, 21-year-old Helm was awakened by explosions. His unit, encamped near a small village in Quang Ngai Province, was surrounded and outnumbered by enemy forces.

Living and fighting in the Vietnamese villages Helm said he attributed his illness to his time serving in the Combined Action Platoon, whose goal was to integrate into a Vietnamese village and provide safety and training to the farmers and their families as well as to gather intelligence on the Viet Cong.

“I was asleep,” remembered Helm, who served as a mortarman with a Combined Action Platoon, a specialized counterinsurgency effort.

“When I heard all the explosions, I knew it was time to get to work.”

The fighting finally came to an end near sun-up as the Americans gained the upper hand, killing a number of the enemy and sending the rest fleeing into the surrounding countryside. Among the injured was Helm, who was awarded a Purple Heart.

When the sun came up “When the sun came up, everybody said, God, what happened to you?” Helm said. “I was wearing an armored vest but my arms, neck and face were covered with blood.”

Helm’s buddy, Lance Cpl. Miguel Keith, a machine gunner, was killed in the attack and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor. Helm said the 18-year-old Keith’s actions and bravery saved many lives that day.

His Medal of Honor citation says that despite being severely wounded by a grenade, Keith’s actions contributed significantly to his platoon’s success in routing the enemy.

“He saved us,” Helm said. “He fought off the bad guys.”

Following the fight, Helm was sent to a hospital ship to recover from multiple shrapnel wounds.

Once patched up, he was sent to a regular infantry unit but at one point became so ill from dys18

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

The members of the platoon were trained in the culture and language of the area, he said. Yet for Helm, who had had grown up in St. Louis, landing in a remote hamlet in Vietnam was an eye-opener.

“Everyone lived in a one-room mud hut — mom, dad, grandma, grandpa — with no running water,” he said. “Talk about going back in time. Being in that environment was thousands of years old — boy, that was so different to see.”

Helm said the platoon was well-received by the locals and the Marines were often invited to share a meal with the villagers.

“We ate there a lot,” he said. “Anytime there was a birth or a wedding, there was a celebration and we were invited to eat.”

Down event was held in San Diego in 1988, and Helm worked to introduce a similar program in St. Louis, as well as a sister program, Stand Up for Women Veterans.

Today, the St. Louis program is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which hosts one-day events to provide homeless vets with services and resources ranging from haircuts and clothing to assistance with jobs, housing, legal issues, and medical and mental health concerns.

“When I heard

all the explosions, I knew it was time to get to work.”

The Americans had plenty of their own food to eat, he said. “But it was all canned stuff. It wasn’t really as tasty.”

Respite for homeless veterans After his discharge in 1971, Helm returned to St. Louis, where he worked as a traveling salesman for the Gruendler Crusher & Pulverizer Co. While visiting a customer in California, Helm learned about the Stand Down program, a community-based intervention effort aimed at bringing together resources and supplies to address the needs of homeless veterans.

The program is based on the Stand Down concept used during the Vietnam War to provide a respite for battle-weary soldiers. The first Stand

Helm, now 69, retired in 2011 after 15 years as a veterans’ representative for the St. Louis County Veterans Program, helping countless veterans connect with the services and benefits they have earned.

He also has volunteered in a number of veterans groups, including the National Veterans Task Force on Agent Orange, the St. Louis Area Veterans Consortium and he frequently speaks to school groups about his service in Vietnam.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Harry ry H Hope

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

orean War veteran Harry Hope always K carries a few Tootsie Rolls in his pocket, a small but powerful reminder of one of the most horrific experiences in his life.

Hope and his fellow Marines were pinned down and outnumbered by Chinese troops in the mountains of North Korea during what came to be known as the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

The brutal cold in November and December 1950 had frozen their rations and they were running desperately low on ammunition.

Using their code word for mortars, the Marines sent word: “If we don’t get Tootsie Rolls, we can’t survive,” Hope said.

The message was misunderstood on the receiving end; however, and when the airdrop arrived it was filled with boxes of the little chocolate candies. Hope said the men made the best of it and stuffed their pockets with the candy, finding that just a little body warmth was enough to make the treats pliable enough to chew.

“Those Tootsie Rolls actually saved our lives,” Hope said. “That’s the only thing we had to eat.”

The Chosin Few Eventually more ammunition arrived and Hope and his fellow Marines fought their way some 70 miles back down a snowy mountain path to the sea, evacuating dead and wounded. Thousands were killed or wounded or like Hope, suffered severe frostbite from temperatures that dropped to 35 degrees below zero.

The battle remains one of the toughest in American history and its surviving heroes are known as the Chosin Few. “It was the coldest winter on record at that time,” Hope said.

Despite injuries from frostbite that still cause problems for him today, Hope served in the Marines until 1958, a total of 10 years.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

U.S. Marine Corps But that wasn’t the extent of his military service.

He actually joined the U.S. Navy in 1947 when he was just 16, then transferred to the Marines the following year, serving in the Mediterranean, Korea and Japan. He later became a member of the Air Force Reserves and then the Air National Guard. He retired from the National Guard in 1991 at the age of 60.

Today, at age 86, Hope focuses on honoring the men and women who served our country.

He volunteers with numerous veterans organizations, including the Greater St. Louis Honor Flight. He is also vice commandant of the St. Louis chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association and president of the Gateway Chapter of the Chosin Few. He’s a member of the 1st Marine Division Association, the VFW, the American Legion, the Retired Enlisted Association, the St. Louis Chapter of the POW/MIA, AMVETS and the Disabled American Veterans.

And he regularly attends troop deployments and visits with service men and women at the USO at Lambert Airport, especially during Christmas.

Many weeks you will find him honoring a fellow veteran at funerals and other services.

“There’s nothing greater than one veteran helping another,” he said.

“That’s why I stay busy” Hope says he learned years ago that serving others keeps him from dwelling on the horrors he witnessed in Korea. “I’m never not thinking about it,” he said. “That’s why I stay busy.”

As president of the St. Louis chapter of the Chosin Few, Hope was instrumental in building a monument that now stands in Forest Park and features the names of area veterans who served during the Battle of The Chosin Reservoir.

Perhaps his biggest labor of love is the Greater St. Louis Honor Flight, for which he serves as president emeritus. The Honor Flight program organizes free trips to Washington D.C. to allow our nation’s veterans to view the memorials honoring their sacrifices. Hope is a founding member of the St. Louis County chapter and has traveled with the group on about 30 of its more than 70 trips so far.

He still helps organize and set up the flights, arriving at the airport about 2 a.m. to line up wheelchairs and make sure all is in order for the honored guests when they arrive for their early morning flight. Along with his wife, he returns to the airport in the evening to help prepare for their homecoming. He said he would continue to help “as long as I can, until they say, ‘Harry, quit.’”

“There’s nothing greater than one veteran helping another.”

On Veterans Day 2013, Hope himself was one of the cherished Honor Flight guests along with a dozen other surviving members of the Chosin Few. It was difficult to sit back and bask in the glory.

“Oh, that was hard,” he said. “They kept saying, ‘Now, Harry, sit down.’”

“I talked to 47 different groups in one summer and raised $25,000,” he said.

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

19

George ge H Hutchings

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

U.S. Marine Corps

eorge Hutchings nearly gave a his life f on G the battlefield in Vietnam. Now he’s in the business of providing life-giving clean water to

that buddy was struck in the chest by enemy rocket fire.

people who thirst.

“Intuitively, I knew that my life had been saved in order to do something important in my old age,” Hutchings said. “So what have I been doing for the last 10 years? I’ve been going for the boots, and I’ve been going for the water.”

Not to mention shoes, medical supplies, food and schools.

Hutchings, 69, has been the force behind several charities that work around the world. His most recent project, The Aqua Effect, recently dug a well through hard African granite to provide access to clean drinking water in a remote village in Kenya.

It took a few years after his medical discharge from the military before Hutchings figured out what he was called to do. Eventually he landed in St. Louis and became a Baptist minister.

Hutchings was a high school student from Southeast Missouri when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967. While serving in Vietnam in 1968 he was severely injured, earning a Purple Heart.

The Shoeman cometh Through his work, Hutchings became acquainted with a student at Missouri Baptist University. John Kihumba was using every dime he could spare to send used shoes home to his native Kenya, where many people went without.

Shot three times in the hip when he and his men were ambushed, he lay on the battlefield, playing dead and praying to God. “Three people in front of me were killed, and a couple behind me,” he said. “I’m laying out in no man’s land, they were shooting over my head, and I said ‘God, if you’ll get me out of here, I’ll live for you the rest of my life.’”

The next thing he knew, a corporal was crawling out under enemy fire to drag him to safety.

It was the second time Hutchings felt God spared his life during the Vietnam War. The first time was in October 1967 during Operation Medina in which more than 30 Marines were killed and 140 wounded. Sgt. Hutchings was sitting in a muddy foxhole trying to wring out his socks when a superior directed him to collect drinking water from a nearby stream.

Before he could get his boots back on, a buddy volunteered to go in his place. Moments later, 20

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Together, Kihumba and Hutchings shipped 30,000 pairs of shoes to Kenya in 1999, launching a partnership that continued until 2007, when Kihumba was killed in Africa.

Hutchings came to be known as the Shoeman for his efforts to collect donated footwear from schools, churches and businesses throughout the region. Initially, the shoes were sent to Kenya, and later they were sold overseas to provide food and medical supplies.

“Every year we did something that exhausted us physically and financially,” Hutchings said. “We sent the shoes, and eventually the shoes wore out. We fed the kids, and the next day they were hungry. Everything I did was just a spit in the ocean.”

thing,” he said. “A woman in Kenya walks six to eight miles a day to get water from a muddy river, and she fills up a five-gallon jerry can and walks all the way back. It’s a dangerous trip. If I can drill water for them, it relieves that woman of a day of toil and terror.”

The accessibility of clean drinking water also helps improve the health of her community, provides water for gardens and livestock, and relieves the children of some of the daily work that keeps them from getting an education.

Between 2008 and 2014, Hutchings’ Shoeman Water Projects collected and sold four million pounds of shoes and dug more than 300 wells in Kenya, providing clean water to thousands.

The mission lives on: The Aqua Effect After more than a decade of Shoeman missions, Hutchings retired in 2014 due to health issues. But soon he signed on with another charity, The Aqua Effect, which raised money to drill a well for drinking water in a small village in Kenya. The organization is currently building a boarding school for girls there.

“Two years ago they had no clean water, no electricity and no high school,” he said.

Come January, Hutchings said, he will make one more international trip in order to see the grand opening of Juanita’s School for Girls, which will provide housing, food and education for about 400 students whose education previously would have stopped after eighth grade.

“There was still fire in my belly,” Hutchings said. “I believed I could do more.”

Water changes everything Then Hutchings had an epiphany: water.

“Water could be sustained. It changes every

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

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SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

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21

Charles les Kohle Kohler

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

hen news broke that Pearl Harbor b had W been attacked by the Japanese, two St. Louis brothers signed up to fight back. Only one brother came home.

Charles “Charlie” Kohler, now 96, remembers driving home from hunting rabbits in St. Charles County with a buddy on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

“When we turned on the radio, we heard ‘The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘Do you know where Pearl Harbor is?’ We didn’t know, can you imagine that?”

Charlie Kohler, 20 years old with a promising baseball career ahead of him, and his kid brother, Edwin “Eddie” Kohler, 18, soon enlisted in the U.S. Marines Corps. They found themselves fighting in the islands and atolls of the Pacific Ocean.

Kohler said he had seen news reports about the tenaciousness of the Marines fighting at Wake Island and he knew it was the outfit for him.

Brothers in arms “My father said, ‘Why don’t you go together and protect each other?,’” Kohler remembered.

U.S. Marine Corps On O Feb. 19, 1945, the brothers were part of the amphibious assault on the volcanic island of Iwo Jima. Eddie was a “flamethrower,” among the first wave of Marines to make the landing.

Charlie’s company followed and was soon under heavy fire as they worked their way forward. He and four other men sought shelter in a sandy depression but could not hide from the Japanese defenders holed up in the caves above them on Mount Suribachi.

“I thought I was in heaven.”

“They were knocking the hell out of us,” Kohler said. “We got down in that shell hole, so maybe we could live. But the Japanese could see us from Suribachi and they dropped a bomb on our hole.

We were all hit.”

Kohler was knocked out cold; all four buddies were killed. “I realized I was hit. When I woke up, I looked up and saw a bright light, like a tube going up to the heavens. I thought I was in heaven,” he said.

But as his head cleared, he realized the fighting was still raging around him. He started to crawl the 200 yards back to where the Navy boats were pouring more Marines onto the beach, with his right leg injured and multiple shrapnel wounds.

Both boys were sent to Camp Pendleton in California but were soon separated. Charlie, a gunnery sergeant, was assigned to an anti-tank group stationed in Maui that went on to help take the islands of Roi-Namur, Saipan and Tinian.

With Japanese mortars and artillery raining down, Kohler was hit again in the other leg. A Navy coxswain motioned to him as he got closer, and Kohler inched his way up the ramp of the landing craft just before the gate closed.

Eddie found himself at a desk job in Bermuda.

As soon as he could, he requested a transfer back to his brother’s unit, regrouping in Hawaii before the Battle of Iwo Jima.

As the bloody battle continued on Iwo Jima, Kohler lay on a bunk on the USS Bayfield off the coast, unaware that only 40 feet away lay his brother, mortally wounded. Eddie Kohler was buried at sea Feb. 20, 1945, and his brother didn’t hear the news until days later when he was transported back to Pearl Harbor.

“All of a sudden, I saw him walking up to my tent,” Kohler remembered. “I said, ‘What in the world are you doing here?’ He said, ‘I want to do what I was trained to do. I want to fight the Japanese.”’

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STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Today, the flag with 48 stars that draped Eddie’s coffin flies outside of his Warson Woods home.

The Stars and Stripes Days after Kohler was injured, as he was being transferred to another ship that would take him to a hospital on Guam, he saw in the distance another American flag — the one the Marines raised atop Mount Suribachi — the iconic image that photographer Joe Rosenthal captured and shared with the world.

“They were just putting it up,” Kohler said. He remembered thinking the battle must be over, but in fact, the fierce fighting continued for weeks before the Americans gained the upper hand.

Kohler spent most of the next year being treated for his wounds. Though he had been a star slugger at McBride High School and played a year with a Brooklyn Dodgers minor league team, his injuries kept him from returning to the game.

Back in St. Louis, Kohler went to work at his father’s printing business, which he later ran for many years. He married and raised three sons.

Years later, he attended reunions of the survivors of the 23rd Regimental Weapons Company, which had served with valor in the Pacific.

There, the men pledged that the last two standing would share a bottle of champagne.

Kohler’s son, Keith, has spent many hours writing his father’s history and searching for the remaining members of the company in order to carry out that promise. According to his research, there are only four others remaining.

“I am committed to fulfill this covenant so the last two men may make the toast,” Keith Kohler said.

“My parents knew before I did,” Kohler said.

“The chaplain came in and he said, ‘I’ve got something I don’t want to tell you, but I have to.’”

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

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Frank ank M Martinez U.S. Navy

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

unger pangs set the course for Frank H Martinez’ military life and he wound up spending 24 years and three wars cooking for

morning was put to work scrubbing pots and pans. Not the most glamorous job, he said, “but I did have plenty to eat.”

hungry sailors.

“I didn’t have too many complaints, but then again people didn’t have any place else to eat,” joked Martinez, a U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard aircraft carriers, destroyers, oilers and minesweepers during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

These days, Martinez, now 90, cooks mostly for himself and his wife at their home in O’Fallon, Ill. But for years after his retirement from the military as a senior chief petty officer, he was still dishing up meals for hundreds at a time as a volunteer for the Shriners and the Scottish Rite.

“I did that for about 20 years,” said Martinez, a longtime Freemason bestowed the high honor of 33rd degree. “I would cook items like roast beef, meatloaf, pork chops and fried chicken.

Sometimes I was cooking for 300 or 400 people and back in the 1970s it was more like 1,500 people.”

“I was kind of hungry” Martinez was a newly enlisted sailor heading to his first assignment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean when hunger struck. He had joined the Navy in St. Louis in 1944 at age 17, then completed basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes. From there, he and hundreds of other sailors were sent west via train to board a ship that would eventually rendezvous with the USS Hornet.

When the young sailors finally boarded the Hornet and were lined up on deck, the ship’s officers walked the rows asking, “What do you want to be?” Martinez had learned his lesson and was ready with a reply: “I want to be a cook.’”

“Starting out, I didn’t do much cooking but I was with the food,” he said.

Though World War II was nearing its end, the Hornet continued to see plenty of action in the Pacific, including supporting the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It survived numerous air attacks before it was caught in a typhoon in June 1945, badly damaging its flight deck.

“I was down below the decks and happy I was there,” Martinez said. “We could feel everything. You felt kind of woozy at times. It was rough.”

Extra mouths to feed The damage to the Hornet sent the carrier back to the States. But its overhaul was completed in time for it to go back to work transporting veterans home from the Pacific as part of Operation Magic Carpet.

But for Martinez and his kitchen counterparts, that meant thousands of extra mouths to feed.

Accustomed to feeding some 3,500 sailors three meals a day, now they were hustling from sun up to sun down to accommodate thousands more men — and for the first time, women were being bunked on the hangar decks.

“We were all young 17- and 18-year-old kids,” Martinez said. “They didn’t feed us very well.

I was kind of hungry and went down to the galley and asked a big fat cook if I could have something to eat.”

“We would finish one meal and start on another,” he said. “We would feed them standing up.”

The cook took one look at the young recruit and said, “Show up tomorrow morning at 4 a.m.” Martinez did as he was told and the next

Throughout his naval career, Martinez served as a cook on destroyers, oilers, minesweepers, and even a tug transporting gun barrels from

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

the Naval Gun Factory in Washington D.C. down the Potomac River to Virginia.

When the Korean War began, he was aboard the USS Leyte, another aircraft carrier, whose pilots flew nearly 4,000 sorties (short flights) against North Korean forces. The Leyte spent 92 days at sea, 52 consecutively.

Later, when Martinez was assigned to an oil tanker, the USS Mattaponi, he thought it meant he would go ashore more often to load up on fuel. “I was really happy when I got on the oiler,” he said. “I thought we’d get to go into shore sometimes but they just sent a bigger oiler out to us.”

Martinez met his wife, Terry in Japan and they were married in Tokyo in 1958. Terry’s father was a supply officer in the Japanese navy.

When Martinez retired from the military 10 years later, he and Terry returned to St. Louis where he went to work at Scott Air Force Base as the assistant manager of the NCO Club and later as the manager of the commissary.

Though he’s no longer serving up breakfast for sailors, he’s still in the habit of rising at 4 a.m. every day. Monday through Friday he hits the gym and then arrives at the golf course by 7 a.m. to play 18 holes with other veterans, most of whom are in their 60s.

“I walked until I was 80 but now I take the golf cart,” he said. “I don’t really worry about the score now. I go out and enjoy myself and say a little prayer of thanks that I’m able to be out there.”

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

25

By Lori Rose

Don Ohmes U.S. Army

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

o combat the burden of al all the horrors r T he experienced 50 years ago in Vietnam, U.S. Army veteran Don Ohmes pours him-

body or have somebody shooting at me. It’s a major miracle I got out alive.”

self into athletics.

Ohmes, who now lives in O’Fallon, Mo., grew up in St. Peters and was drafted at age 19. After boot camp and training he was sent to Vietnam in August 1967, where he served with the Mobile Riverine Force, tasked with search and destroy missions throughout the Mekong Delta.

From bodybuilding and track and field to coaching youth sports, Ohmes discovered one way to help ward off recurring thoughts and images was to stay busy. Now at age 71, the former infantryman has earned certification to become a personal trainer and hopes to help others experience the positive mental and physical health benefits of an active lifestyle.

“One of the best things for me is to stay active,” Ohmes said. “I’m afraid of what would happen if I wasn’t active.”

The former sergeant rarely chooses to talk about his service in Vietnam except with his therapist. Yet, all of these years later, Ohmes remembers the names and faces of the buddies who were killed like it was yesterday; there was the conscientious objector who served unarmed as a medic, the American Indian soldier who was shot by a sniper while leading a patrol and the staff sergeant who initiated a heroic rescue mission only to be killed a few months later in yet another firefight.

Faces of the enemy He remembers the faces of the enemy, too — the Viet Cong prisoner who spent hours hiding underwater in a rice paddy breathing through a reed like something you’d see in the movies. Or others who were hiding in bunkers and blown up by grenades or burned by napalm.

“There isn’t a day that goes by when the thoughts don’t come up,” Ohmes said. “The last thing I wanted to do was shoot some26

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Search and destroy “We were basically Army guys on Navy boats,” he said. “We’d get up at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning and sweep through different areas searching for the enemy.” For a few weeks, the bigger danger seemed to be drowning, he said. Americans, loaded down with boots and gear, struggled to slog through the canals and tributaries even if they were experienced swimmers.

“More people drowned than were getting shot,” he said. “All that gear — sometimes they’d go down and not come up.”

But early in December the fighting intensified, and Ohmes saw carnage that still haunts him.

One of the most vivid memories is from Feb. 1, 1968, just after the start of the Tet Offensive. His company headed upriver and disembarked on a beach near My Tho with the goal of retaking the city. Almost immediately, they were under heavy sniper fire and suffered numerous casualties.

Five of their guys on point were pinned down, one killed and one wounded. Ohmes and three others organized a rescue mission to retrieve them, but in the process, another soldier was wounded and several became trapped under heavy fire.

“There’s all kinds of shooting going on,” Ohmes said. “We’re in the middle and nobody knows we’re up there. It seemed like hours.”

A Silver Star recommendation Eventually, they were able to make it back with the injured men. Ohmes said they were all recommended for the Silver Star Medal for valor in combat.

The medal never materialized, however. Recently, a friend compiled paperwork to petition for his recognition with the Silver Star and a Purple Heart for the perforated eardrum he suffered from a mortar explosion.

After his discharge from the Army, Ohmes worked for a decade as a mail carrier then later as an auditor for the Department of Defense.

In his free time he learned karate and at age 64 became a bodybuilder, winning second place in the master’s division in his first competition. Since age 50, he has competed each year in track and field events in the Senior Olympics, and in 2013 won third place nationally in the 50 meter event.

He also enjoys helping coach his grandson’s soccer and basketball teams, and he works out several times a week to stay in shape.

Ohmes tries to put Vietnam behind him.

“I didn’t want to be there,” he said. “It had a major impact on me. I don’t hunt, fish, camp or shoot guns. I’ve had a real tough time with this, and I’m not the only one.”

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Joseph oseph Pag Page

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

U.S. Army

Page joined the U.S. Army because s Joseph his grandfather couldn’t.

by gunfire.

As the machine gunner on the n Stryker, it was his job to fire back.

“He tried to join the military (during Vietnam) but he was rejected for flat feet,” Page said. “He would have died to serve his country but he couldn’t. I wanted to do something for him. My whole military service was dedicated to my grandfather.”

Just weeks later, while his unit was checking in at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, two of Page’s buddies were killed in a mortar attack.

Growing up in southeast Missouri, Page called his grandfather “Dad” because his own parents were not in the picture. His grandfather was the one who took Page hunting and fishing and taught him how to handle and shoot a rifle.

Page, now 29, remembers walking to his grandfather’s house the day terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

“He was watching it on television, and I saw the look of hopelessness in his eyes, and he said, son, we’re under attack,” Page said. “I remember thinking, we’re going to war. This country is my home, and I need to do something.”

Page joined the Army in 2008 after graduating high school. He served more than five years, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A front-line soldier Page said he signed on as an infantryman because he wanted to be on the front line. After basic training in Fort Benning, Ga., he was sent to Fort Wainwright in Alaska, where he joined a unit already training for deployment to Iraq.

Within days of arriving in Iraq, Page found himself in the line of fire. While patrolling near Baqubah, his armored vehicle was hit SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

setting up, he came into view.

“We were actually going to get some real food and take a shower, and we had a football and were tossing it back and forth,” Page said. “I heard what sounded like a jet engine. It wasn’t — it was a Russian rocket that landed probably 30 yards from me.”

Pfc. Cody Eggleston and Spc. Heath Pickard were killed. Both men were 21, recently married, one with a newborn son.

A trained marksman After Iraq, Page completed the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course and Sniper School at Fort Benning and then Close Access Target Reconnaissance training at Fort Wainwright.

In 2011 he was deployed again, this time to Afghanistan, where his unit set a record for most high-value targets killed or captured in that year.

“Every target we went after we got,” he said.

“I believe it was 36 individual targets. We went after one guy, and when we kicked in the door, there were actually six guys in there that were on our list. We got them all.”

As a sniper, Page often spent long hours waiting for a target to come into position, sometimes weeks at a time in broiling heat. Other times, the job was finished quickly.

That was the case when a militant was repeatedly shooting at a U.S. base camp from a nearby village. As Page and his partner were

“We see this guy walking with a rolled-up carpet,” Page said. “This is our guy. You memorize peoples’ faces when you’re a sniper.”

“I remember thinking we’re going to war.

This country is my home, and I need to do something.”

Page watched through his scope as the target walked into a wooded area and then jumped over a wall. He said he saw the man load his rifle, then turn to fire. At that second, Page pulled the trigger on his Remington 2010 sniper rifle.

Page was later told it was the longest confirmed kill shot in his brigade at that time.

In 2013, Sgt. Page chose not to re-enlist, but he had a hard time adjusting to civilian life.

He met and married a woman whose brother had been in his unit, and today they live in Poplar Bluff with their four children. He works on an oil rig in Texas but commutes home every couple of weeks.

His wife and kids keep him going when he struggles. “Without her, I don’t know where I would be,” he said.

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Lanor Pa Payne

By Lori Rose MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

Missouri Army National Guard

anor Payne was 17 when he joi joined the MisM L souri Army National Guard. He was 19 when his unit was sent to Iraq. He was 20 when an IED

was back at school for senior year when terrorists struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

exploded underneath his Humvee.

“Honestly, as a 17-year-old, I was scared,” Payne says. “I knew what I had signed up for but a part of me thought I’d never have to go to war. But when that happened, I thought, man, there’s a strong possibility I could go to war.”

The blast in eastern Iraq killed four fellow soldiers and injured 12, including Sgt. Payne, who suffered severe burns over much of his body. He spent three months in a military hospital in Germany before being sent home to heal.

“When I came home, I lived with my parents, and I stayed in the basement,” says Payne, now 34 and an elementary school principal in St. Louis.

“I didn’t want to look at myself. They had to cover up the mirrors. I thought I looked horrendous, and I shut down from the world. I stayed in my room and watched TV.” A heart-to-heart with his grandfather — an Army veteran who had bottled up all the horrors he’d seen while serving in Korea — helped change that.

“He said, ‘I understand what you are going through, but the world still needs you. It’s time to get back out there.’”

Payne joined the Guard as a junior in high school, in part to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. Payne’s father, several uncles and aunts served in the Army as well. “Military service was always instilled in me, and I knew that I wanted to continue the tradition,” he says.

He chose the National Guard because he knew the eight-year commitment of training one weekend a month and two weeks every summer was something he could manage while also attending college. He knew he would gain skills and knowledge that would serve him well in a future career.

He knew the commitment of a citizen-soldier meant he could be called into service any time disaster struck here at home. And because the Guard’s unique mission is two-fold, he also knew there was a chance he could be called to serve his country anywhere in the world.

After basic training over summer break, Payne SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

For a time, however, school and training continued as planned. After graduation, he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University on a fullride scholarship to study communications.

“It was going great; I was thinking, OK, maybe I won’t have to go,” he says. “Then, one day in March, my unit commander came to my economics classroom to let me know that my unit was mobilized and we were going to Iraq.”

After several weeks of additional training, Payne’s unit arrived in Iraq, where his role as a chemical engineer was to help repair weapons and Humvees. In July 2004, some 16 months into a two-year deployment, Payne and 16 others were on a nighttime patrol when the Humvee rolled over a roadside bomb. Payne suffered second- and third-degree burns on his chest, back and legs.

Back home in Missouri, Payne was healing from his injuries but battling a new foe — post-traumatic stress disorder. His family was worried but reluctant to push him too hard.

Until one day, Payne’s grandfather came to Payne’s room on a mission.

“He never talks about the time he served in the Korean War, but at that moment, he really opened up and told me his experience and why he couldn’t talk about it,” Payne says. “It really affected him and it still does to this day.”

Those words flipped a switch inside of Payne, and he knew he needed help.

childhood education and a doctorate in educational leadership and administration. Today, Dr. Payne is principal of Clay Academy of Exploration and Civics and a foster parent who takes in children who need short-term emergency care.

He continues with his own counseling and also mentors other returning soldiers. He says healing is a long process and learning to share your story is an important part.

“I volunteer to counsel and mentor new soldiers who have come back home to let them know they’re not alone.”

“I volunteer to counsel and mentor new soldiers who have come back home to let them know they’re not alone,” Payne says. “In the beginning it was very hard for me to share my story. But each time I tell my story it helps me even more.”

“I still have some scars,” Payne says. “But at the end of the day, it could have been worse. I lost some friends over there, but I came back with both of my arms and legs.”

With counseling, he began to re-enter the world.

He finished his degree, then went on to work teaching kids. He earned a master’s degree in early STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

29

By Lori Rose

Ryan an Smith U.S. Air Force

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

hen U.S. Air Force Capt. Ryan Smith W goes to work, he’s pumping gas thousands of feet in the air from a flying filling station that most travelers will never visit.

The airman’s job is critical to military missions around the world. As the pilot of a KC-135 Stratotanker, he helps keep our fighters and other aircraft up in the air.

Together with a co-pilot and a boom operator, Smith refuels all types of aircraft in mid-air, day or night, in all kinds of weather. Aerial refueling means he must precisely maneuver a huge plane within feet of another while going some 600 mph.

“Flying two very large aircraft at times 20 feet apart is very dangerous,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of rules and we’re always thinking of what’s going to happen next because things could go wrong.”

But he still thinks he has the best job in the world.

“It’s amazing,” Smith said. “It’s the best office view you could ever ask for. I never get tired of it.”

At home in the sky Smith, 27, was commissioned into the Air Force in 2013 after completing ROTC at the University of Central Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in aerospace studies.

As the son of an Air Force nurse, he grew up in the military, moving from base to base in the United States and Germany. He said he always had his eye on the sky.

“When I was little, I loved to see the planes flying around, and I always thought it was really cool,” he said.

After graduation from college, he earned a pilot spot and was sent to Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi for training, where he confirmed that flying was definitely how he wanted to spend his life.

He also discovered that he liked flying “heavy” or large aircraft such as the KC-135. The tanker can carry more than 31,000 gallons or 200,000 pounds of fuel, enough to last the average automobile driver more than 40 years.

In fact, a gas station pump operating for 24 hours straight wouldn’t pump as much fuel as a KC-135 can offload through its boom in eight minutes, Smith said.

Airstrikes against ISIS Since 2015, Smith has been stationed at Scott Air Force Base and has flown numerous missions around the world, including three deployments to the Middle East to refuel coalition aircraft working to destroy ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.

One memorable mission involved refueling a pair of A-10’s running low on gas during severe weather, he said. Thunderstorms can make it much more difficult to keep the two planes steady so the boom operator in the tail of the tanker can make contact with the receiving aircraft.

“Eventually, we were able to find a patch of smoother air and were able to transfer fuel,” he said. “This allowed the two A-10’s to continue on with their mission and eventually led to them being able to destroy multiple ISIS targets.”

While air-to-air refueling is the KC-135’s main role, tanker pilots like Smith may also be called on to transport supplies and troops or evacuate injured personnel.

“We transferred patients to better medical facilities to handle their urgent care needs,” he said. “We flew from California to Hawaii to Guam to Japan to Hawaii and finally back to California.”

On one such flight to transport an urgent care patient from Japan to Hawaii, the patient suffered a seizure and other medical complications while the KC-135 was still an hour from landing.

“As the flight crew and the medical professionals on board, we did everything we could to stabilize the situation,” Smith said. “We were able to safely bring this patient to Hawaii to receive more advanced medical treatment, in turn saving their life.”

Airmen in Smith’s unit were also among the first to fly troops, food, water and medical supplies to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

The work is both thrilling and relaxing, Smith said.

“It’s the best combination,” he said. “I get the full range of emotions when I fly. I don’t think there’s any better job out there.”

Smith said medevac missions have been among the most rewarding.

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STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

By Lori Rose

Tonita onita Smith U.S. Army

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

ven while stationed on the far side of th the E world, U.S. Army Capt. Tonita Smith devotes much of her free time and energy on mentoring and inspiring young people and women back home in St. Louis.

Smith is a public health nurse currently serving at Camp Humphreys in South Korea. She is passionate about public health, but also about mentoring young people affected by violence in their neighborhoods, and empowering women to build healthy relationships.

She’s also an author, an entrepreneur and a prayer partner. “My passion, purpose and love is to serve others,” she said.

Smith, 44, was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri when protests broke out in Ferguson and St. Louis in 2014 after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. She felt great frustration and helplessness about the violence and divisiveness that erupted in her hometown.

“I felt like I needed to do something,” she said.

“Our city was hurting and all of these people were reacting out of frustration and anger. How could I help and be a part of the solution? All I knew was to pray. I knew I could pray, and if I could get more people to pray, it would help us to come together.”

Pray without ceasing That was the start of the St. Louis Prayer Project. She took to Facebook to enlist prayer partners for what was intended to be a 30-day plan to “pray without ceasing,” as she felt called to do by God. The response was so positive that she decided to keep the project going, and it has since morphed into a nonprofit organization aimed at mentoring, educating and empowering youth to make responsible, positive choices in their lives. The project won funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and she hopes to continue the work full time when she retires.

SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

h desire to help others includes working Smith’s with women to identify and develop their own passions. She believes that inspiring and motivating other women is part of her own purpose in life.

After high school she trained to become a phlebotomist but was inspired by the nurses she met to become a licensed practical nurse. “I wanted to do more for my patients besides stick them with needles,” she said.

A product of that passion is a book she wrote called “The Power of Shut-Up Grace,” which she hopes will help others learn what she has about the power of words — and the power of holding your peace.

She was 27 and the mother of three young children when she enlisted in the Army. She was looking for a better life and a way to escape an unhappy marriage and support her young family on her own.

Smith said she grew up with a “slick mouth” that was her way of dealing with conflict. She was well into adulthood before she learned that not everybody had to have a piece of her mind.

Promoting public health as a soldier

The power of holding your tongue

“It really did spark my interest, and I found out that the Army needed LPNs,” she said.

“I proclaimed myself to be a professional curser,” she said. “I always had a quick comeback.

That was kind of my defense mechanism. But when I got into church and was saved, I learned that words have power, and I learned to watch my words and use them not for tearing down others, but for building them up.”

Smith’s entrepreneurial spirit and love for fashion led Smith and a cousin to start a business together. Through an online boutique called Fashion Remix Boutique, the women sell clothing and fashion accessories. The shop was inspired by Smith’s maternal grandmother, who sewed clothing for her and her cousins.

Smith was raised by her grandmother, who had 11 children of her own. Smith’s mother died from a brain tumor when Smith was just 2. Growing up in a house full of teenage aunts and uncles led her to become independent at an early age, she said.

By the time she was in sixth grade, she was working the register of a neighborhood convenience store after school, standing on an overturned pickle bucket in order to see over the counter.

“I just had to grow up early,” Smith said. “I think I was very responsible.”

She had never thought about joining the military, but a friend suggested it.

After basic training, she was posted to Hawaii.

Later, the Army paid for her to complete her degree as a registered nurse and commissioned her as a second lieutenant. She then went on to train as a public health nurse and later earned a master’s in nursing education.

As a public health nurse, her role is to work with military personnel and their families as well as the wider community to promote health and safety, prevent and educate about communicable diseases, and prepare for disaster relief.

“I absolutely love public health,” she said. “I wanted to be on the side of prevention, to help people before they get sick.”

In South Korea, she also volunteers at a youth center on post and started a youth mentoring program.

“These kids are being uprooted from their norm to come to a foreign country,” she said. “The soldier is trying to adjust, and some soldiers go home stressed and maybe no one’s paying attention to the child. I get up close and personal with these kids and teach them anger management and coping skills.”

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Seth Witthaus U.S. Navy

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

eth Witthaus grew up swimming wi in the Sjoined rivers and lakes of Missouri. So, when he the U.S. Navy, he thought he would be a

took him to the coast of eastern Africa on an anti-piracy mission.

natural as a rescue swimmer.

Each naval ship is required to have two certified rescue swimmers on board before it can pull away from shore. After his first tour, one of Oscar Austin’s rescue swimmers left the service, leaving an opening for Witthaus to volunteer again, this time as a “surface” rescue swimmer assigned to a ship.

Naval rescue swimmers are called into action to save lives in some of the most challenging situations: in high waves, frigid waters, after boat collisions, plane crashes and other emergencies.

“I wanted my job to be a little bit exciting but not so exciting that my chance of dying or being maimed was extremely high,” said Witthaus, who was a certified lifeguard as a teenager. “And I like helping people, so that was the ultimate goal.”

The added bonus was the landlocked Missourian would get to see much of the world.

“I had only ever traveled to Florida and Texas,” Witthaus said. “I’ve been to 23 countries and I’m only 26 years old; my goal was definitely fulfilled.”

Witthaus grew up in Hermann, Mo., in a family that enjoyed boating and other water sports.

On June 1, the petty officer second class completed five years of service with the Navy. He plans to attend college in the fall to major in business.

Taking a different tack to see the world After high school, Witthaus moved to St. Louis to study broadcasting but found it wasn’t fulfilling his wanderlust. He took a different tack and enrolled in the Navy, hoping to be an aviation search and rescue swimmer assigned to a helicopter.

However, his nearsightedness proved to be an obstacle, and he was assigned instead as a damage controlman — or an emergency repair specialist — on a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Oscar Austin. His first eight-month tour SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

Once again, his eyesight kept him from getting the job. But when the sailor who was selected for the training was eliminated on the first day, his commanders took another look at Witthaus and pushed him to the front of a waiting list for corrective photorefractive keratectomy surgery, known as PRK. Three months after having the surgery, Witthaus said his vision was “crystal clear.”

So Others May Live The next step was an intense, four-week training program in San Diego designed to prepare rescue swimmers — whose motto is “So Others May Live” — for the dangers and challenges of rescuing people at sea.

Witthaus spent hundreds of hours, much of it in the pool, learning rescue and lifesaving procedures and completing rigorous physical training to build up the strength and endurance necessary for such a stressful job.

Not only do rescue swimmers have to be physically able to swim long distances in high seas but they must perform various lifesaving maneuvers while underwater or getting tossed about in choppy waters.

“There’s a big mental aspect to it,” Witthaus said. “You have to keep your cool in the water because there are procedures to follow in the waves.”

Afterward, Witthaus returned to his homeport of Norfolk Naval Station and the Oscar Austin, which embarked on a seven-month tour in Europe. This time the ship sailed through the Black Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, training and working with foreign navies to improve their lifesaving and emergency responses. Thankfully, Witthaus said, he never had to rescue anyone.

While aviation rescue swimmers are famous for jumping out of helicopters into the sea, surface rescue swimmers such as Witthaus typically are lowered by a cable from the ship into the water or deploy from a smaller boat that is lowered into the sea.

Nothing but ocean … and jellyfish Witthaus said rescue swimmers face hazards in the open water beyond frigid temperatures and rough seas. While he never worried about sharks, which he said were scared off by the vibrations created by the ship, jellyfish were another story.

“Sharks and other creatures like that don’t really bother us,” he said. “They stay away. However, the jellyfish were everywhere. It wouldn’t be unusual for us to be dropped in a field of jellyfish. I looked around for about 20 seconds underwater to see what was around me.”

Either way, slipping into the ocean was always an awesome feeling.

“I loved it,” Witthaus said. “You’re in awe almost. There’s nothing around you for miles.

You realize how big everything is and you’re on your own. All you see is ocean. I never lost my reverence.”

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

33

Max Ze Zebelman U.S. Army

By Lori Rose

MARKETING CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR

ax Zebelman was a scrawny, y underM weight orphan when he joined the Army in 1943. But his soothing voice be-

to Washington D.C. with other veterans from the area.

came a comfort to soldiers during World War II and helped many St. Louisans confront their fears and addictions for decades after.

“I loved it,” he said. “They treated me like a king.”

“Zebelman, now 94 and a retired Chesterfield psychologist, could have avoided serving in WWII, thanks to a job at a TNT plant. But his kid brother was signing up and he figured he might as well join him.

Zebelman’s service as an Army medic took him to Africa, England, France and Italy, where medics administered first aid and evacuated the injured away from the front lines. He also served six months at sea on the U.S. Army Hospital Ship Jarrett M. Huddleston.

“He was going to be drafted,” Zebelman said.

“He was kind of nervous and he wanted me to be with him.”

“I got so seasick,” he said. “I lost so much weight they called me Mr. No Blood.”

First, they tried joining the Marines, “but the Marines just died laughing at us,” Zebelman said. “We were both about 100 pounds, but the Army wanted us.”

So Max — 19 at the time — and his brother Boris, not yet 17, pretended to be twins and didn’t look back.

“I was not sure if I was a coward or not and it turned out I was not a fearful man,” Zebelman said. “I really felt I was going to get through it and if not, so what? I didn’t have a family and my brothers were all in the Army.”

Max and Boris, who had grown up in an orphanage in St. Louis, were sent together to Camp Barkeley in Texas for basic training where they helped each other get through those first grueling weeks.

Later, Max was sent to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio to be trained as a surgical tech, while his brother went on to serve in the Army Air Corps. Brothers Albert and Samuel also served during WWII. All four survived the fighting and returned home.

Treated like a king Today, Max is the sole surviving brother. Two years ago he was treated to an Honor Flight 34

STORIES OF HONOR • ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Part of Zebelman’s job was to assist surgeons and sit at the bedside of patients after surgery to help calm them as they awoke, often panicked and delusional.

“You’re alright, you’re going to be OK,” he would say, then explain how they had been injured, what the doctors had done and where they were going next.

The hypnotic voice Zebelman’s deep voice was so distinctive that he came to be known as the “medic with the hypnotic voice.” So much so that an Army psychiatrist put the voice to work. He instructed Zebelman to speak quietly and soothingly to patients to help ease them into a medical hypnosis.

“When somebody experiences a horrible situation, they can’t face it,” Zebelman said. “You get them relaxed to the point where they can remember, talk it over and get well.”

That experience served him well upon his return to civilian life. When his service ended in 1946, Zebelman returned to St. Louis and attended college. He became a chiropractor and later earned a PhD in psychology, building a practice using hypnotherapy to help people quit smoking, lose weight or relieve stress. He took the show on the road, conducting self-

help clinics around the Midwest.

“I treated a lot of people with post-traumatic stress, and I found out I had it, too,” he said.

While his experience in the Army helped him solidify his interest in medicine in civilian life, being an Army medic was often dangerous — and hard to forget.

“I could have been killed many times,” he said.

Images of injured and maimed soldiers — and the casualties — stay with him today, and he relies on the self-hypnosis techniques he taught his patients.

“Every day I do hypnosis on myself,” he says.

“I’m so glad I learned to do hypnosis because it’s so valuable.”

For many years Zebelman ran a private practice out of his home. He also taught psychology at Meramec Community College and worked as the school psychologist at Logan University. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Lynda, and is a proud member of American Legion Post 556. He is father to five and grandfather of three. He remains “Dr. Max” to many of his former patients.

The self-hypnosis techniques he first learned during WWII have helped him throughout his life, he said.

In his 50s he was diagnosed with an inoperable cyst in his brain. Doctors told him he had only a few months to live. Through the years the cyst has caused dizzy spells, hearing loss and double vision. He has continued to use self-hypnosis to control the pain and bring down his blood pressure. He said he owed his longevity to his love for people.

“I love people and they know it,” he said.

“All these patients I had — they knew I really cared.”

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Missouri Veterans Endeavor is honored by, and proud of the veterans featured in the ongoing profiles in Stories of Honor.

Missouri Veterans Endeavor (MOVE-STL) provides long-term supportive housing to homeless veterans and their family members in the St. Louis area.

Currently, MOVE-STL houses 46 residents including veterans, dependents, and children on the main site and in a few apartments in the community.

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