Salute to Veterans — Progress 2021

Salute to Veterans PROGRESS 2021

A special supplement of The Farmville Herald, The Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch and The Charlotte Gazette

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— Salute to Veterans — The word “hero” is thrown around to describe everyone from sports stars to politicians these days, but true heroes live among us, walk beside us and have become invaluable parts of our community.

This special edition produced

by the Farmville News Media staff over the past three months, takes a look at some of those military heroes. Some of the names you may recognize, while others are likely new to many of our readers.

These are only 19 veterans in our area out of hundreds who have

served our country admirably. It is a small sample of those who have sacrificed to protect our freedoms.

Those who gave the ultimate sacrifice are not included in these pages. For them, we are also eternally grateful.

Many of those we feature here

recoiled at being called heroes.

They were just doing their duty they said. We thank them for sharing their stories and hope you enjoy reading about these special members of our communities as much as we have enjoyed bringing you their profiles.

‘This is what I want to do’

BY ALEXA MASSEY

S

ergeant Josh Jones, age 37, of Buckingham, was originally taken on a tour of Fork Union Military Academy as a “scare tactic” by his parents.

Growing up in Chester, Jones was always a smart kid and a good athlete, but his life and education lacked the structure to mold him into the young man he

needed to be.

But when his parents told him they’d send him to military academy if he didn’t straighten up, Jones, 14 at the time, took it less as a well-meaning threat and more as an invitation.

Jones found he loved Fork Union and excelled upon entering the academy, so much so that he graduated in 2001 as a company commander and one of the top of his class.

Two years after graduating, Jones was attending engineering school at Virginia Commonwealth University.

However, his life was veering off in a difficult direction.

“I wasn’t able to adapt,” he said.

Jones had transitioned from a structured military environment to an environment lacking any structure whatsoever. At the academy, every hour of his day had been planned from sunup

to sundown. In college, he found he had far too much freedom. He wasn’t managing his money right, he was falling into the trap of college-age shenanigans, and he knew he had to make a change.

Although he’d lost many of his military habits, Jones had always kept a high and tight haircut. As he was walking through a Walmart parking lot one day, a recruiter spotted him.

Josh Jones

“Are you in the military, or do you want to join?” he asked.

Jones’ response was a

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quick one. “I want to join. I want the first thing you have, and I want to go as soon as possible,” he said.

Seven days later Jones was on a bus and on his way to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training for the U.S. Army Reserves.

A month after basic, Jones was activated in Dec. 2003 to be deployed to Iraq.

It was one heck of a first deployment. At such an early point in the war, Jones was of low rank, but he was excited to serve.

“That’s what you sign up for, to go defend your country and be in harm’s way,” he said.

Jones spent 18 months on his first deployment and was in Iraq at the time of Saddam Hussein’s capture.

But after his first tour, Jones temporarily returned to the U.S. and civilian life without much of a debriefing process. He knew from past experiences that he needed some form of structure in order to keep himself in check and began applying for law enforcement jobs. He took a position as a sheriff’s deputy at the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office, where he would hold a job for 10 years.

In the middle of work one day in 2007 an opportunity came up for a chance to head to Iraq once more. The reserves were looking for volunteers to head to the Middle East as part of the second infantry division.

Jones immediately volunteered.

“To put it this way, Iraq was the worst place I ever missed,” he said.

Jones couldn’t speak much to his activities while stationed at the FOB (forward operating base) War Horse during his 13-month deployment. He described his second tour in Iraq as turbulent, including many QRF (quick reactionary force) missions. During that time he and the rest of the division were attacked with chlorine gas, bombs and regular mortar and rocket attacks.

“It was definitely interesting,” he recalled.

It was during Jones’ second tour in Iraq that he fractured his back, an injury that would stay with him for some time. In 2013 he was medically discharged. Although it would be the end of his Army career, it was not the end of his service to his country and the men and women in uniform.

After being discharged, Jones concentrated on starting a family, settling down with his wife and having two beautiful children.

He stayed on with the sheriff’s office until 2015, at which point he had the chance to go back and work at Fork Union for Jones poses for a quick photo while on a convoy in Iraq in another two years.

2004.

But his new calling in life was the result of his membership with the Buckingham VFW This realization birthed Jones’ nonprofit — Vet Post 8446. to Vet Vehicles.

As a member of the VFW, Jones had been atThe corporation, launched in March of 2020, tending local meetings for some time. One day aims to help veterans and first responders in a friend came in and need of a vehicle. informed the group In his first year of operation, Jones was able to he had encountered a successfully donate three vehicles for nearby vetMarine vet who was in erans in need. He doesn’t plan on stopping there. need of a vehicle and In the beginning, Jones was drawing most of couldn’t work or supthe funds out of his own pocket in order to find port his family without the vehicles for vets. He said NAPA Auto Parts in it. The vet was looking Cumberland County was a huge help, donating all for anyone who could parts for free on the first donated vehicle. help.

Now that Vet to Vet Vehicles has obtained This call for help fired 501(C)(3) nonprofit status, Jones can open the up something in Jones. door for other businesses who would like to help “Man, this is what I’ve sponsor. been waiting for,” he Not only does the business help vets and told himself. first responders to obtain means of transportaBy the time the meettion — it also acts as a confidence booster. And ing was over, Jones had Jones won’t just take any vehicle someone wants volunteered to take on to donate. Vet to Vet Vehicles fixes up cars and the task. And before he donates them in a condition that makes a veteran finished his 12-minute proud to drive. drive home, he’d alJones also tries to match the vehicle to the ready lined up a vehicle person and their needs, such as a fuel-efficient to be donated and was car for a commuter or an SUV for a veteran with a in contact with some large family. possible sponsors.

Jones learned overseas that when you enter After donating the ve- the Army you are putting everyone above yourhicle, Jones quickly reself. And thanks to the lessons instilled in him alized he’d discovered throughout his service, he’s still doing just that a new way to serve. today.

“After that, I was like, Above all, he feels passionate about defending ‘Man, this is what I his home and supporting his country no matter want to do,’” he rewhat. He would absolutely do it all over again if called. the opportunity arrived.

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Charlotte County Board of Supervisors member Butch Hamlett has more than 40 years of service in the U.S. Army under his belt. Above is a photo of Hamlett in Afghanistan where was deployed shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

‘Proud to have given what I could’ many on Thanksgiving Day of 1972, where he was assigned to the eighth arland “Butch” Hamlett, infantry division, second brigade, 67, of Charlotte County, bravo company, second battalion says he was destined to be 68th armored regiment in the French in the military from a very sector at Baumholder. young age.

From there, Hamlett advanced Born March 20, 1954, Hamlett atfrom private first class to specialist tended public school in Charlotte fourth class and was then promoted County and graduated from Randolph to sergeant after a little more than 18 Henry High School in months in the Army.

June of 1972.

“I was the tank comHamlett volunteered mander and was also to join the U.S. Army on the platoon sergeant just Dec. 15, 1971, leaving turning 20 years old,” he for basic combat trainsaid. “I was responsible ing June 19, 1972. He for five M60/M60A1 main completed advanced battle tanks along with individual training at Fort being responsible for the Knox, Kentucky, and was lives of 18 other soldiers.” selected to attend the He also qualified his M551 Sheridan Armored tank crew as “distinAirborne Reconnaissance Garland “Butch” guished” at its annual Assault Vehicle School Hamlett gunnery, a process that for an additional three takes approximately weeks at Fort Knox and afterward three to four months from start to was on leave while delayed enroute finish. to Fort Dix, New Jersey for shipment When Hamlett’s active duty overseas. ended in June of 1975, he still had Hamlett arrived in Frankfurt, Gerthree years left as an obligation

BY ALEXA MASSEY

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in the inactive reserve and was assigned to a reserve unit. He did a short stint in the Army National Guard and progressed up in the ranks to eventually be promoted to first sergeant.

Hamlett’s infantry battalion was deployed to Fort Sherman, Panama, approximately a year before Operation Just Cause in December of 1989 when the U.S. invaded Panama prompting regime change.

“Tensions were extremely high there,” he said.

In 1998, Hamlett graduated from Bluefield College with a bachelor’s degree in business. He also enjoyed many years spent as a baseball umpire with the Virginia High School League and coached summer baseball with the Dixie Boys and Major League, later going on to win two state championships and bringing his team to the Dixie Boys Major League World Series. He served as the district director of baseball for a six-county geographical area and was a charter member of the Virginia Dixie Boys and Major League Baseball, Inc. Hamlett later transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and served in several units, including a training and evaluation unit assessing National Guard units in New Jersey. He ultimately ended up at Fort Pickett, Virginia, in the 377th Chemical Company as the operations and training sergeant, later retiring from this unit in November of 2000.

But life didn’t stay tranquil for long. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred, and Hamlett received orders to return to active duty on April

“Hamlett and his tank crew celebrate with a 3 a.m. glass of champagne after their first tank gunnery qualification. Pictured in the foreground, from left, are Sgt. George, Hamlett and Specialist Fourth Class Palmer. Standing at the back is Private First Class Harris. “

13, 2002.

“I got my orders on March 27, 2002, and when I arrived at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, we were told we were supposed to have been there in October 2001,” he said.

Hamlett’s life was about to see a lot of changes.

With two weeks to get ready to transition back to active duty, he completed his refresher courses and had orders to report to the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

Hamlett was assigned to the Joint Security Directive (JSD) to Eskan Village in Saudi Arabia. From there, he was deployed to Afghanistan where he was assigned to a team of military members and performed anti-terrorism vulnerability assessments on Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Security (DOS) facilities and hotels where U.S. diplomats and DOD personnel were housed.

He was then transferred to a mobile training and assistance team to train the Saudi armed forces shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

During his assignment to the JSD, Hamlett travelled all over the area of responsibility for USCENTCOM, including parts of South West Asia.

He saw many things during his military career that stuck with him long after his service.

“The biggest effect of what I saw is how awful war is,” he said. “Afghanistan in 2002 was literally covered in land mines, rural areas in particular.

They were planted alongside the roads from Kabul to Bagram, and we were warned not to change a tire if flat on the side (of the road) … IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were always a concern.

The children suffered the worst in my opinion. Too many orphans when I was there.”

Hamlett officially retired from the U.S. Army March 20, 2014, with more than 40 years of service.

He now belongs to several veteran organizations, including Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 8902, Vietnam Veterans of America and the Disabled American Veterans.

Now retired, he currently serves on the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors and lives in Drakes Branch with his wife, Julia, their beloved German Shepherd rescue dog, Deuce, three cats and the occasional back porch visitor, to include possums and the odd racoon.

He enjoys the company of his two grown children and five grandchildren.

Pictured, Hamlett, middle, poses with Sgt. Sonny George, left, and Larry Humphries, right, at the AAF Tank Museum in Danville.

When asked about the lessons he learned during his military career, Hamlett remarked that he was taught how to be a leader and how to interact with and respect others who have “walked the walk.”

“That does not always mean I agree, but my respect is there,” he said.

He found time spent away from family and missing important life events to be one of the more difficult aspects of serving.

“In January 2005, the U.S. Army contacted me via telephone ‘asking me’ if I’d ‘voluntarily’ reclassify to civil affairs and return to active duty,” he recalled. “At the time, I was still eligible to be recalled to active duty, but my father was terminally ill with cancer, so I told them my situation, and my father died in September. If my dad had not been ill, I might have taken Uncle Sam up on that offer for another expense paid vacation back to the sand box.”

The Army, Hamlett said, instilled in him an abundance of pride for his country, to which he describes himself as very patriotic and loyal.

“My oath never expires,” he emphasized.

And although he may change several things if given the chance, he’d certainly do it all over again if necessary.

“I took my oath to this country very seriously and was proud to have given what I could.”

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University job provides different challenges

BY ROGER WATSON

J

im Wiecking currently spends his workday helping Longwood University get grant money to do research projects as part of the Research and Grants Office.

“We work on processing and identifying grant requests for staff and faculty to further their research or to conduct any type of sponsored projects,” Wiecking said.

It sounds like a mundane job for someone who was part of both Gulf wars, a United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping force and who also served in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Security Agency (NSA), but Wiecking said it is just where he wants to be right now.

“After 30 years, it’s a great place to be,” Wiecking said. “I’ve got a great boss. I’ve got a great working environment. I get to be home every night.

You’re not sitting in the rain or having anybody trying to get out and get you.”

As an artillery officer in the Marine Corps for 21 years, from 1988 to 2008,

Jim Wiecking, center, served for 21 years as a member of the U.S. Marines. He now works in the Research and Grants Office at Longwood University.

Wiecking had a variety of experiences both in the field and in a professional military capacity. In addition to serving in a support role in the Gulf wars, he was assigned to the Army as a U.N. peacekeeper.

“It was different because all the peacekeepers are in between two formally warring or two formally fighting parties, and, of course, the peacekeep-

ers are unarmed,” he said.

During almost three years as a peacekeeper, Wiecking served in the Western Sahara, East Timor, Israel and Kuwait.

He also served a one-year fellowship learning about the legislative branch of the government with Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire on whose staff he served.

“They give military officers basically the exposure to the legislative system, the legislative office and how the Senate or the House work, and I was assigned to the Senate,” Wiecking said.

Wiecking said he learned that no matter which side of the aisle the senators were on, they were earnestly trying to do the right thing.

“The members that I dealt with honestly believed they were doing good stuff,” he said. “They honestly believed that their positions were the right thing for their constituents and the country.”

Wiecking grew up in Richmond and Alexandria and attended college at Virginia Military Institute. It was at the end of his Rat (freshman) year when the Marines offered him a scholarship.

He said he was interested in joining the Navy but didn’t feel like he could turn down the help with his education.

“And that’s really kind of how I ended up where I was,” he said. “The scholarship offer kind of sealed the deal for me.”

After heading to Quantico out of college for base school, Wiecking went to artillery school in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

His first deploying station was at

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

His first deployment overseas was in the summer of 1990, which he spent in the Mediterranean Sea. After returning from that deployment, Wiecking was quickly deployed to support the Desert Shield/Desert Storm operations.

He said one of the truths he found while serving in the military is people can do more than they think they can.

“People are much more capable than they think they can be,” he said.

“Capable in what they can do. Capable in what they can endure. Capable in how much they can care. By and large, people are much more capable and able to do things that they don’t quite yet realize that they can actually accomplish.”

After the military, Wiecking went to work for the FBI for 10 years and then with the NSA for a couple years in a military capacity before coming to Farmville.

“My wife’s family was from Buckingham. My family had a small place over in Cartersville, and we just like the Farmville area,” he said. “It was a good place to raise two boys. We got out of northern Virginia and got down to a much more rural, lower key, enjoyable small town.”

He said his family is enjoying this area and doesn’t miss the Washington, D.C., traffic at all.

“This town has everything that you need, not everything you want all the time, but the people are great,” he said. “The environment is great. We fully plan on staying here because it really is a delightful location.”

Veteran continues to give back daily

BY CRYSTAL VANDEGRIFT

K

enbridge native and Vice Mayor Wanda Morrison joined the military at a time when it was not so welcoming to women.

At the age of 17, Morrison joined the United States Army Reserves in 1979 to have a part-time job while attending Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I only intended to remain in the Army Reserves until I graduated college,” Morrison said. “However, 38 years and nine months later, I retired.”

Morrison retired as a sergeant major E-9.

Morrison completed her basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

During her last seven years in the “The training was challenging military, Morrison was on active duty and rigorous,” she said. “We trained serving in support of Iraq Freedom and alongside the men but not integrated Operation Enduring Freedom, which with the men. Our drill sergeants took her all over the United States. were given the chore of turning a company of women into soldiers for During her last seven years, she the very first time. They had always was on active duty serving in suptrained men, but women had to meet port of Iraq Freedom and Operation the same standards.

Enduring Freedom, which took her all Morrison said there were days she over the United States working with wanted to give up, but that was not soldiers returning from Kuwait, Iraq an option. “It was not like I could just and Afghanistan. walk away,” she said. “So, the women “I enjoyed this service tremendousin my company and I stuck together ly because I was able to work with and helped each other. and help soldiers daily,” Morrison graduated Morrison said. “This duty top of her class and was showed me and allowed honored with giving the me to hear about the graduation speech. lasting impact our troops After completing basic experienced while serving and AIT (advanced indiin combat.” vidual training) at Fort Even today, since her Jackson, she continued retirement, Morrison is her Army Reserve asstill in touch with many of signments at 80th divithe soldiers she met over sion (now 80th training the years and continues command) in Richmond, to help them with benefits followed by 9th TSC in Wanda and their transition from Fort Belvoir, Fort IndianMorrison the military to civilian life. town Gap, Pennsylvania “I have made lifelong and Fort Lee. friends and helped many troops,” Morrison served in many differMorrison said. “I would not change ent positions, including clerk-typist, anything about the journey. I am administrative specialist, logistics proud to have served. specialist, training NCO, medical “I am proud to have worn the unireadiness coordinator, instructor and form. information management specialist, “I am grateful that I live in a country to name a few. that is protected by soldiers, both

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men and women. I am humbly grateful to all veterans because I know firsthand the sacrifices they made for our country.”

Morrison said the military gave her a sense of pride no one can take from her.

“It taught me to physically, mentally and spiritually be strong,” she said. “I know everything I have ever accomplished was given to me by God. Therefore, the military taught me to take care of the above mentioned as well as my spiritual life.”

Morrison said the Army’s values became a part of who she is and shaped her into the person she is today.

“They taught that although people are different, we can still work in an environment of teamwork, excellence and respect,” Morrison said.

“Adaptability, extreme discipline, teamwork, the importance of purpose, decision-making skills, persistence. Yes, I learned all of these and more.

I also learned it is not about how you manage people but how you work with people.”

Today, in addition to serving her community as the vice mayor for the Town of Kenbridge, Morrison works in the Lunenburg County Public School System, where she graduated in 1978 at age 16.

‘I knew what I was doing, and I’d do it all again’

BY ALEXA MASSEY

P

rince Edward County resident Silas Blanton was born in the nearby Cumberland County in 1959.

Growing up, he attended Luther P. Jackson High School and lived through the integration of Cumberland County Public Schools, graduating from Cumberland High School in 1974.

As a young man, Blanton would often witness the activities of soldiers from the Army National Guard who came up to train in the wooded area behind his childhood home on Raines Tavern Road.

Blanton admired the young men’s discipline and work ethic and knew at a young age that he wanted to do one of two things — work with big trucks or join the Army.

Coincidentally, his career would incorporate both.

At 20 years old, Blanton signed up for the U.S. Army, entering basic training in September of 1975 at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

After two months at Fort Knox, he was then sent to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for advanced individual training. It was there that he picked up a skill that would define his 20-year military career.

It was in Aberdeen that Blanton decided he wanted to be an Army mechanic. For three months he trained there, all while learning how to work on wheel and tracked vehicles, including tanks.

Afterward, Blanton was assigned duty at Fort Hood, Texas. For a former small-town country boy, the sheer size of Texas was overwhelming, but he grew

to admire the place and the friends he made while there.

After Texas, Blanton headed for his first tour in Korea, spending a year as a wheel vehicle mechanic before being assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas, as an auto repairman.

Blanton returned for a second tour as an auto inspector in Korea, spending his time at Camp Casey located by the demilitarized zone.

Later, he returned to Aberdeen as a noncommissioned officer (NCO) at the school training brigade where he taught other soldiers his military occupational specialty. There, he served as a senior instructor from 1982-1984, training young soldiers coming in for advanced individual training.

Blanton then headed to Germany as a motor sergeant where he was in charge of his unit’s entire motor pool, including automotive equipment for wheel and tracked vehicles. He particularly enjoyed his tours in Germany, where he encountered a beautiful landscape and kind people.

After three years in Germany, Blanton returned to Aberdeen for his most prestigious job as a senior leader trainer in the NCO Academy. From 1987 to 1991, he spent his time training senior NCOs and preparing them for the next step of their career, whether it be a promotion, assignment overseas, training for combat zones, etc. Quite a few of Blanton’s soldiers went from Aberdeen to Desert Storm.

Blanton was again sent to Germany to the 21st Theater Army Area Command (TAACOM) where he was responsible for all of the support and logistics there and in the surrounding area. After again returning to Aberdeen in 1996, it was finally time to retire after 20 years of military service.

Blanton ended his Army career having reached the rank of master sergeant.

Although he was retiring from the Army, Blanton’s life did not slow down. He settled into Prince Edward County, got married and had three children — one son and identical twin girls.

As he was only 40 by the end of his military career, he opted for a second career, one which also

Silas Blanton has been able to enjoy two careers in his life — 20 years of service with the U.S. Army and another 20 years working at the local Piedmont Regional Jail.

spanned 20 years in length, with the local Piedmont Regional Jail (PRJ). At PRJ, Blanton also climbed the ranks from basic officer all the way to captain before retiring in 2017.

When asked about some of the difficulties of his military service, Blanton remarked that he witnessed and experienced inequality that existed within the force, adding discrimination was prevalent in many aspects of the branch, from promotions to assignments and school.

Although all duty stations were different, a young man, especially a young Black man, really had to prove himself.

In fact, Blanton encountered other soldiers, including a friend he kept up with for years, who had never encountered a Black person before meeting Blanton during basic training.

Blanton states he is a devout follower of the U.S. Constitution and from day one raised his hand and vowed to defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He said he was heartbroken by the activities seen in at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, when he said he witnessed a domestic attack on the Constitution, one he would have gladly fought against had the call come in.

“If they called me today, I would go,” he remarked.

Blanton believes the U.S. is the greatest country in the world, one that stands for freedom. He describes himself as a born again Christian, a born again soldier and a soldier of Christ. That is evident in a jacket that he owns which displays a slogan he can strongly relate to, “I wanted to serve, I volunteered to serve, I knew what I was doing, and I’d do it all again.”

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Gough: A wartime commander

BY TITUS MOHLER

W

illiam “Buck” Gough Jr. joined the U.S. Army in 1984 and served into the early ’90s, including during the first Gulf War. While Gough did not directly participate in any active combat situations, as a captain, he had the responsibility of sending soldiers into them.

“I commanded in Germany during the first Gulf War,” he said. “I sent about 28, 29 soldiers to the first Gulf War, and they all returned safely.”

On average, Gough had 95 to 96 soldiers under his command while serving in Germany.

Born and raised in Buckingham County, Gough recalled that it was important facets from his childhood that led to him ultimately joining the military. For example, his father, William Gough Sr., served in the Army.

“I used to hear some of his stories and looked at his photograph, and I said, ‘I think I can do that,’” Gough said.

Gough also highlighted having played baseball and football for Pete Gowin, father of current Buckingham County High School Athletics Director Russ Gowin.

“I think playing for Russ’ dad gave me inspiration to go on and do some things that I didn’t think I could do,” Gough said.

It all came together for Gough when he went to Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville, where he played collegiate baseball.

“I got to play against the great Longwood Lancers and Coach Buddy Bolding,” he said. “And during that time, I thought about something that I could do to make it a little more interesting

and be assured of a job and have a sense of service at the same time, as my dad served as an enlisted soldier when he was younger.”

Gough said one thing led to another, and he took the first class of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and started liking it.

Briefly chronicling his key experiences while in the Army, Gough said he started out as a fire support officer, which was a second lieutenant forward observer, spotting artillery rounds for the infantry.

“Then I moved on to be a service battery (executive officer), nuclear weapons carrier officer, when I was stationed at Fort Knox,” he said.

After serving in Kentucky, he went to Germany.

“When I got there, I was an S4, the logistics officer,” he said. “From there I went to Fort Leavenworth, went to commanding the Cass Cube course there.”

Cass Cube is shorthand for Combined Arms and Services Staff School.

He left Fort Leavenworth and Kansas to return to Germany, taking command of a headquarters battery and staying in that position for about 22 months.

Gough said he was stationed in Germany throughout the course of the first Gulf War. “I was on an eight-inch howitzer, but no one was really jumping up and down for my unit — other than my colonel — to go to war,” he said.

After this, near the conclusion of his military career, he returned to the states.

“I went to Tennessee Tech, and I taught ROTC for a year,” he said.

Gough recalled that before the Gulf War started, the Army was close to

a drawdown — a lot of soldiers were close to being discharged.

“A lot of our soldiers were at the point where they could get out,” he said, but then the war came, and the expiration of their term of service (ETS) was pushed back. “They froze everyone, so I had sergeants that were getting ready to ETS that had been in Vietnam that were stopped within a couple of days of finalizing their career and sent to the Gulf War.” He noted that after that war and after he had returned to the U.S., he was in another time period when they had a drawdown of the Army, a voluntary separation incentive.

“You had to make the next rank, and that was something that was not assured,” he said. “So I took that chance and said, ‘Let me find another career.’ So 29 years later, I’m here at the Buckingham Middle School.”

He teaches life science, and June 2021 will mark his 29th year as a teacher.

During the past three decades, he also had the opportunity to collaborate again with Pete Gowin.

“After playing for him, I ended up coaching with him — had that pleasure for many years when I came back here,” Gough said.

Gough said his military experience helped him in his post-military life, teaching him to take a step back and to be realistic about everything that goes on around him.

“It really gave me a sense of pride and (ability) to focus,” he said.

He has been able to pass on to his students some of the lessons he learned from his experiences as he shares stories with them.

“The military stuff, the kids get a kick out of it when I talk about it some,” he said. “Some of them, they think that that’s the only thing that I taught them.”

When asked if serving the country in the military was still a point of pride for him today, he had a quick reply.

“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely.”

Having served during a war, Gough recalled a positive reaction from Americans to troops returning home.

“It was a sense of pride,” he said. “It was all pride that the guys went there on a mission, and they had a great sense of pride about what they were

William “Buck” Gough Jr. served in the U.S. Army, ultimately earning the rank of captain while on active duty. He was promoted to major in the Individual Ready Reserve.

doing, and you couldn’t have asked for anything better for the receptions that were held for the troops when they came home. So it was a lot different from what I had heard about from the Vietnam era.”

Some soldiers, from any era, return home with injuries to varying degrees that were accrued during their service. Gough was no exception to this.

“For a long time, I was in great shape, and then I started to break down some,” he said. “Running was not a problem, and then I had a Humvee accident during my command time, and that caused some trauma that showed up later and would cause a back surgery to correct some discs.

And then I had a knee replacement in July of this year — so wear and tear on the joints, so that’s some of it.”

It is clear that overall, though, Gough thinks fondly of his time in the Army.

“I guess if there’s anything that I’ve missed, it is the time with troops and the command time,” he said. “It was a great time.”

While on active duty, his highest rank was captain, and then he was promoted to major in the Individual Ready Reserve.

And if he went back in time, would he join up again?

“I’d be right there,” he said. “If I weren’t in a Humvee accident and a few other things that have happened, I’d go right back. The physical things were holding me down, but yep, I’d go back.”

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‘This is what I was born to do’ was an MP, and served in Vietnam,” Redmond said. “I have always been a aving served in the Daddy’s girl and realized I wanted to military for close to 22 follow in his footsteps.” years and still active, Redmond joined the Army National Amanda Mills Redmond Guard in 1998 when she was still in of Keysville says she couldn’t see high school at Randolph Henry. herself doing anything else.

“I was 17 years old at the time and “This is what I was born had to have my parents’ to do,” Redmond said. consent,” she said.

“This is what I’m pasRedmond left for basic sionate about, serving training in January of my country, my com1999, headed to Fort munity and giving back Jackson, South Carolina, to what has given me so and completed her AIT much, my freedom. The job training at Fort Lee freedom to worship God in Petersburg directly and to live as I choose.” after basic training.

Currently, Redmond is When Redmond joined an E7 sergeant first class the military, she started stationed in Winchester out as a 92A automated with the third battalion, Amanda Mills logistics supply special116th infantry. She is the Redmond ist. She also holds the battalion, S4, and manMOS of 92G, which is a ages six supply sergeants and six food service technician. companies within the battalion.

“That’s a fancy term for a cook,” Labeling herself as a “daddy’s girl,” Redmond said. “I went to cookRedmond says she wanted to follow ing school so I could get promoted in her dad’s footsteps. quicker; this is how I earned my E5 Amanda Redmond spent 18-months in Iraq on deployment with the Army “My Daddy has served in the army, sergeant rank. I worked in National Guard.

BY CRYSTAL VANDEGRIFT

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warehouse operations as a full time federal technician from Aug. 1999 until around 2007, when I was hired as full time active Guard reserve.”

In 2007, Redmond began at Virginia Medical Command and moved from there to the Maneuver Training Center and handled logistics for the Installation at Fort Pickett Blackstone.

“I managed close to a billion dollars in assets there,” Redmond said. “From there, I took a break from logistics and tried my hand at recruiting for two years. I loved recruiting. I was successful at it. I’m a people person, could talk to anyone, and have been told I could sell an ice cube to an Eskimo. In the 20 months I was recruiting, I had 22 people put into the Virginia Army National Guard. I would still be recruiting if I had not been selected off of the promotion list.”

Currently, Redmond’s job is to ensure the logistics of the unit are taken care of.

“I make sure everyone gets their beans and bullets,” she said. “I ensure soldiers are fed, clothed and have a place to sleep.”

For the majority of Redmond’s career, she has been stationed at Fort Pickett, and although she was fortunate enough to have been close to home the majority of her career, she had traveled the country and the world.

At 22, Redmond married her husband, James. Just one year later she received orders to deploy for 18-months in Iraq on Dec 7, 2003.

“D-Day, as my mama called it when I told her the date,” Redmond said. “I’ll never forget telling my family that I was leaving.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My Mama and Daddy didn’t handle it very well, their baby girl leaving with the uncertainty of where I was going, when, or even if I would make it back home. That was the start of the war in Iraq, and there was a lot of activity going on. It was scary for all of us, and through God’s grace, I made it back home in April 2005.”

Redmond said that an 18-month deployment away from her family was definitely

the biggest challenge of her career.

“This was before I had children, and I’m so thankful for that,” she said. “It was hard enough leaving my family and my seven nieces and nephews whom I was really close to. Being away from family for that amount of time made me appreciate my family that much more. It made me appreciate life. The biggest lesson I’ve learned was in that deployment, to never take life for granted. It can all be gone in the blink of an eye.”

Redmond said during that deployment and the years following she had some near-death experiences and lost several brothers and sisters in uniform.

“I’ve had experiences that I relive over and over in my mind; they haunt my dreams, wondering what I could have done differently,” she said, “How could I have saved this soldier, how could I talk this one out of suicide? The answer is always the same, nothing. Though I still mourn for these soldiers, these brothers and sisters, I thank God every day for allowing me to make it back home to my family and the ones I love. It’s God I owe all the glory to.”

Though Redmond is stationed in Winchester, her husband, James, and their three daughters, Chloie, age 9, Maycie, 11 and Lizzie, 14, make their home in Keysville. Even though being stationed four hours away, the solider still remains a full-time mom to her children.

“Though the situation is not ideal, we still manage to get done what we need to,” Redmond said. “My girls are honor roll students, so we must be doing something right. It’s tough on them not having Mommy there every night. I still spoil my girls and try to sing to them at night and say our prayers together, and I never turn down the opportunity for long cuddles when I’m home … freedom definitely isn’t free. Freedom comes with a price. To some, this price is merely their time, time away from family and loved ones, though time is something we can never get back once given. To others, it’s the ultimate sacrifice, their life.”

Booker breaks patterns, racial lines with service

BY ALEXA MASSEY

M

aster Chief Cryptologist Dr. John Booker, age 79, was born and raised in Cumberland County.

As a young man attending Luther P. Jackson High School, Booker noticed people around him were engaged in a sort of pattern — A cycle he wished to break free from.

Booker desired progress, and his search for it led him to join the U.S. Navy.

But this sailor has never had to worry about getting his sea legs.

“I’m one of these unique Navy people,” he laughed. “I spent 30 years in the Navy and — this one will blow your socks off — never stationed aboard a ship.”

Booker’s military career transformed him from a young farm worker to a Navy cryptologist.

Booker was trained in cryptology at the John Booker Naval Communication Station in Puerto Rico. During his 30-year Naval career, he was stationed across the U.S. and in many countries around

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the world, including the Philippines, Guam, Spain and Japan.

And though he progressed up the enlistment structure quickly, he encountered many struggles as a Black man. Booker was quite often the only person of color where he was stationed and did not encounter another Black cryptologist for the first five years of his service. Throughout his training, he experienced the brunt of institutional racism.

“Be that as it may, I found more good people than bad people,” he said.

Although he faced prejudice, Booker proved himself to be a capable, unstoppable force. He made history as the first Black person in his field to make senior chief.

Three years later that record was shattered when he was promoted to master chief, the highest enlisted grade in the U.S. Navy.

Booker’s Navy career was filled with high achievements, from working as manpower manager for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and joint staff at the Naval Military Personnel Command in Washington, D.C., to serving as the officer in charge of a Navy courier service detachment in Atsugi, Japan.

In 1990, Booker requested and was granted permission from President George H.W. Bush to retire.

Even after retiring from the Navy, Booker continued to dedicate his time and service to the U.S. military, spending many years as a veteran service liaison and later as an adjudicator for the Veterans Administration.

Later, he worked as administrative chief for the Defense Nuclear Agency.

Booker received his academician (post-doctorate) degree for nuclear material management from the

Booker received the Medal of Honor from the Kazakhstan government for his work in denuclearizing the country.

Belarus Academy of Science and Ecology.

Some of Booker’s most notable work occurred when he became an international project manager to assist countries in the former Soviet Union to become nuclear weaponfree. This included the total destruction of more than 150 strategic nuclear tunnels in Kazakhstan, an act which led to his earning the Medal of Honor from the Kazakhstan government.

In 2005, Booker “officially” retired, moving with his wife, Agnes, to Charlottesville.

And while he’s no longer denuclearizing entire countries, he keeps himself busy as an associate of the J.F. Bell Funeral Home. He’s also an active member of the Navy Cryptologic Veterans Association.

Looking back over his career, it’s certainly safe to say that Booker led no ordinary life. His extremely successful military and post-military work made for a lifetime of progress, one that he says he is very satisfied with.

When asked if he’d do it all again, he was quick to respond.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely. I would not have to think about it.”

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Young: Ever ready to serve

BY TITUS MOHLER

J

ustine Young leads an exciting, unpredictable life that many would find nearly impossible to manage, but she makes it work and has willingly embraced it in service to her country and her fellow Americans.

Many people in the community know her as the executive director of Piedmont Senior Resources Area Agency on Aging Inc. (PSR), based out of Farmville.

But at age 57, she is also an active reservist in the U.S. Army, serving as a nurse in the 7457th Medical Battalion, now known as a Mobile Outbreak Response Unit.

It is being an active reservist that brings a significant amount of unpredictability to her life.

It means she could be issued orders or deployed at any time.

This part of her life took center stage last spring. She received a call from her Army unit one morning, and she was asked to come in to help give an idea of who was available for a potential deployment to help treat patients amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I went down there, and at 2:30 that afternoon, they said, ‘We need you to go home and pack your bags,’” she recalled. “‘You leave tomorrow.’”

That was a Sunday afternoon.

“I left work on Friday afternoon, walked out of my office expecting to be back Monday morning,” she said. “I have animals, I have stuff and a job and whatever, and suddenly everything turns on its head, and it’s different from being full time where you are full-time Army.

“I’m not,” she continued. “I have another job, and I have to rearrange my entire life because now suddenly I’m being deployed.”

She wasn’t complaining, though. She was simply explaining how abrupt the changes to her daily life can be and how part of her service is to be ever ready for those changes.

“Thank God I had prepared and gotten ready a whole lot and was able to do it fairly easily, although it was still incredibly stressful,” she said.

She had to have somebody trained to step into

Justine Young, of Farmville, is an active reservist in the U.S. Army, needing to be ready to leave on any given day if orders come in or if she is deployed.

She serves as a nurse.

the executive director role at PSR. “I have to have everything set up so if I walk away, everything continues to operate for however long I’m gone,” she said. “And let me just say my (PSR) board has been outstanding about any of my military activities — 100% supportive and behind me.”

Another part of her service is to accept uncertainty surrounding the duration and location of a given assignment. “(Last spring), they said, ‘We don’t know how long you’ll be gone. We don’t know where you’re going,’” Young recalled. “Basically, you don’t know anything. So, you don’t know what clothes to pack, you don’t know what stuff to take.”

But she has served readily, faithfully and ef-

fectively amid circumstances like these for about 15 years now.

Young was a direct commission in the Army July 3, 2007, when she was 42.

“Direct commission means I didn’t go to the lengthy (military) schools or do all that,” she said. “Basically it’s a direct commission from the president that makes you an officer based on your background, education. So I walked in as a second lieutenant.”

Allowing for the direct commission was the fact that she had three degrees — nursing and political science degrees and a master’s in business.

With her entrance into the Army, Young had successfully achieved something that had been a personal goal years prior.

“So the back history to that is I had tried to get in seven years before when everything was going so terribly over there in Iraq and all the war and everything that went on and on and on, and I just felt bad for all the people that kept going and going and going,” she said. “They kept being sent over and over and redeployed, redeployed, redeployed, and they were reservists also.”

She remembered seeing this covered on the news one morning as her teenage daughter was getting ready to go to school.

“I thought, ‘Well, I need to do my part,’ and I thought it would be interesting, and I thought it would help,” Young said. “And as a nurse, it wasn’t as much risk as other positions, although it can be risky. I knew people that got killed, medical people. One of them, (a rocket-propelled grenade) came in and blew her up on the base the day before she was supposed to leave.”

Nevertheless, around 1999 or 2000 Young saw a recruiter to join up, but she was denied.

“They wanted an X-ray on my foot and ankle because I had crushed them in a car wreck many years before,” she said. “They ended up denying me because of that, because my foot and ankle were too messed up, they said, to take the responsibility for it.”

Then in 2007, she ran into the same recruiter at a job recruitment fair.

“I was recruiting for the business I worked for,”

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Young said.

The recruiter started asking her about joining the Army.

“I said, ‘No, you already wasted enough time, I’m not doing this again,’” she said. “He’s like, ‘No, no, no, we can get a waiver this time, because by now we’ve ramped up to even bigger wars and more stuff,’ and the strain on the medical part of the Army was tremendous, and they didn’t have enough people.”

She said he kept after her, and finally she agreed.

“Well, sure enough, they did get a waiver this time,” Young said, and thus began her 20-year term.

She noted that what followed were a number of years of interesting experiences and travel to different parts of the U.S. April 2020 marked her first-ever deployment, so the experiences and travel she was referring to were as a result of orders issued to her.

She recalled a couple of those experiences, including one that occurred in a part of Hawaii that took her by surprise.

“It was like a third-world country, and I’ve been in those, so I know what they’re like,” she said.

“So we provided dental and medical to civilians there. We went to these schools, elementary schools, and screened students for vision problems, other health problems. There’s just real lack of health care. Our dentists provided all kinds of dental work, some major dental work. So there are things like that that we do.”

Some of her experiences have been harrowing, like the 2020 deployment that ended up lasting for a little more than a month.

Young and her unit assisted civilian hospitals that were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

“The staff were dying, and that was before everybody knew how to treat COVID, before everybody understood totally the transmission, so it was just so many staff got sick, some of our unit got sick,” she said. “It was really scary. I’ll tell you, I was scared.”

Preparation for situations like these are what constitute much of Young’s service as an active reservist.

When she is not on an actual assignment via orders or deployment, she has a weekly online routine.

“Every week, I log on to check my messages from the unit, to get instructions on what I need to do and to be prepared,” she said. “There’s always trainings coming up that are required, and you’ve got to check every week. You’ve got to check and see if you’ve gotten orders every week. Hopefully they’ll call you, but sometimes it’s an email with directives on what to do, or sometimes they’ll put up an email and say, ‘Does anybody want to volunteer for this mission?’ And you can volunteer to go somewhere or be deployed somewhere.”

She said being in the Army gives her an additional goal that she has to achieve routinely because her unit meets every month.

“There’s trainings that have to be done every

month before we meet, because since we are not full time, we’ve got to get all this stuff done after work and on the weekends,” she said.

And then her unit will meet on the weekends, and sometimes training will take her out of town for a week or a month.

Evaluating how her military experience has aided her in life, Young said it has helped her stay in good physical condition since she must take a physical training test every six months that gets harder and harder as she gets older. With all the mental training, the Army also regularly satisfies her desire to learn.

Additionally, the military offers her the aforementioned experiences and travel while legally guaranteeing she will have the same job or an equivalent one to return to at the end of assignments.

Though perspectives on America fluctuate wildly these days, Young said she is proud of her service and answered with a “resounding yes” when asked the question, “If you had the opportunity to go back in time and join the military all over again, would you do it?”

“Only I would not have waited till I was 42,” she said with a laugh. “I would have done it earlier so I could have retired earlier. Like I said, it’s getting tough.”

Later on Jan. 28, the day Young gave the interview for this story, she was notified by the Army to prepare for a vaccination deployment in the future.

Young is ready.

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Navy pilot flew more than 2,000 hours Navy.

At the age of 19, Wright headed off unenburg resident Oliver to boot camp at Naval Station Great Lee Wright, or “Ollie” as he Lakes near Chicago. is known to most, was born “It was a very cold winter with lots into a military family movof snow, but it was better than being ing across the country six times by drafted into the Army,” Wright said. the time he was 6 months old.

Wright said in addition to learning “My father was a career Navy man, how to be a sailor, bootcamp proso I grew up in a variety of places,” vided him a great service.

Wright said. “My earliest memo“I found out what my natural skills ries are of living with my mom and (aptitudes) were. When I enlisted, middle sister with my grandparents I did well enough on the entrance while my dad was statests that I was guarantioned in Japan. When I teed a Class A school was 5 years old, we were (career field or rating able to join my father basic school),” he said. in Japan. I started first Wright said during grade in the government boot camp he was given school on the naval base an extensive aptitude at Yokosuka, Japan.” test.

Wright, 74, said be“The classifier said I cause my father was a had done very well on Chief Petty Officer aviathe tests and (asked) tion electrician, he was what rating would I like predisposed to join the to be. I said, ‘Aviation Navy.

Oliver Lee Electronics Technician.’

“And I wanted to work Wright He said, ‘No you don’t, on and fly in Navy airyour electronic scores craft,” he said. are OK, but your mechanical scores In January 1966, after flunking out are much higher. You would be of college, Wright said there was a much better suited to be an Aviation waiting list to get into the Navy.

Structural Mechanic.’ I realized that “If you got drafted before you could he was right, and that is how I got join the Navy, you were in the Army started on the right career path in and possibly going to Vietnam,” he the Navy,” Wright said. said. “Fortunately, because my father Following boot camp, Wright was a retired chief, I was able to spent 24 years and six months in the enlist in the Navy on February 28 in Navy. The highest enlisted rank he 1966.” achieved was petty officer second Even though college life was not for class (E-5). The highest officer rank him, Wright said the best thing that he achieved was Commander (O-5). happened to him while he was there “Serving in both the enlisted and was meeting his future wife his last officer ranks was a very special semester before going off to join the privilege and gave me a very valuBY CRYSTAL VANDEGRIFT

L

Oliver Wright, left, stands with a squadron mate in front of a F-4 Phantom in August, 1973, while learning to fly.

able perspective on the special worth of every individual,” Wright said. “My time in the service was always an honor, most of the time a satisfying pleasure and sometimes very dangerous and scary.”

Early in his Navy career, Wright was assigned to the operational

squadron VF-31 “Tomcatters” flying in the F-4 Phantom. In this assignment, he went on two operational cruises to the Mediterranean in the USS Saratoga. During that time he graduated from the Naval Fighter Weapons School, better known as Top Gun.

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Wright was later assigned for a second operational tour in VF-31.

During this tour, he made two cruises on the USS Saratoga in the F-4. He participated in the squadron transition from the F-4 Phantom to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

Wright made another cruise to the Mediterranean on the USS John F. Kennedy in the F-14.

He said this cruise included a trip through the Suez Canal, operations in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean and Australia. During that tour, he attended the Naval Aviation Safety School at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he was promoted to lieutenant commander.

After some college courses in between, Wright returned for his third operational tour in VF-31.

“I served as maintenance officer on my final cruise aboard USS John F. Kennedy, which was seven and a half months long and involved flying in hostile fire over Lebanon during 1983-84,” Wright said. “During this cruise, I ejected from an F-14 that was about to fly into the water. The story of the incident and the subsequent events is chronicled in chapters one and eight of the book ‘Super Carrier’ by George Wilson.”

During his military career, Wright had almost 2,000 flight hours in the F-4 Phantom, about 850 hours in the F-14 Tomcat, 930 “traps,” carrier arrested landings with over 350 of them at night.

After a few more tours, Wright retired on Sept.

1, 1990. In 1995, Wright and his late wife moved to Lunenburg County from Northern Virginia to live on a 100-acre tree farm that they owned jointly with his parents, who had moved to the county in

Wright, center, received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal upon his retirement in 1990 from an Admiral from the joint staff. Wright’s late wife, Sue, is pictured at left.

the mid-1970s.

Wright said that in both his military career and in his life he had developed great faith in God. “I have seen His creation and experienced its majesty in ways that very few are privileged to do,” Wright said. “I have been able to contribute a very small part to the defense of the country I love as a warrior. I have been blessed to have been

part of a very highly skilled, high-performance team successfully doing very dangerous, critically essential work that most people haven’t experienced.”

Today, Wright is still serving his community as a member of the Lunenburg Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9954, and is active in his church, county government, and civic organizations.

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‘I’m a lucky, lucky person’

BY ROGER WATSON

J

ames Wooten Jr., 76, walks with a limp and has fought diabetes after returning from two years of duty in Vietnam in 1967, but he is happy to be one of the fortunate ones who made it home.

“I am a lucky, lucky person,” Wooten said while thinking back on his close calls with death halfway across the globe.

“I almost got killed about seven times,” the Buckingham County resident said, crediting Jesus for bringing him home safely. “I had some close calls. A lot of it, I really don’t like to talk about.”

Wooten told about the time he was part of a convoy, and the first truck hit a land mine. Wooten was in the third truck of the convoy.

“This bothered me for many years,” Wooten said. “It was where I was in line. It could have been me that got killed that day.”

Wooten’s only injuries in Vietnam came from exposure to Agent Orange, the tactical herbicide that was used to clear vegetation in the thick jungles of

Vietnam. The chemical caused his diabetes and the nerve damage in his left leg and foot, resulting in his limp and inability to walk for long distances.

“I’m so lucky I only got it in my legs.

I could have gotten it in my lungs, but I don’t think I did,” he said.

The Central High School graduate was working as a timekeeper for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in 1965 when the letter stating he had been selected for service in the Army arrived in his mailbox.

Wooten said he was not disappointed or upset. He saw it as his duty to serve his country.

“It’s something you have to do for your country,” he said. “You get a letter that says, ‘Greetings, you have been accepted,’ and that’s where it starts,” Wooten said.

Wooten was more accepting of his fate than his parents.

“With the Vietnam War going on, they weren’t very happy, but it was something that had to be done,” he said.

The first battle the 20-year-old Wooten fought was homesickness. Having never traveled away from his family or

Wooten made it home in July 1967, back to the parents he left two years earlier and the job with VDOT, the same job his father held before him. very far outside Buckingham County, He would work there another 28 years Wooten found himself in a very differbefore retiring in 1995. He got marent environment. ried after he returned and had three “Being from the counchildren. try like me, I never went “They say we lost the anywhere far from home. war, but we really didn’t.

I want to tell you right We did our part,” Wooten now, the homesickness said. really got to me,” Wooten He said he didn’t fully said. understand what was Basic training was happening in the U.S. in Fort Jackson, South while he was in Vietnam Carolina. Then it was to but now understands radio relay and carrier what the war was about. school in Fort Gor“It was more or less a don, Georgia, then to political war. There was Colorado for six months a lot of politics involved before landing in Pleiku, in that war,” Wooten Vietnam. Wooten was said. “We didn’t keep up a member of the signal with the news or know corps. His job was to what was going on back aid communications here. After the war, for the troops as part everybody realized it the 459th Signal Batwas a political war. They talion. He worked in a James Wooten now really shouldn’t have sent high rise in Pleiku that walks with a prous over there. It was a had been abandoned by nounced limp and has mistake.” the French. But it was battled diabetes since Although Wooten not out of the range of returning from Vietnam, rarely travels, he did take enemy mortar fire. but that didn’t keep him a bus tour to see the Viet“They hit us about from joining the comnam Memorial in Washevery night with mortar munity in a walk to save ington, D.C. It was an fire. We had bunkers a local medical center in experience that brought outside of the building Dillwyn last September. forth lots of memories to get in,” Wooten said. and emotions from his “But that didn’t mean you were safe. time in the war.

You just hoped one of those didn’t “I walked up to it, and I got so emocome in and hit you.” tional. They had to drag me back to Wooten was stationed in Pleiku his the bus,” he said. “I just couldn’t take entire tour but was sent out in the it. I lost it. They had to drag me back country once where he met Sergeant to the bus screaming.”

Puckett from Roanoke.

Wooten said he knows quite a few “He adopted me as his son. I didn’t of the people whose names are inhardly have to do anything,” Wooscribed on the wall. ten said. “He treated me absolutely “A lot of my friends did not make it,” superb.” he said. “I am a lucky, lucky person.”

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Rathgeber: ‘I have had a blessed life

BY TITUS MOHLER

C

On his final job in the U.S. Coast Guard in this 1999 photo in Portland, Maine, Charles Rathgeber, left, was serving in the Marine Safety Office as senior investigating officer, working with Judge Peter Fitzpatrick, right.

harles Rathgeber, of Charlotte County, is a veteran of two branches of the military who finished with more than 26 years of service combined.

His first decision to join the military demonstrated savviness in the face of a difficult situation, and his second decision to join was a testament to how much he had found the military experience to be beneficial to his life.

“Back in the early ’70s, I had to register with the draft, and when I became 1A in 1971, I saw that the numbers were going to be a little too close,” he said.

With the possibility of being drafted looking likely, he decided to preemptively join to give himself more control over what it was he ended up getting to do in the military.

“I spoke with a Navy recruiter, did my four years in the Navy and got out,” he said.

He was attending Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire, when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1972.

“My father had served in the Navy in World War II, so that’s what kind of led me to go talk to the Navy recruiter rather than anybody else,” Rathgeber said.

Though he did not end up having to participate in combat during his 26-plus years in the service,

Rathgeber came the closest to it in 1974 during the Cyprus invasion.

“We were part of evacuating American civilians from Cyprus when Greece mobilized,” he said.

“We were actually in a dry dock in Greece when all that nonsense started.”

By the end of his term in the Navy, he had advanced to E-5, petty officer second class, as an electrician’s mate.

After he was out of the Navy for a year, he and his family were finding life to be quite difficult.

“When you join the service initially, you have what they call a home of record, and my home of record was New Hampshire,” he said. “So when I was discharged from my four years in the Navy, we found ourselves in New Hampshire, and there wasn’t a whole lot of job opportunities for me there. I wound up working construction, and construction in the winter months in New Hampshire (has) not a lot of options.”

He noted he had already held a good occupation with the military, so the matter became a point of discussion with him and his family.

“We discussed it quite a bit, and that was my option that I picked was to go back in the service to a known entity that takes care of you, and I had a profession that the Coast Guard was very interested in, so I think it worked out,” he said.

He spoke to a U.S. Coast Guard recruiter, and he learned they were looking for electricians at that

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Standing on the deck of the USS Patterson (FF-1061) is Charles Rathgeber during his four-year term of service in the U.S. Navy, a term that spanned from 1972-75.

This picture of Charles Rathgeber, right, is from when he was in the Coast Guard in 1981, attending a convention for chief petty officers with Chief Dan Loudermilk, left, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Charles Rathgeber is pictured here while in the U.S. Navy during his assignment to the USS Patterson (FF1061). He served in the Navy from 1972-75 and in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1977-99.

time in February 1977.

“So I was able to get right in the Coast Guard, and we never looked back after that,” he said.

Rathgeber saw a lot of the world while in the military. He was part of Med Cruises in both the Navy and Coast Guard, which involved travel on the Mediterranean Sea, allowing him to see a lot of Europe.

“And I did a temporary stint commissioning a Coast Guard cutter on the west coast and bringing it down through the Panama Canal,” he said.

“So (on) the west coast of the country I’ve been to various places (and) a lot in the Caribbean with our Haitian and drug interdiction programs over the years.”

While in the Coast Guard, Rathgeber advanced to the level of E-8, senior chief.

“It was going to be a long wait for the E-9, master chief, in my particular specialty because of a political reorganization within the command,” he said.

“And I got tired of waiting, so I went with what they called the Warrant Officer Program, and so I made it to Chief Warrant Officer 4.”

He was a subject matter specialist in his field and ultimately went from being an electrician to being a naval engineer.

He got out of the Coast Guard in May 1999.

Rathgeber said his time and experience in the military helped him immensely in life.

“A lot of times it put me outside my comfort zone,” he said. “Coming from a strict, New Englandtype background and then being assigned to be an instructor where you actually have to get up in front of a class, which kind of lends itself to public speaking and all that stuff, that was not something I thought I was ever going to do, but because I had to, I had to do it.

“And once I got it, I found that, ‘Hey, this is something I can do,’” he continued. “So I was able to advance well in the military. I was not a very good student up until then in public schools, which was one of the reasons that I was leaving college and becoming eligible for the draft, because I just didn’t

apply myself.”

But he noted that once he realized the military had a lot to offer, he turned into a much better student.

“I’ve been to a lot of different military schools, which they credit you for,” he said. “Through a program that the Coast Guard probably still has, they contact the board of regents at different schools — mine happened to be the University of Phoenix — and they take your entire transcript of both your civilian and your military training and advise you what you would need to complete a degree.

“And so following their advice, I took the courses I needed to, so I was able to get an associate’s degree in electronics engineering.”

He affirmed he has been able to use that degree since getting out of the Coast Guard.

“I was able to secure a job offer,” he said. “So on a Friday afternoon in 1999, I had my retirement ceremony, and on Monday morning, I reported to my first day of work at a company called Spencer Press to be an electronics technician on their maintenance staff.”

This was in Wells, Maine. He found himself near there because of the final place he worked at while still in the Coast Guard.

“My final tour in the Coast Guard, what they call your twilight tour, I was assigned to a Coast Guard cutter in New Castle, New Hampshire, but they decided they were going to decommission the vessel before my tour was complete,” he said. “And so I was able to move up to Portland, Maine, in the Marine Safety Office.”

He served in the office as a senior investigating officer.

Spencer Press in Wells was about 12 miles down the road from where he was living.

Later, Rathgeber and his family decided to move to south central Virginia.

“Shortly after we were here, when I realized that I needed to go back to work, again I was able to use that (associate’s) degree to work for Gemini, which is over in Farmville,” he said.

He served as an electronics technician on that company’s maintenance staff.

“I actually retired to part time in 2017,” he said.

“I did about a year part time, and then I finally retired for good in 2018, but now I’m involved in all kinds of volunteer stuff.”

Amid a strikingly polarizing time in America, politically, with shifting opinions about the country, Rathgeber took a moment to offer his evaluation of whether or not serving his country in the military was still a point of pride for him.

“I still believe my service is worthy of the country,” he said. “It just saddens me to see some of the things that are happening.”

He affirmed that if he had the opportunity to go back to the 1970s, he would absolutely make the same choices he did to join the military.

Thus far, he indicated he has avoided any major medical issues stemming from his time in the service, though he does think about it regularly.

“It’s always at the back of my mind because I’ve served on vessels that were built in the 1930s, so I know there was asbestos exposure,” he said.

“Some of the cleaning solvents that we used over the years are the same thing as dry-cleaning solvents, and so there’s always that concern. But nothing really has manifested itself.”

He noted that running up and down steep ladders on a ship and standing on a metal deck all day long likely took somewhat of a toll.

“My lower extremities are probably aged a little more than anybody else of my age without having that experience, but I get up in the morning, and I’m happy,” he said.

He keeps busy these days volunteering for different organizations, including the Piedmont Area Veterans Council.

When recalling the ready opportunities afforded him in his civilian life by what he learned from his military experience, Rathgeber was compelled to make a simple statement.

“I have had a blessed life,” he said. “I’ll sum it up with that.”

PROGRESS 2021 23

Tuition aid leads to military career that was the fact that I wanted to help my family out by getting the college consensus among friends, assistance for signing up, for getting some encouragement from enlisted,” Scales said. “The tuition a recruiter and a desire to assistance was a big help for my parhelp his parents pay for ents with college at (James Madison his college tuition led Jeff Scales to University) JMU.” enlist in the Virginia National Guard When Scales enlisted in the Virginia in 1982.

National Guard, he became part of its Dr. Scales, now a reU.S. Army component, tired Cumberland County serving in the Army Public Schools adminReserve from 1982-84. He istrator, recalled that started out as an infanhe and his friends and try mortarman. classmates, Cliff White He said he would have and Jeff Morris, shared a simply stayed enlisted in common interest back in the National Guard for the early ’80s. six years, but that trajec“We all, at that point, tory changed when his wanted to go into the drill instructor gave him National Guard,” Scales a key bit of encouragesaid.

Jeff ment and advice.

White’s uncle, Sgt. Scales “He said, ‘You’d make Ralph Mullins, was the a good officer, you need National Guard recruiter who helped to go into your (Reserve Officers’ encourage them.

Training Corps) ROTC program,’ and White and Morris enlisted, and I thought he was crazy, but I did (it),” Scales said he ended up doing so a Scales said. “I ended up going into year after them.

ROTC when I got back to JMU.” “What else motivated me beyond He participated in what is called a

BY TITUS MOHLER

A

This is Jeff Scales’ first military personnel photo as a U.S. Army captain in 1989.

Simultaneous Membership Program, serving in the National Guard while undergoing officer training through the ROTC program at the same time.

This led to multiple key milestones in 1984.

“At the same time as I was get-

ting honorably discharged from the National Guard, I was also getting commissioned to go on active duty as an (artillery) officer,” Scales said.

“So I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May of 1984.”

On May 5, he was commissioned at 8 a.m. and then graduated from James Madison University with his bachelor’s degree in political science a couple hours later.

“It was a busy day for the Scales family that day,” he said.

As an active duty officer, Scales initially had to go take the officer basic course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

He was approved to go to airborne school, and he also ended up going to ranger school. He finished airborne school in February 1985 and finished ranger school in April 1985, becoming an airborne ranger.

“After I went through my basic course, I was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where I was an executive officer for a basic training unit for about 18 months,” he said. “Then after that, I left in September of 1986 and went to Korea. I was stationed at Camp

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Hovey, (South) Korea, and later stationed at Camp Stanley.”

He noted that at Camp Hovey, he was a fire support team leader, and at Camp Stanley, he was headquarters battery executive officer.

He was in Korea from October 1986 to October 1987 and then returned to Fort Sill for his advanced officer course.

“From Fort Sill and the advanced course, I ended up going to my last active duty station, and that was Fort Stewart, Georgia,” Scales said.

During his time in the Army, he was given the opportunity to travel to a variety of places across the U.S. that also included New York, Alaska and California.

He received an honorable discharge from the Pictured is the class Jeff Scales was a part of at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in June 1988 as it took the Field Artillery Officer Advance Course. military in 1990.

Scales noted he went to this course with Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. In the front “My initial obligarow, Williams is the first on the left, and Scales is three persons to the right of him. tion as an officer was six years, so when I signed up and got commis“So I had to actually call my mother from Indihim about perseverance, and he learned to be sioned, it was a six-year commissioning,” Scales ana,” he said, “telling her, ‘Mom, if the Army calls flexible. said. “I could have extended, but I decided to get and tells me to come back, tell them (to) give me He also said he learned how to work with out. I had been married about four years, wanted 48 hours. I’m in Indiana working for a company, people from all kinds of different backgrounds. to start a family.” but my stuff’s packed up, give me 48 hours. I’ll get He said he went to school with people from KoPart of life in the Army involved not knowing down there.’ And we never got that call, so that rea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Puerto Rico, Guam, where he would be located long term. was a surprise, that was a real surprise.”

Samoa and all over the U.S. “I think my next duty station was going to be in Scales’ last rank in the Army was captain.

“In the military, we all bleed green, and that’s a Germany, and for family reasons, I was trying to He ultimately served two years as an enlisted good adage,” he said. get closer to home, so I decided to move on,” he man in the National Guard and six years as an ofThe lessons he learned of how to communicate said. ficer in the Army, from the time he was 20 to 28. and work with everybody for the greater good The last few days of his time in the military He continued his academic work after he got informed how he later ran schools. proved to be dramatic, however, and they held out of the military, ultimately earning a doctorate.

If he could go back in time and face the decision the potential of his discharge being significantly He became an administrator in both the Cumof joining the military again, Scales said he would delayed. berland County and Fluvanna County school join up, but he would do it differently.

He was on leave, working at a company called systems.

“I would do it differently because I would look the Commodore Corporation in Indiana.

He was a teacher, athletics director and assisat some of the job options that highly relate to “I had actually gotten out June 15 on leave, but tant principal at Cumberland County High School, out there in the civilian sector if I ever did get my final ending date on active duty was Aug. 1,” then served as an assistant principal in Fluvanna out,” he said. “So I would tell kids in a heartbeat, he said. “And I’m up in Indiana. I will never forget. for seven years before returning to be principal ‘I love the Army and all, but if I had to do it all We were watching (the) ‘Today’ show, and it’s of Cumberland County Elementary School for one over again and try to pick up skills for possible like, ‘It’s breaking news — Iraq has crossed the year. After that, he was principal of Cumberland future options, then I would look at doing the Air border into Kuwait.’”

High School for six years.

Force first, Navy second, Army third and Marines Iraq invaded Kuwait Aug. 2, which ultimately Now retired, he lives in the Cartersville end of last.’” led to the start of the Persian Gulf War. the county.

Though there are shifting perspectives of Scales said Fort Stewart was a rapid deployHe noted that his former classmates and fellow America, Scales said he is always proud of his ment force for the Army, so he knew they would guardsmen, White and Morris, live in Cumbermilitary service. be moving out first, and they did. He was just land as well. White just retired from the National “It’s given me a lot of good friends, a lot of surprised the entire division was not activated Guard after 30-plus years. people I still relate and keep contact with, great until Aug. 7.

Reflecting on how his own experience in the people, but the biggest thing, again, is service to He noted that some military members who were military helped him in life, Scales said he was our country,” he said. “And yes, I’m as proud of set to retire were not able to at that point. aided by the leadership. The experience taught our country now as any other time.”

PROGRESS 2021 25

Still serving his country after 39 years

BY CRYSTAL VANDEGRIFT

R

ay Morrison of Kenbridge joined the United States Army in 1975, following his father and grandfather’s footsteps.

Born and raised in West Virginia on the Williams River, Morrison said he also sought a career in the military because he did not see a future for himself in the West Virginia coal mines.

In 2015 Morrison retired as an E8 first sergeant with 20 years of active-duty service and 19 years in the Army Reserve and National Guard for 39 years of service to his country.

“The hardest part of being in the military was being separated from my family and missing my children growing up,” Morrison said.

During his career, Morrison served in the infantry in Hawaii, Korea, New Zealand and then Germany until the late 80s.

“At that point, I got off of active duty and joined the Army Reserves and then the Virginia National Guard where I served in the field artillery until I moved to the aviation unit as the 1SG of a forward support company,” Morrison said.

Morrison was on active duty serving in homeland security mission New Dawn in 2002 and deployed to Iraq for mission Iraq Freedom for 18 months in 2005.

Upon his return, he was on active duty as the readiness NCO for the next 10 years until he was deployed to Iraq once again in 2011.

Morrison said some of the biggest lessons he learned while in the Army were service, commitment and leadership.

Currently, Morrison is working part time at Fort Pickett in Blackstone for the Department of Military Affairs.

“I love my country, and the commitment men and women in the military make for our freedom,” he said. “And I would do it all over again.”

Ray Morrison

26

PROGRESS 2021

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PROGRESS 2021 27

The Farmville Herald Farmville Newsmedia, LLC The Farmville Herald The Charlotte Gazette The Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch Farmville the Magazine

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PROGRESS 2021

From cook to general, Fore does it all lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain, unit commander, staff officer at eing a brigadier general in the battalion level, major, trainthe National Guard would ing officer, battalion commander, be enough of an accomlieutenant colonel, executive of the plishment for most, but Staunton brigade and chief of staff for Farmville’s William G. “Buckie” of the division when he was proFore Jr., the honor is only a small moted to a full colonel. part of his multifaceted life of Training young soldiers was one service to his nation and his comof the things Fore enjoyed the most munity. during his time in the Guard.

Fore has “My forte was worked at The training,” Fore Farmville Herald said. “I enjoyed longer than he my years as a served in the trainer.”

Guard. In fact, While in the it was Herald Guard, Fore publisher J. said some of the Barrye Wall who highlights for suggested Fore him were talking join the National with a young Guard when he Colin Powell at was a senior in Fort Bragg and high school. defeating a Rus“I could not sian army heavy have done armor unit with everything only a light infanthat I did in the try in a computmilitary had it er-generated not been for the map exercise. support that “Our division, I got from the William G. “Buckie” Fore Jr. a light infantry Wall family there division, defeatat the newspaper,” Fore said. “If I ed the Russian army in that particuhad to go, the only thing I had to do lar battle, which was a really, really was go to one of the Walls and tell big plus for the division,” Fore said. them I had to be gone for however Fore served in the National Guard long it was.” all the way up to the mandatory And Fore did a whole lot as a retirement age of 55 years and 30 member of the National Guard for days old. more than 35 years.

“The army has a system of getting From a rifleman to chief cook rid of old guys. You go as far as you to brigadier general, Fore had a can go. If there is no place for you, meteoric rise in the Guard while you have to get out so the young raising a family and holding down a ones can come on,” he said. “That’s full-time job. kind of what happened to me.”

“I have done it all,” Fore said.

“On the day that I retired, I was “Everything from run a kitchen to promoted to brigadier general by run an infantry company, an artilthe state of Virginia and retired for lery battery. I have done all the staff pay purposes as a full colonel,” he work, except an intelligence officer.” said.

Fore began his National Guard Six months after returning home duty as a rifleman, then quickly from duty, Fore found himself back advanced to automatic rifleman at The Herald as a part-time adverbefore being asked to serve as a tising representative, a position he team leader in the kitchen. Then he still holds 25 years later. went back to the field as a forward But Fore also found other ways to observer in artillery before becomserve the community with a career ing a lieutenant commander. in local government as a member of From there, Fore held a variety of the Prince Edward County Board of duties and titles, including second Supervisors.

BY ROGER WATSON

B

In this picture from The Herald in Jan. 1971, Lt. William G. “Buckie” Fore Jr., right, is briefing the new commander of the Farmville National Guard unit Thad E. Mendenhall. Fore was advanced to commandant of headquarters company, Second Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade in Lynchburg.

“After I came home from Belvoir, I had several people tell me, ‘You need to run for the Board of Supervisors. We need you,’” Fore said.

He unseated an incumbent who had been on the board for years and served four terms representing the Buffalo District. Fore served as chair for nine of the 16 years he was on the board.

A younger William G. “Buckie” Fore Jr.

“I think we did a tremendous amount of good,” Fore said of his time on the board. “It was a very hard 16 years for me. I took my job very seriously. Although we had several controversial issues, I think those years that I served on the board were fruitful for the county.”

Fore said his experience gained as a member of the National Guard helped him with everything he did as a civilian.

“Everything from decision-making to writing, I attribute it all to my military experience,” Fore said.

Overall, Fore said there is nothing he would change about his life as a member of the National Guard but said the frequent weekends away meant some missed family time.

“I missed an awful lot of birthdays. I missed an awful lot of school events. I missed an awful lot of things that go on. There was always something else,” Fore said. “Though I regret that, it is part of being a soldier.

“I was a soldier then, and I still consider myself a soldier.”

PROGRESS 2021 29

Respect, discipline, comradery

BY ALEXA MASSEY

M

ajor Sergeant John Sedgwick, 78, of Buckingham, originally grew up in Annapolis, Maryland.

Born in 1942, Sedgwick grew up during the time of the draft. After graduation from high school, he found it was difficult to find a job because companies were afraid of hiring a young man only to have him drafted, as they’d have to keep his position open the whole time he was off serving his country.

Businesses were reluctant to hire anyone without prior military service, so Sedgwick, who’d been working odd jobs from 18 to 21, decided to get his military obligation out of the way. He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1963, but he had no idea the lasting impact his service would leave on his life.

After basic training, Sedgwick was selected to become a jet engine mechanic and went to technical school in Wichita Falls, Texas. Upon graduating from tech school he was assigned to the England Air Force Base in Louisiana.

While he had experienced segregation and other difficulties in Maryland, nothing could prepare him for the world he was introduced to in Louisiana. The racism he encountered there was difficult to cope with, and as a Black man, he often had to work twice as hard as his white counterparts to earn the same respect.

After two and a half years, his entire wing was sent to Vietnam.

Sedgwick did three tours of duty in Vietnam and from 1965 to 1967 spent his time as a jet engine mechanic working on the F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft.

At the time, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago was the busiest airport in the world, but with only one runway, Sedgwick’s unit was sending off over 400 “sorties” (a combat mission for an individual aircraft) every day, surpassing even the world’s busiest runway.

From 1968-1970, Sedgwick worked to launch B-52 bombers off of Guam in the middle of what has been nicknamed Typhoon Alley.

When typhoon conditions hit, all 150 aircraft had to be launched around the storm, often flying to Okinawa and back in order to save the aircraft from damage.

After leaving Guam, Sedgwick was stationed at Loring Air Force Base in Maine. He continued working on B-52s in efforts focused around the Cold War. As part of the Strategic Air Command, his mission was to be able to launch an all out nuclear war with anybody on the planet within 30 minutes.

In 1971, Sedgwick transferred to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. It was there that he was introduced to the F-15 Eagle fighter plane. Over the next several years, he was dis-

patched to bring those F-15s to places around the world, from Alaska to the Netherlands.

After a tour in Holland he returned to Langley and retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant in 1984 at the age of 42. Even after retiring, he continued a career in mechanics, going on to work on Navy aircraft.

Sedgwick got to see quite a bit of the world during his military career, including places like the Philippines, Spain, Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong. Nowadays, you can find this welltraveled veteran in Buckingham County.

Today, Sedgwick is active in the veteran community, serving as a member of the American Legion and Buckingham VFW Post 8446, of which he served as the first Black commander.

Sedgwick has a lot to be proud of in his work in the U.S. Air Force. But after growing up in a single-parent household where his mother played the role of both Mom and Dad, he also draws a great sense of pride from serving as a father figure to his adopted granddaughters and now as a great-grandfather.

Due to the era in which he grew up, during his time spent in the Air Force, Sedgwick grew to feel that he could be looked upon and received as a first-class citizen anywhere in the world except for the country where he was born and raised.

As a result, he lives his life under a strict rule of treating others how he would want to be treated. He’s a thorough believer in the core values instilled in him in the military — respect, discipline, comradery — and has never been afraid to uphold his convictions.

Sedgwick’s time in Vietnam taught him something else, too; that at any given minute any of us could be just a memory. And because of this he tries to live his life to the fullest and to the best of his ability.

But even the fragility of life would not keep Sedgwick from putting on that uniform and serving once more. He would do it again in a heartbeat.

John Sedgwick

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Hamlin weathered adversity to build a life

BY TITUS MOHLER

R

obert “Bob” Hamlin faced significant adversity early in his life — times when options were closed off to him and pathways were dictated to him. But he persevered, making the most of those times by taking what positives he could find to help him successfully build a life for himself and his family.

Hamlin, who is African American, grew up in Prince Edward County, and he was going into the 12th grade in 1959 when the county’s public schools closed in opposition to desegregation.

He had to leave home to conclude his high school education.

“So I wound up at Kittrell College in North Carolina to finish the 12th grade of high school, and then I stayed at Kittrell,” Hamlin said. “It was a junior college, and I graduated junior college at Kittrell.

“And then I went on to North Carolina College over in Durham. It is now North Carolina Central (Univer-

sity). But I didn’t get to stay. I had to leave school, and I went to work in Richmond at the Medical College of Virginia for a while.”

He had not yet had the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree before his life was again interrupted.

“In less than a year, I got a draft notification, and I really had no desire to go into the military,” he said.

“I didn’t really know anything about the military, but I got this draft notice, and of course, my options were not great.”

He said he decided to check out the U.S. Air Force rather than to go to the Army.

“So I took the (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) ASVAB test and wound up in the Air Force,” he said. “And as it turned out, it was probably the better decision of my life.”

Hamlin said his time and experience in the military helped him tremendously in life.

“It gave us, me and my family, the opportunity to experience many places in the world,” he said. “I —

and my wife did too — truly enjoyed moving around the world and experiencing other cultures. Often I would think back to where I came from. My home has always been out here in Rice, but to be in other places of the world and think back to, ‘My goodness, this is so much different than Rice.’”

He was a member of the Air Force from March 4, 1964, to April 1, 1984.

He went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in Texas. It was one of three different times he would find himself in Texas for training. Later in his career he returned for Retiring as a master sergeant, E-7, Robert “Bob” Hamaeromedical evacualin trained for combat situations but served as a medic tion training at Brooks for his entire career in the Air Force.

AFB and then later for independent duty training at Shepadded. pard AFB. He was at Pope AFB for four years.

While Hamlin was never called to “Then I went to Germany for four serve in active combat situations, he years to Rhein-Main Air Base and was trained extensively to be ready flew aeromedical evacuation in the for them. He served as a medic European theater for four years,” throughout his military career.

Hamlin said. “So I was all over After basic training, he went for Europe — Spain, Italy, was even in further training in Montgomery, North Africa, England, Norway, TurAlabama. Then came his first perkey, Greece.” manent duty assignment at Hunter After that, he came back to the Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. states and served at Andrews AFB in He was there for two years.

Maryland.

“And when I finished there, I left “I was assigned as the noncomand went to Taiwan for 15 months,” missioned officer in charge of the he said. “I had just gotten married, emergency room at Malcolm Grow had a young child, but I wasn’t (Medical Center),” he said, and he able to take my wife and child with was there for two years. me to Taiwan. So I was gone for 15 He had further training as an months.” independent duty medic in Texas, He worked at an outpatient clinic and then he noted he was sent back while there. to Germany, but this time he was in “When I returned from Taiwan, I Hessisch Oldendorf, which is in the went to Pope Air Force Base in North north central part of the country, Carolina,” he said. “It was adjacent not far from Hanover. to Fort Bragg Army Base, and I was He was there for three years, and assigned to an aeromedical evacuahis duties again involved travel, but tion unit designed to fly into forward this time he was not flying. combat zones to retrieve the injured.

“I was now assigned to a field radar But we never had that mission. unit, and I was the only medic as“It was during the Vietnam era, but signed to that unit to be with them in I never actually went to Vietnam,” he case of accidents, illness, taking care

PROGRESS 2021 31

Robert “Bob” Hamlin is smiling while on the phone in this picture taken during his 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, which stretched from March 1964 to April 1984.

of sick calls, environmental health of the site,” he said. “And I would deploy with them whenever they would go someplace, like we would deploy to Denmark and other places.”

After his time there concluded, he returned to the U.S. and was assigned to Grissom AFB in Indiana.

“This was my final assignment in the Air Force, and I was there for the final three years until my retirement,” he said. “I was the noncommissioned officer in charge of the emergency room, again, when I first got there, and then I became the superintendent of nursing services.”

It was the second time in his military career that he had at least 24 people under his supervision.

Hamlin achieved the rank of master sergeant, E-7, by the time of his retirement.

He said having served the U.S. by being in the military is a point of pride for him, but it is also a point of making him kind of sad.

“Having spent 20 years in the Air Force, I am very prideful of that, very much proud of my military service,” he said. “But it does kind of anger me the way some individuals feel about me as a Black American and particularly those that have not served.”

If he had the opportunity to go back in time and had a choice of whether or not to join the military, Hamlin said he would choose to join.

Around the time of his retirement from the Air Force in Indiana in 1984, he was looking to go back to school.

“I needed to finish my bachelor’s (degree), so I decided this was a good time and a good place to retire, and it was also a good place to allow my kids to finish schooling, and so we decided to do that,” he said. “I entered Indiana University and finished my bachelor’s degree.”

The degree was in general studies with an emphasis in social behavioral science.

Hamlin said that in addition to gaining a lot from experiencing different cultures while in the military, being in the service also helped him to develop the kinds of skills that have really aided him greatly in life.

“I learned a lot about management, I learned a lot about development, I learned a lot about just getting things done,” he said.

After earning his bachelor’s degree, he went to work for a company in Indiana for the next 12 1/2 years that helped people with employment training. He worked with youth and people that needed to improve their skills educationally.

When he returned to Virginia in 1999, he worked for a while for another nonprofit organization in consumer credit counseling.

“But then after two years of that, another opportunity came along in employment and training working with youth,” he said. “And so I worked for the Telamon Corporation, and I became the deputy state director for in-school and out-ofschool youth for south central Virginia.”

Hamlin has also served within the Prince Edward community as chair of the board of directors for the Robert Russa Moton Museum.

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Town manager is proud to be a Navy vet

BY CRYSTAL VANDEGRIFT

N

avy veteran Tony Matthews was born in Farmville, grew up in Keysville and now makes his home in Lunenburg County following his military service.

Matthews served a little more than five years in the U.S. Navy, achieving the rank of petty officer third class.

During his teenage years, Matthews worked on his grandfather’s farm with all 13 of his cousins.

“We really were like one huge family having Sunday lunch and dinner at my grandparents’ home in Ontario every Sunday. We learned to depend on each other and what true family values are.” Matthews said.

Matthews said that his grandfather and other family members played a big part in making his military career a success.

“Some of the biggest lessons I learned were actually embedded in my mind and DNA before the military,” Matthews said. “My grandfather used to recite to us often ‘Once a

job is first begun, never quit it till it’s the U.S. Navy in August of 1991. done. May the job be big or small, do He attended boot camp in Chicago. it well or not at all.’ My cousins and Following graduation, Matthews I heard that over was stationed and over again, in NAS Millingand we carried it ton, Tennessee with us. where he studied “We all learned aviation electronvaluable lessons ics working on about hard work, radar, radios, and dedication, persecommunication verance, respect, systems. honor, trust, and “This school being a good was 10 months person.” long and second During high in difficulty only school, Matthews to submarine was part of the warfare,” MatJROTC and dethews said. “I was cided to choose lucky enough to the U.S. Navy. He graduate number wanted to work two in my class, on airplanes. and that meant “The movie I got to pick my “Top Gun” may Tony Matthews orders second or may not have from the list that had some influence on me,” Matthews was available. I chose one close to said. home and was stationed at NAS NorAfter high school, Matthews joined folk and assigned to VAW-120, which

trained pilots and to fly and operate the E2-C aircraft, which is the plane with the big disk on top. That’s how most know it.”

According to Matthews, the E2-C aircraft is outfitted with equipment that can track aircraft and ships, coordinate ground, air and sea warfare identify enemy ships, planes and vehicles and communicate all of that back to those making the decisions from a command post.

Matthews said following that training, he became qualified as a final checker on board an aircraft carrier, which was the most fun experience he had.

“A final checker is an airman on the deck of the carrier that does the final check of the aircraft before it launches from the deck of the carrier,” Matthews said. “Of course, the adrenaline was high in this job, but nothing beats being able to be launched, catapulted and land trapped on board an aircraft carrier.

This makes any ride that you have ever experienced at an amusement park a cakewalk. I love this.”

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During his time in the Navy, Matthews said one of the hardest parts for him was being separated from his family and not being able to see or talk to them from time to time, but that time also taught him independence and self-reliability.

“It also taught me to value the lessons that I was taught on my grandfather’s farm and around his table on Sundays,” he said. “It taught me that a job well done is rewarding personally and rewarded when completed correctly.”

Matthews said he values his military experience, to the point that he wishes he had stayed in sometimes.

“First off, because I would have retired at 38, but I had pride in my job,” he said, “I was very proud to be a military man and am equally as proud to be a veteran.”

The Navy veteran said he learned many things about our country during his military service.

“It taught me that there are a lot of people who don’t like the military or its members, but there are a lot of people who value them too,” Matthews said. “There are a lot of people who forget to separate the conflict from the person who is serving during it. It taught me that our country

goes to great lengths to protect its people from tyranny and terrorism and that most people don’t even take the time to consider that. It taught me that being the best at my job had rewards and benefits, which spilled over into my work ethic. It taught me that some people might feel forced to lay down their lives for others, but some are willing to do so if only in the name of honor and love of fellow man.

It taught me that sacrifice has rewards, and those rewards are most definitely worth the sacrifice.”

Today, Matthews owns and operates Matthews Lawn Care in addition to serving as the Kenbridge town manager. “I hope to continue my lawn care business and employing young people to teach them responsibility, self-respect, pride in a job done right and financial independence,” he said.

Matthews currently lives in Kenbridge with his wife, Beth.

“We have helped raise eight children, and I say helped because there are too many people behind these great children for me to name or take credit for raising alone,” he said. “It really does take a village, and this community has been with us all along the way, and we are grateful every day for them.”

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Virgil Chick was just doing his duty

BY ROGER WATSON

V

irgil Chick doesn’t think of himself as a military hero.

“I don’t have any hero stories for you,” the 76-year-old Chick said near the end of an interview recently. “I was just there, you know.”

Chick joined the military in 1963 after quitting school just to have something productive to do. He ended up in Vietnam where he helped serve his country and thankfully was one of the more than 2.7 million soldiers who made it home alive.

“I quit school, and I was hanging around home,” he said. “I kept getting hints to do something. Finally, one day my sister took me to the Federal Building in Richmond. I was talking to different recruiters.

The Marines sounded the best, so I signed up.”

The plainspoken Cumberland County resident said if he had it to

do over again, he would have chosen a different branch of service.

“After I got in, I thought I would learn more in another branch,” he said.

He said he would likely pick the Air Force or the Navy if he could make the decision again.

While in Vietnam, Chick spent much of his time on Chu Lai Beach where the Marines had a military base from 1965 to 1970. The base featured an airfield. Chick used amphibious landing crafts to make the transition from landing boats to the beach.

“It was a pretty beach,” Chick said. “Prettier than the ones in the U.S., I thought.”

The only injury he received during the war was two broken fingers from dropping an oxygen tank on his hand.

After his time in Vietnam was up in 1966, Chick came back to the States and finished up his service at Quantico, working on track vehicles and tanks.

Virgil Chick

After the service, Chick spent some time working for Richmond Steel and then went to work at the

At Cumberland Schools, you matter.

shipyard in Newport News.

He came to Cumberland in the early ’70s.

The Louisa County native said he saw an ad in the newspaper for a house for sale in Cumberland and bought it. That is where he has been ever since.

“I moved there for one year because everywhere I had been I stayed for about one year,” he said.

“I stayed there (in Cumberland) for 50.”

After moving to Cumberland, Chick took a job traveling around the U.S. building storage tanks.

He built tanks for paper mills, oil fields and chemical plants until he was 58.

Chick said one of the most coincidental things that happened when he was in Vietnam was running into a high school classmate while coming out of a restaurant in Saigon.

“Halfway around the world and you run into someone you know,” he said.

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