Loss of Innocence

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LOSS OF INNOCENCE

Vietnam ~ Kent State ~ JFK ~ Neil Armstrong ~ MLK ~ Civil Rights Agent Orange ~ POW/MIA ~ Woodstock

Indiana County Relives 1961-1975

A supplement to The Indiana Gazette ~ Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Loss of Innocence

Page 2 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

About this project The 1960s were a time of upheaval and rapid cultural developments, mixed with plenty of pain and anguish. On Nov. 22, 1963, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation. There were a number of historic achievements during that time, too. The Civil Rights Act was signed on July 2, 1964. Americans were the first to land on the moon on July 20, 1969. But it was the Vietnam War that really punctuated the era. More than 58,000 Americans died in the war, and more than 300,000 were wounded. Back home, there was a growing unrest as it became more apparent that U.S. officials were misleading the American people about how well the war was unfolding. Many significant events of the era reflected that. The Woodstock music festival has come to symbolize the peace movement. Yet during the weekend of Aug. 15-18, 1969, as many young people were enjoying the music, drugs and mud, 108 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. The publication is the third in a series of commemorative editions chronicling important eras of modern history as seen through the eyes of Indiana County residents.We have compiled the stories of some local residents who served in the war and others who were connected to cultural events of the time. The first two in the series focused on World War II in 2012 and the Korean War in 2013.

Key dates in Vietnam Feb. 13, 1965: President Lyndon Johnson authorizes Operation Rolling Thunder, a strategic bombing campaign throughout North Vietnam. April 7, 1965: 60,000 U.S. troops are ordered to Vietnam. Aug. 17, 1965: One of the first major battles of the war, called Operation Starlite, begins. Jan. 30-31, 1968: The North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive, a widespread, coordinated attack on about 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam. Militarily, Tet was an Allied victory, but psychologically and politically it was a disaster. It was seen as the main turning point in Americans’ attitude toward the war. About 2,500 Americans and more than 17,000 North Vietnamese died in the first phase of Tet.

March 16, 1968: American soldiers, including a platoon led by Second Lt. William Calley, killed hundreds of civilians — mostly women, children and elderly men — in the hamlet of My Lai in South Vietnam. The event became known as the “My Lai Massacre.�

JAMIE EMPFIELD/Gazette

THE VIETNAM EXHIBIT at the Historical and Genealogical Society in Indiana includes a mannequin with a full U.S. Army uniform and various other gear and flags from the era.

Exhibit tells story of local vets By The Indiana Gazette

April 4, 1968: Civil right activist Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.

An exhibit of military equipment from the Vietnam War on long-term display at the Historical and Genealogical Society of Indiana County helps bring the war closer to home. The exhibit, made up of donations from local veterans of the war, includes a flag from a North Vietnamese soldier, a full uniform worn by an American GI and a variety of photos of local residents who fought in Vietnam. Herb Gleditsch, vice president on the board of the historical society, takes a particular interest in the display, since he served in the Army in Vietnam from March 1969 to April 1970. He is especially proud of a collection of more than a dozen albums with one-of-a-kind photos taken mostly by Indiana County residents during their time in the country. “You’ll never see these anywhere else,� he said. Some of the photos are his own, which he has donated to the historical society, located in the old armory building along Wayne Avenue in Indiana. There is also a display in remembrance of Ralph Ellis Dias, a Marine who was killed in action on Oct. 9, 1969. He is the only county resident to earn a Medal of Honor for his service during the war, Gleditsch said. The museum also has procured letters written home from a son of Clarence Stephenson, Indiana County’s first official historian.

April 1969: U.S. combat deaths exceed the 33,629 killed in the Korean War. Dec. 1, 1969: U.S. institutes draft of men born between 1944 and 1950. The order was based on birth date. March 25, 1975: Hue, South Vietnam’s third-largest city, falls to the North. April 29, 1975: U.S. Marines and the Air Force airlift 1,000 U.S. civilians out of Saigon.

HERB GLEDITSCH was stationed in Ouan Loi, Vietnam, when this photo was taken in November 1969.

JAMIE EMPFIELD/Gazette

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 3

Army veteran well-suited as ‘tunnel rat’ By MARGARET HARPER

After a week of tunnel rat/demolition school, he was out in the jungle again, searching for tunnels and traps. “It was something else,” he said. “You had to watch yourself.” Being a tunnel rat was scary, Busani said, but he got used to it. He would go in armed with a flashlight and a gun, and he never knew what he was going to find. One of the more memorable finds was an underground hospital, complete with rooms and medical supplies. He called in an airstrike to destroy it.

mharper@indianagazette.net

runo Busani was a student at Blairsville Joint High School when he decided he wanted to join the Army to become a mechanic. He went to Pittsburgh for his physical, but there was bad news: If he joined, there would be no mechanics school for him. Instead, he would be deployed to Vietnam, they said. Busani changed his mind and didn’t enlist, and was told he would end up being drafted anyway. That day came three years later, in June of 1969. “I knew it was going to happen sooner or later,” he said. “Then they finally got me. It was inevitable.” Busani, 66, of Josephine, was the only boy in a family of four sisters. His parents were devastated. “I told my father not to worry,” he said. “I told him that country wasn’t worth a drop of my blood.”

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AFTER GETTING his draft notice, it was off to Fort Gordon, Georgia, for basic training, where he learned to perform tasks such as shooting a rifle and crossing rivers. But he wasn’t very cooperative. One day he was sleeping in class, and the instructor threw a pugil stick at him at told him to defend himself. Busani said he knocked the instructor out cold. Then there was the time they were learning river crossing using ropes. Busani, who to this day can’t swim, asked the sergeant to demonstrate how to cross. Once he was out halfway, Busani cut his rope. Despite his moments of being uncooperative, Busani finished basic training, after which he received his orders: He was going to Vietnam.

BUSANI ARRIVED in Oakland, Calif., a day later than he was supposed to before shipping out to Vietnam. He was ranked an E2, but due to his late arrival he was demoted to E1 when the Army took away a stripe. When the soldiers landed in Vietnam, he was given a rifle, to which he said as an EI, he was not qualified to use. He got his second stripe back. Busani served in Vietnam from December 1969 to November 1970 in the 25th Infantry Division, 1st Batalliion, 27th Infantry Regiment Wolfhounds. A month or so in country, and at 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 125 pounds, the Army informed him that he was going to be a tunnel rat.

TOM PEEL/Gazette

BRUNO BUSANI, of Josephine, recently displayed photos of his time in Vietnam.

Submitted photo

BUSANI is seated second from left in this photo of some men in his unit.

VIETNAM WAS uncomfortable and unsafe. The temperatures were hot, often 110 degrees. He remembers being covered in leeches working in the river. And it seemed like he was always wet, either from sweat or the constant rains during monsoon season. He suffered from malaria, twice in two months. And when they sprayed Agent Orange at night, all he could do was put his poncho over his head. He wore a St. Christopher medal to keep him safe, and wears one to this day. It’s not the same one, though. That one became entangled on part of a tank’s radiator, and he had to let it go. Over and over, Busani saw other soldiers injured and killed as he traveled on Eagle Flights all through the second corps, from the ocean to Cambodia. Wherever there were hostile enemies, that’s where they went. Sometimes there were four to five flights a day.

BACK HOME, things were changing. His mother would send newspaper clippings about what was going on. Woodstock. Protests. People burning draft cards. In Vietnam, morale was low. “It took a toll on us,” he said. “We often wondered what we were doing over there.” Upon his return home, the sentiment was the same. “We got no respect when we came back,” he said. “It was a bad scene all the way around.” People, he said, would call them “baby killers.” “The only ones I killed were the ones who came at us with grenades,” he said. Relief from those conditions was few and far between. Once a month, during stand-down, there would be time for relaxing, complete with a wagon carrying 3.2 percent beer.

“IT TOOK a toll on us. We often wondered what we were doing over there.” Bruno Busani But two days later, it was back to the jungle. ALL TOLD, Busani was in Vietnam for close to a year. He was one of the lucky ones — he made it home, but some he knew did not, like friend Charles Sharpe, from Michigan. Busani would talk to Sharpe at night on the bunker line. “He said ‘Bruno, I’m not going to make it home.’” And he didn’t. There’s a photo of Busani and seven other men, including Sharpe. Of those seven, only four made it home. There were close calls for Busani, too, like when his unit was shot at with an rocket-propelled grenade. Lying on the ground afraid to move, he realized that his back felt like it was burning. Debris had landed there and sliced through his jacket, leaving a cut on his spine. He got patched up and kept going. BUSANI CAME home in November of 1970 and was then deployed to Germany before coming back to the States for good, where he got married, and earned a mechanics degree at Vale Tech in Blairsville. But it’s still hard for him to talk about. He suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD. The sound of a helicopter flying overhead makes him nervous. “I try to keep my calm about me,” he said. Despite the toll that combat took on Busani, he said he isn’t bitter. “I suppose if I had to do it all over again, I would,” he said.

Clymer man saw war from mountaintop firebase By KAYLA CIOFFO kcioffo@indianagazette.net

t 20 years old, Gary Goss wanted nothing more than to get out into the working world, and as a college student, he wasn’t far from his dream. In 1969, Goss was attending DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago when his sister called to say a letter had come in the mail, drafting him into the Army. Although he could have deferred his deployment because he was in college, Goss felt it was his responsibility to go. “There were morals and honor and it was your duty to go,” Goss said. Putting his much-desired

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education on hold, Goss headed to a daunting eight weeks of military training. The following spring, after a personal trip home, he spent his 21st birthday flying down to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was sent to Vietnam within two weeks. When he landed in Vietnam, Goss recalls getting off the plane being similar to opening an oven. “As you got closer to the door, the heat got more intense,” he explained. “And you just knew you had to be there for 11 months.” Goss was stationed about 25 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone as a forward observer. He spent a majority of his time as a sergeant giving

the “OK” from a firebase to troops that would call in for artillery. A firebase was usually on top of mountains, Goss explained, describing it as one of the most beautiful places in the world. “You could look down at the rice patty fields and the ocean,” he said, “and it was beautiful if you didn’t know the war that was going on inside.” Free time in Vietnam was rare, as the soldiers were constantly on edge and every day was a battle, Goss said. “The Vietnamese were confused people,” he said. “Their country was torn apart, and they didn’t know who to trust.”

He recalls the communication differences of the time, when receiving and sending letters could take up to two weeks. Those who wanted to wait in line, possibly for hours, could use a “ham radio” to call back home from a firebase. The heat, lack of communication and sights of war all proved draining on Goss and the men he was with. He says his time in Vietnam is truly hard to describe. Soldiers were sometimes given a week of rest and relaxation. Although Goss did not get to spend his in Australia, as he was hoping, he went to Bangkok where he was able to call home and enjoy some time off.

Eventually, Goss got the orders that he was being processed out of Vietnam a few weeks early. He threw everything he owned into one duffle bag, and after helicopter rides through Vietnam and the plane ride back to the States, Goss arrived at Fort Lewis, Wash., at 2 a.m. They left that night after a steak dinner, which Goss said he couldn’t have cared less about. The wait was almost unbearable. People didn’t have much respect for the men coming back from war, according to Goss. It was an unpopular war that stirred up many protests and riots, “But at least people stood up for what they believed,”

Goss said. “The morals have gone from our country.” With a completely different warfare among us currently, Goss notices changes in our values, saying that we need to be proud of our country today. “For those who fight for it, life has a flavor that the protected will never know,” Goss quoted from a lighter he had while in Vietnam. Goss, now 65, lives in Clymer with his wife, Amy. He was able to finish his education on the GI Bill at ValeTech, Blairsville, and for 30 years, he owned and operated Goss Auto Body Shop in Hillsdale. He also taught at WyoTech in Burrell Township for nine years.

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Loss of Innocence

Page 4 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

NOV. 23, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 5

Agent Orange affected family for life By MARY ANN SLATER news@indianagazette.net

oots on the ground, boots on the ground — that was the mantra Kathy Dubnansky always heard about Vietnam servicemen and Agent Orange. As she understood it, only soldiers who had served on land in Vietnam during the 1960s and early 1970s could have been exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the United States military during their Operation Ranch Hand campaign. The herbicide/defoliant, which contained the toxic dioxin, was used to destroy crops and kill the abundant vegetation that hid the enemy during the long conflict. But Dubnansky’s husband, Andy, who died at age 65 at their home in Seward, was in the U.S. Navy and served as an electrician aboard the USS Walke for nine months starting in the fall of 1969. He left the Navy in 1971. The couple knew he had not been on land during his Vietnam service and, with the mantra “boots on the groundâ€? ringing in their ears, they didn’t consider that Agent Orange could have been a factor in the myriad health problems Andy faced for 40 years after he returned from duty. That only started to change about a year before Andy’s death in April 2012. At the urging of a neighbor, Dubnansky contacted the Department of Veterans Affairs office for Indiana County, and finally began getting answers to questions that had plagued the family for years. Working with the office’s director, Brenda Stormer, she learned that naval personnel like Andy, who served aboard ships deployed on Vietnam’s inland waterways, are indeed eligible for disability compensation for health problems related to Agent Orange. She filed paperwork for benefits, but not too long after, Andy died. Fifteen months after his death, Dubnansky got official word from the VA. The agency accepted her claim for survivor benefits, acknowledging through its paperwork that Andy’s long battles with diabetes, the nervous disorder peripheral neuropathy and ischemic heart disease were a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. On a recent afternoon, Dubnansky recalled how on the day the VA benefits letter arrived, she was at home baby-sitting her grandchildren. “I’ve been pretty strong,â€? Dubnansky said from her small living room that faces a quiet rural road in Seward. “But when I got the papers, I said to my daughter, ‘Come home. I can’t keep the kids. I’m crying too hard.’â€? For years, she had seen Andy fight off one health problem after another. Doctors never had a good answer for his illnesses, and no one ever asked or brought up the possibility that all these illnesses could be linked to Andy’s service record. She believes this avoidance may have been deliberate. “They had to have known. ‌ It makes you angry.â€? Yet, as Dubnansky now has learned, Andy and his shipmates aboard the Walke were exposed to Agent Orange as it contaminated the water they used to shower, wash laundry and prepare meals. “Andy was known as ‘the cook,’â€? she said. When the kitchen was officially closed, he sometimes made soup for his friends. “I guess he was getting extra poison.â€? Andy’s first medical struggles were his severe allergies, which started even before he left the Navy and finally led to his discharge. “Relatives made so much fun of him because he was discharged because of allergies.â€? But they soon saw it wasn’t fun. The couple moved back to southwestern Pennsylvania, where Andy first worked as a machinist for Bethlehem Steel Corp. and then Johnstown America Corp. The couple raised their six children, who now range in age from 28 to 45, from their Seward home. “The allergies were just dreadful,â€? Dubnansky said. For instance, if they tried going on a picnic at Yellow Creek State Park, “he would have to take a paper matchstick to peel the thick mucus from his eyes. ‌ We couldn’t be a normal family. We couldn’t take the kids on vacation.â€? From the time he was 30 years old, Andy suffered from sky-high blood pressure. He had blocked arteries, complications from Diabetes Melli-

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JAMES J. NESTOR/Gazette

KATHY DUBNANSKY sat on the 1967 2-ton Army truck that was restored by her late husband, Andy.

How to get help Brenda Stormer, director of Indiana County’s Department of Veterans Affairs, said her staff is ready and willing to help veterans with questions about Agent Orange. “We get phone calls about it all the time,� she said. Staff can help Vietnam veterans and their families find the information they need and file a benefits claim. The office is on the second floor of the Indiana County Court House. Veterans also can learn much about the herbicide, its potential impact and possible medical problems at the department’s website www.publichealth.va. gov/exposures/agentorange. The website lists specific diseases and birth defects that have been linked to Agent Orange. It also gives information on how veterans and their families

can file for benefits if they suspect medical problems due to Agent Orange exposure. The website states that Vietnam veterans who served on the land and on the country’s inland waterways are eligible for compensation for disabilities related to exposure to Agent Orange. Stormer believes that most veterans know about possible problems with Agent Orange. “But there is confusion about it,� she said. For instance, there have been questions and changes in policy for those who served in ocean waters farther from shore. Stormer encouraged anyone with questions to check the VA’s website, which includes a list of ships that served in Vietnam and whether personnel aboard are eligible for benefits. Or you can call her at (724) 465-3815.

Operation Ranch Hand Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, from 1962 until 1971. It was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program called “Operation Trail Dust.� Ranch Hand involved spraying some 20 million gallons of defoliants over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971. More than 5 million acres of forest and 500,000 acres of crops were heavily damaged or destroyed. The Vietnamese government estimates that 400,000 people were killed or maimed and 500,000 children were later born with birth defects as a result of this spraying.

ANDY DUBNANSKY, third from left, served as a guard for the Apollo 13 mission. At left, he is pictured with fellow sailors, second from left in the middle row.

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tus Type 2, and damaged nerves. “If you bumped his toe — oh, my God — it was like the end of the world,� Dubnansky said. “His feet were so sensitive. The nerves in his feet were damaged.� Many of Andy’s health problems mirror the possible complications from exposure to Agent Orange, as listed on a website from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. In 1991, Congress passed the Agent Orange Act, which authorized the VA to work with the National Academy of Science to study dioxin levels during the Vietnam War and their possible impact on American soldiers. The VA now maintains a website of information for Vietnam vets who believe they may face health issues from exposure to Agent Orange. From the list, Dubnansky learned that among the diseases linked to Agent Orange were several that Andy suffered from — ischemic heart disease, Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 and peripheral neuropathy, a nervous system condition that causes numbness, tingling and motor weakness. On the list also are several kinds of cancers, including Hodgkin’s disease and prostate cancer. On his death certificate, Andy’s official cause of death was liver cancer. Dubnansky doesn’t understand why her husband had so little support for his serious health problems. She wonders today why doctors are not more aware of medical problems related to Agent Orange. “If you go into the emergency room (with some of these problems), shouldn’t the first question be, ‘Were you in Vietnam?’� Through Facebook, she connected with other families who have battled similar health problems that they have linked to service in Vietnam and Agent Orange. Others have noted a lack of support from doctors and hospitals, and Dubnansky believes there must be more public awareness of these issues. “Don’t sweep it under the rug. They need to know what they are dealing with,� Dubnansky said. A website from the VA also gives information linking exposure to Agent Orange to birth defects. Dubnansky said her five children born after Andy’s tenure in Vietnam faced a multitude of health problems. One of her daughters was born with two lumps, one by her eye and one by her ear. Doctors gave her multiple explanations. The tumor by the ear eventually dropped away but not the one by the eye. “They (doctors) told me it would disappear.� But that never happened and doctors had to remove it when she grew older. “When she was 16 or 17, the back of her eye blew up,� Dubnansky said. “That is exactly how they described it.� Again she never got an explanation the family could understand. Another daughter had severe problems with allergies like her father. “You couldn’t go anywhere with her. She couldn’t touch anything. We couldn’t go to the grocery store.� One of her sons was born with problems with his internal organs and for a time doctors considered he might have Marfan syndrome, a congenital condition that affects the connective tissues and has been linked to Agent Orange. “I kept saying. ‘Why are my kids sick?� Kathy recalled. “You know as a mother, you want the best. You read everything. How could this keep happening?� A doctor once told her the family’s medical history was a case of the “weird, the unusual and the bizarre.� Since Andy’s death, Dubnansky has formed friendships with family members of other Vietnam veterans via Facebook and other social media. She said their support was invaluable after Andy’s death. “I have had so much support from other widows. No one else knows the hell we went through.� Dubnansky says the support group Wives, Widows and Partners of Agent Orange has been particularly helpful to her. One of the group’s goals is to ensure that the families of affected veterans have all the information they need to be strong and healthy. “That is what we are fighting for, for the children and grandchildren of Vietnam veterans.�

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Page 6 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

The Indiana Evening Gazette: May 5, 1970

Kent State forever haunted local man

3 Indiana women bore witness to campus carnage By JAN SHELLENBARGER news@indianagazette.net

news@indianagazette.net

hirteen seconds in May 1970, and the life of the late Dale Risinger changed forever. A 1968 graduate of Indiana High School, he had started college an outgoing, friendly 17-year-old, his mother Shirley recently said. After those 13 seconds, he became less open, less trusting, as if the world had let him down. The way his mother sees it, the world had. Dale Risinger was a sophomore at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, when four students were shot and killed by National Guard troops trying to break up an anti-war protest rally. Many accounts of that campus nightmare exist, and details in each vary. There has been “PEOPLE HE had ment,disagreefor exbeen taught to ample, on why respect no longer the guard members warranted that. It opened fire, changed the rest who ordered the action, of his life.� whether a sniper’s shot Shirley Risinger precipitated the exchange from White Township law enforcement. But these basic facts remain: The shootings came four days after the United States’ invasion of Cambodia, which triggered several days of anti-war protests at Kent State. On May 4, university officials banned a planned protest and National Guardsmen, called in by the Ohio governor at the request of Kent’s mayor, tried to prevent students from assembling. Students threw rocks and yelled profanities at the troops, and refused to disperse. For reasons still uncertain, the guardsmen fired 67 shots in 13 seconds, killing four and wounding another nine. Risinger was just passing the scene of the confrontation, as it happened, not because he wanted to be part of the protest or even be a witness. He was on the way to take a final exam — an exam that Risinger said had already been called off though he didn’t realize it. “He didn’t know what was going on,� Shirley Risinger remembered. “People on campus, for the most part, didn’t know what was going

ne of the watershed events of the Vietnam War protests occurred at Kent State University in Ohio when four students were killed and nine injured after National Guard troops opened fire on May 4, 1970, following three days of unrest on campus. Three Indiana-area residents were at Kent State that semester, but never realized until years later how their lives intersected with one another. Dr. Ruth Riesenman was a graduate student at Kent State and a director of TriTowers, where she managed Koonce Hall, an all-female building. Each of the three buildings — Koonce, Wright and Leebrick — were 10 stories high, housed 600 students and were “tied together by a rotunda where students tended to congregate,� according to Riesenman. Male students lived in Wright Hall, and Leebrick was a co-ed building. Anger around the 30,000student campus was growing after President Richard Nixon announced that U.S. combat forces were invading Cambodia and escalating the Vietnam War. A small rally was held on the afternoon of Friday, May 2, 1970, on campus, with students burying a copy of the United States Constitution. Riesenman remembers the students announced “if a nation could launch a war against Cambodia without declaring their intentions, then the Constitution as we know it was dead.� Friday night saw an increase in violence, particularly in the downtown area where students gathered, with several store windows broken, objects thrown at police and a bonfire in the street. After police dispersed the crowds, the town and campus were somewhat quiet until Saturday evening, when more violence broke out. “My apartment was in Koonce Hall, and I could

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By MARY ANN SLATER

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TOM PEEL/Gazette

SHIRLEY RISINGER displayed a photo of her son, Dale Risinger, a student at Kent State University when the shootings occurred. on.� Immediately after the shooting, Dale Risinger headed away from the commotion and to a nearby hall to find out what had happened. But that was easier said than done — for Dale, his family in White Township and ultimately the rest of the American public as even today controversy remains over some details. The campus shut down for weeks after the shootings. Risinger said her son, like many other students, spent that time mulling their future at Kent State. “Everyone wanted off campus. Everyone wanted to leave. But they were tied to it because of the grades.� There were too many course credits to lose in a college transfer. Although Dale Risinger decided at least at first to stay the course at Kent State, other changes were in the wind. “He was lost,� his mother said. Once gregarious, he turned inward. “He became less outgoing.� With old friends and old passions he seemed distant. “It was like if he didn’t keep contact, it (the shootings) would go away.� Going forward seemed difficult for him, too. “He was very cautious about whom he made friends.� “People he had been taught to respect no longer warranted that,� Risinger said. “It changed the rest of his life.� But there had been excitement and promise during his first year at Kent, and Dale Risinger enjoyed dormitory living and even became an activities director at his residence hall. But even before that freshman year ended, he had concerns, his mother said. Anti-

war sentiment continued to mount and rapid changes in social mores and attitudes caused friction in the residence hall. “Things were getting heated up so badly. He didn’t want to get involved.� Risinger believes, from what she learned from her son and later from what she read, that campus outsiders from Students for a Democratic Society, a prominent leftist group of the 1960s, had its own agenda. She and her husband, the late John N. Risinger, let their son live with several other students in a cottage located several miles off campus by Brady Lake. The distance gave him some relief from campus tension but it also was a big reason why he knew little about the turmoil in the days preceding the shootings. But if Dale Risinger wanted to avoid groups such as the SDS, he also had a new wariness about law enforcement around Kent even before the shootings of May 4. “There was a strong antagonism between (Kent area) police and students there,� Risinger said. “Those kids got a lot of criticism.� Much of the tension had to do with student demands about the war and a more open campus, and Kent police and town officials often saw them as rowdy troublemakers. For many years of the Vietnam War, young men could get a college deferment from military service, so among many at Kent, there was the attitude that male students were just there to avoid the draft. Male students were especially eyed Continued on Page 8

DR. RUTH RIESENMAN see what looked like a couple thousand students marching around the TriTowers,� Riesenman said. “I thought there was going to be another rally.� Instead, the students marched to the ROTC building and burned it to the ground. Approximately 1,000 National Guardsmen had been sent to Kent State that day to quell the protests, but didn’t arrive on campus until approximately 10 p.m., when they used tear gas to break up the crowds gathering at the site of the fire. “Our buildings were far enough from the ROTC building that we didn’t hear the sirens, but learned about the fire from students coming back to the residence halls,� Riesenman said. Sunday brought a beautiful spring day. “The sun was shining and the flowers were blooming,� Riesenman said. “That was the day someone took a photo which became famous of a girl giving flowers to the National Guard. I really thought by Monday things would be back to normal.� Later that evening, though, the towers were surrounded by a platoon of guardsmen, and some of the students from Wright Hall were throwing objects from the windows and yelling obscenities at the troops. The commander of the troops, Gen. Robert Canterbury, told the director of the hall: “You put those boys to bed or we’re coming in,� Riesenman Continued on Page 8

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The Indiana Gazette

Loss of Innocence

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 7

APRIL 5, 1968: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Loss of Innocence

Page 8 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

3 Indiana women bore witness to campus carnage

JOHN FILO/Associated Press

MARY ANN VECCHIO reacted as she knelt by the body of a student lying face down on the campus of Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Vecchio was reunited on the Kent State campus with John Filo, the man who took the photo, on May 4, 2009.

Shootings forever haunted man Continued from Page 6 with suspicion if they had long hair, said Risinger, who believes that was unfair. In a letter to The Indiana Gazette about her son, she wrote: “No one ever considered the fact that it was relatively expensive for students who were struggling to pay for their own college costs to get regular haircuts. They either cut each other’s hair or let it grow — something often preferable to a haircut given by a classmate.� Animosity came to a head at Kent with the May 1970 demonstrations. The first problems began after a May 1 protest, when some in the crowd hurled rocks and bottles at police. The next day, the governor called in the National Guard, which worked to re-establish order after the campus ROTC building was set afire and some protestors thwarted attempts to put out the flames. National Guard members also broke up a series of small protests on May 3. University officials tried to ban the noontime demonstration set for May 4 but protestors refused to disperse. National Guard members fired tear gas into the crowd and tried to push them from a commons area. When the protestors still did not disband, 29 guardsmen who had continued in pursuit began shooting. There is still debate about exactly why the guardsmen opened fire. Because of his involvement in a number of campus activities, Dale knew three of the four students who were killed. “One had been on campus to visit the year before,� Risinger said. “He had been assigned to Dale’s room.� After he enrolled, he and Dale stayed friends. Immediately after the shootings, chaos broke out. Authorities closed the campus and ordered all students to leave within an hour. Because Dale lived off campus, he could stay in the area although he had trouble getting to work and his home by the lake. In the meantime, his family in White Township struggled to find out what was going on. Shirley Risinger said she first heard the news on the radio, when she went into a downtown store to say “happy birthday� to a friend. “It was very sketchy — (just) there had been a shooting at Kent State.� It was late the night of May 4 before Dale spoke with his family. “He finally got to a phone where he could call me.� Although campus was closed, Dale did not leave right away. “He worked on the school yearbook and for the week after the shooting, he stayed on campus to interview people,� his mother said.

DALE RISINGER stood next to his van that the local police impounded for several weeks, without reason, his mother says.

Submitted photo

The interviews were partly for his own work and partly for possible publication in a book on Kent State, although Dale decided not to submit his work to the editor. He eventually went to Washington, D.C., to visit friends and look at other colleges. While Risinger was in Washington, his mother received a telephone call from an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, looking for him. She said the FBI then had dossiers of information on many of the Kent students, including one on her son. She got word to Dale, who then contacted the agent from the home of his Washington friends. “Dale called the number (the agent) had given me, and within 10 minutes, the agent was at the door,� Risinger said. “It was alarming to him.� She knows little about that conversation but said the meeting upset Dale, who called it a “confrontational interrogation.� “Any contact (between Kent students and law enforcement) at the time was confrontational,� Risinger said. “The police were actually assuming everybody was involved� in the protests. Divisions between town and gown grew even wider after the shootings. She recalled a time when local police stopped her son while he was driving an old U.S. Post Office minivan. Dale had bought it the year before and made necessary modifications so it could pass vehicle safety standards. Still, she said, police impounded it for several weeks.

“Their answer was that they would find something wrong with it.� Dale Risinger resumed classes at Kent State but also started working in information systems for a small management company near the college. The company grew, and so did his responsibilities. He never finished college, staying with the company until he died from heart problems at age 47. Although Dale became absorbed in his work, he cut ties with old friends from high school and college, and even at times was distant with family members. He also grew very quiet and would not talk about the shootings. “He would say, ‘I am trying to forget that,’� his mother said. Once warm and friendly, Dale became a loner. His mother said that only after Dale’s death did she get to know some of his co-workers in Ohio. They told her how helpful Dale could be on the job, how he pitched in to help on various charity drives the firm sponsored. “They said they could always count on him.� “But from what I heard from his coworkers, they seemed to be his only friends. It was hard for him to reach out.� Once Dale told his mother that he regretted starting Kent right after high school. “He said to me, ‘I should have waited a year before I went to college.’� “It made me sorry he had gone to Ohio,� Risinger said.

THANK YOU to our service men & women from years gone by‌

Continued from Page 6 said. Once again tear gas was used on campus, and Riesenman remembers it seeping into the building and making her eyes water. The directors of the towers chained the doors to the rotunda so no one could enter from that side of the buildings. In another section of campus, several art students were returning from a field trip to Washington, D.C., including Nettie Ethridge Nestor and Jim Nestor, who at that time had been dating for several months. “We heard that students had burned the ROTC building,� Nettie Nestor said, “but didn’t realize what all was going on.� Her husband agreed, saying, “I had no concept of what occurred the day before, but it was like an armed camp.� After the bus dropped off the students, Jim Nestor needed to get across campus to meet his father, who was picking him up to take him home for the night. “I had to walk past a wooded area, and these guys came jumping out of their hiding places with their bayonets,� Nestor said. “They were pursuing me in the dark.� Helicopters also flew over the campus throughout the night, using searchlights to find protestors and dropping tear gas, he said. On Monday morning, Nestor drove his car back to Kent State and parked in one of the campus parking lots. When he returned to get the car immediately after the shootings, there was a bullet hole in the car. Another protest was planned for Monday at noon, and approximately 2,000 people were gathered by 11 a.m. Already unsettled from being told the night before to keep their doors locked and lights turned off, Nettie Nestor was walking to class and passed several armed guardsmen. “I was so horrified I started crying and ran back to my dorm,� she said. It was at this point that Riesenman said the directors of the halls were told to announce to the residents that they were not to go to class. She remembers that some stayed, but a large number of students left “just to see what was happening.� Nettie Nestor, who was a resident in Koonce Hall, was leaning out of her dorm window and talking on the phone. “I was watching the shootings happen,� she said, “and then they shot out the window above me and glass rained down.� Riesenman said she first heard of the shootings when students came running into the building crying. “They killed them, they shot them,� she remembers the girls screaming. “I couldn’t believe it,� Riesenman said. Among the four dead was Sandra Scheuer, who had lived in Riesenman’s residence hall the previous year. She said Scheuer was not part of the protest but was

“I WAS watching the shootings happen, and then they shot out the window above me and glass rained down.� Nettie Nestor, Indiana simply on her way to class. Jim Nestor said a young man he knew was shot almost a half mile away from the protest. The campus telephone system soon broke down due to overload, so the central housing office sent runners to each building telling the directors to evacuate the buildings by 3 p.m., and not allow students to take any of their possessions with them. “The university authorities had ordered buses to take students to outlying towns, where they were to be picked up by their families,� Riesenman said. “We also tried to match people with students who had their own cars.� Jim Nestor’s main concern was getting Nettie safely off campus. “A young man came running to the locked door of the residence hall,� Riesenman said, “banging at the door and begging to be let in.� Nettie Nestor said, “I implored the director — that’s my boyfriend, he has to come in. I was berserk by that time.� Riesenman let him in, saying, “I couldn’t leave him out there with the platoon.� After the students were gone, Riesenman said the National Guard decided it wasn’t safe for staff members to remain on campus in case of snipers, so they were taken to off-campus student housing for the night, in buses that had the windows crisscrossed with tape “in case we were shot at.� The campus essentially remained shut down until the fall semester. Riesenman received her master’s degree and left Kent State in August 1970 to become associate dean of student services at Washington & Jefferson College. In 1979 she came to IUP, where she remained until her retirement in 2005. Jim and Nettie Nestor married in 1972, and then earned degrees at Kent State, Jim in art and Nettie in library and art history. In 1985 Jim joined the faculty in the art department at IUP, and it was at a university event that they ran into Ruth Riesenman and started putting two and two together. “It was a strange moment when we met her,� Nettie Nestor said. “I never would have remembered her name, and then she mentioned Kent State and I looked her in the eye and thought, ‘Oh, my God.’� “It was stunning,� Jim Nestor said. Riesenman said every once in a while when she ran into Jim on campus she would jokingly tell him, “I saved you from the National Guard.�

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 9

JAN. 30, 1968: North Korea launches the Tet Offensive.

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Loss of Innocence

Page 10 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

IMAGES FROM AN ERA

EDDIE ADAMS/Associated Press

CAPT. CHARLES ROBB, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s son-inlaw, was stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam, on May 22, 1968.

EDDIE ADAMS/Associated Press

SGT. LYLE LEWIS carried a wounded fellow Marine on his back to reach stretcher bearers on April 28, 1965.

EDDIE ADAMS/Associated Press

MEMBERS OF the 1st Cavalry Division dashed through the battlefield under Viet Cong fire on Jan. 31, 1966.

SAL VEDER/Associated Press

RELEASED PRISONER of war Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm was greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., as he returned home on March 17, 1973. In the lead is Stirm’s daughter Lori, 15; followed by son Robert, 14; daughter Cynthia, 11; wife Loretta and son Roger, 12.

TOP: Marines unloaded and moved through a landing zone strewn with trees and branches on Dec. 17, 1969.

Associated Press

BOTTOM: Under sniper fire, a Vietnamese woman carried a child to safety as U.S. Marines stormed the village of My Son, near Da Nang, searching for Viet Cong insurgents in April 1965.

Associated Press

U.S. NAVY personnel crammed a helicopter with evacuees from Saigon on April 29, 1975.

EDDIE ADAMS/Associated Press

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 11

IMAGES FROM AN ERA

JIM ALTGENS/Associated Press

PRESIDENT John F. Kennedy rode in a motorcade about a minute before he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. In the car riding with Kennedy are Jacqueline Kennedy, right; Nellie Connally, left; and her husband, Texas Gov. John Connally.

Associated Press

CONCERT-GOERS sat on the roof of a Volkswagen bus at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair at Bethel, N.Y., in mid-August 1969. The three-day concert attracted hundreds of thousands of people, and became a landmark cultural event of the 1960s.

JUDY SMITH smiled as she and others gathered at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on June 21, 1967. The summer of 1967, known as “The Summer of Love,� was centered in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where the hippie, counterculture movement came into public awareness.

Associated Press

DR. MARTIN Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addressed marchers during his famous “I Have a Dream� speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963.

ROBERT W. KLEIN/Associated Press

Associated Press

WOMEN MARCHED during a women’s liberation demonstration in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1970.

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Loss of Innocence

Page 12 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

Unplanned sing-along still resonates By KAYLA CIOFFO kcioffo@indianagazette.net

he summer of 1968 in the United States was as heated as the battlefields in Vietnam. Shortly after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy and between riots at the Democratic National Convention, protests against the war and the election showdown between Humphrey and Nixon, the U.S. was in a state of upheaval, according to Indiana resident Josie Cunningham. “As the situation in Vietnam got more intense and killed-in-action reports grew, more and more young men found themselves in uniform,� said Cunningham, who grew up Indiana. She recalls her time spent at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona, where her husband, Carl, found himself awaiting draft orders to head overseas. After almost a year and a half in Yuma, Cunningham had seen many Marines leave for war and return, awaiting discharge. Other men, like Carl, knew it was only a matter of time before they, too, went to fight. “The unknown was what created tension,� she said. “And coupled with the 100degree-plus heat, that tension needed an outlet.� Cunningham and her husband, along with other couples and young Marines,

T

Submitted photo

U.S. MARINE Sgt. Carl Cunningham, is pictured in Quang Tri, Vietnam, in 1969. found that outlet in the form of air conditioning, dance music and cheap beer at the Enlisted Men’s Club in Yuma every Saturday night.

Everyone would gather for some fun and listen to a band play music of the time. A local young women’s service organization would

come to dance with the homesick men without a date. “This was the major social event of the week,� Cun-

ningham said. One hot Saturday night in July specifically sticks in her mind, flooding her memory with the images and sounds of soldiers haunted by the sights of war and soldiers awaiting their inevitable draft. Recorded music was playing while the band that night took a break, when Eric Burdon and the Animals’ “Sky Pilot� began to play and the crowd began to chime in. “First a few Marines around us began to sing, then a few more, then it was a roomful of some 200 men singing,� she said. “The vocals were of men who had been to war and voices of those who knew they were going.� “Sky Pilot� tells the story of a “holy man� who blesses troops just before they set out for war, a plotline highly relatable to men of that era. There was a certain amount of sorrow in the Marines’ voices as they sang along to the song, she said, and the meaning is different for many. Some think the song is about a military chaplain, and others think it is about a chopper. Although singing in a moving unison, each Marine seemed to be associating with a different memory. Cunningham recalls the men hesitating to look at one another. “Most looked out into the semidarkness of the club

‘Sky Pilot’ He blesses the boys As they stand in line The smell of gun grease And the bayonets they shine He's there to help them All that he can To make them feel wanted He's a good holy man (first verse)

and to this day I wonder what they saw,� she said. “I know that with some I saw tears in their eyes and with others, a grim resolve.� After all the stanzas were sung and the song ended, Cunningham remembers an unexplainable silence in the club — a silence that she has felt ever since, bringing back the images of young men changed by war. It still makes her sad today. Eventually, Carl was drafted and served about seven months in Quang Tri, and Cunningham says she was finally able to truly appreciate the memorable “Sky Pilot.� She went on to finish her education, as did Carl after his time spent overseas, and they have lived in Indiana for almost 40 years.

Area native filled need as interrogator By JEN BUSH news@indianagazette.net

Fred Popp wasn’t nervous about going to war because he was “young and dumb,� and it felt like an adventure more than anything. Fresh out of high school, the Josephine native signed on for three years with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In the summer of 1966, Popp signed his official paperwork at the Indiana County Court House and soon after left on a bus from Greensburg for Fort Jackson, South Carolina. After in-processing at Fort Jackson, the 18-year-old Popp was sent to Fort Gordon, in Georgia, where he completed his basic training in September of 1966. “I signed up to be an intelligence analyst, but they said there was a need for interrogators, so that’s what I did.�

Training to be an interrogator involved a threeweek class, followed by a nine-week course in Fort Hollowburg, Maryland, in the Intelligence Training School. He recalls living in the old World War II barracks that were particularly drafty. In March of 1967, Popp moved to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he stayed for 11 months. While there he attended the Defense Language Institute where he went through school to learn how to speak Vietnamese. Tonal sounds and pitches in the language is what made it hard to learn, Popp said. Popp said that in May of 1968, he left the United States behind to fight in a war unlike anything he would ever see. He soon landed at Di An, which was his base camp along with the 1st MI detachment unit. While at the Di An headquarters, Popp would answer phone calls and type and publish information sent down from the captain or lieutenant that he worked with.

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FRED POPP, 66: “I just hung up my uniform and left it all behind.�

Popp, 66, remembers flying out to the field and working with Gen. George Patton’s son, by the same name, a lieutenant colonel with the 11th armored division. He recalls the colonel’s vehicles surrounding an entire town and going to each home for identity checks. He would then fly out that same day, but others, Popp said, had to stay there for weeks at a time. Tan Son Nhut was the airbase Popp and others would fly out of to go interrogate the prisoners near Saigon. Along with an interpreter, interrogators would go into the hospital there and ask the names and ranks of prisoners. Coming home after his time in Vietnam, Popp said, “People would stare and we were called baby killers.� At that time, servicemen had to wear their uniforms while traveling on leave. He, like the majority of the soldiers who served, never got a hero’s welcome when they got off the airplanes and stepped onto American soil.

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“I just hung up my uniform and left it all behind,� Popp said. After the war, Popp went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania on the GI Bill to study elementary education with his wife, Debbie. Both graduated in 1972. After graduating, Popp taught in the BlairsvilleSaltsburg School District for nearly 40 years, retiring in 2012. He and his wife have lived at their current residence in Josephine for 42 years in a house that was once owned by Mrs. Popp’s parents. The Popps own a little shop called the Peace by Piece Quilt & Gift Shop that sits across from their home. Two of their sons were also in the military. Their eldest son was in the Navy, and their younger was a combat engineer in the Army, like his grandfather was. Popp’s father was a combat engineer in World War II. He landed in Normandy on June 12, 1945, and stayed in Europe until after Japan was defeated in September of 1945.

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 13

Soldier’s war medals came at a price By SEAN YODER syoder@indianagazette.net

Richard Stancombe was only in Vietnam for one year. But in that time he earned three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for the combat he saw. He battled the Viet Cong, the jungle, the weather and Agent Orange. And he lost a lot of friends along the way. Stancombe was drafted in 1967 at 19 years old. After basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Stancombe went to Advanced Individual Training for about four months. At AIT Stancombe received a phone call from his then-girlfriend, Judy, telling him she was pregnant. Stancombe returned home and they married. This allowed Stancombe a deferment from deploying to Vietnam until their son was born. But he said the Army was taking advantage of him so he decided to end his deferment and get his deployment as soon as possible so he could get home faster. Stancombe managed to stay in the States long enough for their son to be born on Oct. 9, 1967. Then the order came. He was to go to Vietnam. Stancombe was to be a mortarman, also known as an 11C20, manning an M-30 4.2-inch mortar nicknamed the “FourDeuce.” The four-deuce rode in the back of an M106 mortar carrier, a variation of the tracked armored personnel carrier. The top rear of the vehicle had a large circular hole from which the mortarmen could fire at enemies with some cover. Its 107 mm rounds had a range of up to five miles. Stancombe flew to Vietnam by way of California and Okinawa, Japan, eventually ending up in the Cu Chi base camp with the 1st battalion, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, about 20 miles northwest of Saigon. The “Bobcats’” job as a mechanized unit was to provide support for the attached infantry. Stancombe started out as ammunition bearer and eventually worked his way up to gunner of the four-deuce. His first injury happened right inside the base camp. They were under heavy rocket fire and Stan-

JAMIE EMPFIELD/Gazette

RICHARD STANCOMBE, seen above with his Purple Heart commendation and a host of memorabilia from the war, served as a mortarman, manning an M-30 4.2-inch mortar named the “Four-Deuce.”

Submitted photo

combe took a piece of shrapnel in the foot. “I didn’t spend very much time in that base camp,” he said. “Maybe three times during my whole time in Vietnam.” Stancombe reckons he only ate about six or seven hot meals that year. The rest was all C-rations. Among his possessions from the war he still has a can of unopened pound cake, his favorite. In addition to the stress of combat it was these little things about the war he remembers. He recalls the rate at which he would go through socks. “If you were lucky, you changed your socks every two weeks. You were just so busy.” Judy always included these in her care packages to him. They also corresponded regularly through letters, but he remembers they were ordered to burn their mail after they read it. Stancombe’s second Purple Heart came after he took shrapnel in the hand. They flew him to the American

hospital in Saigon in a Chinook helicopter, the scene of one of Stancombe’s worst memories from the war. “I got in the back and the pilots were up front. And it was me and five bodybags filled with Americans from our outfit. I just felt so low. I’m there with shrapnel in my hand and there are five dead Americans.” Stancombe spent time near the Black Virgin Mountain, a prominent landmark in the otherwise flat Mekong Delta. He recounted how Army Green Berets were stationed on the mountain and fought against the Viet Cong who controlled the honeycomb of tunnels and all but the very top of the mountain for much of the war. “We were in a lot of firefights in Vietnam. Now, I mean a lot of them. That’s why I got my Bronze Star. We had been hit heavy. As a mortarman, you had to be right there in action. You couldn’t hide under anything or crawl in a foxhole. You had to stand up. You were in the open.”

He received his final Purple Heart after sustaining burns during a firefight. Along with his injuries Stancombe lost much of his hearing in Vietnam and wears a hearing aid today. In addition to the four-deuce mortar, Stancombe was armed with a Kodak camera Judy sent him. He has albums full of pictures of the aftermath of battles, Saigon, villages, the men he served with, the jungle and the seemingly mundane. He has photos of actor Fess Parker who played TV actors Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett from when Parker visited his unit in the field. Stancombe was discharged from Valley Forge on Dec. 23, 1968, allowing him to just barely make it home for Christmas. “And thank God for that. I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. But I didn’t even want to celebrate Christmas. “I wasn’t going to put a tree up but we had a little boy. It was a rough Christmas. One of our roughest as a family.” “A lot of people didn’t make it. And often I think about that while I’m doing something. I’ll be mowing the grass and think about how a lot of my friends over there didn’t make it. It makes me do a lot of thinking.” “I was very proud to serve my country. I was proud of what I did there. I believe I really earned my Bronze Star.” Stancombe worked as a coal miner from 1971 to 1993. After that he worked in the Warrendale and Greensburg post offices. Judy worked for Indiana University of Pennsylvania dining services for 31 years. Their son, Richard Stancombe Jr., serves in the Air Force. After Richard Sr. returned from Vietnam, he and Judy had two daughters, but they both passed away at ages 9 and 13 from cystic fibrosis. Stancombe was diagnosed with stomach and esophagus cancer in 2005. He believes Agent Orange was one of the causes. His region was one of the heaviest hit by the damaging defoliant. He had an operation where they removed the top of his stomach and the bottom of his esophagus and brought his stomach up. Rick and Judy Stancombe now live in Shelocta. They enjoy working in their yard, attending auctions and spending time with their grandchildren.

INDIANA www.indianarmc.org

We didn’t choose to build bigger.

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1978

Diagnostic & Outpatient Wing added to the hospital

The Tower, a $10 million expansion was added

The basement of the new wing contained the kitchen and cafeteria, plus storage. The first floor was dedicated to the radiological and fluoroscopic services, diagnostic and treatment rooms and administrative offices. Surgical facilities and recovery rooms were on the second floor, along with a new, centrally located laboratory.

In order to embrace the technological advances in medical and surgical care, the Tower was conceived. It included the addition of trauma rooms, observation rooms and a full-time emergency room physician’s office. The new building would have three times the emergency and outpatient area with intensive and coronary care facilities, surgical suites, a new central supply and three floors of nursing units.

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2014

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After a comprehensive study, it was determined that Indiana Hospital was lacking in the area of emergency care. With that, the hospital embarked on a $5 million renovation, which tripled the size of the Emergency Department and increased the number of beds from fourteen to twenty one, enabling it to treat over 42,000 patients per year.

The Centennial Building Project will expand upon the current services offered by IRMC with new operating room suites, a new intensive care unit, a post anesthesia care unit, a 15 bed post-acute care unit, an endoscopy unit, and a linear accelerator as well as numerous structural and patient service upgrades to the current facility.

Indiana Regional Medical Center is committed to providing outstanding care and service to this region. It is our vision to be the best community hospital in the country.

Loss of Innocence

Page 14 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

Caskets told story of deadly fight abroad By JAN SHELLENBARGER news@indianagazette.net

hen Marion Henry and her husband, Ron, lived near Dover Air Force Base in Delaware while he was stationed there in the mid-1960s, she remembers seeing row upon row of caskets lined up outside the base mortuary, all filled with soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. “The mortuary was on the way to the commissary where we bought our groceries,� Henry said, “so every time people from the base went to the store, they had to pass the mortuary.� Bodies of military personnel whose hometowns were east of the Mississippi River were shipped to Dover, then sent on to their families. Henry said the mortuary building wasn’t very large, perhaps 25 feet wide by 75 feet long, so they would often see the rows of caskets lined up outside of the building, stacked six high and running in three rows each about half the length of a football field. “It’s something you never forget,� she said. While Henry doesn’t remember any particular ceremony other than a brief salute due to the high volume of bodies being received, the military always insisted that every returning soldier be treated with respect and dignity. Henry, who grew up in North Carolina, is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, having joined soon after high school graduation. “They had a career day at my high school, and we had to sign up to attend programs in the morning and afternoon,� Henry said. She completed sessions in the morning for everything she thought would be interesting, but still had to complete two afternoon sessions. “I didn’t even know what I was signing up for, but I knew I had to do something,� Henry said, “so I ended up at the Air Force session.� A Women’s Air Force recruiter from Raleigh “I STILL couldn’t spoke, and Henry reimagine what it members that she was would be like to be in very interesting. “She was a good sales- combat and put man, and did her job well,� Henry said, “and I people in body bags.� just thought ‘I think I want to do that.’� Telling Marion Henry, her parents she wanted Indiana to join the Air Force didn’t go quite as well. “My folks just about had a running fit,� Henry said. “They weren’t going to let me go, but since I was 18 I could do what I wanted.� After graduating from high school in June 1962, Henry reported for service in November and was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas once she completing training. While at Lackland, she worked with men who returned to the United States after serving in Vietnam for a year. “Things weren’t as heavy in Vietnam yet,� Henry said, “but I still couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in combat and put people in body bags.� In 1963 Henry was sent to Amarillo Air Force Base in Texas, where she met her future husband, Ron Henry. He was the airman-in-charge of the education office and worked with both enlisted men and officers who were pursuing a degree or continuing their education. “Ron connected them with universities or online courses,� Henry said. They married in 1963, and Marion left the service when she became pregnant with their first child. Ron Henry received orders sending him to Vietnam in 1964, but since he was to leave when their child was due, he received a deferment so he could get his wife home to North Carolina before going to Vietnam. Those orders were eventually canceled, and he was assigned to Thule Air Force Base in Greenland before being sent to Dover. Ron stayed in the Air Force until 1967, and worked at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation before retiring. He passed away in 2009. He and Marion had three more children, and when the children were 20, 18, 15 and 13, she was accepted at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics and then a master’s degree in community counseling. She is a professor in the IUP Human Development and Environmental Studies Department. About her time in the Air Force, Henry said, “I learned a lot of new social skills, I learned to build support systems outside of my family and I learned how to adapt to new situations. I’ve never, ever been sorry I went.�

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THE LETTER written to Donna Merlo by John McGrath.

Letter bonds woman, POW By SEAN YODER syoder@indianagazette.net

he Vietnam POW bracelet campaign ran for only six years in the early 1970s. But in that time the college student-run organization distributed millions of bracelets to give recognition to those who were captured by Viet Cong. Donna Merlo, of Homer City, had one such bracelet. But in her case, the man whose name adorned her wrist for almost two years reached out to her at the end of his imprisonment. Captain John “Mike� McGrath, born in Delta, Colo., was flying his 179th mission in his A-4C Skyhawk fighter jet from the USS Constellation when he was shot down over rough jungle on June 30, 1967. His parachute opened only a few feet above the treetops and he suffered a broken and dislocated arm and a fractured vertebrae and broken knee upon impact. His captors tortured him, injuring him further. Like Sen. John McCain, also a Navy A-4 Skyhawk pilot when he was shot down in October 1967, McGrath was taken to the Hanoi Hilton, a former French prison. There the North Vietnamese tortured their prisoners and tried to get them to make anti-American statements for propaganda purposes. He remained a prisoner for six long years. As best as she can recall, Merlo was a junior in high school in 1970 when she received the bracelet in the mail. The bracelets were gaining in popularity and Merlo figures she saw an ad in a newspaper. The bracelet is stamped with McGrath’s name, rank and the date he was shot down. The bracelet campaign was started by a college student in 1970 named Carol Bates Brown. By late 1970 the group, then named Voices in Vital America, was receiving

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as many as 12,000 requests per day. From 1970 to 1976 VIVA distributed about 5 million bracelets. Merlo wore it all the time because that was simply what you were supposed to do, she said. She didn’t know JOHN “MIKE� anything about McGRATH McGrath from 1970 to 1973, aside from what was stamped on the bracelet. McGrath was reunited with his family in San Diego in March 1973. Merlo was out of high school by that time and attending St. John’s General Hospital School of Nursing. Merlo received a surprise when a letter came unexpectedly in June from Balboa Naval Hospital, Ward 26, bed 6C, in San Diego. “When I received that letter in the mail I was stunned, never, ever thinking I would hear from the person I was wearing the bracelet for,�

Merlo said. Merlo’s motivations for wearing the bracelet were an acknowledgment of the sacrifice given by participants such as McGrath. She said she likely ordered it after spending a year writing to a relative who was drafted into the war. “I had a cousin that served a tour over in Vietnam and I just remember him being so grateful that I was writing to him. I just felt that it was something I could do to support the troops that were over there.� McGrath earned the Defense Superior Medal, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 17 air medals, two Bronze Stars, the Navy Marine Corp Medal, two Purple Hearts and the POW Medal, according to the POW Network, a nonprofit organization founded in 1989. He went on to publish a book of his drawings based on his time in captivity called “Prisoner of War: Six Years in Hanoi.� Today, he lives in Monument, Colo. Merlo returned to Indiana County in 1977 after nurses’ school and has been an operating room nurse at Indiana Regional Medical Center. She still lives in Homer City.

JAMIE EMPFIELD/Gazette

THE BRACELET worn by Donna Merlo in the 1960s.

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 15

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Loss of Innocence

Page 16 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 17

TRAVELING TRIBUTE

RYAN MICHALESKO/The Southern Illinoisan

VOLUNTEER DON SKOUBY anchored panels into place that combine to create The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall on the Southern Illinois University football practice field in Carbondale, Ill., on Sept. 11. The replica of the wall in Washington, D.C., was escorted by dozens of vehicles, including 13 police cars, eight firetrucks and more than 40 motorcycles. The 3/5 scale wall stands 6 feet tall at the center and is 300 feet long.

Field behind vets’ home becomes park By SHERYL SCHMECKPEPER Norfolk (Neb.) Daily News

NORFOLK, Neb. — What once was a field of grass is now a field of dreams. The former empty space behind the Norfolk Veterans Home has been transformed into Heroes Park, where veterans and their families and friends can enjoy the outdoors. The 8-acre park has gotten high marks from veterans and their families, said Jenny Last of Norfolk. She serves on the Heroes Park Foundation board, which raised the $2.8 million needed to construct park. “I love to read those thank-you notes,� she said “It means so much.� The effort began more than six years ago. It was sparked by Duane Hodge, former administrator of the home, who suggested it might be nice to have a memory garden. The foundation board expanded on that idea to help fulfill the need for a larger space for events at the home. Up until recently, gatherings were held in the activity room, which can’t accommodate many people. Now those events can be held under the park’s pavilion, where between 400 and 500 people can be seated in chairs, said Deb Becker, a veterans home employee who has worked with the

JAKE WRAGGE/Norfolk (Neb.) Daily News

THIS IS one of four benches designed to look like military vehicles that were donated to Heroes Park. This bench honors the U.S. Marines. Others honor the Army, Navy and Air Force. project since it began. The park and the pavilion were the site, for example, of the opening ceremonies for the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans reunion in August, which was attended by around 450 people. The park also was used for the home’s Fourth of July celebration, Becker said.

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At that event, children played on the playground equipment, shot baskets on the basketball court and entertained themselves while waiting for the fireworks show to begin, she added. In past years, fireworks took place in front of the facility, which meant all of the cars had to be moved and

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other precautions had to be made. The open space at the back of the park is an ideal spot for such things, Becker said. Veterans home residents come out regularly, too, she said. Some of the younger members often play basketball.

Smaller groups have gathered for family reunions, anniversary parties and other activities under the pavilion in one of the three gazebos or at one of the picnic areas. The gazebos were already in place, but the foundation board has had the area around them landscaped with statues, shrubs and flowers. One is considered a serenity garden and includes a religious statue. Another is called “the dry creek bed� and features a bear grabbing for a fish in stream. That area is low and fills with water when it rains, which is why Judy Luebbert, the landscape designer from West Point, chose to make it look like a stream, Last said. The park also includes seating areas — covered and uncovered — along the walking path, which is wide enough for wheelchairs. Four of the seating areas were designed, constructed and donated by the family of the late Ray Matteo, who served in the U.S. Navy. The benches honor the four branches of the military and are designed to look like jeeps or tanks. Cut-out figures of soldiers stand behind the benches. The soldiers’ features are in the process of being painted by Karl Reeder, a Norfolk artist, and are meant to look like actual people from the area. One of the most striking

features is the full-size windmill that sits among the tall grass in an area of the park that will be a wetlands due to the fact that it’s a natural drainage spot. The windmill was donated by a family from Dorchester. The 40 trees planted this spring are doing well, said RJ Gall, foundation board chairman. Many are oak, while some are evergreens and other varieties. The grass in the front of the park is also growing, thanks in part to the wet, cool conditions this summer, Gall said. The perimeter of the park features native grasses and wildflowers that will take some time to mature, he added. The goal is to add more colorful plants and flowers next spring, Gall said, especially around the storage shed and bathroom and the basketball court. Plans also call for horseshoe pits, raised gardens where residents can plant vegetables and flowers and more landscaping. Those features will be added as pledges are paid and funds become available, Last said. Still, the long-awaited field of dreams is finally a reality, thanks, Last said, to people from the area and around the country who supported it — those who donated time, money, products and manpower. “We couldn’t have done it without them,� Last said.

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Loss of Innocence

Page 18 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

Cherry Tree gave rousing welcome to freed POW By The Indiana Gazette Maj. Robert I. Biss was given a “hero’s welcomeâ€? when he returned from Vietnam on April 7, 1973. Biss, who grew on a farm outside Cherry Tree and graduated from Purchase Line High School, was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for more than six years, from Nov. 11, 1966, until March 5, 1973. On his arrival home, more than 3,000 people turned out for a red carpet celebration at the historic Cherry Tree Monument. In off-the-cuff remarks, Biss thanked everyone involved in his release and then went on to say: “You don’t know how much freedom means to me. Other countries don’t understand freedom like we do here in the United States. ‌ “I was proud to serve America, I was proud to serve you — I did that to the best of my ability.â€? A parade along Main Street featured Biss and his family; his parents, Irvin and Betty Biss, of Cherry Tree RD 1; several veterans groups, one from as far away as Youngstown, Ohio; Cub Scouts from Pack 51 waving flags; the Purchase Line and Harmony high school bands; fire units from surrounding towns ; and a long list of area leaders. Headlining the event were U.S. Rep. John Murtha, of Johnstown, himself a Vietnam vet; Rep. Paul J. Yahner, of Cambria

County; Indiana County Commissioner Andrew J. Kuzneski; and state Sen. Patrick Stapleton. Many residents of Cherry Tree had front-row seats on their front porches. Hundreds more greeted Biss during a reception at the Purchase Line High School cafeteria later in the day. Biss was shot down while flying a routine strike mission out of Cam Ranh Air Base, according to a Gazette story written by Mary Ann Slater in 2003. Biss, now 75, lives in Schenksville with his wife Rita. He had been a major in the U.S. Air Force at the time of his capture; he retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1979. After retiring, Biss flew a corporate jet for CitiBank, according to the 2003 story. A Freedom Tree was planted in front of Purchase Line High School to honor Biss. A plaque dated 1974 sits in front of the tree and explains it was planted to honor not only Biss but POWs and MIAs from all American wars. Biss was honored Sept. 27 as a Distinguished Alumni, Class of 1957, by the Purchase Line Red Dragon Foundation. Renee Lash, of the foundation, said a classmate nominated him for the honor. “And when we looked at what she sent, we agreed. “We chose him for his service to his country,� Lash said. “And he is certainly someone our students and the community can look up to.�

TOM PEEL/Gazette

A LARGE crowd gathered in Cherry Tree on April 7, 1973, to enthusiastically welcome home Maj. Robert Biss, who had been held captive during the war for more than six years.

TOM PEEL/Gazette

Indiana man advised Vietnamese troops By ELLEN MATIS ematis@indianagazette.net

hile some 2.7 million Americans served in the Vietnam War, a very small number of them served as American advisers to Vietnamese troops. Gerald Wetzel, of Butler, formerly of Indiana, was one of these advisers, aiding more than 3,500 Vietnamese military members as a co van my (American adviser), he said. Wetzel grew up in Indiana, graduating from what was then Indiana Joint High School. He attended Penn State University to study industrial psychology, and soon after graduation from college went on active duty in the United States Air Force. “In 1967 I arrived (in Vietnam) and for about six months I was a staff officer in a Vietnamese division,� he said. After realizing the role wasn’t for him, he volunteered to become an adviser to a Vietnamese infantry regiment. As a young captain and regiment staff adviser, he said, he distinctly remembers the Vietnamese celebration of Tet, the new year, the most important celebration in Vietnam culture. Part of the tradition, Wetzel said, was to give small children “lucky money� in a red envelope on that day. He participated, he said, by putting about 50 cents in these envelopes and giving them to any children he met. It was Wetzel that needed the “lucky money� later, though, when he was injured during an attack after his unit had seen “little excitement� until then. In an armored personnel carrier, his unit moved through “a little outlet with guns blazing,� he said. The APC was hit, and he “got messed up pretty bad,� he said.

W

Indiana Evening Gazette: May 2, 1972 “WETZEL SKILLFULLY directed the course of the advancing soldiers. Though seriously wounded when his vehicle was struck by rocket fire, Captain Wetzel remained with the unit in order to arrange for medical evacuation of the other wounded and to effect an aerial resupply for ammunition and did not allow himself to be relieved until fighting was over the next day.� Bronze Star citation Eight Americans lost their lives in the battle. The battle was the first time that

GERALD WETZEL

Wetzel had put on a flak jacket during the war. “I was sitting on the left side of

the APC. The flak jacket I was wearing had big pieces of shrapnel in it. If I was not wearing it, I’d have been dead,� Wetzel said. “I spent about a month in the hospital. I was injured from the top of my left foot all the way up the entire left side.� Wetzel still carries pieces of shrapnel with him that the doctors could not remove. “It’s a war suit here that I get to carry around.� Wetzel was presented the Bronze Star Medal with “V� Device by direction of the president for his heroism during the battle. “Wetzel skillfully directed the course of the advancing soldiers. Though seriously wounded when his vehicle was struck by rocket fire, Captain Wetzel remained with the unit in order to arrange for medical evacuation of the other wounded and to effect an aerial resupply for ammunition and did not allow himself to be relieved until fighting was over the next day,� the medal’s citation says. On March 28, 1972, the North Vietnamese launched the biggest attack that they had during the war to that point. “It was unbelievable,� Wetzel said. Until that point, the Army did not have tanks in the war. Yet, the North Vietnamese had been supplied with amphibious tanks and old Soviet T54 tanks. “I was able to make some phone calls and had some very large helicopters fly to our area and unload hundreds of anti-tank rocket weapons,� Wetzel said. April was a long month, he said. He was again recognized for “exceptional meritorious achievement� for his connection with military operations against a hostile force during this time. He was responsible for coordinating U.S. assets consisting of naval gunfire, reconnaissance ele-

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ments and tactical airstrikes, according to the Bronze Star Medal Second Oak Leaf Cluster citation issued to him. “He also advised his Vietnamese counterparts on the proper utilization of these assets. Major Wetzel’s tireless efforts and expertise were tactfully rendered in aiding the South Vietnamese to withstand the largest North Vietnamese force assembled heretofore,� the citation reads. Single-handedly, Wetzel established a tactical operations center and participated in four separate combat operations as the only American adviser present. Throughout the war, Wetzel lived strictly on Vietnamese food. I was 131 pounds because we ate what we could find,� he said. With the nearest city 20 miles away, someone was rarely sent to purchase food. Wetzel’s experience in Vietnam was different from most veterans of the war in that he spent most of his time working with the Vietnamese, studying the culture. “I’d sit down with people and start talking to them,� he said. “The education I got as far as the culture was fantastic.� It was important for him to study the culture so that, while working with the troops, he would not make glaring cultural mistakes, he said. Though Wetzel has friends that have gone back to see the areas they fought in during the war, Wetzel isn’t sure that he’d ever go back. “Every once in a while people tell me I should go back to see the places I’ve been,� he said. Instead, he has hundreds of pictures that he developed upon his arrival back in the U.S., and some that he even developed himself, that he took on his 35-millimeter camera. Someday, he’ll go through all of the pictures and all of the memories.

Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 19

APRIL 30, 1975: American involvement in war ends

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Loss of Innocence

Page 20 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

SHIPPING OUT

TOM PEEL/Gazette

A GROUP OF draftees waited for the bus at the old Indiana Couny Courthouse to take them to Pittsburgh on June 16, 1970. Men generally left monthly for their deployments and had their photo taken before leaving.

Supporters seek to expand civil rights law By JAY REEVES Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There has only been one prosecution under the Emmett Till Act, even though the law was passed with the promise of $135 million for police work and an army of federal agents to investigate unsolved killings from the civil rights era. Some deaths aren’t even under review because of a quirk in the law. Still, proponents are laying the groundwork to extend and expand the act in hopes it’s not too late for some families to get justice. In nearly six years since the signing of the law, named for a black Chicago teenager killed after flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, only one person has been prosecuted: A former Alabama trooper who pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a black protester in 1965. The government has closed the books on all but 20 of the 126 deaths it investigated under the law, finding many were too old to prosecute because suspects and witnesses had died and memories had faded. And Congress hasn’t appropriated millions of dollars in grant money that was meant to help states fund their own investigations. Perhaps most frustrating, an unknown number of slayings haven’t even gotten a look because the law doesn’t cover any killings after 1969. That saddens people like Gloria Green-McCray, whose brother James Earl Green was shot to death on May 14, 1970, by police during a student demonstration at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. The family never learned the name of the shooter, and no one was ever prosecuted. “We’ve never really got any closure because of the investigation not being thorough and everything just being kicked out,� said GreenMcCray. “It was like, ‘Just another black person dead. I mean, so what?’� In a January report to Congress, the Justice Department said prose-

Associated Press

SEN. WALTER MONDALE, left, and Sen. Birch Bayht looked at the area where two people were shot to death at what is now Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. Pointing out the view in this May 20, 1970, photo is student Carl Griffin. cutors are still continuing their work. Hoping to spur more action, the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have passed resolutions asking the federal government for more thorough reviews and to spend the money that was authorized in 2007. SCLC President Charles Steele Jr. called the Till Act a major disappointment and said it may be time for marches. “We can never let people think

they can get away with these types of horrific crimes,� he said. The law expires in 2017 unless Congress extends it. The NAACP’s vice president for advocacy, Hilary Shelton, said supporters have had “informal discussions� about expanding the law, partly to allow for the review of deaths that happened after 1969. Passed with bipartisan support and signed by then-President George W. Bush in October 2008, the Till Act gave new hope to families that lost loved ones during the

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civil rights era, when Southern authorities and juries often looked the other way when a black person was killed. Law professor Janis McDonald, who helps lead a program at Syracuse University to identify and investigate suspicious deaths from that era, said the Justice Department never formed regional task forces to probe killings, and it didn’t do much more than review documents in many cases. While some hoped the program would get a jump-start when Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president, little progress has been made, McDonald said. “For whatever reason the leadership does not seem to have made it a priority,� said McDonald, co-director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse. The Till Act did land one courtroom victory. Former Alabama trooper James Bonard Fowler pleaded guilty four years ago to shooting Jimmie Lee Jackson during protests in Marion in 1965. The local prosecutor, District Attorney Michael Jackson, said the FBI assisted with the case by letting him search for photographs in Washington. The lingering cases include the shooting deaths of three civil rights workers killed 50 years ago in Philadelphia, Miss., in what is known as the “Mississippi Burning� case after the movie by the same name. While seven people were convicted on federal civil rights charges in the deaths in 1967 and one person was convicted on a state manslaughter charge, the case remains open. The Justice Department had a civil rights “cold case� initiative that helped with four successful prosecutions before the law was signed. It closed its investigation into the killing of the law’s namesake, 14-year-old Till, in 2007. The suspected killers had been dead for years and a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict others who might have had a hand in the death. “Although our investigations have reached an end in the large majority of the matters reviewed,

our work on the remaining matters continues in earnest,� the Justice Department said in its progress report to Congress in January. The Till Act set aside $10 million annually for investigations; $2 million for grants to states; and $1.5 million for getting communities involved. The Justice Department didn’t respond to questions about how much has actually been spent, but none of the $20 million in grant money was ever requested by states or appropriated by Congress. “Over time a pittance of that has been authorized. I can’t say the degree to which that has stood in the way,� said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery. McDonald, the Syracuse professor, said her students have found about 200 more cases that deserve investigation, and an Associated Press review found more than two dozen suspicious deaths after 1969 that could be reviewed. McDonald said the 1969 cutoff date was a “somewhat arbitrary� decision linked partly to the idea that 1970 marked an upswing in protests over the Vietnam War. The decision on timing meant federal agents couldn’t use the Till Act to take another look into the May 1970 death of Earl Green, GreenMcCrary’s brother. Green, 17, and Jackson State student Phillip Gibbs were shot to death by law officers at Jackson State during a protest that had roots in years of racial unrest in Jackson; frustration over civil rights progress; the Vietnam War; and the killing of four students in Ohio at Kent State just two weeks earlier. Dozens of bullet holes still pock the side of a dormitory where officers opened fire after someone threw a bottle toward police. Green-McCrary and her sister, Mattie Hull, would like federal officials to investigate, even if no one ever is prosecuted. “It would show there are still caring people in the world, that somebody still cares and means to do the right thing,� Hull said.

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Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 21

What a difference 40 years can make!

‘

‘

Here is a sample of advertisements that were published in The Indiana Gazette in the late 60s and early 70s.

Aug. 8, 1967

Dec. 23, 1969 Dec. 23, 1969

July 3, 1967

Dec. 23, 1969

Jan. 9, 1974

July 3, 1967

Sept. 24, 1974

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BOB VISNESKY/Gazette

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Loss of Innocence

Page 22 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Indiana Gazette

IN REMEMBRANCE Following is a list of Vietnam veterans who are buried in Indiana County cemeteries, according to the Indiana County Veterans Affairs Office, as of Sept. 22, 2014. They are listed in order of when they were buried. Ronald H. Layton, Lester D. Kimmel, Michael Louis Goral, Clyde Edwin Brown, Thomas Edward Batten, Gary Lee Bash, Lyle Eugene Holt II, Geary Tyrone Peoples, John Franklin Rolls, Jerry Daryl Reynolds. Arthur George Morrell, George Thomas Pizer, James R. Kovach, Michael Fred Yarnick, James L. Foreman II, Ernest J. Lengyel, Donald Dennis Trimble, Larry P. Kishlock, David K. Jamison, Marlin Dean Fair. Robert H. Hinds Jr., Charles Lloyd Brandenburg, Robert A. Muir, Myron G. Freedline, Jon Gary Flower, Paul Johner, Walter Bernon Trimble, Jim Lee Adcock, Robert G. Pease, Charles Richard Kessler. James William Fee, George J. Beilchick, William R. Willard, Alvin Eugene English, William R. Lewis Jr., Edward George Johnson, Frederick Richard Muie, Perry Allen Dome, John Robert Thomas, James Lee Shirley. David J. Alexander, Stephen Thomas Modrey, James D. Hankinson, Jack Howard Lewis, Richard LeRoy Howard, Charles Lee Taylor Sr., Donald Walter McCune, John J. Kalafus, Terry W. McBurney, Lowery A. Strong. Timothy Lamar, James M. Rarve, Edward Ross Hilty, Brock McGinnis, Thomas Wesley Zentner, James Francis Roudebush. William C. Betzold, Larry Lynn Warner, Kenneth Thomas Barrow, Charles Olen Gray. Ellsworth Muir Jr., Boyd M. Phillippi, Robert J. DeMattio, John Katz, Martin Baccamazzi, Raymond C. Broadbent, Dean Ray Dies, Frederick A. Young, Michael Larry Kaito, Danny E. White. Chris Gene Boyer, Lester M. Snyder Jr., Kenneth Dean Brendlinger, Roger Wesley Boring, Mark Steven Pikovsky, David J. Walls, David L. Bowman, Daniel L. Larson, Albert Ross Helman, Harry N. Widdowson. Paul Frengenza Anderson, Lynn W. Leidig, Daniel Terlion, Blaine James Waltemire. James Lane Gaston, Wilbur G. Shaw, D. Goodlin, Peter James Colgan, Ernest Eugene Nichol, Allan Joseph Lubic. Thomas Birch, Edward Aaron Heberling, Henry L. Weaver, Franklin Delano Meyer, John Harrelson, Ronald R. Lahman, Robert W. Lingenfelter, Harry E. James, Todd Albert Peterman, Marjorie Nelson Mitchell. Paul I. Daugherty, Albert M. Herzog, Walter P. Bem, William Marusa, Richard C. Pitzerell, Frank C. Popp, John C. Liptak, William A. Moshier, Allen W. Lazor, Michael T. Waneck. Andrew Yosurack, William M. Palmer, Paul Hodak, Larry William Boring, Elmer E. Barr, Forrest Marvin Long, James R. Rice Jr., William L. Anderson, William Kibler, Harry Lyle Dickey Jr. Neal Eugene Gallaher, Richard A. McCoy, Benjamin F. Freeman, Thomas Dale Walker, Blair Treese, Robert Wendell Hayes, Larry Floyd Langham, John Vernon Clawson, Harry Glenn Loughry, Ralph E. Biar. Robert L. Kridler, Charles

JAMIE EMPFIELD/Gazette

THE INDIANA COUNTY war memorial outside the county courthouse displays the names of a host of people who served in the Vietnam War. Joseph Kietrick, David Lee Woodward, Richard E. Saldana, William John Ladue, George P. Petras, John Charles Painter, Thomas L. Craft, Gary L. Gaston, Karl E. Keller Jr. Paul A. Tomasko, Sylvester A. Hancock, William Edward Henry, Thomas Lebda, John Edward Sobota, Victor E. Posa, Arthur Carlton Mack, George A. Staruch Jr., Dory Richard Clawson, Robert R. Krouse. David Allen Rudolph, Reed D. Boozel, David F. Oatman, Jeffrey Lawrence Evans, Edward John Parada, Thomas Martin Redinger, William Otis Barnes, James Craig Leasure, Jan C. Clark, Donald D. Shilling. Thomas P. Taylor, Sue M. Uss, Richard LeRoy Coleman, John H. McCullough, Robert L. Shields, Ernest L. Tanner, Robert A. Weaver, Harry C. Gibson, Richard C. McFeaters, David Reed Phillippi. Blair Fisher, Walter LeRoy Davis, Dennis Grnat Edmonds, Richard L. Murdick, Harry S. Stutzman, David Fleming Johnston, Jimmie M. Murphy, Kenneth E. Wilson, John C. Blystone, Joseph E. Midock. Richard T. Ressley, Thomas Arnott Swab Jr., Chester M. Mock Jr., Joseph James Holiday, Thomas E. Drye, William George Krall, Walter J. Zolensky, Freddie Lee Myers, Russell K. Long, Ronald Lee Chero. Charles W. Lewis, Lawrence Joseph Fako, Robert E. Benko, Edward A. Hirko, Ronald Boyd McCaulley, Allan R. Kaufman, James Robert Barclay, Donald Gary Allison, Robert Gregory Brown, Francis I. Young. Edward L. Kwisnek, Nelson Merle Meyer, Vernon C. Aurandt, Robert L. Fails, James Robert Lockard, Samuel A. Brown Sr., Lawrence N. Burns, Forrest E. Powers, Ralph K. McDowell, Delbert W. Meyer. Wilber Roy Nunamaker, Dennis A. Kitzmiller, James Philip Krug, Bradley Edmund Ciotti, Donald J. Myers Jr., John S. Shields, James William Franklin, Carl L. Ewing, Earl Joseph Pelky, David Paul Romanie. Olney A. Knudtson,

Killed in action Following is a list of Vietnam veterans from Indiana County who were killed in action during the Vietnam conflict. David O. Auen, Robert L. Babula, Elmer E. Barr, James M. Becker, Walter P. Bem. Thomas M. Blystone, James F. Brown, William E. Cannon, Floyd Cogley, Tommy L. Craft, Ralph E. Dias. Wesley E. Dodson, Wilbur T. Dunlap, James K. Flannery, Terry L. Fyock. Leslie P. Hagara, Scott O. Henry, Andrew A. Hor-

Edward R. Cann, Robert L. Starry, Donald M. Harris III, .rl J. Mottin Jr., Robert D. Hill, Aldo Molestatore, Jeffrey M. Young, Daniel Edward Long, Edward A. Springer. Paul Richard Strazzere, Rodger Delmar Siford, Paul D. Murphy, Joseph R. Connell. Thaddeus L. Mytrysak, Walter E. Parks Jr., John Andrew Anderson, Harry Lee Gromley, Donald Lewis Brink, Thomas Reed Campbell. Raymond C. Sowko, Clifford Dennis Pardee, George A. Underwook, Robert C. McCall, Louis Astolos Jr., Brady John Rising. Richard E. Banks, Joseph E. Bloom, Francis G. Gmuca, Edward Joseph Wojtowicz. Philip A. Runco, John M. Krecota, Lloyd D. Hovland, Harold E. Lloyd, Victor W. Dube, Russell Boring, Clair Russell Barnett, Yvonne M. Ferrance, John Edward Sowers, Ernest C. Dominy. Charles F. Detwiler, David Edward Kimmel, Dennis J. Adams, Richard G. Foutz, Lewis P. Grimm, David C. Powell, Donald E. Waugaman, Frederick B. Pender Jr., Mickey J. McCullough, Donald Frantz Long. Otto Edwin Williammee, Kenneth W. Anderson, Randy Clark Sinclair, Frederick J. Domenick, Daniel L. Lamar, Fred Judeich Sr., James Edward Reese Jr., David A. Culp,

char Jr., Ronald L. Johnston, Michael L. Kaith, Robert E. Kline. Thomas W. Laughlin, Wayne E. Lewis Jr., William R. Lewis Jr., Charles E. Mariskanish, Robert P. Martin Jr., Glenn L. McMasters. Franklin D. Meyer, John F. Olesnanik, James R. Pantall. Edward J. Parada, Harold A. Preisendefer, Richard E. Saldano, David P. States, Gary W. Stern, Francis P. Truance. William S. Waddle, Henry L. Weaver, Frank E. Weiss, Frederick A. Young, Robert M. Young.

Dennis Robert Lowman, Albert James Irwin III. Lawrence J. Falisec, Alex Boychuck Jr., James P. Will, George W. Walker Jr., James F. Kokolis. Vernon Earl Stewart, George Kolesar, Russell E. Repine, Wilbert D. Bertoncini, Robert Beecher Jacoby. David R. Wagner, John Timchalk, George “Tom” Peace, Frank L. Zombotti, Gerald R. Reiter, James R. Powell, Russell B. Kunkle, Anthony Francis Lenzi, Clarence Edward Mingle, Nicholas Oscar Black Jr. Robert M. Cox, Ralph E. Resh Sr., Richard Paul Kraynak, Albert Merle McCauley Jr., Dennis E. Lichtenfels, James Richard Watkins, Carl E. Lawson, Thomas Robert Gallo, John Edward Berzansky, Kenneth Lee George. John G. Bogdansky, James Robert Hursh, Tommy Dale Lovejoy, Buford E. Davis, Edson Bennett Jr., Charles Albert Myers, William C. McFadden, LeRoy F. Troup Jr., Henry E. Taylor, Samuel G. Taylor. William P. Trimble, William L. Trout, William C. Steffey, Daniel C. Laney, Robert Bruce, Douglas Ferraro, John Michael Welsh, Williard George Walker, Clair D. Alabran, Robert A. Malakos. John D. Reinard, James A. Clawson, Donald C. Long, Daniel Alan Muir, Thomas J. Jefferson, William L. Trausi, Michele Mussomeli,

Richard M. Harvilla, Edward G. Tatarko, Eugene Joseph Benton. Dennis Alen Gershman, Robert K. Bennett, Alvie E. Shirley, Walter G. Kealey, Robert Kovalak, Mary E. Pease, Geno Andrie Jr. James Walter Craddock, Raymond Lee Wilson Sr., David Garth Webster. Thomas M. Koches, Paul T. Artis, Leo V. McDonald, Leo F. Kelly, Gary G. Berkeimer, John R. Shaffer, John Ivan Mihalich Jr., Phillip David Mosco, H. Kenneth White. Albert L. Taylor, Charles E. Eldridge, Galen R. Rish, Doyle A. Fairman, William Donald Peffer, Ronald Neal Smith, Larry J. Gray, John E. Vresilovic, Ralph F. Henry, Donald B. Robertson. Richard E. Smith, James A. Shertzer, Daniel Vincent Delaney, John P. Rogel, Richard James Strasshoffer Sr. Kenneth Michael Sapp, Gerald H. Racicot, John Stanley Brosko, Samuel Clair Shick, Robert P. Davis. George Elwood Caylor Jr., George Anthony Jack, Robert J. Thompson Sr., John W. Shaffer, Charles B. Adamsky, Samuel W. Boring, Charles Michael Rapach, Ronald Wightman, Denis R. Denning, Thomas James Hoover Sr. John Robert Campbell, David Patrick Letso, David Daniel Hodge, Andrew M. Sarnovsky, Edward Martin Hill, John Andrew Gaydac, Francis Joseph Howarth, Alvin James Little, William T. Knesh, Thomas Waid Nevins. Gregory Paul Bocz, Lester Daniel Clayton Jr., Melvin Leo Deschand, James N. O’Neil, James P. Benamati, James L. Shipley, John L. Harris, Charles J. Rayha, Richard T. Woods Jr., Anthony Francis Golba. David Blaine Bush, Russell J. Turley, Leonard E. Fisher, Michael Rado Jr., James G. Mitchell, Robert M. Myers, Raymond A. Ambrose, David K. McNaughton, Larry Rocco Panaia, Donald E. Shannon II, Joseph Prokay, Joseph Samuel Patterson, Sylvester J. Krouse, Ronald B. Williams, Dennis W. Boring, Robert John Walker, Terry D. Rhine, John R. Platt Sr., Paul R. Beatty, Michael T. Shulick. James Willard Buterbaugh, William R.

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McCurdy, Elmer Lee Wilson, Lawrence W. Krebs, Randell Lynn McCoin, Charles Robert Arford, Clair W. Kuntz, John B. Sinclair Jr., Edward D. Kromer, David Thomas Seger. Allan H. MacBlane, Wallace Eugene Boyer, Jack Swisher Oswalt, Rodger L. Green, Ronald S. Krejocic, Charles Resnick, Ronald Lee Henry, James D. Dziagwa Sr., John A. Holupka, Edward J. Rhoades. Norman B. Preite, Dennis Robert Moore, Maj. Kenneth Ford Haydon Ret., William Lane Coy, Paul L. Hendrickson Jr., Charles Furman Brewer, Harry Eugene Hill Sr., James Lee Huller, Harold Eugene Shaffer, Steven R. Manning. James Dorwood Dunmire Jr., Peter Marshall Fry, Stanley J. Mutz Jr., Henry S. Williams Sr., Frank Donald Anderson, Chauncey Kellar, Donald A. Buterbaugh, Charles E. White, Charles W. James, Kenneth M. Weaver. Gary C. Fry, Robert L. Johns, George Horvath, Lewis Jackson Summerfield Jr., William J. Balogh, Harold R. Cunningham, Calvin D. Banks, Gary L. Pontani, John E. Stumpf, Robert L. Nader Jr. Frederick W. Kammerdiener, Reed D. Boozel, David F. Oatman, Jimmie S. Myers, Anthony T. Gullace Jr., Robert E. Lane Jr., Clement Joseph Buzzella, John T. Kimmel, Gary L. Cooper, Richard Nulph. Kenneth Milner Jr., William Muir, Arthur Price Jr., Earl McCormick, Anne C. Jablunovsky, Robert C. Stutzman, Larry R. Smith, James William King, Eugene Arthur Patterson, Richard Virgil Bavera. Gary Wayne Lockhart, George Frederick Douglass, William A. Hare II. John Robert Bazella Sr., Stanley Paul Dubek, Walter J. Hudson Jr., Richard N. Schaeffer, Roger A. Ravenscroft, Michael T. Rebyanski, Jack R. Fraser Sr. David Lyons, David G. Ruffner, George M. Krupa, Glenn E. Anderson, Robert S. Bair, Nicholas Sabatine Jr., Sam Fedoruk, Frank Schatko, Philip Craig Parker, Lionel Earl Roberts Jr. George C. Bland, Charles D. Graham, Arthur Halldin, Perry M. Anderson, Charles Robert Lambing, Richard J. Steeves, Larry C. George, Ronald Alan Hook, Donald Roy Marsh, Walter Lee Stiffler. Richard Alan Stoker, Raymond Dale McIntyre, Peter Ross Ricupero, John K. Stiffler, Jeffery L. Moretti, Clyde H. Graffius, Jack Leonard Mack, Joseph Anthony Bruno, George E. Davis Jr., William J. Adair. Harry C. Moreland III, Robert M. Raemore, Albert Allen LaBryer Sr., Walter Eugene Witmer, David Lee Stephens, Dale Vernon Hempseed, David Harry Yoder, Kenneth LeRoy Butterworth. John E. Leary, LeRoy Russell Gilbert, Carl Elmer Haggerty, Raymond L. Erwin Sr., Robert E. Geneva, William Ralph Walker, Edward LeRoy Wallace, Richard Allen Stoker, Neal Given Ryen. Frank Sosnick, Ronald L. Mack, Kenneth Monroe Willard Day, Henry E. Hill, Raymond Eugene Penrose, Craig Harold Stewart, Edward T. Yasick, Douglas F. Miller, Earl L. Spangler. Deovaux Holdsworth, Wallace C. Brown, James W. Pike Sr., Robert James Burkley, Paul Angelo Zinzella, Thomas E. Duncan, Jack Robert Kromer, Darrell E. Davis, Edward Richard Kane.

Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Page 23

STANDING ROOM ONLY

WANTED:

EVERYDAY HEROES

TOM PEEL/Gazette

VOTERS LINED up around Pierce Hall on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus on Nov. 7, 1972, when Republican Richard Nixon ran against Democrat George McGovern.

Conscientious objector felt both support, anger By EMILY WEBER eweber@indianagazette.net

hen A. Rees Derwart, of Indiana, considered his role in the Vietnam War after completing graduate school, he was apprehensive about applying for alternative service as a conscientious objector. Not because he wasn’t sure how he felt about war, he said, but because he wasn’t sure how others would react to his decision. “It was about how the world around me would perhaps reject me,” he said. “But finally I decided I had to try for what I believed in.” There was a “whole range of responses” to his decision. Most people his age were supportive. “Each of us had a right to consider how one felt about war and to try to deal with that in the way that seemed right to us,” he said. Some people who were older than him, though, were less sympathetic. In one case, a family friend he had known his entire life yelled at him over the phone. But others from his parents’ generation were more supportive, he said. “My sense, accurate or not, was it may have been the first time there was such a segment of society so overtly opposed to a war and very public about it,” he said. “Many of us my age knew people who didn’t come back.” Though his decision was not rooted in fear, he was also careful to respect the responses others had to the war. “I don’t mean to take anything away from the people who went to Vietnam, who believed in the war,” he said. “Each of us is entitled to respect for the decision we made.” When he was a senior at Dickinson College, he was bused to Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville for a physical. His status as a college student granted him deferment from the Army, but many college seniors were given physicals in preparation for their entrance to the Vietnam War upon graduation. “Until then, one worried about the war as a concept, pro or con,” he said.“One of draft age who was in college worried about their personal circumstance with the war after they graduated, but here it was confronting them sooner.” He enrolled in a master’s program at Case Western Reserve University after graduating from Dickinson and found a job once he completed that degree, but he knew his deferment status would not last forever. “At a certain point I wanted to change jobs, and I had to deal with the Army and the draft, so I applied for CO status,” he said. “I was granted that status by the draft board here in

W

“EACH OF us had a right to consider how one felt about war and to try to deal with that in the way that seemed right to us.” A. Rees Derwart, Indiana Indiana.” Derwart, 70, felt that the best use of his background in library science and economics would be to work as a teacher or librarian in Appalachia. So when he applied for alternative service with the Indiana Draft Board, he completed a “lengthy” questionnaire about his education and work background and requested work in his field. The response was not what he expected. “I was approved for hospital work and nothing else,” he said. If he had been unable to find a qualifying position, he would have been sent to work for two years at a hospital near Philadelphia, but he managed to find a position as a nurse’s aide at Yale Psychiatric Institute, a hospital for “severely ill” young adults and teens. In April 1969, at age 24, Derwart became the first conscientious objector to begin work at the hospital. He and the other aides worked with patients, using their educations and work backgrounds to help prepare the young adults for life outside the institute. They helped keep the patients safe and developed courses that would teach them to navigate the real world when they left the hospital. Derwart developed a course about personal finance, and another conscientious objector with a master’s degree in drama developed a drama therapy program for the patients. The conscientious objectors were able to bring “a great deal of commitment and enhancement” to the hospital because of their backgrounds and dedication. In return, they learned a lot about themselves. “They teach you about you,” Derwart said. “I think I helped them, but I learned a

lot, too.” He served as an aide for two years and was asked to stay on as a business manager and then an administrator. “It was tremendous experience,” he said. “It was the most gratifying job. I lucked out.” Derwart considered the term “loss of innocence” appropriate for the era surrounding the Vietnam War, citing notable political assassinations, race riots and police militarization as evidence that the country was entering a period unlike the previous, more optimistic decade. “Our innocence was challenged,” he said. “But maybe we weren’t willing to give up our innocence.” The response he saw on several occasions to the hardships of the time was encouraging. Not only was his work in the psychiatric hospital intrinsically rewarding, but he was able to witness other moments in which people hoped for and worked for a better country. He was in Washington, D.C., when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. In the midst of the chaos, he found himself in a “huge conglomeration” of people all being respectful to each other. As he stood in a long line to visit the Capitol Rotunda, where Kennedy’s body lay in state, people around him were polite and respectful, even to a man attempting to cut in line.“I was struck by this civility,” he said. Derwart later attended Woodstock with friends and enjoyed the music and the atmosphere of the festival. “Seeing Grace Slick and Janice Joplin and The Who was tremendous,” he said. “And I saw no violence, nothing but people being polite, respectful and open to each other.” Woodstock and the period at the end of the ’60s was marked by “a hope, a desire, an attempt to make the world more peaceful, more understanding,” he said. It was a symbol of the way “young people were saying, ‘this isn’t the way the world is supposed to be.’” These events gave him hope that, despite the violence of the time, “maybe it’s OK to be optimistic about humans.”

HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE COURAGEOUS COURAGEOUS GIVING GIVING DEDICATED DEDICATED STRONG STRONG MOTIVATED MOTIVATED SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE COURAGEOUS GIVING DEDICATED STRONG MOTIVATED SKINNED TOLERANT UNDERSTANDING COMPASSIONATE LOYAL COMPETENT TEAM PLAYER PROBLEM SOLVER THICK LEVEL-HEADED PASSIONATE ADAPTABLE DRIVEN CONFIDENT DRIVEN LOW-MAINTENANCE COOL COMPROMISING PROUD HONEST TRUSTWORTHY RELIABLE BRAVE ACCOUNTABLE

VOLUNTEER. Free training & equipment 7XLWLRQ UHLPEXUVHPHQW KHDOWK EHQH¿ WV DYDLODEOH Contact your local station or go to

IndianaCountyVFD.com

Page 24 — Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Loss of Innocence

The Indiana Gazette

CLAIM YOUR INDEPENDENCE. ACCESSIBLE BATHS

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No need to bend over to drain the bath. With a tap of your foot, the bath drains in less than two minutes.

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Limited mobility may come with age, or as the result of illness or an accident - with little or no warning. We are often reluctant to admit the need for adjusting our living quarters to create a safer environment for our everyday life. And in some cases, our health condition can even XPSTFO CZ OPU BEBQUJOH PVS IPNFT UP mU PVS OFFET As owner of Lentz Kitchen & Bath, I understand physical challenges because I personally battle mobility on a daily basis, and have needed to make changes in my own life. My personal limitations have actually been of great value to my entire staff – by using our own experiences, we help ease the frustration of our customers. Our designers can assist anyone in need of a limited mobility project, and one has even earned the special EFTJHOBUJPO PG $FSUJmFE "HJOH JO 1MBDF $"14 EFTJHOFS 6KRZHUV RIIHU D YDULHW\ RI RSWLRQV ZKLOH ZDOO PRXQWHG JUDE EDUV DGG VWDELOLW\ DQG VW\OH )XOO\ WLOHG VKRZHUV FDQ LQVWDOO ŜXVK ZLWK WKH ŜRRU /RZ WKUHVKROG DQG VOLS UHVLVWDQW VKRZHU VXUIDFHV DOORZ HDV\ DFFHVV FRQžGHQFH DQG VDIHW\ 5HFHVVHG VKRZHU EDVHV PLQLPL]H WKH WKUHVKROG DQG DOORZ HDV\ HQWU\

Call us to learn how we can help you or your loved one remain comfortable at home... for many years to come. ~ Curtis Lentz

... To those who courageously gave their lives ... To those whose lives will never be the same. $QG WR WKRVH ZKR EUDYHO\ ĹľJKW WRGD\ 7KDQN \RX

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lentzkitchenandbath.com I 556 Water Street, Indiana 724-465-9611 I 2080 Hobson Drive, Ford City 724-763-1814

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