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Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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New way to treat strokes is a ‘game-changer,’ docs say The Solitaire flow-restoration device gained federal approval in February BY PATRICIA ANSTETT DETROIT FREE PRESS (MCT)

REGINA H. BOONE/DETROIT FREE PRESS/MCT

Robert Lee Burns, 73, of Clay Township, Mich., pictured Thursday, March 29, suffered from a stroke earlier that week and received a procedure at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, Mich., that saved his life. The Solitaire flow-restoration device, which gained federal approval in February, is used in the brains of stroke patients much like an artery-opening angioplasty procedure for heart blockages.

DETROIT — A new generation of devices could significantly improve care for patients who have some of the most devastating types of strokes. The Solitaire flow-restoration device, which gained federal approval in February, is used in the brains of stroke patients much like an arteryopening angioplasty procedure for heart blockages. Robert Lee Burns, 73, of Clay Township, Mich., credits it with saving his life. “I thought it was over,”

said Burns. “Maybe there wasn’t enough room upstairs for me yet.” A retiree who has worked on oil rigs and automotive assembly lines, Burns was one of the first five Michiganders to undergo the procedure. His surgery was Monday at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit. St. John is the first hospital in southeast Michigan to use the device. The Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Health System, both based in Detroit; the Oakwood Healthcare System in

Dearborn and Beaumont Hospitals, Royal Oak, are among those planning to add the technology soon. “This is a very promising new technology,” said Dr. Sandra Narayanan, a Detroit Medical Center interventional neurologist. “I think it’s going to be a game changer.” Doctors hope the new device proves to be more effective and easier to use than the first generation of products, which worked in a similar way, but weren’t as good at removing clots. Please see STROKES, Page 5

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Don’t wait for Social Security check in the mail Federal government phasing out paper checks BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Starting next year, the check will no longer be in the mail for millions of people who receive Social Security and other government benefits. The federal government, which issues 73 million payments a month, is phasing out paper checks for all benefit programs, requiring people to get payments electronically, either through direct deposit or a debit card for those without a bank account. The changes will affect people who get Social Security, veterans’ benefits, railroad pensions and federal disability payments. Tax refunds are exempt, but the Internal Revenue Service encourages taxpayers to get refunds electronically by processing those refunds faster than paper checks. About 90 percent of people who receive federal benefits already get their payments electronically, the Treasury Department says.

New beneficiaries were required to get payments electronically starting last year, and with a few exceptions, the rest will have to make the switch by March 2013. “It’s just that natural progression of moving to how people are used to receiving their funds,” said Walt Henderson, director of the Treasury Department’s electronic funds transfer division. Henderson said electronic payments are safer and more efficient than paper checks; in 2010, more than 540,000 federal benefit checks were reported lost or stolen. The switch will save the government about $120 million a year. Social Security will save $1 billion over the next decade, according to the Treasury Department. “You think of that paper check floating out there in the delivery system, with personal information on it, it’s much more susceptible to fraud versus an electronic payment,” Henderson said. Advocates for seniors say they understand the government’s desire to cut costs and take advantage of technologies that most workers already use. The food stamp program switched from paper coupons to debit cards in 2004. But they have raised con-

cerns about requiring the government has created a switch for older retirees who website, www.GoDirect.org may not be used to electron- and a toll-free phone numic payments. ber, 1-800-333-1795, people can “This will affect some call for assistance. very frail elderly people who “Treasury acknowledges are living by themselves, they have a lot of education many of them, and doing to do for people about how well, but usually within the context of that old paper check that “The change has to be they deposit handled carefully and with in the bank,” a lot of sensitivity so that said Web Phillips, a senior there aren’t people who policy advisor lose track of a payment or for the Nationdon’t understand that they al Committee to Protect have a card that came in Social Securithe mail that’s the source ty and Medicare. of their payment.” “The change has to — Web Phillips, senior political advibe handled sor for National Committee to Protect carefully and Social Security and Medicare with a lot of sensitivity so that there aren’t people who lose track of a payment or don’t understand that these things work,” said they have a card that came David Certner, legislative in the mail that’s the source policy director for AARP. of their payment,” Phillips “We’re a bit concerned about said. “That’s our concern.” how easy it’s going to be to The switch is mandated provide education, particuby a Treasury rule issued in larly for some in this older December 2010. Since then, population who are not the department has worked to educate the public. The Please see CHECKS, Page 6

AP PHOTO/DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY, FILE

This two-photo combination image shows, at top, a Feb. 11, 2005, file photo of trays of printed Social Security checks waiting to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Management services facility in Philadelphia, and an undated photo provided by the Treasury Department of a Direct Express Card. Starting next year, the check will no longer be put in the mail to millions of Americans who receive Social Security and other government benefits. The federal government, which issues 73 million payments a month, is phasing out paper checks for all benefit programs, requiring people to get payments electronically, either through direct deposit, or a debit card for those who don’t have bank accounts.

Details of government switch to paperless payments BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

How the changes in delivering Social Security and other government benefits will work: — Starting last year, new beneficiaries were required to electronically receive Social Security, veterans’ benefits, railroad pensions and federal disability payments. T4

— By March 1, 2013, nearly everyone will be required to receive their payments electronically, mainly through direct deposit into a bank account. — Those without bank accounts will be issued a Direct Express debit card, which will receive payments and can be used for purchases at retail stores and for cash

Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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withdrawals at ATMs. — There will be no fees for debit card purchases but there will be fees for some ATM transactions. — Beneficiaries who are age 90 or older won’t be required to make the change. Others can apply for a hardship waiver but they will be granted only in “extreme,

rare circumstances.” — The federal government issues 73 million benefit payments a month. About 90 percent of the payments already are done electronically, so about 7 million people will have to make the switch. — For help or for more information, call (800) 333-1795 or go to www.godirect.org .

STROKES Continued from Page 3

the Algonac area as Scrapper Bob because he salvages yards for scrap, was returning home in his truck Monday afternoon when he felt his right hand and leg go numb. He had not felt well that day, he recalled. “I thought, ‘My God, I’m having a stroke,’” Burns said. He pulled over to get his phone out of his right pock-

et, but he was too weak to retrieve it. A man who saw him outside his home responded to his call for help. A computer tomography scan at St. John River District Hospital in East China Township found that he had a blockage that was so big it was unlikely it would be helped by tPA, Fessler said. An ambulance brought Burns to River District’s bigger sister hospital, St. John in Detroit. Burns already is taking steps, has slight numbness but no major paralysis or other stroke complications and most likely will be able to go home soon. He should be able to get back to his life with a few weeks of physical therapy, Fessler said. “He’s doing beautifully.”

Studies of the new device in Europe and Canada show that it significantly improved stroke outcomes. “We hope to replicate some of the results,” said Dr. Andrew Xavier, director of interventional neurology at Oakwood. Just a little more than a decade ago, doctors had few options for patients with the most devastating strokes — Dr. Andrew Xavier, director of that cause interventional neurology at Oakwood. blockages in the brain. The addition of a drug called a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) helped many people, but doctors say that as much as A new device is being used to remove stroke-causing blood 40 percent to 50 percent of clots in brain arteries. How the instrument, called Solitaire Flow Restoration Device, works: the time, the clot is too big to dissolve with the drug, Blood clot which ideally is given withStent in the first hour of stroke Brain e symptoms and no more artery ub rt than 4 hours later. ne n I Earlier devices also were Usually starting in the leg, a thin technically demanding to tube is threaded to the area of use and proved a challenge e the clot in the brain; smaller 1 b for all but doctors in highTu inner tube, containing a stent, is pushed forward through the clot volume practices who performed the techniques often, said Dr. Richard Fessler, chief of surgery for the St. John Providence Health System . The Solitaire device, made by Covidien of Dublin, Ireland, is minimally The inner tube is retracted; invasive. Doctors thread a the inner tube is removed, 2 as the stent expands into the thin tube through an artery soft blood clot — typically in the top of the leg — up to the brain. Then they advance within that tube another instrument with a miniature, Slinkylike stent to the blockage. The stent expands and helps doctors remove the clot A balloon is blown up to block more easily. To be sure the blood flow; suction starts and the blockage is entirely 3 stent is pulled back in to the tube, taking the clot with it removed, doctors take picBalloon tures of the arteries. Source: St. John Hospital Graphic: David Pierce, Detroit Free Press © 2012 MCT Burns, known to many in

“We hope to replicate some of the results.”

Removing brain blocks

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CHECKS

Continued from Page 4

familiar with debit cards a n d d o n’ t h ave b a n k accounts.” Certner said AARP wants the government to make it easier to get an exemption. Under the Treasury rule, current beneficiaries who are 90 and older won’t be required to make the switch. People can get a waiver if using a debit card would impose a hardship, but the Treasury Department says those would be “extreme, rare circumstances.” These waivers are not well publicized on the government’s website. “There are several million people who receive paper checks today,” Certner said. “Some of them do it because they have worked out arrangements for them that work.” AARP also has concerns

about fees associated with the debit cards. The “There are several million Direct Express people who receive paper cards are issued by Comerica checks today.” Bank, Treasury’s financial — David Certner, legislative policy agent. Each director, AARP month, benefit payments are added to the owner of the ATM. cards, which can be used to The government’s switch make purchases or withto electronic payments also draw cash from ATMs. comes with a side effect: less There are no fees for using business for the U.S. Postal the debit card to make pur- Service, an agency that is chases. They can be used at already facing big budget any retailer that accepts Mas- problems with the rise of terCard debit cards. If a card email and electronic bill payis lost or stolen, the benefi- ing. The private sector has ciary is protected from unau- been migrating to electronic thorized use as long as the payments for years, costing missing card is reported the Postal Service millions of promptly. customers, said Alan RobinCardholders can make one son, editor of the Postal Jourfree ATM withdrawal each nal, a trade publication. time a payment is registered “Normally, these things in the card. Subsequent with- happen one customer at a drawals will cost 90 cents time,” Robinson said. “In each, and all withdrawals terms of payments, this is may be subject to fees by the probably one of the largest.”

Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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TSA touts pilot program for seniors BY KEN KAYE SUN SENTINEL (MCT)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The one-month-old pilot program allowing seniors to breeze through security in Orlando and three other U.S. airports is “terrific,” moving them — and other lines — more quickly, according to the Transportation Security Administration. If it continues to prove successful, the new program likely will be expanded to Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, although the TSA refused to speculate on when. For many of South Florida’s 600,000 seniors, the day

can’t come soon enough when they can largely avoid patdowns and move through checkpoints without taking off their shoes or light outerwear. “There are a lot of infirm people who go through security in a wheelchair,”and they don’t need that hassle, said Rochelle Koenig, 77, of Weston, who’s planning to fly to the Northeast in June. Under the TSA’s program, those 75 and older still must go through scanner machines. If officers detect something suspicious or want a second look, they are allowed to go though the scanners a second time rather than receive a patdown.

“A lot of older people are not used to having anyone touch them, and consider a patdown somewhat of an invasion,” said Edith Lederberg, 82, executive director of the Aging And Disability Resource Center in Sunrise. About 600 people per day now take advantage of the new procedures at Orlando International Airport, along with hundreds of others in Chicago, Denver and Portland, Ore., TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said. “The pilot program has, in fact, been expanded to all lanes at both checkpoints at Orlando International,” she said. Please see TSA, Page 11

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NC man among last to make tobacco baskets BY WESLEY YOUNG AP MEMBER EXCHANGE

YADKINVILLE, N.C. — Yadkin County was once home to as many as six factories that made thousands of baskets and shipped them to any part of the country where people were growing and marketing tobacco. By modern standards, the factories were small, but each provided work for a dozen or two local people and extra money for the farmers who would gather wood and cut it into “splits” during the winter. Those factories turned out baskets by the tens of thousands every year, selling them to warehouses to replace baskets that wore out. “The construction of these things was a work of art,” said Andrew Mackie, a Yadkin County historian. “The local men provided the lumber. They would use a froe — a cutting tool — to cut strips of the wood. At the factory they would soak them, and they had a machine that would bend the wood into the shape they wanted.” At tobacco warehouses, tobacco rolled into bundles or “hands” would be arranged on the baskets in a circular pattern and sorted according to grade. Holes on the side of the baskets made it possible to insert hooks and carry the basket away at the warehouse. When people called Yadkin County the tobacco basket capital of the world, they were telling the truth, Mackie said. “We were about the only place in the world that made these things,” he said. “They are collectors’ items now.” An online search for T8

tobacco baskets today turns — not only from bringing it up pictures of them hangin, but the buyer had to have ing over fireplaces or adorn- a way to get it out and store ing bedroom walls. Decorait,” Yeargin said. tors hang them square or The baskets seemed the diagonally and display them perfect solution, Yeargin face-up or bottom-up. said. Some people hang them But why Yadkin? Some tattered and missing slats. say the oak there was more Others get more creative, pliable than in other locales and use the basket as the and worked better for the center of a photo or folk-art baskets. Yeargin thinks Yaddisplay. kin became the center In Yadkin County, the because the early baskettobacco basket factories are makers were from that area. gone — almost. Bud Miller, Basket-makers depended who is 80, still makes a on farmers to make the small number, in all differsplits that they used to ent sizes, from time to time in an old building full of rusting machinery and “They had to have wood splits still something to protect the stacked from product from that filth on when they were gathered and the floor ...” cut years ago. “We have not — Billy Yeargin, tobacco historian made any since the summer before last,” Miller said. “There ain’t anybody making these assemble the baskets, said splits. It used to be just Felix McKnight, who with about everybody in the his father and brother made county would make splits. baskets from 1947 as J.M. They were all rove out by McKnight and Sons Inc. hand. Up until 10 or 15 years A farmer would cut an ago, people were doing the oak log in half, then quarter splits.” it. The thin splits they made Miller is the son of J. from the log with the froe Anderson Miller, who startwere bought by basket maked J.A. Miller Basket Co. in ers at 2 or 3 cents per split. 1945. “In the wintertime some Tobacco historian Billy farmers would do it to make Yeargin said the idea for a daily living,” McKnight tobacco baskets started in said. He and his wife would Winston-Salem about 1880 sometimes go out nights when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and “hunt up splits.” Co. decided it had to keep its “We bought in a 100-mile product cleaner. circumference,” he said. This was a time of dirt “Those that could spend a roads and dirty floors. Oxen while doing it could make a or horses brought the tobac- thousand of them.” co to market on wagons. At the factory, the splits “They had to have somewere trimmed. Then a thing to protect the product machine was used to lift from that filth on the floor alternate rows of splits so

Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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AP PHOTOS/WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, DAVID ROLFE

In a March 21, photo, Bud Miller takes a drag on his cigarette as he stands in the old concrete block building in Courtney, N.C., where he and his father made tobacco baskets for decades. Tobacco farmers no longer use the baskets to carry their leaf to market, and the small factories that once made the baskets have disappeared. Miller, who still has stacks of tobacco baskets of varying sizes stacked in the crumbling building, still makes and sells small quantities of the hand-made baskets to decorators and craft shops. that cross-rows of splits could be interwoven. The result was a square plaited framework that had to undergo soaking. “You had to get up at 4 o’clock and get the water boiling,” McKnight said. “There were metal tanks — two of them 5 feet by 5 feet for the basket bottoms and a 2-by-7 tank for the rims.” It was hot work, but the soaking in hot water made the wood soft and ready for the next step. Working two at a time, workers would take a basket bottom from the vat and put it on a table with rounded sides. Pulling a lever, they would lower a frame that bent the wood down over the sides of the table. Two workers could turn out 200 baskets in a shift that ran from 7 a.m. to noon. To make assembly go faster,

In a March 22, photo, tobacco baskets and stacks of plaited basket bottoms were stacked in Bud Miller’s tobacco basket factory in Courtney, N.C. “some of the boys would put a bunch of nails into their mouths and push them out with their tongues,” McKnight said. Making $2.50 to $3 per basket, he said, business

was good. Traveling in New Hampshire during a recent year, McKnight and his wife saw a tobacco basket for sale at a Please see BASKETS, Page 11

Tsunami survivor trades life in Japan for E. Idaho BY SVEN BERG AP MEMBER EXCHANGE

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho — Norimasa Abe sent his daughter to Japan with two return plane tickets and one simple instruction: Bring your grandfather back to Idaho. Norimasa Abe knew his father would resist. Worried about Norio Abe’s health and faltering mobility, he’d been trying to convince his father to come live with him in St. Anthony since long before the March 2011 tsunami struck Ishinomaki. But while the home that Norio Abe built on a hillside in Ishinomaki, Japan, after World War II survived the disaster, it suffered significant damage. With winter coming, the family was convinced their patriarch should relocate to eastern Idaho’s cold but tsunamifree high desert. So in December, Norimasa Abe played the most persuasive card in his hand: his daughter, Miyai Abe Griggs. “If I went there, probably he wouldn’t come,” Norimasa Abe said. “Miyai went there, so that’s why he listened.” Today, more than a year after the tsunami killed almost 4,000 Ishinomaki residents, Norio Abe lives in St. Anthony with his son and

AP PHOTO/THE IDAHO POST-REGISTER, MONTE LAORANGE

In this April 4, photo, at his son’s home in St. Anthony, Idaho, Norio Abe, right, talks about his experience after last year’s earthquake and tsunami hit. His grandaughter, Miyai Abe Griggs, center, was tasked with convincing Norio to move to the United States and live with his son Norimasa Abe and daughter-in-law Tsukiko Abe. daughter-in-law, Tsukiko Abe. He likes being around h i s f a m i l y, a n d h e ’ s impressed when he sees Abe Griggs driving her husband’s truck, which is bigger than anything he’s used to seeing. But even at 86, he’s a little restless. “It’s so quiet here, he’s kind of bored sometimes,” Abe Griggs said. Norio Abe didn’t know

about the tsunami until he saw fish in the streets. At 85, he slept through the disaster, only waking to make sure a dresser in his home didn’t fall over during the earthquake that preceded the deluge. Earthquakes are common in Ishinomaki, a coastal city with a population of about 160,000, so Abe didn’t think much of the tremors. He lived a secluded life,

alone on a wooded hill above most of the city, in the same traditional Japanese home that he built a few years after World War II. It was a quiet home — quiet enough that the wreckage happening below it didn’t disturb an old man’s sleep. When he awoke, he took a walk down the hill to buy some groceries. It was then that he saw fish on the roadways, stranded when the

tsunami receded. “Where did these fish come from?” he asked himself, as interpreted last week by Abe Griggs. “Did they come from the river, or did the ocean come really this far?” A ‘command center’ in the living room Abe Griggs’ December trip to Japan was her second of the year. In October, she went with her father and brother to find Norio Abe and make sure he was safe. Until they saw him with their own eyes, they’d heard precious little of how he was faring in the tsunami’s aftermath. In fact, for 10 days after the tsunami hit Ishinomaki, they didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. Norimasa Abe moved to the United States 30 years ago, his career path ultimately carrying him to St. Anthony, where he works as a clinician for the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections. The family still counts about 30 close relatives in the city, one of the hardest hit by last year’s disaster. Suddenly thrown into crisis, the family converted the living room in Norimasa and Tsukiko Abe’s St. Anthony home into what Abe Griggs called a “command center.” They made phone calls.

They sent out messages on Facebook. They watched television. They worried. One by one, they tracked down each family member — amazingly, all alive. Norio Abe, who wasn’t a big fan of the telephone, much less Facebook, was the last one accounted for. The Abe family finally talked to someone in a city office who confirmed seeing him alive. Still worried, the family later decided they needed to see Norio Abe for themselves. They just showed up. Norio Abe had no idea his son and grandchildren were coming to find him. He’d been living on a diet of government-commissioned rice balls and groceries he could find at the nearest convenience store. A government agency was charged with providing basic services to the elderly, but Norio Abe wasn’t really happy about that, either. “He’s a pretty independent individual, and so he didn’t really appreciate that assistance,” Abe Griggs said. “There were people to help him, but he didn’t want the help.” Isolated as ever, Norio Abe had given up hope of ever seeing his son again. Then the man from Idaho was Please see SURVIVOR, Page 10

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3935 S.C raterR oad P etersburg The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA Sunday, April 22, 2012

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Arkansan Art Gregory recalls war on USS Birmingham BY FRANK WALLIS AP MEMBER EXCHANGE

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Art Gregory, 87, squirms like a restless youth in a straight-back chair as he talks about his World War II tour of duty on board the light cruiser USS Birmingham. His stomach growls. His eyes dart to and away from a large book lying open on a table top the official U.S. Navy book of the Birmingham. The ship’s World War II casualty list is printed on the back pages of the book. Check marks by many names identify the shipmates he knew. “I saw our men piled this high,” Gregory said as he raised a hand four feet above the floor. “The force of the explosion pushed them up into piles.” Sixty-eight years after the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Gregory has a heavy heart. The heaviness is for the day the USS Princeton exploded, instantly killing more than 100 on the Princeton and more than 200 on his ship, the light cruiser Birmingham, that had pulled alongside the Princeton for rescue. Many of the Birmingham’s crew of more than 1,000 were topside as the ship extended gangways to the burning aircraft carrier, Princeton. She had been hit between towers by a bomb and the Japanese

plane that released it. The kamikaze attack came at 10 a.m. Oct. 24, 1944. Fire hoses from the Birmingham trained on the Princeton fire seemed to help control the gasoline-and-oil fueled blaze, Gregory said. But at 3:24 p.m. the fire found a store of bombs and fuel in the ship’s hold and detonated with force enough to drive unprotected Bir mingham crewmen against the port-side rail or against any other unyielding object in the way of the blast. Gregory was tending hoses at the time of the blast and shielded somewhat at the base of a 150-mm gun turret. It was one of four strokes of luck that kept Gregory’s name off a list of WWII dead nearly 417,000 names long. A plug of shrapnel buried in Gregory’s left thigh and remained there several days without treatment. “We didn’t have a medical doctor on the ship,” Gregory said. “We had a dentist.” Earlier in his WWII tour, Gregory was at work in a boiler room in the ship’s belly when two Japanese torpedoes found the ship’s port side near the bow and stern and a bomb hit the ship’s deck. The aerial attack came from Rabaul in the Solomon Islands. “Just a few seconds faster or slower and it would have been me,” Gregory said.

SURVIVOR Continued from Page 9

there, unannounced, on his doorstep. “Oh, am I dreaming?” he asked Norimasa Abe. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” Abe Griggs said her grandfather’s home was still in disarray seven months after the tsunami. The roof was damaged and leaking badly. Worse, the weather was turning cold, and Norio Abe didn’t want to use a T10

Impact of the torpedoes was strong enough to send a store of salt tablets stored in paper cups in the boiler room flying. “The salt tablets flew like snow,” he said. The boiler room was the hottest place in the ship, Gregory said, and the salt tablets were a required supplement to keep the boiler room men from become saltwashed during the sweaty work. Gregory said he did not ask for the boiler room job that offered only heat and AP PHOTO/THE BAXTER BULLETIN, KEVIN PIEPER suspense and no views from topside. In this photo taken March 21, Art Gregory, 87, of Mountain Home, Ark., reflects on his World The torpedo-bomb attack War II experience. Gregory served in the Pacific aboard the USS Birmingham. Nov. 8, 1943, happened a little more than three months into hand in black ink “U.S. Task Group 15.1. The group aircraft carrier when the war launched air strikes against ended during FDR’s shakethe 18-year-old’s tour. Repairs Navy”. Training at the Great Japanese gunboats and air down voyage off Brazil. to the Birmingham at Mare A leave in Rio de Janeiro Island, Calif., took until Feb. Lakes Navy Training Center defense positions on Tarawa, offered a major memorable 18, 1944, providing opportuni- in Chicago was mostly Makin and Wake Island. uneventful for the Schurz Those were some of the event. Gregory shared a ty for leave. “I got home Dec. 22 (1944),” High School graduate who earliest island battles in the birthdate with American Gregory said. “My parents had excelled in ROTC activi- Pacific, and Gregory felt film star Lana Turner, who ties. bumps in them all. Gregory was celebrating at the same had no idea I was coming.” Gregory and hundreds of and the Birmingham crew hotel in Rio where Gregory It was a glad reunion, he said, tempered by the Novem- other seaman boarded the 6- would also serve with Navy celebrated his birthday ber attack and the prospect month-old Birmingham at Task Force 57 and 38 in the with shipmates. When the for much more war in the Norfolk Naval Operating battle of Saipan, the Battle of actress found a U.S. sailor, Base, Va., in August 1943. She the Philippine Sea, battle of Gregory, was celebrating Pacific, Gregory said. Uncle Sam’s postcard invi- sailed through the Panama Tinian, battle of Guam, Phil- his 21st birthday in the tation to the nation’s service Canal on Aug. 22 en route for ippine Islands Raids, Iwo same hotel, she found the came to the Gregory family’s the Pacific in support of near- Jima, the Okinawa Raid and seaman and kissed him inner-city Chicago home on ly all major island battles and raids on northern Luzon and square on the lips. “No. There was no photoFormosa. May 10, 1943. He reported to a many smaller ones. By September 1943, BirThe Birmingham was at graph,” Gregory said. “But processing center a week later where an intake officer mingham screened for carri- Mare Island for repair and she kissed me.” with a cold rubber stamp ers Lexington, Princeton and Gregory was assigned to the marked the back of his left Belleau Wood and the Navy’s new Franklin D. Roosevelt Please see WAR, Page 11

heater for fear it would cause a fire. When they returned to the United States, the Abes grew more worried about Norio Abe’s well-being. But he still wanted to stay in Japan. It was his home. All he knew about his son’s home in St. Anthony was that it was cold and far away. Eastern Idaho didn’t sound like the kind of place he wanted to live. “It seemed like a very scary, faraway place, so he wasn’t really too keen on the idea,” Abe Griggs said. “But he didn’t have

Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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anybody else to take care of him, either.” Finally, Abe Griggs’ persistence paid off. “He probably just realized I wasn’t going to give up,” she said. “Finally, he was just like, ‘I give up. You win.’” Norio Abe arrived in St. Anthony just in time to celebrate Christmas. The whole family is looking forward to the warm season and a chance to show him Yellowstone National Park, the Teton Mountains and some of the area’s other gems. Thanks to Tsukiko Abe, he eats regular,

healthy meals now. He’s gained weight, and Abe Griggs said he seems to be moving much better. He’s getting to know his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He’s adjusting better than expected, even though he’s a little frustrated because he’s used to finding stores and activities within walking distance and not very many people speak his language. “Anyway, I’m glad he’s here,” Norimasa Abe said.

TSA

Continued from Page 6

On average, about 92,000 travelers depart from South Florida’s three airports each day. As many as 10,000 of those might be 75 or older, according senior citizen agencies. For many elderly people, who are frail or have medical issues, such as hip replacements, the hardest part about flying is getting through security. Many have a hard time bending over to take off their shoes. Others have difficulty standing in long lines. Most are uncomfortable receiving a pat down. “Fear of getting through the lines can kill their travel plans,” said Lederberg, adding that South Florida overall has the third largest population of seniors in the country, close to a million over age 65. Ruth Sherman, 89, of Sunrise, was one of three women who alleged that TSA officers made them disrobe during secondary screenings prior to a flight at New York’s La Guardia airport in December. She said she is still angry, but happy the new procedures are in place. “I couldn’t go through that again,” she said. Yvonne Boice, owner of Fugazy International Travel in Boca Raton, doesn’t think the new TSA rule will be of much benefit to seniors and said it might anger those too young to take advantage of it.

WAR

Continued from Page 10

Gregory took an accumulation of wartime points, an honorable discharge and a Purple Heart home to Chicago. He found work with Jewel Food Stores and made a career with the chain

“It’s so nominal to take cedures, rather than subject your shoes off,” said Boice, a all travelers to the same level senior and a seasoned travel- of scrutiny, according to TSA er. “It’s not a big deal.” Administrator John Pistole. Marvin Simon, 88, of “These initiatives are Davie, said the TSA’s top pri- enabling us to focus our ority should be to ensure no resources on those passendangerous items are sneaked gers who could pose the onto airplanes, and it’s possi- greatest risk, including those ble a senior citizen could do that. “To me, I just “I don’t know if they’ll look for security,” he said. travel more, but they’ll The TSA travel more happily.” doesn’t ask seniors to prove — Edith Lederberg, executive director their age but of Aging And Disability Resource Center rather makes a in Sunrise, Fla. “visual assessment” to determine if they are eligible to take advantage of the new rule, on terrorist watch lists,” he Koshetz said. The agency told the National Press Club also posts signs at participatlast month. ing airports that travelers Last fall, the TSA began born in 1937 or earlier qualiallowing children 12 and fy for the program. younger to pass through a Local airport officials said security program similar to the senior program would the new senior policy. shorten lines, making travel The agency also has impleeasier for all passengers. mented the PreCheck pro“We would welcome any- gram in Miami and several thing that would assist our other airports, allowing passengers,” said Casandra trusted frequent fliers to be Davis, spokeswoman for channeled into express lanes Palm Beach International without taking off shoes or Airport. removing laptops. The pro“Ultimately, we want the gram is be started in Fort traveling public’s experience Lauderdale, Orlando and to be as good possible,” said Tampa by the end of the Greg Meyer, spokesman for year. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Will the new rules prompt International Airport. more seniors to fly? Probably The TSA said the senior not, Lederberg said. program is part of its efforts “I don’t know if they’ll to shift to risk-based, intelli- travel more,” she said. “But gence-driven screening pro- they’ll travel more happily.” at the store management level. He met his wife Clyra Deck Gregory also employed by Jewel Foods and working on a college degree. Clyra still marvels today at how her husband and other WWII veterans have coped over the years with the horrible experiences from the war.

BASKETS

inated that much more in labor.” So a new system began, bringing bundles of loose tobacco tied in sheets to the warehouse. The tobacco basket was not needed. By the late 1960s, the bas-

a Winston-Salem Journal reporter that the burley market was going away, Continued from Page 8 too. By 1990, the business was through. shop for $75. Today, Miller reckons The bottom fell out of that he might be the only the tobacco basket busiperson in the world who ness in 1966, said Yeargin, still makes who has done extensive tobacco baskets. research on the history He can make of tobacco warehousfull-size baskets ing. “We had about 300 left or smaller-scale Warehouses changed models, but when we stopped. the way they handled there’s no montobacco. Formerly, farmSomeone bought them all.” ey in it, he said. ers would gather their People buy cured tobacco into bun— Felix McKnight, former basket them to resell as dles wrapped in a leaf of maker decorating piectobacco. These bundles es. sorted the tobacco into “After the big various grades of quality. ones played out, When the tobacco I started making these litket factories were shutting came to the warehouse to tle ones,” he said. await auction, the bundles down or shifting producWhen McKnight no tion to other wood products would be stacked in a cirlonger had a market, he cular pattern on a tobacco such as pallets. simply stopped making The Miller factory shut basket. the baskets. down in 1969, but it “In 1966, the companies “We had about 300 left reopened in 1976 to make said: ‘We don’t care what when we stopped,” McKbaskets for the burley the grade is. We have our night said. “Someone own grades,’” Yeargin said. tobacco market. By 1986, “The farmer said that elim- Miller’s father was telling bought them all.”

“I remember when we were dating, we were driving somewhere and he had on a new pair of leather gloves. He pulled them off suddenly and just threw them out the window,” Clyra said. The smell of new leather and the fires of the Princeton and Birmingham. “That’s what it was,” she said. The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA Sunday, April 22, 2012

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Sunday, April 22, 2012 The Progress-Index, Petersburg, VA

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