11/2002

Golden Boys & Veterans Day
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Been to a bookstore around Veterans Day? Publications about war and heroism are on the eye-catching shelves.

The Golden Boys of Pebble Creek, a golfing-social organization of 108 seniors at the Pebble Creek Club, do not need books to get accounts of wars.  Many of them--make that a majority of them--lived it.  They were in World War II,  Korea and Vietnam, armed conflicts which fit their 55-and-older age grouping.

Army veteran Harold Bridgeman, for instance, was a part of an OSS operation which went from Great Britain to Gibraltar, to Algiers and ultimately with an invasion force into Anzio with Gen. Mark Clark.  "They brought a bunch of us to Florida for two months of debriefing," recalled Bridgeman, 82. "You just don't forget something like that in 60 days,"  Indeed, much has stayed with him all these years. 

Chuck Evans, 89, long retired from a career as a commercial airline pilot, was a flight instructor who trained many American fighter pilots in World War II. He was assigned to base operations in Japan at the close of World War II and flew over the Japanese countryside where the atomic bomb fell.  "What devastation," said Evans. "You can't describe how it made you feel."

Golden Boys served the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. They were officers and enlisted men.  Most served just the time their country asked but others, including Al Valenti (Navy), Don March (Air Force), Ralph Waddell (Air Force), Bill Carithers (Navy) and George Baker (Marine Corps), were career military men.

And they served in a variety of ways besides simply foot soldier: High speed radio specialist (Jim Griffin), motor pool officer (Len Lipowicz), bombardier (Joe Fenwick), missile silo construction engineer in the midlands (Tom VanNorstrand), gunner in torpedo bomber (Dick Davis), engine room petty officer in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Philippines (Pat Hucker), C47 radio operator (John Parris, Merv Moeller), airborne (Bill Allen)   and medical corps (A.O. Simmons, Bud Batcheldor). Herb Ballantine was in the Canadian Navy and in the English Channel on D-Day. 

"I was a pre-med student at Furman when the Navy recruiter came to see us," said Simmons, 79. "And four days after my eighteenth birthday, I was in the Navy."

Walt Mead, in the Marines, was wounded in the Iwo Jima assault.   Sam Masters, also Marines, participated in four different invasions in the Philippines, including Luzon.

Jerald Frericks, 87, wasn't in the service, but his career as a structural design engineer with Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas landed him seven months in Vietnam Theatre (from the Philippines to aircraft carriers and into Vietnam) to assist in rapid repair of damaged aircraft.

March, Waddell, Herm George and Bill Moser were military pilots.

"If it were not for the daring young men in their flying machines, many including myself would not be alive today," said Baker, retired Marine lieutenant colonel.  "Most often, the only way to save the lives" of injured troops in Vietnam "was by helicopter. Pilots of these small helicopters were 18-19 year-old Army warrant officers. Space does not allow for the many examples of their selfless actions. I never saw men more dedicated to their mission and so skillful in the operation of their machines."

Valenti headed a unit of Seabees who built runways and roadways in Danang for use by some of Baker's brave young men and others in the Vietnam war.

Many of the Golden Boys were military volunteers.

"As a young boy from Kannapolis, NC, I wanted to get away from home," said Bill Carithers, 68, "so I did what a lot of young men in those days did, I joined the US Navy. Little did I know when I did that in May of 1952, I would be getting shot at five months later in Wonsan Harbor, North Korea. Was I scared? Yes. Was I sorry? No, because I was very proud to serve my country and considered it an honor.  After three tours to Korea, I figured I would stay 20 years so I started applying myself by finishing high school and some college while still on active duty."  He was a chief petty officer when he retired.

Carithers and several other Korea veterans were honored the week before Veterans Day 2002 in an elaborate ceremony in Greenville.

John Mickler was trained by the Navy to be a radar specialist and was sent to the South Pacific. He was on two ships ravaged by Japanese air strikes within a 10-day period. The first ship, USS Chicago, was sunk in the Coral Sea. "We were in the water in a floatation device for about 24 hours," said Mickler, 81. He and other soaked seamen were picked up by a destroyer, which was damaged extensively 10 days later.

Mickler's friends now chide him that his transfer to Bull Halsey's headquarters (away from sea duty for the remainder of his four-year tour) was the only way the Navy could save its fleet.

Guy Wellman's professional baseball career was interrupted twice, for World War II and again for the Korean War, a la Hall of Fame baseball star Ted Williams.   He'll tell you some difficulty in hitting a curve ball might be more the reason his career was in the minors, not the war interruptions.

Wellman was one of the first troops to cross the Rhine River at night before the Germans knocked out Ramagan Bridge. In one incident, when his outfit had captured 300 Germans, he rode in a sidecar driven by a German sergeant back to the American lines to get a high-grade US officer.  Seems the captured German general would not surrender to Wellman, a lieutenant, or his commander, a captain. He demanded a field grade officer.  Hence the trip back to find some brass.

Some of Wellman's prisoners may have ended up in the POW camp where Tony Palmigiano was stationed.  He was on duty in the towers one day when a German prisoner came flying up the ladder to Tony's position. He refused to heed several "Stop or I'll Shoot" commands, was shot and went crumpling back to the ground and was hurried to a hospital.  For the remainder of his day, Palmigiano wondered how badly the prisoner was hurt and the next day set out to find out.  The injury? To his foot.  "The Army doesn't give medals of honor for that particular deed." said Palmigiano, 81.

The Golden Boys have their share of medals, memories and live-shaping moments.

Russ Hollabaugh was "sent to the Philippines as an infantryman and went to the front lines only to be called back after 2 days. I was transferred to the Quartermaster Corp and ended up in the Medical Corp. This changed my life for me to be the impetus to become a physician," he said.

Merv Moeller, after a 4-year Air Force tour which included almost two years in Japan, was discharged in Rapid City, S.D., headed home to Bloomfield, NE, for a night, arose the next morning to drive to Lincoln for his entrance examination at the University of Nebraska, thus laying the foundation for a successful engineering career that landed him in Greenville for much of his working days.