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Blue Star unveiled
By Harriet Weixel
This document was published online on Friday, November 14, 2008
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| Dick Kosnick (left) and Ray Mentock unveil the new Blue Star memorial at Veterans Memorial Park in east Cody on Nov. 11. It’s the fifth Blue Star to be dedicated in Wyoming. The Cody Garden Club raised money for the memorial through Christ Episcopal Church. (Photo by Sara Loven) |
Men who risked their lives to defend their country met to relive their experiences during a Veterans Day breakfast Tuesday at Our Place restaurant.
“Our breakfast is for all veterans and their spouses,” restaurant owner Carolyn Heberlyn said. “It is paid for by a donor who chooses to remain anonymous.”
The Veterans Day breakfast has been served at the restaurant for three years.
Army Cpl. Mel Nading, 84, said he fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
“I was an infantry telephone lineman and got shot by a sniper in my leg and in my hind-end,” he said.
“I also had to serve as a sniper but when I'd shoot, I didn't try to hit people because they didn't want to be there anymore than we Americans did,” he added.
Nading said his beginning salary was $21 a month.
“But I was getting $52 a month at the end of my service,” he said.
Jim Hedson, 85, fought in Germany during World War II as an Army “flatfooter.”
“I never got a scratch, but I lost three of my foxhole buddies,” he said.
“It was 30-below zero in the dead of winter,” he added. “We went 40 days with no heat. Some froze. Some lost their feet.”
George Sekan served in the Navy during the Korean War as an aviation boatsman. Sekan celebrated his 77th birthday Nov. 7 and said, “It's sure great to have a breakfast like this. During the war, I lived on a salary of $50 a month.”
During the Vietnam War, Sgt. Bob Rush and Sgt. Gene Bethel served in the Army.
“I was in the infantry, and we marched and shot, marched and shot,” Rush said.
Also a Vietnam veteran, John Julien was stationed on the World War II destroyer USS Dennis J. Buckley and the USS New Jersey battleship.
“It wasn't fun over there,” he said. “The closer to shore we got, the more we could shoot. We shot all day and went out to deeper water to refuel and reload our 6-inch guns in the night.”
Sgt. Gene Bethel joined his Vietnam buddies at the breakfast table and said he was in the Army from 1967-70 as a combat engineer.
Ken Lange moved to Cody from Pleasanton, Neb., five years ago. He had served as an intelligence specialist in Vietnam from 1966-68.
“I got shot at by machine guns,” he said. “I hugged the ground, and it felt like I couldn't get low enough.”
Capt. David Johnson served in the Air Force for nine years. From 1971-80, Johnson was stationed in Vietnam, Germany, Philippines, New Mexico, California, Florida and Las Vegas. While in Vietnam, he was assigned to night bombing.
Mike Barker was in the Army from 1970-73. He served at Fort Polk in Guatemala and with the border patrol in Germany.
Navy veteran Clif Franklin wore a cap to breakfast identifying himself as having served from 1963-67 in submarine service on the USS Ronquil.
Yeoman 3rd Class Don Moyer was in the Navy from 1958-62. During breakfast, he told about his cousin Jamie Moyer, a starting pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Serving in Kitzenger, Germany, as a diesel repairman, Mike Kinder said he was in the 703 3rd Infantry Division from 1972-75.
Staff Sgt. Elroy Weixel is a veteran of the Korean War, serving as a flight line mechanic in the Air Force from 1951-55.
“We landed near northern Korea where some of the heavy fighting was going on,” he said. “Then we got stationed in Pusan, in southern Korea, so we could safely service our planes.”
Franklin Child served in the Air Force from 1959-61 as a helicopter paramedic. While stationed in San Antonio, he said, “I was privileged to play shuffleboard with Gen. Curtis Lemay the commander of the Strategic Air Command.”
After his military career, Child served as a part-time police officer.
(Harriet Weixel can be reached at harriet@codyenterprise.com.)
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