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| Photo Credit: kconnors via morguefile.com |
The following is a collection of stories, accumulated and written by Judith Blakely
a Yahoo Contributor. It gives us glimpse of the sacrifice and courage
that our soldiers gave our nation. Let’s take time today to thank the
Veterans that we know for fighting to give us the freedom that we all
deserve.
Veterans Day is here. Our hearts go out to the families of our soldiers serving at
war. Our thoughts are drawn to the sacrifices of our young men and
women overseas. Our memories flash to the past, of the stories of our
fathers and grandfathers
Within these next stories, our grandfathers tell of a time of action, adrenaline, death, grief, triumph, pride, humor, and duty.
“Are you sure this is my son?”
Samuel Boynton began his tour in Korea by making the Inchon Landing
on September 18, 1950 as part of the F Company 32nd Infantry Regiment
7th Division (better known as the Hourglass). He was immediately
involved in the fighting. Boynton recalls: “After making the Inchon
Landing, we made an attack on South Mountain. The North Koreans hit us
resulting in twelve dead and twelve wounded. We crossed the 18th
Parallel about seven times back and forth. The 7th Division was the most
traveled division of the Korean War from 1950-1951.”
Upon returning from Korea in November 1951, Boynton was assigned to
Escort Detachment at Brooklyn Army Base, Brooklyn, New York. He escorted
remains of K.I.A. (Killed In Action), east of the Mississippi. Prior to
his first assignment, Boynton attended a two week class on what his
duties would become. His job was to meet the N.O.K (Next Of Kin) and the
Funeral Director; fold the flag; and arrange for the firing squads with
Military and American Legion Guards.
“Everyday I had to read the bulletin board at least two or three
times. The names would be posted that many times a day.” On the day of
Escort, Boynton would wear his Class “A” uniform with a black armband.
“I would go down the stairs to the shipping dock, check the name of the
soldier, rank and service number,” says Boynton. The remains would be
placed in a Military Ambulance and taken to Grand Central Station to be
escorted home. “That’s when the hard part began,” recalls Boynton.
“I remember the first time I escorted a soldier home. It was my
hometown of Fall River, Mass.” Upon reaching the soldiers town, Boynton
would first meet with the Funeral Director and deliver a copy of the
orders. Then, together, they would meet with the N.O.K., “The mother and
father, sometimes it was only the mother,” says Boynton. “It didn’t
matter where it was: Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Connecticut,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan or Ohio. It never got any easier. The look
and those words will always be with me,
“Are you sure this is my son?”
“I considered it an honor and privilege to escort these War Heroes into the loving hands of their parents.”
Years later, Sam Boynton found himself serving in a similar capacity
during Vietnam. On September 18, 1965, he was sent to Vietnam and
assigned to the First Air Calvary Division located in the “Tea
Plantation.” Boynton recalls, “Our medical tent and grave registration
was set up. When the choppers came in, we unloaded the wounded, then the
K.I.A. Sometimes we had to go on a search and recover mission, looking
for missing G.I.’s. With four on a team, our helicopters would fly into
the jungle. Most of these missions brought more remains into the grave
registration.” All remains were processed through Saigon, where
identification through medical records could be made. Then they would be
shipped home to their families, where someone else would answer the
question, “Are you sure this is my son?”
Sam Boynton left Vietnam after four tours in March 1969 and retired from active duty a month later.
Thomas Huntsberry, Teenage Warrior
Thomas was born in
Baltimore
County, Maryland, on March 13, 1932. He was the youngest of thirteen
children. His family held a history of military service, and he was not
going to miss his opportunity to follow in his brothers’ footsteps.
“Three of my brothers served during World War II, one in the Army,
one in the Marines, and one in the Navy,” says Huntsberry. He attempted
to enlist at the tender age of fourteen, but was fifteen before he
succeeded.
Thomas says that he had to convince his parents to go with him to a
notary public to sign an affidavit stating that he was 17 years old. “In
1948, the Army was taking anybody that was breathing, so with the
affidavit, I didn’t have any problem enlisting,” tells Huntsberry.
Sworn into the Army on January 1, 1948, Thomas was sent to Fort
Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training. He was assigned to Company
H, 3rd battalion, 11th Infantry Division. “I applied for paratroop
training during basic. The sergeant looked at me and said, ‘No way are
yougoing to be a paratrooper. You are under-age, and I know it, and you
know it!’ Then he asked, ‘Do you want to stay in the service?’ I
replied, ‘I certainly do!’” Huntsberry fondly remembers.
After basic, he was sent to the Panama Canal Zone, where he remembers
that Panama was undergoing unrest due to an election. He says that
during guard duty, his friend was nearly shot. “It was a dark night, and
the light was out in the guard shack. My friend lit a cigarette, then
sat down immediately. Just as he sat down, a 30 caliber round struck the
door frame where he had been standing. We were so scared that we never
bothered to shoot back. It was a good thing the
lights were out because they would have shot us for sure,” relays Huntsberry.
After returning home for emergency leave, Thomas was stationed at
Fort Campbell, Kentucky until he was discharged on January 1, 1950.
“I returned to Baltimore and joined the 445th Combat Engineer
Battalion, U.S. Army Reserves. In October 1951, we were activated into
the Army. Two other reserves and I were sent to Fort Lewis, Washington,
as guards for a plane load of fourty-four prisoners who were being sent
to Korea. These men had been in the stockade for desertion and for being
chronically AWOL. Our orders were to deliver them to front-line units
in Korea.”
In 1953, Huntsberry was preparing for an invasion of North Korea, when he learned that an armistice had been signed.
Shortly thereafter, he returned to the States with an honorable
discharge. Not wishing to let go of the family feel of the Army, he
became an integral part of his local Honor Guard.
Wild Boar Hunting
Towards the end of WWII, Vincent Chinchello, Jr. found himself at
Fort Shafter, Territory of Hawaii, as part of the 972nd Signal Service
Batallion in the U.S. Army Signal Corp. Underground, the Signal Corp was
responsible for maintaining all the Army communications on the island,
maintaining all the Army signal equipment throughout the Pacfic Theatre
of Operations, and served as the main link between the Pacific and the
Mainland. As there were no infantry troops on the island, a provisional
regiment was formed in case of an emergency which never arose. “I was
one of the lucky ones,” says Chinchello.
Besides learning how to climb coconut trees (barefooted), he recalls
the time the guys went wild boar hunting on the island of Maui. “I fired
all eight rounds at him and the guy behind me was laughing!” The boar
finally fell ten feet in front of Chinchello. When teased as to the fact
that he killed the boar with the first few rounds, Chinchello
responded, “I knew it and you knew it, but HE didn’t know it!” The boar
was wrapped in palm leaves, buried in a pit of coals, and left to cook
the rest of the day. Chinchello says, “I would have never guessed how
tender and delicious it would be.”
Note: Vince J. Chinchello, Jr. served in the Regular Army from 1946-1948 and again 1956-1960
Two Tours in Vietnam
On November 16, 1966, Kenneth Wheat joined the United States Army. He
went from Fort Ord, California to Fort Gordon, Georgia (for infantry
training) to Fort Benning, Georgia (for Airborne training) to Vietnam,
all in less than six months.
Assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in the Me Kong Delta, he was a
part of the Moblie Riverine Force. In the army just over one year, Wheat
was wounded by an enemy force of Viet Cong. The date was December 4,
1967. For that mission, he received The Silver Star for Galantry in
Action. After being treated for his wounds at Camp Zama, Japan, Wheat
returned to the same unit in Vietnam.
When his first tour in Vietnam was completed, he returned to the
United States and became a Military Policeman in Fort Ritchie. After
getting married in 1969, Wheat was sent to
Germany
for one year and then re-enlisted for Vietnam. His second tour of duty
was with the 18th Engineer Brigade. Two years later, he returned to Fort
Knox, Kentucky.
His assignments included Arlington, Virginia; Korea; and two tours in
Hawaii. Retiring on January 1, 1987, he went to work at the Martinsburg
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where he works to this day.
Note: In addition to The Silver Star and a Purple Heart, Kenneth
Wheat has been awarded over fifteen medals for his service to this
country.
A Purple Heart
“I was shot on March 1, 1970 in the town of Tay-Ninh, Vietnam.” It
was April, 1970, and as William Czyzewski lay in his hospital bed at
Walter Reed Medical Center, Washington, D.C., he learned the whys and
the whats of the day he was shot. “We were cleaning out the area, just
before the Americans made a push into Cambodia.” The day is still vivid
in his memory.
“I was supposed to go in R&R that day, but I got bumped. We were
busting jungle, looking for the enemy. In tanks. We came across a bunker
complex. It was the Hilton of bunker complexes. Cement tops. The
Captain said, ‘ One man off each tank get down and check out the bunker
complex.’ I had an M16. I looked to the right of me, there was a man.
There was a man to the left of me. I looked down and there was a beaten
path. I couldn’t go anywhere, so I walked down the path.”
“My basic training came back to me, I knew you don’t go down a beaten
path, but I couldn’t go anywhere. I had guys to the right and left of
me. I started down some steps. I looked down to the left and saw
chickens in a pen and smoke from a fire. Just as I turned my eyes in
front of me, I saw the muzzle flash.”
“A guy was in the bush. They left a sniper. Just as I saw the flash, I
was hit high in the left leg. I went down hard. I heard my mother’s
voice telling me to lay there and be still, real still. I was bleeding
hard. I laid there until all the fighting was over, then I hollered out
that I was hit. A guy from another tank picked me up like a sack of
potatoes and threw me over his shoulder and took me out of the jungle. I
heard he got a Silver Star for doing that.”
“Next thing I remember, I was laying on a stretcher. Looking up in
the sky, I could see the medical helicopter. I heard him on the radio
saying that he was getting shot at with 51 caliber fire. I heard the
Captain say, ‘ I don’t care, you come down and get this guy or we’ll
shoot at you!’ He came down and the guys put me in the chopper. The guys
put my booney hat and my pillow, I always had my pillow, they put them
in the chopper with me. This guy patted my shoulder and pointed, I
lifted up and looked out and saw the mountain and he pushed me back
down. My hat and my pillow fell out of the chopper when he did that. I
lost them both. They’re somewhere in Vietnam to this day.”
After being unconscious for 48 hours, he woke up in Long-Binh, a
Vietnam hospital. He was transferred to a hospital in Japan before
finally ending up in Walter Reed. William Czyzewski was medically
discharged in February 1971.
After six years, Czyzewski’s leg had to be amputated. He says he’s
had his sense of humor through it all and that being on the Honor Guard
is his way of repaying the veterans for what they have done for him.
Thank a veteran today!
