THE CITIZENS’ VOICE
Public Square Sunday, november 8, 2020
Veterans
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service sacrifice honor
in their words
12 area veterans reflect on Veterans Day and what service to their country has meant to them. ImaGeS and TeXT by Sean mCKeaG / STaFF PHoToGraPHer
Name: Leonard Luba Age: 74 Town: Hanover Twp. Service branch: U.S. Navy Service era: Vietnam, 1965-1968 Leonard Luba joined the navy with a military occupational Specialty (moS) in engineering. In February 1967, he was deployed
and sent to naval Support activity in the vietnam coastal city of da nang, where he worked at a small craft repair facility on the Tien Sha Peninsula. Luba was set to leave vietnam in early 1968, but the Tet offensive put a halt to his plans. The Tet offensive was a series of north vietnamese attacks in South vietnam with plans to ultimately end u.S. involvement. Luba and his men were nearly over-
run; he remembers vividly, “There were hundreds and hundreds of bodies (of vietcong soldiers) being stacked in a field — heads, torsos, arms, legs. For days, they just sat there, turning blue, smelling. you just never forget this stuff.” Luba said his experiences during the war were a defining moment in his life. “one of the good things that comes out of it is that you have no fear. you don’t fear anything.” He continued, “We never forget this stuff. It basically controls your life is what it does.” Presently, Luba is a member of the amveTS Post 59 in breslau, american Legion Post 609 in Lee Park, the disabled american veterans, The mobile riverine Force association, but is most active as the regional treasurer of the vietnam veterans motorcycle Club.
Luba’s lifelong commitment to working with veterans stemmed from his father, a WWII veteran, who passed away unexpectedly in 1969. The last time Luba saw his father, he was just 13 years old, and didn’t know much about him except for stories his mother would tell. as Luba grew older, he dug deeper and learned about his father as a person and soldier – a b-17 bomber pilot who was shot down, captured, and spent 15 months in a German PoW camp. “I did a lot of research, because I owe it to him. He had a hard life,” Luba said. and it’s why he feels compelled to volunteer with veterans. “It’s just built into you. you don’t learn patriotism. you grow with it. you start it at an early age and it grows with you throughout your life.”
Name: Ray Somalis Age: 94 Town: Wright Twp. Service branch: U.S. Army Service era: World War II, 1944-46 ray Somalis was in the Pacific to help supply the marines during their island-hopping campaign to defeat the Japanese during World War II. en route to mainland Japan, Somalis was in Saipan and flew over to Iwo Jima. He was training in Iwo Jima, preparing for the beach landing of u.S. troops. The u.S. dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and nagasaki. “The best thing they did was drop that bomb. They should have dropped another one. That’s the way I look at it,” Somalis said with a smile. “I came home alive. no broken bones or nothing. Came back in good health.” Somalis recalls being discharged at Fort dix, new Jersey, and his bus ride back to Wilkes-barre. The bus arrived around midnight and he couldn’t call anyone to pick him up, because he didn’t have any phone numbers. Luckily for the returning soldier, there was a taxi nearby who charged him $20 to take him to mountain Top, an amount that Somalis said, “was a lot in those days.” When he arrived home, his family was asleep, but quickly woke up to greet his arrival. as Somalis said with calm reflection, “I wouldn’t want to go through it again though. once is enough.”
Name: John Richards Age: 74 Town: Kingston Service branch: U.S. Marine Corps Service era: Vietnam, 1968-1970 John richards was inspired to join the u.S. marines when he was young. For Christmas one year, his parents bought him two books to put into his stocking; one book was about cowboys and the other was on the history of the marine Corps. “I didn’t even read the one about cowboys, just the one about the history of the marine Corps. and that’s what I’ve always wanted to be,” richards said. richards was in the province of an Hoa in South vietnam on patrol when a u.S. helicopter was shot down. during efforts to send radio help for the downed helicopter, richards was ambushed by north vietnamese soldiers who were waiting nearby. “one of my men was hit, so I went for him,” richards recalled. at that moment during the rescue attempt, richards was hit below his eye with a bullet from an aK-47. richards persevered in his rescue, grabbing the other soldier by his collar and dragging him down the hill to safety. richards was sent to a hospital in Japan, then stateside to Fort dix, new Jersey, and in 1969, was in the Philadelphia naval Hospital where the general presented him with the Silver Star and Purple Heart. upon returning home, richards remembers getting welcomed home from family and friends, but not by the public. richards said the protests during the war were unfortunate, but he recognizes that people have a right to do it. richards said, “It was my duty (to serve). as far as veterans day, I celebrate that for the military people that served before me, which a lot of them did not come home, from all wars. I more or less do it for them, because they can’t.”
Name: Joe Alexander Age: 69 Town: Hunlock Creek Service branch: U.S. Army Service era: Vietnam, 1969-1972
ian job at an airport in akron, ohio, washing planes and occasionally flying. He has always been interested in aviation. When he joined the army, he was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, missouri, to be a combat engineer. Soon after, he was sent to Fort rucker, Joe alexander joined the u.S. army bealabama, for helicopter training. alexander cause his childhood friend, brady, was then received orders to go to vietnam. He drafted, sent to vietnam, and badly inused his background in aviation and helijured. He said that it took three attempts copter training to work as a helicopter meto rescue his friend. alexander went to a chanic until he was promoted to running recruiter and told the man that he wantrescue missions as a chief engineer. ed to run a rescue squad in vietnam, to alexander was at the Chu Lai base in Chu which the recruiter replied, “Sit down, son. Lai, vietnam, in the americal division, and Let me tell you something. your chances of running a rescue squad in vietnam are then went to Quang Tri combat base to support the South vietnamese in rescue nil.” and recovery during their effort to attack alexander laughs at himself as a confithe north vietnamese headquarters. dent 17-year-old talking with the recruiter. “I just wanted to rescue people like “you don’t go to the army and tell them brady,” alexander said. “I didn’t want to kill what you’re going to do. That isn’t the way people. I wanted to keep people from beit works.” ing killed.” Prior to enlisting, alexander held a civil-
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VETERANS ... IN THEIR WORDS
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Name: Tom Wall Age: 75 Town: Harding Service branch: U.S. Army Service era: 1965-1968 Tom Wall was a construction engineer for the u.S. army and went to Vietnam in 1966. during his seven-month stay in Vietnam, his battalion headquarters was a rubber plantation in Long binh, in the dong Nai Province of South Vietnam. He repaired air fields at the biên Hòa air base, and his battalion constructed Long binh Jail, which held North Vietnamese prisoners of war. Wall and his battalion were approximately three miles away from an ammo dump, which was the frequent target of Vietcong soldiers. Wall remembers when the ammo dump was being attacked, and he and his squad had to jump in their fox holes to avoid being hit. “you can hear them and you had no idea where they were going to land. The Vietcong went in, blew the ammo dump up and moved back out,” Wall said. “Every night, before we sacked down, you can hear fire fights off in the distance,” he recalled. upon returning home, Wall said it was sad how he and other soldiers were treated by the public. He remembers changing from his uniform to civilian clothes before getting off the plane, so he
Name: John Fronzoni Age: 40 Town: Pringle Service branch: U.S. Marine Corps Service era: 2001-2005
wouldn’t be harassed. after returning to the states, Wall became a supply specialist at redstone arsenal, alabama, and worked there for a year before being discharged. In July 1975, Wall joined the army National Guard and retired in 2002. Wall has had a military career spanning 32 years.
“I love the military,” he said. “I love doing things and I love accomplishing things. There’s not a day that goes by that I regret it.” “after Vietnam, people didn’t say, ‘Thank you for your service’,” he said. Wall said when someone tells him ‘thank you’ for his service today, “I get goosebumps from that.”
John Fronzoni joined the u.S. marines because he felt it was something that he always wanted to do. He explained, “To give back a little bit from what those before me have given, and that was my opportunity to do it.” upon completing training in Parris Island, South Carolina, he was selected for yankee White, a presidential support detail program. at the time, his military Occupation Specialty (mOS) was Infantry. upon entering the program, he was sent to security forces school in Chesapeake, Virginia, and acquired a secondary mOS of security forces. He was stationed in marine barracks in Washington d.C., the oldest station in the u.S. marine Corps, where he remained for the duration of his service. Fronzoni returned home and continued his career as a Larksville fireman, police officer and EmT. “I’ve just always loved helping people, “ he said.
Name: Gary Isaac Age: 69 Town: Kingston Service branch: U.S. Navy Service era: Vietnam, 1969-1971 Gary Isaac was born on Veterans day. He was inspired to join the u.S. Navy ever since he was a child. In addition to being among a family of service members who served in WWII and Korea, Isaac remembers attending the Veterans day parades on his birthday. “It just looked so patriotic watching the soldiers marching,” he said. “I was always fascinated growing up. It’s a uniform I always thought was very cool — The Navy uniform.” Isaac was stationed in Pearl Harbor as a boatswain’s mate, maintaining his ship in the naval yard. He noted that being in Pearl Harbor, his chances of going over to Vietnam were high. “but it is what it is. That’s why I joined,” he said. after Pearl Harbor, Isaac’s ship was decommissioned and spent a few months in Seattle, Washington. as he was taking leave, Isaac received orders to return to Pearl Harbor. Then, he received new orders to be stationed at a new home port in Key West, Florida. While in Key West,
Isaac recalls sailing to Cuba in 1970 on a destroyer ship equipped with radar. He recalls his ship being surrounded by Cuban and russian patrol boats and waiting at his battle station for the worst to happen. Presently, Isaac is active in the black diamond american Legion Post 395, where he serves as chaplain,
legion historian, finance officer, and junior vice commander. It’s his way of giving back and fulfilling a new kind of service, a service to local veterans. “This is my second home. I do a lot of stuff here. We’re here to help the community. We’re here to help the vets. That’s our main goal.” Isaac said with a smile.
Name: Martine Columbo Age: 62 Town: Rice Twp. Service branch: U.S. Army Service era: 1977-1983 martine Columbo was raised in a military family and she was inspired to join the u.S. army. Her father was a retired air Force veteran, and her childhood was spent traveling the world. “It was a way of life for me,” Columbo said. She was a Traffic management Coordinator, but was assigned to do various jobs where she was stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and later in Camp King, near Frankfurt, Germany. during Columbo’s service era, female soldiers’ jobs were limited. They were not allowed to be involved in combat. Presently, martine is the commander for the mountain Top american Legion Post 781. “I’m very proud of being a veteran,” she said, smiling.
Name: Michael Ayers Age: 54 Town: Kingston Service branch: U.S. Marine Corps Service era: 1987-1991, 1993-1994
Name: Doris Merrill Age: 96 Town: Nanticoke Service branch: U.S. Navy Service era: 1944-1946
michael ayers was inspired to join the u.S. marines because he wanted to travel and see the world. He said, “I just wanted to get out of the Valley and experience things.” doris merrill enlisted in the u.S. Navy through the WaVES (Women accepted for Volunteer Service) program. merrill recalls, “When I graduated high school, boys can go to college, and girls stayed home to learn how to cook and clean.” When before joining, he earned an associate’s degree from Luzerne County Community College, and wanted to continue she found out that the military could send her to college, she joined. “you can never stop learning,” she continued. his education. merrill was sent to bronx, New york, for WaVES boot camp, and after completion, decided to continue her education at as a Tactical air Command Central repairman from 1987Oklahoma a&m in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She went on to work in Naval Intelligence in Cape may, New Jersey, as a yeoman 1991, ayers served in Okinawa, where he was responsible Second Class. for maintaining and working on equipment that ran a mobile “It was the best decision that I’ve ever made. besides getting married.” merrill was diagnosed with multiple Sclerosis and has competed in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games from 1999- air traffic control center for the air war. during his second span of duty, ayers went to school at 2019, winning more than 70 gold medals for various events. marine Corps base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North merrill said it makes her feel good when someone wishes her a Happy Veterans day. Carolina. He became a Heavy Equipment mechanic at the “I don’t know of a veteran that doesn’t glow a little bit inside,” she said. marine Corps barracks in Forty Fort for a year. “I don’t really think about it. It’s just something I did. It was my honor to serve my country. I’m not a hero or anything like that. I just did what I did,” ayers said.
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VETERANS ... IN THEIR WORDS
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Mothers are being driven out of the workforce in droves AMY JOYCE AND ELLEN MCCARTHY THE WaSHINGTON POST
Name: Rich Pries Age: 71 Town: Kingston Service branch: U.S. Marine Corps Service era: 1968-1971 rich Pries served in the marine air Group 24, stationed in Kaneohe bay, Hawaii, and the Fleet marine Force Pacific, where his duties were supporting ground and air forces of the marines in the air wing. Presently the commander of the black diamond american Legion Post 395, Pries believes that an obligation to veterans and community is important. “If it helps veterans, that’s why I’m here.”
Name: Lori Bevan Age: 54 Town: Wyoming Service branch: U.S. Army Service era: Desert Shield, Desert Storm 1985-1993 Lori bevan was inspired to join the u.S. army, growing up in a family of service members. bevan trained as an administrative specialist and executive secretary, and was stationed in Fort meyers, Virginia. bevan was sent to Saudi arabia to work in a field hospital as a mail clerk during desert Storm. The hospital was across the street from a prison camp, so the mission of the hospital was to care for prisoners of war. despite her administrative background in the military, bevan has always wanted to be a nurse.
She became a nurse in 2003, and currently works in the specialty clinic at the Wilkes-barre Veterans administration medical Center. being a veteran, bevan understands what veterans have been through with various issues, such as PTSd. “Once you’re in the military,
you’re always in the military. you’re still part of that family,” she said. “Veterans day is a day to honor the people that came back, who didn’t come back, and who are still serving. It’s a day to remember the sacrifice that these people made.”
Tips for hosting Thanksgiving outdoors during a pandemic JURA KONCIUS THE WaSHINGTON POST
Setting the table outdoors for Thanksgiving dinner in a pandemic could be more daunting than making the gravy. T h e r e ’s s o m u c h t o remember: Non-household members six feet apart. No buffet table with heaping platters. Blankets at every place setting. Propane for the heater. Hand sanitizer pumps next to the centerpieces. It’s challenging, and it’s obviously not an option in many parts of the country, but Thanksgiving alfresco can be done if the weather permits and you take safety precautions. “Everyone has an obligation to be careful,” says Rebecca Gardner of Houses and Parties, an eventplanning and design company in Savannah, Ga., and New York. “Thanksgiving outdoors in the crispycrunchy fall is festive and fun, as long as you are respectful to the way food is served and who you have there.” According to the latest information on holiday celebrations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hosting a small, outdoor dinner with family and friends from your community is a moderate-risk activity. “My kind of mantra going into the holiday season is that when it comes to COVID, it’s not what you do, but how you do it,” says Iahn Gonsenhauser, an inter nist and the chief quality and patient safety officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Gonsenhauser says that for him, a small group eating outdoors is the thirdbest choice for Thanksgiving, in terms of safety. The
first is a virtual holiday; the second is a brief drive-by greeting with everyone masked and socially distancing. For an outdoor gathering, sitting six feet away is essential, as is wearing masks when not eating. If you have distinct households getting to gether, group them at separate, distanced tables. If you want to do this on a screened porch, he says, assess the airflow and start your ceiling fans. “I am cautioning people about tents,” he says. “Tents will be four walls sealed up; you are just re-creating an interior space.” Tailgate or pop-up tents with two or more open walls are acceptable, he says. Because the table is the focus, Gonsenhauser suggests adding bottles of hand sanitizer to each one. “You need to be vigilant about hand hygiene,” he says. (Another idea: Place a travel-size bottle of personal hand sanitizer next to the chocolate turkeys at each place setting.) No buf fets. Avoid multiple people touching serving spoons; either plate the food in the kitchen or have an appointed server at e a ch t abl e wh o cl e a n s their hands often. Go with your own style. If you like the idea of keeping rituals, such as using Grandma’s china, Gardner says to stick to your traditional table setting outdoors. “It’s still a special occasion, and it’s wonderful to set a beautiful table with your nice things, “ she says. Make it as nice as you can while kee ping social distancing in mind. Rent large, lightweight folding tables if you need to, so you can space people appropriately.
If you’re handy with a sewing machine (or know someone who is), get a length of fabric you like. To cover the legs of the t abl e, yo u ’ l l n e e d t wo widths of fabric with a seam down the center. Choose a busy print, so you don’t have to match the pattern at the seam. You can also whip up matching masks to be given as party favors, she says. It’s fine to take a year off from china, crystal and silver if you’re not feeling fancy. “We’ve been staring at t h e s a m e ro o m s s i n c e March. Shake it up. Create a new environment. Do something wild,” Gardner says. Make it festive with inexpensive paper lanterns from paperlanter nstore. com, cantina string lights or curly streamers over the backs of chairs. Get a good playlist going. Have a boho picnic with layered quilts, tablecloths and pillows, socially distanced. Serve the meal in bento boxes tied with ribbon. If you prefer simpler fare as you juggle all of the outdoor precautions and navigate the cold and the wind, turkey sandwiches and apple hand pies might be the way to go, says Taryn Williford, lifestyle director at Apar tment Therapy. And don’t be fixated on the date; the celebration doesn’t have to be Nov. 26. This year, it could be a day or two earlier or later if that’s your best shot. “Go with the party on the date the forecast looks most forgiving,” Williford says. “Everyone is working from home; nobody will be going shopping. You can be flexible about it. The important part is the gathering and connection with people.”
When they met as students in Chicago, 20 years ago, Vondetta Taylor and Jennifer Anderson were all aspiration. Taylor was training to be a chef. Anderson was working toward a career in broadcasting. They also dreamed of starting families. Careers and kids didn’t seem like too much to hope for or too much to handle; growing up during the 1980s and ’90s, they were part of a generation of young women raised with the expectation that they could have it all, that they should have it all. “That was just instilled in us: ‘If you can dream it, go do it,’ “ Taylor says. As the years passed, the two women traced over those youthful visions with the brushstrokes of real life. Anderson, now 41, got married, moved to Indiana, had a son and started a career in information-technology. Taylor, 38, gave birth to a son she was raising alone while selling insurance full-time. “Having it all,” in the sense of being moms and professionals, wasn’t easy or glamorous. But they were doing it. Then came the pandemic, and it all fell apart. Taylor was supposed to make 100 sales calls a day while managing her kindergartner’s online education. That meant being a teacher, a disciplinarian, a mental health counselor and an extracurricular-activities director on top of her sales job. And there was still only one of her. In July, Taylor says, her bosses told her she was underperforming. She was fired. A n d e r s o n’s h u s b a n d couldn’t do his custodial work from home, so it was on her to stay home with their 10-yearold son. His school announced it was going to be remote in the fall; Anderson’s employer said she had to come back to the office in late August. It just couldn’t work. She quit. Just like that the two friends became part of a legion of women leaving the U.S. labor force. In September alone, more than 860,000 women dropped out of the workforce, compared to just over 200,000 men. An analysis by the National Women’s Law Center found that women left the labor force at four times the rate of men in September, just as schools came back in session. The unemployment rate for all U.S. women was 7.7 percent in September. And it’s worse for women of color: 11 percent of Latina women were unemployed that month, as were 11.1 percent of Black women — more than double the pre-pandemic rates. Women make up high percentages of workers in hardhit industries such as hospitality, child care and travel. Societal forces are proving to be as crushing as economic ones. Despite what girls of the ’80s and ’90s were promised, women in 2020 are still expected to shoulder a majority of household duties, including taking care of children and aging parents. Without day cares and in-person education, what was previously an untenable situation has become impossible. “Even before the pandemic, our social safety net for families in the U.S. was so weak and broken,” says Jessica McCrory Calarco, a sociologist at Indiana University who has been studying the impact of the pandemic on mothers. “And moms are the ones who’ve been left holding the threads. And eventually they just can’t hold on any longer.” Some economists predict the workforce exodus could set women back a generation. The long-term impact on the presence and advancement of women in the professional
KaTHErINE FrEy / THE WaSHINGTON POST
Danielle Lafave plays with her son at their home in Washington, D.C. She decided to quit her job in March. ‘We can afford it for a year if we need to, and then we’ll re-evaluate,’ she says. ranks is not fully known. At the individual level, women are already feeling the pain of w at ch i n g h a rd - e a r n e d careers evaporate — along with their incomes and a significant portion of their identities. Not that the mothers among them have much time to process all of that. “It’s OK to go into the bathroom and close the door and scream,” Anderson remembers telling Taylor during one of their near-daily phone calls. “It was such a rough transition, battling the demands of work and being a mom and not taking it out on the child.” The pressures of holding a household together during a pandemic are intense on their own. “I literally sit up and cry at night because I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Erin Rose says. Rose left a job she loved dearly so she could take care of her two boys, a 5-year-old and an 8-month-old. Her husband made more at his warehouse job than she did as a parale gal. So while he remained in the working world, she redid the family budget for a single income, got on a payment plan with utility companies, moved everyone on to her husband’s much-worse insurance plan — all while caring for their infant and trying to keep her kindergartner focused on virtual school. Rose took pride in her professional life. Through tears, she explains that she worked “super hard” to get her job. But when the pandemic struck, both the math and society’s expectations was stacked against her — and many other women. There’s the fact that women generally are paid less than men, which tends to obviate the question of who should be the one to quit if there’s a crisis. And women already tend to be the ones who pick up the slack at home, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics finding 85 percent of women and 67 percent of men spend some time on household activities. During the pandemic, mothers of children under age 10 who are in dual-career couples have been twice as likely as men in the same situation to spend more than five additional hours per day on household responsibilities, according to a new McKinsey report. “Working mothers are much more likely to have experiences of burnout or feeling exhausted, and that’s one of the reasons they’re considering taking a step back,” says Jess Huang, coauthor of the report. The United States is not a place that makes it easy for mothers to work. For many women, the pandemic made it unfeasible. And President Donald Trump, in his campaign to win re-election, has spoken to women as if
careers are something reserved for their male counterparts. “We’re getting your husbands back to work,” Trump said at a rally on Tuesday. “We don’t have an epidemic of personal failures,” says Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO of MomsRising, an organization that advocates for issues related to mothers. “We have national structural issues.” Faith, a New York City communications professional, knew she needed to quit her job when she found herself spending time thinking about killing herself during a Zoom meeting with her boss and colleagues. She needed them to understand the extent of her despair. Back in January, she was a 38-year-old first-time mother who was getting acquainted with all the practical challenges of attempting to maintain some semblance of worklife balance. She was commuting, pumping, packing day-care bags, cleaning bottles — and struggling to keep up with her work. When New York shut down in March, her challenges multiplied. Her work, which now involved orchestrating COVID-related events online, was unrelenting and though her husband did his fair share of baby duty, many tasks — like pumping and nursing — necessarily fell to her. “I felt like I was going to throw up or cry a lot of the time,” says Faith, who asked that her last name be withheld so she could speak candidly about her mental health without worrying how it might affect her career in the future. “I had episodes where I felt lightheaded. My husband had to help me to bed one time.” She started falling asleep at 9 p.m., right after the baby, then waking at midnight to finish chores around the apartment. She talked to her boss and to the folks in her employer’s human resources office. She took the month of August off to get herself together. She says she asked to work part-time and was told that wasn’t possible. Her thoughts became darker and darker. She knew she had to quit to survive. America’s public health crisis has created a parallel mental health crisis, and working mothers may be uniquely vulnerable. “This is a mental health crisis for our moms,” says Calarco, the sociologist. “It’s untenable in the long term and even in the short term.” Calarco and her fellow researchers have found that, during the pandemic, stress increased significantly among moms who started spending a great deal more time than usual with their kids. The women who seem most stressed are the ones who hold themselves to very high standards, as both parents and professionals.