Veterans Day 2023

Bradford Publishing Company

November 10, 2023

"Celebration on Hill 89-First Division Marines and Seventh Division Soldiers cheer the victory atop hill #89 after the official flag raising ceremonies. The sign reads "Within this hill is sealed the command post where Lieutenant General Ushijima commander of the Japanese Army surrounded by his senior officers made his final stand. This hill was seized by troops of the Seventh Infantry Division on June 21, 1945, thus ending the battle of Okinawa.""

On Veterans Day — and every day — we sincerely thank those who served and continue to serve so bravely, including members of our campus community.

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November 10, 2023

Bradford Publishing Company

Bradford Publishing Company

November 10, 2023

Thank a Veteran for your freedom.

Eldred WWII Museum

201 Main Street - Eldred, PA 16731 www.eldredwwiimuseum.net

Happy Veterans Day! from all of us at the PC Federal Credit Union

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CHRIS COPPELLA

BRADFORD MANAGER

‘Always ready, always there’ LaBadie serving in Poland for National Guard

By Cory Angell

Bradford City Police Officer Shawn LaBadie is on patrol — in Europe.

One hundred sixty soldiers assigned to the 222nd MP Co. deployed to Poland in support of United States and NATO forces in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, according to a May press release by the New York Army National Guard.

“I have served in the Army National Guard for 10 years as a member of the 105th Military Police Company out of Buffalo,” said LaBadie, who is a sergeant in the Guard. “As of March I have been assigned to the 222nd MP Company out of Rochester.”

U.S. Army public affairs released that the deployments to the region will ensure that the U.S. continues to be well positioned to provide a robust deterrent and defensive posture alongside our allies across the European continent.

LaBadie said the mission is unique because they work jointly with other European law enforcement personnel.

“This is a lot different than being a police officer back home,” said LaBadie. “We don’t enforce civilian law, we

Bradford City Police Officer Shawn LaBadie, with his diploma from Mercyhurst University where he graduated from the police academy. He was one of the first cadets the City of Bradford sent through the program.

enforce the Uniform Code of Military Justice and police our own soldiers.”

LaBadie said sometimes their duties are like those back in the states. They responded to assist emergency medical services and fire, in a recent motor vehicle accident, with fatalities. Certainly, something he would see in both his civilian and military law enforcement career.

“I have been on state active-duty missions for emergency responses and spent two years on active duty combatting the COVID-19 pandem-

ic,” said LaBadie. “We received this mission in December 2022 and prepared for six months. Our mission is force protection, specifically we’re tasked with providing security for service members and personnel.”

LaBadie’s military service has a family lineage.

“My grandfather, my father and my older brother all served in the Army, and that’s the initial reason I decided to join, to honor them and follow in their footsteps,” said LaBadie.

“I enjoy serving. The people that I’ve met while serving, and the relationships that I’ve built along the way, will last a lifetime.”

LaBadie started his career with the City of Bradford Police two years ago.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to help and give back to the community by serving the people,” said LaBadie.

“It’s nice to be a member of a department and community that is so supportive of the military, police and first responders.”

Back home, his service in the police department is as appreciated as much as his Guard duties.

“Patrolman Labadie serves in two equally important roles,” said Bradford Chief of Police

Michael Ward. “In addition to his role as a dedicated and professional police officer, he is also a member of the Army National Guard.”

Ward said that Labadie has already been deployed three times for critical missions as an Army Guardsman.

He was first deployed

Sgt. Shawn Labadie with his company in Europe.

to New York City to assist during the migrant crisis, then he was sent to Buffalo where he aided those affected by a severe snowstorm that left many civilians stranded, and now Poland.

“We wholeheartedly commend Patrolman Labadie for his unwav-

ering commitment to serving his country, the Army National Guard, and the City of Bradford,” said Ward.

“His selfless dedication to both his roles exemplifies the highest standards of service, and we are incredibly proud to have him as a member of our team.”

Goodrich led a life of service Commander Vince Goodrich left high school in October 1943 to enter the U.S. Navy to serve in World War II. He went to fleet sonar school at Key West, Fla. Later he was assigned to the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a new destroyer escort and was serving as a sonarman 3rd class at the time of the battle of Leyte Gulf, when the ship was sunk and 89 crewmembers were lost. After he and other survivors of the Roberts were picked up out of the water, he was shipped to New Guinea and then placed on a troop transport which landed at Brisbane, Australia, for supplies and then made the run straight to San Francisco in 15 days.

Goodrich was reassigned to serve on an old WWI-model destroyer that had been converted to a

Photo provided Commander Vince Goodrich, left, steps down as commander of U.S. Naval Reserve Surface Div. 3-68(L), passing the torch to P.R. Danmore.

high-speed troop ship, and then he helped to decommission ships at San Diego.

“When I was discharged from the Navy I was discharged at one table and I immediately walked over to another

table and took the oath in the Naval Reserve,” he said.

Goodrich served in the Reserve for 35 years, retiring in 1978 as a commander, as shown.

He passed away in 2006.

DEXTER’S COLLISION CENTER 156 W. WASHINGTON ST. BRADFORD, PA 16701 THANK YOU VETERANS FOR YOUR SERVICE & SACRIFICE WHILE PROTECTING OUR FREEDOM!

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November 10, 2023

Young naval officer from Olean earned Silver Star in Battle of Okinawa Editor's note: Jim Smith of Columbia, South Carolina, son of World War II hero and Olean native Paul Bridges Smith, submitted this narrative on the elder Smith's experiences.

As a young lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, Paul Bridges Smith was awarded the Silver Star for his leadership as Gunnery Officer of the destroyer USS Laffey — “the ship that would not die” — on April 16, 1945, in the Battle of Okinawa.

His ship in the radar picket for the fleet faced a Japanese air attack of 50 planes. The Laffey and her crew withstood the most unrelenting kamikaze attack in history, surviving four bombs, six kamikaze crashes and strafing fire that killed 32 and wounded 71. The Laffey is now a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is preserved as a museum ship at Patriot’s Point, Charleston, S.C.

Paul Bridges Smith, from Olean, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in the first months of World War II and embarked on a long career in the Navy.

PAUL SMITH was born

Dec. 8, 1918, at 768 Main St., Olean, to Charles S. and Caroline Bridges Smith. Paul had an older brother,

Stewart Charles Smith, and they both attended Olean High School.

Paul was a good athlete and played football and basketball

for OHS. He also stood high academically and was in the top 5% of his class of 1938.

The Smith had stables behind their Main Street house and a grazing field across Highland Parkway. One of Paul’s favorite experiences was saddling up the horses and riding most mornings before school in the countryside outside Olean with his father.

His father was in the Class of 1909 at Cornell and became a civil engineer working for the New York Central, which moved Charles and Caroline to Olean.

Charles and Caroline were from Pittsfield, Mass., and New Haven, Conn., respectively, and quickly began to love their new home in Olean. When NY Central proposed to move Charles to another location, he resigned and joined Pierce Engineering Company located off West State Street. Charles worked

hard and was able to purchase the company and lead it through the Great Depression and into financial success during the 1940s through 1960s.

His company worked closely with providers for the oil industry such as Clark Bros.

Paul had an interest in the Navy and his father encouraged him to join the Sea Scouts while in high school and reach for his dream.

Paul entered the U.S. Naval Academy, scheduled for graduation in May 1942. But Paul’s future was changed dramatically when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, moving his academy class to graduation early and reporting to the fleet.

As a young ensign, Paul originally served on the USS Stansbury, an old World War I destroyer that was assigned convoy protection in the North Atlantic. This assignment

was difficult for both the merchant ships and the destroyers fighting the severe weather and the German U-boats. He was assigned as Assistant Gunnery Officer and loved the responsibility.

On the Stansbury, Paul had an extraordinary experience while his ship participated in the landings in North Africa, providing escort and mine sweeping support for Gen. George Patton’s troops to Casablanca. Paul was in the room while Patton explained to his raw troops that during the amphibious landing, there would be plenty of fear, but no retreat.

DURING HIS SENIOR year

at Annapolis, Paul was able to entertain Jean Louise Sortore, daughter of Arthur E. and Marcia Clark Sortore of Belmont.

With the war in Europe and the Pacific and

naval officer ...continued on page 6

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Bradford Publishing Company

Only 19 WWII veterans still living in Allegany County

By Kathryn Ross

With Veteran’s Day at hand, there are few left in Allegany County with firsthand knowledge of the start of World War II in 1939 — and very few left who fought after the United States entered the war in December 1941.

According to the Allegany County Office of Veteran’s Services, there are only 19 veterans living Allegany County who served in the armed forces during World War II. The oldest of those, is Gerald Luckey of Fillmore, who is nearly 100 years old.

Luckey served in the U.S. Navy in aviation ordnance in the South Pacific.

He was among the nearly 18 million men and women from the U.S. who served in uni-

form from 1941 to 1945.

Statistically, according to the Veteran’s Administration, 73% of those veterans served overseas, spending approximately 16 months abroad for their first deployment. Out of every 1,000, 8.6% were killed in action while 17.7% received non-fatal wounds in combat.

And they certainly didn’t do it for the pay.

The average soldier received just $71 a month.

The VA lists that 407,316 were killed while 671,278 were wounded while serving in the Army and Army Air Forces, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

Of those who served, 10.5% were from New York state, or approximately 1,553,000, and 57% of those were from New York City.

The Painted Hills website lists the names

Photo provided During World War II, towns across the country listed the names of their sons and daughters in uniform. Wellsville’s sign was located on the lawn of the David A. Howe Library.

of 1,248 men and women from Allegany County who served in World War II. The U.S. Census pegs the population of Allegany County in 1940 at 39,681.

Statistics compiled

by Cornell University show that of the 1940 population, approximately 14,000 were between the ages of 14

Cuba man operated, repaired Army tanks Samuel F. Hadden, born in Duke Center, Pa., served in the U.S. Army from February 1953 to February 1955, stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

He learned how to operate and repair tanks and was sent to Fort Drum near Watertown, N.Y., to train the men stationed there.

After his discharge, he settled in Cuba where he still resides in the home he built. He is proud that he served his country and proudly displays the flag.

He repaired appliances and worked at a feed store in Cuba as well as at the Montgomery Ward store in Olean. Later, Samuel F. Hadden served in the 1950s he was a transport driver for the Amish at Fort Knox in Kentucky. community, driving until he was 80.

and 25 and over half were female.

In 2019, in a Saturday Evening Post article, it was written, “Over 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during World War II. These members of the military might be male or female. From any level of society. As young as 15 or as old as 72 serving anywhere from Greenland to New Guinea.

“But if you were the average frontline GI you would fit the following description. You are a 26-year-old, white male with nine years of education who comes from New York and is named John. You were drafted into the Army and are now a Rifleman in the Infantry with a rank of private. Back

home you have a wife and at least one child hoping for your return.

“You are 5 feet, 8 inches tall and you weigh 144 pounds.

During your basic training, which you received at Fort Benning, Ga. you gained 5 to 20 pounds and added an inch to your 33¼-inch chest.

“Before you were shipped out you were able to pass the Army Ground Forces test which involved a minimum number of push-ups, pull-ups, and a 70-yard run carrying a man of equal weight on your back, and a four-mile march in 50 minutes.

“During that march you would probably carry a full combat backpack which contains toiletries, socks,

and personal items.

You’d also wear a cartridge belt to which you’d have hooked your first aid kit with battle dressings, a bayonet, a canteen with mess kit and a collapsible shovel. Depending on your unit you might also carry a cargo pack that holds a two-man tent, tent pins, and blanket and you’d be wearing a helmet. Altogether it is 64 extra pounds you carry in the field plus your 10-pound, .30 caliber, semi-automatic Garand rifle.”

World War II in total lasted six years and one day.

Currently, statistics for Allegany County for the Korean War (19511953) and the Vietnam War (1965-1975) are unavailable.

naval officer continued from page 5

Paul at sea most of the time, their engagement was difficult for the young couple. At that time the military did not allow their youngest officers to marry during the first two years out of the academy or until they reached a “livable” wage. Fortunately, Congress removed that requirement and Jean and Paul were married with their family in attendance in Norfolk, Virginia, in a quick Fourth of July holiday, 1942.

In 1943, as the U.S. began to build its dramatic growth in new ships, Paul was reassigned to the latest design in destroyers, the Allen Sumner Class. He became a plankholder (first ship’s crew during the construction and commissioning) with the new crew for the USS Laffey, DD 724, being built in Bath, Maine.

With the ship’s commissioning Feb. 8, 1944, Lt. Paul Smith was eventually assigned as Gunnery Officer for this fast, powerful fighting ship. The first major deployment after shakedown cruises was to convoy merchant ships to Scotland and eventually participate in the Normandy landing on June 6, 1944.

AS THE WAR in Europe

pushed forward, the war in the Pacific was requiring tremendous investment in men, planes and ships. The Laffey headed for the Pacific, passing through the Panama Canal, and reached Pearl Harbor in September 1944.

By October they were in the war zone engaging the enemy in operations around the Philippines. By Thanksgiving 1944, the Laffey was resupplying at the harbor in Ulithi.

In a remarkable coincidence, Paul was able to celebrate Thanksgiving with his brother Stewart, an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard whose

Paul and Jean Smith were married during a Fourth of July holiday in 1942.

ship was also in Ulithi.

It was a special gift for his mother.

But by April 1945, the war had moved to Japanese home waters.

The Laffey was assigned the No. 1 Pickett Station and received the full brunt of the kamikaze attacks. Japanese records indicate that 165 planes took part in the attack that April 16, with a cloudless day.

Laffey fought death for 89 minutes that morning suffering horrendous injury. The ship and crew served with great honor and survived to help drive off the enemy while being badly damaged.

The Laffey received the Presidential Unit Citation while crew members received two Navy Crosses, six Silver Stars and 18 Bronze Stars.

Paul was awarded the Silver Star, “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Gunnery Officer of the USS LAFFEY in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Okinawa Area on April 16, 1945. When many of his ship’s guns were put out of action as a result of enemy air attacks, Lieutenant Smith skillfully split up the main batteries when necessary in order to fire on as many attacking planes as possible and, by his vigilance and skill, quickly spot-

ted and took the most dangerous targets under fire. By his keen perception and his ability to keep the guns firing, Lt. Smith contributed materially to the saving of his ship from probable destruction and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

The Laffey also served with honor in the Korean and Cold wars. She was decommissioned in March 1975, the last of the Sumner-class destroyers in Navy service.

With Paul’s assistance from an old shipmate from the Stansbury, Crawford Clarkson, she was transferred to Patriot’s Point as a museum ship. Her former crew members continue to assist in telling her extraordinary story.

Paul, with Jean, enjoyed a 38-year career in the Navy, retiring after serving as commanding officer, Ship Repair Facility, Guam, Marianas Islands. They elected to retire to Atlanta to be close to their four children, nine grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

Paul, always proud of his service, enjoyed a full life living until age 88. Jean continued in very good health, reaching 103 years surrounded by her family and friends.

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November 10, 2023

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Giordano recounts ‘proudest chapter’ of life

By Anthony Giordano

After graduating from Bradford High School in June of 1964, for the first time in my life, I felt some anxiety and I felt lost.

All of a sudden, there was no school to go to, no football or track practice! Like many, I had no prospects for college, with no money or way to go — so off I went to look for a job. I was 17, and I quickly realized no place would hire me, not even to sweep floors! My father was in the Navy, World War 2, and I wanted to go to medical school, so I thought perhaps I could join the Navy, be a Corpsman and see how much I liked it.

So down to Bradford I went. I joined the Navy — they had no problem taking me!

I went to my best buddy, Tom Eddy, and told him, and he joined with me (ended up in Vietnam also), along with another neighborhood friend. That was June of 1964.

We went to the bus terminal in Bradford,

Anthony Giordano

around midnight, up over the hill to Pittsburgh, heading to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, for boot camp.

That was a very fast maturing process! Most people have heard of that indoctrination, and most stories are true, very true.

I graduated from boot camp, then was sent to the USS HYADES AF-28, reefer ship (resupplies ships at sea), in Norfolk, Va., while waiting for a spot to open up at Navy Corpsman school back at Great Lakes Training Center (I hitchhiked from Norfolk to Bradford on weekends many times, in the winter, with very little problem, to see family). I

eventually returned to Hospital Corps school, graduated, and applied for specialist training in the operating room as an assistant. I was granted this school, and was assigned to St. Alban’s Naval Hospital, in Jamaica, Queens, NYC. I loved New York City, and went to Manhattan by myself every chance I got to see plays, musicals, and go to museums. It was wonderful, and to this day, I take my family there, along with my grandkids.

I spent many months there, training in the hospital — I was there during the famous blackout of NYC. The hospital was the major center for Navy thoracic surgery, with lots of open heart surgery there of course. There was a lot offered in all the surgical disciplines, OB/GYN, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic of course, orthopedic, and more. I witnessed many, many brave, terribly wounded warriors coming to us from Vietnam — and I volunteered for Vietnam, to be a rescue medic with the Marines, as, for some reason, I

just wanted to be more directly helping those hapless wounded fellow Americans. I wanted to be much more involved immediately.

Fortunately for me, the Navy sent me to a ship being refurbished from WW2.

Coincidentally, I served in the South Pacific, where my father served on PT boats decades earlier.

I served on the amazing 786 bed, USS SANCTUARY AH-17.

This assignment was a very lucky turn for me, for sure, very possibly saving my life. We spent a few months in New Orleans (where, coincidentally, again, decades earlier, the Navy also built PT boats, that my father would be on eventually in WW2) helping carry mattresses, and every type of equipment and supplies aboard the ship, before heading out to Vietnam in November 1966.

We coursed through the Panama Canal, up to San Diego, then to San Francisco, Hawaii, and arrived in Vietnam April 10, 1967. As soon as we arrived, all hell broke loose, receiving a dozen or so Marines, badly burned, when their tank-like vehicle hit incendiary devices.

We performed as expected, right from the start, as we all had practiced well, and treated those valiant Marines with the best technology and knowledge of the time.

While roaming along the coast of Vietnam, based in DaNang (Chu Lai, Phu Bai, Dong Ha, and other areas near DMZ and DaNang), we waited for those valiant, courageous Huey pilots and crews, to bring thousands of terribly wounded soldiers out to us. There were times two Hueys would land

Giordano in the operating room of the USS Sanctuary

on our Helo deck, designed for one chopper, due to necessity and urgent need for care for wounded.

One of my pictures submitted here is of me on that Helo deck, with our motto behind me ‘ YOU FIND ‘EM - WE BIND ‘EM - OPEN 24 HOURS’, and of course, we did, and we were.

We were the highest level of surgery existing, and did open heart surgery (took a bullet out of a young boy’s heart, just inside the pericardium), radical craniotomies (took a half a brain out of two badly wounded soldiers) rebuilt faces, reattached entire jaws, and just about any other type of horrific wounds and damage one could imagine — it was war.

We pioneered many procedures and instruments, while saving thousands of our brave and amazing servicemen and women. We also helped civilian children and women, and at one time, received this small blonde, female. We were very surprised, as of course this was very unusual — it was Catherine Leroy, who went on to be a nationally acclaimed and honored war photojournalist (well worth looking her up, amazing woman and story). She was one courageous, brave photographer, and was embedded with the Marines, and was full of shrapnel.

We patched her up, and she went right back to

the front lines, jumping out of planes with the Marines.

As I mentioned, my father was in the Navy in WW2 in PT boats, my brother Joe served in Vietnam and my grandfather was in WW1, and we had dozens of uncles and cousins in the military, recently, and going back to every war including and since, the Revolutionary War. So we are a proud military family, and very proud of our country (as imperfect as it is, like all) and proud to have served.

I joined under the ‘KIDDY CRUISE’ program, wherein you were promised discharge the day before you turned 21, which for me was in December of 1967. I was discharged in 1967, came home to Bradford and started University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Then I went to the main campus in Pittsburgh for pharmacy, on the GI Bill, wherein I received $133 a month for 36 months, which got me through pharmacy school.

I then eventually bought my own pharmacy in Kane, had it for over 35 years, and so far, am fortunate to be retired.

My short time in the Navy was and is one of the proudest chapters of my life, having been able to help so many of our heroes get back home and have a life and hopefully grow old.

GO NAVY!

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November 10, 2023

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Our veterans have always answered the call

By Arthur G. Austin Jr.

It has happened many times over our history.

In December 1776, it happened when members of the Rebel Continental Army were told to prep for a crossing across a freezing river during the Christmas holiday.

It happened after April 12, 1861, when members of the U.S. Army learned of an attack on a fort in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. There are testimonials and photos of New York’s own 369th Infantry during World War I in the turbulent times of a confused nation as they traveled on a slow ship to a foreign land called France.

It happened with millions of Americans who rushed to arms as the Christmas season grew near after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

I am sure the feel-

Arthur G. Austin Jr. of Cuba is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army. He is highly active in programs and activities supporting U.S. military veterans in the Twin Tiers.

ings and climate were the same as Americans learned of the North Korean People’s Army invading South Korea on June 25, 1950. The families of the 3,500 Marines who were prepping to land ashore in a little-known place called Da Nang surely felt the stress and anguish of the unknown in March of 1965.

I can attest to those feelings of stress and the effects on family and service members following the incursion into a small country known as Kuwait by the Iraqi Army, with my own orders to prepare for deployment on Dec. 6, 1990.

This Veterans Day, service members and their families have been

uprooted and scattered across the globe due to the aggressions of the Russian army. And as I write this, preparatory deployment orders are being issued to service members as we look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday due to the recent incidents in Israel.

To our veterans and their families, thank you for being among the 1% of this nation’s population who are serving and who have served.

Your service, however, isn’t over. Only you and your family really know what those feelings and experiences are like during times like these.

Given the opportunity, share … share what it is like to face a potentially hostile unknown future while others are squabbling over whether to cook ham or turkey for the upcoming holiday.

Be there for those you know who are facing this experience for the first time.

Be a voice for them,

a voice for those who have never taken up arms in defense of this country, for those who are charged with preparing those orders for equipping, manning and deployment. Do what you can to ensure they have what they need when they need it, and support those left behind to keep their households intact.

Above all, be there once they return and remember them during future Veterans Day observances since not all are willing or capable of serving. Without those who do there is no America, there is no land of freedom.

I was there during the initiation of withdrawal of troops in Saudi Arabia in 1991 and again in Iraq in 2009. It is difficult to hear of a fractured nation when you are still in the full grip of a mission in service to your country.

Those who served and fought during the Vietnam War know this all

too well. It haunts me personally to think of those 13 service members in Afghanistan who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country on Aug. 26, 2021, during that infamous withdrawal.

Be mindful as you observe this Veterans Day that the United States is represented by every nook, every hamlet, city, town, and village large and small.

Women and men and their families have served and sacrificed.

They continue to serve and deserve to be recognized for their selfless service to this great nation. Our fight for freedom isn’t over; it is not guaranteed. Through those for whom we’ve set aside this National Day of observance we continue to reap the benefits of voting, gathering and independence of thought.

Honor them today and keep them in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.

Olean man served in WWII Marine air wing in Pacific About 15 years ago, Albert D. Cecchi, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of World War II, spoke to his grandson’s class at school about his experiences.

Cecchi’s daughter, Tina Stetz of Olean, shared some of that narrative to honor her father, who passed away in 2014, and his service.

After graduating from Olean High School in 1942, Cecchi joined the Marines and went through boot camp near San Diego. He received gunnery and ordnance training in Oklahoma and then returned to California in preparation for heading out to the Pacific with the Marine Corps 4th Air Wing in December 1943.

In the South Pacific the air wing provided air support to the Marine ground troops as they drove the Japanese

back toward Japan.

“Our main goal was to maintain air control throughout the area, which we were able to do. The ground troops were involved in major battles as they conquered the islands of Tarawa and Iwo Jima.”

The 4th Air Wing’s bases of operations started in the Ellis Islands group, and then the Marshalls and Marianas island groups. The group consisted of single-seat fighter planes — the Marines’ famous gull-winged F4U Corsair — and two-seater Douglas Dauntless dive bombers.

“As the gunner in the two-seat bomber, I was required to be in the air 15 hours a month to qualify for flight pay.

Our duty was to canvass the smaller islands and strafe or bomb it if Japanese soldiers were spotted. As crew chief

Albert D. Cecchi (far right) is shown with fellow U.S. Marine flight crew members in front of an F4U Corsair fighter on a Pacific island base during World War II.

(Cecchi rose to the rank of sergeant during his service) I was also responsible for the care of three Corsairs and three bombers.

“It was always sad when individuals were wounded or when planes failed to return from a mission.”

Cecchi noted that

after the two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese mainland late in the war in 1945, Japan surrendered, “saving the lives of many American Marines and sailors. ...

It was sad that so many Japanese civilians, including women and children, were killed,

disfigured or crippled.

This was a price innocent Japanese people had to pay for their leaders’ deadly attack on Pearl Harbor.”

Never wounded during his service in the Pacific, Cecchi returned to Olean and, courtesy of the G.I. Bill, earned a degree in accounting

from St. Bonaventure University. On Sept. 15, 1951, he married his beloved wife of 62 years, Virginia Cooley.

Also in 1951, he purchased a one-third interest in the Irwin Trosch News Agency, where he had worked while attending college.

He purchased the remaining interest in the company in 1952 and the name was changed to Al Cecchi News Service.

Over the years, he acquired similar businesses in Bradford, Salamanca and Hornell and the overall business was renamed Cecchi News Agency Inc., which he operated until 1997, when he sold it.

He was also an enthusiastic supporter of St. Bonaventure University and he was an active, dedicated community servant.

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November 10, 2023

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Olean father and son served in the Navy A father and a son from Olean both served in the U.S. Navy — the father during World War II and the son during the Vietnam War. Frank Jester Sr. was a gunner’s mate on a landing ship (LST 683) in the Pacific during WWII. One of the duties he and his shipmates had was to search various islands for remnants of Japanese units and their supplies.

He brought home a Japanese flag that was taken from one of the islands — it was signed by his fellow sailors and the flag is still folded in a box and kept by the Jester family.

LT 683 also landed in Japan after the two atomic bombs were dropped to bring an end to the war — Jester and his shipmates saw evidence of the destruction that was wrought.

His family said that,

Dec. 17, 1925 - Oct. 8, 2020

Photo provided Joseph Leo, U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 crew member, is on the far left in the back row.

Frank Jester

like other WWII veterans, he did not speak much of what he had experienced. He had facial scars, the result of an air attack on the ship, and he never discussed it.

He told his family after his time in the service that he vowed never to get on another boat or ship.

Jester moved to Olean in 1945 and he worked at Alcas. He married Mary Chonchilla.

Their son, Frank S.

Joseph Leo, World War II veteran

Frank S. Jester served as a U.S. Navy jet aircraft mechanic during the Vietnam War.

Jester, was born and raised in Olean, graduating from Olean High School in 1965. He went right into the Navy after graduation.

He served as a jet aircraft mechanic at the naval air station in Meridian, Miss., during the Vietnam War. His wife, Glenda Jester, said that

one of his duties was safety inspections on jets to determine if they should fly — he said pilots were not happy when he grounded them for an oil leak.

Many of the aircraft were going to or coming from the combat theater in Vietnam.

Jester returned to Olean after his service and worked for several auto dealers in the area. He was a hot rod enthusiast and was a founder of the Street Master car club. He passed away in January.

Joseph Leo grew up in Oneida and was 18 when he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. In 1944, he was sent to Fort Dix in New Jersey for induction. His aptitude test showed he was a good typist, and they were going to keep him at Fort Dix during the war.

“I said, ‘Sir, what am I going to tell my grandchildren? I fought the war in Fort Dix?’ Wrong thing to say. The officer looked at me and I can still feel his eyes boring right through me.

He said, ‘Soldier, you’re in this army to do what you’re told.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ I said, ‘but I’d prefer to fly.’”

A few nights later, Leo was marched to the

train station. “We were almost to Texas before I knew where we were going — the Air Force. I think that officer did it.

He saw my enthusiasm.

And I ended up in the Air Force,” remembered Leo. Leo was then sent to Las Vegas, Nevada, for gunnery school, and then to Florida where he was assigned to a 10man crew. In Savannah, Georgia, the crew picked up a brand new B-17 and headed overseas.

They were stationed in Eye, England.

Leo was a B-17 waist gunner with the 490th Bomb Group. He recalled a hazardous bomb run in overcast weather.

Joseph Leo ...continued on page 13

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November 10, 2023

Five Lockwood siblings from Cuba served in WWII CUBA — There was a Cuba family who sent five siblings to serve during World War II: Hugh Deforest Lockwood, Archie Darrel Lockwood, Ray Jerry Lockwood, David Arthur Lockwood and June Elizabeth Lockwood.

They were five of eight children of Arthur Monroe “Pete” and Elizabeth Harriet Bemis Lockwood.

Other siblings included Bernice, Jack and Virginia, whose husband, Lester Mills, also served during the war.

The children grew up in Ceres, where the family lived with Dr. Hamilton in his large house across from Faulkner’s Fruit Stand. The house still stands today, but the small barn out back, which was built by Pete, has not weathered as well.

Mom Lockwood was known for the “fried cakes” (doughnuts) she made, and dad worked for the Bolivar Glycerin Company as a nitro-truck driver. He also had his own well clean-out service before suffering severe injuries in a work-related accidental fall and later took his own life.

By the late 1930s the family was living at 25 Bristol St. in Cuba. They were a typical rural family. According to a letter written by Elizabeth they raised cows, pigs, chickens, and owned a work horse.

surrounding his job, whenever a family member died, and Jerry traveled home to attend the funeral, he needed documented proof of where he had been.

• David Arthur Lockwood,

Photo provided Five Lockwood siblings of Cuba served in the U.S. military during World War II. They are (from left) Archie, Ray, June, David and Ned.

Dave had a coon dog, and when raccoon hides were worth the money, they hunted them. The family grew their own hay and potatoes.

THE LOOKWOODS’ SERVICE • Hugh “Ned” Deforest Lockwood, born June

18, 1910, served both in the U.S. Army and the Air Force, serving a total of seven years.

He previously had served in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Niagara Falls as a camp cook.

Ned was employed by the village of Cuba, and Cuba Dairies for most of his life. He lived in his parent’s home on Bristol Street his entire life. Ned died on Jan. 13, 1999, in the College Park Health Center in Houghton.

• Archie Darrel Lockwood was born

Oct. 23, 1914. He married Mary Olive Preble on Aug. 24, 1939, in the Palace Theater in Olean. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in June 1943.

The couple never had children. Archie worked for many years for Courier Express as a rural delivery man, and was a self-employed carpenter and waterwell driller by trade, using his dad’s previous oil field equipment.

Prior to his military service, he was also at the CCC camp at Niagara Falls. He actually worked at doing a lot of the stone work at Letchworth State Park.

Archie died on February 18, 1977, and is buried in the Black Creek Cemetery.

Joseph Leo continued from page 12

On that mission they were flying what they called, “tail-end Charlie”. When extra planes were available, they would send another plane up which flew nearly outside the formation.

“One of the other planes aborted the mission. He had to go back, engine problem or something. We took his place but we had to get all the way across the formation.

So we worked our way through the planes … the overcast got higher and higher and the planes got more buried in the fog. Two planes collided in front of us.

Of course it happened so fast that I didn’t see it. I was looking out the side window.

Our pilot pulled the

plane up, and he could have hit another plane himself. Our navigator set a course south, hoping to get down into France so that we could land there. We came out over Frankfurt, Germany and the sun was shining. They didn’t shoot at us. That meant that they probably were going to send some fighters up to get us. But they didn’t, and I don’t know why because we were dead ducks all by ourselves over Frankfurt. So, we got over into France and found a field, but we didn’t have to land.

They sent us back to England. They already had us reported as one of the planes that collided.”

Towards the end of the war, the Ameri-

cans made a truce with Germany in which they were allowed to drop food to starving civilians in Holland.

“They would let us do it but they couldn’t guarantee us that all the troops had got the message, because communications were very bad with the Germans,” said Leo. “We had to fly with our bomb bay doors open and wheels down. We were told to fly between 50 and 100 feet, and not to hold a formation. We filled our bomb bay with food and dropped it behind the lines.”

Leo flew a total of 15 missions during WWII. He later moved to Portville, New York, where he and his wife, Betty, raised their two children.

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• Ray Jerry Lockwood,

born Dec. 21, 1917, enlisted in the New York Army National Guard in September 1940. He married Lois Elizabeth Gill on Jan. 3, 1944, in Buffalo and they moved to Imperial Beach, California, where they had four children.

Ray worked building electronic components for NASA’s space program at Lockheed in California. At one point, he worked on the solar panels for the space shuttle.

Because of the high level of security

born Nov. 18, 1924, was the only sibling who didn’t make it home from the war — he died Jan. 7, 1945, in the Battle of the Bulge, fighting as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, and is buried in the Luxembourg Cemetery in France.

A fellow paratrooper from Rochester recalled how David, 20, volunteered to join a squad attacking two machine gun nests and was killed in the assault. “He was fearless, a true soldier, and well-liked by his men,” the man recalled.

The Lockwoods’ mother died on Jan. 30, 1945 in Cuba, as a result from a surgical mishap, never having known that her youngest son had been killed.

• June Elizabeth Lockwood, born on

May 21, 1922, joined the Woman’s Army Corps and served during the war as a medical technician.

She married John D. Wilson, a U.S. Navy veteran of the war, on June 20, 1947, Cuba. She had been employed at Curtis Wright of Cheektowaga, where she lived in the parking lot in her Airstream trailer, and where she got the nickname of “June Bug.” She also worked at Acme Electric Corporation of Cuba, where she played the cymbals in their company marching band; and Motorola of Arcade.

She had also helped operate Beechwood Campground in Cuba with her husband for several years.

June died on Feb. 12, 2007, at the age of 84, in Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, and was buried in her military uniform, as she had requested.

She is buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Cuba.

Weis served in World War II Leo B. “Bunky” Weis was a radioman-gunner in TBF and TBM torpedo planes in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. His group was on the USS Wake Island until that ship was sunk by Japanese suicide bombers.

After that he was aboard the USS Marcus Island.

Both of these ships were small escort carriers, giving air support to Marines and attacking Japanese shipping.

He flew 73 combat strikes in the two-man plane, with a pilot and radioman-gunner and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, seven Air Medals, the Pacific Theater Ribbon and three battle stars and two Unit Citations. His unit took part in the battles of the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

His sister, Joanne Weis Gerg, said his plane was shot down twice and

he bailed out and was picked out of the ocean. He was assigned another plane and it was back into the “wild blue sky.”

He passed away in March 2003.

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November 10, 2023

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