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Alabama’s Jalen Hurts announces transfer to Oklahoma
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January 17, 2019 Vol. 127, No. 12 www.alexcityoutlook.com 75¢
Great Bethel to receive deposited funds By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Great Bethel Missionary Baptist will receive $24,000 deposited by former pastor Emerson Ware Jr., Shirley Shelton and Annette Walker at Heritage South Credit Union since April 2018, a circuit judge ruled Wednesday. The credit union had frozen the account and asked the courts to decide the rightful owner after the board of
directors of Great Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Inc. contacted the bank about the funds. Attorneys for the board and Ware came before Fifth Circuit Judge Ray Martin Wednesday on the matter. Jason Jackson, an attorney representing Ware, filed an answer stating Ware was not against the board getting the money. “…Emerson Ware, Jr. …states he has no opposition to all money currently
The board of Great Bethel and Ware have been at odds for years and the board filed suit seeking control and the return of monies the board said Ware owed the church. In July, Martin ruled the board was to operate Great Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Inc., but issued no ruling on the more than $100,000 the board was asking for in misused funds. In September, Martin ruled Ware owed the church more than See BETHEL • Page 3
held in the subject account with Heritage South Credit Union being turned over to Great Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Inc.,” the court filing by Jackson reads. Martin said Wednesday from the bench he would sign off on it since the parties agreed. Shelton and Walker did not file an answer to the credit union’s request for the court to determine a rightful owner of the funds and a default judgment will be entered for them.
‘Kill or be killed’ Ricky Geter recalls being wounded and shooting a North Vietnamese soldier who was about to shoot him By RON COLQUITT For The Outlook
L
ike most teenage boys of his generation, Ricky Geter said he didn’t start worrying about being drafted and sent to Vietnam until he was a junior at Benjamin Russell. “All I was interested in was getting out of high school and going to work,” said Geter, who is now 70 and managed to kill an enemy soldier moments after being severely wounded, earning the Purple Heart. “We were just there to kill or be killed, basically that was it,” he said. When he got his draft notice at age 19, Geter joined the Marine Corps in late 1967, figuring his chance of survival in combat was greater in a proven fighting force. He was shipped to South Vietnam during the summer of 1968, landing in Da Nang. Although a little uneasy at first, Geter said he wasn’t afraid, although he noticed the veterans looked much older than they should. “We all stepped off the C-130 (cargo plane) in starched, fatigue uniforms,” Geter said. “Everybody that was walking around that we saw were probably our age. But they looked like they were 40 years old. You could see the hollowness in their faces. They were all leaving to come back to the States and you
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could see that they had had a rough time.” When Geter went into country, he learned why they looked that way. “Some days you wished you were dead just to get out of there,” he said. Geter vividly remembers the unusual smells when he arrived. “The first thing I remember when getting off the plane was the smell of diesel fuel, jet fuel and just the smell of human feces, I guess that was what it was because there were outhouses everywhere,” he recalled. “At that time I didn’t know what napalm and bombs and blood smelled like. But it wasn’t but a few days later that the smell was in the air, too.” Geter said he and the other Marines he arrived with were taken to a big canvas tent equipped with small canvas cots. “Laying there that first night, I heard the sound of machine guns in the distance and bombs going off,” he said. “That was when I first realized I was there.” The next morning, he and other Marines were taken by helicopter to what was considered a secure base about 30 miles outside Da Nang. See GETER • Page 5
Ron Colquitt / For The Outlook
Ricky Geter, a Benjamin Russell graduate, earned a Purple Heart in the Vietnam War.
Howell quickly takes on duties as Coosa sheriff
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By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
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Submitted / The Outlook
Michael Howell quickly went to work on his first day on the job as Coosa County sheriff Tuesday. “I was registering sex offenders on the first day,” Howell said. “They were already scheduled to come in like normal.” The registration is one of several things Howell is learning about as he sets his freshly painted office but had help from his predecessor, retired sheriff Terry Wilson for help and advice. “He left this department in great shape,” Howell said. “He has really helped in the last few weeks in transitioning. I am learning about serving civil papers, pistol permits and more. I knew about a lot of it but not necessarily how it all actually happens. I will get there – it will just take a little time.” Howell is also learning more about the court system since his office is involved in court security and both criminal and civil courts It was Wilson who helped Howell get a start in law
Coosa County Sheriff Michael Howell, left, pins a badge to deputy Sheldon Hutcherson.
See SHERIFF • Page 9
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