Veterans Day 2012
4
VETERANS DAY Editor: Ben Cunningham, [email protected], 256-235-3541 • Sunday, November 11, 2012 • Page 1G The Anniston Star Xxxxx Please see TURNER ❙ Page 2G BY CAMERON STEELE [email protected] IRON CITY — Frank Turner never saw combat during his World War II service, but the 94-year-old willingly did his part when he was drafted and shipped abroad all those years ago. Using the mechanical skills he’d cultivated at the Anniston Army Depot, Turner helped to maintain runways for the American planes that flew in and out of the Tinian Island airfields from 1944 to 1946. Turner reflects on time in the Pacific BY PAIGE RENTZ [email protected] JACKSONVILLE — Ben Tomlinson has always pushed himself to be bet- ter, stronger, faster. His approach to life hasn’t changed since he returned from Afghanistan last year, a second Purple Heart in hand. Tomlinson, who was paralyzed from the bottom of his chest down after taking a bullet to the neck on an Afghan rooftop, has made enor- mous strides since he’s been stateside, first for eight months in a Tampa vet- erans’ hospital, and now at home in Jacksonville. “I’m always trying to do something to make progress,” the 24-year-old Marine said last week. “I guess that’s just from the attitude I’ve always had.” Tomlinson was welcomed home in January by crowds of locals lining the highway from Oxford all the way to the Jacksonville Public Square in a grand display of gratitude and support. Since then, he has settled back into his par- ents’ home and a routine of activities to improve his condition. He’s looking into going back to school in spring or summer, possibly to pursue a career in finance. A self-described gym rat, Tomlin- son worked hard to be in peak physical condition as an athlete long before he was forced to in the military. He played multiple sports at Jacksonville High School and had a brief stint as a football player at Mississippi College before deciding it wasn’t the path for him. The back portion of the Tomlinson home, converted into a kind of apart- ment for Ben, functions as a manifes- tation of these two aspects of his life. Upon entering the back room from the ramp outside, visitors are inun- dated with sports: ESPN plays on a flat screen television hanging in front of the door. Alabama football memora- bilia — posters, quilts, signed jerseys — surrounds the TV and overruns an adjoining wall. Across the room hang Tomlinson’s pair of Purple Heart commendations. Along the hall leading to his bedroom hangs a hand-made sign from Kitty Stone Elementary School students welcoming their hometown hero back from war. Tomlinson initially chose the Marines because he felt they had a reputation of being the toughest of the military branches. “I wanted to be the baddest dude, get that sort of respect from people,” he said. He joined the elite Amphibi- ous Reconnaissance Marines because he wanted tough missions and service that was “something I’d feel good Please see TOMLINSON ❙ Page 3G Tomlinson adjusts to life after injury MEET THE CO-GRAND MARSHALS OF THIS YEAR’S VETERANS DAY PARADE Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star Ben Tomlinson was paralyzed from the bottom of his chest down after being struck by a bullet during his deployment in Afghanistan. Since returning to his home in Jacksonville, he has made enormous progress. Tomlinson joins World War II veteran Frank Turner as co-grand marshal of this year’s Veterans Day parade. Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star Tomlinson recently hit a milestone in his recovery when he bench- pressed 100 pounds — less than a third of what he once could. Trent Penny/The Anniston Star Frank Turner worked out of the Tinian Island airfields during his service in World War II. AFGHANISTAN WORLD WAR II Veterans Day calendar Salute to Veterans INSIDE VETERANS DAY Ceremony, parade, memorabilia exhibit SEE PAGE 2G Readers share memories of their days in uniform SEE PAGE 8E INSIDE LIFE & ARTS
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Transcript of Veterans Day 2012
VETERANS DAYEditor: Ben Cunningham, [email protected], 256-235-3541 • Sunday, November 11, 2012 • Page 1G
The Anniston Star
Xxxxx
Please see TURNER ❙ Page 2G
BY CAMERON [email protected]
IRON CITY — Frank Turner never saw combat during his World War II service, but the 94-year-old willingly did his part when he was drafted and shipped abroad all those years ago.
Using the mechanical skills he’d cultivated at the Anniston Army Depot, Turner helped to maintain runways for the American planes that flew in and out of the Tinian Island airfields from 1944 to 1946.
Turner reflects on time in the
PacificBY PAIGE RENTZ
JACKSONVILLE — Ben Tomlinson has always pushed himself to be bet-ter, stronger, faster. His approach to life hasn’t changed since he returned from Afghanistan last year, a second Purple Heart in hand.
Tomlinson, who was paralyzed from the bottom of his chest down after taking a bullet to the neck on an Afghan rooftop, has made enor-mous strides since he’s been stateside, first for eight months in a Tampa vet-erans’ hospital, and now at home in Jacksonville.
“I’m always trying to do something to make progress,” the 24-year-old Marine said last week. “I guess that’s just from the attitude I’ve always had.”
Tomlinson was welcomed home in January by crowds of locals lining the highway from Oxford all the way to the Jacksonville Public Square in a grand display of gratitude and support. Since then, he has settled back into his par-ents’ home and a routine of activities to improve his condition. He’s looking into going back to school in spring or summer, possibly to pursue a career in finance.
A self-described gym rat, Tomlin-son worked hard to be in peak physical condition as an athlete long before he was forced to in the military. He played multiple sports at Jacksonville High School and had a brief stint as a
football player at Mississippi College before deciding it wasn’t the path for him.
The back portion of the Tomlinson home, converted into a kind of apart-ment for Ben, functions as a manifes-tation of these two aspects of his life.
Upon entering the back room from the ramp outside, visitors are inun-dated with sports: ESPN plays on a flat screen television hanging in front of the door. Alabama football memora-bilia — posters, quilts, signed jerseys — surrounds the TV and overruns an adjoining wall.
Across the room hang Tomlinson’s pair of Purple Heart commendations.
Along the hall leading to his bedroom hangs a hand-made sign from Kitty Stone Elementary School students welcoming their hometown hero back from war.
Tomlinson initially chose the Marines because he felt they had a reputation of being the toughest of the military branches.
“I wanted to be the baddest dude, get that sort of respect from people,” he said. He joined the elite Amphibi-ous Reconnaissance Marines because he wanted tough missions and service that was “something I’d feel good
Please see TOMLINSON ❙ Page 3G
Tomlinson adjusts
to life after injury
MEET THE CO-GRAND MARSHALS OF THIS YEAR’S VETERANS DAY PARADE
Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Ben Tomlinson was paralyzed from the bottom of his chest down after being struck by a bullet during his deployment in Afghanistan. Since returning to his home in Jacksonville, he has made enormous progress. Tomlinson joins World War II veteran Frank Turner as co-grand marshal of this year’s Veterans Day parade.
Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Tomlinson recently hit a milestone in his recovery when he bench-pressed 100 pounds — less than a third of what he once could.
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
Frank Turner worked out of the Tinian Island airfields during his service in World War II.
AFGHANISTAN WORLD WAR II
Veterans Day calendar
Salute to Veterans
I N S I D E V E T E R A N S D AY
Ceremony, parade, memorabilia exhibitSEE PAGE 2G
Readers share memories of their days in uniform
SEE PAGE 8E
I N S I D E L I F E & A R T S
Page 2G Sunday, November 11, 2012 The Anniston Star VETERANS DAY
The White Plains High School graduate often worked seven days a week while stationed at the five-mile-wide, 10-mile-long swath of land in the Pacific Ocean. He operated the generators at the airfields, a vital launch-point for the bombers that repeatedly attacked Japan.
“The hardest part was not being home, I guess. Not being with fam-ily,” Turner said in a recent interview, remembering his WWII years from his Iron City home.
Turner’s thoughtfulness, loyalty to his country and to his Calhoun Coun-ty home are easily conveyed through conversation. His war stories focus on the pride he felt for his fellow sol-diers, those working alongside him at the island airfields and the others in combat on foreign soil. When he does talk about himself, it’s mainly in the context of family, the people he loved and left behind for a couple of years.
“I didn’t want them to worry,” Turner said. “And I was very proud; proud that we were able to win the war and that I met so many good people.”
Today, Turner’s friends, family and fellow Calhoun County residents will have the chance to express their pride in him. The veteran has been chosen as one of the co-grand marshals of the annual Veterans Day Parade on Noble Street in Anniston.
“We were looking for people who had had honorable service, but we did not necessarily need someone who was a battlefield hero with a chest full of medals,” said event orga-nizer Mike Abrams. “He did serve honorably far from home, on Tinian Island in the Pacific. He did his job diligently, did it well.”
The son of a farmer and his wife, Turner started work at the Annis-ton Army Depot in 1937, right after graduating from White Plains High School.
He was the 101st mechanic to be hired at the fledgling installation, daughter Lynn McComb said. He worked on tracked and amphibious vehicles.
In 1942, the Army drafted Turner and he bounced around the country, spending time in basic training in Oregon and then in Oklahoma and Kansas as part of the 358th Air Ser-vice Group.
Turner found training difficult but friendship easy, even when a massive storm on the way over to Tinian caused everyone on the ship to get seasick.
“It was rough as everything,” Turner said, laughing at the recol-lection. “They say you get too sick to die.”
Finally, after 37 days at sea, Turn-er and shipmates made it to Tinian. They spent the first several months living in tents pitched in fields, get-ting used to the extreme heat and rain and humidity. They were there
to make sure the B-29 bombers had a safe place to land and to take take off from between attacks on Japan.
Turner, then in his mid-20s, wrote home regularly to his sister. In the few quiet moments he had, the let-ters show, his mind was at home — on his family in Alexandria and Choccolocco Valley, his new baby niece Sandra, his worried mother, the neighbor’s garden.
“I think the mud here is worse than it is in the Alexandria Valley,” Turner exclaimed in a letter to his sister Alma, dated Jan. 19, 1945.
Later that year, after proudly showing photos of his niece to fellow soldiers, he wrote: “Tell Sandra the boys here said she sure was cute.”
Days after a Christmas dinner in the Tinian mess hall, to assuage his mother’s fears, he wrote: “I don’t even carry a gun with me here.”
No, but he did maintain the run-ways that the Enola Gay bomber took off from, carrying her atomic bomb “Little Boy” to wreak havoc on Hiroshima. He didn’t know it at the time, Turner said, didn’t even “know the word ‘atomic bomb’ until after it was dropped.”
But after the Hiroshima attack, Turner remembered, he ran into the barracks, woke his sleeping friends.
“I told them the war was over,” he said, grinning.
Flipping through a scrapbook of those old letters he wrote to Alma, he said:
“I was glad to come home. I was glad to get back to the states.”
Assistant Metro Editor Cameron Steele: 256-235-3560. On Twitter @Csteele_star.
Staff Writer Paige Rentz contrib-uted to this story.
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TURNERContinued from Page 1G
Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
In 1942, the Army drafted Turner and he bounced around the country, spending time in basic training in Oregon and then in Oklahoma and Kansas as part of the 358th Air Service Group.
TODAY
Ceremony: The Vietnam Veterans America and Disabled Veterans of Amer-ica will host a ceremony at Centennial Memorial Park in Anniston. The service will begin at 11 a.m. and will feature a 21-gun salute and memorial for fallen com-rades. Singer Steve Chappell will be on hand to sing patriotic songs. Ken Rollins, who organized the ceremony, explained why it needs to happen on Sunday, even if that means being absent from church. “We celebrate Veterans Day at 11 o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month to remember Armistice Day. We’ll be honoring God and country that day and I feel that God will forgive us for missing church,” said Rollins.
Parade: The annual Veterans Day Parade in Anniston will begin at 2 p.m. today. The parade route starts at 15th and Noble Street and will feature two local veterans as co-grand marshals. World War II veteran Frank M. Turner Sr. and Afghanistan War veteran Ben Tomlinson were selected to lead the parade by the Calhoun County Veterans Organization.
The parade will honor veterans from all wars and military branches.
MONDAY
Memorabilia room opens: NHC Place in Anniston will unveil a new room of veterans’ memorabilia at 2 p.m. Mon-day. Through donations from veterans’ families and outposts, the assisted living center has turned an unused library room into an archive of information about past wars. There will be a ribbon cutting cer-emony by the veterans who reside there, and then the room will be open to the public.
Free dinner: Golden Corral in Oxford will host a free dinner to thank veterans from 4-9 p.m. Monday. The Disabled American Veterans is hosting and is expecting more than 4,000 people to attend. All veterans are welcome for a free meal; donations will be accepted to sup-port the local DAV chapters.
Veterans eat free: Veterans and active duty military eat free on Monday at Jeffer-son’s in Jacksonville.
Calendar of Veterans Day events
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The Anniston Star Sunday, November 11, 2012 Page 3GVETERANS DAY3G
131 West 11th Street • Anniston, AL(256) 236-3429 • www.awwsb.org
Anniston Water Works & Sewer Board
Proud of the past, prepared for the future.
BOOM1st Annual
FREE Veteran Hearing Screening
November 12, 20128:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Genta Medical ClinicDr. John O. Brown
1460 1st Avenue SW • Jacksonville, AL
GRIZZARD LIVING AIDSIMPROVING LIVES THROUGH BETTER MOBILITY
Terry GrizzardOwner
Offi ce: 256.237.2006Fax: 256.231.4528
1227 Noble Street, Anniston, AL 36201
TOMLINSONContinued from Page 1G
Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Ben Tomlinson received a Recon Marine paddle for his service in Afghanistan.
Photos by Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
TOP: Thousands turned out for Tomlinson’s return to Jacksonville in January, including Kim Oliver, left, and some of her students from Kitty Stone Elemen-tary. ABOVE: Calhoun County commissioner and fellow Marine Eli Henderson, left, celebrates Tomlinson while speaking to attendees.
about, something I’d be proud of.”Tomlinson’s work ethic has paid off as
he toils to regain some of his strength and adapt to his injury.
“He has come so far from where he was when he came home,” said his mother, Debbie Tomlinson. Immediately after his injury, from May until July of 2011, the first step of his recovery was just getting him to breathe on his own, she said.
Now his days are filled with various types of training, whether it’s strength training, physical therapy or using one of the many machines designed to help strengthen the muscles he can no longer control.
His tenacity has had to be tempered a bit, as doctors have told him that rest is just as important for his recovery as strength-ening his triceps or building endurance. And though Tomlinson said he doesn’t like to use his electric wheelchair because it makes him feel lazy, it can stand him up, something that is good for the muscles and bones in his legs.
As he has improved, Tomlinson has returned to sports, joining a wheelchair rugby team in Homewood.
“Bumper cars with a ball,” as he calls it, takes up about two nights a week for Tom-linson and his father, Chuck, who has been learning to act as a sort of a one-man rugby wheelchair pit crew.
Tomlinson readily shows off his sport-ing chair, an intimidating piece of machin-ery: The seat is low for balance; a pair of solid, slanting wheels are primed for col-lision; a metal cage protects his feet from similar machines.
Despite his progress, working so hard to achieve goals that were once easy can be mentally stressful for Tomlinson.
He recently hit a big milestone in his recovery when he bench-pressed 100 pounds — less than a third of what he once could.
Debbie Tomlinson said her son didn’t get to visit his family too often when he was stationed at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, but when he did, exercising was still a high priority.
“When Ben would come home,” she said, “he’d put a 50-pound ruck on his back and go run up the mountain.”
Tomlinson’s fitness proved to be crucial as he undertook the tough missions he had expected of a Recon Marine, sleeping most nights out in the elements when he was deployed.
Before he suffered the injury that sent him home, a mortar exploded near Tom-linson during his first deployment and sent shrapnel flying into his arm, neck and face. The wounds in his arm required surgery and caused extremely painful nerve dam-age. “Now you look back and say, ‘Wow, that was nothing,’” he said.
The sacrifices Tomlinson made in Afghanistan are once again being honored, as he has been named one of two grand marshals for Anniston’s Veterans Day parade, which will be held at 2 p.m. today.
Tomlinson finds great meaning in the honor.
“Whatever the cause is for us to be fighting for what the country believes in, there’s so many people who believe in that around here,” he said. “Just coming out and screaming and waving flags — they don’t have to do that.”
Staff Writer Paige Rentz: 256-235-3564. On Twitter @PRentz_Star.
Add someSPICE to your life
FOOD in Wednesday’s Anniston Star
The Anniston Star
SUNDAY RECORD
Your guide to Calhoun County’s public records
and vital statistics.
The Star’sON TWITTERFOLLOW THE NEWS ANNISTONSTAR
AnnistonStar.com
Page 4G Sunday, November 11, 2012 The Anniston Star VETERANS DAY4G4G
322 Nisbet Street NWJacksonville, AL • Call 256-435-7042
Lynn Paul James
Richard E. Linscott
Odis H. Brown
Alvin B. Owens
William Eddie Farmer
Olan Kennyon Wills
Huse Erwin
Betty L. Adams
William Benson Harrelson
James Edwin Shelton
Benjamin Paul Matheny
Allen Clifton Shelton, Jr.
Marie Ann Lee
Fred Hugh Casey
Mathew Alexander Blount
Donald Wilkerson
James Clyde Johnson
Dale Edward Doyle
Andrew Lee Erwin
Darlene M. McGatha
Leroy Austin, Sr.
Daniel Eric Madden
Jesse Eugene Pritchett
Winsel Jerry Penny
Frederick S. Pickett
Wallace Beuttler
Ernest E. Valine
Roger Lee Moore
Harry Rankin Barnwell
Douglas Ray Huddleston
Aretus Thompson
Donald E. Beck
Willie Eugene Holley
Paul Eugene Boozer
Michael Joe Liner
Marion Miller Monk
Jimmy Randall Boozer
William Stacey
Sidney J. Green
William Russell Robinson
George L. Egbert, Jr.
Thomas L. McMinn, Jr.
J. C. Carter, Jr.
LeRoy Vaughan
Richard E. Hardy
Gerald Arthur DeBoy, Jr.
James Clayton Parris
Charles Emory Creel
Odie Ray Wise
Benjamin Garfi eld Shelnutt
END3 Don Mohon
U.S. Naval Air Force
WWII - KoreaAmerican Legion
VFW - DAVResides in downtown
Bynum
Norris J. Johnson
We honor Norris J. John-son, who served in WWII
from 1943 - 1946.He ranked as a Private 1st Class. He drove an
ambulance with the 583rd ambulance company. He
drove in the European Campaign.
Thank you for the freedom we enjoy because of brave
men like you.
Presley William Stephens
Drafted: June 1st, 1953.
Discharged:June 1st, 1955.
Obtained the rank of Corporal
SD Heard “Banny”
You’re truly a matriarch in our
whole family. We love you dearly. Thank you for your service in
WWII!!
P.F.C. Paul Venon Goodwin
Sunrise 01/01/48 - Sunset 05/13/69
The day Uncle Sam took you away, you were brave,
Your battle, you have won. One day I will join
my beloved son.
Love and miss you very much, Mother,
Francis V. Farmer
Petty Offi cer Larry
McConathy
We love our veteran!
God Bless America!
Thank youShelly Parris
SFC Army (Ret) Randy Jenkins III
1950 - 2011
Gone yet not forgot-ten. Although we are apart, your spirit lives within us. Forever in
our hearts-Love & miss you
Bonnie & Ari-Anna
Robert HayesU.S. Army 1940-1945
New Guinea/Philippines
We remember you and miss you
with love.
Sandra, Bobby & Dan
Cpt. Kyle Comfort
We love you and miss you.
Brooke & KinleighThe Comfort FamilyThe Clopton FamilyThe Laughead Family
Your Friends
Charles Frank Grizzard
Our father fought for our country. He was
wounded and received a purple heart. He was a precious father, hus-
band, grandfather, great grandfather & friend.
from Brenda, Linda, Trisha, Candy, Charles
& family
Master Sgt. L.J. Turner
1937 - 2008
Tours of duty 1954 - 1973Okinawa
KoreaPresident’s Honor
Guard Arlington, Va. CemeteryGermany
KoreaVietnam - 2 toursFort Benning, GA
Fort McClellan, AL
SSG Jovarius Antwan BurtonTwo simple words- THANK YOU!I’m sending out
greetings to my son Army SSG, Jovarius
A. Burton and all vet-erans, past, present
and future.
God bless you all.
Connie Dunn
Cpl. Ellis Johnson
U.S.M.C.
Freedom is never free.
Thank you for your service.
We love you,Dad, Mom &
Amanda
Cpt. Darrell & Cpt. Derrick Lyles Thank you for your dedicated service to God and our country.
God bless you and God Bless America!Rev. Levi & Wanda Lyles & Family
CSM (Ret.) William G. Melton, born 19 April 1926 in Pine Apple, Alabama.
He served in the U.S. Army for more than 30 years. His WWII years were with the 65th Infantry Division in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and
Austria; with the 1st Cavalry Division in South Korea;and with the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Artillery in
Vietnam.
His many awards include the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (Korea), Six Good Conduct
Medals, the United nations Service Medal, the Na-tional Defense Service Medal (2) , Army
Commedation Medal (3), Meritorious Service Medal, and Legion of Merit. He currently resides in
the Angel Station community of Jacksonville.
Thank Youto all of our armed forces
who have served our
country with such bravery and honor.
THE CAREER SOLDIER
Each man must have his professionBe he doctor, lawyer or chief.And for sure, these that I mentionHave their share of care and grief.
But I put to you a questionAnd the answer I’ll supplyDid you ever see a professionLike the career of a G.I.?
It can’t be matched with any jobFor contrary to people’s feelingsThe one who chooses the Army lifeWill have hands in many dealings.
He’s an athlete in good physiqueA number-one qualificationAnd if he’s not he soon will beAfter a basic initiation.
He’s a specialist in the job he hasBut a soldier every minuteHe has honor and trust all the timeOr he’s no longer in it.
The longer he stays the moreWork is heaped upon his browHe’s a father, big brother and leader ofThe young that take the vow.
He’s a teacher for sure, instructing inEven the basic facts of life.He’s expected to share every problem ofThe troops, their family and wife.
He’s a medic, a cook, a truck driver and moreBesides his professional skillHe reads maps, takes code and shoots a gunAnd knows how to take a hill.
He learns the law of military lifeAnd all administrative worksHe must type and write, march and train‘Cause ‘round each corner challenge lurks.
A veteran’spoem
Lona Bows sent in this poem written by her late husband, Paul Bows, who served 25 years in the Army before retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer 4. He wrote many poems throughout his life. He passed away in August 2005 in Eastaboga of service-con-nected disabilities.
