Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Service molded veterans

MURRELLS INLET -- The members of VFW Post 10420 - 1,350 strong and the largest in the state - are a tight crew, and a crew dedicated to increasing understanding of and appreciation for those who have served the country.

Groups speak at public schools to help educate students about the wars and why Veterans Day is a time to honor the living and remember the dead who served.

It is not a shopping holiday, though these men realize that's what plenty of people do.

"You don't get up to go to Wal-Mart for the specials," said Lyn D. Dimery, 71, a Vietnam veteran. "Veterans Day is not just another day off from work, although people do that. People can do what they want, but it makes me feel more like a veteran when people take time out to come to our services and put flags on the graves."

They are encouraged that children attending Grand Strand schools, including Forestbrook Middle School and Aynor Elementary School, are curious and eager to know about their lives as defenders of a great nation.

"The kids treat us with the uppermost respect," McDowell said. "They just stop you and want to shake your hand."

These former warriors are elderly now, and they have stories worth telling to those wise enough to listen. They want you to know war is not pretty, war is not always necessary but it is an inescapable reality.

In their conversations with children and adults, the veterans share frank opinions on today's conflicts

America's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, some said, is based on reasons unclear and political.

"What are we trying to do over there?" asked Gene Westfall, an 87-year-old World War II veteran. "If we are trying to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban, then that's OK, but we can't force our politics on people who don't want it."

Ephraim Thompson, 76, served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1955 during the Korean War.

"Personally, I don't think they should be [at] war, not then and not now in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "People are being murdered. People are being killed. I don't believe in war."

Thompson, like many of his comrades, enlisted out of a love of country and a desire for adventure.

"I had never been out of South Carolina," Thompson said. "I wanted to further my education. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to experience people."

Bud Mercorio, now 79, was the son of a construction worker in Newburg, N.Y. He worked construction with his dad but wanted more. He thought joining the Marine Corps and heading to China was a path to a more fulfilling life.

He joined at 21, and served in Korea. He didn't know his future would include 60-below temperatures, seeing a friend's head blown off and becoming a prisoner of war.

"I thought I was going on vacation until a buddy walked over and said, 'Bud, I'm not trying to scare you, but these people are trying to kill us,'" Mercorio said.

Thompson's service didn't include standing toe-to-toe with enemies as Mercorio's did, but at 33 he did face wounded men, some dangling on life's string, as a medical technician working at the Travis Air Force Base Hospital in Fairfield, Calif., from 1953 to 1955.

"Most of the time, there was a loss of the limbs - no legs, one leg, loss of the lower extremities," he said. "They would have no feeling in their lower extremities. They were just so happy to be back in the States. I just wanted to help them the best I could."

Ted Koziarski, 74, dropped flares from a C-130 during Operation Blind Bat.

He helped illuminate the way for the night airstrikes of fighters and other top-secret missions of his colleagues.

Shot at constantly, but never brought down, he witnessed one of his buddies, Bobby Joe Alberton of Anaheim, Calif., shot down while flying on a mission May 31, 1966.

"You just did your job," he said. "You don't think about the danger until later."