HomeMy WebLinkAboutVeterans-1968/1988/1994/1995/2011 •
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Seminole (!rlanbo f+rntintt day, June 16, 1968
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participating in the Blue Star Memorial Dedica- president of the Florida Federation of Garden Cluos,
tion Ceremonies were Capt. Frederick W. Brick, and a color guard from VFW Post 100x0 Casselberry.
USN, Mrs. Ralph West, president of the North (Photo by May Ann Campbell)
Orlando Garden Club, Mrs. Carroll O. Griffin, —
Memorial Marker
Honors Servicemen
The Blue Star Memorial is dedicated to our
By MARY ANN CAMPBELL country's servicemen, "past, present and future.” It
NORTH ORLANDO — A Blue Star Memorial stands for patriotism, and appreciation and is a "living
Highway Marker was dedicated to the American pledge" to those who serve.
Serviceman, at U.S. 17 92 and Florida 434. This project Ending the ceremonies, Paul Willet played taps.
was sponsored by the Florida Federation of Garden The plaque was installed by the State Road
Clubs, and the North Orlando Garden Club. Department, and will be landscaped at a later date.
A color guard from VFW Post 10050, Casselberry,
participated in the ceremonies.
AN INVOCATION and benediction was given by
Capt. Frederick W. Brick, chaplain, Navy Training
Center, Orlando.
Mrs. Ralph West, president of the North Orlando �' / — /
Garden Club welcomed Mrs. Carroll 0. Griffin, (�
president of the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs,
Mrs. Maurice S. Dillingham, first vice president of the
Federation, Mayor Clifford Jordan of North Orlando,
Mrs. Calvin Crocker and Mrs. Raymond Ware of
Albany, Ga., to the ceremonies. Also present was Mrs.
Frank Woodruff III, president, district 7, Florida
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as•ii
Veteran remembers
watching Saigon fall
Friday was Veterans Day, of course.
But for a Winter Springs veteran,
October 1-7 were more significant
days this year.
That's the week that CNN flew retired
Marine Col. Gerry Berry and seven other
vets back to Saigon.
Their mission: to recall the extraordi-
nary hours during which they evacuated
the last Americans —
and hundreds of des-
.,
perate South Vietnam-
E ese — as North Viet-
nam's tanks rolled into
the city.
CNN's Peter Arnett
is reporting the piece,
which will air in April
1995, the 20th anniver-
anniver-
sary of the evacuation.
Berry, operations
Berry manager for OC Inc., a
defense contractor in Orlando,was a heli-
copter pilot then.
During the tense and chaotic hours of
April 29 and 30, Berry flew 18 hours
straight, shuttling back and forth be-
tween the American Embassy and the ar-
mada stationed off the Vietnamese coast.
"You could see their tanks coming as
the night was going on," recalls Berry,49.
"When you landed on top of the embassy,
you could see the crowds.They all wanted
into the embassy—and out of Vietnam."
As long as American Ambassador Gra-
ham Martin was in the embassy, people
kept flooding into the building, hoping to
catch a ride on one of the giant CH-46 or
CH-53 helicopters. Almost 2,000 people
were airlifted from the embassy.
Berry flew Martin out of Saigon.
"I was very saddened by the whole
thing," he says of the airlift. "I was there
in 1969-70 and watched a lot of friends
die. Then I came back in 1975 and
watched the total destruction of a country
we had been fighting for."
Berry holds no grudges against the
Vietnamese people, though — and he's
glad he made the return trip with CNN.
"I enjoyed it. I didn't know what to ex-
pect,but I found a very industrious, very
optimistic and absolutely friendly people
who love Americans and are going capi-
talistic as fast as they can."
That's right — they're forming busi-
nesses even as their communist leaders
sit by and watch. Obviously, Vietnam's
leadership has grasped a major concept:
People left to their entrepreneurial de-
vices are likely to generate money,which
the government needs. �/
Too bad we wasted so much money and /
time—and so many lives—trying to de-
feat a system that was destined to col-
lapse all by itself.
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V-E memories: Sober Nazis,
like and a powerful guzzle
.�l-E from B-� store chain and the father of
three. The native of Toledo, Ohio,
moved to the Orlando area in
2:41 on the morning of May 7, 1962.
When history was made in the so- Now 82 and retired, Soldinger
tailed war room of the school- lives in Winter Springs. He no
house.,,.= longer drinks kummel, but does
She got the news later that think of V-E Day often. Framed
morning,when Eisenhower dictat- and hanging on a wall of his den
• a message to his commanders is that teletype printout.
tri the field. The message an- Rather than return to her home-
nounced the unconditional sur- town of Detroit after the victory in
render of Germany. Europe,Sue Sarafian continued to
It was 7:12 a.m. when Reuben work for Eisenhower in Washing-
Soldinger,the communications of- ton,D.C.
liter holed up a farmhouse in On Dec. 31, 1995, a pilot ap-
8iorth Germany, received Eisen- peered in her Pentagon office.Ro-
t ower's dispatch. land Jehl,whom she had met once
Celebrating commenced at 7:13 in England and again at the
L.m. French schoolhouse,stopped by to
-Bolting from his cot, Soldinger ask her for a date.
read the message aloud to his Nine months later Jehl and Sar-
comrades,then reported the news attan married. He remained in the I
td battalion commanders by tele- Air Force until 1971, retiring as a
phone. colonel. She gave up her career to
Somehow,in all the excitement, raise a family.
the printout was misplaced. At Both are now in their 70s and
least that was the story Soldinger live in Maitland. On the wall of
told to those who wanted the slip their home is a framed photo-
of paper as a memento. graph of three German command-
/:The communications officer ers seated at the rectangular table
then toasted the surrender with of the war room.
kummel, a colorless but potent li- Paul Smith left the Army in
queur made with caraway seeds. September 1945 and put his war-
He guzzled the kummel as he time training to good use. He
would a Coca-Cola. fixed office machines from his
That night, buddies drove Sol- home state of Indiana to Florida.
Binger back to the farmhouse. He At age 77, he is twice retired
was lying spread eagle on the and lives in west Orange County.
hood of the Jeep. He planned to attend ceremonies
After the war,Soldinger became at the French schoolhouse at 2:91
an executive for a department this morning.
ci3osd7
Young boy aided
Norway's survival
❑Now the 67-year-old the memorial project. The project
Winter Springs resident is Doss Army Aitr Forces
has helped raise money dropped 838 bombs in the l elter
with a Kissimmee man raid, causing severe damage to
for a V-E Day memorial.
the re 72 Nazis caanranaircraft. ian and
casualties.
By J. Russell White Kaalstad is one of many Norwe-
gian resistance fighters who did
OF THE SENINEL STAFF all they could to harass the Nazis.
As a child, he was questioned
Oscar Kaalstad shook in fear 55 twice by the Germans and let go.
years ago when he watched a "Boys my age were used as
small company of young None- couriers," Kaalstad said. "We did
gian soldiers march past his home what we could but were terrified
on their way to a battle against the about what would happen if we
German army. got caught, and
"They were �� I was caught
farm boys . . . twice.
the ones who "The Ger-
milked cows in goys my age were used mans really
the village of weren't sure
Leirsund, boys as couriers. We did what what we were
I knew," Kaal- we could but were terrl- doing," Kaal-
stad said. stad said .
we never fled about what would 'They had sort
saw them happen if we got caught, of a love-hate
again." thing with us.
Kaalstad, 67, and I was caught twice. They liked us
now lives in —Oscar Kaalstad, because we
Winter Springs. Norwegian resistance were blond-
He returned to tighter In WWII haired and
Kjeller air base blue-eyed, but
near Oslo, Nor- they couldn't
way, last week to celebrate the understand why we didn't like
50th anniversary of the end of them.
World War II and the liberation of 'They let me go both times they
Norway. The Germans occupied had me, figuring I was doing no
his country for five years. harm."
Kaalstad hid in a shelter on Kaalstad said his family eventu-
Nov. 18, 1943, when American ally fled Norway for Sweden dur-
bombers unloaded on the Ger- ing the war. He also enlisted in a
mans at Kjeller. He and Forrest Norwegian brigade of the British
Clark, then a 20-year-old Ameri- Fifth Division and came to the
can gunner who now lives in Kis- United States in 1949. He entered
simmee, helped raise money for a Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
2-foot-tall bronze memorial that nology on a Fulbright Scholarship.
will be dedicated Monday at the Kaalstad, a chemical engineer,
air base. was knighted by King Olav V of
The two men did not know each Norway. He has lived in Florida
other before their joint work on since 1982.
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VeteransAnnual ceremony creates .
solumn remembrance to our
nation's heroes. , ' • •
I ii
4011(4 - , _ .-
s
.._ _ _ r By Chip Colandreo, OWSL
This November,Veterans do, '"
Day falls on an iconic date - .
- in a significant year-
I %, •�� 11/11/11,the first Veterans .
Winter Springs'Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 2008 and
Day following the tenth has become a stately venue for veterans and relatives to reflect
anniversary of the September and remember.An imposing granite wall lists nearly 300 names
11th attacks in 2001. Like engraved to memorialize Winter Springs veterans.
-, the Pearl Harbor atrocity of
- . nearly 70 years ago,events anchor the eastern end of the park.The city and the Rotary
on the fateful September Club of Winter Springs agreed to split all the costs 50/50.
morning of 2001 inspired a "The entire project ended up costing about$140,000,but it
` new generation of Americans should have cost about$350,000,"says Bill,a 20-year veteran
to stand up and volunteer of the architecture and development business."Everyone
�:. .,
,- their service to our great in the Rotary and the city put a lot of sweat equity into the
.. nation.Many thousands have project to create something really special."
served since,and far too many In designing the memorial,the Rotary committee's goal
-e have sacrificed their bodies was to create something in which observers could participate
and even their lives for our as well as admire.After reading a commemorative plaque at
At the center of the rotunda country's cause.America's the memorial's entrance,guests walk into a rotunda lined with
4 is a somber, bronze Fallen newest class of veterans metal plates engraved with the names of veterans,alive and
Soldier sculpture. joins those from decades and deceased,who call Winter Springs home.On the ground is a
centuries past to form an marble map of the world.
unspoken,unbreakable chain "The idea is that grandpa can walk his grandchildren
of honor and honorable service that deserves so much more around the map and show them where he served,"says Bill.
than a single day to commemorate. "We wanted future generations to hear the stories of veterans,
As Winter Springs prepares to honor veterans in this not just see their names on the memorial walls."
community and around the nation during the city's Veterans The bronze memorial itself sits in the center of the
Day remembrance,we at Oviedo-Winter Springs Life wanted adjoining rotunda,known as the Halo. Surrounded and
to tell the story of the scene of the annual event.The (continued on page 18)
Winter Springs Veterans Memorial,nestled solemnly at the r intersection of Blumberg Boulevard and Tuskawilla Road (-•\
behind the Winter Springs Town Center, is the result of a _
true community effort to bring private citizen groups and
government together to honor American service members. - • % •
"The mission to create a Veterans Memorial in the city grandpa.
can
in 2005 when each Rotary Club in Central Florida was S
encouraged to pick a special project to honor the Rotary's •: ,'`'� .�•
bicentennial,"says Bill Starmer,a member of the Rotary Club
of Winter Springs and president of Starmer Ranaldi Planning :�
and Architecture in Oviedo."At the same time we had just lost
a soldier who was from Winter Springs,and it was suggested
.
we raise money to create a memorial for all veterans who live '
in the area." Members of the Veterans Day ceremony planning
In classic Rotarian tradition,a committee was formed committee include WS Police Lt. William Maxwell;Brian
with Bill as its chairman,and the group went to work.Winter Dunigan, WS program coordinator; former city commis-
Springs was in the process of constructing Blumberg Park on sioner Don Gilmore; Chris Caldwell, director of parks
Blumberg Boulevard,and it was decided the memorial would and recreation; Maurice Kaprow, and Bill Starmer. ,���
November/December 2011 16 Oviedo-Winter Springs°i!'�"