Chicora post honors World War II veterans
CHICORA — A small and growing-smaller group of veterans met Friday afternoon at Chicora Community Park.
Don Weiland, 95; Dick Craig, 99; and Bernard Waltman, 96, are all World War II veterans and members of American Legion Post 642, 110 W. Slippery Rock St. They were recognized by Legion officials and members.
Two other World War veterans and Post 642 members, Kenny Griffiths, 98, and Vincent Ritzert, 97, were unable to attend the ceremony.
John Cyprian, Legion 26th District commander, said many World War II veterans in the county pass away every year, but the numbers of Korean War and Vietnam War veterans’ deaths are beginning to outnumber them simply because there are more veterans on the two more recent conflicts.
“I think it’s great that we don’t forget the World War II guys. We still haven’t forgotten you,” said Cyprian.
Ron Huff, Post 642 commander, said the group doesn’t see as much of its oldest members these days.
“They used to come to the military funerals, but they don’t get around so good,” said Huff.
Weiland said his health keeps him from attending veterans’ sendoffs.
“I used to take care of the firing squad at funerals, but then my legs got bad and I had to give it up,” he said.
Weiland served in the 42nd Engineers in the U.S. Army from 1945 to 1949.
“I was drafted while the Japanese war was still fighting. I was floating on a Victory ship at the Golden Gate Bridge going to the Hawaiian Islands, getting ready for the invasion of Japan,” he said when he learned the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to an end.
He was happy to avoid an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Weiland said, “I’d have been dead. I knew I was going to be dead.”
Instead, Weiland was sent to the Philippines and then Okinawa before landing in Korea for 18 months.
“I spent a year and a half grading the roads. The captain wanted me to stay. He said this was going to be a hot spot, but I went home,” he said.
“I threaded the needle pretty good there,” he said. “I got out of World War II and I wasn’t going to go to Korea.”
Returning to Oakland Township, Weiland got a job at Armco, where he worked for 41 years before retiring in 1984.
Craig was in the medical detachment of the 879th Army Aviation Engineers.
“I was drafted Jan. 29, 1943, and was discharged Dec. 25, 1945. It was a Christmas present. I served three years minus one month,” said Craig.
After basic training in Utah and Washington state, Craig was sent to what was then called Dutch New Guinea, where he received training to become a medic. He wound up as a corporal and a dental assistant.
“We kept on the move. We saw some action but not too many battles,” he said, adding his duties included assisting dentists, placing temporary fillings and cleaning teeth.
After his service, Craig returned to Chicora and got a job driving a truck for Pullman Standard in Butler, a job he kept until the rail car maker shut down in early 1982.
Waltman, of Chicora, served for eight months and 11 days in 1945.
“The war ended, and they kicked me out. I wanted to be a pilot, and they had a surplus,” he said.
He was in the Army Air Corps at Chanute Air Field in Illinois, waiting to begin pilot training when the war ended, “and I elected to get out of the service.”
Waltman went to the University of Pittsburgh, earning a business administration degree before he joined Northwestern Mutual and sold insurance for the next 57 years.
“I placed over 4,000 life insurance policies and made the Million Dollar Roundtable several times,” he said.
Waltman said he doesn’t go to the Legion post as much as he did in the past, but “I do what I can to help them out.”
