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Bill Roscoe

Roscoe, Bill

Roscoe, Bill

Roscoe, Bill

Sharpsville, PA
U.S. Army Air Corps – World War II

On April 8, 1945, Bill Roscoe found himself in the kind of situation where people tend to bargain with God. Like, “Lord, get me out of this and I promise to serve you the rest of my life.”

Bill had already made that commitment when he was much younger, so he made a another one: “Get me out of this and I promise you I will never worry again.”

He was radio operator on a B-17 Flying Fortress when his plane was crippled by anti-aircraft. Instead of bailing out, Bill stayed to help his friend get out of the ball turret gunner’s pod.

The inexperienced crew members were bewildered, afraid to jump. So Bill pushed them out. Failing to count to ten before opening their chutes, they were too close to the plane when a burning wing broke off and threatened to take them all out. The last one to jump, Bill managed the nudge the wing enough for the wind to take it away from the others.

With his chute full of holes, he hit the ground hard, injuring his feet. He was captured by the Gestapo, who marched the prisoners hundreds of miles. They had nothing to eat but bread made from sawdust and potatoes. Prisoners and guards suffered together.

They ended up in Stalag Luft 7A, a prisoner of war camp for airmen. Starvation and severe treatment caused Bill’s weight to drop from 185 to 85 before General Patton’s forces liberated them.

“For ten years after he got out of the service,” said his wife Dee, “Bill was very sick. He was yellow from toxic poisoning. The only thing that pulled him through was Dr. K. W. Bertram, and the Lord.”

At his 90th birthday party in 2005, Bill said that he and Dee had never had an argument. Faithful to the second promise he made to the Lord, he said he lived a no-stress life with a no-stress wife.

He and Dee were also faithful to his promise to serve the Lord. They served as Eucharistic ministers for 20 years, and taught religion for more than twice that long.

Fifty years after the end of the war, Bill was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for that incident that lasted a few minutes in 1945. But he and Dee valued far more the satisfaction they earned through a lifetime of worry-free service to the Lord, to each other, to their family, and to their community.

Filed Under: Home Town, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, War, World War II

Captain Gary Lionel Vinas

Sharpsville, PA
U.S. Army – Vietnam

Captain Gary Lionel Vinas was the only Mercer County Vietnam fatality to serve in MACV – the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He was a member of Advisory Team 99 in Duc Lap, about 80 miles southwest of the 25th ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam). Advisory Team 99 had the responsibility for advising the Division’s 49th Regiment.

MACV advisers had a very specialized and tricky role. They were expected to use their American military experience and know-advise their Vietnamese counterparts about all aspects of their unit’s operation – to recommend solutions to everything from administrative problems to tactical and operational challenges. The tricky part was persuading the Vietnamese to implement the solutions they recommended. To be effective, the adviser had to befriend his counterpart and win his confidence. One of the most effective ways to do this was to convince his counterpart that the solution was really his own idea to start with.

This was particularly important at the lowest level of the MACV operation. Regimental advisory teams were small, consisting of only three members of the United States military. They had to form very close and trusting relationships. To do that, they had to be willing to participate in every aspect of the regiment’s activities – including combat operations.

Because of the decentralization of the MACV structure, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find out what happened in a specific time and place. We have no details about the death ofCaptain Vinas, other than the fact that he was on a combat operation with the regiment he was advising. All that was reported is that he was a ground casualty as a result of an explosive device, probably a land mine.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 10E Line 2

Filed Under: Home Town, Killed in Action, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, Vietnam Era, Vietnam Memorial, War

David Wallace

Sharpsville, PA
U.S. Army – War on Terror

Some high school graduates know exactly what they want to do. David Wallace didn’t. Through the summer after graduating from Sharpsville in 2002, he was exploring his options. Maybe technical school. Maybe the U.S. Marines.

“He came home one Friday,” said his mother, Carol Wallace McKay, “and said he was leaving on Monday. He had joined the Marines.”

David and a friend, Mike Kulka, had decided to sign up on the Marine Corps “buddy program,” through which friends go through boot camp together. That didn’t work out, because they didn’t go in at the same time.

Once he joined, Carol said, David knew he had found his calling. “He became very dedicated,” she said. “It was wonderful for him.”

Sgt. Wallace served two tours of duty in Iraq – from September, 2004, to April, 2005, and from July, 2007, to January, 2008. On November 5, 2008, he left for his final tour in Afghanistan.

There, as a combat engineer with the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, part of his job was to locate Improvised Explosive Devices, and to mark or destroy them. He not only did that himself; he also built a training facility to teach others how to do it.

But regardless of how much one knows about IEDs, there always remains the unpredictable element that makes them so dangerous. On January 27, 2009, while Sgt. Wallace was off duty, others from his unit were having problems with their IED sweeper. After he fixed it for them, he voluntarily went out with them in search of IEDs. One exploded, killing him and another Marine, Sgt. Trevor J. Johnson of Forsyth, Montana.

Sgt. Wallace was the first Mercer County soldier to die in Afghanistan in the global war on terror. Besides his mother and his brother Steven, Sgt. Wallace left behind his wife Erica, from Jacksonville, North Carolina, five-year old stepson Landon, and two-year-old daughter Brooklyn.

He also left behind what his mother calls his life-long friends: the community of Sharpsville, PA. “Sharpsville has supported us before and after his death,” Carol said.

The community erected a monument to him in Riverside Cemetery, named a bridge after him, and wrote many personal tributes to him on a Facebook page, “In honor of Sgt. David Wallace.”

For his valor, Sgt. Wallace was awarded a Bronze Star, but that probably means less than the honors given to him by those who knew him personally.

Filed Under: Home Town, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, War, War on Terror Era

Don Eichelberger

Eichelberger, Don

Eichelberger, Don

Sharpsville, PA
U.S. Army, World War II

What’s a hero? Don Eichelberger says it’s anyone who just does his job when he’s ordered to do it, and doesn’t crawl down into a hole. But men like Eichelberger always apply that to the guy next to him, never to himself.

During 600 days of combat with the Americal Division in the Pacific, crawling into a hole was rarely an option for Eichelberger, unless it was one occupied by enemy soldiers. Starting on the island of Bougainville, he fought as part of a twelve-man reconnaissance squad responsible for going out in search of enemy units.

During November, 1944, his patrol discovered an enemy encampment early in the morning. They called in an infantry unit, and an entire unit of 23 enemy soldiers were killed without a single American casualty. Everyone who participated in the raid was honored with a Bronze Star. According to the citation, “The courage and jungle craft displayed by all members of the patrol is especially meritorious. The careful preparation, skillful execution, and deadly accuracy of fire constitute a masterpiece of jungle fighting.”

After Bougainville, Eichelberger’s recon squad went out on patrols through the torturous jungles of the Philippine islands of Leyte, Cebu, and Negros, sometimes for as long as twenty days. With feet continuously wet from slogging through the jungle, Eichelberger had to be hospitalized for treatment of ulcers on his ankles. He also contracted malaria.

After Negros was considered clear of enemy soldiers, Eichelberger’s unit started amphibious training for what would have been the most devastating and terrifying beach assault ever: the invasion of Japan itself. He is thankful that the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made that unnecessary.

Eichelberger spent three months in the occupation of Japan, then returned home.

“My welcoming was walking into the house and being embraced by my parents. I didn’t have any bells ringing or parades and what have you.”

What he did have were some tokens of what heroes sometimes get: not only two Bronze Stars, but also a Good Conduct medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Armed Forces Achievement Medal, Philippine Liberation Medal (from the Philippine government), Army of Occupation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Asiatic Pacific Medal with three campaign stars.

So was Don Eichelberger a hero? If you ask him, he’ll tell you no.

But re-read his own definition of a hero, and make up your own mind.

Filed Under: Home Town, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, War, World War II

John Getway

Getway, John

Getway, John

Sharpsville, PA
Army Airborne – World War II

There’s a phrase that John Getway of Sharpsville, PA, never uses: “I think I’ll hang around a while.” He actually did hang around – for three days – 65 feet up in a tree in Holland during World War II. It nearly cost him his life, and only his fortitude and excellent physical conditioning enabled him to recover.

As crazy as it sounds, that means he might owe his life to milk. Not to drinking it, but to carrying it. When he was in high school, he got up very early every morning, seven days a week, and delivered milk for Brookfield Dairy (now Dean’s Dairy).

“We used to deliver milk down as far as Sharon High School. And then they would rush back to Ridge Avenue so I could jump off the truck and go into the high school. The janitor would say, ‘Hurry, John,’ and just as I got into my room he would push the button for the bell. So I was never late.”

He left high school in 1938 to work at the dairy full time – until December, 1941.

“Right after Pearl Harbor five of us decided we would go to into the service,” John said.

He was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for basic training. That was right at the time the first U.S. Army airborne units were being organized. John decided to become a paratrooper.

The training in jump school was extremely rigorous, but John found himself well prepared for it.

“In airborne training, we would go out and walk, then run. They would stop to let the men smoke. Well, I didn’t smoke. One time I said, ‘Sergeant, can I keep double timing all the way up?’ He said ‘Sure, go ahead.’ I ran way up there and sat down on a rock. When the rest of the troops got there, they tired and sweating. The sergeant came over and asked, ‘How the heck did you do it?’ I told him I peddled milk all the time, jumping off and on the truck, summer and winter.”

John was assigned to the 509th Airborne Regiment at Fort Bragg. From there he started an incredible odyssey with one of the most elite units of the army – jumping from airplanes, fighting enemy soldiers in hand to hand combat, wandering in the desert, and even witnessing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

It started in mid-1942 when the 509th departed Fort Bragg to go to England. They trained in Scotland, jumping from British bombers because the American planes hadn’t arrived yet. They were the only paratroopers to jump from only 250 feet, which allows barely enough time for the chute to open.

In November, 1942, the 509th spearheaded the invasion of North Africa.They flew over 1600 miles from England to conduct a parachute assault on Tafraoui Airport in Algeria. A week later they made their second combat jump on the airfield at Youks-Les-Bains near the Tunisian border. During subsequent combat operations, John was wounded in the hand while trying to fend off an enemy soldier’s bayonet.

“All we did was put sulfa drugs on it, and they gave me a tetanus shot. It was four days before they could get me to a hospital to check me out.”

From December 1942 to June 1943, the 509th trained for the invasion of Sicily. John’s company was attached to the 504th Parachute Battalion, part of the 82nd Airborne Division. On July 11, 1943, they took off to for a combat drop onto the beachhead in Sicily.

During that jump John got wounded several times. Again, it was sulfa drugs, tetanus shot, and keep on fighting. In five days the division pushed forward 150 miles and captured 23,000 prisoners.

After fighting through Sicily, the division landed in Italy and fought northward through Naples. On March 18, 1944, John’s unit was bivouacked about a mile from Mount Vesuvius when it erupted.

“They moved us 20 miles away, but you could still see the smoke,” John said.

Shortly after that the 82nd moved back to England to prepare for the invasion of northern Europe. In September, 1944, they made a combat jump into Holland.

“We jumped at night time, and I landed way up in a tree. I hung there for three days and three nights. My canteen and K-rations were on my back, and I couldn’t reach them. Two little boys saw me. They went back and got their family. When they lowered me down, my legs crumbled because I had no circulation in them for three days.”

John was sent to a hospital in England, then to one in Miami. The physical therapy was difficult, but John persisted. He was there for a year and a half recovering from his ordeal. Part of his therapy involved climbing a rope hand over hand. John could do little at first, but he persisted until he could climb all the way to the high ceiling.

When John came back to Sharpsville, he got a job at Steel Fabricators. After a few years he got laid off, but quickly got a job at Sawhill Tube .

John married Ann Gray on May 28, 1955. While raising their family, Ann worked at Sharon Stationery for 20 years, and John worked at Sawhill for 30 years until he retired in 1985.

For many years John and Ann were active in the General Ridgway Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association, in Dayton, Ohio. They went there two or three times a year for various events. They attended as many of the association’s annual conventions as possible, and helped put on three of them.

Since 1986, they have gone to Fort Bragg for the annual 82nd Airborne Division’s annual review. The most memorable moment for John and Ann came in 2002 at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the airborne. One World War II veteran was selected from each 82nd Airborne unit that fought in that war. John was chosen to represent the 504th. He rode in the review with the veterans, then stood beside the commanding general on the podium as the Division marched by.

Some of the effects of John’s World War II ordeal persist to this day. He freely expresses his appreciation for the one who took good care of him for so many years, until she passed away on March 6, 2012.

“Some women would turn their back on you and walk away” he said. “But anything that happens to me, Ann knew what to do and got everything done. She was just as good as a nurse.”

John and Ann had four children: Stephen (August 1956), Edwin (August 1957), Daniel (March 1959), and Beth (September 1966).


 

John Getway passed away on April 11, 2014.

 

Filed Under: Home Town, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, War, World War II

Lt. James Blose

Blose, JamesJames Blose

Sharpsville, PA
Army Air Corps, World War II

Born on August 30, 1918, Jimmy Blose was driven by a restless spirit. He wrote later, “I may have been a much better man had I stayed in Sharpsville, but I know that I never could have been content living there. Something was missing there; I don’t know just what it was.”

Before he reached his 24th birthday, that restless spirit drove Jimmy to a place half the world away, where he vanished for nearly 65 years…. Read more >

Filed Under: Home Town, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, War, World War II

Paul Good

Good, Paul

Good, Paul

Sharpsville, PA
U.S. Army – Vietnam

PFC Paul Good was drafted into the army after graduating from Sharpsville High School in 1965. When he arrived in Vietnam on May 9, 1967, he was assigned to Company A, 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division.

The Ninth Division was part of the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF), a joint force combining Navy and Army units to operate in the unique environment of the Mekong Delta.

There, conventional military maneuvers couldn’t be used because many stream, rivers, and canals severely restricted ground movement. The solution was to use helicopters and converted Navy vessels to insert army troops into areas where they were needed and to provide firepower in support of their operations. Because of the novelty of the situation, both equipment and tactics had to be invented.

As one member of the MRF wrote, “The Navy did the most in terms of development of equipment and how to use it. The Army did the same old stuff, only wetter. We went to war in boats and then got out and walked, waded, wallowed, swam, crawled, or ran until we were picked up again.”

The ships ranged in size from large troop ships, each of which provided living space for more than 800 troops, to armored troop carriers, modified LSTs that could carry an infantry platoon, and smaller, faster Swift Boats. Used to insert and extract infantry from combat situations, they also provided close-in fire support with 20mm cannons, .50 caliber machine guns, and grenade launchers, as well as small arms. Some of the larger vessels carried 105mm howitzers.

Planning for the MRF had begun in the summer of 1966, and the first elements arrived in January, 1967. By summer, 1967, enough river craft had been deployed to carry out sustained search and destroy missions. The full complement of vessels was not assembled until 1968.

That means that PFC Good participated in some of the earliest combat conducted by the MRF, including a major battle on June 19, 1967. Helicopters and Navy boats moved his unit into an area full of Vietcong troops. The ensuing battle left more than 250 Vietcong dead; 47 Americans were killed and many wounded. One platoon had 13 left out of the 35 who started the day.

After the battle, Paul Good was reported as missing. His body was recovered later.

He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement.

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Panel 22E Line 012

Filed Under: Home Town, Killed in Action, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, Vietnam Era, Vietnam Memorial, War

Theodore Hubert Dalton

Dalton, TheodoreTheodore Hubert Dalton

Hermitage, PA
U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam

Even before graduating, Ted Dalton told his friends he wanted to be a Marine, and tried to get others to sign up with him. He managed to get one to go into the Marines with him.

Over strenuous objections from his father, Edward Dalton, he enlisted in the Marine Corps barely a month after graduating from Hickory High School in 1967. After completing training, he shipped out to Vietnam on December 14, 1967.

He was assigned to A Company , 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in Quang Nam Province, near Da Nang. It was not a pretty place. According to one report on the Internet, of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 were killed in Quang Nam Province.

In August, 1967, Corporal Dalton was wounded by a grenade; he returned to duty in early August.

In letters home, he thanked his father for being tough on him when he was growing up. He wrote that he couldn’t have made it without that.

By October, 1968, Ted was an experienced Marine, having been in combat for more than ten months. Unfortunately, experience doesn’t always guarantee survival. There is always this persistent fact: in the dark of night, in the thick of the jungle, one cannot distinguish friend from foe. Safety depends on careful planning, strict discipline, and precise execution of the plan. The slightest error in any of those aspects can result in disaster.

On the evening of October 31, 1968, something went wrong in one of those elements. Two squads of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines were positioned in the jungle to ambush enemy patrols. Their instructions were to shoot at anything that moved in front of them.

Something moved. They opened fire very effectively, killing two and mortally wounding one. Unfortunately, they weren’t enemy soldiers. They were fellow Marines.

One of those wounded was Marine Corporal Theodore Hubert Dalton from Sharpsville, PA. He was evacuated to the hospital in Da Nang.

“A friend who was there visited us later,” said brother Edward. “He said Ted was awake and in good spirits. But he was wounded in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine. If he had survived, he would have been paralyzed.”

But the hospital couldn’t save him. He died there on Friday, November 1, 1968.

“He was laid out in our home,” Edward said. “He had written that he wanted to see snow. On the day they brought him home, it snowed.”

On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial l – 40W Line 074

Filed Under: Home Town, Killed in Action, PA, Sharpsville, Tribute, Vietnam Era, Vietnam Memorial, War

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