Team St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization: Travelogue

Veterans enjoy a travelogue featuring the memorials in Washington DC.

Team St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization: Monthly Meeting

Team St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization 150+ strong!

Team Health Care Center: Freedom Fighters!

Freedom Fighters Then & Now

Veterans at St. Leonard Health and Rehab center received visits from serviceman Master Chief Master Diver Joseph Howard and Chief Air Crewman Thomas Wollney of the United States Navy. Visits were to pay tribute to the veterans and to thank them for their past service. In all nineteen veterans received visits.

Words cannot describe the emotions felt as our residents reminisced with the sailors about their personal experiences serving our country.

Team Veterans' Service Organization: Published!

WWII Vets Write Book

by Centerville-Washington Times on June 1, 2011

By DOUG SKINNER
Editor
dskinner@tcnewsnet.com

A group of World War II veterans have published a book of their memories of their times in the military.

The book Military Memories Make Amazing Memoirs is comprised of stories written by members of the Saint Leonard Veterans Service Organization.

A group of Saint Leonard residents decided to try to have a book published after they became members of a memoir writing club, which is led by Mary Sicora, according to veteran Lou Leibold. “Many of the memoirs we were writing were military oriented,” he said.

The Library of Congress has asked for oral histories of veterans’ military service, veteran Bob Lamb said

Leibold and fellow Lamb started the project and invited others to participate. They gathered writings from several St. Leonard residents together, taking about two years to complete. Centerville High School students helped edit the project.

“It was amazing that we could get so many people inspired enough to do a book veteran Paul Hawthorne said.

“These people have such great stories,” Sicora said.

Many of the writers had to be coaxed to participate because they did not think anyone would care to hear their stories, Lamb said. Many people “feel their participation (in WWII) was insignificant.”

Lamb, a native of Boone, Iowa, joined the Army Air Corps in February 1943. “Combat missions began on New Guinea, continued at Lingayan Gulf on the island of Luzon in the Philippines and ended on the island of Okinawa.”

Hawthorne said he was drafted before he finished high school. “I was in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper and was a communications specialist.” He was one of approximately 80 soldiers who parchuted into where the Buchenwald prison camp was located. “This was to be an effort to see what the conditions were at that time because the other forces in the American army were advancing close and it was hoped that the Germans would not slaughter the rest of the inmates.”

When the soldiers advanced toward the prison area, “we were astounded to find that the German handlers had already left sometime during the night and the prisoners were running around bewildered, confused and uncertain of what was happening or what was going to happen. It was certainly a sight I will probably never forget. Seeing the stacked bodies on the carts … Those people who wee still alive were as emaciated as a human can possibly be.”

McDonald, who is from New York, said he was originally rejected by the Army for having a heart murmur. On Feb. 1, 1943, he went to an armory in Manhattan. “After being examined, I was told to sit in a nearby chair. Wen I was about the sixth person from the physical examination station, I noticed (a) photographer was taking pictures. Word was passed through the line that the Navy was taking inductees for the first time in the war. After I was examined once again I was told to take a seat nearby. It wasn’t until 8 p.m. that I was approached by a man in charge of the Navy draft. While placing his hand on my shoulder, he simply asked, “how do you feel about the Navy?” I replied I want to go. With a broad smile on his face, he said, “go down to the federal building on Wall Street to be sworn in.”

Veteran Dick Lee said he started and finished his military career at Fort Bragg. “I basically had a nine-to-five job,” he said .”My oldest daughter was born while I was in the service.”

The book is available to the public. For more information, contact Lee at 432-9116 or Gerri Ebert at 291-0068.

http://www.stleonard.net/

Team Veterans' Service Organization: Windsocks!

Click to enlarge

Making windsocks with preschoolers from Primrose of Centerville.

Fun and Function!

Team St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization: Vocational Wellness

from our Marketing Department

Bill Greger was drafted twice. The first time, during the late stages of World War II, he was placed on limited service until the war ended, when he was shipped to Manila, Philippines, to help with the rebuilding effort.

More than 60 years later, in January 2005, Bill found himself conscripted for active duty once again. That's when a group of his fellow St. Leonard residents and former service members "volunteered" Bill to lead their new veterans organization.

As he had so long ago, Bill accepted his post without grumbling and endeavored to do his best as president pro tem of the group. Bill earned the loftier title of Commander, but his work has remained essentially the same. The group formed on the recommendation of Wellness Director Deb Stewart, who thought a regular gathering of St. Leonard's veterans might promote fellowship. Inspired to do more than simply enjoy one another's company, the 127 veterans initiated a project to create a memorial to deceased former residents who had served their country. This project eventually evolved into a large display with brass nameplates listing veterans among St. Leonard's current residents, as well as those who have passed on.

While this multi-year effort progressed, the group undertook a series of service projects to support local soldiers deployed overseas. Over the years, the veterans have raised funds to purchase and distribute phone cards, commissary cards, and desert cooling/hydration towels to members of the National Guard unit based in Kettering and a Dayton Marine military police (MP) company. Representatives of the veterans group also regularly participate in special activities such as the annual Veterans Day celebration at St. Leonard, dedication ceremonies to accompany ongoing construction of new facilities and amenities, and volunteer projects on campus and throughout the region. Members have also helped to organize group trips through the Honor Flight Network, a program based in Springfield that flies veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the WWII Memorial. In July 2007, the veterans began a project to capture and share some of the historic experiences of their members. St. Leonard had an active memoir group for residents, and Lou Liebold and Bob Lamb decided to encourage their fellow veterans to get involved.

Nearly two and a half years later, Liebold expects a collection of more than 30 stories by the veterans, ranging from brief remembrances to lengthy memoirs, to be published in 2010. He and Lamb found the work of soliciting and editing all of these tales more challenging than expected, but well worth the effort. They were also surprised by the content of those stories. While he doesn't consider his own service in Europe, which involved only a few months of combat, particularly exciting by comparison, Liebold contributed his own tale, which includes a firsthand account of liberating a concentration camp. Lamb, who was involved in the memoir group before helping to launch the veterans' version, published his own book-length memoir, War Stories and Memories, in 2008. Lamb's book is available, as the forthcoming compilation will be, through the St. Leonard store.

After 10 and 14 years at St. Leonard, respectively, Greger and Liebold are still thrilled to be part of this community and contribute to it whenever the opportunity arises. "It just gets to be like one big family," Greger said.

Team St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization

The St. Leonard Veterans' Service Organization offers the gift of phone cards for our troops to stay in touch with their families.