Staff writer
Five resident veterans and one military wife were treated to a special meal at St. Luke Living Center last week in observance of Veterans Day.
The group was taken into the kitchen, where they sat at festively decorated tables so they could order what they chose for lunch.
Percy Schrader served four years in the 20th Air Force, from 1950 to 1954. He got his discharge papers shortly before Veterans Day.
“I was just discharged last week,” Schrader said.
A fire at the office where he was discharged in South Carolina destroyed airmen’s records. Schrader found out about the fire a few years ago when he applied for benefits.
“I put in for my benefits and they said, ‘We don’t have nothing on you,’” Schrader said. “I told my kids and everyone, and they couldn’t find anything, either. Here about a week ago, somebody found them.”
Schrader isn’t sorry he served, though.
“I wouldn’t take anything for my experience, but I wouldn’t want to do it again,” Schrader said.
Allen Abbott enlisted in the Army at 16 and spent about 20 years.
Ivan Timm served in the infantry during World War II, doing battle on the front lines in Germany.
Beulah Weigart was married to her husband, Darrell Weigart, when he served in the Navy. Her brothers also served in WWII, she said.
Ed McGinness was in the Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1950. The Army Air Corps was the aviation arm of the Army until 1947, when the Department of the Air Force was established. McGinnes toured the world during his decade in the military.