PAGE !" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# "$!$

Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2010

War images still vivid for MacEdward

Daughter followed herdad into thearmed forces

Bristol native looks backon three wars

(See Rosie Spahn, Page 2)

(See Emmons, Page 6)

(See Foster MacEdward, Page 4)

By TAMARA HILMESMIDDLEBURY — Foster MacEdward,

or “Mac” as friends and family call him, turned 90 on Oct. 22. And though many years have passed, he still vividly recalls being just 22 years old and seeing other young men his age lying in the mud, arms shot off and with little white maggots beginning to wriggle and swarm.

“It was so wet and so humid that just

overnight, the white maggots would start working on you,” MacEdward said. “And I’d say to them, ‘How’re you doing?’ and they’d say, ‘Geez, Mac, if you’d just get me out of here I’d be all right.’”

“Here” was the mountainous terrain between Chabua, India, and Kun-ming, China, known as “The Hump” by the other men in the air force who, like MacEdward, were responsible for transporting supplies

from one base to another during World War II.

MacEdward joined the U.S. Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor, and following

Memphis, Tenn., MacEdward was shipped down to Boca Raton, Fla., on June 6, 1943, to begin the journey to the China-India-Burma Theater.

By ANDREA SUOZZOLEICESTER — Of the 40 women who

entered basic training with Rosie Spahn at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in August of 1964, just 17 graduated.

“It was hard,” said Spahn, a Leicester resident. “They’d tear everything out of you, then turn you into a soldier.”

Spahn didn’t actually go into active duty — women at that point didn’t enter the Air Force with the hope of being posted overseas. The 18-year-old who had never been on a plane instead headed to Texas, Alabama

year term in Air Force hospitals, while the

By TAMARA HILMESBRISTOL — Bruce Emmons, 85, took a

display case with a wooden frame off of his wall and laid it on the kitchen table. Inside, lay military badges in all shapes and colors — stripes, code of conduct medals for the Army and the Air Force, a Purple Heart, and medals for each war he served in.

There was one for Korea, one for Vietnam, and one for World War II. A blue-

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We Honor and Remember

Our Veterans

A Salute to All

Who Have Served

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Dad, thanks for your 20 years of service to our country from WWII, Iwo Jima, Korea, & Vietnam, as well as the home front. I am proud to be your son!

Rosie Spahn(Continued from Page 1)

(See Spahn, Page 3)

She joined, in part, for her father. He had been stationed in Africa serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the onset of polio forced him to return to the United States before his term of service was up.

“He always wanted his kids to go in and

A sister considered service, then decided not to. A brother left the armed forces on a medical release.

So Spahn was the one to spend her four years serving in the Air Force.

Her decision, she said, was unusual.“I think women in the military receive

But faced with the choices, Spahn opted for the military. Her other choices were to go to college, to get married or to get a job in a factory near her hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

So just after graduation, she headed for Lackland for basic, which was an overhaul of every aspect of their lives, from the way they made their beds to the way they polished their shoes. It was, Spahn remembered, overwhelming.

to the mess hall, walk in, get your food,

raised until every table had all four people.

Then there were the inspections. Uniforms had to be just-so, starched, with perfectly polished shoes and clean gloves. Floors had to be polished, and beds had to be perfectly made, with the sheets rolled down a certain number of inches.

During one inspection, one of the four

over the bedpost, was slightly above the rest. For that, she received a demerit.

In this orderly environment, women were not allowed to mingle with the men — it was only near the end of basic training that they were offered the privilege to have a cup of coffee with someone of the opposite gender.

After graduation Spahn headed to Alabama, where she was enrolled in medical specialist school. Though her entry testing had revealed an aptitude for data

processing, the Air Force needed people in the hospitals.‘YOU DID WHAT WAS NEEDED’

So she was sent to Alabama for operating room specialist school.

“I said, ‘OK, nothing with blood. A lab,

Alabama at the time was a center in the civil rights movement, and heading there meant heading into turmoil.

“Riots were happening, the Ku Klux Klan was there, the Montgomery Four had

black girls who died as a result a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1963.

But regardless of what went on off the base, during her time in the Air Force Spahn

Even after being posted to California and gaining the right — and the free time — to leave the base, she said the awareness of

in.

said. “The Vietnam war was going on, but it

In her duties as a surgical scrub technician, Spahn helped out in one of the two operating rooms in the hospital on Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, Calif. The hospital was just

families.The women lived in three barracks on

WAF (Women in the Air Force) Hill, above the base, each with her own room. They still had rules — their curfew was earlier than that of the men, and their hats still had to be at the proper angle, the skirts the right length, and their shoes polished.

But as time passed, Spahn and her friends ventured off of the base, attending concerts and talks in San Francisco, which was about

20 miles north.Then, after her term of duty ended, she

got an apartment in San Francisco and a job

would later marry, who was still working in the hospital on the base, came to the city to visit her — which she said was still considered outrageous, even in 1960s San Francisco.

Once he got out of the service, the two got married.

“We lived in San Francisco and protested

Eventually Spahn went back to work in hospitals, and after a divorce she took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled in college. That done, she moved back home to Rochester, where she worked with software. A new job brought her to New Hampshire, where she met Mike Korkuc, a Vermont native who would become her domestic partner.

These days Spahn lives in Leicester and works for the information technology

LEICESTER RESIDENT ROSIE Spahn was stationed in California and worked as a surgical scrub technician for the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Thanks does not fully express the depth of our gratitude to the Veterans and the men & women

presently serving our country in the Armed Forces.

PAGE !" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# $"!" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# $"!" PAGE %

To all the Veterans: Thank you for so courageously serving our Country!

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department of the Counseling Service of Addison County. She looks back on her time in the Air Force with a mixture of emotions.

“I got a job skill — they gave it to me,” she said. “And I got to see California, somewhere I would never have gone if I’d stayed home. I would have been in a factory

somewhere.”A photo album of Polaroids from those

years shows those times: friends, spotless rooms, service members relaxing on their time off, drinks in hand.

“There are some memories — some good stories,” she said with a smile.

Reporter Andrea Suozzo is at andreas@addisonindependent.com.

Spahn(Continued from Page 2)

ROSIE SPAHN ATTENDED operating room specialist school in Alabama while serving in the Air Force in the 1960s.

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Foster MacEdward(Continued from Page 1)

The 22-year-old from Union, Maine, had not known what to expect.

“Nobody knew what India was,” MacEdward said. “Nobody on the airplane knew what India was about. But it was wartime. Everybody was ‘do or die.’”

MacEdward was born in Strong, Maine, and moved with his family to Union when he was still young. He grew up collecting the milk from cows and pasteurizing it at his father’s creamery. But his interest had always lain in

“We had airplanes as kids,” he said. “We put them together. They

were interested in them. We had seven children in

and two girls. But we didn’t have any money — I couldn’t afford any bolts or nails or anything else. Maine was so poor then, in ’27, ’28 and ’29 — still is.”

When he grew older, MacEdward left the farm to attend the University of Maine to study engineering. Before he could

and MacEdward joined the service as a pilot.

from Florida to Haiti, then Brazil, over to Ascension Island and through the Sudan, MacEdward landed on the polo grounds of Chabua in northeastern India. From

or the path from Chabua to Kun-ming, China. The route was about 550 miles long, one-way — about the same distance from Middlebury to Richmond, Va., according to MacEdward. But what lay between the two points was awesome — the Himalaya mountain range.

“So many airplanes went down on this route that they called it the Aluminum Trail,” he said. When he looked down from the cockpit, he could see the metallic remains of fallen aircraft glittering along the

riverbanks and mountain ridges. MacEdward explained that the

American C-46 cargo planes and their crews frequently fell victim to Japanese

the trip. “The big problem we had there was

the icing,” he said. “The icing would stop the engines and then you couldn’t

hold altitude. Your minimum altitude was about 15- or 16,000 feet, and if you lost an engine, the airplane would only hold altitude down to seven.”

“The Hump” is a particularly treacherous region of Western Yunnan with snowy peaks sliced dramatically by deep river valleys. In order to keep the plane from crashing into the craggy surface of the Himalayas, pilots had to revert back to the geography lessons that they had memorized during training.

“You had to know where you were,” MacEdward said. “There were three rivers there, Salween, Mekong and Yangtze, and between each one of those, the mountain would go up to 14,000 feet. So you had to memorize the hump so that if you lost it, you could go down into that valley and you could

But MacEdward was lucky enough to sidestep both the dangerous conditions

shot at a few times, his plane never went down.

“It was a game for me,” he said. “I had the airplane, and it was a game not to get shot down. Get out there and see what you could see but don’t get shot down. Don’t become a casualty. It was a kind of a game. Don’t forget when I went over

there I was only 22. And when you’re 22 you don’t know much, but you’re healthy, you know.”

For the young pilot, every day meant a new adventure.

“I went all over the place,” he said. “I done everything I could. I think every trip was an adventure — I tried to see the fun of it.”

But looking on the bright side was not always easy.

“The hardest part was the living conditions,” he said. “You lived in a grass hut and you slept on a rope bed and there were usually anywhere from six to 10 people in your room. You didn’t have good food and the water — you had to be very careful with the water. You were always on the verge of having ‘The

Belly.’”“The Belly,” MacEdward explained,

was a highly uncomfortable condition caused by the expansion of an oxygen bubble in one’s stomach that doubled in size in altitudes of 16,000 feet.

time,” he said. “You never had the health you had here. It was gas. You would blow up with gas in the intestine.”

Along with “The Belly,” MacEdward (See MacEdward, Page 5)

“Today everybody complains all the time about who knows what, but during wartime — those young kids — I never, ever heard one complaint.”

— Foster MacEdward

“I had the airplane, and it was a game not to get shot down. Get out there and see what you could see but don’t get shot down. Don’t become a casualty. It was a kind of a game. Don’t forget when I went over there I was only 22. And when you’re 22 you don’t know much.”

— Foster MacEdward

years to work on C-47s — “the workhorse of the Air Force,” he chimed. He lived in Ukodo, just outside of Tokyo. As he was stationed in Japan for three years, he had time to explore the country a bit before returning to the United States.

“I went to the top of Mount Fuji once,” he said. “They’ve got good trails up there. They have a restaurant halfway up that you can stop at — this was back in 1955.”COMBAT MISSIONS IN VIETNAM

In the 10 years following his return and before he left for Vietnam, Emmons lived and worked in Westover, Mass., where he continued to do maintenance on C-47s. After another stint of training at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Florida, he was sent to Vietnam in January of 1965,

“I was in the 19th Air Commandos,” he

dropping in supplies to military bases, hauling out wounded and dead.”

Along with delivering supplies, the

army posts that were under attack at night.

“One night, I remember, the number one engine on the plane, which was the left engine, started messing up, so we had

jungle,” he said.Emmons repaired the broken engine by

back in the air in time to complete their

tops of dark jungles, to the Saigon base.

missions that Emmons completed while stationed in Vietnam, he crashed his plane in the middle of a rice paddy near Canto.

“It was totaled,” he said. “They had to send trucks out to pick us up and take us back to the base.”

Two days after he crashed, on Oct. 28, 1965, Emmons was wounded just after taking off.

“I took off and a shell came through the bottom of the airplane,” he recounted. “It was just a 50-caliber shell and when it hit the chains, it shattered and I got hit in the arm.

“It’s hot, too, when it hits,” he added.

After receiving the wound that earned him the Purple Heart, Emmons’ commanding

Tau. Emmons remembers approaching his

combat missions in, and you crashed the day before yesterday and you were hit.

They’re after your butt, so you’re staying on the ground,’” Emmons recalled. “He

days away from home in Bristol — a far cry from the six-man huts in Tan Son Nhut where he lived for eight months, hardly ever stepping foot off the base.

“You didn’t go off the base often,” he said. “You could go into Saigon every once in awhile, into town, but then you had to watch out for these shoe-shine boys.”

The little village boys would come up to the soldiers, asking to shine their shoes. When they walked away, they’d leave their kits behind.

“And when they did, you ran like the devil, because generally, you wouldn’t get too far before the kit would explode,” Emmons said.

Men in restaurants, he said, would pull a similar stunt with their briefcases. One could be sitting down to lunch when someone would walk in with a briefcase. They would sit down and eat their meal, and when they paid, got up and left, the briefcase would still be sitting beneath the table. Emmons quickly learned that when

one saw a man like this get up and leave, he better get up and leave with him.

“Vietnam was the most traumatic — you

there,” he said. “You could be walking down the street and somebody would walk up to you and stick a knife in you.”

When the war in Vietnam came to a

Massachusetts, then Maine and Florida before returning to Bristol to stay. He had heard that Glenna was still in the area, and he dialed 411 to get her number.

“Two years later, I moved back up here and we got married in 2006,” he said. “We were married four years ago in this room right here, 20 minutes past two, by George Smith.”

Smith, who performed the ceremony in the tiny kitchen of Emmons’s East Street home, had been one of his high school classmates before he had been drafted into World War II.

Things had changed in Bristol since

store that was once called Japanese Gardens, had changed its name to Bristol Gardens once the U.S. declared war on Japan. And Emmons had changed, too.

over a quarter of that time in the armed services.

“Whenever my time was up, I reenlisted. I just never got out,” Emmons said. “It got so I’d hear a plane go over and I could tell if something was wrong with the engine.”

Germans(Continued from Page 7)

“C rations are the little cans. You’d get pork and beans, spaghetti and meatballs and stuff like that. Then yeast bread, a big bar of pure chocolate and a pack of four cigarettes. K ration was about the same, except it was drier — it would come in a box instead of a can.”

— Bruce Emmons

3108 VT Rte 22A

Mon. - Fri. 7:30 - 5Sat. 8-12BRANDON, VT 247-9500

Thank Youto all who have

served and are serving!We Salute You!

Veterans Day is November 11th

Honoring those who have served & those who still serve in our country’s

armed forces.

VERGENNESAmerican Legion Post #14

Ladies Auxiliary Unit #14

Sons of theAmerican Legion Sq. #14

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and his fellow pilots and crewmates had to watch out for the tetanus, typhoid, cholera and dengue fever that preyed on those living in such a tropical, humid climate.

“You’re half-sick all the time,” he said. “You never have the health you have here. Over there you feel half-good the whole time. You never really feel good. It’s rainy, it’s wet, it’s 100 percent humidity and the scorpions and rats — you’re in bed and the rats run over you — that kind of thing.”

But miraculously, MacEdward made it out alive and remained in China until 1950, when the Korean War broke out. He was recalled to the United States, where he was stationed at the U.S. Air Force base in Westover, Mass.

Even after he was discharged,

52 years before he had to slow down, and

that time. He now has his two feet planted

Middlebury, where he lives with his wife of 50 years, Kirsten.

Though nearly 65 years have passed since he was dodging bullets and circumventing the jagged peaks of the Himalayas, his

memories of those great and terrible adventures in China and India prevail. He still remembers the injured men who willingly suffered for the cause.

“And the thing is, they’d never complain,” he recalled, sitting in the corner of his basement that he refers to as the “inner sanctum,” surrounded by the clutter of military trinkets — paintings of C-46s, boxes of medals,

old pairs of pilots’ goggles and maps of East Asia.

“Today everybody complains all the time about who knows what, but during wartime — those young kids — I never, ever heard one complaint,” he said. “They just wanted to get out of there, to get out of the mud. I can’t get over that.”

Tamara Hilmes is at tamarah@addisonindependent.com.

MacEdward(Continued from Page 4)

“You lived in a grass hut and you slept on a rope bed and there were usually anywhere from six to 10 people in your room. You didn’t have good food and water.”

— Foster MacEdward

Life Member-

To those whoprotected and served,

We Thank Youfor the

dedication

shown and the

sacrifices made.

213 Exchange Street

Always remembered

CITIZENS OF HANCOCK this past Memorial Day dedicated a new honor roll that lists the names of all local residents who have served in the U.S. armed forces since World War I. The new monument, located near the new

former Hancock plywood mill.

VPT to air veterans programsSTATEWIDE — Vermont Public

Television will honor and help veterans with two specials airing on Nov. 11 and 12. VPT’s monthly “Public Square” special, broadcast and webcast live on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m., will look at services available in Vermont for veterans of all ages.

Host Kristin Carlson and panelists will invite viewers to call 1-866-424-LIVE with questions during the show. Questions and comments are also welcome in advance to connect@vpt.org.

The program will be broadcast statewide

and be webcast at www.vpt.org. Links to resources for veterans will be posted to www.vpt.org.

On Friday, Nov. 12, at 10 p.m., VPT will broadcast “The War at Home,” a moving documentary produced by students at

personal stories of the readjustments that combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face when they return home.

Many of those interviewed are Norwich student veterans. Some of the student producers have been or will be deployed to Afghanistan upon graduation.

Vergennes Legion hosts meal, serviceVERGENNES — Thursday, Nov. 11,

Veterans Day, will be a busy one at American Legion Post 14 in Vergennes.

After a noon luncheon that included the

for area veterans and their spouses and members of Autumn Years Senior Citizens of Vergennes, the post in the evening will conduct its annual Post Everlasting service at the beginning of the regularly scheduled 7:30 p.m. meeting.

This solemn ceremony, which is conducted

in November to coincide with Veterans Day, honors members of Post 14 who have died during the preceding 12 months. This year, 21 deceased members will be remembered including 10 World War II veterans, three

served in Vietnam. Invitations to the ceremony are being

sent to the next-of-kin of all the deceased members.

Post 14 is located at 100 Armory Lane in Vergennes.

Ceremony honoring veterans set in BristolBRISTOL — Nov. 11 of each year is the

day that Americans ensure veterans know

they have made in the lives to keep our country free.

The public is invited to join the Bristol American Legion Commander Ron LaRose and the Bristol Boy Scouts in a brief ceremony on the park honoring all veterans on Thursday from 5:30-5:45 p.m.

We salute allU.S. Veterans

who have served and those who are

presently serving. We offer our

sincere gratitude for all that you

have given.

The Addison Independent

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On this Veterans Day, we give thanksfor the service so many have given.

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and-yellow striped badge with a little brass leaf stood for the 385 combat missions in which he had taken part during his 25 years of military service.

“I guess I just liked the military life,” Emmons said, shrugging his shoulder. He

grew up in a house on Munsill Avenue, just down the road from his current East Street residence. He trained with the Vermont State Guard under the late Dr. Warren Slocum of Middlebury before heading down to Camp

With him went his friend, Lincoln resident

were shipped out to England, then France. OFF TO WORLD WAR II

just for processing and they shipped us across the channel to France in January of

Germany, where I joined up with Patton’s

Emmons judged that Gen. George S. Patton was exactly how he was portrayed in

guy to play Patton,” Emmons said, recalling the general’s intense manner.

Serving under Patton was beyond strenuous, and when Emmons and the others

were not avoiding stray mortar shells, they entertained themselves by doing things like raiding chicken houses.

“We’d been eating K rations and C

rations for so long — if we got the chance to get fresh eggs, we’d take them,” he said, chuckling.

Emmons recalled the meager meals that

were delivered to their base camp on trucks every so often.

“C rations are the little cans,” he said.

“You’d get pork and beans, spaghetti and

bread, a big bar of pure chocolate and a pack of four cigarettes. K ration was about the same, except it was drier — it would come in a box instead of a can.”

eat and sleep in buildings in the battle-scarred towns that they had taken over that day.

“We stationed ourselves in any building we could

take over a town and take the buildings we wanted and stay there. Sometimes we’d stay there two days, sometimes only one night, and then we’d move on.”

It was Patton who urged his troops ever onward, never allowing them more than a moment’s rest as they made their way across the bloodied Rhine and into Germany.

“Patton, he was out ahead of all the rest of them,” he said. “When he got started, he didn’t want to stop.”

“All the way from the time we crossed the Rhine was a battle, all the way through until it was over,” he said. “Going down the Autobahn, we were getting shelled all the time.”

One got used to the shelling after a spell, Emmons said, but never completely so.

“One day, we were going up the Autobahn and we got shelled,” he recalled. “We dug in on the side and by that time, a mortar shell landed right … where we had been sitting.”

Near-death experiences were part of the

Emmons was standing with one man in front of him, and another by the name of Eubanks

were all about eight or nine feet apart.

“And a mortar shell landed between me and this front guy,” Emmons recalled, tracing the scenario into the surface of his kitchen table as he spoke. “It killed him,” he said, pointing at the invisible man standing in front, “wounded the guy behind me, and just knocked me down.”

Emmons, throughout his 25 years of service, had a number of close shaves, but always seemed to come out only slightly scathed.

at invisible enemies — German troops

achieved in Europe.

Bruce Emmons(Continued from Page 1)

(See Emmons, Page 7)

Emmons(Continued from Page 6)

(See Germans, Page 9)

after that for the next couple of days,” he

woods like ants — what was left of them. When they got out in the open they’d drop

rear echelon.”Emmons remained in Europe until

September, when he was shipped back across the Atlantic on the Aquitania, a four-deck ship that carried an entire combat division. He landed in New York on Sept.

leave.BACK TO BRISTOL, ON TO KOREA

He eventually returned to Bristol High

war, Emmons laughed, school seemed “real

Air Force pilot. While at home, he dated

would become his wife. But life as a pilot, it seems, was just

not meant to be. When Emmons tried to enlist, he was told that he was six months over the age limit. Instead, he was sent to

training. By that time, the Korean War had

overseas.“I was over there for a year,” he said. “I

I was in an aircraft maintenance camp.

Emmons worked in what they called

planes that were used to haul ammunition and other supplies to the front lines.

From Korea, he went to Japan for three

“Vietnam was the most traumatic — you didn’t know who you were fighting over there. You could be walking down the street and somebody would walk up to you and stick a knife in you.”

— Bruce Emmons

Open 7 nights plus weekend lunches Fri., Sat. & Sun.

Huge Salad Bar!

Fire & Icethanks

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On Veterans Daywe honor thosewho have served

and those who arepresently serving inour armed forces.

MIDDLEBURY20 Seymour Street

802-388-7983www.BillBeck.com

BRISTOL RESIDENT BRUCE Emmons served with the military between 1943 and 1968 and saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Independent photo/Trent CampbellBRUCE EMMONS DISPLAYS some of the medals he earned during service in three wars.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

SpecialAppreciationto all of our

Veteransand thosewho are

currentlyserving in ourArmed Forces.

Cousino Financial Services23 West St., Bristol, VT

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and-yellow striped badge with a little brass leaf stood for the 385 combat missions in which he had taken part during his 25 years of military service.

“I guess I just liked the military life,” Emmons said, shrugging his shoulder. He

grew up in a house on Munsill Avenue, just down the road from his current East Street residence. He trained with the Vermont State Guard under the late Dr. Warren Slocum of Middlebury before heading down to Camp

With him went his friend, Lincoln resident

were shipped out to England, then France. OFF TO WORLD WAR II

just for processing and they shipped us across the channel to France in January of

Germany, where I joined up with Patton’s

Emmons judged that Gen. George S. Patton was exactly how he was portrayed in

guy to play Patton,” Emmons said, recalling the general’s intense manner.

Serving under Patton was beyond strenuous, and when Emmons and the others

were not avoiding stray mortar shells, they entertained themselves by doing things like raiding chicken houses.

“We’d been eating K rations and C

rations for so long — if we got the chance to get fresh eggs, we’d take them,” he said, chuckling.

Emmons recalled the meager meals that

were delivered to their base camp on trucks every so often.

“C rations are the little cans,” he said.

“You’d get pork and beans, spaghetti and

bread, a big bar of pure chocolate and a pack of four cigarettes. K ration was about the same, except it was drier — it would come in a box instead of a can.”

eat and sleep in buildings in the battle-scarred towns that they had taken over that day.

“We stationed ourselves in any building we could

take over a town and take the buildings we wanted and stay there. Sometimes we’d stay there two days, sometimes only one night, and then we’d move on.”

It was Patton who urged his troops ever onward, never allowing them more than a moment’s rest as they made their way across the bloodied Rhine and into Germany.

“Patton, he was out ahead of all the rest of them,” he said. “When he got started, he didn’t want to stop.”

“All the way from the time we crossed the Rhine was a battle, all the way through until it was over,” he said. “Going down the Autobahn, we were getting shelled all the time.”

One got used to the shelling after a spell, Emmons said, but never completely so.

“One day, we were going up the Autobahn and we got shelled,” he recalled. “We dug in on the side and by that time, a mortar shell landed right … where we had been sitting.”

Near-death experiences were part of the

Emmons was standing with one man in front of him, and another by the name of Eubanks

were all about eight or nine feet apart.

“And a mortar shell landed between me and this front guy,” Emmons recalled, tracing the scenario into the surface of his kitchen table as he spoke. “It killed him,” he said, pointing at the invisible man standing in front, “wounded the guy behind me, and just knocked me down.”

Emmons, throughout his 25 years of service, had a number of close shaves, but always seemed to come out only slightly scathed.

at invisible enemies — German troops

achieved in Europe.

Bruce Emmons(Continued from Page 1)

(See Emmons, Page 7)

Emmons(Continued from Page 6)

(See Germans, Page 9)

after that for the next couple of days,” he

woods like ants — what was left of them. When they got out in the open they’d drop

rear echelon.”Emmons remained in Europe until

September, when he was shipped back across the Atlantic on the Aquitania, a four-deck ship that carried an entire combat division. He landed in New York on Sept.

leave.BACK TO BRISTOL, ON TO KOREA

He eventually returned to Bristol High

war, Emmons laughed, school seemed “real

Air Force pilot. While at home, he dated

would become his wife. But life as a pilot, it seems, was just

not meant to be. When Emmons tried to enlist, he was told that he was six months over the age limit. Instead, he was sent to

training. By that time, the Korean War had

overseas.“I was over there for a year,” he said. “I

I was in an aircraft maintenance camp.

Emmons worked in what they called

planes that were used to haul ammunition and other supplies to the front lines.

From Korea, he went to Japan for three

“Vietnam was the most traumatic — you didn’t know who you were fighting over there. You could be walking down the street and somebody would walk up to you and stick a knife in you.”

— Bruce Emmons

Open 7 nights plus weekend lunches Fri., Sat. & Sun.

Huge Salad Bar!

Fire & Icethanks

YOU!10% OFFValid for whole table.

Fun, Affordable, Local Dining!

Please call to let us know you are coming with a Veteran!

* Not valid w/ any other coupons, promotions or offers

COUPON

CO

UP

ON

CO

UP

ON

B!"#$%& A'(!")*+ L(,"%+, I+). P%#$ -.

Salutes all Veterans-those that served in the pastand those currently serving.

B!")/ 0%!'# 0%! $1( '('%!"*&*!( #$"&&

*2*"&*3&(.

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'(($# *$ 45' $1( 6$1

W(7+(#7*8 %0 (2(!8 '%+$1.

On Veterans Daywe honor thosewho have served

and those who arepresently serving inour armed forces.

MIDDLEBURY20 Seymour Street

802-388-7983www.BillBeck.com

BRISTOL RESIDENT BRUCE Emmons served with the military between 1943 and 1968 and saw action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Independent photo/Trent CampbellBRUCE EMMONS DISPLAYS some of the medals he earned during service in three wars.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

SpecialAppreciationto all of our

Veteransand thosewho are

currentlyserving in ourArmed Forces.

Cousino Financial Services23 West St., Bristol, VT

453-2497

PAGE ! A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" $%#% A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" $%#% PAGE &

and his fellow pilots and crewmates had to watch out for the tetanus, typhoid, cholera and dengue fever that preyed on those living in such a tropical, humid climate.

“You’re half-sick all the time,” he said. “You never have the health you have here. Over there you feel half-good the whole time. You never really feel good. It’s rainy, it’s wet, it’s 100 percent humidity and the scorpions and rats — you’re in bed and the rats run over you — that kind of thing.”

But miraculously, MacEdward made it out alive and remained in China until 1950, when the Korean War broke out. He was recalled to the United States, where he was stationed at the U.S. Air Force base in Westover, Mass.

Even after he was discharged,

52 years before he had to slow down, and

that time. He now has his two feet planted

Middlebury, where he lives with his wife of 50 years, Kirsten.

Though nearly 65 years have passed since he was dodging bullets and circumventing the jagged peaks of the Himalayas, his

memories of those great and terrible adventures in China and India prevail. He still remembers the injured men who willingly suffered for the cause.

“And the thing is, they’d never complain,” he recalled, sitting in the corner of his basement that he refers to as the “inner sanctum,” surrounded by the clutter of military trinkets — paintings of C-46s, boxes of medals,

old pairs of pilots’ goggles and maps of East Asia.

“Today everybody complains all the time about who knows what, but during wartime — those young kids — I never, ever heard one complaint,” he said. “They just wanted to get out of there, to get out of the mud. I can’t get over that.”

Tamara Hilmes is at tamarah@addisonindependent.com.

MacEdward(Continued from Page 4)

“You lived in a grass hut and you slept on a rope bed and there were usually anywhere from six to 10 people in your room. You didn’t have good food and water.”

— Foster MacEdward

Life Member-

To those whoprotected and served,

We Thank Youfor the

dedication

shown and the

sacrifices made.

213 Exchange Street

Always remembered

CITIZENS OF HANCOCK this past Memorial Day dedicated a new honor roll that lists the names of all local residents who have served in the U.S. armed forces since World War I. The new monument, located near the new

former Hancock plywood mill.

VPT to air veterans programsSTATEWIDE — Vermont Public

Television will honor and help veterans with two specials airing on Nov. 11 and 12. VPT’s monthly “Public Square” special, broadcast and webcast live on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 8 p.m., will look at services available in Vermont for veterans of all ages.

Host Kristin Carlson and panelists will invite viewers to call 1-866-424-LIVE with questions during the show. Questions and comments are also welcome in advance to connect@vpt.org.

The program will be broadcast statewide

and be webcast at www.vpt.org. Links to resources for veterans will be posted to www.vpt.org.

On Friday, Nov. 12, at 10 p.m., VPT will broadcast “The War at Home,” a moving documentary produced by students at

personal stories of the readjustments that combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face when they return home.

Many of those interviewed are Norwich student veterans. Some of the student producers have been or will be deployed to Afghanistan upon graduation.

Vergennes Legion hosts meal, serviceVERGENNES — Thursday, Nov. 11,

Veterans Day, will be a busy one at American Legion Post 14 in Vergennes.

After a noon luncheon that included the

for area veterans and their spouses and members of Autumn Years Senior Citizens of Vergennes, the post in the evening will conduct its annual Post Everlasting service at the beginning of the regularly scheduled 7:30 p.m. meeting.

This solemn ceremony, which is conducted

in November to coincide with Veterans Day, honors members of Post 14 who have died during the preceding 12 months. This year, 21 deceased members will be remembered including 10 World War II veterans, three

served in Vietnam. Invitations to the ceremony are being

sent to the next-of-kin of all the deceased members.

Post 14 is located at 100 Armory Lane in Vergennes.

Ceremony honoring veterans set in BristolBRISTOL — Nov. 11 of each year is the

day that Americans ensure veterans know

they have made in the lives to keep our country free.

The public is invited to join the Bristol American Legion Commander Ron LaRose and the Bristol Boy Scouts in a brief ceremony on the park honoring all veterans on Thursday from 5:30-5:45 p.m.

We salute allU.S. Veterans

who have served and those who are

presently serving. We offer our

sincere gratitude for all that you

have given.

The Addison Independent

PAGE ! A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" $%#% A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" $%#% PAGE &

Foster MacEdward(Continued from Page 1)

The 22-year-old from Union, Maine, had not known what to expect.

“Nobody knew what India was,” MacEdward said. “Nobody on the airplane knew what India was about. But it was wartime. Everybody was ‘do or die.’”

MacEdward was born in Strong, Maine, and moved with his family to Union when he was still young. He grew up collecting the milk from cows and pasteurizing it at his father’s creamery. But his interest had always lain in

“We had airplanes as kids,” he said. “We put them together. They

were interested in them. We had seven children in

and two girls. But we didn’t have any money — I couldn’t afford any bolts or nails or anything else. Maine was so poor then, in ’27, ’28 and ’29 — still is.”

When he grew older, MacEdward left the farm to attend the University of Maine to study engineering. Before he could

and MacEdward joined the service as a pilot.

from Florida to Haiti, then Brazil, over to Ascension Island and through the Sudan, MacEdward landed on the polo grounds of Chabua in northeastern India. From

or the path from Chabua to Kun-ming, China. The route was about 550 miles long, one-way — about the same distance from Middlebury to Richmond, Va., according to MacEdward. But what lay between the two points was awesome — the Himalaya mountain range.

“So many airplanes went down on this route that they called it the Aluminum Trail,” he said. When he looked down from the cockpit, he could see the metallic remains of fallen aircraft glittering along the

riverbanks and mountain ridges. MacEdward explained that the

American C-46 cargo planes and their crews frequently fell victim to Japanese

the trip. “The big problem we had there was

the icing,” he said. “The icing would stop the engines and then you couldn’t

hold altitude. Your minimum altitude was about 15- or 16,000 feet, and if you lost an engine, the airplane would only hold altitude down to seven.”

“The Hump” is a particularly treacherous region of Western Yunnan with snowy peaks sliced dramatically by deep river valleys. In order to keep the plane from crashing into the craggy surface of the Himalayas, pilots had to revert back to the geography lessons that they had memorized during training.

“You had to know where you were,” MacEdward said. “There were three rivers there, Salween, Mekong and Yangtze, and between each one of those, the mountain would go up to 14,000 feet. So you had to memorize the hump so that if you lost it, you could go down into that valley and you could

But MacEdward was lucky enough to sidestep both the dangerous conditions

shot at a few times, his plane never went down.

“It was a game for me,” he said. “I had the airplane, and it was a game not to get shot down. Get out there and see what you could see but don’t get shot down. Don’t become a casualty. It was a kind of a game. Don’t forget when I went over

there I was only 22. And when you’re 22 you don’t know much, but you’re healthy, you know.”

For the young pilot, every day meant a new adventure.

“I went all over the place,” he said. “I done everything I could. I think every trip was an adventure — I tried to see the fun of it.”

But looking on the bright side was not always easy.

“The hardest part was the living conditions,” he said. “You lived in a grass hut and you slept on a rope bed and there were usually anywhere from six to 10 people in your room. You didn’t have good food and the water — you had to be very careful with the water. You were always on the verge of having ‘The

Belly.’”“The Belly,” MacEdward explained,

was a highly uncomfortable condition caused by the expansion of an oxygen bubble in one’s stomach that doubled in size in altitudes of 16,000 feet.

time,” he said. “You never had the health you had here. It was gas. You would blow up with gas in the intestine.”

Along with “The Belly,” MacEdward (See MacEdward, Page 5)

“Today everybody complains all the time about who knows what, but during wartime — those young kids — I never, ever heard one complaint.”

— Foster MacEdward

“I had the airplane, and it was a game not to get shot down. Get out there and see what you could see but don’t get shot down. Don’t become a casualty. It was a kind of a game. Don’t forget when I went over there I was only 22. And when you’re 22 you don’t know much.”

— Foster MacEdward

years to work on C-47s — “the workhorse of the Air Force,” he chimed. He lived in Ukodo, just outside of Tokyo. As he was stationed in Japan for three years, he had time to explore the country a bit before returning to the United States.

“I went to the top of Mount Fuji once,” he said. “They’ve got good trails up there. They have a restaurant halfway up that you can stop at — this was back in 1955.”COMBAT MISSIONS IN VIETNAM

In the 10 years following his return and before he left for Vietnam, Emmons lived and worked in Westover, Mass., where he continued to do maintenance on C-47s. After another stint of training at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Florida, he was sent to Vietnam in January of 1965,

“I was in the 19th Air Commandos,” he

dropping in supplies to military bases, hauling out wounded and dead.”

Along with delivering supplies, the

army posts that were under attack at night.

“One night, I remember, the number one engine on the plane, which was the left engine, started messing up, so we had

jungle,” he said.Emmons repaired the broken engine by

back in the air in time to complete their

tops of dark jungles, to the Saigon base.

missions that Emmons completed while stationed in Vietnam, he crashed his plane in the middle of a rice paddy near Canto.

“It was totaled,” he said. “They had to send trucks out to pick us up and take us back to the base.”

Two days after he crashed, on Oct. 28, 1965, Emmons was wounded just after taking off.

“I took off and a shell came through the bottom of the airplane,” he recounted. “It was just a 50-caliber shell and when it hit the chains, it shattered and I got hit in the arm.

“It’s hot, too, when it hits,” he added.

After receiving the wound that earned him the Purple Heart, Emmons’ commanding

Tau. Emmons remembers approaching his

combat missions in, and you crashed the day before yesterday and you were hit.

They’re after your butt, so you’re staying on the ground,’” Emmons recalled. “He

days away from home in Bristol — a far cry from the six-man huts in Tan Son Nhut where he lived for eight months, hardly ever stepping foot off the base.

“You didn’t go off the base often,” he said. “You could go into Saigon every once in awhile, into town, but then you had to watch out for these shoe-shine boys.”

The little village boys would come up to the soldiers, asking to shine their shoes. When they walked away, they’d leave their kits behind.

“And when they did, you ran like the devil, because generally, you wouldn’t get too far before the kit would explode,” Emmons said.

Men in restaurants, he said, would pull a similar stunt with their briefcases. One could be sitting down to lunch when someone would walk in with a briefcase. They would sit down and eat their meal, and when they paid, got up and left, the briefcase would still be sitting beneath the table. Emmons quickly learned that when

one saw a man like this get up and leave, he better get up and leave with him.

“Vietnam was the most traumatic — you

there,” he said. “You could be walking down the street and somebody would walk up to you and stick a knife in you.”

When the war in Vietnam came to a

Massachusetts, then Maine and Florida before returning to Bristol to stay. He had heard that Glenna was still in the area, and he dialed 411 to get her number.

“Two years later, I moved back up here and we got married in 2006,” he said. “We were married four years ago in this room right here, 20 minutes past two, by George Smith.”

Smith, who performed the ceremony in the tiny kitchen of Emmons’s East Street home, had been one of his high school classmates before he had been drafted into World War II.

Things had changed in Bristol since

store that was once called Japanese Gardens, had changed its name to Bristol Gardens once the U.S. declared war on Japan. And Emmons had changed, too.

over a quarter of that time in the armed services.

“Whenever my time was up, I reenlisted. I just never got out,” Emmons said. “It got so I’d hear a plane go over and I could tell if something was wrong with the engine.”

Germans(Continued from Page 7)

“C rations are the little cans. You’d get pork and beans, spaghetti and meatballs and stuff like that. Then yeast bread, a big bar of pure chocolate and a pack of four cigarettes. K ration was about the same, except it was drier — it would come in a box instead of a can.”

— Bruce Emmons

3108 VT Rte 22A

Mon. - Fri. 7:30 - 5Sat. 8-12BRANDON, VT 247-9500

Thank Youto all who have

served and are serving!We Salute You!

Veterans Day is November 11th

Honoring those who have served & those who still serve in our country’s

armed forces.

VERGENNESAmerican Legion Post #14

Ladies Auxiliary Unit #14

Sons of theAmerican Legion Sq. #14

PAGE !" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# $"!" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# $"!" PAGE %

To all the Veterans: Thank you for so courageously serving our Country!

Champlain Valley Orthopedics

WE SALUTE OUR TROOPS!

We Salute You!

SUBMITTED BY ELLEN FENN, MIDDLEBURY

Major

US Marine CorpsStationed in Command Quaters, NC

Thank you for serving!

SUBMITTED BY STEVEN STANLEY, SALISBURY

PFCUS Army

Stationed in Vietnam 1966 - 11 June 1967 Kia

PFC Brileya, Charlie Company 2 BTN 22 INF 4th & 25th Infantry Div. Kia 11 June 1967

SUBMITTED BY CINDY SLATER, MIDDLEBURY

VT Air National Guard

Stationed in Kuwait, 2008

Remembering your service to our countryand your part in the war on terrorism.With much love and pride, your wife.

SUBMITTED BY ANNA M. HAIGIS

Lieutenant Colonel US Army, Vermont National Guards

Stationed in Germany, Korea,Missouri & Georgia

Very good army engineer and member of the Vermont National Guard. We all miss you!

SUBMITTED BY CAROL QUENNEVILLE, WHITING

Sergeant US Army

Stationed at Fort Bliss, TX

We are so proud of you for protecting our country.Love your wife Alexis, Mom, Dad & Justin

SUBMITTED BY DAN & DIANE ADAM, LINCOLN

Staff Sergeant E6

US Air Force

Stationed at Elmendorf A.F.B., AK

Staff Sergeant E6

US Army

Stationed at Fort Richardson, AK

We love you both and are real proud of you.Mom & Dad Adam

SUBMITTED BY HENRIETTA HASKINS, BRISTOL

PFC, Vermont Guards

Stationed at Camp Pheonix, Afghanistan

You are doing a great job. We are so proud of you.Love you millions, xxoo

SUBMITTED BY MAUREEN TIERNEY, LECIESTER

Staff Sergeant Air Force

Stationed in Asian Pacific Theater

Dad - Miss you, love you,proud of you and your

two Purple Hearts.

department of the Counseling Service of Addison County. She looks back on her time in the Air Force with a mixture of emotions.

“I got a job skill — they gave it to me,” she said. “And I got to see California, somewhere I would never have gone if I’d stayed home. I would have been in a factory

somewhere.”A photo album of Polaroids from those

years shows those times: friends, spotless rooms, service members relaxing on their time off, drinks in hand.

“There are some memories — some good stories,” she said with a smile.

Reporter Andrea Suozzo is at andreas@addisonindependent.com.

Spahn(Continued from Page 2)

ROSIE SPAHN ATTENDED operating room specialist school in Alabama while serving in the Air Force in the 1960s.

PAGE ! A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" !$#$ A publication of the Addison Independent" November ##" !$#$ PAGE ##

We Honor and Remember

Our Veterans

A Salute to All

Who Have Served

Sanderson -Ducharme Funeral HomeLocally Owned and Operated

117 South Main St. Middlebury 388-2311

We Salute You!

SUBMITTED BY ROD & SHELLY COUSINO, BRISTOL

Lt. CommanderUS Navy

Stationed in Norfolk, VAWe are proud of you. Thank you for your

service and thank you to all men and women serving in our armed forces.

SUBMITTED BY CINDY ELDER, VERGENNES

Staff SergeantUS Army

Stationed in Iraq

I’m proud of my son for sacrificing his life for others and our country, we pray every

day for a safe return. Love, Mom

SUBMITTED BY DONNA MCKAY, MIDDLEBURY

Lieutenant CommanderNavy

Stationed in Pacific Fleet in WWII & Korean War

Lt. Cmdr. Emerald McKay wore his uniformwith pride and we are proud of him.

SUBMITTED BY DONNA MCKAY, SALISBURY

Captain US Army

Stationed in AfghanistanJedidiah Wentz is a courageous young man who

was awarded a bronze star. He has served in Iraq and is now stationed in Afghanistan. Jed is the

grandson of Lt. Cmdr. Emerald McKay.

SUBMITTED BY ALAN WILKINSON, NEW HAVEN

MarinesStationed at Marine Corps Air

Station in Beaufort, SCJoshua, thanks for your 2+ years of service to our

country, in Afghanistan and Beaufort. I am proud to have you as my son! We love you and thank you for your

sacrifice to our country and the freedom we enjoy.

SUBMITTED BY DEBRA LYONS

Private First Class Infantry

Stationed in Germany during WWIIWe are so very proud of you, Dad. Thank you for serving our country.

We love you, Laurie, Debbie, Bill & Andy.

SUBMITTED BY THE WEDGE FAMILY

Seaman 2nd Class V6

US Navy

Stationed in Samson, NY. Served on the USS Lake Champlain

when it was commissioned.

SUBMITTED BY ALAN WILKINSON, NEW HAVEN

Retired Marine

Dad, thanks for your 20 years of service to our country from WWII, Iwo Jima, Korea, & Vietnam, as well as the home front. I am proud to be your son!

Rosie Spahn(Continued from Page 1)

(See Spahn, Page 3)

She joined, in part, for her father. He had been stationed in Africa serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the onset of polio forced him to return to the United States before his term of service was up.

“He always wanted his kids to go in and

A sister considered service, then decided not to. A brother left the armed forces on a medical release.

So Spahn was the one to spend her four years serving in the Air Force.

Her decision, she said, was unusual.“I think women in the military receive

But faced with the choices, Spahn opted for the military. Her other choices were to go to college, to get married or to get a job in a factory near her hometown of Rochester, N.Y.

So just after graduation, she headed for Lackland for basic, which was an overhaul of every aspect of their lives, from the way they made their beds to the way they polished their shoes. It was, Spahn remembered, overwhelming.

to the mess hall, walk in, get your food,

raised until every table had all four people.

Then there were the inspections. Uniforms had to be just-so, starched, with perfectly polished shoes and clean gloves. Floors had to be polished, and beds had to be perfectly made, with the sheets rolled down a certain number of inches.

During one inspection, one of the four

over the bedpost, was slightly above the rest. For that, she received a demerit.

In this orderly environment, women were not allowed to mingle with the men — it was only near the end of basic training that they were offered the privilege to have a cup of coffee with someone of the opposite gender.

After graduation Spahn headed to Alabama, where she was enrolled in medical specialist school. Though her entry testing had revealed an aptitude for data

processing, the Air Force needed people in the hospitals.‘YOU DID WHAT WAS NEEDED’

So she was sent to Alabama for operating room specialist school.

“I said, ‘OK, nothing with blood. A lab,

Alabama at the time was a center in the civil rights movement, and heading there meant heading into turmoil.

“Riots were happening, the Ku Klux Klan was there, the Montgomery Four had

black girls who died as a result a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1963.

But regardless of what went on off the base, during her time in the Air Force Spahn

Even after being posted to California and gaining the right — and the free time — to leave the base, she said the awareness of

in.

said. “The Vietnam war was going on, but it

In her duties as a surgical scrub technician, Spahn helped out in one of the two operating rooms in the hospital on Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, Calif. The hospital was just

families.The women lived in three barracks on

WAF (Women in the Air Force) Hill, above the base, each with her own room. They still had rules — their curfew was earlier than that of the men, and their hats still had to be at the proper angle, the skirts the right length, and their shoes polished.

But as time passed, Spahn and her friends ventured off of the base, attending concerts and talks in San Francisco, which was about

20 miles north.Then, after her term of duty ended, she

got an apartment in San Francisco and a job

would later marry, who was still working in the hospital on the base, came to the city to visit her — which she said was still considered outrageous, even in 1960s San Francisco.

Once he got out of the service, the two got married.

“We lived in San Francisco and protested

Eventually Spahn went back to work in hospitals, and after a divorce she took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled in college. That done, she moved back home to Rochester, where she worked with software. A new job brought her to New Hampshire, where she met Mike Korkuc, a Vermont native who would become her domestic partner.

These days Spahn lives in Leicester and works for the information technology

LEICESTER RESIDENT ROSIE Spahn was stationed in California and worked as a surgical scrub technician for the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Thanks does not fully express the depth of our gratitude to the Veterans and the men & women

presently serving our country in the Armed Forces.

PAGE !" A publication of the Addison Independent# November !!# "$!$

Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2010

War images still vivid for MacEdward

Daughter followed herdad into thearmed forces

Bristol native looks backon three wars

(See Rosie Spahn, Page 2)

(See Emmons, Page 6)

(See Foster MacEdward, Page 4)

By TAMARA HILMESMIDDLEBURY — Foster MacEdward,

or “Mac” as friends and family call him, turned 90 on Oct. 22. And though many years have passed, he still vividly recalls being just 22 years old and seeing other young men his age lying in the mud, arms shot off and with little white maggots beginning to wriggle and swarm.

“It was so wet and so humid that just

overnight, the white maggots would start working on you,” MacEdward said. “And I’d say to them, ‘How’re you doing?’ and they’d say, ‘Geez, Mac, if you’d just get me out of here I’d be all right.’”

“Here” was the mountainous terrain between Chabua, India, and Kun-ming, China, known as “The Hump” by the other men in the air force who, like MacEdward, were responsible for transporting supplies

from one base to another during World War II.

MacEdward joined the U.S. Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor, and following

Memphis, Tenn., MacEdward was shipped down to Boca Raton, Fla., on June 6, 1943, to begin the journey to the China-India-Burma Theater.

By ANDREA SUOZZOLEICESTER — Of the 40 women who

entered basic training with Rosie Spahn at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in August of 1964, just 17 graduated.

“It was hard,” said Spahn, a Leicester resident. “They’d tear everything out of you, then turn you into a soldier.”

Spahn didn’t actually go into active duty — women at that point didn’t enter the Air Force with the hope of being posted overseas. The 18-year-old who had never been on a plane instead headed to Texas, Alabama

year term in Air Force hospitals, while the

By TAMARA HILMESBRISTOL — Bruce Emmons, 85, took a

display case with a wooden frame off of his wall and laid it on the kitchen table. Inside, lay military badges in all shapes and colors — stripes, code of conduct medals for the Army and the Air Force, a Purple Heart, and medals for each war he served in.

There was one for Korea, one for Vietnam, and one for World War II. A blue-

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