Veteran's Day 2012 -- Steve Francis Phillips

Last year I wrote several blog's about my relatives who have served in the military. I've since found out I missed several. I would like to correct that this year. I'm starting with my cousin's son Steve. I hate to say it but I don't know Steve very well – yet.

Like a lot of us Steve didn't know what he wanted to do once he left high school, he held a couple of jobs, but didn't feel he was going where he wanted to. So he joined the Air Force in November 2010. He graduated from basic training in January of 2011 and entered his technical training or MOS training after that. His specialty is 3P0X1 or Security Forces which included the core basics of law enforcement, security, and air base ground defense. Steve graduated from technical school in April 2011. His first duty station was Dover AFB, Delaware. Here Steve honed his skills he learned in tech school, specializing in commercial vehicle inspection. In October of 2011 Steve learned he was to be deployed to southeast Asia and trained for two weeks and half weeks Eglin AFB, Florida before deployment to Qatar. He came back home in May of 2012 and is again stationed in Delaware.

Steve is an Airman First Class (E-3) and has just passed his two year mark this month, and is extremely proud of what he has accomplished so far in his career and hopes to serve for twenty years.

DUKE

Pets have always been a very important part of my family. I can't remember our house ever being with out a pet.

Duke was the first pet our family had. He was a a German Shepard and a gift from my Dad to Mom. He gave Duke to her when she was expecting my oldest brother.

I never got to met Duke, I only heard stories of him from my parents and my grandparents, the Becks. Mom used to tell us that Duke would jump up and put his paws on her shoulders and look down on her, granted Mom was only 5'1” but still hearing this as a kid was impressive. Grandpa Beck would tell us how he would toss Duke a ham bone and he'd have it gone in minutes. Grandma always said that Duke followed Mom every where and never let her out of his sight.  From what we were told Duke was a gentle giant. Duke showed his gentleness all the time with my brother by letting my brother climb and  ride him. Duke also actually let my big brother teeth on his ears. Other stories of Duke's gentleness included stories of how exceptionally patient Duke was with a neighbor girl who was developmentally delayed.  Mom told us how the girl used to pull Duke's tail and tease him, the type of things that would cause most other dogs to bite. Duke could be also very protective of Mom and Bill. The story of his protectiveness that sticks out most is the one Dad would tell us about,  was the one about the time He took care of Bill for the first time alone.  Mom went to the store for a few things. While Mom was gone, Bill got hungry and needed a bottle, so Dad prepared one for him. Well like a lot of new dad's, he made the milk too hot. So when he tried to give it to Bill, of course he cried --- loudly. This caused Duke to go into action, which consisted of Dad holding Bill while backed in into a corner with Duke keeping guard until my Mom came home.

Unfortunately, like a lot of large dogs, Duke didn't live a long life, but he is still a part of the family through the stories told of him.

MaryAnne Ruth Beck Piekarski

MaryAnne Ruth Beck Piekarski

December 13, 1932 – April 20, 2007

Last year my sister asked why I haven't written about our Mom. I guess there's a few reasons. The two main ones are: Which picture do I use for her and the second she's my Mom, where do you start talking about her?

I guess I'll address the picture reason first. I really couldn't decide on just one picture so – that's the reason for the slide show, I think they tell her story better then I can. These are just a few photographs of her, I hope everyone enjoys them. It was hard to pick even these few; which ones to use which ones to leave out. I picked these because, I think that these photographs really show what she was like. She was out going and very popular, the friends in the slide show were people she talked about often. One of them – Nina, the y were life long friends.

This is the second part. What do you say about your Mom? I mean everybody's mom is special to them, but what makes them stand out? Even though I didn't tell her enough, she was the most influential person in my life. She “kissed my boo-boos”, she yelled at me when I needed it, she was my friend, my Mom. Here's her story. Mom was born during the great depression. Her dad always worked and they had a home, but things were tight. She attended Messmer High School in Milwaukee, where she was extremely popular and met her future husband. When Mom and Dad first married Dad was a salesman, a lot of his salary was commissions, so things were either very very good or just OK. As a family we never went without anything we needed, but Mom had a hard time keeping to a set budget. Early in their marriage Dad had a job opportunity and moved his young family to Ohio, that's the farthest Mom had ever been from her family. One of my brothers was born there. Things weren't what they thought they would be, so the family moved back to Milwaukee. My sister and I were born in Milwaukee and were the final additions to the family. Finally Dad got tired of the selling game and wanted to do his dream job – being a motel/resort owner in northern Wisconsin. So we packed up as a family and move “up north”. The resort business didn't work out for my parents and they ended up in the hotel management business for awhile moved around Wisconsin and Minnesota a few times. The last jobs they had before retirement was managing apartments. It was at their last apartment complex, that Mom discovered she was ill. The illness was pulmonary hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. It makes the right side of the heart need to work harder than normal. Symptoms include shortness of breath or light-headedness during activity). During the time Mom was sick, she never complained to us kids or let on just how bad this illness made her feel. Like the pictures I chose, she was always smiling.

My First Rod and Reel

The printed date on the photograph is 1966, but I think I'm only four or five in this picture not six.

I know I was only about five, because I had the chicken pox that year. I was so sick with the chicken pox that even at that young age, I knew I was ill. I also remember it was winter; I was stuck in the house and didn't care. I itched and all I could eat for weeks were bananas. (believe it or not I still like bananas).

One night when Dad came home from work he handed me a wrapped package; I was so excited I ripped it open. This was my “chicken pox gift”. It was my first rod and reel! A zebco, closed face reel with about a four foot rod. Up until then all I used was a bamboo fishing pole. You know the kind – a long pole with a line and bobber, all you could do was tosh it out a few feet.

This was taken the spring of that year. Dad was teaching me how to cast. I had to learn how, because, as soon as I could cast correctly, we were going to go to Silver Moon Trout farm to catch some fish. It didn't take long to learn how to cast and when the weather was warm we when to the trout farm and I caught my first fish with my rod and reel. It was the greatest thing that had happened to me up to this point.

The second picture which was taken several years later, shows me on our trip to Canada. Dad and the boys went out on the lake with a guide and Mom, Sue and I stay behind and fished. There weren't any piers there so Mom took us out to the swimming raft thinking we could catch some pan fish out there. She advised me to cast, but I just dropped my line right there, and I caught the largest walleye of my life there!

February Blizzards

This week, as I was digging out from a February blizzard, this photo took on a new meaning to me. We had over twenty inches of snow in a twenty-four hour period. The third highest total for my area. It was hard enough digging and plowing with modern equipment. I can only imagine how difficult it was with the limited tools they had in February of 1936, the date of the photo.
I really like this photo of my Mom and her brother. It's a cute picture of them. I never thought about it being any more than a photo of two kids playing in a snowbank until I found a newspaper article among my grandma's papers that gave the photograph new context and meaning.
On the front page of the February 10, 1936 edition of the Milwaukee Journal, were several stories of the blizzard that had hit not only Wisconsin, but a good deal of the rest of the country. For Wisconsin many highways and roads, along with the trains were stopped, literally closed by snow drifts for at least a couple of days. There were several stories of hospitality and heroism. One of the heroic stories, was of one man, who walked two miles in the blizzard to a stranded train in order to get milk to a baby who was on the train with it's mother. Hospitality stories told of strangers who were welcomed into homes and taverns, where they were feed and kept safe while waiting out the storm. One man, a school board member of one of the districts took a teacher and her students into his home when it was clear they wouldn't make it to their own homes before the storm hit. 
What hit me were the differences between then and now. Many of the stories of being truly neighborly, I hate to say it, wouldn't happen anymore. I made into town later in the day of our storm and watched people working as individuals and not as neighbors. You know sometimes these really are pictures of the good old days on more than one level.

Honor Roll – Pre and Desert Storm Era

Well, I'm coming to the end of the Veteran Honor Roll for 2011. I'm ending with myself. I served in the Wisconsin Army National Guard from 1986 – 1992, my unit was the 132nd Support Battalion HHC company based in Madison Wisconsin. I achieved the rank of Staff Sargent or an E6. For those of you not familiar with ranks in the army, an E1 is the first rank; private, an E6 is a n NCO (Non-commissioned Officer). In civilian life that would be like mid management. I was in charge of six to seven soldiers in my section. Believe it or not I couldn't find a picture of myself in uniform – maybe I'll find one in the future. Like my brother and cousin, I joined for economic and education opportunities. Unlike them, I had already graduated from technical school with my AA in data processing, this enabled me to go in at as a private first class and MOS qualified as a 74F (computer programmer/analyst) – which meant I didn't attend AIT (advanced individual training). I chose the Guard, because I didn't want to go into the military full time, and like that the Guard serves both state and nation in times of emergency. I admit, when I first went into the military, I did it for the money, then sometime during basic training, my thoughts and attitude changed. As corny as it sounds; I was proud to serve my country – to do more then the average person would. I also changed personally. I would describe myself before basic training as a painfully shy person.
Basic training, hmmm, how to explain basic to those of you who never when through it. Basic training can be described as Dante's Hell. There are 3 phases to the army boot camp. The first phase is “Red” this is where you meet your Drill Sergeant. Drill Sergeants are a different species, they love to yell at you and they control every part of your life. Their favorite activities are putting you and the rest of your platoon, or any combination into “the front leaning rest” ( the starting position for push-ups while you stand) or doing push-ups. They love saying “DROP AND GIVE ME 20!”
The second phase is “White”. During this phase you go out to the rifle ranges and the grenade ranges. As a side note M16's are OK, but grenades ARE FUN! By now you've been out in the field, 2-3 nights in a shelter half. A shelter half is half of a “pup tent” you pair up with someone else put your halves together and that's your tent, there is only room for your sleeping bags, your backpack is your pillow. While in the field you will be introduced to the MRE – meals-ready-to-eat. It's cold tasteless and pack with salt. There are one or two that aren't too bad. I liked the beef stroganoff and ham with cheese. Two other parts of the second phase are self-defense and the obstacle course. You also start to get a little freedom, this for me meant that we had some time at night that didn't have a Drill telling us what to do. The last phase is “Blue” . This is the most challenging because you have to pass two tests – the PT (physical training) and a basic soldiering test where they test you on what you've learned during the first two phases. You also get to go on long march, I think ours was 10 miles. One of the last challenges is the night patrol with live fire.

After going through basic and moving up the ranks to E6, I became more confident, assertive, and in control of my shyness. In short, a stronger person. I think the real turning point for me was attending Basic Non-Commissioned Officers Course (BNCOC). When my unit sent me to Camp Ashland, I thought it was just more army training, nothing more. When I arrived at Camp Ashland, they gathered us in the commons and did the look to your right, now look to your left; at least one of these people won't be graduating. They broke the class of about sixty-six soldiers into six classes of eleven. In my group two soldiers flunked out at the end of the first test. I got my eyes opened, I could flunk-out, fail, I couldn't go back to my unit a failure, that wasn't an option. So, right at that moment I decided I was graduating.

Honor Roll – Vietnam

 This honor roll involves 3 relatives – my brother, a cousin and my brother-in-law's cousin.

The first one I'll talk about is my brother. He enlisted in the US Air Force towards the end of the Vietnam war. He enlisted because employment and job opportunities were not what he was looking for. The Air Force offered both an education and a beginning. After finishing basic training in Lackland AFB, San Antonio TX. His AIT (advanced individual training) was at Keesler Air Force base in Mississippi, he was assigned to Ellsworth Air Force Base where he did his full tour of duty. His MOS or AFSC was 328X3 -Electronic Warfare Systems. He achieved the 7th level of his AFS and was considered either a technician or specialist. He was on world deployment status the last year and half of his enlistment, but was not sent anywhere. The jobs performed by 7-skill level airmen are primary that of supervisory and managerial and reflect a decline in time spent performing technical tasks. A Electronic Warfare Systems Specialists job includes: installing, maintaining, and repairing avionic electronic warfare (EW) equipment, intercept and analysis equipment, and special purpose support equipment. Additionally, 7-skill level technicians are responsible for inspecting, troubleshooting, overhauling, and modifying EW and electronic intercept and analysis equipment. He left the air force as an E-5 or staff sargent, he was dual qualified for the flight line and shop, during his last year and a half he was a shop shift supervisor and also a flight line shift supervisor.

My Cousin enlisted in the marines when he was 18 years old. He joined for about the same reasons as my brother – wasn't ready for college and his job was eliminated where he worked. They moved him into a job that was boring, lower pay and it became obvious to my cousin that he didn't want to do that the rest of his life. Also, the bar scene was becoming a regular part of his life and he didn't like it – change was needed.

So the next six years were spend as a marine., During this time he also got married, and the two of them went to his duty station in Japan. After his 6 year enlistment, he knew that 6 years was enough time as a marine, but didn't want to throw away the active duty time. The marine reserves was not a good option, so the Air National Guard it was. With his G.I. Bill benefits he attended school, and worked as a electronics technician. Due to the hiring freezes in the Federal government and implementation of the AGR (Active Guard/Reserve) in the late 70's and early 80's, my cousin found a job as a full time in the Wisconsin Air Guard at Truax Field. From this job as the deputy base engineer at Truax and as a second lieutenant, he continued to get promotions and different AFSC's, or Air Force Specialty Codes.

, which lead to positions at Volk Field and eventually the job of the Chief of the Asset Management Division at Andrews in Maryland along with becoming a full colonel, he happily retired from his military career, as he said – five years in D.C. is enough.

Last but not least, is Terry Freund.  I don't have a picture of Terry yet, this is off of the Veitnam Memorial Wall.  Radioman Second Class Terry Freund was the first cousin of my brother-in-law. Terry served on a Patrol Boat River (PBR - 40) in Vietnam. He was killed in action on 26 October 1966 in Phong Dinh, South Vietnam. He was just twenty-four years old. As far as I know he has been the only family member killed while serving his country. He was a hero in every sense of the word Terry was a “River Rat”. The mission of the Patrol BR or River Rats was to patrol Vietnam’s in shore waterways, inspect suspicious craft, and enforce curfews. Just 31 feet in length, the PBR was fiberglass-hulled boat that could achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots, but offered little protection to their four-man crews. PBR's were armed with machine guns, B-40 rockets, and recoil-less rifles. The Viet Cong had boat-hunting teams that regularly attacked PBRs on the narrower rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta. On 26 October 1966, one of these teams ambushed the PBR that Terry was on. A crewman on the boat observed a 20-foot-long sampan coming out of a canal with three Viet Cong aboard, Terry was manning the forward .50 caliber guns at the time. When hailed, the sampan refused to come alongside, and Terry's boat and a PBR 34 gave chase. After a couple of warning shots were fired, the PBRs opened up on the sampan as it beached, setting the craft on fire. The three men leapt from the sampan and dove into some underbrush as other Viet Cong in foxholes along the beach returned fire. From the articles I found Terry was the first on his boat to return fire, after reloading several times and being fatally wounded himself, Terry fought until he couldn't anymore. At least one account credits him with saving his boat and crewmen. Radioman Freund received the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions.