“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives--the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.”
Ronald Reagan, 11/85,
Arlington National Cemetery, VA
The Waddell family consisted of five daughters and three sons: Goldie, Nell, Edith, Hazel, William, Thomas, Melba and Charles. On a hot Saturday in August, 1937, Melba gave birth to me in the front room of the Company house in Beaver. So During World War II I remember that Dad and Mom and others covered the windows at night so that no light could be seen which would identify our area to potential surveillance planes. In those windows Mom placed a sticker designating the branch of the service her sons were in. Dick (William) and Tom were in the Army in Europe, and Charles was in the Navy in Hawaii. My father, Posey Pettry, was in the Navy. My step-father, Warren Pletz, was in the Army Core of Civil Engineers. By the grace of God, not one was lost to the enemy.
