Category Archives for Veterans

Returning Veterans Need a Helping Hand from Employers

Published November 30, 2012, Pawtucket Times

When the time came to end his seven month tour of duty in Afghanistan, Michael Cremin envisioned a future with the military.  With his tour of duty now behind him, this Staff Sergeant in the United State Marine Corps Reserves had well-laid out plans to re-enlist and become a full-time Marine.  The ambitious Quincy, Massachusetts resident did the calculations – he would first reenlist, then attend Officer Candidate School and ultimately become a Marine Corps Officer.   However, in a New York second, at the age of 32, this reservist was dealt a harsh blow that left dreams shattered forever.

Last April, Cremin entered a medical facility to treat a nagging back problem that  doctors diagnosed as being caused by the strenuous work endured over those months of  active combat – jumping in and out of military convoy vehicles carrying either heavy gear or injured Marines away to safety from blown up vehicles.    He welcomed the responsibility and at a relatively young age, was charged with overseeing convoys of over 90 vehicles carrying over 100 military personnel, whose mission was to bring needed food, parts, and fuel from Camp Leather Neck, Afghanistan to the various forward operating bases. However, heavy pain caused by three bad disks resulting in nerve disorders would medically-drum Cremin out of military service.  “This medical problem will affect me for the rest of my life,” he said.

Being medically retired was bittersweet for Cremin.  He loved being a Marine but his back injuries would be exacerbated if he stayed in the military.   His doctor’s would later say,  that he might have difficulty moving as he aged and the effects would be life-altering. On the other hand, being officially retired has many benefits, specifically for his 27 year old wife, Carol, an administrator for a staffing agency, who would now be eligible to receive health benefits for life.

Military in His Blood

In 1986 at the age 6, Cremin immigrated to America from Cork City, Ireland with his mother and younger brother to join their father, who had left Ireland earlier to come to the United States to escape an economic recession at home.  For the father, America offered promise and hope with a better way to support a family. With the family together, both parents would ultimately work 90 hours a week to keep their family together.

As a young child, Cremin had always wanted to join the Marines.  He recalls as a youngster, the first poster on his bedroom wall was a Marine recruiting poster, instead rather than the typical sports teams poster you might expect to see.

“Why not be a Marine?,”  he asked.  Military service spanned generations in Cremin’s family tree, stretching to his grandfather’s enlistment in the Irish army early in the century.  Uncles would serve under the United Nation’s flag in Lebanon, Cyprus, the Congo and even Yugoslavia.

In 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Cremin would enlist in his beloved Marine Corps.  For all active duty recruits who lived east of the Mississippi, the young Marine’s basic training took place at Parris Island, South Carolina.  This would be followed by combat training in at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina where he was then sent to Amphibious Assault School, Camp Pendleton in California.

Until 2007 Cremin would be stationed in 29 Palms, California in the hot Mojave Desert.  From the West coast military base, he would be deployed for a 9 month tour in Iraq, serve on the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit on amphibious LSD for ten months and take a 10 month tour of South East Asia.  Leaving active duty in 2007 he returned to Quincy, Massachusetts, where he would take care of family business.  Missing the ‘esprit de corps’ of belonging to the Marine Corps, he would reenlist in the reserves in less than 1 year, which would bring him back to war in Afghanistan in 2011.

The New Year Brings Retirement

Over his decade long military career, Cremin has also found time to volunteer in the community.   When he was stationed in California, he began to do volunteer work in the Marine Corps’ “Toys for Tots” initiative.  In 2010 he decided to step forward to volunteer running the state’s Toys for Toys initiative. When he came back to the east coast after his Afghanistan tour, he would again volunteer to take the reins and oversee Rhode Island’s efforts to collect toys for the needy OceanState children.

Two weeks ago, Cremin officially found out that he would was being retired from the Marine Corps, and his retirement would come at the beginning of 2013. Before this last combat tour, his Associate Degree in Criminal Justice that he earned at QuincyCollege might just have been a stepping stone to a law enforcement career if he was not to stay in the military.   However, his current medical disability would reduce the probability that he could enter that career. Not knowing where he will ultimately live, or work, makes it difficult for Cremin to choose a University to complete his bachelor’s degree.

“Things are up in the air now,” Cremin says, noting that with the economic downturn in Rhode Island, the young war veteran is not sure where he will ultimately end up. Five of his fellow Marines volunteering their time to work on this toy collection project, all who were injured in Afghanistan, will also be looking for work, too.  .

But for now, before he joins the rank and file of unemployed veterans with his five fellow Marines, he will concentrate on overseeing the completion of this year’s Toy’s for Tot’s Campaign. It keeps his mind off the uncertainly of not knowing where his next pay check will come from. “I really don’t want to think about the future.”

Reaching Out to Unemployed Veteran

           According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for all Veterans nationwide fell to 6.3 percent last month —well below the national employment average of 7.9 percent.  However, for post-9/11 veterans, America’s newest veterans, the rate reached 10 percent.

However, “the picture is even worse in the Ocean State”, notes Consultant Dan Cahill.  “In our work we found the unemployment rate among veterans was higher than the general population,” says Cahill, who coauthored a report released in November 2011, entitled Initial Needs Assessment and AmeriCorps State Service Plan.  Funded by Serve Rhode Island, Cahill noted that issues of unemployment are predominant in the veteran population between 35 to 54 years of age. “Approximately 13 percent of veterans in this group are unemployed, compared with a 9 percent unemployment rate among non-veterans in this cohort,” he says.

Cremin and the growing number of unemployed Rhode Island veterans now can turn to a Department of Defense (DOD) program that will assist these individual’s find work.

According to Rebecca Sanderson, Rhode Island’s  H2H Hero to Hire                  Employment Transition Coordinator, this program unveiled in 2011, offers valuable resources for military veterans members by way of hiring fairs, job training, career assessment and military skills translation.  With more than 400 Hiring Our Heroes job fair events, Sanderson noted that one was recently held in the Ocean State to assist current service members, retirees and veterans find civilian jobs.

Sanderson stated that 64 employers came to CCRI in Warwick, on November 9, 2012, to meet the 176 job seekers who attend this event. During the day, company’s received 526 resumes with 103 interviews being conducted.  Seventeen job offers were made that day, she noted.

“We expect more job offers to be made by companies who attended the job fair as they sort through the resumes they collected and finish their interview process of the participants,” says Sanderson. Rhode Island usually hosts two Hirer Our Heroes (HoH) job fairs per year, one in the fall and one in the spring. (Information on these job fairs, including dates and locations can be found by following the links for live hiring fairs on www.H2H.jobs,  the organization’s website).  “At this internet site employers can post jobs, and service members, post resumes and make a job connection,” she says.

One of the biggest challenges that veterans face in finding jobs after returning from active military service involves the translating of their military skills into terms that civilian employers will understand, says Sanderson.  “Service members return with many “soft” skills such as leadership, problem solving, and team work, but may not have the training in the “hard” skills the employers are looking for,” she says.

Sanderson continues to work hard toward creating better networking opportunities that will allow military veterans from active duty and reservists to better interact with employers to break down barriers to communication which will allow businesses to better recognize the value of those who have served in the nation’s military.

Hopefully, Rhode Island companies will see the value of hiring Cremin, a war veteran who could bring his military leadership skills, problem-solving and expertise in organizing large scale events, to their operation.

Veterans fought  for our nation’s freedom.  May be its time for employers to give them a break, by easing them into civilian life and giving them decent employment.  If this happens, everyone becomes a winner.

For more info about the H2H Program, contact Rebecca Sanderson, Employment Transition Coordinator at 401 275-4359; Rebecca.Sanderson@us.army.mil.

Herb Weiss, LRI ’12, is a Pawtucket-based freelance writer who covers aging, medical and health care issues.  He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.

The Best of….Attack Stunned Area Vets: Pearl Harbor Survivors Recall Horror of Dec. 7, 1941

Published December 2006, Senior Digest

            With the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor fast approaching, aging military veterans have planned a reunion, which may ultimately be the “last hurrah” to take place in Honolulu, Hawaii in December to commemorateJapan’s December 7, 1941 surprise attack and the start of World War II. 

         According to the Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Project, in 1941 the youngest Pearl Harbor survivors were only in their teens and early twenties.  Now their ages are approaching the early to mid 80s and frailties associated with advanced age may will make this year’s 65th Anniversary gathering and Survivors Summit the last official gathering. 

        On December 7, 1941, the surprise attack began at 7.55 a.m.   For almost two hours, the Japanese aerial attack sunk or damaged twenty-one American ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.  American aircraft losses totaled 188 destroyed and 159 damaged on that  unforgettable day.   A total of 2,403 military personnel lost their lives, including 68 civilians, with the number of wounded reaching 1,178.  The Japanese would lose only 29 planes – less than 10 percent of their attacking force.

         Dr. Gary Hylander, a professor at  Stone Hill College says, “With 30,000 World War II veterans dying each month, it’s time to capture their stories.” To commemorate  and honor “The Day that Lives in Infamy” Senior Digest talks with three local veterans who share their eye witness accounts of the Japanese attack and reflect Pearl  Harbor, 65 years ago this month.

At Schofield Barracks

        At age 84, Lincoln resident Leo Lebrun remembers Pearl Harbor just like it was yesterday afternoon.  In 1941, unemployment would force this nineteen year old to enlist at  a United States Army recruiting office located at the main post office in the City of Woonsocket.  .

        After basic training at Fort Slokum, the largest recruiting depot east of the Mississippi River during World War II, a five-day train trip would deliver Lebrun to San Francisco.  From there, the private would be stationed in Hawaii at Schofield Barracks, assigned to C Battery, part of the 8th Field Artillery Hawaiian Division. (Japanese planes would fly over Schofield Barracks on their way to bomb Wheeler Field and Pearl Harbor.)   

       Traveling 15 miles from the Docks, Lebrun arrived at Schofield Barracks complex, six months before the Pearl Harborattack.  “It was really a beautiful place, just like a college campus,” remembers LeBrun.

        On his way to mass on held in a theater at Schofield Barracks, that December 7, 1941 Private Lebrun saw low flying aircraft flying over the building. “We thought those planes were ours because it was not unusual to see planes flying overhead,” he says. “Strafing and dropping bombs” forced the soldier to run for safety inside the theater.  By seeing the “red zeros” painted on the planes “we knew that they were Japanese.”

        After the attack, Lebrun went to outside to help the wounded and found his best friend, 19-year-old George Roberts of Los Angeles, killed by strafing.  “We were shocked, scared, and mad, but we were trained to handle it,” he said.  It took over two weeks for the military to notify LeBrun’s parents that he was not wounded in the attack.

       According to Lebrun, the planes were flying so close to the buildings that some of his friends actually saw the faces of the pilots.  If the Japanese planes came back in a second wave, he and the others who took shelter in the theater were ready.  “We went to a supply room and grabbed 50 caliber machine guns.  It was really difficult to hit [or damage a plane] with a 45 pistol,” he recalls.

       After the sneak attack, Lebrun’s artillery unit was assigned to defend the Punch Bowl, a site over looking Pearl Harbor. In this position, large 155 howitzers would protect the Island from invading troops.  “The first night we shot at anything that moved.  We killed a few mongooses.” He noted that even a few days later his unit could still see  heavy black smoke and fire from the damaged ships in the harbor, which were almost two miles away.  

        Days after the attack soldiers from every outfit would travel to Akins Field and Heeler Field “to pick up plane pieces and clean up those areas,” Lebrun added.

        Lebrun would later participate in five major campaigns against the Japanese, earning five battle stars.  Once discharged as a Corporal in August 1945, he would marry Irene Froment,  from Woonsocket.  The couple recently celebrated 61 years of marriage.  The Pearl   would work as a meat cutter and for the next 39 years was employed by Star Market made this his career.

 Serving on the USS Bagley

        Eighty-Four year old Carl Otto, a former police officer now lives at Attleboro-based Christopher Heights, an assisted living facility, and reflects on Pearl Harbor.  He remembers “seeing Japanese torpedo planes from the stern of the USS Bagley, fire torpedo’s at his ship and others at Pearl Harbor”.    

          Fresh out of boot camp in Newport,Rhode Island, Seaman Second Class Otto  chose to be assigned to the USS Bagley rather than being placed on a larger vessels such as an aircraft carrier or battleship..  A five day trip on a troop train would get the young sailor to the West Coast.  Ultimately, leaving Long Beach,California, the destroyer, manned by 150 sailors set course for Pearl Harbor, the ship’s home port.

         The USS Bagley was moored at the Navy Yard in Pearl Harbor for repairs when the Japanese sneak attack began.  That early morning, Otto, working as a mess cook, finished his duties and went to the rear of the ship to eat a plain egg sandwich and drink coffee, sitting on the gun mount by his friends.  “At first we thought an approaching plane was Chinese. We just didn’t recognize the Rising Sun emblem,” he said.

         “We actually saw the pilot waving to us with his plane only being about 100 feet away from our ship,” Otto noted, saying that “it shot a fish [torpedo] at us.”.  A loud explosion a few minutes later confirmed to Otto that he indeed saw the torpedo which he believes hit the battle ship, the USS Tennessee.

         General quarters called the sailors to their battle stations.  Otto, serving as a powder man, quickly primed the 5 inch 38 caliber gun with powder before the projectile was placed in it before firing.  Otto recalls that over 300 rounds of ammunition were fired from the ship’s four gun batteries that morning.

         “The battle went by so fast..”, remembers Otto,  stressing that his gunnery training allowed him to go into “automatic” mode” when preparing the power charges at his gun battery. .  That day he clearly remembers looking toward Battleship row and seeing the heavy smoke, intense fire and seeing the oil drenched water, some spots on fire.  

         During the aerial battle, “we were credited with downing the first Japanese plane that day,” Otto proudly notes.  Crew members armed with 50 caliber machine guns also were credited with destroying the second and third plane that approached the USS Bagley.  Only four sailors were “nicked” by shrapnel and the ship received no direct hits. (The ship would later be credited with downing five torpedo planes, one dive bomber and a high attitude bomber).

         According to Otto, the USS Bagley would leave the dock behind the USS Nevada and he watched that battle ship run aground on the soft mud bottom of the harbor.  If the battleship would have sunk at the entrance of the harbor “it would have made sitting targets of all the other ships [inside the harbor],” he said.  Ultimately, the USS Bagley would form a battle line with Destroyers to stop any possible invasion.

         Before being discharged from the Navy, Otto would participate in eight major battles in the South Pacific.   Returning to North Attleboro, he would marry Pauline Dailey and during their time together, Otto and his late wife would raise five children. 

 From the Rooftop of Naval Hospital

         Eighty-seven year old Eugene Marchand credits appendicitis with keeping him off the USS Cassin, which was in dry dock at the Navy Yard the day of Pearl Harbor.  During the Japanese attack, bombs and fire caused the 1,500 ton destroyer to roll off the blocks and capsize against the Destroyer, USS Downes, which was alongside, severely damaging both ships.

       Recuperating from surgery, twenty-one year old Marchand watched the attack from the third floor roof top of the Naval Hospital.  At first the young sailor thought the flying aircraft were part of a “sham battle” between the Army and Navy.  Ultimately seeing the ”big red fire ball” emblems on the low flying planes and watching fire and smoke caused by dropped bombs and strafing brought home the point that the battle was not staged, but the real thing. 

        “The Japanese planes flew so close to us we could have hit the planes with rifle fire,” Marchand claims.  Nurses and fellow patients urged him to return back inside by warning him to watch out for the deadly shrapnel.  He noted that no bombs were dropped on this hospital.

        While on roof watching the battle, the first class carpenter Marchand claims to have seen the first torpedo to hit Fort Island, a nearby amphibious base.  After the attack he was reassigned to the USS Whitney, a destroyer tender.

        Being discharged from service after fighting in two South Pacific Battles, Marchand would marry Elaine Degina, from North Attleboro and raise six children.  He was employed by local manufacturing companies, ultimately working for the City and retiring as a truck driver for the highway department.    

       With each passing year, thousands of Pearl Harbor survivors are passing away. Through the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, military and civilian survivors or their family members can not only share stories, but play a vital role in rebuilding crew rosters of the ships docked in the harbor that day.  Please call 1-866-PHStory or go to www.pearlharborstories.org. 

            Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based writer covering aging, health care and medical issues.  This article was published in the December 2006 issue of Senior Digest.

Program Allows World War II Vets to Get High School Diplomas  

Published in the Pawtucket Times on March 18, 2002

Thousands of young students across the nation left their high school studies to join the armed forces during World War II.

Their high school education would instead be gleaned from life experience learned on the bloody battlefields rather than from school textbooks.

Former Pawtucket resident George Redman, a World War II veteran, along with others, will receive his long-awaited high school diploma in May, courtesy of a state initiative dubbed Operation Recognition.

The City of Pawtucket has joined other Rhode Island communities in conferring diplomas to aging war veterans in their 70s and 80s who were honorably discharged between Sept. 16, 1940 and Dec. 31, 1946. Diplomas can also be awarded posthumously. Additionally, those who have earned GEDs are also eligible to receive their diplomas.

For many like then 17-year-old Redman, high school took a back seat as the clouds of war swirled over Europe. Times were tough for the youngster’s family because the Great Depression was just ending. It became necessary for Redman to take a job to help his disabled war veteran father supplement the family’s coffers. It became a very easy decision for Redman, who was playing baseball Pawtucket Red Sox, to drop out of Pawtucket High School’s Class of 1939.

Initially, Redman had wanted to serve on an aerial bomber. Coming from a military family fueled this high school dropout’s desire to serve his country even more, says the longtime resident of North Attleboro. He claims that his uncle was the first Pawtucket resident to die in the Great War of 1917.

“Wait until they call you,” his mother urged. That is what the young Redman did, taking a night shift job at New England Pretzel Company, packing hundreds of boxes of salty pretzels each shift. Before he entered military service, the young man would ultimately become a drill press operator at H P& B American Machine Company.

When his draft notice arrived in 1942, 21-year-old Redman gave up his manufacturing job, traveling to Fort Devens in Avery, Mass., for training. Later he would travel to Oklahoma and Texas for field training before being sent overseas to fight in the bloody Italian Campaign. Two bullets from a German machine gun in 1944 ended Redman’s military career. Upon his discharge, he returned to the states with a Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Bade and the Bronze Star Medal.

Redman would later re-enroll at Pawtucket Hight School, but a bout with the flu forced him to withdraw from his studies. Not having hs high school diploma never negatively impacted his career selling office supplies and equipment. “You learned your trade on the road,” he quips.

More than 50 years after World War II, not graduating high school, however did come back to haunt him. The retired war vet called a local college to inquire taking paralegal courses. Not having is diploma effectively blocked his admission to take courses.

“Right there, I knew that I needed that high school diploma to further my education,” Redman says. “Any college course I wanted to take would require my diploma.”

Like Redman, Pawtucket resident Henry Fugere, 78, a World War II veteran who is a retired electrician from Rhode Island Hospital never graduated from high school. Helping to support his 15 sibling and a nation mobilizing for war ended his dream of  obtaining a high school diploma.

“Getting my high school diploma is now a matter of principle,” Fugere says, explaining why he filed out his application to participate. “I will feel a little bit prouder of myself for getting that diploma. I didn’t earn my diploma by sitting at a desk buy by the hard way, through serving my country and the many jobs I held.”

A chance conversation by Assistant General Manager Laureen Grebien, of Gregg’s Restaurant on North Main Street, Providence with Redman ultimately got Pawtucket City Councilor Donald Grebien involved in bringing  Operation Recognition to Pawtucket.

Grebien remembers his wife, Laureen, waking him up at 11:30 p.m. that night to tell him of her conversation with Redman and about the war vet’s desire to get his high school diploma.

After contacting local veterans groups, the Rhode Island Veterans Affairs Office, and checking the Internet for programs implemented by other states, Grebien said, “things just snowballed.”

With the blessing of the Pawtucket City Council President John Barry, Grebien created a Veterans Ad Hoc Committee that would later hammer out Pawtucket’s Operation Recognition program. Members include Grebien along with School Committee Chair Raymond Spooner. Santa Almeida, a veteran and president of AFSCME Local 1012, Ken McGill from the mayor’s office and representatives of the Pawtucket School Department.

Thirty-plus meetings held over the last year have created Pawtucket’s Operation Recognition Program, promoted it and have planned the upcoming graduation ceremony on May 31 at Veterans Amphitheater on Roosevelt Avenue, Grebien says.

“Promoting the program heavily in newspapers, on cable TV and to veterans groups is key to our success,” Grebien notes, because lack of records block the efforts to develop accurate listing of all those eligible to receive a high school diploma. High school yearbooks, with a listing of students from 1941 to 1946, were used to identify potential candidates.

“Approximately 10 veterans responded,” Grebien adds, noting that he hopes to identify other eligible former veterans, too.

Ad Hoc Veterans Committee member Ray Spooner, who chairs the Pawtucket School Committee stands strongly behind the program.

“Their education was sacrificed for our freedom,” he says. “After all these years we are giving seniors their just due for all their years of service to their country. For all the people that we can find who are eligible to participate, they deserve getting their diplomas.”

Applications to participate in Operation Recognition for War II Veterans are due on March 31.