WILTON — During the Wilton Lions Club meeting Monday evening, Nov. 11, two local Army veterans shared tales from their time in the service.

Word War II veteran Cleon Fletcher, second from left, and Korean War veteran Phil Edwards share stories from their time in the service Monday night, Nov. 11, during a Lions Club meeting in Wilton. Also seen are Emily Fletcher. at left and Okki Edwards. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Buy Image

Cleon Fletcher served during World War II while Phil Edwards served during the Korean War.

“I graduated in 1948,” Edwards said. “I was supposed to graduate in 1947, but I fooled around too much.”

A friend, Alton Miller had gone to Rumford to enlist in the Army but forgot to take his birth certificate, Edwards noted. “And Miller said the recruitment officer told me, if I wanted to bring somebody with me, we’d be together,” he said. “So I previously thought I’d be in the Air Force, my brother was in the Air Force. Being a young fella, anything that’s different from what you’ve been doing sounds good.”

Edwards went to Fort Dix for basic training where he was sent to a military police battalion. “MP’s was the furthest thing from my ken,” he said. He had hoped to learn a trade he could use after the service.

“Coming from up here in Maine, every boy knew how to drive a vehicle, knew how to drive big trucks,” Edwards noted. He became a supply driver, got out of walking guard duty.

Edwards shared details of the time when a friend wanted to be his assistant driver and during a trip tried to learn how to play Home Sweet Home on the harmonica. He played it over and over until Edwards took the harmonica and threw it out the window.

Travelling across country to Seattle by train, Edwards didn’t see much during the trip, but he said he always loved trains. From Seattle he went to Korea. “In a ship the stairs are called ladders,” he stated. Many men got sick near them and Edwards had to clean up after them but didn’t get sick. “I got to eat a lot,” he noted.

While on guard duty for observation planes as they took off, Edwards said there was a small Korean girl he would give Korean money to. She brought back eggs and they would have hard boiled eggs, he noted.

Edwards spoke of the time he saw many dead and shot up soldiers, how he now says “Semper Fi” whenever seeing a Marine. “I think a lot of the Marines,” he said.

Edwards met his wife, Okki, in Korea. “She was working in the PX,” he said. “She gave me four boys, and I never had a problem with any of them.”

Fletcher spoke of trying to enlist in 1942 when he was 16, but was two or three months too young so couldn’t. He joined the Merchant Marines, was sent to Brooklyn, New York, for training. “That Christmas I watched the ball fall,” he said. “There was a crowd even then.”

Fletcher was on a liberty ship, “which ain’t much of a ship,” he said. In the morning when he woke up, there were all kinds of ships there. His ship couldn’t keep up with the others. “We kept falling behind,” he said. “I don’t know where they went.”

While in Bordeaux, France, Fletcher saw many boats that were sunk. “I don’t know if they were sunk by the Germans or sunk on purpose so the Germans couldn’t use them,” he said.

On the return trip home, the ship brought back tons of cognac, Fletcher noted. He then went into the Army, did his training in Mississippi, spent close to a year in Spokane, Washington, then went to Riverside, California. “I was there until my time ran out,” he said.

Lion Bruce Dyke told of spending 20 years working with Edwards’ son Mike in the paper mill. “Later Cleon Fletcher had a son who gave me a kidney,” he added.

Ham Allen, a World War II veteran did not attend the program as he no longer goes out at night. Raymond Wiers, a Korean War veteran was sick and unable to attend.

“Thank you to all our members who are veterans,” King Lion Charles LaVerdiere said.