ELYRIA — Two of the “Greatest Generation” were honored Wednesday night as Veterans of the Year at the annual Veterans Day dinner at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1079.
Julius Pondy, 88, of Elyria, and Roy Shaffer, 83, of Lorain, were both given the honor for their service to the post. In keeping with tradition, neither knew they were being honored until the selection committee walked up to them while they were seated at their tables.
Shaffer was grateful for the honor and the memories he’s made while a post member.
“Whatever I give to the post, it’s just a little compared with what the post has given me,” Shaffer told the crowd.
After Shaffer and Pondy thanked the crowd, U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton announced they were being given congressional recognition of their achievement. Shaffer looked thunderstruck for a moment, then smiled.
“Oh, my gosh,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed.”
Pondy remembered joining the post in 1946 after returning from World War II and joining the baseball team that went on to win the state VFW championship. He said he’s only one of two players on that team still alive.
Pondy was glad to see World War II veterans getting recognized while there’s still time. “Fifteen hundred of us are dying every day,” he said.
Realizing that his generation and their personal history were soon to pass away is what led Shaffer to break the stoicism that kept so many veterans from sharing their experiences after they returned from duty.
“We’d won the war, we did our job, and we just came back and either went to work or went to college,” he said. “We kept the memories suppressed for more than 60 years.”
In recent years, he’s begun sharing his war memories.
“If we don’t do it now, our stories are going to be lost,” he said.
Pondy goes to schools and tells students of his experiences in the Navy as a turret gunman on a war plane in the Pacific Theater during the war. Thanks to being friends with the squadron photographer, he has a lot of photos of his experiences.
The most common question kids ask, he said, is “Weren’t you scared?”
“I tell them I was too busy to be scared,” he said.
The Veteran of the Year plaque, Pondy said, will someday be passed on to his granddaughter, Jessica Crossfield of St. Augustine, Fla., along with all his other war memorabilia.
Shaffer, who was stationed in Guyana during the war while serving in the Army, has been a member of the post for 20 years.
“It’s an example of what happens when dedicated people get together,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be a member here.”
Before the ceremony, a moment of silence was observed for the 13 soldiers killed at Fort Hood last week. The names of the eight Lorain County soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan also were read.
Every veteran got their own thank-you note at their placesetting, as Helena Hart, a fifth-grader at Prospect School, organized a project that had her schoolmates compose letters for the veterans.
The post also welcomed a new member, Frederick James, who is transferring from the Aurora VFW. James is a veteran of Vietnam, the Gulf War and the war in Iraq. He shared his recent experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We veterans all must be vigilant to one another,” James said. “If you see a fellow veteran start to falter, remember they could be your son, your father, your mother, your aunt, your sister, your brother. We have to help one another.”
Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.
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