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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EATON TWP. — Deputy dog warden Nelson Delgado said today that two large dogs that attacked a woman yesterday were found dead this morning alongside Route 82 and had apparently been hit overnight.

The dogs’ owner, Donald Goble Jr., 27, was charged with having dogs at large and failure to have a kennel license. The law requires such a license for anyone keeping more than eight dogs; Delgado said Goble had 11 including the two Kane Corso mastiffs.

Delgado said Goble also couldn’t produce paperwork showing the dogs had received their rabies shots, so the dogs’ bodies will have to be tested. Goble, he said, apologized for the fact that his dogs bit neighbor and veterinarian Lisa Fox Wright, but Delgado said that wasn’t enough.

“The bottom line is that she’s pregnant and she got attacked,” Delgado said today.

Delgado had called off his search at dusk Wednesday night for two large dogs that broke through a fence of a pen in the 36000 block of Royalton Road and attacked Fox Wright, who lives nearby.

Fox Wright, 25, was bitten on both arms and was taken by ambulance to EMH Regional Medical Center where she was treated for puncture wounds.

Delgado said the dogs appeared to be a mating pair and are two of 11 dogs he spotted on the property at 36821 Royalton Road. No caretakers for the dogs appeared to be home at the time of the attack, he said.

Later Wednesday night, Fox Wright, who is pregnant, was resting at home, according to her husband, Jim Wright Jr.

Fox Wright’s father, William Fox, arrived at his daughter’s home shortly after the attack.

“She got chewed up pretty well,” said Fox, who operates Fox Veterinary Hospital on LaGrange Road in Carlisle Township with his daughter and other vets.

Two schoolchildren, Tiffani Cricks, 10, and Shawn Cricks, 14, who live across the highway from Fox Wright said the dogs ran at them when they got off the bus shortly before their neighbor was bitten.

Their stepfather, Herb Arnoczky, said he came around the side of the house with the family dog, Dixie, and the much larger mastiffs ran after her in a ferocious manner.

“I kicked one and yelled ‘Get out of here,’ and they took off,” Arnoczky said. “They’ve gotten loose many times but never made it over here.”

Meanwhile, Tiffani called her brother “my hero” because he was preparing to fight off the dogs with his book bag until Dixie diverted their attention.

It took nearly an hour and a half for the deputy dog warden to show up. Meanwhile, the dogs chased several cars on busy state Route 82 following the attack.

One woman circled back to tell Eaton Township firefighters, “You know those dogs attacked my car.”

Delgado said he was on call because it is Veterans Day and was at home in Lorain when the call came in. He said the response would have been quicker had the county kennel been open.

The attack occurred about 3 p.m., and Delgado arrived at about 4:20 p.m.

He said he searched for the dogs in the semi-rural area until it turned dark. He had warned anyone seeing the dogs not try to approach them because they were dangerous. He expressed concern for his own safety while pursuing them with only a stun gun for protection. The male was brown and the female, which was smaller, is black.

Delgado said there have been a number of dog-at-large complaints coming from that address.

The owner of the property, Michael Sauter, of North Olmsted, said he had been trying to reach the people who rent the house and barn because they are two months behind in their rent. Sauter, who is 82, asked his son to come to the property to speak with authorities. The son, who declined to be named, said yesterday he had no way to contact the occupants because they have not answered calls and their voicemail was full.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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Air Force Staff Sgt. Jessica Switzer, Special to The Chronicle-Telegram

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — For the son of a Wellington woman, the competition was a strenuous test of endurance, teamwork and skill that took him, and 215 other men and women representing all military services and the U.S. Coast Guard, through more than 50 miles of rugged West Virginia mountains and white-water rapids.

Army Spec. Joshua W. Clayton, son of Jennifer Dalton of Wellington, was one of those service members who traveled to this remote resort area to test his skills in a five-event outdoor competition called “Wilderness Challenge.”

Over a two-day period, competitors mountain-biked over a 13-mile uphill course, paddled seven-miles in a two-person combination kayak, canoe and raft called a “duckie,” ran a five-mile mountain trail, hiked 15 miles and raced whitewater rafts over 10 miles of rapids.

Clayton was part of an Army team from Washington, D.C., one of 54 teams to compete in this year’s challenge.

“I hadn’t signed up originally but I got told the day before the competition started that they needed another person for the team,” said Clayton, a research technician at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “I thought it looked like a fun and challenging event, so I agreed to participate.”

Wilderness Challenge represents mostly physical challenges, but forces teams to work together. Each team was required to pass certain checkpoints together, some tying themselves together with bungee cords, and others circling back to the slowest person to make sure they finished together.

The competition, coordinated by the Navy Mid-Atlantic Region, Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown for the last nine years, is a little different each year.

However, while the distances and routes change, core events have remained in place giving teams an idea of what to train for.

Some trained together before arriving and others chose their own training regimens.

“Since I found out at the last possible moment I didn’t have time to train specifically for the competition,” Clayton said. “Most of my training was my regular Army physical training.”

Fighting cold, wet elements, uphill runs, walks and bicycling, and racing river currents, the competitors and teams highlighted their strong points and shored up their weaknesses to become competitive during the race.

“The hardest part of the whole challenge was just getting up early enough in the morning to make it to the start of the events; I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep,” said Clayton, who has been in the Army for nearly four years. “The mountain biking event was one of the easier events for me. I like biking and had some experience I could use on the trail.”

Clayton and the other competitors in Wilderness Challenge received a special event coin commemorating the competition and walked away with the knowledge they put their endurance and willpower to the test.

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ELYRIA — Hoo-Rah!

The signature phrase of the Marines was uttered many times Tuesday morning in the congenial atmosphere that permeated Moss’ Prime Rib and Spaghetti House.

That’s where some 50 to 60 Marine veterans and family members gathered for the annual ritual of celebrating the Nov. 10, 1775, birth of the U.S. Marine Corps during the American Revolution. Tuesday’s ceremony included a big sheet cake in the Corps’ red-and-gold colors, coffee, eggs and a civilian version of that legendary military meal of SOS.

Good food was accompanied by equally good camaraderie among veterans and between one young Marine and his former teacher.

“I’m so damn proud of this kid,” Patrick Foreman said of Lance Cpl. Charles Ferenchak, 26, a Lorain native stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. “He’s a damn good Marine.”

Foreman’s voice quavered with emotion as he spoke with obvious pride about Ferenchak.

“If you had ever told me he would wind up a Marine, I would have said ‘Kid, they’re gonna eat you up.’ I never saw that coming. He was this skinny kid and now he’s this strapping stud of a man.”

Ferenchak, meanwhile, offered praise for Foreman, too.

“He was the best teacher I ever had,” Ferenchak said of Foreman, an assistant high school principal at the Lorain County Joint Vocational School who was Ferenchak’s former high school science teacher.

The son of a Marine himself, Foreman emceed the ceremony along with Marine veteran Joe Plezia, an Elyria-based financial adviser.

Ferenchak’s path to the Marines also continues a family tradition that includes his grandfather, Charles Joseph Ferenchak, a veteran of the Corps’ battles on Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, where he was wounded.

The morning also saw Lorain County Domestic Relations Court (and ex-Marine) Judge David Basinski describe the impressive experience of attending the graduation of some 500 Marines earlier this year at Miramar. The judge also spoke of the great pride shared by Marines everywhere.

“They are proud to tell you what they do, and just as eager to know what you did for the Marines,” Basinski said.

Basinski contended it is that same unshakable sense of pride that draws Marines past and present each year to the annual observance.

“Nobody else does that. We do,” he said.

Continuing a long-running Marine tradition, Ferenchak, the youngest Marine in attendance, enjoyed the first slices of the sheet cake with the oldest, James Urig, 90.

Home on leave before heading to Okinawa, Ferenchak has seen quite a bit of action during his days in military police training, including investigation of serious crimes ranging from rape and domestic violence to murder.

While in Lorain County, he’s giving local recruiters a hand by talking to area students.

A veteran of tours of duty in Iraq, Ferenchak said he’s eager to re-enlist and make it back to Afghanistan or Iraq.

“We do this to make sure (terrorists and other enemies of the U.S.) stay in their own backyard and don’t wind up coming into ours,” he said. “We do this so everyone here at home can continue to have a nice relaxed stop at McDonalds. That’s OK with us.”

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.