Latest news with #ArmyVeteran
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Georgia WWII veteran Charlie Duncan celebrates 106th birthday with honors, memories
The Brief Charlie Duncan will be 106 on May 27, but his friends and family held a party for him on Sunday. On the night of his birthday, he'll be honored with a special proclamation at the Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting. Duncan was sworn into the US Army 81 years ago on his 25th birthday. He recently attended a veteran's luncheon where there were four other World War II veterans. He said he was the oldest. COBB COUNTY, Ga. - A Georgia World War II veteran is celebrating a major birthday. Charlie Duncan is turning 106 years old on May 27. What they're saying "Nobody in my family lived past 84. Here I am 106," said Charlie Duncan. Friends and family held a birthday party for him at Rally Point Grille in Woodstock on Sunday. "There were 62 people there. We had a good lunch and had a sit-down lunch," said Charlie. Inside the restaurant there's a photo of Charlie on the wall. He's a World War II veteran. He was sworn into the US Army on his 25th birthday. After the military, Charlie came home to the Cobb County and Cherokee County areas. He says over the last 100-plus years there have been a lot of changes. "This was all farm land. Highway 5 was a little two-lane road," said Charlie. He says he wouldn't want to step back in time. "It was a hard life on the farm back then, especially during the depression. You couldn't get a job making 50 cents a day," said Charlie. Charlie spent 37 years in the mill work industry. He retired when he was 62 and kept busy. "I had a big garden and I had a workshop in my basement," said Charlie. He has two children, grandchildren, and was married a total of 83 years. "Thirty-nine years to my first wife and 44 years to my second wife," he said. These days, he spends time with family and occasionally attends veteran luncheons. "There was five of us sitting around a table. World War II veterans," said Charlie. He says he was the oldest; The others were just in their 90s. It's also very likely he was the most active. He says he square danced for decades. "We square danced for 37 years. My wife and I did. Square dancers came up here when I was 103, and they wanted me to get up and dance, and I did. Then they came back this year and wanted me to dance, and I said no, I'm too clumsy," said Charlie with a laugh. He was also a water aerobics fanatic, all the way up until last fall. Charlie says that's what's kept him going all these years. "Stay active, that's all I got to say: stay active and eat well, eat fruits and vegetables," said Charlie. What's next Tuesday evening, on Charlie's 106th birthday, he will be honored with a proclamation at the Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting. The Source FOX 5's Denise Dillon spoke with Georgia WWII veteran Charlie Duncan, who is turning 106 this week.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Veteran creates wall at New Smyrna Beach Walmart to honor other veterans
A man in Volusia County has made it his mission to never forget the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Now he's telling others about the lessons of such sacrifice one picture at a time. Two years ago, Army veteran Matt Williams created a wall of honor for these fallen men and women at the New Smyrna Beach Walmart, where he works as a loss prevention manager. The wall is dedicated to those who are serving, have served, and those who never came home. There are dozens of faces on that wall from all branches of the military - each with a story to tell. 'All of them up there are my brothers and sisters,' Williams said. Williams said he and his store manager got together and decided they needed to do something more for these service members. 'I just want to honor everybody that's been in the military. Anybody that's served, I just want to honor them because I'm a veteran and I know what it was like,' he said. Sixteen veterans work at the Walmart on State Road 44, so it is personal for them. Some helped make the wall, painted it and built its flag. The wall has grown over its two years so far. It was a labor of love to remember and keep the lessons of sacrifice and commitment to this country alive. Williams said he wants those who see the wall to understand their sacrifice, as well as the sacrifices made by their families. Williams' goal is to fill the wall of honor, then to create another one. If you are a member of the military or have a loved one in the military, you can contact the store. They will proudly display the picture. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Army veteran with 3-year-old son identified as man killed in Wellfleet hit-and-run Saturday
The man killed in a hit-and-run late Saturday night in Wellfleet has been identified by police. Timothy Duval, 24, of Tallahassee, Florida was a husband, and father of a 3-year-old son, according to a press release and post Monday evening on the Wellfleet police Facebook page. The case is still under investigation, but no arrests have been made, the statement said. Duval, an Army veteran, had been on vacation on Cape Cod and spending the night with a group of friends who he became separated from. He was killed walking along Ocean View Drive. In an earlier statement, police said they found Duvall after receiving a call about a pedestrian lying in the road and performed life-saving measures, but that Duval was pronounced dead at the scene. "Investigators are urging members of the public, including residents, homeowners, and business owners in the area, to come forward with any information that may assist in the case," the statement Monday night said. "Surveillance footage, dashcam videos, or eyewitness accounts from the night of the incident could prove crucial in determining what happened and identifying those responsible." The suspect vehicle is believed to be a pickup truck or SUV, police said, based on the location of the injuries. Information should be directed to Detective Michael Allen at 508-349-3702, according to the statement. Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans. This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Wellfleet hit-and-run: Man killed Saturday identified as Army vet, dad
BBC News
24-05-2025
- BBC News
Thetford teenager who went on run after stabbing man is jailed
A teenager who went on the run after stabbing a man who was out walking with his family has been jailed for 12 Norman was with his fiancee and two young daughters in Bury Road in Thetford, Norfolk, on 10 March 2024, when he was stabbed multiple former soldier, who was in his 30s, was in a critical condition in hospital for nearly two Price, 19, of Amulet Close in Thetford, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) following a trial and was sentenced on Friday at Norwich Crown Court. Jurors also found Price guilty of possessing a knife in a public he was found not guilty of attempted murder.A second defendant, who was 17 but cannot be named for legal reasons, was found not guilty of attempted murder and of causing GBH with Insp Sam Pontin said: "The violence shown by Price was unwarranted and extreme, leaving a man for dead on the pavement in front of his family then running away." Price told jurors that Mr Norman taunted him about his teeth during the altercation on 10 March, which was Mother's footage showed the victim and the younger defendant fighting, and Price said he stabbed Mr Norman because he feared for his co-defendant's pair fled and were arrested in Kent after a six-week victim - who was aged in his 30s and served in Afghanistan for the Army - is still recovering from his injuries, some of which are a statement read out in court, Mr Norman said: "I lived independently, was sociable, and could drive; all of which is different now."Price was told he would serve three years on licence, on top of his 12-year prison term. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
What is Memorial Day and how has it evolved from its Civil War origins?
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday that's supposed to be about mourning the nation's fallen service members, but it's come to anchor the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of travel and discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers. Iraq War veteran Edmundo Eugenio Martinez Jr. said the day has lost so much meaning that many Americans 'conflate and mix up Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, July Fourth.' Social media posts pay tribute to 'everyone' who has served, when Memorial Day is about those who died. For him, it's about honoring 17 U.S. service members he knew who lost their lives. 'I was either there when they died or they were soldiers of mine, buddies of mine,' said Martinez, 48, an Army veteran who lives in Katy, Texas, west of Houston. 'Some of them lost the battle after the war.' Here is a look at the holiday and how it has evolved: When is Memorial Day? It falls on the last Monday of May. This year, it's on May 26. Why is Memorial Day celebrated? It's a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military, according to the Congressional Research Service. The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence. What are the origins of Memorial Day? The holiday's origins can be traced to the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members — both Union and Confederate — between 1861 and 1865. The first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day occurred on May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers, which were in bloom. The practice was already widespread. Waterloo, New York, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday's birthplace. Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864, according to the Library of Congress. And women in some Confederate states were decorating graves before the war's end. David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina. A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves. 'What happened in Charleston does have the right to claim to be first, if that matters,' Blight told The Associated Press in 2011. When did Memorial Day become a source of contention?As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become 'sacrilegious' and no longer 'sacred' if it focused more on pomp, dinners and oratory. In an 1871 Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery abolitionist Frederick Douglass said he feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War's impetus: enslavement. 'We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation's destroyers,' Douglass said. His concerns were well-founded, said Ben Railton, a professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. Although roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, the holiday in many communities would essentially become 'white Memorial Day,' especially after the rise of the Jim Crow South, Railton told the AP in 2023. In the 1880s, then-President Grover Cleveland was said to have spent the holiday going fishing — and 'people were appalled,' Matthew Dennis, an emeritus history professor at the University of Oregon, previously told the AP. But when the Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, 1911, a report from the AP made no mention of the holiday — or any controversy. How has Memorial Day changed?Dennis said Memorial Day's potency diminished somewhat with the addition of Armistice Day, which marked World War I's end on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice Day became a national holiday by 1938 and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. In 1971, Congress changed Memorial Day from every May 30 to the last Monday in May. Dennis said the creation of the three-day weekend recognized that Memorial Day had long been transformed into a more generic remembrance of the dead, as well as a day of leisure. Just a year later, Time Magazine wrote that the holiday had become 'a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.' Why is Memorial Day tied to sales and travel? Even in the 19th century, grave ceremonies were followed by leisure activities such as picnicking and foot races, Dennis said. The holiday also evolved alongside baseball and the automobile, the five-day work week and summer vacation, according to the 2002 book 'A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness.' In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses began to open defiantly on the holiday. Once the holiday moved to Monday, 'the traditional barriers against doing business began to crumble,' authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran wrote. These days, Memorial Day sales and traveling are deeply woven into the nation's muscle memory. But Martinez, the Iraq War veteran in Texas, is posting photos and stories on social media about the service members he knows who died. 'I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer and tell you not to have your hotdogs and your burgers. But give them at least a couple minutes,' he said. 'Give them some silence. Say a little prayer. Give them a nod. There's a bunch of families out there that don't have loved ones.'
