2 days ago
Local veteran uses wish to honor others
KENMORE, N.Y. (WIVB) — John Gerstenmeyer volunteered to defend the stars and stripes.
'I spent two years, 10 months, 11 days, nine hours, and 15 minutes and 30 seconds. I was stationed peacetime in South Korea; the bad luck is when Vietnam started, I was there, and they shipped me right to Vietnam,' said Gerstenmeyer.
During his time in service, he was a parachutist and completed 42 combat jumps. John was wounded while in duty, and he lost his leg.
'He's a generally good guy, and he'd do anything for anybody,' said Lisa Blaszczyk, John's daughter.
For 35 years, John worked in his hometown as a principal engineer for the City of Buffalo, overseeing heating operations for 173 buildings. He now lives at the Brookdale Kenmore, where his friend Suzanne wanted to know if he had a wish, what it would be.
'He wanted to go skydiving into the courtyard; wasn't feasible, so he came up with the secondary plan of a military picnic in the courtyard,' said Suzanne Kuligowski, the resident program manager at Brookdale Kenmore. 'He's a man of few words, but he's got a really, really big heart underneath that long beard.'
She submitted his wish to AARP's 'Wish of a Lifetime' program, and while the sun was shining in their courtyard, his wish was granted.
'It's a testament to who he is as a person. He's always giving to others and not to himself. He doesn't want the attention, he doesn't want the big thrill and the frills, he'd rather give that to somebody else,' said Kuligowski. 'It's overdue. When he came home from the service, they didn't get the thanks that they deserved, so he's finally getting that thanks.'
'For me, just shaking hands would be good enough — shaking hands and thanking them for their service,' said Gerstenmeyer. 'I want them to be appreciated, also — simple as that.'
Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.
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