On the night of Sept. 12, 1942, 19-year-old Marlin Groft lay in a foxhole atop what would soon be called Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal.The blackness of the night was so complete he could not see his buddy just a few feet away. But he could hear the Japanese; 3,000 of them, moving up the hill......

It's been more than 37 years since Lt. James Edward Hunsicker lost his life in Vietnam. But Kathryn Hunsicker's small, cozy apartment in Brethren Village is decorated with numerous reminders of her son, an Army helicopter pilot who died April 24, 1972, while on an emergency rescue mi......

It's nice to know that America isn't the only country where clueless politicians come up with screwball ideas.Don't get me wrong, our government leaders have goofball ideas aplenty. How else can you explain trade legislation that allows U.S. industries to ship jobs overseas so ......

Seven years ago, as Lois Herr was helping her 98-year-old mom, Kathryn Herr, clean out an attic, they found a box of old correspondence. The discovery turned out to be a treasure trove: The letters, penned during World War II, were written to Lois Herr's father, Elizabethtown College coa......

It's been 56 years since U.S. troops ceased fighting in Korea and 36 years since the end of the Vietnam War. But the remains of almost 9,800 servicemen from the two conflicts are still unaccounted for. Fifteen of these men are from Lancaster County, and this project aims to tell the......

Following are the stories of the men lost in Korea:Cpl. Donald Irvin Dundore Army, MIA, July 6, 1953 US-52227040

As a child, Denise Barche knew little about her father. Born in late November 1953, she came into this world more than 4½ month......

Following are the stories on the men lost in Vietnam whose remains were not recovered:1st Lt. James Edward Hunsicker Army, KIA, April 24, 1972It was only well after the Vietnam War ended that John R. Barnes learned his fraternity brother, James Edward Hunsicker......

At the start of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, an American bomber was shot down by German fighter planes and sent into a fiery, nose-first crash in a cow pasture here. The pilot's body was never found. Almost 65 years later, on a recent late summer day, a 10-member Defense Depart......

About 50 Jewish people who lived in displaced-persons camps in Berlin after World War II will see the world premiere of a documentary about the camps this evening during a reunion in Lancaster.The film, "Transit Berlin: From Hell to Hope," was finished by director Gabriel Heim an......

It's billed as "an adventure in learning for persons of retirement age seeking the encouragement of mental stimulation and growth, the excitement of new knowledge and the pleasure of new friends."In the last 34 years, Quest for Learning has presented more than 500 talks on to......

You long-time readers doubtless know that when I am not busy writing this column or a news story that includes such gripping words as "sewage module" or "storm-water retention basin," I am writing actual books.Yes, spending my free time writing is like Tiger Woods takin......

Historians of World War II have found that the Allies — principally the United States, Great Britain and France — fought among themselves almost as much as they fought the Nazis.There were disputes about strategy, tactics, goals and, often, credit. Many of the leaders at the ti......

Residents of Schoeneck marked Memorial Day on Monday by breaking ground at what will be the new home of a 62-year-old veterans monument.The sandstone memorial, with bronze plaques honoring residents of the Schoeneck area who served in World Wars I and II, was removed from its original site......

When nurse Marie Cottrell tried to enlist in the Army during World War II, her 5-foot-7 1/2-inch, 120-pound frame was deemed "too thin," and she was turned away.A few years later, the Korean War began. Cottrell's weight hadn't changed, but this time the military welcomed ......

Mary Lou Jones gently dabbed at her eyes and placed her large dark sunglasses on her face."It brings back a lot of memories," she said following a Memorial Day ceremony Sunday at the gazebo in Locust Street Park in Columbia.Memories not only of her brother, Charles Smith, ......

Andy Scheid couldn't ignore the World War II veteran who died penniless. Scheid gave the man a complimentary burial with full military honors. He even made sure the veteran — a Purple Heart recipient — had a suit to wear. After that experience, about 1½ years ag......

The Berlin Wall fell, but for years thereafter American Cold Warriors were mocked for not giving up on the old fight they seemed to have grown to love.Well, Obama's in the White House, but some Democrats appear to be stuck on the past like a fading "01-20-09" label on a Prius......

It was the era of big bands, men in uniforms bedecked with service ribbons and women in seamed stockings. A new Chevrolet Clipper cost $659, while for the more upscale, a Chrysler New Yorker went for $1,385.Of course, the average worker earned less than $2,500 a year.The young peopl......

Leroy "Sox" Bachman and his wife, Linda, disagreed about what should happen to their bodies after death."Sox" is opposed to cremation for himself, at least. "I would rather have mine rot away," he said.Linda, who had been a well-known hairdresser in Col......

The state Attorney General's office Friday charged a Marietta-based aviation recycling business employee with failing to report a massive cache of radium-containing instruments at seven warehouses in the county.Craig E. Dallmeyer, 57, of York, the former president of Strube Inc., was c......

What goes around comes around, according to Rabbi Walter Homolka, a professor at Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany.Homolka, who helped establish the first rabbinical school in Germany since the Holocaust, was the keynote speaker for Women of Reform Judaism's fundraising dinner......

During World War I they were called Victory Bonds. During World War II they were called, more simply, War Bonds.By any name they were an effort by the government, using an appeal of patriotism, to get citizens to help finance needed spending.Are you ready for Bailout Bonds?Th......

Area veterans are invited to attend a trio of free events for the second annual Salute to Veterans Weekend.Activities are scheduled May 22 and 23 for veterans, including free admittance to a Lancaster Barnstormers game and a free continental breakfast and a movie at Penn Cinema....

Runners and spectators for Saturday's Race Against Racism should pack sunscreen instead of layers this year.AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Edwards is predicting a balmy day with temperatures reaching the mid-80s for the 11th annual race, festival and parade in downtown Lancaster, spon......

We delay the start of this week's column to bring you this important and extremely self-serving commercial.In case you want a signed copy of my new book, "Shadows In the Jungle," I will be at the Borders Bookstore across from Park City Center on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. Br......

For many people, their knowledge of the Holocaust begins and ends with concentration camps and gas chambers.But for Manheim Township resident Michael Gleiberman, the Holocaust was intensely personal.While Gleiberman and his immediate family survived the Nazi onslaught in their nativ......

News accounts of the pirate raid on a U.S.-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean called it "the first such attack on American sailors in around 200 years."It isn't. Pirates in a lawless Muslim land attacked several U.S. merchant ships in the 1830s from port towns on the island of ......

It was a one-in-a-million thing.On Saturday, James F. Young's wife, Yvonne, talked him into stopping at a fund-raiser yard sale at Hempfield United Methodist Church."I didn't want to stop," the Elizabethtown man said.But he did. At one stand, his wife picked......

When discussing Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, most historians downplay the role of Nazi ideology, according to the keynote speaker at the 29th annual Holocaust Conference at Millersville University.Robert Gellately, a Florida State University history professor, said he stro......

Florida State University professor Robert Gellately will be the keynote speaker for the 29th annual Holocaust Conference at Millersville University today through Friday.Gellately will speak tonight at Lehr Room, Gordonier Conference Center, on the subject, "Hitler, Anti-Communism and ......

Bald and wearing a yellow robe draped over one shoulder, she spoke to the group in a decidedly New England accent — with her eyes closed.Then Sister Clare got out a small ceremonial drum and started chanting with the rest of the Buddhists monks in the room.To be sure, it wasn&......

Did you ever host a party and worry that no one would show up, leaving you all alone and wearing a stupid paper hat? I find myself in that situation. Minus the hat.I'm not hosting a party in the traditional sense. There won't be finger food, such as heavily processed chunks of some......

Thaddeus Stevens had a simple, direct answer for those who asked why Pennsylvania should adopt a public education policy. If an elective government is to endure, he said, all citizens must be educated, and "it is the duty of government to see that the means of information be diffused to......

Correction — Ann Breslin, project manager for the Strube Inc. environmental cleanup project, is employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her place of employment was misidentified in the article below, posted on LancasterOnline S......

Inspired by a famous World War II photograph, Andrew Spreadbury decided to thank 22 veterans and their spouses with a special Valentine's Day gift.A full-time tour bus driver for Executive Coach for the past eight years, Spreadbury, 60, not only paid for but drove the veterans to Phila......

Walking sticks have been a necessary tool ever since shepherds began tending sheep and needed a way to protect against thieves and keep the animals in line.Eventually, the walking stick became a symbol of authority and prestige, and crafters began ornately carving and decorating them....

The federal-state emergency cleanup of hundreds of thousands of World War II aircraft instruments with radioactive dials in warehouses in Columbia, Marietta, Maytown and Mount Joy is 90 percent complete. But the cost of the removal has mushroomed from an initial ceiling of $250,000 in January 2......

REVIEW: MovieI didn't hold out great hopes for "Valkyrie" for two reasons: Tom Cruise plays the hero, and anyone who didn't sleep through the World War II unit in history class knows how the last plot to assassinate Adolf Hitl......

Morgan Rose's great-uncle died in Europe while fighting in World War II.Her grandfather and six other great-uncles also served in the military, as did her stepfather and an uncle.So when Morgan had a chance to create a card to send to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, s......

Wrapping up my series on my trip to Europe with World War II "Band of Brothers" veteran Forrest Guth, I think that, history aside, what impressed me most about Europe was that it contains unicorns.Not really. But it does contain something almost as rare; courteous truck drivers....

Today we pick up where we left off last week.I recently returned from touring World War II battlefields in Europe, which I visited in preparation for writing a book titled "In the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers." The book will be a memoir/travelogue, which is why I to......

I just returned from two weeks overseas, and the one question people keep asking me is, "How did you find Europe?"Actually, I let the airplane pilot find Europe (I suspect he took off from Philadelphia International Airport and turned left).The purpose of my trip was ......

Banks and most government offices are closed today and the mail won't be delivered as the country pauses to honor former members of the military. This year, Veterans Day comes as the United States has soldiers deployed in active conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also marks the 90th anni......

It's been 90 years since the armistice of World War I. The cease fire between the Allies and Germany occurred at the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month and culminated with the Treaty of Versailles. This day, now known as Veterans Day, began as a time to honor those who fought in T......

Paraguayan Mennonite businessman Ernst Bergen had every reason to refuse when his country's newly elected president, Nicanor Duarte, asked him to join the cabinet in August 2003.Dictator Alfredo Stroessner had ruled the country from 1954 to 1989. His successors in the ruling Colorado P......

When you've lived a long, interesting life and watch the news avidly, you notice that though the world has changed, people have stayed the same.Just ask 89-year-old Quarryville resident the Rev. C. Russell Doherty.He said he's been enjoying recent news reports about American......

At 19, Leonhard Keck grew up fast in the closing days of World War II in Europe. It was April 1945. Germany's Third Reich was on the verge of collapse. But that didn't mean young American soldiers like Keck, who today at age 84 lives in a quiet Lancaster neighborhood, were going to have......

One end of the Elizabethtown fairgrounds will turn into a giant parking lot this Saturday for the Elizabethtown Lions Club seventh annual "Car Cruise" auto show.The other end of the grounds will be a time-warp to the 1940s and the American home front during World War II.&q......

Some people will go to the Elizabethtown Lions Club's 7th annual Car Cruise/Show this weekend because they're car junkies, plain and simple. The smell of exhaust, the roar of a healthy V-8, the gleam of just-cleaned chrome are the stuff of life to them. But let's face it, fo......

Wilbur "Bing" Miller gingerly climbed into the Liberator. It had been 65 years since he last negotiated the tiny crawl spaces of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber. And now, at age 85, it wasn't any easier for him. "I wanted to sit in this seat one more time," Miller said Friday from the......

This month, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design will feature an exhibit of World War II posters that reveal how artists were enlisted to keep morale high and production steady on the home front."I think this show will appeal to the students as well as the people in the community ......

A local company is making a big bang thanks to a new contract with the U.S. Army.L-3 BT Fuze Products, 101 N. Queen St., has landed a $13.4 million contract from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois to manufacture M67 fragmentation hand grenades. Combine......

Some World War II veterans got a free ride recently, and they deserved it. About 45 veterans and 20 other guests left Solanco High School at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday on two tour buses headed to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial honors the 16 million men and women......

Raymond C. Wallace Jr. jumped out of a plane Saturday and this time around, the skies weren't cracking with enemy fire, and the plane from which he jumped was not aflame. Wallace was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, and was among those who parachuted into Normand......

The following is a message for filmmaker Spike Lee:Hey, Spike, lighten up, will ya?Spike recently berated fellow director Clint Eastwood, saying Eastwood's films, "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers," fail to depict the contributions of black so......

Those who served were themselves served Friday during a special dinner honoring the men and women who wore the uniform of America's armed forces.The Cocalico Senior Association, which performs outreach programs for seniors in northern Lancaster County, hosted about 230 people, includin......

It was spring 1942, and the world was at war.In May of that year, Japanese submarines were mounting an attack on Sydney harbor in Australia, and Mexico had just joined the war effort against the Nazis.Meanwhile, in Paradise Township, 18-year-old Lee Huff had just graduated from what......

The familiar tune of "Taps" echoed throughout Churchtown Monday evening as band members, veterans and children holding flowers joined in the town's 142-year-old Memorial Day ceremony.When it comes to tradition, Churchtown's Memorial Day celebration can't be rivaled. T......

On Nov. 8, 1862, young Ebenezer S. Killian was drafted into the military, donning the blue kersey uniform of a Union soldier to take up arms in a struggle to preserve freedom and end slavery.The Lancaster County man was made a member of a local militia organization, the 178th Pennsylvania ......

As the War Memorial Clocks in Salunga marked the beginning of the annual Memorial Day ceremony, applause erupted from the audience."It's the first time in several years that our town clocks reflect the correct time for our memorial day service," master of ceremonies Burnell H......

Hundreds of small-plane and car enthusiasts flocked to Lancaster Airport on Sunday for the annual Memorial Weekend fly-in and accompanying cruise-in.The family-friendly event featured more than 60 small aircraft on display, 350 specialty cars and motorcycles, a pancake breakfast and plane ......

If past years are any indication, Sunday promises to be an exciting, fun-filled day for local plane and car enthusiasts.That's when the county's annual breakfast fly-in and cruise-in will take place at Lancaster Airport.It's organized by the Lancaster chapter of the Expe......

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Vance gripped a baseball in his right hand as he stepped to the mound at Clipper Magazine Stadium Friday evening.Vance, a 21-year Army veteran, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to mark the beginning of the Barnstormers' Salute to Veterans, an event co......

During World War II, women's roles in the country changed dramatically, from Rosie the Riveter to the Donut Dollies. You've probably heard of Rosie, who represented the women who worked in factories, helping American industry gear up for the war that would consume the country for fou......

Thanks to an anonymous donor, there will be music and marching in the streets of Lancaster next month after all.Organizers of the American Spirit Parade say they now have enough money to hold the event as planned April 26.Earlier this year, the volunteer group that organizes the par......

Removal of radioactive World War II dials in eight acres of storage warehouses in Columbia, Marietta, Maytown and Mount Joy could cost nearly $2 million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA has ordered an "emergency removal response" at eight old warehouses owned by Strub......

On June 12, 1942, Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank received a small book for her 13th birthday. Anne had spotted the book, bound with red-and-white plaid cloth, with a small lock on the front, in a shop window a few days earlier and pointed it out to her father, Otto.Although it was a......

Strasburg Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8710 will likely disband due to a disappearing membership. Mount Joy VFW Post 5752 is flourishing with 709 members — 183 percent more than three years ago. Their difference lies in recruitment of new members to replace dying World War II and......

Frank Denlinger is 100 years old today. While most everyone else is surprised and impressed that he has made it to the century mark in life, Denlinger is not. "I always knew I would live to be 100," says Denlinger, who resides at Audubon Villa in Lititz. Unlike some other 10......

The feds are stepping in to take over removal of radioactive instrument dials from seven Strube Inc. sites in western Lancaster County.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially took on the job at the request of the state Department of Environmental Protection after Strube Inc. of......

What's the secret to living to 100 while looking 30 years younger? Miriam Rutt Terry, who was born Dec. 23, 1907, in East Earl Township, says the answer is simply having a good attitude. "Treat other people as you would like to be treated. That's the way I always did and I get......

The number 171952 will remain in Severin Fayerman's mind and imprinted on his left forearm forever. "I felt it was a badge of honor," he said. The number was tattooed onto him by the Nazis in 1943 when he entered the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. "Once you......

I heard he was quite a classroom showman.His field of expertise: American intellectual history. He was passionate about making it come to life for his students, whether teaching an introductory class or an advanced round table.Comfortable in at least four languages — more than......

He's one of the dozen remaining veterans of the original "Band of Brothers." Forrest Guth was a corporal in Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, the unit made famous in Stephen E. Ambrose's book, "Band of Brothers." The Allen......

After six months of renovations, two historic town clocks are back and looking better than ever.The clocks, one in Landisville and the other at Hempfield Fire Department Community Park in Salunga, were re-erected in their original locations last week.Installed in 1946, the clocks ar......

The American Music Theatre has done it again — produced a holiday show that will knock the Christmas socks right off your feet.The "2007 Christmas Show" may not be an imaginative title, but it's the only part of this holiday extravaganza that's unexciting.The......

States Reps. Bryan Cutler and Scott Boyd wanted to find a special way to honor veterans living in their House districts.Their response was to spend $700 of their own money to buy bronze medals with the inscription "Your service will never be forgotten" and give them to veterans o......

The history of warfare is linked indelibly to transportation.From aircraft and naval vessels to jeeps and motorbikes, the military always has had to find better ways to get where it needs to go. That's where the histories of trains and troops overlap."Railroads really were ......

The question "What time is it?" has been harder than usual to answer this week.When the clock in Lancaster's Penn Square read "11 a.m.," the one at Clock Towers, a short distance away, read "10 a.m."While patients visiting the Surgery Center of Lanc......

An air pocket saved her. The bodies piled in the gas chamber included her entire family, but 16-year-old Lena, pushed into a corner of the wall, somehow survived. Will that miracle lead to her survival and to hope, or will she be thrown back into the gas chamber and the job of the Nazis......

If Amtrak had a suggestion box, I'd recommend that the company seriously consider equipping its passenger cars with ejector seats.This would enable riders to give the heave-ho to irritating people they are forced to sit beside.I certainly would have used it on my recent trip out wes......

Most of you don't know this, but I am writing a new book.Like "Biggest Brother," my biography of Maj. Richard Winters of "Band Of Brothers" fame, this is set in World War II. It's about a group of soldiers called the 6th U.S. Army Special Reconnaissance Unit, or the Alamo Scouts, an elite ......

On Feb. 23, 1945, as five U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman raised a flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, another heroic American action was taking place hundreds of miles away in the Philippine Islands.A battalion of paratroopers from the U.S. 11th Airborne Division, a contingent of Fili......

Jim Way is hearing the comments all the time these days when he goes into his nearby Turkey Hill or is otherwise out and about in the Landisville/Salunga area. The work to restore a pair of World War II clocks in his area is now in the home stretch, and "it seems like people are always tel......

One hundred, sixty-five days do not use up much of a typical life. Not much, that is, until you stand a good chance of dying every minute. Robert Stryker and Cleon Alexander took that chance in the 1940s fighting in the Philippines and survived. Now, the men have beat the odds again b......

As World War II whirred around him, Army infantryman Clayton Musser manned a machine gun atop a guard tower in a North African prison camp. When Musser's eight-hour shift ended, boredom quickly set in. So he picked up his pocketknife and part of a wooden crate and started carving. Carv......

When the soldiers of the 314th Infantry Regiment built their officers' club in 1917, they never imagined that it would be a mobile home. Now, the Descendants and Friends of the 314th Infantry Regiment are hoping to move the cabin from its current site in the midst of Valley Forge to Carl......

Richard Larry Weaver still carries the physical and emotional scars from June 8, 1967.It was 40 years ago today that the Willow Street native and McCaskey High School graduate was stationed aboard the USS Liberty, a Naval reconnaissance ship, in international waters off the coast of Egypt.......

Howard Peterman's hobby is a historian's dream.Peterman — who is celebrating his 100th birthday today in Elizabethtown, where he lives — has written columns for several small-town, northcentral Pennsylvania newspapers throughout his life.As late as age 95, Peterm......

To many, the term "fighting Amishman" is an oxymoron similar to jumbo shrimp or pretty ugly.Fighting Amishman, however, aptly describes Andrew K. Stoltzfus, who grew up in an Amish family, enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was 19 and was killed in action in Germany one year later......

Choking back tears as he addressed a full pavilion, author Andrew Farmer introduced his family and his book, "Finding the Way."Farmer said focus of the book is former Landisville resident John Long. Long was Farmer's mother's first husband. Farmer spoke at Sunday's Me......

When he saw Richard C. Meck Sr. clad in his black World War II cap, the young police officer from Bayeux, France, got tears in his eyes. "I saw your hat and just wanted to thank you for what you did," the officer said. What Dick Meck did was land on Omaha Beach the day after D-Da......

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts today awarded service medals to seven World War II veterans in a ceremony in their honor at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown. Six of the veterans are residents of the retirement community. One received awards posthumously. Robert E. Balser, for his service in the U.......

Peter Matthews has served as a U.S. Army basic private and demolitions specialist in the darkest days of World War II. But here's the catch: He's just 19 years old.No, he's not a time traveler — just one of more than 70 re-enactors who volunteer at the Lancaster County Hi......

They're not the Greatest Generation, but they are an incredible simulation.The Lancaster County Historical Society will host its annual World War II encampment this weekend.More than 75 re-enactors representing both Allied and Axis soldiers and civilians will set up canvas tents and......

Workers dismantled the town clock in Landisville Tuesday so it can be restored. The clock is expected to be down for about six months.Global Time Wizard in Columbia is handling the work. The firm also is slated to fix the clock at Hempfield Fire Department Community Park in Salunga.......

A small bronze plaque being erected in France to commemorate an American airman who died six decades ago tugs at the heartstrings of a Lancaster County woman.

In 1945, Mildred Steed was just 26 years old and the mother of a 7-month-old infant when a plane piloted by her 25-year-old husban...