2012-02-03 22:33:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Sixty-seven years after his father helped defend a Belgian town coveted by Nazis, Howard Liddic returned to Bastogne to honor his deceased dad and his dad's comrades.
On Dec. 10, Liddic, of Lancaster Township, and his friend, Mike Collins of New York, unveiled a plaque dedicated to the 10......
2012-01-12 16:07:00
JANE HOLAHAN
Sandra Fenichel Asher knew that her friend, Ilga Katais Vise, had an amazing story to tell.
But for many years, when she told it, she would have nightmares.
A child refugee during World War II, she and her parents escaped from Riga just as the Russians invaded. Their journey took ......
2011-12-30 22:10:00
DAVID O'CONNOR
Back in the 1990s, he met Oprah Winfrey while serving as an extra in her movie "Beloved," which was partly filmed here.
Always Lancaster city's ambassador, he gave the famous woman his city councilman's business card.
It's because of this outgoing nature that people send "three or......
2011-12-27 22:51:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Christmas is over and most of us seem to have escaped unscathed, although there were a few holiday casualties, mostly occurring last month on Black Friday.
Eager for early Christmas bargains, a throng of shoppers at a Target store in West Virginia had to face the inconvenience of stepping......
2011-12-07 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
James Moores said he was "an 18-year-old snot-nosed kid" 70 years ago today aboard the destroyer tender USS Dobbin anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
"I was an 18-year-old man by the end of that day," he said.
Moores, 88, of East Drumore Township, had enlisted in the Navy in 1941 a......
2011-11-24 21:26:00
JIMMY PIANKA
Her grandparents spoke fondly of their childhoods, but Mountville's Inge Kepple does nothing of the sort. Hers was torn by air raids and barbed-wire ghettos, concentration camps and refugee cattle cars. She recalls her escape from persecution with grim intensity, marking her family's arriva......
2011-11-11 00:36:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Correction Nov. 11, 2011 — The name of Mary Scheid, a U.S. Army nurse during World War II, was misspelled in an earlier version of the story below.
•••
......
2011-11-11 15:51:00
CHAD UMBLE
The two newest graduates of Conestoga Valley High School were commemorated during a Veterans Day ceremony that also recognized them for the military service that originally interrupted their high school careers. William Dillon, a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, and William Groff, a U.S......
2011-11-10 15:51:00
CAROLE DECK
At 93, Bob Fahnestock's memories as a fighter pilot in World War II are as vivid today as if they took place yesterday. With a winsome smile and gracious manner, the veteran enthusiastically shared his wartime experiences that included flying 86 missions in the China-Burma-India Theater ove......
2011-11-03 23:33:00
JANE HOLAHAN
In post-World War II Germany, African-American soldiers discovered a kind of freedom they had never experienced in their own country.
They could eat in any restaurant they chose. Sit anywhere on a bus. Hire a white person as a servant or date a white woman.
At home, this would hav......
2011-09-07 22:45:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Sixty-eight years ago, they were shipmates, 17- and 18-year-old boys gone to sea during a time of war. This week, veterans of the destroyer escort USS Enright, now in their 80s, are gathered in Bird-in-Hand to renew their camaraderie and share their memories. "We had a go......
2011-09-01 15:15:00
JANE HOLAHAN
"The All Night Strut!" is not opening at the Fulton Theatre next week.
It's opening at the Fulton Supper Club. Sure, it's in the same location, and no, they won't be serving supper, but the Fulton will be transported.
"We're taking you back to the 1930s and early 1940s," says Marc......
2011-08-14 21:39:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Sixty-six years ago today the people of Japan heard something they had never heard before in their lives — the voice of their Emperor.
Emperor Hirohito, via a recording, was telling them that World War II was lost. Japan was surrendering and that they would be "enduring the unendura......
2011-08-12 22:18:00
TOM KNAPP
Larry N. Reece will never stop being grateful for the generation that put an end to Hitler's regime.
"A veteran is a veteran. We're no better than anybody else," Reece said.
"But I don't know what kind of world we'd have today if it weren't for our World War II veterans."
......
2011-08-04 15:04:00
TOM KNAPP
John loves Mary.
Lily loves Fred.
John, an American G.I., marries Lily, a young Englishwoman, to bypass U.S. immigration laws and get her into the States, where they plan to divorce quickly, leaving Lily free to marry Fred and John free to marry his sweetheart, Mary.
But -......
2011-07-05 23:54:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Last week, this newspaper published a letter from a reader concerning the late Maj. Dick Winters, a Lancaster County hero.
The reader noted "the unsuccessful efforts to nominate Mr. Winters for the Medal of ......
2011-06-23 16:09:00
JANE HOLAHAN
Second acts aren't too common in the music world.
But Tony Bennett, who will be performing at the American Music Theatre on Sunday, has had an incredible one, finding more than one new generation of fans.
And at age 84, Bennett is still going strong.
"I still love to perfo......
2011-06-12 00:14:00
JON RUTTER
They were chatting in the town square when they heard the B-24s coming. "I'm getting out of here," Joe Dotson said. The young Tennessean tried to take cover before bomb blasts from the American air strike rocked Malmedy, Belgium. His friend, George Schneider, ran the other way. ......
2011-05-30 21:08:00
AMANDA KENNEDY
Schoeneck community members came marching in to honor those who all came home.
A patriotic parade in Schoeneck honored veterans from the area on Monday during the unveiling of a special monument.
Members of the community re-dedicated the Schoeneck Area Veterans Memorial at its new......
2011-05-29 18:45:00
TOM KNAPP
Stephanie Kuhns' handmade American flag never stopped waving. The 9-year-old Columbia resident, seated Sunday afternoon with parents Jonathan and Angela Kuhns for the annual Memorial Day Parade in Columbia Borough, kept her flag merrily moving in time with the Westminster Municipal Band as i......
2011-05-29 00:19:00
PAULA WOLF
With their shared service in World War II, veterans of that conflict have a bond that grows tighter as their numbers dwindle. But for Alan Tobie and Bill Borders, that tie is even stronger. The Willow Valley Lakes Manor residents, both captured during the Battle of the Bu......
2011-05-27 23:14:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
This Memorial Day will be even more special than most for World War II veteran Les Underwood.
The 85-year-old East Petersburg man recently returned from St. Louis, where he reunited with his wartime best buddy, Lou Baczewski.
The two chums last saw each other in 1945.
"He ......
2011-05-26 22:16:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The Memorial Day weekend kicked off Thursday evening with a hearty thank you to America's veterans.
More than 100 musicians, flag carriers, color guards and Boy Scouts took to the field at Clipper Magazine Stadium for the largest Salute to Veterans yet staged.
But despite the many......
2011-05-19 15:31:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Local historians will again pay tribute to the Greatest Generation as LancasterHistory.org hosts the annual World War II weekend.
Moved to the grounds at Linden Hall, 212 E. Main St., Lititz, because of construction at the Lancaster Count......
2011-04-07 22:38:00
ENELLY BETANCOURT
While visiting Moscow's Union of Art Photographers, David Shneer noticed that the walls were adorned with some of the best examples of Soviet war photography.
"I couldn't help but notice that the photographers' names were undeniably Jewish," said Shneer.
It was at that moment that......
2011-03-24 00:07:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
On this day in 1945, they were among the 16,000 paratroopers who made the last great airdrop of World War II.
Sixty-six years later, about 25 veterans of the 17th Airborne gathered at Lancaster's Fulton Steamboat Inn to reminisce about that defining moment in their lives.
It was c......
2011-03-15 17:35:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Family, friends and fans of Major Richard D. Winters, the Lancaster-born World War II hero featured in the popular "Band of Brothers" TV mini-series, will gather in Hershey on Saturday for a memorial service to the late military leader.
Winters, who was born in Lancaster on Jan. 21, 1918,......
2011-03-08 00:12:00
CINDY STAUFFER
It is only fitting.
Clair Fasnacht is celebrating his birthday on Fasnacht Day.
The retired machinist, father and grandfather from Millersville turns 87 today.
But this is the first time that he has celebrated his birthday on the day that bears his name.
According ......
2011-02-19 02:00:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
At 2 a.m. Feb. 19, 1945, scores of American warships began lobbing shells at the volcanic island of Iwo Jima.
At 9 a.m., the first of 30,000 U.S. Marines stormed ashore.
Thirty-five bloody days and one iconic photograph later, it was over.
What planners thought would be a ......
2011-02-04 17:47:00
ERIC DOWLING, 16, Freestyle
MOVIE REVIEW
Among all of the great movies this year, one movie stands out from the rest of the pack. With 12 Oscar nominations, "The King's Speech" has ruled superior.
Set in England during the 1930s and '40s, this story follo......
2011-01-31 18:17:00
SALLY MELCHER JARVIS
Storm-tossed and tired, radiant with anticipation, the first group of 'British Brides' reached New York today," enthused the front page of the Lancaster New Era on Feb. 4, 1946.
That day, 65 years ago, marked the first arrival of the largest single group of female immigrants in U. S. hist......
2011-01-28 22:37:00
CINDY STAUFFER
At the end, they were 120 miles apart after being together for 56 years.
Floyd "Bud" Rudy was at a veterans center in Scranton. His beautiful wife, "Mickey," was at a hospice in Mount Joy.
Bud Rudy, 95, died Monday. The couple's two sons never broke the news to their mom, who had ......
2011-01-14 17:58:00
CODY STRAUB, 16, Freestyle
DVD REVIEW
If are looking for something to cheer you up, the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" is not for you. If though you are looking for an action-packed, true story about World War II, then "Band of Brothers" is for you.
"......
2011-01-12 12:33:00
STAFF
A memorial service for Maj. Richard D. Winters, who died Jan. 2, has been scheduled for March.
The service will be held Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the Hershey Theatre, 15 E. Caracas Ave., Hershey.
The public is invited to attend the celebration of the life of Winters, who ga......
2011-01-10 21:25:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Staff writer Larry Alexander is the author of "Biggest Brother," a biography of Richard "Dick" Winters published in 2005 by NAL Caliber.
•••
Standing by the grave of Major Richard D. Winters on Sunday, gazing at ......
2011-01-10 09:00:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The commander of the "Band of Brothers" has died.
Dick Winters, an Army officer whose World War II service was featured in a book and TV series, died Jan. 2 at the age of 92.
Winters, who lived in Hershey, was a member of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Com......
2010-12-22 17:36:00
SUSAN JURGELSKI
Eighty-seven-year-old World War II veteran Alvin Leisey lost his soles that day on the Pacific island and still wonders how the bombshell blast blew the boots right off his feet, unraveling the tightly strung laces.
He saw the shell coming, somersaulting right at him — a bomb ironic......
2010-11-20 20:08:00
JON RUTTER
It's a first for the Lancaster County Convention Center: a gun show. And firearms of all sorts were indeed being purchased Saturday afternoon. But it wasn't what you might think. The show, which continues today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., has a decidedly historical flavor....
2010-11-19 21:04:00
LORI VAN INGEN
In 1910, the year Emilie Bauman was born, Thomas Edison demonstrated the first "talking" pictures using a phonograph in his New Jersey laboratory.
Two days after she was born, Arthur Knight patented the steel shaft golf club.
Two weeks later, neon lights were first publicly seen a......
2010-11-12 22:58:00
DAVID O'CONNOR
When Raymond Leonard was a young man and a war that would change his life had yet to start, he "walked all over Washington, D.C."
"I was in good shape then," the 91-year-old Ephrata man recalled this week.
On Wednesday, just days shy of 66 years since an enemy round in France sent......
2010-11-11 21:47:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Doug Tressler walked out of the restaurant and immediately started shaking hands with people seated outside.
They were strangers, yet they all shared a bond about which many said, "If you haven't been there, you might not get it."
But look out, because it is a raw thing that can b......
2010-11-10 22:59:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Gen. George S. Patton was, arguably, the most colorful military figure of World War II, and few alive today are more aware of that than Dale Blevins.
The Quarryville man spent his wartime service as a mounted messenger with Company A of the 301st Signal Operations Battalion, attached to t......
2010-10-19 22:29:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Before we start this week's column, let me address some issues from past ramblings.
On Sept. 1, I suggested to Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray that the city raise some much-needed money by eliminating the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" flashers from its traffic signals and selling them.
My log......
2010-09-19 21:50:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
In 1945, they made the last major combat jump of World War II, drifting down in parachutes east of the Rhine River, Nazi Germany's last natural barrier against invasion by American and British forces.
Two years later, the war over, the men of Company A, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, ......
2010-09-14 20:13:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
If for some reason you want my autograph, this would be a good week to get it because I will soon be so famous that I'll have to charge a fee, much like those millionaire baseball players.
At 9 p.m. Sunday, I will be featured on an hourlong television program. It will be aired on Pennsylv......
2010-09-10 21:43:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Of the 16 million men and women who served in the military during World War II, fewer than 2 million remain.
On Thursday, two of those survivors told their stories before a packed house in the activities room at Ephrata Public Library.
Marlin Groft of Lancaster, a U.S. Marine Raid......
2010-09-03 21:47:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Harry E. Flawd Jr. was a long way from the 700 block of East Chestnut Street.
At the tender age of 17, Flawd was standing on an upper deck of the USS Missouri, watching the Japanese surrender to the Allied powers, ending the Second World War.
"I was right above the deck where they......
2010-08-03 22:12:00
JENNA EBERSOLE
The year was 1941, and a 26-year-old Lancaster County nurse was traveling by ship to Africa to begin her work as a missionary in Kenya. The world was embroiled in World War II, and the civilian passengers knew they were taking a risk.On the morning of April 17, the waters turned hostile as......
2010-07-22 16:31:00
JANE HOLAHAN
When Jerry Herman tells you you've got to play Mame, well, you've got to play Mame.And Kathryn Kendall is doing just that at Gretna Theatre through July 31.About 10 years ago, Kendall was working with Herman (who composed the score for "Mame") on a revival of anoth......
2010-07-07 22:57:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
For the first few years of his life, Richard Winters of the famed "Band of Brothers" of World War II, lived in the New Holland area.So it is fitting that New Holland has become the first location in Lancaster County where one can donate toward a Richard Winters statue in France....
2010-07-05 17:06:00
BILL HANNEGAN
More than two dozen of Lancaster County's future Eagle scouts and Boy Scouts of America executives attended the first National Jamboree held in Washington, D.C., in 1937.Before they became veterans of wartime military service and distinguished themselves in industrial engineering, phys......
2010-07-01 21:17:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
World War II has been over for 65 years, but for veterans like Rae Guistwite, the honors keep rolling in.On June 23, the 90-year-old Lititz man was among nine World War II veterans from several states to receive the Legion of Honor medal at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.&quo......
2010-06-22 22:19:00
TAYLOR BUNDY
World War II veteran Jack Pontz has a special project.After serving in the United States Army Air Forces, he is now commander in chief of Operation Care Package, a collection program he started for troops deployed overseas.A resident of United Zion Retirement Community, Pontz said h......
2010-05-31 22:49:00
DIANA MARTIN
Paul S. Linard Jr., 81, has a long memory of his hometown, Maytown.He recalls many Memorial Days, but also many of the faces that inspire the holiday.He remembers the faces of twins who served in World War II, one of whom never made it off the beach at Normandy.He remembers t......
2010-05-30 17:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Karl Brubaker was so close to one of history's greatest events that he almost could have reached out and touched it.As a member of the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion, or SeaBees, on Sept. 2, 1945, the East Drumore Township native was aboard the battleship USS Missouri, standing less ......
2010-05-22 23:46:00
Floyd D. Atkins Sr., I Know a Story
All of the Allied forces had been poised for this drive on Rome, and battle orders had been issued to all units. The jump off occurred at 2300 hours on 11 May 1944.We had been occupied carrying troops and ammunition into the front lines since the drive began. Finally, we received our order......
2010-05-13 21:33:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The veterans and civilians who endured World War II are called the Greatest Generation, and we are losing them at the rate of more than 1,000 a day.But this weekend, their contribution to freedom will be remembered as LancasterHistory.org holds its annual World War II weekend encampment....
2010-01-29 07:04:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Few people have the opportunity to feel like a hero and liberator even once in their lives. Robert Keck has felt that way twice.The first time was as a 19-year-old private first class in the U.S. Army's 83rd Infantry Division, as it liberated Belgian towns during the Battle of the Bulg......
2009-12-20 00:07:00
JON RUTTER
Sixty-five years since the Battle of the Bulge? "It doesn't seem possible," said George Schneider, who was a young Army infantry scout during the bloody, bitterly cold winter epic in Europe. Schneider and other members of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge observed th......
2009-12-07 00:10:00
STAFF
Strasburg residents marked the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in the town square Sunday. Since the anniversary service was started by borough resident Donald A. Bachman, 75, in 1994, a tree containing 2,403 white lights for those lost on Dec. 7, 1941, is lit to mark Pearl Harbor......
2009-11-11 10:11:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-11-01 00:18:00
PAULA WOLF
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......
2009-10-21 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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 ......
2009-10-11 00:08:00
PAULA WOLF
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......
2009-09-13 00:21:00
PAULA WOLF
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......
2009-09-13 00:15:00
PAULA WOLF
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 4˝ month......
2009-09-13 00:14:00
PAULA WOLF
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......
2009-09-13 00:10:00
ELISABETH BUMILLER, N. Y. Times News Service
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......
2009-09-12 00:01:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2009-08-31 00:00:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2009-08-19 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-06-06 00:01:00
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......
2009-05-26 00:17:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-05-25 00:08:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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 ......
2009-05-25 00:06:00
JENNIFER TODD
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, ......
2009-05-22 05:00:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
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 1˝ years ag......
2009-05-22 00:01:00
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......
2009-05-16 02:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-05-06 18:53:00
LINDA ESPENSHADE
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......
2009-05-02 00:07:00
PATRICK BURNS
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......
2009-04-30 00:56:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2009-04-28 00:01:00
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......
2009-04-27 00:05:00
SUSAN LINDT
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....
2009-04-24 00:27:00
DAVE PIDGEON
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......
2009-04-22 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-04-16 00:56:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2009-04-10 00:01:00
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 ......
2009-04-03 00:56:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-04-02 01:19:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2009-04-01 00:14:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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 ......
2009-03-25 00:03:00
SUSAN LINDT
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&......
2009-03-18 01:43:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-03-04 10:02:00
JACK BRUBAKER
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......
2009-03-03 19:44:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-02-26 00:34:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2009-02-14 00:25:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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....
2009-02-10 10:02:00
AD CRABLE
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......
2009-01-02 19:56:00
MEGAN HART, 19, Freestyle
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......
2008-12-25 00:04:00
BRIAN WALLACE
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......
2008-12-03 01:45:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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....
2008-11-26 01:16:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2008-11-19 00:01:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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 ......
2008-11-11 11:20:00
CHAD UMBLE
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......
2008-11-11 10:50:00
ROBYN MEADOWS
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......
2008-11-10 00:02:00
PATRICK BURNS
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......
2008-10-22 01:18:00
CARLA DI FONZO
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......
2008-09-28 00:05:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
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......
2008-09-12 00:02:00
TOM KNAPP
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......
2008-09-11 13:16:00
KATHLEEN DAMINGER
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......
2008-08-23 01:16:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
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......
2008-08-01 02:19:00
CARLA DI FONZO
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 ......
2008-07-29 01:48:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2008-07-25 01:16:00
ROXANNE TODD
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......
2008-07-13 00:18:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY
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......
2008-06-18 01:26:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2008-06-14 00:41:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2008-06-06 02:22:00
JAMES BUESCHER
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......
2008-05-27 00:40:00
KIM O’BRIEN
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......
2008-05-26 00:04:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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 ......
2008-05-26 00:02:00
STEPHANIE WEAVER
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......
2008-05-26 00:01:00
JOHN JASCOLL
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 ......
2008-05-24 01:33:00
JOHN JASCOLL
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......
2008-05-24 00:54:00
JOHN WALK
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......
2008-05-15 13:16:00
By JANE HOLAHAN
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......
2008-03-11 01:02:00
BRIAN WALLACE
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......
2008-02-14 10:10:00
AD CRABLE
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......
2008-02-08 02:12:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2008-02-05 10:11:00
RYAN ROBINSON
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......
2008-02-01 12:05:00
LAURA KNOWLES
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......
2008-01-26 01:43:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
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......
2007-12-24 10:42:00
ROXANNE TODD
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......
2007-12-23 00:08:00
PAUL FRANZ
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......
2007-12-01 00:26:00
Elizabeth Eisenstadt-Evans
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......
2007-11-15 02:08:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-11-13 00:43:00
MADELYN PENNINO
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......
2007-11-12 00:03:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-11-12 00:02:00
MICHAEL YODER
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......
2007-11-05 00:06:00
TOM KNAPP
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 ......
2007-11-02 03:13:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-10-25 11:19:00
JANE HOLAHAN
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......
2007-10-24 00:47:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-10-17 01:54:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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 ......
2007-09-29 03:16:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-09-08 12:15:00
DAVID O’CONNOR
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......
2007-07-22 00:08:00
JON RUTTER
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......
2007-07-12 14:11:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
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......
2007-07-08 00:08:00
MEGAN HART
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......
2007-06-08 02:56:00
MICHAEL YODER
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.......
2007-06-04 12:01:00
LORI VAN INGEN
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......
2007-05-28 00:06:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
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......
2007-05-28 00:03:00
RACHEL FETROW
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......
2007-05-27 00:10:00
JON RUTTER
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......
2007-05-25 14:19:00
RYAN ROBINSON
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.......
2007-05-21 08:59:00
KIM O'BRIEN
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......
2007-05-18 02:05:00
STAFF REPORT
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......
2007-04-04 00:33:00
Madelyn Pennino
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.......
2006-03-16 08:08:00
Larry Alexander
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...
