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This Day In USC History November 12, 1896 - USC won the first Clemson Carolina game 12-6. Page 6 IDlC 0aiTICCOCk Frsw*. November 12,1999 by Sara Ladenheim Editor in Chief and Ann Marie Miani Assistant etCetera Editor Veterans Day - a day set aside to honor those men and women who served the United States of America in times of war. Formerly known as Armistice Day, Veterans Day honors those who had fought in Wbrld Whr I. Nov. 11, Armistice Day, was declared a national holiday in 1938,20 years after the Wbrld Whr I had ended. In 1953, a congressman from Kansas pro posed a bill that changed the name of the holiday to Veterans Day. Ann Marie’s Story Now, I personally don’t have any war stories, and the only war I’ve ever experienced was the Gulf Whr. However, I do have one story that ex emplifies why Veterans’ Day is important to me. When I was in ninth grade, my history teacher asked the class a question: “ If the United States were bombed today and many people were killed and we went to war, would you join the Army and fight?” This one girl in my class raised her hand and said: “ If I died I would want people to fight for me, but if I lived I wouldn’t fight.” I couldn’t believe her statement. I turned to her and said, “You are such a hypocrite.” After that, an argument ensued, and finally I had the whole class agreeing that she was a hyp The reason I felt so strongly then was because many of my close relatives fought in two of the ma jor wars of the 20th century - World War II and Vietnam. If either one of my grandfathers had died in WWD, I wouldn’t be here today. People fought and died to protect the American flag and what it stands for. We, as American citizens, should honor those who gave up their lives so we could still go on living in a flee democratic society. Here are the sto ries of a few of my relatives who fought to pro tect the American way of life. Grandpa Kucziika When I was a child, my Grandpa Kuczirka would always tell my cousins and me stories about World V&r n. Some were true, and others not so true. One of his favorite (and one of the true) war stories was the story of when he was shot in the shoulder. The story always began the same. Kids, this is the story of when I was shot, he would say. It was in Saipan, July 23,1944. The fourth division Marines were charging up a hill when they heard gunfire. The soldiers dropped to their bellies upon hear ing the shots. I stood up and ran over to a tree about 20 feet away to see where the gunfire was coming from. That’s when the bullet hit me. It hit me in the front of my left shoulder and came out the back of my right shoulder. The boys in my unit saw what had happened and had to car ry me down the hill. I was spitting up blood, and I couldn’t walk. The boys kept having to rest and put me down on rocks - trust me, kids; that was very painful. When they finally got me all the way down the hill, I was brought into the First Aid tent where, I stayed overnight. The next day, I was brought to a field hospital on the beach and stayed there for another night. Then, finally, I was brought to the hospital ship. While I was on the ship, there was engine trou ble, and so the ship was just floating around for a couple of days. All we heard were planes flying over us, but we didn’t know whether they were our planes or enemy planes. They had to keep the lights burning all day and all night so everyone knew we were a hospital ship and not a battleship. After the engine was fixed, I stayed in New Caledonia for about a week so I could regain some strength. After about a week, a bunch of other wounded guys back on a troop ship to Oakland, Calif, for three days. After that, we were brought over to San Diego Naval Hospital. I stayed there until July 1945 when I was dis charged, and I came back home to Connecticut. My arm is still numb from the damage, and it’s still painful sometimes. Okay, kids, that my story; now go out and play. Wfe always enjoyed hearing these stories, prob ably because our grandpa was a war hero. One of my favorite stories (one that was not so true) was the one about how he and my Uncle Charlie had won the war single-handedly. When my cousin Frank and I were about five years old, we believed him. How cool was it that we knew the guys who won World Whr II? As years passed, though, we re alized this was one of the stories Grandpa had made up to make us smile and laugh. Grandpa Miani Also during World War II, my father’s dad was stationed in the Pacific. Grandpa Miani was in the Navy and was a motor machinist, second class, on a destroyer escort. He joined the Navy at the beginning of World War II and went to boot camp in Chicago. He was dischaiged after the war was over and married grand mother in 1947. I never got to hear any of his war stories be cause he died in 1971, nine years before I was bom. He never shared any of his stories with my father, so I don’t know anything else. The only war memory I have of him is the pic ture of him in his Navy uniform that is in my liv ing room at home. Uncle Johnny The Vietnam Whr wasn’t the most popular war the United States ever fought in, but I still had a family member over in Southeast Asia. My mother’s brother John was stationed in Da Nang, in central Vietnam. It was in the northern section of the demilitarized zone. Like Grandpa, Uncle Johnny was a Marine and was in Vietnam for 19 months. Da Nang was bombed, and the enemy destroyed all but two of U.S. aircrafts. Uncle Johnny, like most Vietnam veterans, nev er really talked about his experiences and definitely never told any of us kids. However, while he was over there, he met a man named Harold. He and Harold became good friends, and one day Harold asked Uncle Johnny if he wanted to write his sister, Sharon. Johnny and Sharon wrote for two and a half years and were mar ried on June 13,1970. So, some good did come out of Vietnam. Sara’s Story War stories constantly remind me of my grand father, my “papa,” whose own tales of the South Pacific are some of the most interesting I’ve heard Just shy of his 22nd birthday, he enlisted in the Navy. Seaman radio operator, second class, was his rank, and his territory covered the South Pacific is lands the Navy captured after the Marines secured the area. tt* _j.ij.___1J 1U3 IUUUK/1 WUU1U VYUlt IW 1 Lilli, (U nuuiu the remainder of his 15 sisters and brothers who did not join their older siblings who went off to war. Spielberg might have profiled a story of one family whose luck ran out, but fortunately, the Tru pia family managed to return all six boys who went off to war home safely. Papa, Joseph, was the old est and the first to enlist. He opted for the Navy because he loved the ocean, and since he grew up close to the Long Is land Sound in Queens, New York, he was familiar with the sea and respected it deeply. Already edu cated with a degree in design from Parsons College in Manhattan, he was about to begin a job as a pattern designer when he went off to war. His broth ers Pauly and Charlie were enlistees in the Navy, as well. My great uncles Frank, Rhee and Mikey opt ed to enlist in the Army. They spent their days hud dled in trenches somewhere in France or in Italy, where their Sicilian dialect did nothing to aid in the war effort, but kept some of them out of the direct line of fire, at least for a little while. Papa was always daydreaming. I can imagine him staring off the deck of his ship imaging himself as being on a cruise, rather than on a cruiser, or on a large island rather than an aircraft carrier. His love for the ocean kept him feeling as unlonely as he possibly could after days and weeks of no contact with his family. On one particularly long and tiresome journey to seal off an island from the Japanese, he wrote a story about how the sailors would fish. One day, he said, they caught a stingray that was the size of a small Buick. He described how the great fish had given birth on the deck and how he and a few other sailors had forced the one who caught it to throw it back and; allow it to live in peace with its young. That journey was particularly perilous, with kamikaze attacks seeming endless throughout the day and night. Thankfully, his ship wasn’t hit, and the battle was won by the American forces. The next day, all the men gleefully began to swim in waters he de scribed as being as clearly blue as they could be with the white sand visible from one mile down. Unfortunately, ships and undetonated armaments littered the ocean floor. A few short months later, the war was over. My papa served with the same Pacific fleet that sailed into Tokyo bay to secure the signing of the sur render and help handle the war crimes tribunals and reinstitution of the Japanese government. Somewhere, there are pictures of the Emporor Hirohito and the Japanese High Command signing the treaty that would end the war to end all wars, all taken by my grandfather. it would ne tne roie ne piayea on laniu alter the war that would be most significant in his life. Nearby, the United States began to test high-grade nuclear weapons that would ultimately lead to the arms race with the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Still swimming in the seas he loved until he was shipped home in late 1946, it is unknown whether his exposure to these tests had any effect on his life until 1994. Diagnosed with several cancers in advanced stages, Papa died in October a year later. He is buried today at Calverton National Ceme tery on Long Island. His plot is a plain white stone with a simple cross bearing only his name, rank and branch of ser vice. I miss him a lot and think of him often. At this time of year particularly, I am reminded of his service to our country, and it makes me think of his war stories. As with all our veterans, his duty is felt every day in the preservation of our freedom as citizens of the United States. Sara Ladenheim The Gamecock Papa on Tahiti in 1946. He was stationed there for five months during the nuclear testing at the beginning of the Cold War. Sara ladenheim the gamecock Above: Sara’s Papa in his Navy uniform in 1942, just prior to his being shipped off with the Navy to the South Pacific. Campus Notes Carolina-Clemson tickets still available Student tickets are still available for the Carolina-Clemson game at the Round house on Rosewood Drive. RHA holds semiformal Residence Hall Association will hold a “Midnight in the Garden” semiformal from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday at Meetings on Main. Tickets can be purchased at the RH Information Desk and the RHA of fice in the Residence Education office in the Towers. Tickets are $5 a person and $8 a couple. The Great American Smoke Out to be held The Great American Smoke Out will be held on Thursday. Tables will be set up on Greene Street and the Blatt P.E. Cen ter Lobby from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Quit Kits and pamphlets will be given out. For more information, call the Open Door Drop-In Center at 777-8248. AAAS to sponsor Spring Break Cruise The Association of African-American Students is sponsoring a five-day Spring Break Bahamas Cruise from March 6 to 10. For more information, call LaTonya at 544-2254. Deadline for securing a spot is Tuesday. Carolina-Clemson Blood Battle to be held The annual Carolina-Clemson Blood Bat tle will be held in the RH Ballroom and Bloodmobile in front of the Russell House next week. For more infomation, call the American Red Cross at 251-6025. NSCS to hold meeting The National Society of Collegiate Schol ars will hold its last meeting of the se mester at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Gressette Room on the third floor of Harper College. For more information, call Ian at 544-0962. SHARE to sell ribbons Sexual Health Awareness and Rape Ed ucation Peers will be selling ribbons for the Hopelights campaign from-10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday on Greene St. Proceeds benefit the Rape Crisis Network. Oxfam Carolina to hold day of fasting The campus-wide Day of Fasting will be ■s held all day Wednesday. Students can do nate lunch from their meal plan to ben efit hungry Americans. For more infor mation, call the Office of Community Services Programs at 777-5780. BOND to hold social The Brothers of Nubian Descent, in con junction with the USC chapter of the NAACP, invites everyone to the Brotherly Love Social at 6 p.m. on Thurs day. Food and entertainment will be pro vided. For more information, call the OMSA at 777-4330. Briefs for Campus Notes can by submit ted to RH 333. Please include a contact name and phone number. We can’t promise to print everything, but we can promise to try. It’s football season, and like your favorite football team, maybe it’s time to make an extended road trip. So grab some friends and board the nearest Amtrak® train. With huge, comfortable seats, food aplenty, and all your friends around, it’s like the world’s fastest tailgate party. For information on fares to our over 500 destinations, call your travel agent or Amtrak at 1-800-USA-RAIL or visit our website at www.amtrak.com. Amtrak8 1 j ENTER TO WIN AN ALL-EXPENSE-PAID TRIP TO THE COLLEGE HALL OF FAME IN SOUTH BEND, IN. TRIP INCLUDES: * ROUND -TRIP ACCOMMODATIONS FOR 2 ON AMTRAK * 2 NIGHTS HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS FOR 2 * 2 TICKETS TO THE HALL OF FAME * $500 SPENDING MONEY Schedule subject to change without notice. No purchase necessary. 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