A soldier s silhouette salutes the U.S. flag. (Getty Images)
22 Apr 2021 The Wenatchee World, Wash. | By Pete O Cain
EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. When Luciene Ott was an armorer for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, he found ways to make plane-mounted guns prone to jams more reliable in combat when others couldn t.
This skill garnered him more than one offer to be promoted from corporal to sergeant, but as the story goes he turned them down because he wanted to continue hands-on work rather than move up to a more supervisory role.
On Wednesday, his grandson, Nate Foster, was promoted to colonel in the Washington Air National Guard in a ceremony at Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park near East Wenatchee. The promotion was hosted locally to allow Ott to pin new rank insignia to Foster s uniform.