Melbourne was the setting last weekend for the Florida Air Show, billed as an Armed Forces Day event and featuring the Navy s famed Blue Angels.
A small party from Lake County had the privilege of enjoying the show a day early, sans traffic, in the company of a Blue Angel alumnus, retired Cmdr. Wayne Molnar (the SALUTE page s Veteran Profile in the Daily Commercial s March 7 edition).
Col. Riccoh Player, a former Pentagon public affairs officer, said that Armed Forces Day was created in 1949 to replace separate Service celebrations. And major venues across the nation, and smaller communities as well, have injected their own local and regional color and tradition in some very creative ways over the years, he said.
He had a special way of expressing it, too, always making that first word, love, come out a little louder and more drawn out. He left no doubt in my young heart and mind what life was really supposed to be about, Longley said. And at family gatherings, with Uncle Tom always the most senior person present, we would unfailingly carve out time and attention for our uncle to give us his word, which every time included take care of your family and treat people right.
Former Staff Sgt. Hayes, who cut his teeth in the Quartermaster Corps throughout England, France and Germany during some of the most significant wartime operations of the last century, died March 6, a month shy of his 97th birthday.
At the suggestion of father Gene, a career teacher, coach and high school principal (plus a retired lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve), Wayne tooled over to the Leesburg military recruiting consortium with the intention of hearing what each branch of service might have to offer. I saw the Navy guy first – and last, Molnar said. He started flipping through a glossy, table top display book with pictures of ships and submarines and other Navy stuff and I was, like, Whoa, wait a minute. Go back to that last page.
The admirals at the Pentagon call it Navy Air, and those photos that caught Wayne s eye showed young warriors Molnar s age suited up and climbing into the cockpits of lumbering helicopters, switching on the propellers of transport aircraft loaded with paratroopers and, especially, manning the controls of high-performance jet aircraft.
LAKE SENECA – Chatting with Eustis High classmate Dawn Gosnell Diehl at her Mom s very natural Florida home on Lake Seneca, is to trade stories with a patriotic, Sunshine State native who gets it when it comes to noble subjects which ring of duty and sacrifice and honor.
We ve written before on these pages of her late Navy father s World War II service in harm s way. And Dawn still becomes a little emotional when recalling the horrible manner in which her battle-seasoned cousin, Kirk, and so many of his peers were treated by some in their own country upon returning from Vietnam.