Jan. 14, 1931: WAR VET BATTLES GUNMAN-BANDIT - RISKS BULLET TO GET CHANCE ‘RETURN’ FIRE

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on January 14, 1931.

WAR VET BATTLES GUNMAN-BANDIT

RISKS BULLET TO GET CHANCE ‘RETURN’ FIRE

Albert A’Neals, Attendant at West Lincolnway Gas Station is Hero of Early Evening Attack.

REFUSED TO GET IN BANDIT’S CAR

Three filling station bandits who attempted a holdup of the Square Deal filling station on West Lincolnway, next to the Mark Palmer auto sales agency, Tuesday night at 8:40 o’clock, failed to reckon with Albert A’Neals, Spanish-American, Mexican border, and World War veteran.

When called upon to get in a car “for a ride,” A’Neals told the bandit “to go to”... and made a dash for a 48-caliber Colt pistol under a table inside the station.

A bullet from the bandit’s gun whizzed by A’Neals as he scrambled into the doorway. It bored a hole in the side of the station. Because of a disability in one of his legs due to World War wounds, A’Neals felt as he endeavored to get into the building. It is believed the robber thought he had winged him and had better escape.

After securing his gun, A’Neals dashed out of the doorway, his line of fire was directly in the path of the Louis Gast home. Reaching the sidewalk he pumped three shots at the fleeing automobile. As he did so he noticed the men in the car bend over to avoid being hit.

According to A’Neals, the men drove up to the station and he became suspicious when the driver edged close to the building and then pointed his car out for a quick getaway.

All three remained in the car until he had finished putting six gallons of gasoline in the car, and then one of them stepped out. A’Neals held the hose nozzle as long as he could to see if the trio attempted anything.

He had no sooner dropped it then the man who had gotten out placed a gun to his side and told him to get into the car. It was then that A’Neals delivered his ultimatum, and the shooting followed. The police theory is that the bandit trio wanted to take A’Neals, relieve him of his money, and then let him go.

Tracy Eglin, merchant policeman, was among the first to reach the scene. Night Policemen Gregg Stansell and William Clark also responded.

A’Neals did not obtain the number of the machine which was a maroon colored Pontiac coupe. Mrs. W.K. Stoler, living in the Eldorado apartments, across from the filling station, came out and endeavored to obtain the license number of the robber car, but was unable to do so.

Police followed the car westward to Campbell street and then to Chicago street. Gary police were notified and were here within a short time after the robbery.

It is believed from gasoline leaking from the car that the robbers doubled back on Jefferson and went east. The leaky tank was either ascribed to the fact that A’Neals did not replace the cap on the tank after filling it, or else one of his bullets pierced the container allowing some of the gasoline to escape.

Two little daughters of Carl Erea are said to have been witnesses to the holdup. They were on their way to the Pennsylvania depot to meet their father.

Dec. 27, 1930: FIRST OF ANNUAL TRIBUTES TO “THE GREAT KNOWN SOLDIER OF WORLD WAR,” GIVEN SUNDAY

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on December 27, 1930.

FIRST OF ANNUAL TRIBUTES TO “THE GREAT KNOWN SOLDIER OF WORLD WAR,” GIVEN SUNDAY

Valparaiso and Porter county, Sunday, will pay tribute to the memory of the “great known soldier of the World War”... Woodrow Wilson.

It was Georges Clemenceau, the Tiger of France, and the outstanding rival of the American president in the negotiations that resulted in the negotiations that resulted in the formation of the League of Nations and the drafting of the Versailles peace treaty, who paid Wilson the above tribute. It was the occasion of the last visit of Clemenceau to the United States. Wilson, a hopeless invalid, was living in retirement, in his home on ‘S’ street, in Washington.

Clemenceau had not seen the former president since the stirring days of the peacemaking in Paris when Wilson worked twelve and fifteen hours a day in the interest of what he termed “a just peace.”

To find his former colleague a physical wreck was a great shock for the famous Frenchman. He was in tears as he left the bedroom of the former president.

“I have just left the bedside of the great known soldier of the war,” he stated. It was one of the most beautiful tributes ever paid Woodrow Wilson.

So, tomorrow afternoon, at Varsity Theatre at 2:30 o’clock, the first program of what is proposed as an annual tribute on his birthday anniversary, over the nation, will be held in Valparaiso. Everyone is invited. Attorneys John N. Underwood of Gary, Mark Storen of Michigan City and others, will deliver brief addresses.

Nov. 11, 1935: CITY OBSERVES ARMISTICE DAY; SALUTE FIRED

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 11, 1935.

CITY OBSERVES ARMISTICE DAY; SALUTE FIRED

Legion Members Conduct Program Which Includes Speeches at City Schools and University

ROOSEVELT HONORS UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Uncovered heads turned toward the east in Valparaiso today as hundreds stood at attention in commemoration of the signing of the Armistice which halted hostilities of the World War seventeen years ago.

Charles Pratt Post of the American Legion, took charge of the outward activities of today’s celebration, with many former soldiers in uniform and a firing squad firing a three-round salute at the courthouse square.

At 11 a.m., a halt was called for all activities throughout the city. At that moment those in the downtown district faced east as soldiers fired volleys. A bugler sounded taps immediately thereafter.

In city schools, members of the local American Legion post spoke to the students. Commander T.O. Dillon, of the local post, was speaker at the Gardner school; Howard D. Clark at the Banta school; John W. Larrew, at the Central grades, a Edmund J. Freund at the Central junior high school and Columbia schools.

Attorney Ira C. Tilton spoke at the Armistice Day celebration held this morning at Valparaiso university, where a large gathering of the student body assembled for impressive rites.

At Valparaiso high school a fine program was given by the students. “America, the Beautiful,” was sung by the students under the direction of Mrs. Mary Myers, supervisor of music, after which Superintendent Roy B. Julian read selected scriptures. A vocal solo “There Is No Death”, was rendered by Prof. Burton L. Conkling, of the high school faculty.

Talks were made by Harry LaForce, high school senior, on “The American Spirit”, and by William Burk, also a high school senior, on “The Zero Hour.” Principal H.M. Jesse spoke on “Fort McHenry, the Scene of the Writing of the National Emblem.”

James Stoner, a high school senior, sounded taps, and the students were dismissed for the noon recess.

Importance of Armistice day was also registered in the religious services held on Sunday when members of the American Legion attended the Methodist Episcopal church at the morning service and heard a splendid address on “The Man Power of America,” by Rev. J. E. Porter, pastor of the church and a chaplain in France during the World War. in the evening at the Presbyterian church a union Armistice Day service was held in the evening with Rev. Porter and Rev. Chester W. Wharton presenting “A Conversation with the Unknown Soldier.” Large crowds attended the services.

Nov. 5, 1975: Tells Story About Sacrifice Of World War I Vet Ralph Schenck’s Valparaiso Observer

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 5, 1975.

Tells Story About Sacrifice Of World War I Vet

Ralph Schenck’s Valparaiso Observer

Today we should like to reveal an Armistice Day story that is probably typical of so many of you home folks who were directly or indirectly a part of any of the wars of this century.

You may be a father, mother, wife, relative or friend and you, too, may have unforgotten memories still vividly recalled. Mere words for such thoughts often seem inadequate. This is a reluctant attempt to try to tell your story as our experience.

This is about a personal friend who, along with four million other young men wore the uniform of a soldier during World War I. I visited a veterans’ hospital to see this life-long companion whose outlook for the future had to be changed because of his war sacrifice.

Here was one of nature’s noblemen who saw the need for his service to our country and he shared of himself for those of us now living. Here was a loyalty and endurance beyond the call of that which he had ever anticipated. He had mingled with many. He loved to hear the evening taps in the training camp, but whoever welcomed the bugler’s reveille.

On that day of my visit, from his arched eyebrows, his eyes looked like two burnt holes in a blanket. His former plans for a future had been altered. He never liked loafing anywhere. He wanted to belong and to achieve. Man needs to belong at work and at play in health and distress to attain the fullness of life’s potential. He had now achieved and he did belong, yet he was segregated with those that had returned only partially equipped with an impaired potential.

That day he fumbled somewhat with what was left of an only arm. I had a morbid sense of lacerated flesh when this might have happened. He didn’t accent his answers as we tried to revive some of our youthful memories. There was a firm dignity and an independence of self-control of moral earnestness in his discourse. By no means, however, was he ready to dig his own grave, yet the beacon for a new horizon was far different than it had been heretofore. His passport to a new life was now in jeopardy, but he was courageously yielding, without apparent bitterness, to the uncertainties of his future destinies.

It was pleasant to be together again, but so different from what we may have ever forecasted. Our long bond of friendship had never been weak, but man’s inhumanity to man had so massacred his flesh that it had added an experience beyond belief. He was once tall and strikingly handsome and he had an easy confidence that was born in him. The growth left for his future was only growing old with an awesome reminder of what might have been.

There was to be no laughter and joy from a family that he might have had in a normal life. Long days and nights of loneliness were to come. He might have been aware of the statistical probabilities of what came from frontline action in a war, but he figured that he was never destined for such a fate. Such a culture of devastation and destruction could not deter his determination of life, yet now he was to be a part of the brutality that filters out of war’s outrages.

He was not at the hospital very long after our visit. There was a greater need for his service elsewhere than in mortal life. He had given his last full measure of devotion to his country that had provided him with an heritage of Liberty in the pursuit of happiness. He was soon to rejoice to share of himself in that invisible zone of a faith in immortality. Here he would be born again. There would be no wheelchairs there in this mystic home of the blessed. He was a muted testimony of war’s harvests. Yesterday was a dream. Tomorrow was a reality.

The capsules of past memories for such a friend are now but parchments of meditation for anyone of such experience. The ideas for eliminating the evils of war are still a negative philosophy. The recycling of history forbids us to shun the possibilities of such rhythmic occurrences of wars. It takes courage “to turn the other cheek” but it also takes courage to face with faith.

There was a serenity about this friend that seemingly did not quail in the presence of the tempest of approaching death.

As I left him for the last time, I recalled how I had stumbled in my communication with him. I had tried to avoid the silky platitudes and stereotyped assertions of tribute that may be the fashion for such circumstances. Everyone has his own interpretations for these amazing enigmas of life. We woo the continuation of our mortal life, but this friend encountered a confusing courtship. His “kingdom was not of this world.”

Just what is the precise purpose of an Armistice Day for the living? Are our ceremonies so effective as to affect the new generation? There are still many fathers, mothers and others of those who because of wars now rest in peace, yet these living friends and relatives have quiet memories.

It is also true that there are some who may never have experienced such losses, yet Armistice Day is still a reminder of what might have been or what could be. The nation that has a tendency to ignore its past for such sacrifices is in danger of disintegrating. The diminishing numbers over our nation that assemble for this once-a-year ceremony are not to glorify war but, perhaps, to remind the living of a possible future. “The gift without the giver is bare.” Those that gave their lives in the wars of this century are no longer present. To those with direct losses this is not just another holiday. Each individual is entitled to his own answer. Each may search his own mind. What once was is no more.

My friend’s mother sobbed when he left for the war. His picture rests on her mantle at home. She had her own thoughts about her son after he had gone to eternal rest from war. She suffered in defeat as her son had suffered in victory for his country.

We can only juggle with words creating abstractions without answers. Great national powers have, historically, always tried to rule the world. That traditional gap between the rules and the ruled has yet to be bridged.

Major powers that have today become the superior nations continue to be the supreme influence in the affairs of the future of humanity. It should not be the number of people to be ruled but the service granted by the rulers to the people of the world.

As wars continue to be prevalent in life it is because the rulers have not discovered the solutions, yet it is the people that have to endure the sacrifices.

We should not become so immersed in the present that we may ignore the lessons of the past that exemplify the causes of wars.