VFW program highlights WWII drivers

YOUNGSTOWN — Continuing its tradition of raising awareness about the contributions of blacks to the nation’s military, VFW Donald Lockett Post 6488’s 2007 Veterans Day program highlights World War II’s famous Red Ball Express.

James D. Rookard of Cleveland, a Red Ball Express driver, is the honored guest at Post 6488’s Veterans Day service at 11 a.m. Monday at the post at 2065 Coitsville-Hubbard Road.

The featured speaker for the program is Brig. Gen. Matthew L. Kambic, assistant adjutant general for the Army, Joint Force Headquarters-Ohio, Ohio Army National Guard.

Kambic, born and raised in Girard, enlisted in the Army in 1974. When he returned to Ohio, he joined the Ohio Army National Guard and attended Youngstown State University, where he was commissioned as an armor officer through the Army ROTC program.

Rookard was drafted into the Army in March 1943 at age 18, and was 19 when he was assigned to the Red Ball Express, the Army code name for a truck convoy system in France that carried supplies at first from St. Lo in Normandy to Paris, and eventually to the front lines along France’s northeastern border.

Like the Pony Express, the Red Ball Express was short-lived, beginning Aug. 21, 1944, and ending 82 days later. But despite its short existence, it is given much of the credit for winning the war in Europe.

For more, check out Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com