After 67 years: still a hero, and still remembered

After 67 years: still a hero, and still remembered

EDITOR:

As teenagers growing up in the ’30s, our heroes were athletes or our older siblings. There were no jobs and young men would leave school, trying most anything to help out their families.

A few opted to join the military that promised three square meals, a warm bed and a roof over your head.

And so it was, this neighbor guy, with an Irish kisser like those often seen in the old Cagney movies, enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

His first leave was a memorable event. All of us younger guys were impressed by his uniform, and his perfectly groomed appearance. This was before World War II, when men in the military garb were not a common sight.

He went on to become a gunner’s mate assigned to a battleship based at Pearl Harbor.

Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, the date that changed the world, we learned of the sneak attack on our military bases in Hawaii.

News sources were very different in those days, and what little we heard was all bad.

Sadly we learned that our local hero was aboard the U.S.S. Arizona. So, on this Pearl Harbor anniversary, we salute and remember Gunner’s Mate Jack McClafferty, entombed eternally in the hulk of the Arizona, enshrined forever in our hearts and memories.

ED ORLANDO

Youngstown

Fuel oil still out of control

EDITOR:

I think it is awful when it costs more to buy a gallon of fuel oil than a gallon of gas.

When people started to gripe about the price of gas somebody got off their behind and did something. Why not oil?

We just paid $2.25 which was the cheapest we could find. Fuel oil is a by-product of gasoline and the refiners are making more profit than ever.

Something is badly wrong, but if several who cannot afford the price of oil freeze to death, what then?

EARL BAKER

Canfield

How cheap can you get?

EDITOR:

Finances must really be tight in Austintown. Our $10 yard sign that supported the Austintown band was recently stolen from our front yard.

Besides the fact that stealing is illegal, it’s a pity that the cheapskate/thief who stole the sign wouldn’t donate their own $10 to support the Austintown band by purchasing their own sign.

Hopefully, the cheapskate/thief is at least supporting the Austintown band by displaying our yard sign somewhere.

PATRICIA YURCHEKFRODL

Austintown

Just phony-baloney pickets

EDITOR:

I enjoyed the letter in the Sunday Vindicator regarding the picketing by the UFCW at the Nemenz food stores. While the writer’s suggestion that Henry Nemenz close his stores and “take the money and run” was no doubt meant facetiously, he did a good job of describing the damage this union can do if it gets its way. The forced closing of the Nemenz Hubbard store serves as an example.

As customers of the Struthers store, most of us understand that the only motive this union can have is to close a good store with good employees where we enjoy shopping. Why would we want to help them do that? Just because Larry, Darryl and Darryl stand there holding a few signs?

I have no problem ignoring the pickets. They are basically phony-baloney pickets anyway, having no connection to the store or its employees. They are simply paid to stand there and hold a sign. They couldn’t care less whether the store has a union or not, as long as they get their paychecks on time.

JOHN ZEDAKER

Poland

Consolidation takes time

EDITOR:

I read The Vindicator’s Nov. 28 editorial about the 911 consolidation activities. Mr. Paglias’s comments were not untrue when he stated that there could be possible efficiencies by reducing or consolidating the nine 911 dispatch centers. However, I believe it was irresponsible and sophomoric political pandering for the editorial to suggest that consolidating nine dispatch centers could be done in less than a year as a reasonable target. The political airbrushing of the truth is tantamount to saying we could build a skyscraper in a year. It would probably take years just to get the approvals and to design the building. Two weeks ago was the first pre-kick off meeting to begin a dialogue amongst the county’s 911 stakeholders where it was stated that within one year we could have a plan to consolidate.

Since I had worked with the county officials almost 15 years ago to attempt to bring a plan for consolidation, it is offensive for a person in the “know” to whitewash the frustrating truth that the complexities of computer aided dispatch technologies, telecommunications, radio communications, training, immediate and on-going funding, and development of common agreed upon rules of governance, as well as, physical consolidation of offices and facilities could realistically be accomplished in one year.

I hope to see the empowered stakeholders at our meeting in December where a due-process is planned to rationally and democratically discuss the consolidation efforts. It does not seem prudent for any public figure to be undermining the efforts of the empowered stakeholders who are trying to professionally and judiciously work together and beneficially for the community, the dispatchers, the firefighters, the emergency service and the police and sheriffs’ professionals.

BARRY STROCK, president

Barry Strock Consulting Associates Inc.

Albany, N.Y.

X The writer has been hired by Mahoning County as a consultant on consolidation of 911 operations.