Retired naval reservists reunite

More than 90 attended the first reunion in the Naval Reserve unit’s 63-year history.

BY JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

VIENNA — The Naval Reserve, a fixture in the Mahoning Valley since the 1940s, had its first reunion Saturday, attracting just more than 90 retired reservists at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.

The reunion, in the planning for nearly a year, was the brainchild of Richard Rumbaugh of Carrolton, a retired naval reserve captain.

“All our former reservists and military personnel are dying off, and since this is the 63rd anniversary of the reserve in Youngstown, it seemed like the best time to have it,” Rumbaugh said.

The local naval reserve was first housed at a Warren bank in the 1940s and relocated to Youngstown’s South High School during the 1950s.

For nearly 30 years, it was based at the Naval Reserve Training Center on East LaClede Avenue, eventually moving to the Vienna air base in 1989.

Cmdr. Frederick Vincenzo, the commanding officer of Youngstown’s Navy Operational Support Center, said 6,000 reservists have trained at the base in the last 20 years.

“People don’t know the Navy is still in Youngstown because it’s here at the base,” said Andy Ragan, 72, North Lima, who served in the active reserves in the 1950s.

“We never had what they have here, but we had a lot of initiative to make up for it in those days.”

Milt Kochert of Canfield has the list to prove it. The 81-year old retired reserve captain was especially proud of the group’s effort in building its training vessel, the “Charles G. Watson” in the 1960s.

Without any funding, the reservists took a 38-foot broken-down yacht from the 1930s, converted it into a cruiser and conducted various drilling exercises with it on Lake Milton.

Kochert and Ragan said the reservists wound up selling the boat to the Boy Scouts in Pittsburgh after the Navy determined their cruiser would not be covered by military insurance.

The reservists found other ways to be resourceful in lieu of military support. They built their own diving tank and conducted demonstrations with it in downtown Youngstown. One of the retirees attending the Saturday function, Thomas Petzinger, 79, Boardman, was a qualified diver who trained other reservists in its use.

“There’s nothing like the Navy,” Petzinger said.

Among the reservists’ other building projects at East LaClede: their own galley (food service area) where they could cook their meals, and a damage-control trainer.

“We’d have pipes leaking and four feet of water in there so we could train for flooding situations” Ragan said.

“It may have been a part-time job, but it was always full-time for us,” Kochert said.

The reunion, however, was more than about telling stories. The retirees attended programs explaining their medical benefits.

Most of the interest, particularly for those concerned about their pensions from the steel and auto industries, focused on Tricare, the health-care program for reservists who have served 20 years.

Petzinger said he believes and hopes that the Tricare pensions will not be cut as has been the case in other businesses and industries.

The naval reservists agreed that the first reunion displayed the bond they share from their experiences.

“It’s a fellowship of people who served their country and are strongly committed in a way that you don’t see these days,” Ragan said. “It’s still there.”