Valley VIP vets being honored in New Orleans

Two WWII vets, both Woodrow Wilson graduates, are among those being honored at the National WWII Museum.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Sid Harris graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School on June 6, 1944, the day Allied Forces stormed the beaches at Normandy, France.

He was called to active duty two days later, having already enlisted.

That same day, D-Day, Donald Pike, who graduated from Wilson in 1942, was part of the Third Wave to land on Omaha Beach. He was a member of Co. A, 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion, 16th Regiment of the Army’s 1st Division, known as the Big Red One.

The section of Omaha Beach where he landed was called Easy Red.

“It was misnamed. It wasn’t easy,” Pike said.

The paths of the two local World War II veterans, who don’t remember each other from high school, will likely cross this weekend at the dedication and grand opening of a $60 million expansion of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Harris, 83, of Youngstown, and Pike, 84, of Struthers, are among 350 WWII VIP veterans invited to join a similar number of active duty military personnel for the three days of events — Friday through Sunday — surrounding the opening of Phase 1 of a planned $300 million expansion of the museum, which opened in 2000.

The expansion contains three major venues: Victory Theater, which will show a 35-minute, 4-D film of the major battles of WWII; the Stage Door Canteen, which offers WWII-era entertainment; and the American Sector, with a chef John Besh restaurant serving 1940s style food. Besh is a Marine Corps veteran of the Persian Gulf War.

Movie star Tom Hanks, narrator and executive producer of “Beyond All Boundaries,” the film showing in Victory Theater; and television newsman Tom Brokaw, author of “The Greatest Generation,” are among the dignitaries and show business personalities who will be on hand to help celebrate the occasion.

Harris, who has been legally blind for 11 years, was being joined in New Orleans by his son, William, who lives there.

Pike, whose ankles were injured when he jumped from the second floor of a burning building in Germany, is being accompanied on the trip by his son, James, of Wooster.

When Pike landed on Easy Red he said his unit was pinned down by enemy fire for four or five hours. When the order was given to “move out” he rose up and was hit almost immediately in the left elbow by shrapnel and was knocked out by the concussion from the explosive. When he regained consciousness, lying beside a path troops used to work their way from the beach up the hill, he found himself “practically looking into the faces of a couple of Germans. I hollered out and a couple of guys put rifles on them and captured them,” he said.

The next day he boarded a hospital ship to go back to England for treatment. After several months recuperating, he rejoined his outfit which was attached to an infantry unit fighting in Germany when he was injured again.

Pike damaged both ankles when he jumped from the second floor of a burning house to escape a fire. By the time he returned to the United States in 1945, he had seen combat in five major campaigns in Europe.

For his service, he received the European Campaign Ribbon with a Bronze Arrowhead, signifying participation in the Normandy invasion, and five Bronze Stars, one for each of the five campaigns; and the Purple Heart for wounds received at Normandy.

Pike also received the Order of the Dragon from the Medical Association of the Chemical Corps.

He is a member of VFW Post 5532 in Washingtonville, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Purple Heart Association. He and his wife, the former Thelma Brickman, a 1943 Wilson graduate, are members of the New Springfield Church of God.

Pike and his wife have visited Europe twice and also have been to the National World War II Museum.

“I can’t believe how any of those guys got out alive,” Thelma said of Normandy after seeing it.

She said the museum has areas set up that are typical of what the guys faced.

“A lot of people don’t realize what it looked like when they went into those places,” she said.

Pike worked many years at Commercial Intertech and its successor, Parker Hannifin, as a service technician in the sales department, retiring in 1982.

His wife, a graduate of the registered nursing program at the Youngstown Hospital Association, worked at Northside Hospital, the Mahoning County Health Department, and what is now Boardman Nursing Home, and spent most of her career with the Visiting Nurse Association, retiring at the age of 81.

The couple, married Nov. 29, 1946, have four children: James of Wooster, Dennis of Canfield Township, Robert of Meadville, Pa., and Donna Beal of Salem; and 15 grandchildren.

Harris’ military service took a different path.

After boot camp at Great Lakes, Ill., he was trained as a coxswain of the landing craft that ferried Marines from Navy ships to their landings on shore.

As Harris’ ship was heading overseas for the anticipated invasion of mainland Japan, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan ending the war, and he returned home.

“My experience in the Navy was great. I wanted to get on a ship and went to the commander every day asking for an assignment. When I finally got on one, we were hit by a storm and I asked myself why I did I do this?” he said.

“I was glad I was able to serve. I’d do it again if I was younger,” Harris said.

He married Doris Lieberman, a 1947 graduate of The Rayen School, on Sept. 19, 1948.

Mrs. Harris also became a registered nurse and taught for many years for the Choffin School of Practical Nursing located in the Choffin Career and Technical Center. She also briefly taught medical terminology in Youngstown State University’s allied health program.

Harris worked mostly in sales, but also owned a small toy business for a while, ran a beauty supply warehouse, and even drove truck.

“I did everything I had to do because I didn’t have enough sense to finish college,” he said.

His big love was umpiring baseball, which he calls his “paid hobby.” A past president of the Youngstown Umpires Association, he worked everything from college to youth league games. Harris was umpiring a game when he suffered a heart attack just a month before he retired. But even quadruple bypass surgery didn’t keep him off the field for long. He returned to umpiring as soon as he was able.

Harris also did a lot of volunteering, which led to he and his wife meeting President George W. Bush when the president visited Youngstown in 2004.

“My wife said the White House is calling, and I thought she meant the fruit farm [in Green Township],” Harris said with a laugh.

“The president invited us to meet him at the airport in Vienna and ride in his motorcade to Youngstown State University, where we were given reserved seats for his speech. He called us soldiers in the Army of Compassion because of our volunteer work,” he said.

Harris’ meeting with President Bush was covered in an article in the 2004 fall edition of Mended Hearts’ Heartbeat Magazine.

He has logged 5,000 to 6,000 volunteer hours at Forum Health Northside Medical Center, and also was heavily involved in Mended Hearts Chapter 7, of which he is a past president. In 1998, he received the JCPenney Award for volunteering, which carried with it a $1,000 cash award, which he split between Forum Health Tod Children’s Hospital and Mended Hearts.

Harris is active in the blind support group at the Youngstown Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic and has participated several times in the VA’s National Veterans TEE Tournament for blind veterans in Iowa City, Iowa.

“I didn’t golf until I was blind. I thought it was a crazy game, but boy I love it now,” he said.

The Harrises, formerly of Richards Drive in Liberty, have two children: William of New Orleans, and Renee Harris of Salem; and two who are deceased, Brenda Pesce and Robert Harris. They also have two grandchildren.

Pike and Harris said they are excited about visiting the museum and taking part in this weekend’s events.

“It [the museum] honors and recognizes soldiers, and as the generation dies off, will serve as a reminder of those who served,” he said.

alcorn@vindy.com