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Canfield veteran, students bond at DC war memorial
GREENFORD
A chance encounter at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., created a lasting memory for three South Range students and a veteran from Canfield.
Seventh-grade students Chelsea McNeal, 13; Kristina Snyder, 14; and Codi Taylor, 12; traveled with other South Range Middle School students to Washington from May 18 to May 20.
As they walked around the WWII Memorial on the National Mall, they stopped and snapped pictures of the 24 relief- sculpture panels that line the memorial. The relief sculptures depict mobilization of Americans during the war in all areas of life.
As Kristina looked at a relief of a family listening to the radio, 84-year-old George Coler tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she knew what she was looking at and then began to explain it.
“I could just picture myself in our living room. We had a radio, ’course that’s before television. ... The radios weren’t the best and made a screeching and squawking noise, and I could picture the family saying, ‘You gotta be quiet; the president’s coming on,’” Coler said.
Then Coler explained the rest of the reliefs and talked about his own experiences as he and the three students walked around the memorial.
SDLqThey really didn’t know what they’re looking at because they had no idea what the war was like and what people had to suffer from and give up or ration,” he added.
Chelsea said she and her friends asked their teacher Nora Novak if Coler could be a WWII veteran. She said possibly and encouraged them to approach Coler again.
“We were shy about going up to him and guessing if he served,” Kristina said.
Chelsea said they went over to him, found out he was a veteran and thanked him for his service. Coler teared up and so did the girls.
“I thought the girls were exceptionally attentive. I really think it was something they were interested in,” Coler said.
Coler served from January 1945 to July 7, 1946, aboard a ship that supplied ammunition to the USS California. He grew up in Beaver Township.
“I was 16 going on 17. I enlisted in January and my birthday was in February. I had to have my parents sign a slip for me to go into the service,” he said.
Coler visited the WWII Memorial with several family members, one of whom took pictures of Coler talking to the girls and posted them on Facebook. Before long, a friend of a friend contacted Chelsea and asked about the story behind the pictures.
Soon the Coler family realized the girls were South Range students — and the girls realized Coler was from Canfield.
Thanks to social media, Novak said the girls will get to meet Coler again at a June 7 awards assembly at the middle school.
“I think a lot of students may have distanced themselves. But this small act of kindness made a difference not only to George, but to his whole family,” Novak said.