WWII Navy veteran makes impression on Hubbard students


HUBBARD

Stephen Kali was just a high school sophomore when World War II broke out.

When he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, he wasn’t much older than the students in Hubbard Middle School teacher Becky Ague’s English classes. A little more than a year later, his Pittsburgh-forged naval vessel ran ammunition during the Battle of Okinawa.

Kali is 92 now but he said he still vividly remembers his two-year tour in the war’s Pacific theater. He shared those experiences Wednesday morning with Ague’s classes, to cap the classes’ lessons on that war and a reading of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl.”

“Even though it wasn’t a long period of time … I relate to it and reflect back on it quite often as a major part of my life,” he said. “Maybe [the students] have a little bit better understanding of what does and can take place in our country and what our country stands for — the openness and democracy of our country, the willingness of men and women to do what’s necessary to maintain that.”

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and on Vindy.com.

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