ARMED FORCES

ARMED FORCES

VETERANS

Awards banquet

AUSTINTOWN

The United Veterans Council of Youngstown is having its annual Recognition and Awards Banquet at 6 p.m. Thursday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Center, 4500 Norquest Blvd.

Jane L. Stone of the Youngs-town Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic is to be recognized as Veteran of the Year; Citizen of the Year, Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti; Youth of the Year, Justin McLemore; and Youth Group of the Year, Austintown High School Concert Choir.

Call Terry Johnson, president of the United Veterans Council, at 330-518-2882 for reservations and tickets, which are $25 per person.

Guest speaker

VIENNA

Ralph Pfingsten of Berea was guest speaker at a luncheon meeting of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.

Pfingsten, a former Cleveland-area high-school teacher, biologist, herpetologist and research associate of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, presented a history of the Ravenna Arsenal from 1940 to 2009.

At one time, he said the arsenal employed over 16,000 construction workers to build the facility and up to 12,000 workers to produce bombs, artillery shells and munitions.

In recent years, the facility has been transformed into an Ohio Army National Guard military base used extensively for training. This past year, the facility was renamed the James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center (Camp Garfield), Pfingsten said.

The next chapter meeting is at 6 p.m. May 2 at the Consolidated Activities Center at YARS. Youngstown State University senior cadet officers and Junior ROTC cadets from Youngstown East High School and the Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Champion will be recognized.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Reaching out

SAN DIEGO

Sailors, including one from Youngstown, assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) recently participated in a community relations event at the San Diego Center for Children.

Sailors took part in beautification projects on the center’s main campus by helping out with landscaping, demolition and disposing of heavy trash.

“I think it is great doing this to help out this organization that helps children,” said Aviation Boatswains Mate (Handling) Raykwon Lawson of Youngstown. “By doing this, we’re setting an example to help people, and maybe it will inspire others to want to help out, too,” he said.

BASIC TRAINING GRADS

Army: Private Destini Twyman-Withers , a 2018 graduate of Boardman High School. She is the daughter of Essence Twyman of Boardman; granddaughter of Orbie and Denise Jackson of Youngstown; and great-granddaughter of Mildred Twyman of Youngstown.

Items of note for the Armed Forces Digest can be sent to The Vindicator, Regional Desk, P.O. Box 780, Youngstown 44501-0780, or emailed to William K. Alcorn at alcorn@vindy.com