Holiday Hills Estates, an independent senior living community in Rapid City, is honoring the veterans who reside at their facility with a Wall of Honor.
Some shared a little bit about their time in the service.
Charles Knowlton, Navy Veteran
“I was in the Navy for five years,” said Knowlton. “I spent one year with the Marine Corps because I was a medic. I was in Okinawa for one year, I served in a hospital at Okinawa and then sang with a Okinawan group. That was fun.”
Charles L. Clark, Air Force Veteran
Charles L. Clark was an aircraft electrician on the B-36s, when they were out here at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
“I liked being an electrician on the airplanes,” Clark said.
Leon Sweigart, Air Force Veteran
“I was the aircraft mechanic for 18 years, and then I was working at an office, they decided I needed an office job. So they gave me an office job for the last eight years and I enjoyed all 26 years of it,” Sweigart said.
Sweigart says it was interesting and exciting and he got to fly on all the airplanes that were worked on, except for the first one.
“And that was probably the best part of it,” he said.
The longest flight Sweigart had was on a B-36 that was over in England. He says they came home to Ellsworth Air Force Base and it took almost 20 hours just to fly home.
Gerald Robert Larson, Air Force Veteran
“Well, I was in there for 20 years and I’ve done flying all over the country, and the world as a matter of fact. And I enjoyed it. I was major,” said Larson.
William D. Mueller, Army Veteran
“It was kind of thanks to LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) because I was stateside. But when he made the Proclamation Act, the Freedom Act, he extended the time period which included my time, so even though I never went over to Vietnam, I was still officially considered a Vietnam veteran,” said Mueller.
Mueller says it was a lot of fun, considering he was in the Pentagon, and he feels very fortunate that he ended up in a place where he learned a lot.
“I learned, you know, as far as the work was top secret,” Mueller added.
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