Three men of three different ages from three different cities who fought in three different wars all now live in one retirement community. At Gentry Park Retirement Community there are three veterans who exemplify what it means to be a patriot. There is a World War II tail gunner, a Korean War soldier and Vietnam Sergeant, and a Korean War artillery mapmaker and soldier.

Frank Mull was a tail-gunner in the United States Airforce in World War Two and served on the European front. Frank went on nearly 23 bombing campaigns all over continental Europe during his time in the war. Mull remembers one bombing run in particular in Bremen, Germany that was especially difficult to accomplish due to the Germans heavy defenses. The planes that they used on this particular run were weighed down heavily with a surplus of bombs. This extra weight caused them to have to fly lower than they normally would, which put them in range of both the Germans heavy and light artillery. Upon entering the airspace around the city, Mull remembers being berated with artillery cannons and gunfire, which caused a plane filled with his close friends to be shot in the wing and spiral down. This moment, in particular, stands out in his memory, and he looks back and remembers the horror and heartbreak he felt when it happened. During the run, Mull’s plane was also hit, which caused one of the two engines to fail and their altitude to drop rapidly. They managed to stay in the air just long enough to get to an allied airstrip but according to Mull. it was a miracle, for no one thought they’d make it back. “I have to laugh now but it wasn’t no laughing matter they grabbed us and kissed us and hugged us, thanked God for us, and that was the end of that day,” said Mull. While Mull did make it out of the war alive, he did suffer many scars, both physically and emotionally. He was diagnosed with PTSD at 95 years old, and he suffers from night terrors and vivid war flashbacks that have affected him throughout his entire life. PTSD was not known to the medical community, let alone the general public, until fairly recently, so Mull along with many World War II vets have lived with this trauma their whole lives with little support or treatment. Nonetheless he continues to power through and not let these memories control him.

Al Gallo has never let his time in the service control his life or dictate who he is, for he sees his time in the military as just him doing his duty. Gallo served as an Artillery Mapmaker in the Korean War where he was in charge of accurately producing maps that would be used to determine where they should fire the artillery cannons. Gallo left for Korea when his wife was eight and a half months pregnant, and said it was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do. He remembers getting a letter from his wife where he discovered that they now had baby girl by her writing in a letter, “We love you, Debbie and Mom”. Gallo was in Korea for the end of the war, and he remembers that the day the treaty was signed and they discovered the war would end at ten p.m; they began to get excited until the North Koreans and Chinese began to unload all of their artillery onto them, so they did the same in response. “About 9 o clock they started unloading everything they had artillery-wise, so we said,’ Alright we’ll do that too.’ So, the sky lit up, like daylight and stayed that way for about an hour. One of our guys got killed at right about 9 o clock, if he had lived one hour later, he might even be alive today.” said Gallo.

One person who is still alive today and has defied the odds by not only being a veteran of one, but two major wars, is Bill Stevens. Bill Stevens served in the Korean war as a soldier and in the Vietnam War, as a sergeant. Stevens detailed how different the two wars were, for one was in the hot and humid jungles of Vietnam and the other was in the freezing cold plains of Korea. Stevens prides himself on his track record in Vietnam, for he trained 40 men to go to Vietnam under his command and he had zero casualties brought all 40 back home to the states after the war. While serving in both of these conflicts was very hard, Stevens said he learned about the military and life in general. “The one thing I learned is you must take care of one another. You must watch out for one another. It’s not you alone, it’s a team.”  Stevens really came to realize that the only people he could lean on for support was his fellow soldiers, for once he arrived home after Vietnam where he was met with many Americans who were mad at anyone in the military. Bill was even kicked out of a restaurant on Kirkwood avenue because the bartender refused to serve “warmongers”.  He didn’t let these comments get to him and remained proud of his military service to this day. All of these veterans are proud of their service to this country; to help keep it  ‘The land of the free and the home of the brave.’