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| The Old meets the New--the Sgt. on his cell phone |
I recently met Sergeant Duckworth at Ocali Days. This is an annual festival that is held during the first week in November at Silver River State Park and Museum. The Park houses a Cracker Village, Class Rooms, a Library, Museum (natural and human historical items). Ocali days includes many exhibitors for various time period sand not-for profit organizations. It includes many volunteers, members of various groups with historic stories to tell...Conquistadors, Natives, Civil War--artillery, infantry--North and South. This year the museum wanted to include WWII. But, most of those guys are in their eighties and nineties. Sgt. Duckworth, however, has a neat collection of WWII items and artifacts which he volunteered to bring.
Some of the artifacts include a jeep with a trailer. On the trailer is a mannequin "shooting" a high powered gun. The gun was made by the Sergeant. He used parts and pieces of things around the house, including his wife's large Tupper-ware Salt and Pepper shakers...now painted black. The real artifacts include a red-cross helmet, ammo, canteens, knives and guns.
I talked to him at length. Like many combat veterans, he was hesitant to talk about his war experiences. I did discover that he was an Army medic. Unlike WWII Navy Corpsmen, who were unarmed, he carried a hand gun.
He enlisted at age 17 in 1951 and stayed in the army until 1955. The recruiter called his mother to verify his age.
The one thing that he would talk about was the weather. The cold was the coldest cold he ever experienced (I hear this from lots of Korean War Vets). And, in the summer, sweltering hot.
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| Can you spot the Tupper-ware S&P?? |
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| They were after all painted black |
I hope to see him again and maybe glean a few more details.
