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Written by Register Staff
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
 Mike Donnelly, Miami Heights, Ohio, left, receives help with Veterans Administration claims from Dearborn County Veterans Service Officer Bill Ewbank. Both are Vietnam veterans, though Donnelly served in the Army and Ewbank in the Navy. Ewbank is the sixth generation in his family to serve in the military.
Ewbank will mark his seventh year as Dearborn County Veterans Service officer next month. In those seven years he has seen the number of people seeking his aid more than triple, most within the past three years.
The increase primarily is for two reasons. The first is men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the second is an increase in the number of Vietnam veterans who are eligible for Veterans Administration services.
Recently, Ewbank changed where he would have office hours, splitting time between his office in the county administration building, 215B W. High St., Lawrenceburg, and the VA Community Based Outreach Clinic, 1600 Flossie Drive, Greendale.
Adding office hours at the VA Clinic was a way to improve service to area veterans.
Ewbank had a meeting at the clinic with a Vietnam vet Thursday morning, May 21, the day before he met with nine veterans before noon.
“Two of them were brand new DD214s,” said Ewbank, using veteran jargon talking to Mike Donnelly.
Donnelly comes to Ewbank from Miami Heights, Ohio, because going to the Greendale clinic or Lawrenceburg is easier than going into Cincinnati, said Donnelly.
He’s been having Ewbank help him with claims and other issues for the past five years, and going to the Greendale VA clinic for medical care since it opened two years ago, said Donnelly.
Both men were in Vietnam at the same time 1970-71, although their paths never crossed. Ewbank was a linguistics specailist flying around in a Navy helicopter, and Donnelly was an Army sergeant trying to make sure 50,000 soldiers were fed.
The logistics and difficulty of obtaining rations sometimes made the job hard and a 24-hour task when there were trains and trucks to unload, said Donnelly.
“But it was rewarding and you had to think on your feet,” he said.
For Donnelly his service in Vietnam was “the best and worst year of my life.”
The best was the cameraderie and the maturity he gained. He was 20 when he arrived in Vietnam and turned 21 while there.
The worst was the conditions, cold showers if you were lucky enough to even get one, people trying to kill you.
“Just the thought of it,” said Donnelly his voice trailing off.
When he first arrived back home nearly 40 years ago “it was terrible. It pretty much stayed that way until 2001,” said Donnelly.
“Before Sept. 11 you didn’t see guys at Krogers or someplace after Memorial Day or Veterans Day services wearing their hats with their ribbons on them, but now you see it. Back then you didn’t want anyone to know you were in the service,” said Ewbank.
Donnelly said he was told on a job interview in the 1970s that the company didn’t “hire junkies” the person wrongly making assumptions about Vietnam veterans.
Ewbank worked administering state education grant money involved with veterans’ benefits in the 1970s and was told by someone at Indiana University that professors couldn’t be told a person was a veteran “because it would hurt the person’s grades,” he said.
Attitudes have changed though, not just toward veterans but by veterans.
“I have old guys coming to me for medals they earned but never received. They want to share the experience with their kids and grandkids,” said Ewbank.
And who knew 60 was young, laughed Donnelly who is considered the youngster at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post he belongs to, where he was expecting to be drafted as commander Thursday night.
So far Persian Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are not taking part much in American Legion, VFW and other veteran organizations or activities. “They’re just getting their lives together, and Vietnam was the last war of a mass army, there were 2 million troops there at a time and more than 10 million served during the Vietnam-era,” said Ewbank.
Donnelly has often invited young soldier to speak for Memorial Day services he works on or Veterans Day or at his VFW post.
The men can relate to the young soldiers.
“It’s the same with veterans of all wars. The wars are different but the veterans are the same, and the science and techology are different but the people aren’t,” said Ewbank.
Donnelly praises Ewbank for his dedication. He had been reluctant to apply for veteran’s benefits, but eventually did, and then found Ewbank and the Dearborn County Veterans’ Service Office.
“He’s the best there is. He cares for people,” said Donnelly.
For Ewbank the praise is discomfiting, but he loves his job.
“This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I love talking to these guys,” said Ewbank. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 June 2009 )
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Written by Register Staff
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
ST. LEON - Thursday’s IHSAA boys track and field at Trojan Field - on the first true hot-weather night of a challenging spring season - saw East Central High School’s host team scorch the rest of the sweaty 14-team field.
Easily winning their ninth sectional title in the past 10 years, and 14th overall - all under head coach Steve Cotherman - Trojans posted a red-hot 166-110 margin of victory over runner-up and top EIAC rival Batesville.
Quality and quantity were on East Central’s side all night, as the Trojans broke three sectional records and won titles in 10 of 16 events - led by three senior individual winners and two of three sectional championship relays.
Senior hurdles king Corey Olive was in top form despite the heat - and an electronic malfunction that resulted in several of the running event finals being hand-timed.
Olive, nevertheless, broke his first of two new sectional records with a winning time of 15.06 seconds in 110-meter high hurdles, nudging aside the 2006 mark set by Batesville’s Jimmy Moorman (15.09).
Later, both Olive (39.26) and runner-up Kyle Bauer of Batesville (39.98) broke the sectional standard in 300 low hurdles (40.02) clocked by EC’s Byron Hartman in 2006.
Conference MVP Garrett Rauch was just an eyelash short of a three-win meet, winning sectional titles in 200-meter dash (23.12) and 400 dash (50.52 - just off the meet mark of 50.35 by South Dearborn’s John Bostick in 1992). Rauch also barely scratched on third long jump attempt, which sailed over 21 feet and would have won.
East Central teammate Dan Sterwerf, the first-year senior soccer player who captured the EIAC 100-meter dash title a week earlier, was there to pick up Rauch, however. Sterwerf not only duplicated his conference 100 title in a time of 11.46 seconds, he popped a 20’8” long jump, good enough to put Batesville’s Kyle Bauer in second place (20’2-3/4”). Rauch ended up third at 20’1/2”.
East Central senior Russ Bunn took full advantage of a late scratch out of the 1,600 run by South Dearborn senior and top seed Brad Fortuna, who experienced some tightness while warming up, to win another individual title for the Trojans in a time of 4:38.90.
Fortuna proved to be just fine when it came time for the 3,200-meter run, following through on his top seed with a winning effort of 10:08.03, despite the heat. Bunn finished second in 10:18.81, with EC’s Ricky Harm third (10:24.71).
East Central sophomore pole vault specialist Colt Robinson ruled the crossbar again Thursday night, clearing 13 feet under perfect conditions for one of the few times this spring. Teammate Nick Furney placed second at 12 feet.
South Dearborn’s 3,200-meter relay team of Kyle Hall, Ben Pater, John Houchens and Fortuna, avenged their EIAC loss to Batesville with a sectional title win in 8:27.79.
East Central’s 4 X 100-meter sprint relayers - Adam Rauch, Olive, Sterwerf and senior Cody Meyer - crossed the line a full second ahead of second place in a time of 44.25 seconds.
Trojans capped off their third-straight boys track sectional team championship, since missing for the last time in 10 years in 2006, in style.
Their formidable 4 X 400-meter relay team - junior Josh Colon, Sterwerf, Olive and Garrett Rauch - motored across the finish line in new sectional record time of 3:23.24. It broke the old mark (3:30.93), set by East Central in 1994.
Top four sectional individual finishers, and top three relays, advance to Thursday’s Connersville regional. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 June 2009 )
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Written by Register Staff
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
Funeral services for P. Louise Viel, 88, Bright, were held Saturday, May 23, 2009, at Bright Providence Presbyterian Church, Bright, with burial in Gibson Cemetery, Bright. John C. Brater Funeral Home, Harrison, was in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Viel died Tuesday, May 19, at her residence. She retired from U.S. Shoe Company. She was a former Elder, Deacon and Memorial Fund Treasurer of the Bright Providence Presbyterian Church.
She is survived by two sons, David Viel and Stephen Viel; a daughter, Anna McCann; a daughter-in-law, Janice Viel; 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to Bright Providence Presbyterian Church or Cystic Fibrosis. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )
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Written by Register Staff
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
Funeral services for Clinton Todd Gentry, 38, Dillsboro, were held Saturday, May 23, 2009, at Filter-DeVries Funeral Home, Dillsboro.
Mr. Gentry died Tuesday, May 19, in Dearborn County Hospital, Lawrenceburg.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )
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Written by Register Staff
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
Funeral services for Nancy Kay Jellison Lucas, 55, East Enterprise ,were held Saturday, May 23, 2009, at New Liberty Baptist Church, East Enterprise, with burial in New Liberty Cemetery.
Mrs. Lucas died Tuesday, May 19.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )
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