Plymouth's Long Line of Service Continues
By Mike Siroky
Pilot News
PLYMOUTH � Leo Hostetler looks at the picture of all those young men at the Plymouth Armory in 1961 and thinks of all the young folks in service right now, who left from the same armory for a war half a world away.
He�s one of those young men of that summer of �61, more than four decades ago.
So was Jack Oliver of Oliver Ford and the Cook brothers of Cook�s Furn-iture. Leo can rattle off names looking at the pictures: �Robert Pearish, Dave Rash, Bill Wilson, Robert Stillson, John Sarver, Mike Boys, Larry Berge, Ronald Price, Verl Culp, Noble Neidig, Phil Beatty, Roger Dipert, Allen Keller, Harry Eskridge, Jack Keyser, Russell Alderfer, Larry Maxson, Jim Grover, Dick Morris, Larry Ault, Albert Moren, Harry Fisher, William Ralston, Robert Powers, Bert Cramer, Glen Wagner, Robert Ault, James Nelson, Roger Rosebush, Howard Alderfer and Richard Thacker . . .
�We went every year for our two weeks of training,� said Leo. �It was kind of like active duty.
�We learned basic military operations; we�d go on the firing range and qualify, practice with weapons and tactics, field operations.
�We used to take a company picture,� he said. �The biggest share of the guys came from this area. I remember a lot of faces if not all the names. Darell Bowman, he eventually became street commissioner here in town, was our commander. He had been in the second World War, a paratrooper. He made a jump and a big share of his unit were killed; he got a battlefield commission. After he got out, he came back here.�
The spirit of service was predominant. Leo served � 27 years seven months and 14 days.� His six sons all served in the Guard. Between them, they had 60 years of dedication to the country.
�I never had to go to actual combat. But I did spend a lot of time in Camp Atterbury (which is where many of those now in Iraq trained). I started out in weapons platoon, 60 millimeter mortars and the 1-06 recoil-less rifles. Eventually, it changed to 80 millimeter mortars. I was in Rensselaer for three years, in South Bend Battalion Head-quarters for three years and the rest, more than 20 years, here in Plymouth.�
The thing about service is the special bond, all the faces.
�I have a lot of friends,� Leo said, �I�ve seen so many come and go. The unit strength was supposed to be 150, it varied up and down a little, but it was usually that many.�
So now he sits and watches other young men march off to war, knowing some of them won�t be back. Like many of us, he marvels at the weaponry, so different than what he mastered.
�We used to use smokescreens,� he said. �With thermal imaging, that wouldn�t make a difference now. Even in the Gulf War, 12 years ago, we watched those �smart bombs� and how they guided them in to targets. Now they�re better than that. Back in World War II, you just dropped a lot of bombs and hoped you hit something. In Vietnam, it was all jungle.�
Leo prays for the soldiers there now, the hometown boys who will come home battle-tested and forever changed. �You can train all you want,� he said. �You don�t know until you�re there, until the other guy is shooting at you, what the war is about.
�And the worst of this one is yet to come.�
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