Draped in honor

Michael Roknick, The Herald, Sharon, Pa.
·2 min read

May 15—PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP — The Army might like an unlikely place to find love, but not for a Brookfield couple.

Richard Milani and his wife Joann were sergeants stationed at Ft. Meade, Md., in the early 60s when they met. He was in the Army and his wife was in the Women's Army Corps, then known as WACs. The WACs remained a separate unit of the Army until 1978 when men and women were integrated.

"When you're both in the military you already begin to know something about the other," Richard said.

The couple was among the recipients of "Quilts of Valor" bestowed to local military veterans Saturday at a quilt show hosted by Pieceful Pursuits Quilts. The event was held at Lakeside Evangelical Congregational Church in Pymatuning Township.

Richard served in a quartermaster unit while his wife had office duty mainly handling payroll. Both were discharged within a few months of each other in 1969. They got to see the massive U.S. military buildup in the Vietnam War.

"We weren't sent to Vietnam," Joann said. "But we had a lot of friends who went over there."

Serving in the Army for nine years, Butch Blair of Hermitage also got a quilt. He served two tours in Vietnam, 1967-68, where he found himself in intense action during the Tet offensive. Starting in January of 1968, it was among the bloodiest battles of the war.

In the operation, launched Jan. 31, 1968, to coincide with the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a traditional truce period, the North Vietnamese Army and communist Viet Cong guerrilla troops coordinated attacks on over 100 South Vietnamese cities, villages and military outposts.

"We knew something was coming the night before the attacks began," Blair said. "We could smell the VC (Viet Cong) smoking pot. Don't ask me why."

Often called upon to be a helicopter door gunner, his military-styled arm tattoo gives the location of where he fought, "Vinh Long," a province in what was then southern South Vietnam.

"One night we rescued an orphanage that was run by nuns," Blair said.

Another Vietnam War veteran, Bill Drolsbaugh, said he was grateful for his quilt. Now a Sharon resident, Drolsbaugh was born in Johnstown.

"I lost a couple of my high school buddies in the war," he said.

Enlisting in the Navy in 1968, he never set foot on Vietnam soil. Serving aboard the USS Richard S. Edwards, a destroyer, Drolsbaugh said the ship regularly came under attack by primitive North Vietnamese boats.

"They were just sampans," he said. "Our ship was well defended, and we had superior gunnery."

Serving in combat, Drolsbaugh said he never wanted to return to military life.

"I still feel strongly against war," he said.