Three WWII Combat Veterans Celebrate Birthdays!

Two WWII veterans celebrated their 99th birthdays during May. Charles E. Lynn will celebrated his birthday May 23, 2024, and Joseph Simon celebrated his birthday May 29, 2024. Lynn joined the United States Army Air Corps and served as a gunner in a turret in the bottom of B17's flying 35 missions from England over Germany without injury. Lynn states, "I served my country. I would do it again." Joseph Simon served in the U. S. Army as a combat engineer and demolition expert in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. Joseph states, "My military service means a lot to me. I have a lot of memories both good and bad. It is something that I am proud of having served because I think that the people who served during WWII are no better than those who are serving now, but they were a lot younger and a lot less prepared than those who go into the service now." Brigadier General (BG) Marvin Kent Speigner served in the U. S. Army for 35 years. During WWII, he served as a machine gunner in the Infantry. The mission was to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces. BG Speigner arrived on beaches aboard the Landing Ship Tanks (LST) making the amphibious landings with the Infantry wading ashore. The conditions of combat were terrible during mostly rainy seasons fighting the Japanese who didn't want to ever surrender. He served there on three beachheads until just after the Japanese surrendered August 5, 1945, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. BG Speigner reflects upon his service to America saying, "I was serving my country. I enjoyed it. I was in construction before I joined the military, but I didn't feel about it like I felt about the military. At the end of the day in the military, I always felt that I had accomplished something."