Valley Patriot of the Month By: Ted Tripp – January, 2007 NORTH ANDOVER – Muriel Katschker remembers well where she was on December 7, 1941. She was with her parents listening to the radio when the regular programming was interrupted by an announcer’s voice saying the Japanese had just attacked and bombed Pearl Harbor. […]
VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH By: Ted Tripp – December, 2006 HAVERHILL – Next month Mike Ingham will retire after 33 years of service in the Air Force, both on active duty and in the reserves. His assignments have taken him all over the world: Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Alaska and Central America. Born […]
* Valley Patriot Editorial * December, 2006 For years, officials in the city of Lawrence have been talking about returning Essex Street to two-way traffic. But all we’ve heard is talk. This past January, District “B” City Councilor Grisel Silva wrote her very first column in The Valley Patriot calling for the restoration of two-way […]
By: Ted Tripp – November, 2006 NORTH ANDOVER – On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army, bolstered by Soviet tanks and aircraft, invaded South Korea. Immediately, President Harry Truman ordered General Douglas MacArthur to transfer ammunition and supplies from Japan to the ROK (Republic of Korea) Army and provide limited air support. On June […]
By: Ted Tripp – October, 2006 GEORGETOWN – Late on the night of December 26, 1970, in stormy seas 600 miles off Cape May, New Jersey, the aging 540-foot Finnish tanker Ragny broke in half without warning. An SOS went out and was relayed to the Coast Guard station in New York which immediately initiated […]
By Ted Trip – July 05, 2006 METHUEN – Joe Messina was taking a shower below decks on the aircraft carrier USS Hancock after his Curtis SB2C Hell-diver returned from another grueling mission attacking Japanese shipping in Manila Bay. Shortly after the ship’s General Quarters sounded, there was a tremendous explosion just over his head and […]
(READ PART 1) By: Ted Tripp – May, 2006 METHUEN – As 85-year-old Luther McIlwain slowly walks around the kitchen table in his Pleasant Valley home, it is obvious that this Tuskegee Airman has a lot more story to tell about his military experience during World War II. Each little parcel of information he shares […]
Read PART II By: Ted Tripp – April, 2006 METHUEN – Everyone meeting Luther McIlwain for the first time immediately realizes there is something special in the air. Even a short conversation with the 85 year-old veteran of World War II causes you to think about the greater social and political issues of our time. Every […]
By: Ted Tripp – March, 2006 NORTH ANDOVER- An electrical short circuit had forced early termination of the dive of the Navy’s Deep Submergence Research Vehicle, Turtle. As the Turtle returned to its support ship and was loaded on board, the electrical problem turned into a raging fire that threatened the sub, the support ship […]
By: Tom Duggan -January, 2006 NORTH ANDOVER – Lawrence native Bill Callahan served his country in two wars, World War II and the Korean War. After completing his military service, he has also spent decades volunteering in the community and working to help others. When Bill Callahan graduated from Lawrence High School in 1945, the […]
By Dr. Charles Ormsby – December 6, 2005 ANDOVER, MA – John Doherty had a lot of family history to uphold. His family had lived in Andover for over 150 years and the Doherty Elementary School is named after his uncle, Bill Doherty, after he served 39 years on the Andover School Committee. John’s […]
By: Tom Duggan – November, 2005 With 80,000 plus people crammed into six square miles, Lawrence has been a very attractive (and profitable) place for poverty pimps to ply their trade: mainly, strong-arming local officials to give them government money for their so-called non profit organizations. Of course, these poverty pimps pretend that their goal […]
By: Dr. Charles Ormsby – November, 2005 Harvey Gibeau was born in Lawrence in 1923 and after high school he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. He vividly remembers the ever-present sense of patriotism that prevailed. Patriotism was a common household word and was an expected personal trait in his family. In […]
By: Charles Ormsby – October, 2005 Frank Shimko, E-4 Communications Specialist Frank Shimko didn’t think his future lay in Nebraska, so at 19 he enlisted in the Army. It was the summer of 1965. Not long afterwards, he found himself on the other side of the world and in harm’s way. Frank was born […]
By: Charles Ormsby – September, 2005 NORTH ANDOVER – Alexander Milne rarely speaks of his wartime experiences, even with fellow veterans. Such conversations were uncommon even with his brother, Donald, who served on the Battleship Texas at Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and who passed away two years ago. Alex found it difficult to […]