HERO IN Our Midst: 2nd Lt WALTER R. HEDLUND, US ARMY, WWII

HERO IN Our Midst: 2nd Lt WALTER R. HEDLUND, US ARMY, WWII

By: Helen Mooradkanian – July 2013 On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Walter Hedlund, then a sergeant, U.S. Army, 29th Infantry Division, 3rd Battalion, 115th Regiment, Company I, stormed Omaha Beach in Normandy—part of the second assault wave. “The first assault wave, our own 116th Regiment, was slaughtered by the Germans. They never got beyond the […]

HERO IN Our Midst: CORPORAL ROBERT F. BAILEY, U.S. ARMY

HERO IN Our Midst: CORPORAL ROBERT F. BAILEY, U.S. ARMY

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH By: Helen Mooradkanian – June, 2013 In that assault landing on Morotai, 45 LSTs (landing ship, tank) lined the shore. Offshore coral reefs and boulders caught landing craft. Troops, vehicles, and supplies were unloaded onto the beach—with no opposition from the 500 or more Japanese caught there by surprise. But […]

Valley Patriot of the Month – Hero in our Midst: SGT ROBERT A. HUNTER, U.S. MARINES

Valley Patriot of the Month – Hero in our Midst: SGT ROBERT A. HUNTER, U.S. MARINES

By Helen Mooradkanian – April 2013 The “island hopping” strategy in the Pacific had proved successful as the Marines secured one island after another in their advance toward the Japanese mainland: Roi and Namur in the Marshall Islands (February 1944), Los Negros (March 1944), Wake Island (May 1944), Saipan and Guam (July 1944), and Tinian […]

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH – POW Paul Stillwell, U.S. Army, 12th Armored Division

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH – POW Paul Stillwell, U.S. Army, 12th Armored Division

By: Helen Mooradkanian – March 2013 Having arrived in France only in mid-November, they were somewhat inexperienced. Auffay, Luneville, Bining, and Rohrback did not really prepare them for the nightmare of Herrlisheim. Herrlisheim became their “baptism by fire.” It was there that they lived up to their name, the “Hellcats” Division. Snow 15 inches deep […]

Hundreds Flock to Valley Patriot Bash, Newspaper Bestows Awards to Members of the Community

Hundreds Flock to Valley Patriot Bash, Newspaper Bestows Awards to Members of the Community

ALL PHOTOS (C) COPYRIGHT RON MUSHOW PHOTOGRAPHY & THE VALLEY PATRIOT   (PHOTO GALLERY)     More than 400 people tuned out Friday night to attend the Valley Patriot 9th Anniversary BASH where the editors of the monthly newspaper (Tom Duggan, Dr. Charles Ormsby and Ralph Wilbur) honored police officers, firefighters, veterans, and those who […]

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH: Lieutenant Colonel Don Sheehan, USAF

By: Helen Morradkanian – February 2013 TEWKSBURY – When 6,000 Marines were trapped at their base during the 77-day siege of Khe Sanh—a surprise attack by 40,000 heavily armored North Vietnamese and Viet Cong during the infamous 1968 Tet Offensive —it was “the longest and deadliest battle” of the Vietnam War. West Point graduate Lieutenant […]

Valley Patriot of the Month – Lawrence Native Fred Pietrowski, U.S. Navy

  By: Helen Mooradkanian – January 2013 LAWRENCE – It was early 1961 during the Cold War. The United States had just closed its embassy in Havana, Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis would not come to a head until one year later, in October 1962—the closest the U.S. and the Soviet Union ever came to […]

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH: Angelo Giambrusso

HERO IN OUR MIDST By: Helen Mooradkanian – October, 2012 One month before his 21st birthday, lst Lieutenant Angelo Giambusso, U.S. Army Air Force, North Andover, Mass., had flown five extremely hazardous combat missions—into Hitler’s oil fields in Ploesti, Romania—plus another 40 strategic bombing attacks in 10 countries across Europe. Yet nothing compared to the […]

HERO IN OUR MIDST Corporal Philip Cote, USAAF

HERO IN OUR MIDST Corporal Philip Cote, USAAF

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH By: Helen Mooradkanian – September, 2012 Corporal Philip Cote, U.S. Army Air Force—who will celebrate his 96th birthday on October 31—was an eyewitness to history on Tinian Island in the Pacific during World War II. Raised in a log cabin in Tewksbury, Mass., and now living in Dracut, he witnessed two […]

Hero in Our Midst: Corporal Samuel Blumenfeld

Hero in Our Midst: Corporal Samuel Blumenfeld

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH   By: Helen Mooradkanian – August, 2012   On March 3, 1945, in Italy’s northern Apennines, storm clouds gathered as Private Samuel L. Blumenfeld, now of Littleton, Mass., first entered combat in WWII with the 10th Mountain Division, Field Artillery Battalion. For one born and raised in New York City, mountain […]

Distinguished Dignitaries Receive High Honors At ACONE Luncheon

Distinguished Dignitaries Receive High Honors At ACONE Luncheon

July, 2012 Two nationally recognized personalities received awards at the prestigious Cabot Awards sponsored by ACONE, (Aero Club of New England.) Herb Kelleher Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Southwest Airlines, received the coveted Cabot Award from Dan Schrager, Acone president and John G.L. Cabot for his dynamic leadership in making Southwest the 5th largest airline […]

Heroes in Our Midst: Cpl. Tony Lutz and George Lutz

Heroes in Our Midst: Cpl. Tony Lutz and George Lutz

VALLEY PATRIOTS OF THE MONTH   By: Helen Mooradkanian – April, 2012 When 25-year-old Corporal George A. (Tony) Lutz, II, U.S. Army, of Virginia Beach, VA, was killed by a sniper’s bullet outside Fallujah on December 29, 2005, only six weeks into his deployment in “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” his tragic death set in motion a […]

Hero in Our Midst: Colonel Kris Mineau, USAF (Ret.) – Valley Patriot of the Month

Helen Mooradkanian –  March, 2012 Colonel Kris Mineau, USAF (Ret.), of North Reading, flew 100 combat missions into North Vietnam in 1966 as fighter pilot in the supersonic F-4C Phantom II. Capable of speed Mach 2.23, more than twice the speed of sound, the Phantom was key to downing the Soviet MiG-21s used by the […]

Hero in our Midst: Staff Sgt. John Katsaros, WWII – Part 1

Hero in our Midst: Staff Sgt. John Katsaros, WWII – Part 1

VALLEY PATRIOT OF THE MONTH   By: Helen Mooradkanian – September, 2011 Out of the darkness, engines roaring, hundreds of American B-17 Flying Fortresses took off March 20, 1944, in World War II, from Deenethorpe, England. Destination: Frankfurt. Mission: destroy production of dreaded Luftwaffe FW-190 fighter planes. At 30,000 feet, under heavily overcast skies and […]

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