Born in the Roaring ‘20s— U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class, Farmer, Epic Traveler

Peace-Time Medic and Social Activist Celebrate Our Veteran gives voice to the stories of the U.S. military veterans living amongst us. The actions of these brave and dedicated people, who have served our country both in active military duty as well as administrative positions, have and continue to contribute to the protection and preservation of us and our country. We hope that this section of our paper is an opportunity for our community to hear and see veterans with new eyes, and for veterans to receive recognition and honor for their experiences and life journeys. This month’s Celebrate Our Veteran recounts the story of Nelson Melendez, as told in his own words. This is the final chapter of a two-part series, continued from last month. Click here to read Part 1. by Melissa LaScaleia continued from last month… “It was a great experience for me. I enjoyed meeting new people; we were an hour from Seoul and could visit when we had leave time. It was very interesting, and a culture shock of course. I learned to eat Korean food and speak the language a little. I roomed with a KATUSA, a Korean soldier augmented to the American army; he was a sergeant too. KATUSAs wanted to learn the American way of doing things, but the experience gave me the opportunity to learn more of the Korean language and culture too. I would go out to eat with him and learned all kinds of things. I did eat dog and water buffalo, and had no idea at the time. And I’m a dog lover. He thought it was funny, but he only tricked me once. I also developed a love of kimchi, and tried about thirty different types. I found that either you open yourself to the experience, or you lock yourself in, and develop issues. I’m very open. Everywhere I go I try something different. While in Korea, I went to mountain rappelling and water survival school. I was the doc to these soldiers, and they would ask me if I wanted to do things with them because I was there helping them. So they’d give me the opportunity to do something totally outside of my job skill. I learned how to make a rappeling harness out of just rope. I learned how to make something with something else and how to make it work for you. In water survival school we learned how to capsize a rubber Zodiak boat and flip it over. It was very exciting and a lot of fun. Part of what the military is in general is camaraderie with other soldiers. You make bonds with others no matter their walk or way of life because of the circumstances you’re all in. The military is great at teaching people who have nothing in common how to rally behind one common goal. My brother had been shot and sent home, but he returned to the field because he missed the camaraderie. Once a month, North Korea would send air raids. We would climb into foxholes then, waiting to see what would happen. During those times, you were just grateful there was someone next to you in that foxhole, you didn’t care who it was. North Korea wanted to unite with South Korea and wanted the Americans to go home, so they would drop communist propaganda pamphlets out of planes to try to convince the South Koreans to stop cooperating with the Americans and merge their countries. Sometimes, after that, the reality of being away from your home would set in for soldiers. They would come to see me then, questioning what they were doing there. I always tried to set them right within themselves— to remind them they had signed up for themselves, for their own personal reasons, and it wasn’t that they owed anything to the army or South Korea. I was in Korea for fourteen months, as part of a reactionary force, or what they called a peace time soldier. I take off my hat to anyone who went to war— they had to do something I never had to do. I understand the difference between someone who’s a combat veteran and what I did. The people who went to Korea and Vietnam, they are the true heroes; I was just a support person. I’m grateful for my time in the military and living in a place that is so supportive to and appreciative of veterans. That spirit of gratitude is indoctrinated into me. If it wasn’t for what I did there, I’d be a different person from who I am. After Korea, I separated from the Army from California. I had signed up for six years: four active duty and two reserves. Most reserves spend one weekend a month, but because I was a medic, I always had to get vehicles and supplies ready. That took time, so I was a different status; I was almost like an active reservist. Upon my exit, I returned to Brooklyn, and within a week was working for UPS. After wearing a uniform for so long, it feels natural to keep doing it. So I did that for about a year, and then a friend offered me a job at a bank in the accounting department in New York. Then I was wearing a suit and a tie for the next few years—  just a different type of uniform. At that time, the social activist Luis Garden Acosta had just begun a leadership program at El Puente de Williamsburg. Its mission was to get young people mobilized and socialized so they would learn about history and culture and grow from being drug dealers to community activists and leaders. I was asked to come in and work at this program, mentoring and assisting youth, to get these kids off the street and to live more fulfilling lives. I ended up doing this for the next eleven years, and met my wife, Lisa, during this time too. Many … Read more

Peace-Time Medic and Social Activist Part 1 of 2 Celebrate Our Veteran gives voice to the stories of the U.S. military veterans living amongst us. The actions of these brave and dedicated people, who have served our country both in active military duty as well as administrative positions, have and continue to contribute to the protection and preservation of us and our country.  We hope that this section of our paper is an opportunity for our community to hear and see veterans with new eyes, and for veterans to receive recognition and honor for their experiences and life journeys.  This month’s Celebrate Our Veteran recounts the story of Nelson Melendez, as told in his own words. This is the first chapter of a two-part series. Click here to read Part 2.   by Melissa LaScaleia “I was born on October 10, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York. My parents were both from Puerto Rico and factory workers who made very little wages. Growing up, we lived in a small walk-up apartment. I was the only child of both of my parents, so felt lucky that I had two half-brothers and one half-sister. One sibling, my half-brother Antonio, volunteered to join the U.S. Army during Vietnam. He was seventeen years old and wanted to get out of the neighborhood; we couldn’t afford college, so that was the way. He loved the military, but after he returned, on October 9, 1973, he took his own life. There were a lot of negative connotations about being a Vietnam veteran at that time. There was a lot of prejudice and negativity around the situation, and barely any support for soldiers. When I was seventeen, I took the test to join the military, scored well, and when I turned eighteen, I joined full time. I wanted to finish what he started. There was a lot of drugs and violence in my neighborhood, and I wasn’t the best student, so education wasn’t going to be my ticket out. I completed my basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey in November 1977. Then became an Army medic because I scored well enough on the test. I was stationed in Fort San Houston, Texas where I trained to be a basic medic. I did well with that class and was given the opportunity to get a second job title as a behavioral science specialist. They are the basic or first-line mental health providers to troops in the field. Every time a battalion goes out into the field or overseas, a mental health provider as well as a medic goes with them. When there was a field hospital, that’s where I was stationed. If a soldier or personnel needs to talk, we are there for them. We have the power to evacuate them if we see anything like a psychosis coming on. A lot of times, what I saw were young soldiers with a detachment disorder because they were away from home for the first time, eating out in the field with people from all walks of life, where it’s wet and cold and unfamiliar. Some people do well with that, and others don’t have good interpersonal skills, or haven’t developed coping mechanisms. After my medical training, I was stationed at Fort Polk, in Leesville, Louisiana, home of the 5th Mechanized Infantry. We were part of the 5th Medical Battalion. I spent three years at Fort Polk, and was deployed to Germany in 1978 and 1979 for three months at a time. Whenever I wasn’t traveling or in the field, I worked out of the hospital on a team led by a clinical psychiatrist with other social workers and psychologists. During our downtime, the psychologists would give us psychological tests to learn baselines, like the MMPI and the Rorschach. From this, I learned that I was severely dyslexic. Then I learned certain tricks so I could focus, and not invert numbers and letters. After my three years at Fort Polk, I was deployed to South Korea, and stationed at Camp Casey. We were five minutes by air from the DMZ, which separated North from South Korea. There, I worked as the behavioral scientist and was assigned to the drug and alcohol clinic and the ER as a sergeant. I worked with soldiers who had become addicted to the drugs that were so easy to find in Korea. There wasn’t a lot to do where we were, so soldiers drank because of boredom.” To be continued… 

U.S. Army Veteran, Small Business Owner, Humanitarian Part II Celebrate Our Veteran gives voice to the stories of the U.S. military veterans living amongst us. The actions of these brave and dedicated people, who have served our country both in active military duty as well as administrative positions, have and continue to contribute to the protection and preservation of us and our country.  We hope that this section of our paper is an opportunity for our community to hear and see veterans with new eyes, and for veterans to receive recognition and honor for their experiences and life journeys.  This month’s Celebrate Our Veteran recounts the story of Frank Espinal, as told in his own words. This is the final chapter of a two-part series, continued from last month. Click here to read Part 1.  by Melissa LaScaleia “There was one situation in which one of my squads was attached to a different unit in an armored track vehicle, and they got lost. We had limited radio contact, but I knew what their last position was. I went out with grid coordinates, figured out the direction they were going, and found them.  I had 100% success rate in finding anyone who was lost using a map, compass, and protractor.  The military awarded me several medals during my time in service, including two Army Commendation medals: highly regarded awards I received for training troops under me to successfully fight, win, and survive. When I first arrived back in active duty, my unit was not at a high level of combat readiness. I was recognized by First Army Division East for being able to turn the unit around and get them combat ready within a three-month period. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. There are a lot of people who served who aren’t as lucky. In my years of service, you have the ugly parts— that’s the war. But then the happy parts— when we went back and did the reconstructions. I felt a sense of accomplishment, worth, and patriotism from that.  When you go to another country and see how they live, you come out of there feeling a sense of pride that you were able to help. When you get deployed, you go through training to understand that country’s cultural differences and how life there is generally conducted so you will respect their traditions and culture even though they may rub you wrong. It is what it is and you simply have to accept it. You don’t realize how good you have it until you go abroad. I think often you take for granted the freedoms you have until you see how people live in other countries and you see the freedoms that they don’t have. Especially in parts of the world where women are treated as second-class citizens. That to me is just appalling… Panama still has a population of indigenous people who live in the jungle. We would often run into these people, and we’d partake in certain rituals, and observe etiquette like acknowledging and respecting their elders. We had missions to go out there, and when you see how they live, it takes you back thousands of years and you realize, my God, people still live like this.  When I finished my four years of active duty, I went to college at Eastern University in Pennsylvania on the GI Bill, married my high school sweetheart, and got a job in healthcare.  I started in sales, earned my master’s degree in business, and worked my way into management. I came from nothing and retired as a corporate director for a fortune 500 company twenty years later, with over 700 employees under me. When I hit the ceiling in my career, I decided to retire to Myrtle Beach and open my own business. My wife and I had been coming to Myrtle Beach for vacation for thirty years, and we loved it here. I opened ShipOnSite in 2006; we had three profit centers at that time. All the skills I learned in the military—the drive, discipline, and refusal to accept failure—have made me into a successful business owner. I grew the business into seven profit centers today, and every year we’ve been voted the number one shipping store along the Grand Strand. Come and visit me at 2734 Beaver Run Blvd. Other shipping stores refer customers to us because of the unusual things we can ship— like delicate or large freight items. I learned how to ship freight from my military deployments where I had to load vehicles, tanks and equipment onto railheads, aircraft, and ships. All of that is second nature to me now. I’m now a logistics professional. I look back and I try to look at the good that I was a part of personally, not the bad. War isn’t good, plain and simple, it exists because peace failed. So I don’t talk about it because I have a lot of mixed emotions, but I’m also grateful for the experience because it made me who I am today.”