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Page 4 • Wednesday , May 10 , 2023 • The Hammonton Gazette
Stories of oldest , youngest members of veterans ’ organizations
VETERANS , from Page 1 which he did , but wasn ’ t involved in with a lot of the military organizations until he was invited to become a member of the American Legion in 1988 and from there , his involvement just grew . Serving as a first vice commander for Atlantic County , he visits other posts to see if they need any help and enjoys his opportunities to be a part of the American Legion .
Being a part of the organization and involved in the county and state activities , Orsi realized how many of our veterans are not being cared for or not given the proper treatment , especially being concerned with the suicide rate among returning service members of Afghanistan and Iraq , which the organization is working on two projects : The Buddy Check , where they call all of the members of the American Legion post to see how they ’ re doing , and Suicide Prevention , which is organized by State Commander Steven Fisher , finding veterans , especially younger veterans , to get them help and counseling from the VA .
“ In Atlantic County , we ’ ve been active in our attempts to find veterans who are either homeless or living in un-standard conditions and trying to get them housing , appointments with the VA [ Veteran Affairs ] doctors to see if they ’ re entitled to any benefits or medical care .
The oldest member of the American Legion F . A . Funston Post 186 is George Cappuccio , who is 102 years old . Cappuccio served in the Army and is a World War II veteran as an artilleryman and talked more about his experience serving in the war . While going to many places , Cappuccio went to Naples , Italy , where he stayed there for three years and then later described some close experiences he had .
“ One where a gun was hit by a terminator , knocked us out and made a hole as big as a room . When we were there , they just left . Our terminators fight for positions and for the Army , we would call those positions and we ’ d fight and fire wherever we needed . We would fight quite a few battles and then there was one time where we would walk off and get something to eat and on the way over , a friend of mine stepped on something and the thing jumped up and it was supposed to explode and it didn ’ t and we ’ re both alive because of that ,” Cappuccio said .
Cappuccio joined the American Legion pretty late as he described after he came home . He was playing in a band every Tuesday , which was the same night as the American Legion meetings and joked that he didn ’ t join because he was busy .
“ In about 10 or 15 years , I became a member and then I got my new member ’ s outfit . It ’ s pretty nice , it ’ s a good Legion ,” Cappuccio said .
John Erlandson is the youngest member of the American Legion and has been a member for about seven or eight years . He served in the Army after graduating high school in 2010 for Airborne Unit # 173 of Casargo Italy . After getting out in 2014 , he joined veterans organizations such as the American Legion and DAV .
“ I was lucky enough to be stationed in Italy and so after basic training , I went through Airborne school and that gave me my Airborne qualifications to be a paratrooper to where I was sent to an Airborne unit out in Italy and I spent my remaining career with them . I was doing mostly a lot of training but we also did Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and was also the first iteration for Operation Rapid Trident , which was a joint-forces training event for military operations out in Ukraine . It was a fairly short contract for four years but it was quite eventful ,” Erlandson said .
Erlandson experienced a culture shock coming from a tight-knit community in the Army to , for a lack of a better term in his own words , the “ real world .” After meeting with members of the American Legion and DAV , it was a pretty easy choice to join and share those life experiences .
“ Having friends that were a part of the DAV and American Legion , it was pretty hard to join and find those individuals that had those same life experiences so definitely , I was able to shift into that sense of belonging into those organizations ,” Erlandson said .
At the VFW , Harry Carney is the youngest member of the organization as a senior vice post commander in Hammonton VFW Passalaqua Post # 1026 . Carney served in the Navy and is currently in the Navy Reserves , serving active duty from 2012-2016 , stationed aboard as a guided missile cruiser in San Diego , Ca .
“ I did one deployment in 2013 but that was over in the Middle East area and then after that , I came home after meeting my wife and moved here ,” Erlandson said .
Losing a few friends to suicide , Carney is working with veterans organizations to help lessen the stigma of mental health to veterans . Carney is also working with the Troopers United Foundation to try and bring veterans and troops into the limelight and show that everybody is working for a better community .
“ We ’ re working with the DAV and the VA itself to try and get the help that veterans in need don ’ t have . Instead of them suffering alone and in silence , we ’ re trying to get them to come out , kind of work with everybody and do what they need to do to get them healthier in their mental state ,” Carney said .
Edward Marinelli is the oldest member of
Green , Garden Cmtes . met May 1
MENZEL , from Page 3 relationships and then when more information comes available or when it ’ s more timely for next year , we could re-host a similar and updated or same workshop ,” McCullough said .
To conclude the meeting , the committee discussed the Environmental Commission ’ s
Arbor Day Poster Contest . This year ’ s event is a poster contest instead of a tree giveaway , with the topic for the posters on why trees are important to us . Menzel offered to the Environmental Commission for the Green Committee to assist with the contest as well as the prizes .
the VFW and became a life member on August 3 , 1988 . Graduating Hammonton High School in 1948 , Marinelli served in the Army and at that time , a law required graduating high school male seniors to serve two years of military service .
“ They put me in the Army Air Force because the Army was full so in August of 1948 , I went to the Army Air Force . I took training and went to radio school in Denver , Co . and was shipped to Japan in 1949 and then the war broke out and I was immediately sent to Korea and served there for 11 months and then my time was up so I figured I ’ ll be going home but Harry S . Truman was president and said ‘ all military personnel are extended until further notice ’ so I wind up serving four years instead of two years . In 1952 , I was discharged and I was going to go back in but I saw that the state police were giving state tests so I took the test and in 1954 , I went to New Jersey State Police , spent 31 years with them and retired as the captain of the New Jersey State Police on September 1 , 1985 ,” Marinelli said .
Marinelli lost his son , Edward H . Marinelli Jr ., in 2002 and is buried in Green Mount Cemetery and noticed the traffic had trouble getting in and out of the cemetery during the funeral . Marinelli and one other man built the new entrance to the cemetery .
“ It was beautiful 14 years ago , it was beautiful today and it will be beautiful forever and that ’ s the kind of things that I ’ d like to get involved in , things that will last forever and all of the public can enjoy ,” Marinelli said .
Edward K . Shinn III is the oldest member of the DAV and has been a member since January 1966 . He credits DAV Sergeant-At- Arms Larry Adair for taking care of him and having a great relationship . Shinn served in the Army from 1958-1967 .
“ I separated from the Army in January of 1967 as an E-5 within almost eight-and-ahalf years and I ’ ve been to Germany , Thailand , the United States , different areas like Colorado and New York and I was always a switchboard supervisor or in some relations , communications ,” Shinn said .
Shinn helps and assists those who are working odd jobs or need to go to their doctor visits , although he ’ s not as active now as he once was due to half of his foot being cut off recently . Shinn understands with those circumstances that it ’ s hard not to be able to go anywhere and not being able to rely on anyone so he goes out to provide that assistance and comfort . Shinn has enjoyed his experience with the DAV and , along with Adair , are helping a DAV post in Woodbury .
“ We ’ re helping a member over there who is having a problem so we ’ re trying to resurrect them to get him so they ’ re not dissolved . We ’ ve been working on that with Larry and a bunch of other people in the DAV . Other than that , we ’ re doing pretty good , I think we ’ re hanging in there ,” Shinn said .
Aaron Beniston is the youngest member of the DAV at 35 years old , joining the Marine Corps in 2006 as a communication squadron for the first two years in Japan and did numerous backyard operations in different countries as training exercises .
“ After I was done with those two years , I transferred to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion , where I was trained up as a radio operator and deployed with route clearance during the initial invasion of Marjah in Operation Moshtarak , which was in 2009- 2010 , and that was a seven month deployment and I got out after coming home in August 2010 ,” Beniston said .
Beniston credits his military service alone in helping influence his involvement with the veterans organizations . Most recently , he was appointed to be the state suicide prevention coordinator and is the chaplain for his chapter , Scaltrito-Castone Chapter 66 .
“ Any time we have members that possibly have gone into surgery or sadly have passed away or on their way to passing away , we will go in that capacity , the same as we would in the military , and privide that comfort that sometimes those people don ’ t always have with family members , whether they ’ re not available or short notice , so we stand in the gap to be those individuals for those people don ’ t have a chance to see before they pass away ,” Beniston said .
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