Page 6 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

The Past
6 thePeorian.com
I spent four years in the
U.S. Air Force and then in
January of 1955, I was a
veteran. It was not until 2013 that
I heard someone say “Thank you
for your service.” I thought they
were kidding me.
Then Honor Flight became
a reality and the “welcome
home” veterans received around
America after their flights to the
Washington Monuments were
overwhelming.
Many combat veterans have
been silent about their stories all
those years. I met one of them
named Carl H. Porter. He’s
92 now, born in Pekin, and a
resident at the Buehler Home
there. I have written about other
veterans but after meeting Carl I
wish I would have dedicated the
last decade to writing veteran’s
stories.
Carl was married to his
beloved wife Marlynn for 67
years and just lost her last year.
“I was raised in Manito and I
met ‘Marly’ in 1940 and of course
Pekin was the place that was
important to us. I came to Peoria
a lot and she and I would go to
dances at the Inglaterra. I was
not much of a dancer, but I soon
learned. We did not get married
until 1946 over in Peoria so I
wrote her a lot of letters… truth
is I still have them. The wedding
gown you see in that picture of
her was made out of a parachute
that I sent home to her.”
Their marriage produced two
children, Chip and Lisa, four
grandchildren and eventually
nine great grandkids.
Once WW II broke out Carl
tried to enlist but because of
color blindness he was rejected.
Of course once the draft came,
Uncle Sam seemed to have
changed his mind and off Carl
went to become a paratrooper. “I
ended up in California and went
through the tough paratrooper
training. I remember the first
time I jumped I felt like a million
dollars.”
D-DAY JUNE 6, 1945
“You know, it’s funny the
things a guy remembers from
training. It was during D-Day
briefings we were told not to
take any prisoners until after we
hooked up with our land forces.
They also told us not to load our
weapons until we were safely
on the ground. That order most
certainly saved my life. The drop
over Normandy was fast and
low and I remember looking
up and seeing the tracer bullets
making holes in my ‘chute. I did
not pay much attention to where
the parachute was taking me. I
crashed into a tree when I landed
and ended up dangling from a
limb.”
Before Carl could extract
himself from the limb three
German soldiers appeared
beneath his feet. Combat soldiers
are trained to fire at the enemy
but Carl realized that his weapon
was empty.
AMERIKANISCH!
AMERIKANISCH!
By Norm Kelly