Machado speaks to Veterans at the Library

The Veterans at the Library held their weekly meeting Monday morning, November 13, at 9:15 a.m. at the Franklin Memorial Library. With Chair Johnny Tapley presiding, they had 44 in attendance. The DAR provided the breakfast meal. They had three new veterans to attend the meeting – Michael Leshon Murphy, David Lee Hill and Phillip Eugene Alphin. Michael served in the Army National Guard as part of the 878th Combat Engineer Battalion in Swainsboro from September 1997 through January 2004. He was deployed with the unit to Iraq and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and also served at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Kuwait, Dominican Republic, Landstuhl, Germany and Swainsboro. Michael’s highest rank was Specialist. 4. David served in the U.S. Army, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Infantry Division from December 1, 1977, through May 19, 1979. He received the Expert Rifleman badge, Expert Hand grenade badge and the Expert Mortar Fire Badge. David served at Fort Knox, KY, Fort Benning, GA and Fort Stewart, GA. His highest rank received was Private. Phillip served in the U.S. Air Force from September 24, 1962, through September 19, 1966. He served at Grenier Field, NH, Nancy, France and Paris, France. Phillip’s highest rank received was A1C (Airman 1st Class) E-3. Chair Johnny reminded all veterans about the “Wreaths Across America” project and that it’s coming up fast. On December 2, they will be placing small U.S. Flags on all the veteran’s graves and on December 16, they will be placing the Wreaths on all those graves after the 10 a.m. ceremony at the Swainsboro City Cemetery. Then on January 20, 2024, they will pick up all the Wreaths from the veteran’s graves. Chair Johnny mentioned how much he appreciated the attendance at the four Emanuel County School’s Veterans events last Thursday and Friday. Chair Johnny then called on Luis Machado to present his program on how it was growing up in communist Cuba in the 1960’s under the rule of dictator Fidel Castro.