Tag Archives: Army

98-year-old Kentwood WW II veteran honored in special ceremony

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U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Russell Spearow salutes World War II veteran Aldean Mason. (WKTV)
Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

The rain ended and the clouds parted just in time for a special pinning ceremony to honor 98-year-old World War II veteran Aldean Mason on Friday.

Hospice of Michigan and Azpira Place of Breton, located in Kentwood, teamed up together to recognize Mason, who service as a nurse in the United States Army during World War II.

Aldean Mason comes out to a warm welcome for a Hospice of Michigan We Honor Veterans program. (WKTV)

“Aldean is a loving, kind, wonderful person,” said Azpira Place of Breton Executive Director Jenny Osentoski. “To know that she gave hands on care to survivors of the Holocaust and then went on to lived a lovely life even after all that is amazing.”

About a dozen residents and staff along with the media attended a short ceremony outside the main doors of Azpira Place of Breton where representatives from Hospice of Michigan gave Mason a pin featuring the American flag and a flag for hospice and a certificate. Family members not able to attend joined via Zoom.

Mason was born on Oct. 24, 1921 in the state of Washington. She was one of seven children and assumed the role of mother when her mother passed away. Upon completion of nursing school, Mason joined the 120th Evacuation Hospital Unit as part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. She arrived in France in 1944 and began treating wounded U.S. soldiers.

Aldean Mason served in 120th Evacuation Hospital Unit as part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. (Supplied)

The following year, Mason’s unit was sent to an area near Buchenwald Concentration Camp, located on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany. It was one of Germany’s first and largest concentration camps in the country’s 1937 borders. Lack of food and poor conditions along with executions lead to 56,545 deaths of the 280,000 prisoners housed at Buchenwald and its subcamps. The camp was liberated by the U.S. 89th Infantry Division.

In Mason’s story, read by staff, her unit thought they were heading to Germany to continue to treat more American soldiers. Instead, they would witness the horrors of a conception camp as they helped those who suffered from severe malnutrition, typhus and other diseases. As the famous American journalist Edward R. Murrow wrote in an April 15, 1945 report about Buchenwald, “We walked out into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over 60, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it.”

According to staff, Mason recalled how distraught she and the other nurses were to discover the realities of concentration camps. One survivor, Jack Pinto, credited Mason for giving him the desire to live. “I did not want to live,” Pinto said in an Los Angeles Times story about the two reuniting in 1995. “She sat on my bed, many times, talking.”

Mason would marry a doctor from the unit, Walter, who she did not meet until after the war, and the two would raise a family. The two were married for 57 years when Walter passed away in 2006. Mason has lived at Azpira Place of Breton for the past nine years.

Aldean Mason (in the red circle) and her unit went to Buchenwald Concentration Camp to help Holocaust survivors. (Supplied)

Mike Nitz, director of Community Relations for the Azpira Place of Breton, said the senior living facility has about eight World War II and Korean veterans as well Vietnam veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are about 300,000 U.S. World War II veterans alive with the U.S. losing about 348 veterans per day.

“I try to come to as many of these as possible,” said U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Russell Spearow who presented Mason with a coin from his battalion, the 3rd Battalion of the 333rd Infantry. The battalion has a long history with its members also serving in World War II. “I think it is so important to be able to witness living history.”

The event was part of the Hospice of Michigan’s We Honor Veterans, which honors men and women who served the United States and help educate and provide care for the specific needs of veterans. It is estimated that one in four Americans dying is a veteran.

“Coming off of Memorial Day, we felt it is so important to recognize our veterans,” Nitz said, adding that it is especially true as quarantine orders have prevented loved ones from being able to have face-to-face visits.

“It has been so hard for the residents and their families not to be able to come in contact,” Osentoski said. “We see the residents everyday and are part of their daily lives. During our parade [last weekend] where families decorated their cars and past by, we could actually see the tears in residents’ eyes and their families’.”

Osentoski said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Azpira Place of Breton has been fortunate in being able to provide community activities such as the special pinning for Mason, helping to keep their residents engaged and connected. 

Pause to Remember and Honor

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Dick - Korea
A marine, a father, a veteran – Dick in Korea.

Your Soldier

by Susan Lamos When you hear the word soldier does it bring a vision to your mind? Do you have someone you call, “my soldier?” It might be your grandfather Chet, whose wrinkled voice on rare occasion will offer the story of crawling on his belly with General McArthur’s Army during WWII. He might tell of the blaring momenthe realized those buddies who flanked his body there in the dirt were gone forever.

 

Your soldier might be Dick, your father perhaps, who left his unopened college books to battle on hill 812 in Korea. He moves tall through his life, telling many he meets, “Dog Company, 2nd battalion, 5th regiment…1st Marine Division sir,” as he rubs at the phantom pain in an empty shirt sleeve.

 

Perhaps your eyes see his brother Bob who 10 years post Korea was driven to continue his brother’s service.RVN-1970  This war is Viet Nam. As a Navy Corpsman he aided many wounded. Knowing after he came home that there were more bodies in the fields awaiting rescue, he returned for a valiant second tour…this time going closer from the pilot’s seat of an Army helicopter.

 

Is your soldier Steve, a 44 yr. old Marine, who served his country in the Middle East? His intelligence work took him through many heart wrenching years both in his conscious psyche and meditating soul. Steve walked out the front door of his California home one February night. All contact ceased.

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You might find your soldier in the face of someone at a Veterans Day parade. He could be the one standing next to you, who has quietly slipped away from his family to pay tribute with fellow comrades. Many who line the streets come alone with their story marinating in their hearts. A wiped tear from a lone serviceman, a tight but treasured uniform worn in the cavalcade or an American Legion hat carefully donned by an amputee in a chair, they are all there.

 

On November 11th our country remembers, honors and pays homage to our men and women in uniform. Search for your personal reason to support our troops and leaders today. Find it in those around you, knowing their sacrifices continue to give us our freedoms. Try and understand their passion and love of “Old Glory,” as she passes by. To some who have traveled further from the agonies in their mind than to where the original battle was fought…that beautiful flag stands more than their own life…it represents yours.