Page 36 - Discover Fall 2022

Home Town Hero CONTINUED
against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
As I walked down our gravel road
on that day, it was a bit windy and overcast,
though not enough to block the gorgeous
view of the mountain that serves as a
backdrop to the Dooleys’ farm. Soon, their
mailbox came into view; a quaint garden flag
imprinted with the message “God bless the
USA” in Red White and Blue is attached to
it. I smiled at the thought
of how humble this family
is. In the face of troubling
times in an ever-changing
nation, he still takes
pride in the country that
he once defended. As O
approached his door, he
greeted me with his usual
warm welcome: “Come on
in, neighbor!”
After sharing small
talk about family and
friends, I got down to it.
I learned that instead of
just asking direct questions
about his military service, it was best to
engage him in small talk, which brought the
memories out of him more naturally.
Born and raised in the Chamblissburg/
Stewartsville area, he attended what was then
Stewartsville High School, graduating in
1951. He chuckled at the memory of having
to walk a mile just to get to the school bus.
After graduating from high school, he was
employed at the Vinton weaving mill, in
Vinton, VA. Then, in March of 1953, he
34 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2022
received his draft notice from the U.S Army.
He had known that it would only be a
matter of time before he would be called up,
as the war in Korea had been waging for 3
years, and he was at the right age of 21. After
saying goodbye to his mother and father, he
flew for the very first time on an airplane,
out of Roanoke, and headed for military
processing at Ft. Meade in Maryland. After
being processed, he was
shipped to Ft. Knox
in Kentucky for basic
training. He endured
a grueling 16 weeks
of physical training,
marching, drill, and
firing all the small arms
weapons that the Army
had to offer in those days.
He remembered
with a smile, “They had
these two hills, and you
know what they were
called? Agony and Misery,
and that’s exactly what
they were!” He chuckled at the memory, and
then he smiled as he said, “I can assure you:
we were not laughing then as they ordered us
up those two hills twice and sometimes three
times a day”
Once his training was complete, the
freshly trained infantry man was flown out to
Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, and was assigned
to Third Infantry Division. They all boarded a
troop transport ship in New York for a 38-day
cruise that would take them to the other side