An 85-year-old Tyrone veteran of World War II received long-awaited recognition as a Prisoner of War earlier this week at a ceremony held at the Tyrone American Legion Post 281.
\n William N. Rhodes, a technical sergeant in the United States Army\/Air Force received the recognition at Tuesday evening ceremonies attended by several fellow veterans, other former prisoners of war and dignitaries.
\nJust prior to the ceremony Rhodes and his wife, Ardis, mingled with the crowd, posed for photographs and were interviewed by some of the area\u2019s television stations.
\nRhodes told reporters, \u201cWe weren\u2019t treated bad,\u201d in reference to his German captors. Rhodes and three comrades had been taken into captivity after they bailed out of their plane (a B-17 bomber) when it was shot down on March 31, 1945. Rhodes said five men were able to get out of the plane. However, one of those who bailed out did not survive the jump.
\nAfter about a month in captivity, Rhodes said he and his fellow soldiers \u201cwere liberated by the 15th Army.\u201d
\nHe said, \u201cThey were following the Germans and that\u2019s how they found us.\u201d
\nCongressman Bill Shuster made the formal presentation of the POW Medal along with a citation. Congressman Shuster was instrumental in helping Rhodes receive the honor after a clerical problem had caused six decades to pass before Rhodes was granted the status.
\nDuring the Congressman\u2019s remarks he mentioned Rhodes had said he didn\u2019t think he had done anything special. Shuster said those who had lived during the war and those who have since learned about it understood \u201chow important\u201d Rhodes\u2019 service was to the effort. Shuster recognized the importance of all of those who served during what he called \u201ca great struggle.\u201d
\nHe also recognized those serving today in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said service people today feel the same way as Rhodes that what they are doing isn\u2019t \u201canything special.\u201d
\nHe said military people feel as if \u201cthey are doing their job, they are protecting their families (and) they are protecting their buddies. A young Sergeant Rhodes was able to go do that.\u201d
\nShuster said whether it is Rhodes or today\u2019s soldiers, \u201cIt takes someone with great courage, great desire and someone with a great desire and someone who really loves their country and their family to be able to do those types of things.\u201d
\nAfter his remarks, Shuster presented the medal and a citation. Rhodes received a standing ovation and Shuster thanked him for his service and dedication and said, \u201cWe will be indebted to you forever.\u201d
\nRhodes offered some brief remarks to the crowd and received additional ovations as other dignitaries at the event recognized him.
\n State Senator Robert C. Jubelirer was represented by his executive assistant Jim Gregory and State Representative Jerry Stern was represented by William C. Fink, US Air Force Retired.
\nFink presented Rhodes with a proclamation issued by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Blair County Commissioner Barry Wright also presented a proclamation to Rhodes on behalf of the county and its commissioners.
\nRhodes\u2019 granddaughter, Tara Beals, spoke about her grandfather\u2019s heroism during the ceremonies.
\nAmerican Legion Commander Fred Zanghi recognized Rhodes and other attending former Prisoners of War. There was also recognition for visitors from neighboring American and VFW Posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An 85-year-old Tyrone veteran of World War II received long-awaited recognition as a Prisoner of War earlier this week at a ceremony held at the Tyrone American Legion Post 281. William N. Rhodes, a technical sergeant in the United States Army\/Air Force received the recognition at Tuesday evening ceremonies attended by several fellow veterans, other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}