Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
World War II U.S. Army veteran and former longtime educator Charlie Garner was honored Tuesday as the Kosciusko County Veteran of the Month, two days before his 102nd birthday.
Originally planning to honor both Garner and 103-year-old WWII veteran Bob Gast at Tuesday’s county commissioners meeting, Veteran Service Officer Darryl McDowell said Gast was not feeling well and he hopes to honor Gast at a future commissioners meeting.
“If you look at him, you’d say, ‘No, he’s not 102,’” McDowell said of Garner. “If it wasn’t for his replacement knees, he’d probably be running around like a 3-year-old. He stays busy and is very focused.”
McDowell spoke about the “World War II mentality” and “why they call them the Greatest Generation.”
“If you think about it, when you think about the definitions of resiliency, they demonstrate on a daily basis what resilience is. Why? You know, today, every military has a certain time - you’re going to go and spend six months, you’re going to go and spend three months, you’re going to spend a year. Well, those ladies and gentlemen did not have an end date,” McDowell said.
He’s been dealing with some veterans who have been in one theater and then got transferred to another one after the first fight/war was over in another landscape and with a different mentality.
“In his, Charlie was there at D-Day. Participated in the Battle of the Bulge,” McDowell said. “Born in 1923, in Fulton County ... he ended up, after the service, honoring our county here. He’s now a Syracuse resident.”
Garner was moved from Fort Harrison to Alabama. In 1944, he was sent to Liverpool, England. He was known as a “replacement,” meaning he replaced a soldier in a unit as that unit’s numbers dwindled from war casualties.
“So, imagine not only having to deal with that, but now having to deal with an entirely new group and now you’re in the fight for life, from that perspective,” McDowell said.
Garner drove a Jeep in the service.
“On the 16th of June, Charlie got off the ship to board one of the landcrafts, to go to Omaha Beach,” McDowell said. “Now, these are one of the things you don’t find out, is that Charlie ... the difficulty he had getting from the ship, down that road, onto that landing craft. That was a challenge. Very difficult, and I can only imagine.”
McDowell said Garner remembers that at one point they moved to a position where they were surrounded. He recognized that because all of the mortars were shooting in different directions. For several days, until they were rescued, Garner remembers digging foxholes - five in one day. He had to trust his “brothers” on his left and right, and McDowell said that’s how they built that brotherhood in the service.
“With that, he’s got a lot of fine memories when it comes to that,” McDowell said, encouraging people to learn veterans’ history without causing any unnecessary burdens or anguish. “You would have a better understanding of what the military personnel experiences on a daily basis.”
After serving his country in WWII, Garner spent a big chunk of his life in the education field as a teacher and an administrator. McDowell said he learns something every day from Garner, who continues to work toward goals he’s trying to achieve.
After receiving his framed certificate, Garner joked that the thing McDowell liked more than anything else was that he gave him some jam every once in a while. Garner said he’s been making jam for 28 years just to give away.
“I’ve had such a good life. I’ve been in a big house by myself, seven acres of woods with my animals and everything. This jam has given me something to do, and I can do it,” Garner stated.
He said he had two good marriages to two good women for almost 75 years. He has a large loving family, but had to be almost 100 before anyone was named after him.
“I’ve been so blessed. Good health. And I don’t know what I would do otherwise if I ever had the chance to do it over,” Garner stated.
After he thanked everyone for the award, McDowell asked everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” to Garner as his birthday was in two days.
