Three Bristol Borough brothers all served in Korea.

By Tim Chicirda, BucksLocalNews.com

Filomeno Lalli, toolmaker and Italian immigrant and wife Anna Ferraro Lalli, a Bristol Borough resident and St. Mark's alum, did not have a son who was a hero. They had three.Ralph, Al and Nick Lalli are all veterans of the Korean War and are all Bristolians.

Ralph

The oldest of the three heroic brothers, Ralph, is the only one who is not a graduate of Bristol High School, graduating from North Catholic High School in Philadelphia in 1950.

Ralph was an Airmen First Class, serving during the Korean War in Fairbanks, Ark. after his basic training in Syracuse, NY. His duties included those of a radio operator in Biloxi, Mich. and he was discharged from Fort Dix.

Ralph met his wife, color guard member Josephine Tosti, a Bristol High grad, while both were in the Bracken Cadets Corps.

Today, Ralph is a retired supervisor from the Nylomatic Corporation in Fallsington, a custom, injection molder that specializes in high quality, close tolerance engineered thermoplastic molding for industrial applications.

Ralph and Josephine have four children, who are all BHS graduates: Raphael, Joanna, Michael and Gregg.

Al

Al, along with twin brother Nick, was born on Dec. 6, 1941, just one day before the Japanese raid on American forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Al, an Army Sergeant E5 Special 5, spent over a year in Korea before being stationed in Huachuca, Ariz., after basic training in Fort Gordon, Ga.

Al and field hockey athlete and captain of the color guard Sharon Wilga, also a Bristol High grad, have two sons: Albert and Kevin.

They designed their Wood Street home with the cathedral ceiling and skylights that they've lived in for the last 25 years.

Sharon and Al were also part of the "kids of Bristol" who were "sharp as a pistol," dancing to the Dovell's smash hit, "The Bristol Stomp" at the Goodwill Fire Hall.

Al is now employed at Earl M. Jorgensen Company in Langhorne, a leading supplier of Steel and Aluminum Bar, Tubing, and Plate to manufacturing companies in North America.

Nick

Nick's beginnings in the military are very similar to that of his brother Al.

Born on the same day, Nick, E5 Army Sergeant, and Al both spent time in Korea for 13 months and portions of the United States, as described earlier.

Nick had a bit of a different fate during his military career, as the Taft Street resident is now a disabled veteran, breaking his back during his time in the service. He fell from a 45-foot telephone pole.

Nick retired as chief of maintenance from the Nylomatic Corporation.

He has two daughters: Justine and Angela.

Currently, the three brothers are all members of the Robert W. Bracken American Legion Post 382 and have been for nearly a decade. Nick is Commander, while Al and Ralph are Sergeant-at-Arms.

(Correspondent Cate Murway contributed to this article.)

U.S. Colonel worked with Iraq judiciary after retirement

By Petra Chesner Schlatter, BucksLocalNews.com

U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (Retired) Larry Rubini, 62, is diligent and hardworking. He has twice retired from the U.S. Army Reserve, but was called back to work with the Iraq judiciary.He still hasn't retired. Rubini has served as a U.S. Administrative Law Judge for the last 15 years in the U.S. Social Security Administration in the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Rubini quoted Yogi Berra: "It ain't over 'til it's over!"

In Iraq, Rubini worked mostly out of Bagdad in and out of "The Green Zone" in an old Saddam Hussein palace, which he described as ½-mile long and ¼-mile wide.

Rubini was with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Members were "mentors" to the Iraqis, Rubini explained. He said the idea is that "they'll find their way to Rule of Law."

Rubini said it was strange to work in the actual rooms where Saddam Hussein decided when victims would be executed.

Not long after Hussein's horrific commands in the palace, Rubini and his colleagues worked. There were no living spaces inside and there were very small working accommodations. There were trailers out back to live in. Rubini was grateful for the trailers. The colonel had expected to sleep on the ground.

They worked seven days a week and they were 16-hour days.

Explaining his most recent years in the U.S. Army Reserve, Rubini said he was asked to go back. He had left because of a mandatory retirement date. While he was still retired, the invasion of Iraq happened in the Spring of 2003. He had followed the invasion "very closely."

Rubini worked for Ambassador L. Paul Premer. From September 2003 to February 2004, he was Senior Advisor to the Iraq Ministry of Justice.

He worked with the Iraq judiciary to establish Rule of Law and a justice system.

"Our object was never to impose the American system or culture on them," according to Rubini.

About 25 coalition lawyers (U.S. military and civilian) worked with him. They were from the U.K., Spain and South Korea. About 50 Iraqi lawyers also worked for him.

Rubini coordinated with the Armed Forces JAG and Civil Affairs lawyers throughout Iraq. "JAG" is an acronym for "Judge Advocate General Corps". The U.S. Army Civil Affairs branch was formerly the military government branch of the Army in World War II. Rubini had been a JAG officer and also served in the Civil Affairs branch.

Rubini was in Iraq when Hussein was captured. "When he was captured, they knew the Americans were serious and the Iraqi government was serious that he would not come back. He received a fair trial," he said.

"After [Hussein's] execution, people had more belief in their own government than when he was alive," he said.

Describing the Iraqi people, Rubini said, "They're very bright. They're very smart and cunning at the same time. You're not working in a Land of Oz. You're working in a brutal area - tribes against other tribes. 'He who controls resources, lives. He who does not, dies.' It's an uncompromising type of environment. Only the smart and cunning survive."

Rubini emphasized that there have been many successors since his work in Iraq. "The effort has been ongoing from the day of invasion to the present," he said.

Serving in Iraq was "the most challenging, seriously intense job a lawyer could ever have," Rubini said. "To be responsible for Iraq's judiciary was the most interesting and challenging work.

"It's a sensitive responsibility to grow a Rule of Law for people who have known dictatorial rule," Rubini said. "Iraq is a country of well educated, sophisticated middle class, wanting a better way of life."

Rubini had previously given legal assistance in the U.S. Army Reserve JAG and developed Law of War and Civil Affairs scenarios for joint command war-game exercises. He was legal advisor to Brigade Commanders.

His Civil Affairs duties were: Desert Storm (legal advisor to Gov/Ministry of Justice of Kuwait); Haiti (Operation Uphold Democracy 1994 to 1997); legal advisor to Gov/Ministry of Justice of Haiti; Central America, 1999; Operation New Horizons - Hurricane Mitch reconstruction; and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) - senior advisor to Gov/Ministry of Justice of Iraq on the Coalition Provisional Authority.

When he was young, Rubini had thought of a military career and went to a military college - Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI).

Rubini's early military career started with an "obligated" period of active duty. Rubini then entered the U.S. Army Reserve, which let him go on to a civilian career as a practicing lawyer which he did for 22 years.

His time in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Reserve spanned most of his life. He entered military college at 18 and was commissioned at age 22. He is now 62. He served in the Reserve for 32 years.

Rubini was in Civil Affairs from 1989 to his first retirement from the Reserve in 2000. Rubini said he "unretired" in 2003 and served in Iraq on the Coalition Provisional Authority from 2003 to 2004 and retired for a second time in 2004.

Rubini earned his bachelor's of arts degree in political science from VPI. He entered the VPI Corps of Cadets. He earned his juris doctor from Temple University Law School.

He lives in Newtown, with his wife, Joan, a registered nurse. They have two sons, one who is a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard.

By R. Kurt Osenlund, BucksLocalNews.com


"I would like to thank the United States Air Force for the opportunity to serve my country," George Funk Jr. says at the end of an interview at his Newtown home. The acknowledgment is an addendum to an hour-long string of fond, grin-inducing memories. "I was happy to do it."

Funk is somewhat of an anomaly among war vets - he doesn't divulge a single sad story or haunting detail. Instead, the easygoing 79-year-old recounts his four-year run in the Air Force during the time of the Korean War with a light heart and a peaceful mind.

"I felt obligated to serve," he admits, "and I always wanted to fly airplanes anyhow."

Before he was flying airplanes, Funk was attending Philadelphia's Northeast High School, not far from Kensington and Mayfair where he grew up. When he graduated in 1947, he went straight into the workforce, landing a job as a Bell Telephone lineman. Three years later, the Korean War broke out, and Funk enlisted in the Air Force. He was 21.

He reported to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, then to Sheppard Air Force Base in neighboring Wichita Falls for basic training. Funk spent approximately nine months at Sheppard, enough time to become an Air Force mechanic and a certified sharp shooter (a skill for which he received a medal but never enacted in combat). He moved on to Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois for advanced training before landing at Westover Air Force Base in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he became part of the 20th Military Air Transport Squadron.

"It was like a 'you call, we haul' type of service," Funk says. "We flew cargo, people and supplies wherever they needed to go."

Funk ended up working on a C-54 Sky-master, a variant of the Douglas DC-4 plane developed during WWII. According to Funk, the plane was part of a 12-aircraft squad, each of which "had problems that were (his) responsibility to fix." On one mission from Westover to a base in Thule, Greenland, Funk's mid-air repair skills impressed a squadron commander who was along for the ride, and when the soldiers returned, Funk was promoted to flight engineer.

He held his position for the next year and a half, serving as an indispensable helping hand on missions to Greenland, Iceland, Africa and parts of Europe (he remembers one trip in which he and his crew flew 48 F-100 pilots into Germany). Though he never set foot on Korean soil, Funk's contributions of maintaining "anything and everything mechanical on the airplane(s)" undoubtedly played an integral part in the conflict.

In late 1953, Funk was transferred to McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington just below Seattle. He joined the 43rd Air Rescue Squadron and participated in numerous air rescue missions all across the West Coast, a job he describes as "very interesting and exciting." McChord would be Funk's last stop in the service - he left the military in 1954.

"I was married, I had a child and the war was over or, settled, anyhow," Funk says. "I decided it was time to get out. It was best for my family."

Funk had been married through most of his time in the Air Force. He and his wife, Mildred (a "neighborhood girl" whom he met at church just after high school), wed on October 20, 1951 during a ten-day pass Funk had between his stints at Chanute and Westover. The brief window didn't allow any time for a honeymoon, but the couple was happy, and remain together to this day. They became the parents of a baby girl, Lynne, in 1952 and two more children, Kathy and George, shortly after Funk was discharged.

Upon returning home, Funk went back to Bell Telephone, until he eventually became the store manager of one of Mildred's father's supermarkets. Funk turned the job into a 30-year career and, in his spare time, he honed his flight skills as a private pilot, sharing the use of a small plane with a circle of thrill-seeking friends.

"Some people golf, I flew a plane," Funk says of his leisure activity.

In the mid-1990s, Funk served a two-year term as the Commander of Newtown's American Legion Post 440, with which he is still actively involved. He's looking forward to the post's upcoming parade on May 23, which will help to celebrate its 90th anniversary. He and Mildred, who often devote at least three days a week to activities within their church (St. John's Methodist in Richboro), just returned from a vacation in Florida. They also enjoy visiting Mildred's sister in Ocean City, New Jersey, and the Pocono home of their grandson and his family. Funk says he's also a fan of playing darts at the Northampton Township Senior Center.

"I'm busy all the time," he says, his voice calm and carefree.

Sergeant talks to family, students from Iraq over web cam

By Matthew Fleishman, BucksLocalNews.com

Despite being 5,000 miles away from home, defending the United States, Sgt. Michael Brown is able to spend quality time with his two children, along with teaching their classes at St. John the Evangelist Church about what it is like to serve in the military.Through the use of a web cam in the school's computer lab, Sgt. Brown speaks several times per week to his two children, Elizabeth and Matthew.

"I'm just lucky that St. John's has a really nice technology setup, and that the students are able to troubleshoot and fix any problems," said Brown over web cam from his base north of Baghdad. "We have a Q and A period so the students can learn what I'm doing over here, and I can learn about what they are doing back home."

For Elizabeth, who is in eighth grade, and Matthew, who is in sixth grade, this is an opportunity for them to stay connected with their father while he serves overseas. They are able to speak with him three or four times per week.

"It's fun for us because we are able to see him and that he's okay even though he's 5,000 miles away," said Matthew Brown.

For Elizabeth's and Matthew's classes, their father has taught them about the culture, weather and geography of Iraq, along with using a web cam.

"This is definitely a rare opportunity for the students to take what they are learning in school and then immediately apply it to a real-life situation," said Sister Joan Irene, principal at St. John the Evangelist. "Too many times, children don't see the relevance of what they are learning in school, and the value it has in the real world."

While this type of setup is not completely ideal, Sgt. Brown said it is far better for communication than the 11 years that he spent on a Navy submarine.

"This is significantly better," said Sgt. Brown. "I can talk to my family a few times each week. Back on the submarine, we couldn't even get snail mail. We went four to six months without communication."

Sgt. Brown first joined the U.S. Navy in 1981, and spent 11 years running a nuclear reactor to make power and steam for a submarine. During that time, he reached the rank of first class petty officer.

"A lot of the missions are still classified, but I can say that I did tours in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans during the Cold War," said Sgt. Brown.

While he works for CNA Insurance when at home, Sgt. Brown joined the Pennsylvania National Guard two years ago.

"It's a job that somebody has to do, and I'm always willing to volunteer," said Sgt. Brown.

Sgt. Brown has been in a Iraq since January, and in that time his troop has worked on building three schools and helped with water purification issues in the region.

"We are involved in a lot of rebuilding projects," said Sgt. Brown. "We do anything that has to do with making the country and the people safer for when we leave."

Because of Sgt. Brown's connection with the students at St. John's, children at Iraqi schools received 20 soccer balls. Matthew collected the soccer balls as part of a service project for his class.

"It means a great deal here," said Sgt. Brown. "A soccer ball to these kids is like an iPod to our kids. I honestly think that St. John's has been a big part of what we've been able to do here."

In addition to helping kids in Iraq, the students at St. John's filled more than 160 Christmas stockings with toiletries for the soldiers in Sgt. Brown's unit before they were deployed to Iraq.

Sgt. Brown said that members of the National Guard are rarely deployed for more than a year, so next Christmas, he might be able to empty his own stocking with Elizabeth and Matthew.