Bristolian and Purple Heart recipient loved to dance.

By Tim Chicirda, BucksLocalNews.com


Dominic Marino is more affectionately known as “Brownie,” but is also known as a military hero with a Purple Heart, a long-time husband, a dedicated man in the community, and one heck of a dancer.

Staff sergeant Dominic “Brownie” Marino was drafted into the army when he was 21 and was sent for 16 weeks basic training to Camp Livingston in Louisiana.

Home to the 28th Infantry Division, it was first known as Camp Tioga and renamed Camp Livingston in honor of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase.
Brownie's next assignment was in Camp Gordon Johnston. Acres of beaches and woods along the shores of North Florida were converted to a base with the sole purpose of training amphibious soldiers and their support groups.

This Florida facility trained over a quarter million men for amphibious assaults during World War II, readying them to embark upon the Great Crusade.

The next stop for Brownie was Camp Pickett located in Blackstone, Va., about 30 miles west of Petersburg where there was enough land, water and other resources needed to establish a post large enough to simultaneously train more than one infantry division. This site of logistical efficiency also offered easy railroad access to both mountain and coastal training sites.

Brownie then left the U.S. for England and then Tenby, Wales, and most likely received one of history’s most discouraging pep talks, “Good bye and good luck.”

His responsibility was to create the correct setting of the elevation, traverse and charge to position guns and establish an outpost line of resistance to cover an entire mile or more radius area with 60-mm mortar and machine guns. The results of a single, well-executed barrage could be decisive, and equally appalling.

After the D-Day invasion, he ventured through France from July 19 until November 10 in 1944 when he was seriously injured in action by a sniper shot in the shoulder that traversed straight through his back. Battle in the dense impenetrable conifer Hürtgen Forest, barely 50 square miles east of the Belgian–German border was so costly that it has been called an Allied "defeat of the first magnitude." He was transferred from the front lines to a school house in Belgium where he was operated on and remained in a hospital in Paris for 2 weeks. He was awarded the Purple Heart.

***
Brownie, the youngest of five children, grew up on Butler Street in Trenton’s famed Chambersburg neighborhood also known as “The ‘Burg.”

Brownie played baseball and football in school and as a kid, he played hardball and pitched quoits, using real horseshoes “the ones you put on a horse; metal, steel.”

Dominic was married to his wife, Yolanda, for 63 years from 1945 until her death in 2008. The couple was married in St. Ann Church and lived on Wood Street in the Zefferi home before moving to Winder Village. They moved back into the Borough, purchasing a home on Wood Street about 30 years ago.

They had three children: Bristol Borough resident Dominic John Marino (Brownie, Jr.), Levittown resident Maryann, and Jennett.

***
Brownie worked in the Fort Dix Army Camp carpentry shop for 26 years expertly woodworking for the GIs and their wives. He has designed handcrafted furniture in his small basement workshop for almost every family member.

He also was an integral part of the construction crew for the Italian Mutual Aid-Fifth Ward Association building on Wood Street.

***
Despite this busy life, Brownie, along with his late wife, had a true passion for dancing.
Brownie and Yolanda belonged to the Bordentown Elks and went dancing there. It was the Paso Doble Ballroom every Friday night for the foxtrot, jitterbug, Lindy Hop, and the Cha Cha, an offshoot of the Mambo.

Brownie danced even through his service tenure. His favorite music is any music during the swing era, Big Bands and all the Sinatra songs,

“You can dance to it," said Brownie. "I don’t know the words. I didn’t think about words!”

***
Correspondent Cate Murway contributed to this article.

Patrolling the Mediterranean aboard the USS Lowery.

By Jeff Werner, BucksLocalNews.com


Veteran James J. Anderson is about as patriotic as they come. He loves his country. He’s proud of his flag. He chokes up when he talks about freedom.

And when a lot of guys were fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, he was looking for a way into the combat zone.

The Philadelphia native volunteered for service in Vietnam not once, but numerous times. Each time, though, the answer from the U.S. Navy came back “no.” It was a huge disappointment for Anderson, who was eager to see combat at the young age of 17 back in 1963.

“I was a hawk and you can’t be a hawk if you’re not willing to go,” he said. “But I also felt I owed something to this country. I’m a flag-waver. I always was. I felt like I owed it to the guys who went before me.

“To me, it was unbelievable that they had the draft; that they had to grab somebody to serve their country. I grew up with all the war comic books, all the war movies. My father was in the war and my grandfather was in the war before that. I had a great-great-grandfather in the Civil War.”

His father, James J. Anderson, served on the light cruiser Phoenix in the South Pacific. His grandfather, Frank McAdams, was in the Army Air Service in France during World War I. And his great-great-grandfather, Michael Denig, served with the 3rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary in the biggest battles of the Civil War, including Antietam and Gettysburg.

“I wanted to be like my father. He was in the Navy and I wanted to be in the Navy. He was on a cruiser during World War II. I wanted to do what he did,” he said.

Born on Sept. 9, 1946, Anderson grew up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. He spent his early childhood attending St. Veronica’s Grade School in Tioga and Cardinal Dougherty High School, graduating in June 1964.

He joined the service and started his senior year of high school on his 17th birthday in 1963. He would have joined earlier, but his father insisted that he first finish high school.

“During the Cuban Missile Crisis, when I went in to enlist, they said my father would have to sign. So I went home and I said to my father, ‘I’m joining the Navy.’ He laughed at me and said, ‘When you’re out of high school.’ So I said to him, ‘When I hit 17 I want you to sign my papers.’”
He was true to his word. When he turned 17, he returned to the recruiting office with signed papers from his father and volunteered his service.

He spent his senior year of high school serving in the reserves, going to sea one weekend a month learning how to be a sailor. He served aboard the destroyer escort, Joseph Douglas Blackwood.

He officially joined the service following graduation from high school and requested assignment in the South Pacific where his father had served. “If it was good enough for my father, it was good enough for me. There was also action going on there.”

He never saw the South Pacific as a serviceman and he never made it to Vietnam despite his numerous attempts.

In Oct. 1964, he was assigned to the 177-man crew of the U.S. destroyer Lowrey. He spent several years aboard her in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coasts of France, Turkey, North Africa, Spain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon.

His served as a deck aid before being named personnel man. He was the guy who kept the ship’s records, including transfer orders and discharges.

He also worked as a powderman and projectileman for the gun mount. “We fired every other day while we were at sea,” said Anderson. “We always had to be ready. And when we weren’t firing, we were replenishing ammunition.”

The destroyer’s mission was to provide protection and support for American carriers and cruisers.

“We were a killing machine from bow to stern,” said Anderson. “We had 5-inch ammunition. We had hedge hogs. We had torpedoes, aviation fuel and two Destroyer Anti-Submarine Helos (DASH). If anyone went after one of our carriers or cruisers it was our job to intercept the torpedo. We were there showing the flag and keeping the peace,” he said.

While Anderson never saw combat aboard the destroyer, there were a few harrowing moments.
“We were refueling off an oiler and the seas were real choppy. A seaman from the oiler fell overboard. Our swimmer went over to get him with a line tied around him. He brought him along side the ship. The ship went up in the air, the line parted and they both went under the ship. They got the kid but our guy didn’t make it. He was a nice guy. It’s always the nice guys.”
Ironically, while Anderson never made it to Vietnam, his ship did. Three years after he left the destroyer, it was sent into the war zone.

He completed his service in 1969 and took advantage of the GI Bill, earning a degree in industrial relations from La Salle University. He fell in love and married his sweetheart, Maureen. The couple raised three children, Jim, Karen and Kate.

He worked at various companies through the years before finding a job as an industrial engineering supervisor for SPD Technologies.

He worked for the Philadelphia manufacturing company for 26 years before being forced to retire at the age of 61.

“Early retirement worked out well for me because my daughter had triplets,” said the proud Middletown Township grandfather. He’s now enjoying retirement with Madison, Abigail and Colten, and spending time with his wife of 39 years.

He also devotes time to the Morrell Smith Post No. 440 of the American Legion in Newtown where he serves as adjutant.

“These guys are all salt of the earth. You can find fault with none of them. Yeah, sometimes they’re a pain. But they’re good men with good hearts who did so much for our country,” he said.
To his fellow veterans and to his family, he’s known for his patriotism and his deep and abiding love this country.

“The American flag is everything,” he said. “It’s the Alamo, Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg. It’s all those who went before to preserve freedom. You’ve got to feel it here,” he says, placing his hand over his heart.

Army veteran recalls his time in The Battle of the Bulge

Council Rock grad found growth, fulfillment in Air Force.

By R. Kurt Osenlund, BucksLocalNews.com


Like most young men, Mike Gavaghan took part in his share of teenage mischief and rebellion. In addition to providing him with employment, excitement and a long-term career path, Gavaghan credits the U.S. Air Force for instilling in him some necessary post-high school maturity.

“I wasn't too far off-course,” says the 27-year-old Council Rock North graduate, “but (the Air Force) definitely straightened me out, for sure. It taught me discipline and respect.”

Born in Northeast Philadelphia and raised in Holland, Gavaghan says his interest in planes stretches back to his childhood, when he used to attend air shows with his father. He had that interest in mind when he graduated high school in 2001 and, knowing college wasn't for him, enlisted in the Air Force.

“I wanted to travel and serve my country,” Gavaghan says. “I didn't want to be in the infantry, I wanted to get more involved in maintenance – that's what really appealed to me. So I signed up to be a maintainer.”

Gavaghan's first stop was Lakeland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he stayed for seven weeks of boot camp. Regarding the famously rigorous breaking-in period, Gavaghan says the physical demands were easier than he expected, but the emotional toll was “10 times” more difficult.

“It's really your first time leaving everyone you know,” Gavaghan says. “That was the hardest part: they really break you down, and you have no one to turn to. You're alone.”

Gavaghan says such a feeling is common among first time soldiers – a universal experience that creates a camaraderie among peers and provides them with people to turn to after all.

In November 2001, Gavaghan headed to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, for a year of daily aircraft maintenance training. According to him, he went from knowing virtually nothing about airplanes to being able to “tear an airplane apart and pretty much know how to put it back together.” He later headed to a base in Tucson, Ariz., where he underwent more specialized training, learning the ins and outs of a machine he'd come to know quite well: the A-10 Thunderbolt II – or “Warthog” – jet aircraft.

He says he was responsible for the upkeep of 25 of these single-seat, twin-engine, close air support planes while stationed in Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, where he remained for two years. It was during that time when Gavaghan received orders to deploy to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, a mission that filled him not with fear, but with excitement.

“I was extremely excited to be part of a unit that was going to deploy,” Gavaghan says. “I had an opportunity to really serve my country and I was ready to get out there. I was a little nervous – it's hard to go to the desert and not be nervous – but the fact that we were actually going to be doing our job was fun. It was like practicing a sport and finally being able to play.”

In fact, Gavaghan was so pleased with his new gig that after his first three-month rotation at Bagram ended, he volunteered for another. On maintaining planes used to provide cover and air support for soldiers stationed in particularly dangerous areas, Gavaghan says, “It was fulfilling. Working on the planes and knowing that they were flying combat missions, protecting the Army and stopping terrorism – because of us – was very satisfying.”

The most exhilarating part of the job, Gavaghan says, was when an order to “Scramble! Scramble! Scramble!” would come over the radio, and he and his fellow maintainers would need to ready a plane for takeoff – a process that can normally take up to an hour.

“Five minutes and that plane would be up in the air,” Gavaghan says, proudly.

In June 2004, Gavaghan relocated to Florida's Eglin Air Force Base, where he remains stationed to this day after reenlisting twice. He says Eglin has been “a boring base and an extremely exciting base at the same time.” Boring, he says, because he only has two planes to take care of (and because anywhere must seem tame compared to Afghanistan), and exciting because his mission became the testing of new bombs and missiles.

When new weapons are developed, Gavaghan and company ensure that they're compatible with the aircraft, and that they're firing and detonating properly. Once approved, the weapons are then shipped overseas. Gavaghan says the job creates a strong sense of urgency and an even stronger sense of pride, which also accounts for why he's chosen to remain in the military well after his initial tour of duty, and why he plans to continue to do so well into the future.

“A lot of people think I'm crazy,” says Gavaghan, who now holds the rank of staff sergeant. “People say, 'Why stay in the military?' while other people see it as an easy way out. But any military member will tell you how satisfying it is – the honor in it. Some people might not understand it, but I love what I'm doing. I'm protecting our troops, I'm protecting America, I'm making my dad proud.”

Gavaghan shares a house with a fellow soldier in Fort Walton Beach, a tourist town not far from the Eglin base. He says the area is nice and the scenery is gorgeous. Since new weapons aren't released every day, an average day of work for Gavaghan typically involves “keeping his skills sharp,” helping pilots with simulations and, of course, maintaining the planes.

Gavaghan says, “We keep the planes in top shape so they can continue flying.” Ironically enough, one might say the Air Force has done the very same for him.

Former college baseball player saw action in Africa and Iraq.

Vet and long-time policeman is now Bristol’s Mayor.

By Tim Chicirda, BucksLocalNews.com


Robert A. Lebo, a graduate of Woodrow Wilson in 1966, has served Bristol Borough's community for years, living a patchwork of various experiences and careers.

Among these experiences were life as a Bristol Borough police officer spanning four decades, a D.A.R.E. officer for 10 years, a soldier for the United States Military, and most recently, the Mayor-elect of Bristol Borough.

A football lineman, cross country runner and track sprinter, Bob was also a member of the drama club. He performed in “South Pacific” as a “Navy guy” and also stage crew.

“I wasn’t a singer, so never had the lead role,” said Bob.

Three years after high school graduation, Bob was drafted into the Army, serving in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.

As supply Sergeant E-5 (Buck sergeant), he kept the troops supplied with C-rations, ammunition, water and mail, among other things.

Bob earned the Good Conduct medal for his years of service and achievements during his “expedition” into Southeast Asia in the 199th Infantry Brigade, a major combat unit of the U.S. Army serving in the Vietnam War.

His shoulder sleeve insignia was a blue shield that featured a white spear in flames. The red ball in the middle of the patch represented the splitting of the atom and was meant to be indicative of how Infantry fought alongside the sophisticated weaponry of the nuclear age.

Bob still recalls the hours of boredom in the sun, mud and rain, punctuated with moments of sheer terror, physical and mental stress. He got out of the Army after his service obligation and proceeded to get on with his life.

Upon returning from the service, Bob was hired in April 1974 as police patrolmen and was promoted to Corporal in 1997, still maintaining his beat from Mill Street to Mulberry Street.

He was honored with the “VFW Policeman of the Year” in 1977 for saving six people from the Hayes street house fire, the Elks “Distinguished Citizen Award” and a letter of commendation from PA Governor Milton J. Schapp, among other recognitions.

In 1998, he began an additional career as D.A.R.E. officer for St. Mark, St. Ann and Warren P. Snyder- John Girotti Elementary Schools and in 1999, he earned his certification as a middle school officer.

“I always wanted to teach the youth the consequences of doing drugs and alcohol. There wasn’t a day that I went, that I didn’t love it,” said Bob, who had been the longest running D.A.R.E. officer in the Borough.

Sergeant Lebo retired from the Bristol Borough Police Department in Febuary of 2007 after 33 years of service.

Retired, Bob continued to drive the bus for the Borough school district, which he had been doing since 1988.

Then Lebo moved to the world of politics.

In what some deemed a surprise upset in an otherwise uneventful May primary election, Lebo defeated incumbent Mayor Joe Saxton, who was battling for another four-year term.

Lebo edged Saxton 1150-1084, though they each carried five of the 10 borough voting districts.
These results did not mean that Lebo was necessarily the next Mayor of Bristol Borough at that time, but with his name on the Democratic ticket in a highly-Democratic town, it was very probable and in fact, Lebo was elected Mayor in the general election months later.

Lebo won the mayoral race by a landslide, garnering 92.7 percent of the vote. He took 1,729 votes to Independent David J. Armitage Sr.’s 136.

“I will try to lead Bristol to a brighter future and manage the town and its services to the best of my abilities. I will try continuing progressing the vision of Bristol of being a thriving waterfront town,” said the new Mayor-elect Lebo. “I will also try to bring harmony back to Bristol. I love Bristol because it is a great town with great people.”

And nobody can argue with that statement, as history has shown one thing consistently: Bob Lebo has always been dedicated to Bristol Borough.

And, on top of this, he has been dedicated to his country, and that is why we salute Bob Lebo.

*****
Cate Murway contributed to this article.

Veterans of D-Day, Vietnam and the Gulf War.

By Jeff Werner, BucksLocalNews.com


Dan Lawler dreamed of traveling to Europe and becoming a portrait artist. But history had other plans for the 26-year-old from St. Paul, Minn., who now lives at Chandler Hall, Newtown.

In 1942, while studying under famed portrait artist Paul Trebilcock, Lawler was drafted into the army and began training as an infantryman, even as Hitler and his Nazi Party were on the march through Europe.

While completing his basic training at Camp Barclay in Texas, the graduate of the Minneapolis School of Art put his artistic talent to work, creating a mural inside one of the camp’s several battalion chapels. A photograph of his art and a short story appeared in the camp’s newspaper.

From Camp Barclay, he was sent to Louisiana to study military maneuvers. While there, he received a two month furlough to return home to St. Paul, where he married his high school sweetheart, Jeanne.

In April 1944, he boarded a troop ship in New York bound for Europe. Two months later, on D-Day (June 6, 1944), he joined 160,000 men as part of the largest invasion force the world had ever seen.

With shells exploding everywhere and bullets whizzing past their heads, Lawler and his outfit stormed the shores at Utah Beach, the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between Pouppeville and the village of La Madeleine.

Lawler and his commanding officer were in one of the boats which landed about 100 yards out. “When we got out, the Major went down in the water over his head. He was only about five feet tall. So I held him up all the way in,” said Lawler.

The beach, he said, was covered in artillery and machine gun fire. “A few didn’t make it,” he said.
After the landing, Lawler was sent ahead as part of a reconnaissance team tasked with making sure the road up ahead was safe for the troops as the Americans pushed toward Paris.

“It was scary,” he said. “We’d come down the roads with hedges on both sides and they’d be hiding behind them.”

On Aug. 17, while patrolling on a road near Alencon, he was hit by machine-gun fire and taken prisoner by the Germans.

According to a newspaper account, “Lawler and nine others were captured when the rear German guard, perched on a hill above the Americans, began spraying them with machine-gun fire. One bullet caught Lawler in the leg, shattering his femur; others downed three more of the men. Before the entire platoon could escape, Germans closed in on the remainder from the woods lining both sides of the road, outnumbered and captured them.”

He spent the next several months as a prisoner of the Germans and with an untreated, broken leg that had him in constant pain. “They treated us okay – no abuse or anything,” he said of his captors. “Of course, they were losing at the time.”

He won his freedom when the allied troops marched into Belgium and liberated the town and hospital where he was a patient. “They (the Germans) just left us,” said Lawler. “They were busy trying to save their own hides.”

After the liberation, he and other patients were showered with flowers and kisses by grateful residents. One Belgian asked Lawler as he prepared to leave for England, “Why go away from us? Here you are king. There you will just be a patient.”

He was evacuated to England by way of France, where his leg was set in a Paris hospital. He returned to the States in Dec. of 1944 where he was admitted to Winter General Hospital.

“As bad as the war was, he was lucky to have gotten out when he did,” said his son, Tom, who lives in Newtown. “His 90th Division went on to fight through Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge. There were many, many more opportunities to be in harm’s way.”

Tom said as a kid growing up in New York City and then Long Island, he remembers his father showing his battle scar, but never really understanding the role he played in the war.

“We knew he had been involved in the war, but my parents never talked about it,” said Tom. “He, like many others in the Greatest Generation, did his duty and then went on with his life,” said Tom.

Looking back, the elder Lawler said he doesn’t often think about that time of his life, but he’s glad he was part of the invasion “because it was absolutely necessary to get the Germans out. You wouldn’t want someone like Hitler taking care of you.”

“It’s pretty cool that he was a tremendous part of history,” said Tom. “We respect the fact that they were this generation that had to do what they did but did it with such grace and not really asking for anything in return. It was just something they needed to do.”

Tom followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the U.S. Air Force as a pilot and becoming a veteran in his own right, flying a C-141 into Da Nang, Saigon and Thailand during the Vietnam War and missions to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War in 1990-91.

“The big difference was my service was voluntary. I went in because I needed to learn to fly,” said Tom. “Guys like my father, as patriotic as they were, had no choice in the matter. They did it with the best of intentions, but none of them really wanted to be there.

“For me it was a means to an end and it was a good life for me,” said Tom. “I wanted to learn to fly and about the only way to do that was to go into the military.”

He attended Officer Training School in 1970 and pilot training from 1970 to 1971 before learning to fly the C-141. He began active duty at McGuire Air Force Base, earning the title of 1st Lieutenant at age 23.

He remained at MaGuire for 20 years, working as a pilot and flying C-141s all over the world. He retired as a Lt. Colonel from active duty in 1976 and the reserves in 1992. He now works as a commercial airline pilot for Delta.

Following the war, Dan and his wife, Jeanne, settled in New York City and Long Island, N.Y., and raised four children.

While he never realized his dream of becoming a portrait artist, he did put his artistic talents to use as an illustrator for Parents magazine in New York City. He also did covers for Humpty Dumpty magazine and completed numerous projects for Time magazine and Reader’s Digest.