There’s a spot in Colonial Williamsburg only for veterans to go to. However they don’t all find out about it. – Each day Press

WILLIAMSBURG — Nestled behind a store off Duke of Gloucester Road is a small however distinct crimson constructing labeled Liberty Lounge, a spot the place lively responsibility army and veterans can take a break throughout their go to to Colonial Williamsburg.

Opened throughout Memorial Day weekend in 2016, the lounge has since amassed scores of army associated and struggle tales collected by volunteers, lots of them army personnel themselves.

“Colonial Williamsburg is a residing historical past museum, however it is a venue for veterans and their households to chill, chill out and meet different army people,” mentioned John Wailes, one in every of about 60 volunteers who lend their time to staffing the Lounge every day.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the constructing was closed from March 12, 2020, till April 1, 2022. The lounge, nonetheless, has welcomed 233,585 visitors via April 30, based on Joe Garcia, a supervisor for The Colonial Williamsburg Basis’s division of historic interpretation.

Veterans are available to make use of the lounge to get a drink, use the restroom or to easily meet up with one another. As they arrive in, they typically interact with a volunteer or one other visiting veteran. Then the tales start to unfold.

“I used to be in a tank battalion throughout World Battle II. It was referred to as the ‘Black Panthers’ and we had been a part of [Gen. George] Patton’s military.”

That’s what Grasp Sgt. Thomas Mangrum, a WWII and Korean Battle vet, as soon as instructed Invoice Pearson, a retired colonel and 30-year Air Drive veteran (1968-1998). Pearson, who has volunteered on the lounge because it opened, recollects many tales from Mangrum, whose neighbor had urged him to come back by.

“After I first noticed him, he wore a cap with ‘World Battle II Veteran’ on it and I knew he was particular,” Pearson mentioned. “Sooner or later [he] got here in and sat down beside the espresso machine and we requested him about his army life and profession. He began speaking and talked and talked. He was 90-some years previous on the time. We wished to seize his tales.”

Mangrum, who has since handed away, got here again quite a few occasions over just a few years. “He would sit and discuss and younger youngsters would sit on his lap and he would inform his tales,” Pearson mentioned. “What an awesome man!”

The WWII vet’s story is one in every of many recalled lately by a bunch of volunteers, who’ve put collectively a scrapbook with pictures and narratives of the veterans. Their efforts are designed to avoid wasting veterans’ tales and let the group know why it issues.

“One in every of my largest causes for desirous to get these veterans’ tales out is that we’re sitting right here on the Peninsula with many army installations and a variety of retirees residing right here,” Wailes mentioned. “However they don’t know concerning the Liberty Lounge, a lot much less have ever visited.”

Many veterans or lively responsibility army haven’t recognized the lounge existed till they occurred upon it, mentioned Wailes, an Army veteran and 1967 draftee. However the extra folks find out about it, “the extra tales will stream,” Wailes mentioned. “Veterans typically come right here and discover one another — from the identical unit or the identical hometown.”

Steve Tallon, who served within the Connecticut Army Nationwide Guard from 1965 to 1971 and volunteers on the lounge along with his spouse Claudette, remembered one shifting story that’s considerably private.

Bob Serio was a highschool pal of Tallon’s and sophistication valedictorian who went to West Level, graduating in 1964. Serio was despatched to Vietnam and finally was killed there in 1968, “falling on a hand grenade and saving his close by troops,” Tallon defined.

“Simply earlier than the pandemic, a person got here in and we talked, and he mentioned he went to West Level and graduated in 1964. I requested him if he knew Bob Serio and he defined he knew him effectively and we began speaking about Bob.”

Tallon emphasised, “in the event you discuss to sufficient folks there are those that you both know or who is aware of somebody you realize. It’s simply an incredible place for bringing folks collectively.”

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When the lounge opened in 2016 with the encouragement of Elizabeth Reiss, spouse of then-Colonial Williamsburg President Mitchell Reiss, she described the lounge as “simply someplace [military folk] can come and take a break, maybe get out of the warmth.” Offering for the army, Reiss mentioned again then, was an previous Colonial Williamsburg custom.

On a latest Wednesday afternoon, army veteran William Chappi and his household from Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania, had completed simply that. They took a break, stopping by the lounge after seeing an indication on the road pointing the way in which behind the Millinery Store.

“That is simply nice,” Chappi mentioned. “I’m amazed on the approach Colonial Williamsburg treats veterans. I’ve discovered a lot concerning the army reductions and what’s accessible for veterans in Virginia.”

Contained in the lounge are two small rooms. The again room has a espresso machine, water fountain and a handicapped-accessible restroom, whereas the entrance room has tables and chairs. Within the entrance room, the partitions are filled with army images related to Colonial Williamsburg, such because the 1946 go to of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and pictures concerning the metropolis’s two World Battle II USO golf equipment.

There are also 4 framed collections of problem cash — uniquely designed cash that signify army items, bases or places. The lounge even has a problem coin of its personal; incessantly veterans are available with their very own cash and wish to add it to the gathering or alternate it for a Colonial Williamsburg-Liberty Lounge coin.

“A member of the family got here in two weeks in the past,” recalled Joni Stevens, a lounge volunteer who labored for 23 years within the White Home Navy Workplace. “His sister had died and was a recipient of a Persian Gulf medal. He wished her medal to be encased with our problem cash.”

Among the many different treasures is a lighter from the NCO membership in Da Nang.

One in every of Stevens’ favourite tales includes retired Lt. Gen. Richard G. Trefry, who was 95 years previous when he visited the lounge on Christmas Day 2019. After arriving, Trefry was requested what he wished to do. His reply: “Discuss to troopers.” That afternoon he sat and shared tales from his days on lively responsibility throughout World Battle II, Korea and Vietnam.

Trefry will likely be 98 this August eighth, and Stevens expects to see him return and discuss once more with troopers on the lounge.

One more story includes a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, an older man who was visiting along with his spouse. Inside a couple of minutes, a disabled Marine vet arrived with a cane, two listening to aids and really thick glasses. Then, an lively responsibility Marine arrived along with his spouse.

Stevens mentioned she instructed the youthful couple concerning the different Marine {couples} within the again room.

All three {couples} started to speak and the 2 older Marines discovered that they had been assigned to battalions in Da Nang on the similar time in March 1965. When the older disabled Marine left, he mentioned good bye “with tears in his eyes and mentioned he had simply had the most effective day in a really very long time,” Stevens mentioned.

When the younger Marine couple left, she added, they mentioned that they had “discovered a variety of Marine Corps historical past first hand by listening to the older males.”

Among the many different tales within the volunteers’ scrapbook is that of World Battle II veteran Richard “Dick” Clark, a Navy gunner’s mate who was close to Bikini Atoll in mid-1946 when he witnessed Check Baker, the primary underwater nuclear detonation, three miles away.

There’s additionally the story of submarine diesel mechanic, John Donnelly, who served within the Navy in the course of the Korean Battle and had been a congressional web page assigned to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Whenever you shook palms with him, he at all times reminded that “you simply shook the hand that shook the palms of each President Roosevelt and Vice President Harry Truman.”

Sherry Macdonald, a Williamsburg native and lounge volunteer whose husband was a 30-year naval aviation veteran, remembers the day a girl introduced her husband, who clearly had dementia, into the lounge.

“There have been different veterans there and he started to alternate with them and we watched him unfold,” Macdonald recalled. “The dementia appeared to fade. I stayed approach again and so did his spouse. She didn’t need to prod him. He simply got here alive.”

The Liberty Lounge is on the primary ground of the Margaret Hunter Workshop, the crimson constructing situated behind the Millinery on Duke of Gloucester Road. The lounge is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to five:00 p.m. Friends want a blue star sticker on their admission ticket, which might be obtained at any Colonial Williamsburg ticket location with proof of army service.

For extra info, go to colonialwilliamsburg.org/places/liberty-lounge.

Wilford Kale, kalehouse@aol.com