Taking Care Of Soldiers

Like millions of young men in the 1960s, Joe Dionne registered for the draft. And when he realized his number would be called, he joined the Army, hoping to be assigned to a job he wanted.

"February, 1969," Dionne recited the date, one every young soldier remembers. "That's when I went in the Army. I wanted to be an office worker, instead of running through the woods."

Rushing through the jungles was a particularly dangerous vocation in the Vietnam Era. The war wouldn't wind down until 1975. By then, Dionne was well on his way through a three-decade career, and to securing the top job in the Army for an enlisted man: command sergeant major.

Locals will recognize Dionne in his current job as the Highlands County veterans service director. Way back in 1959, Dionne's father and mother moved here when Edward went south to hang out his own accountant's shingle. His mother, Pauline, worked in the office.

While crossing the North Atlantic in World War II, Edward Dionne's troop ship was sunk in 26-degree weather. Severely frostbitten, he developed lifelong problems with cold weather, so he traded his government accounting job in Washington, D.C. - where Joe was born - for Lake Placid.

Dionne graduated high school there, and was in the charter class of South Florida Junior College, when it was occupying downtown Avon Park buildings.

"Our student lounge was the old Touchton Drug Store," Dionne said. Seventy-five or 80 students attended classes in the second floor of the Brickell Building. Their gymnasium was the National Guard Armory, which was then downtown.

After earning an associate's degree in business administration and a bachelor's in management from Florida Southern, he enlisted.

Pvt. Dionne graduated boot camp, went to clerk school, and showed enough promise to earn one of the best jobs in the Army: clerk to Major Gladys Masterpool, who ran the separation branch at the Pentagon for departing officers.

"I could type better," Dionne smiled Thursday. Which was lucky, because in his clerk school of 25, eventually 22 classmates were sent to Vietnam.

Even luckier, after two years, he drew another assignment, and again, it was one of the best jobs in the Army: courier.

"I went to 74 countries," Dionne said. It turned out he had two additional talents: he could learn foreign languages, and he could get things done. The latter is how a soldier earns higher rank. Dionne became a corporal, then a sergeant.

In 1978, while stationed at Fort Knox, Dionne met his wife, Jeri, who had also joined the Army to see the world. Instead, she had been to only two American states, so as an Army couple, they began globetrotting.

Two decades after he joined, Dionne had made it to the top: sergeant major. In his last assignment, he was in charge of enlisted personnel for Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho. Reservists had to deploy all their equipment to Hawaii, set up, and get ready to fight. Then break it down, pack it, and get back to their home base. Again, again and again.

How the Dionnes got back to Lake Placid is another story. It started with his retirement.

"I told my wife, 'You have followed me for 20 years. Now I'll follow you.'" Jeri picked a house in her home town, Belle Fontaine, Ohio. After five years, Dionne also got tired of the cold weather, and he got a call about the veterans service job.

Now, he's back to doing what sergeant majors always do.

"Take care of the troops," Dionne said. These troops have more wrinkles and gray hair, but Dionne passionately believes that they must be cared for, in repayment for the service they've given. He helps vets and their widows obtain educational, medical, psychological and burial benefits.

As for further retirement plans, Dionne isn't interested.

"What would I do? Play golf?" He's a mid-90s golfer, and has no other passions, except walking, reading military history books, and spending time with Jeri.

Instead, he's found the money, through a congressional grant, to build a new 80 by 40-foot building on George Boulevard, behind the current veterans service office.

"I've taken care of the troops, it seems like, forever," said Dionne, reflectively.