A presidential visit is big news anywhere in America, but in a city so small that Friday night football games are still the weekly happening and politicians gather under the Tree of Knowledge, hearing "Hail to the Chief" at a presidential visit is the chance of a lifetime. ...more

October 25, 2009

Fathers and mothers, newspaper editors and selective service boards worried about children and the impending war. On Dec. 21, 1941, the editorial page of the Tampa Sunday Tribune addressed several issues: "Supreme War Council," "Red Cross Needs Money" and "A Letter From Santa Claus." ...more

December 21, 2008

SEBRING — WAVES, says Betsy Waddell, is a World War II acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. Waddell is a former chief petty officer, so she wasn't a volunteer. At her last assignment, she ran the military hospital billing department for the spouses of sailors. And that is what WAVES prefer to be called these days, says Waddell. Women serve in nearly every job the Navy offers, including ships. ...more

May 30, 2008

AVON PARK — The new Veteran's Service Center will be built this year. So what's next? The Sebring Community Based Outreach Clinic is too small, and veterans have to drive more than 100 miles to see specialists or have an operation performed, a group of former soldiers and sailors told U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney on Thursday in a summit at the Avon Park High School library. ...more

February 22, 2008

Kipling memorialized the ability of a society to forget about its soldiers once the time of crisis had passed in his poem called "Tommy Atkins." Our country has on occasion shown a similar disregard for the welfare of our veterans as when President Hoover ordered Gen. McArthur to use force to drive a political protest of war veterans out of Washington, D.C. McArthur obliged by driving the marchers out of D.C. with fixed bayonets and ordered the burning of their encampment. Since then we have generally done better for our veterans, a farsighted G.I. Bill after World War II providing educational benefits, which well served the veterans and the nation for a generation. I personally will be forever grateful for the education I received under P.L. 550 at the end of the Korean War, without which I could never have attended college. ...more

October 12, 2007

Former Plant City mayor and city Commissioner John Dicks, in announcing a bid for Congress this week, said he believes the public wants a change in leadership and he can make a difference. ...more

October 6, 2007