FINDING FORTUNE
Coronavirus brings a different kind of Veterans Day for longtime Tribune columnist
Veterans Day isn’t just an important holiday to 89-year- old Jack Salter because of the time he served as a radar operator flying in the Air Force during the Korean War.
It’s also the birthday of the often-proclaimed love of his life, 87-year- old Patti Salter.
Together, the pair have weathered out the coronavirus pandemic from the American House Village senior living community in Rochester Hills. It hasn’t always been easy. The couple of 58 years don’t get to go out as much as they used to. Normally, they spend Nov. 11 celebrating out to dinner or with their four adopted children and nine grandchildren.
This year however they’ll be honored at a luncheon held annually by the senior living facility. And that, along which much else that’s occurred since March, is okay for Jack Salter.
As a man who became familiar with the fragility of life during his time at war, he’s happy so long as he has Patti and his family.
“I knew on our second
“A lot of young people just don’t understand what went on. I gave four years of my life, my brothers all served and because of them, my country is free. In my small way, I tried to keep our country that way.”
— Jack Salter
date that I was going to ask her to marry me,” he said. “I asked her out in December of 1961 and in January, I proposed. She’s the love of my life, the nicest person in the world. We’re hardly ever apart. Between the two of us, we’ve lost 16 siblings to old age. We’re the only ones we have left — And I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have her, believe me, I am.”
He counts himself lucky for other reasons too, like surviving a major typhoon while flying in the Air Force Air Rescue Division near the islands of Japan. Salter enlisted at the age of 19, before he could be drafted he said, and served until the spring of 1954 at the end of the Korean War. He was based in the Philippines and trained as a radar operator, helping pilots navigate around enemy aircraft or locate those who had been shot down into the sea.
“If we found someone in the water it was our job to go out and help them. Sometimes we would land if we had a seaplane, sometimes we would hover over and drop something to get them up,” he said. “Being a radar operator was a lot, we had to look for enemy planes, all kinds of differ
ent things. I was just a kid, 19 years old, flying B-17s and B- 49s.”
He was a first year student at Pasadena City College in California when the war began.
“I always wanted to fly, so I made sure I tested high enough so I could join the air force. My mom was kind of upset at me for wanting to join, she had three other sons who served in the second World War. All of my brothers did survive, but I was the youngest, and it was only
a few years after that war.”
The Korean War is often referred to as “the Forgotten War” because of its proximity to World War II, which ended in 1945 and the Vietnam War, which began in 1955. Salter refers to himself as part of the “forgotten generation,” but also said he believes more attention has been given to the Korean War in the past 15 to 20 years.
“A lot of young people just don’t understand what went on. I gave four years of my life, my brothers all served
and because of them, my country is free. In my small way, I tried to keep our country that way,” Salter said.
He was discharged as an Airman First Class with over 150 hours of flying under his belt. He still stays in touch with many of the men he flew with, particularly one in California, who has become and remained his best friend over the years.
Around 1956, Salter transferred to Wayne State University to study history and English. It was then that he found his next calling in life as he began work as the athletic director of the Highland Park Boys Club.
In 1957, he was asked to serve as executive director of the newly founded Boys Club of America chapter in Royal Oak. He spent several decades there working with kids from all walks of life. The space would go on to become a Boys and Girls Club community center site, which is today named after Jack and Patti Salter. He still works occasionally with the board of directors.
After stepping down from the club and prior to his retirement, Salter also spent 19 years as a youth probation officer at the Royal Oak 34th District Court. He estimates he worked with about 1,300 people in that time. Salter was also a longtime contributor to the Royal Oak Tribune ( Daily Tribune) as a columnist.
“All those people I’ve met, they’ve changed me too. I’m very blessed to have my memory, a good wife, a good family, I’ve been very fortunate,” Salter said. “We can’t do much now, but our oldest son only lives three miles away so takes us out sometimes. We have exercise. Patti plays bingo, which I can’t stand, but she loves it. We know everybody here and we’re very involved.”
And so this Veterans Day, instead of lamenting the time he’s spent locked down because of the virus, Salter will be counting his blessings at a table with other veterans — Remembering the bonds they’ve forged, the friends they’ve lost, and hoping always for a brighter future for the next generation.
“Veterans Day means a lot to me. I think of the friendships I developed, those who died in their service. I just don’t think the younger generation understands the value we should place on our veterans. I am very proud to be a veteran,” he said. “We have a lot of problems politically, but we’re the greatest country in the world.”