Weeklong series honors local heroes

Starting today, the Times Free Press will present stories of local heroes in a seven-day series called the “21-Veteran Salute.”

Veterans featured in this series — now in its third year — were nominated by Times Free Press readers.

The military service of the 21 honorees spans a period from World War II to contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of the nominees hailed from the so-called Greatest Generation, the cohort of Americans who served in World War II. Only about 3% of the 16 million Americans who served in that war are still living, which makes their stories especially important to tell at this moment in history.

“We used to have a group that tried to get together and use [social media], but there aren’t very many of us left,” said Gene South, a World War II veteran who served with the 237th Battalion of Combat Engineers.

Among the dozens of nominations of veterans for this tribute were two men who had been selected but who died before this year’s project began.

There was Frank A. Fleming, who died a little more than a year ago at age 100.

He served in the Army from July 1941-October 1945 as a medic and an ambulance driver and received a Bronze Star as well as the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal and the European Medal, according to his family. After leaving the military, he lived in Chattanooga for 73 years, worked for EPB and raised a family with his wife of 55 years, Dorothy.

And there was Boyd Webb, who died in May, less than a month after turning 96.

He served in the Army in World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service with the 11th Armored Division in the European theater. He and his

wife, Polly, raised five kids and enjoyed nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

With a mortality rate of 348 per day, there likely are fewer than 300,000 World War II veterans still alive to share their stories.

“These guys, they took a bite out of history,” said James Elligan Jr., the son of World War II veteran James Elligan Sr. “They went and served their country because they felt that that was their duty.”