| Howard V. White of Alton is an active member of Joseph P. Chaisson Post 41 presently holding the title of Sgt of Arms.
Howard shares some of his military history during the Korean War Era. Joining the United States Army in 1949 he completed his basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey and assigned to artillery training. He was transferred to Fort Benning Georgia where he joined the Air Borne training unit. Normally the Air Borne training is three gruesome weeks - Ground training week, Tower training week and finally Jump week. There are scheduled five jumps, with and without equipment and one night jump. Howard was doing great until his third jump when he came down under a pine tree and injured his ankle. The injury would set him back to the beginning so he decided to return to artillery. It must be difficult to jump from a perfectly good airplane.
Howard was shipped to an Artillery Unit at Kaulsrue, Germany in 1951 and later received a two and half year assignment in an 273rd Field Artillery Unit at the Panama Canal. Howard specifically remembers one night on guard duty he was approached by a colonel. He had challenged the colonel and asked him to put his ID on a rock. The colonel refused and Howard clearly stated “Then you are not going to pass sir”. The angry colonel provided ID as directed. The next company formation Howard White was called out in front of the formation, thinking he was in trouble. The Colonel congratulated him for doing his job properly.
Another incident was a Russian Ship in the Canal refusing to pay a duty, Howard’s unit was ordered to surround the ship on both sides of the canal, the canal was closed and the stand-off lasted twelve hours. Finally the Russian complied.
Howard was discharged honorably in 1956 having served seven years.
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- HOWARD V. WHITE 
