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Gallitzin veteran finds way to do his part

In the 1960s, Ken Tedora, who grew up in Gallitzin, went to boot camp in South Carolina, then to advanced infantry and tank training in Kentucky as a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard -- mixing in both places with regular Army trainees who would be heading to Vietnam.

It wasn't easy, and to compound the difficulty, Tedora became squad leader, against his will.

Those experiences even now are helping to set his course in life.

In high school, Tedora injured his back playing basketball, after which a doctor operated to fuse two of his vertebrae.

When he was drafted, the Army rejected him, because of his back.

Later, after getting a job at the shirt factory in Gallitzin, where his parents had worked, Tedora wasn't making enough money to support his new wife and was also having trouble finding another job, because he lacked military experience. So upon a friend's advice, he applied to join the Guard.

The Guard admitted him, after he signed a waiver relieving it of liability in case of further injury to his back.

In 1968, just after joining the Guard, he began work at Butterick, where he remained for 32 years.

At boot camp, those trainees heading to Vietnam regarded Guardsmen as having picked "a cheap way to get out of going," Tedora said.

Their contempt worsened at the advanced school, after a platoon sergeant appointed Tedora acting squad leader, telling him he was "more advanced" than the others.

"Here's these guys going to war, and I'm telling them what to do," Tedora said recently. "They'd look at you," he said. "It was rough."

He knew they didn't like him.

He was scared, he said.

But he did the best he could, watched his back and looked forward to getting out.

He didn't complain to the sergeant.

If he could have changed things at the time, he'd have gone to war, he said.

Then, 25 years later, at the beginning of the 1990s, an opportunity arose to do just that -- when his Guard unit received orders to prepare for deployment to Operation Desert Shield.

During a period of about four weeks, lawyers instructed them about wills and the legal ramifications of going; they got their vaccinations; and their equipment was packed.

Guys from the Army talked to them about what to take and what it would be like in the Middle East.

There were rumors about the likelihood of a high death toll.

He was nervous, but here was his chance to do something, and he felt good about that.

They expected an order to head to South Carolina for intensive preparations.

But the war ended quickly, and they were told to stand down.

He felt relief, he admits.

"I wouldn't say that I wanted to go," he said. "But if they would have said, 'OK, you're leaving tomorrow,' I would have said 'OK.'"

Now, at age 73, there's no longer a chance he'll be going to war.

And while things have mellowed for Guardsmen due to their participation in the Middle Eastern conflicts and while Vietnam veterans in the Guard have mellowed enough to talk about their experiences with Tedora, he still has "nothing to contribute" when such talk occurs.

Nevertheless, he's found a way to assuage the old left-out feeling.

One could see how last Thursday, when Tedora worked with a rigging crew on the relocation of a stone monument at 40th Street near the Allegro restaurant.

The monument is one of about 30 that he -- along with other members of the Central Pennsylvania National Guard and Veterans Association -- have taken responsibility for rehabilitating or maintaining.

The effort has been underway for a couple of years.

The work includes tasks as ambitious as that monument relocation and as humble as watering flowers that Tedora planted near the John F. Kennedy monument in Tuckahoe Park.

"I kind of like doing it to gain that respect," Tedora said recently.

A couple of times, veterans with Vietnam hats have thanked him for such work.

That makes him "feel so good inside," Tedora said.

"He's in his little happy place," said his wife, Bert.

"It makes everything worthwhile," Tedora said. "It feels like I'm doing my part."

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.