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Bill Madden after returning from the trip. Photo by Bill Ray/News & Review
Being chosen to go to Washington D.C. for a day to see the military monuments is an honor for war veterans from this area. They get to enjoy the trip free of charge thanks to the Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette. The latest flight on April 16 had three Vietnam War veterans from Monticello: Phil Alrich, Kenneth Roemke and me.
Alrich was born in Hammond, he graduated from Hammond High School. He decided to serve in the military after graduation, since the war in Vietnam had heated up and the Army was drafting eligible men like him. He had two uncles who had been in the Navy and one uncle who had been in the Army Air Corps.
He went to join the U.S. Navy in September 1964, but he was told that he was five pounds underweight. “We can’t take you,” the corpsman said. However, the corpsman told him to drink a quart of milk and eat a couple pounds of bananas, so Alrich did what he was told and then came back. That’s when he was accepted without being weighed. The Navy wanted him.
The 83 veterans on the Honor Flight of Greater Lafayette stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for a portrait. Photo courtesy of Jill Baker
“About two weeks after I got into boot camp in Great Lakes Naval Training
Center, my mom told me, ‘You just got your draft notice from the army,’” he said.
After basic training he became a dental technician in Bainbridge, Maryland, where he did some galley duty and worked in the post office for a while before going to dental school in San Diego. After he finished school, he went back to Bainbridge to work as a dental technician. Every month they switched him to a different dentist so he could get more experience.
Then he was assigned to the USS Springfield Guided Missile Cruiser CLG-7. “I was fortunate not to go to Vietnam,” the 78-year-old vet said. He was on the cruiser until his four-year term was over.
After the military, he went to work as an electrician in the oil industry for several different companies and in several different positions. He retired in 2011 and he and his wife, Karen, settled down in Monticello. “My mom and dad had a place on Kings Bay,” he said. His father, Ray, lived until he was 102.
Roemke was born in Fort Wayne and grew up in the little town of Woodburn nearby. “I grew up on a dairy farm,” said the 77-year-old. He joined the U.S. Navy between his junior and senior year at Woodland High School and went to boot camp during the summer.
After graduation he was on a two-week cruise aboard a ship. He then went to electronics school in Great Lakes. Upon graduation from electronics school, he was assigned to the USS Fechteler DD-870. From January to September 1966, the ship was off the coast of South Vietnam. He was discharged in May 1967 and remained in the Naval Reserves for more than 21 years.
After the military, he went to college for two semesters and got a chance to go to Switzerland for the summer. He worked in a hotel. He met his future wife, Diane, before he went overseas, and they decided to get married when he got back from Europe in July 1970. He then went to work for Montgomery Ward in Michigan for a while.
When Montgomery Ward downsized in 1983, he went to work for the mobile home industry, setting up mobile homes in Goshen for a decade. After that, he started delivering mobile home parts to Canada until he retired in 2006.
“That lasted for about two years,” he explained. “Then I got restless and went to work as a maintenance man for an apartment complex.”
He did that for five years until retiring again. Since then, he’s worked some part-time jobs until he moved to Monticello in March 2020. Two days later the pandemic hit. He’s worked only a little since he’s been here.
Now their four children, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren like to come and visit them on Lake Shafer.
“One of the smart things I did in my life was stay in the reserves,” he said. He started receiving retirement pay and military medical insurance when he reached 62.
I was born in Chicago and grew up in Des Plaines, a suburb. After graduation from Forest View High School, I went to a business school in Chicago for a semester before I decided that’s not what I wanted to do. Instead, I joined the U.S. Air Force on the buddy plan with a friend of mine in September 1966.
After basic training, I was an administrative clerk for the next 10 years before retraining into journalism and photography. I stayed for 20 years in the Air Force and reached the rank of Master Sergeant, which was my goal, so I retired.
After retiring from the Air Force, I married Janice Flatter. We each had two children from previous marriages. Then I finished up my journalism degree in 1989 thanks to the GI Bill.
I went onto various jobs before Janice retired from Sallie Mae in 2006 and we moved to Monticello. I’ve worked for various publications since then and went to work for the News & Review in 2022. I decided to retire from regular work and begin freelance work for the paper and other publications in October 2023.
Now, I tutor several students for Literacy Volunteers of White County as well as being its president. I also write books and my goal is 50, which I should achieve in a couple of years. I just received a contract to write “Indiana’s Lost Michigan Road.”
All three of us enjoyed the trip to say the least. “I thought it was wonderful,” said Alrich. “I thought it went very smooth.” We all agree on that. Three Vietnam War veterans from Monticello stand with the Washington Monument in the background. The three are (from left) Kenneth Roemke, William “Bill” Madden and Phil Aldrich. Photo courtesy of Jill Baker
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