World War II vet shares memories

A 99th birthday is no small milestone, but World War II veteran Archie Wheeler has every intention of making it to his 100th.

Wheeler celebrated 99 years of life recently with his daughter, Velma Albat, and other family members. Although his birthday was Nov. 25, the family celebrated on Thanksgiving Day so that they could all be together. He recently shared some of his 99 years worth of memories.

He was born in Alex, a coal mining town. His father was a coal miner.

"He walked to work because we didn't have a car," he said of his father.

World War I ended when Wheeler was a young boy.

"I knew there was something going on," he said. "I remember when they declared victory, the mines blew the whistles, the men were firing shotguns."

His father died when he was 9 years old. There was an outbreak of influenza at the time, but his father died of something else, according to Wheeler.

"I don't know how many people died that year, but it was awful. We were kind of under the weather and we needed some medicine. The nearest drug store was five miles. He walked that five miles, and it started raining on him. He took sick and took pneumonia and died," he said.

He remembers of his father, "He was an expert shot with that rifle and was always trying to teach me to shoot."

Albat said her parents married in 1929 when her father was 20 and her mother, Mildred Barrett, was 18. The couple lived in Hartman and Coal Hill, and Wheeler worked as a coal miner for 20 years.

Asked about his memories of the Great Depression, Wheeler said, "I had a store where I bought my groceries and stuff. Four or five months we didn't work. They let me buy my groceries on credit, and when the mine opened up, they let me pay them back. That was really a good outfit that would carry me that long."

Along with Albat, the couple had two other daughters, Mary Ann (Plumlee) and Linda (Jetton).

In 1941, while the family was living at Coal Hill, Albat said, the United States entered World War II.

"He was 34 when he went into the service. My mother's brother, Howard, was killed in New Guinea. My dad and Howard were really close. I think that had an influence on him wanting to go into the Army."

Wheeler enlisted in the Army and was shipped to Germany. A memory that stood out involved a Thanksgiving turkey.

"They told us, 'Boys, we're going to be lucky today. We're going to have turkey for Thanksgiving.'" Noon and evening passed with no sign of the turkey. Finally it arrived, but there was no way to serve it to the men in the foxholes. One of the soldiers said he knew where to get paper bags. The commander told him to get them, and they put a slice of turkey, a piece of bread and a piece of cake in each bag, he said.

"That turkey was a blessing," he said.

Wheeler was wounded in his left arm and right leg and was shipped home, Albat said.

"We've always felt like God protected him," she said. "He had so many narrow escapes."

Wheeler said, "I remember that ship coming into New York Harbor. Boy glad to see that Statue of Liberty."

After the war, Albat said, her father received training through the GI Bill and managed a department store in Clarksville. He retired in 1970.

"He was an expert fly fisherman. He and my mother got to travel," she said.

Mildred Wheeler was diagnosed with cancer in 1978, and she died in 1983, Albat said.

Wheeler started another career in 1960 that overlapped into his retirement. He became an ordained Baptist minister that year.

"I pastored little churches out north of Clarksville, most in the country, churches not able to pay a pastor much," he said. "It was a pleasure to me to be able to do it and to be able to help those little churches because I didn't have to depend on them for all my pay."

One day he was greeting church-goers after a service and "a little boy, 8 or 9, came up and looked at me, just as innocent as he could be, and said, 'You preach too long.' I said, 'Son, I'll try to improve on that.' The funny thing about it is, when he grew up, he (became) a preacher."

Albat said her father moved to Conway in 1995. He continued to preach at some of the nursing homes but eventually had to retire because of his health.

He now lives at Trillium Park retirement community, an assisted living facility. He moved there in April 2007, Albat said.

With the conversation returning to his 99th birthday celebration, she asked her father casually, "We going to make it to 100?"

"Oh yeah," he replied.

(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)