[nfbmi-talk] blind vets honored

[joe harcz Comcast]

They served: Blind vets honored

 

Published: Thursday, November 11, 2010

 

 

By Robert C. Pollack

Special to the Times

 

news/doc4cdc2c56bb7750138342451

 

Charles Crammer, a Navy veteran, lost his sight due to a degenerative disease. Crammer was at the Italian American Social club in Branford for a meeting

of disabled veterans there. He said he feels fortunate to have 7-year-old "Clover," his seeing-eye dog. Photo by Peter Casolino

BRANFORD – Charles Kearney sat in the Italian American Social Club on Hamre Lane Monday afternoon talking about a night in the nation’s capital 18 years

ago that changed his life and smashed his dreams forever.

 

An aspiring singer and song writer, Kearney – now 48 – was walking down a Washington street at about 8 p.m. when he was mugged by “five or six” thugs.

 

“I fought them off and got away,” he said quietly. “But two blocks later they caught up with me and splashed something in my face.

 

“I found out later it was battery acid. This time I couldn’t fight them off and they got away with all the money I had on me, $10.”

 

Sometime later he was rushed by ambulance to the nearest hospital and one of the paramedics told him: “Your face is melting.”

 

“They might have helped me with baking soda or some other treatment but said they were afraid they would treat the wrong thing and I had to get to the hospital

first.”

 

That decision may have cost him his sight. For Kearney, an African American who stands 6 feet 5 and a half inches tall and has a smile that lights up a

room, is totally blind.

 

“By the time I got to the hospital, it was too late,” he said. “The acid not only blinded me but some got in my throat, affected my voice and made it impossible

for me to sing again.”

 

Kearney is an ex-Marine, who served from 1981 to 1985 – part of that time on Okinawa. He still lives in Washington and is now attending computer classes

and other programs for the blind in the Eastern Blind Rehabilitation Center at the Veteran’s Hospital in West Haven. He was attending the fourth annual

Branford Rotary Club’s Veteran’s Day luncheon in which visually impaired veterans are honored.

 

Married for the past two years to a blind woman named Sharon, Kearney joined 28 other visually impaired veterans to attend the luncheon and expressed gratitude

to the people at the Blind Center – “they are amazing and help all of us” – and to the Rotarians for a chicken luncheon with all the fixings. He gets around

with the help of a long, black cane – and made it clear he is doing just fine.

 

A document analyst living on Social Security Disability, Kearney recalled his days as a Marine fondly. “The drill instructors were really hilarious,” he

said with a bellow of a laugh. “They got us to do things my using humor. I remember one of them telling me I had to do pushups until he got tired.”

 

Former Rotary Club President Nelson Berganucci came up with the idea of honoring visually impaired veterans from the center and after lunch and a short

business meeting, each of them got up, identified themselves, and said where and when they served and in which branch.

 

But when it came time for former Army veteran George Adnams to talk, he stood up, and though he was clearly trying to express his gratitude to the Blind

Center and Rotary, his voice broke and the tears started running down his face. He stood there, sobbing before finally gaining control of himself and though

he said not a word, he received the loudest and longest ovation of the day.

 

Adnams, 73, who has been married to Karen, a former teacher, for 47 years and has three grown sons and six grandchildren, is studying Zoom TXT computers

at the center. He too is living on Social Security Disability, which he described as “tough

 

“Losing your sight does get to you,” he said before lunch. “But you adjust and the people at the center really help you. I can’t say enough about that place.”

Adnams served in the Army from 1958 to 1961 – spending a tour in Germany – and became legally blind 10 years ago –

 

Charles Crommer, 52, who lost his sight to a degenerative disease called pars plantitis, has been totally blind for the past 22 years. He was in the Navy

in 1976 and 1977 and sitting beside him was a black Labrador named Clover who has been his constant companion for the past five and a half years.

 

“I couldn’t do without her,” he said, patting her head. “I’ll never be without a dog again and will never go back to using a cane.”

 

He said of living on Social Security Disability: “I’d like to see those politicians in Washington try it.”

 

Another veteran, Conrad Simard – who is 91 years old – recalled serving in the Army with the 56th Fighters Group in England during World War II and remembered

vividly how a badly shot up Canadian bomber returning from Germany, ‘burst into a ball of fire right above my barracks and came hurtling toward me.. I

thought I’d had it, but it barely missed me and took the roof off the barracks next door.

 

“Miraculously, no one was hurt.”

 

Simard said he is a commercial artist and letterer who became visually impaired 15 years ago.

 

“Thanks to the center, I am actually regaining the ability to see thanks to special speed glasses they have supplied. Now, for the first time in all these

years, I can actually see small letters and hope to begin lettering again when I get home.”

 

He lives in Nashville, New Hampshire and said he is also a custom picture framer, which he wants to do as well.

 

“My eyes simply degenerated and there was nothing they could do until now. These people are truly amazing.”

 

Mark Matthiessen, a blind rehabilitation specialist who works at the center, pointed out that none of the veterans they handle come from Iraq or Afghanistan

“because all of them are treated at places like Water Read.”

 

But many of the veterans at the luncheon served in Korea of Vietnam or World War II and Matthiessen said: “A lot of people tell me how sad it must be to

work with visually impaired people, some of them totally blind. But just the opposite is true.

 

“These people are truly inspiring.”

 

Robert C. Pollack can be reached at

Caladare at aol.com

 

• Connecticut Magazine

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