SEPTEMBER 1999 - Americans From All Walks Of Life Pulled Together As Never Before - As we continue to profile members in our version of Tom Browkaw's best-seller The Greatest Generation, this month we are featuring Walter Zagol, Jean Lockhart and Bill Baker, all of whom came of age during the Great Depression and Second World War.

Walter Zagol was living in Illinois when he joined the army at age 19, immediately following Pearl Harbor. He was and still is an ardent patriot, who wears the American flag on his sleeve.

After jump training at Fort Benning Georgia, he was assigned to the 101st Airborne at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. From Ft. Bragg it was on to England to prepare for the inevitable invasion of Europe.

When our troops hit the beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Walter had already been behind German lines for six hours. "Our code name was 'Overlord.' We jumped into Normandy during the night preceding the landing. We had Germans in front of us and behind us. We had also lost several men who landed in a lake and drowned."

It was during the Normandy engagement that Zagol was first hit. After taking a bullet in the leg, he continued to engage the enemy until his badly depleted platoon was evacuated to England.

But it wasn't for long. After fresh troops replaced those lost, he jumped again. This time into Holland under code name "Market Garden," just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.

"When word came that our lines were overrun during the Bulge we were rushed to Bostagne, Belgium in cattle trucks," he said. "We shortly found ourselves surrounded, and with half of our platoon dead, our commanding officer surrendered. During the confusion I managed to escape into the woods with two of my buddies."

Once back to the safety of his own lines, Zagol having been wounded a second time - shrapnel in the arm - was hospitalized until being sent back to the U.S. in September 1945.

While awaiting discharge from the Myles Standish military facility in Taunton, Walter met Taunton native Adela Zagroday, another Z, whom he married six months later and settled in that community. It was Adela, not her husband, who told us about Walter's two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars.

After working for John Hancock for several years, he entered state service as a counselor at the Division of Savings Bank Insurance. "I worked with some very competent, dedicated people. Having worked in both the private and public sector, I would say that state employees need not take a back seat to anyone. Yes, there is internal politics, but there is just as much internal politics in private corporations. It's a fact of life."

Now retired, Zagol is active with the American Legion, VFW and DAV. He also belongs to the 101st Airborne Association, whom he has returned to Europe with several times. He has visited the American cemeteries and walked through the rows of white crosses. He also saw the movie "Saving Private Ryan", and snickered at the story line. In the flick Ryan was a member of Zagol's 101st.

"Yes, I am a patriot," he proudly acknowledged. "And yes, I've read the Greatest Generation. I can't say we are the greatest, it wouldn't be fair. But I can say there is no generation that has given more to its country."

The 'Greatest Generation' also included men and women on the home front working in our defense plants and hospitals, and in general keeping our country running under adverse conditions.

Besides the very necessary mission of maintaining the education of our nation's children, teachers also were frequently called upon to perform other duties which were related to the war.

Jean Lockhart was an elementary school teacher in Milton during World War II. "Oh yes, the Japanese were Japs and the Germans were Krauts and other such names which are no-no today. But it was war and not a time to worry about niceties. Our country was at stake and American fighting men were arriving home in caskets every day."

One of Lockhart's responsibilities was to issue books of ration stamps to residents of Milton. It was a period when many consumer goods had to be rationed because of the shortages caused by the war. Gasoline, oil, sugar, butter, meat and many other goods were all in short supply and had to be rationed.

"In issuing ration stamps for those goods, certain criteria had to be taken into consideration. Such things as the number of members in a family, how far a person working in a defense plant had to travel by car and the number of units that were being heated by the same heating system," she recalled.

"We conducted air raid drills on a regular basis. Children were required to go to a designated shelter area in the school during a drill. We also sold war bond stamps to the children. The kids had small books which they filled with stamps until they reached $18.75. They were then awarded a $25 war savings bond."

It was also a time of drives. There were paper drives, scrap metal drives, rubber tire drives, and tin can drives. "I can recall helping with the Boy Scouts who went around town on trucks during paper drives. Everyone wanted to help with the war effort," she said.

"Some of the youngsters had older brothers or even fathers who were in the military. These kids were so proud. They'd wear sailor hats or army jackets that had been given to them. They played war games during recess and the Americans always won."

After teaching for forty years, Jean retired from Brookline, her final teaching venue, and moved to Harwichport where she continues to be a very active person without any complaints about the 'Greatest Generation' years.

"Patriotism was in vogue. Nothing was too good for our fighting men. It was expected that sacrifices would be made on the home front. As a teacher, I will always remember those years with special pride." she said.