Vet Joseph Patrick Was Jr. kept airmen in the green

CHAMPION -- Veteran U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Joseph Patrick Was Jr. never had a bullet fired at him during the nearly four years he was in France and Germany during the mid-1960s.

As a payroll clerk, Was' primary job was to make sure that airmen and other U.S. personnel were able to cash their checks and, when necessary, exchange American money to the currency of the nations in which they were serving.

"The vast majority of people in the military are not in combat zones," Was, now 81, said.

His job was to make sure airmen's financial needs were serviced.

At 23, in 1965, Was originally did not have any plans to enter the military.

He had been working full-time at Second National Bank and attempting to earn a degree in accounting by taking one class each quarter at Youngstown University. However, in July 1965, when he went to check on the student deferment policies, Was learned the U.S. military changed its deferment rules, then requiring students to be taking a full-time schedule to be excused from military service.

"There was no way I would have been able to work full time and take a full-time course load," he said.

After learning of the new deferment rules, Was, who had been talking to an Air Force recruiter, walked down to the recruiter's office and signed up for four years.

"After taking the Air Force's qualification test, it was recommended I to go to a language school to become an interpreter," he said. "My then fiancee, Janice, objected because she did not want me to go overseas," he said. "I decided to pursue finance."

Ironically, once he completed his military school for finance and accounting, his assignment was at the Toul Rosieres Air Base in France. He was a member of the Tactical Air Command and housed with the RF-4-C Phantom Fighters.

"My regular duties, much like my job at Second National Bank, were to handle the U.S. and French currency in the finance office," he said, "It was my first experience with different sizes of paper currency; for that I had to learn a new method of counting money."

The finance office processed the Air Force payroll for Toul, as well as several other bases in France, Turkey and North Africa.

He served at the base for nearly eight months, before being transferred to the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany.

"When I finished in Toul, there were only six Air Force personnel on the base, including the base commander, his staff and two of us in the finance office," Was said.

While in France, Was, an avid tennis player, was surprised he was at the same base as Jim Provines, who at the time was the top tennis player in the Air Force worldwide. The men developed a natural affinity and, with Joe Taylor, the number one badminton player in the Air Force worldwide, formed an Air Force tennis team that outplayed all the other military tennis teams in France.

"The highlight for us, however, was being invited to play in the Air Force European Championships in Garmish-Partinkirkin, Germany, which was the site of the 1960 Olympics," Was said. "Needless to say, Jim Provines won the championship."

Members of the tennis team played regularly.

During the time he was on the tennis team, he was able to go to the Meuse-Argonne American and French Cemetery in Verdun, France, which has the remains of thousands of American, French and other solders that died in the area during World War I.

"There are 14,246 buried in the American cemetery, with another 954 missing in action," he said. "There are 16,000 graves in the adjacent French cemetery."

Including the German enemy, more than 300,000 men died during the battle of Meuse-Argonne.

"That's a very humbling statistic that will stay with me for the rest of my life," Was said.

"When I visit the military cemetery, I realized how little I knew about world history and the contribution made by others. I realized I needed to contribute to day-to-day knowledge."

All American Air Force personnel were asked to leave Toul, France, by French Gen. Charles de Gaulle, so they were transferred to Germany.

However, two weeks after his 1966 arrival in Germany, Was returned to the Toul Rosieres Air Base because the Air Force had dismissed the French accountant before the accounting books were closed. He remained in France for about three weeks finishing the accounts. He closed out the financial books and the liquidation of the noncommissioned officers and officer clubs in Toul.

He was assigned to the Frankfurt Air Force Base for about a year-and-a-half.

Since the finance team he worked with in Toul demonstrated how to pay Air Force personnel located in various locations from a single base, it was determined the same thing could be done for all of Europe or Air Force finance could do the same thing worldwide.

"Within months, the Air Force was paying everyone worldwide from Denver, Colorado; resulting in a full staffed office at Rhein-Main with few duties beyond paying crew members in transit," he said. "Within a few months, all of us were reassigned, once again, to new duty stations."

He was assigned to the Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina in July 1968. He separated from the military in February 1969.

"Since that time, I've encouraged a number of people to enter the military, because I believe it opens your eyes to the world outside of Trumbull County," he said. "I believe everyone should give some type of service, whether it is in the military or some other type of service."

After returning home, Was worked for Second National Bank for more than 40 years. He retired in 2004 as the bank's vice president of administrative services. He was responsible for 34 facilities in nine counties.

Joseph Patrick Was Jr.

AGE: 81

RESIDENCE: Champion

SERVICE BRANCH: U.S. Air Force

MILITARY HONORS: National Defense Service medal; expert marksman medal

OCCUPATION: Retired banker

FAMILY: Wife of 55 years, Janice; a son and a daughter