Military News

Walking stick program

BANGOR – Cole Land Transportation Museum is continuing to distribute maple walking sticks to Maine veterans of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, but the program needs some clarification.

Each veteran needs to show identification and pick up the walking stick in person at the museum 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through July 3 at 405 Perry Road.

The museum does not have enough walking sticks to allow relatives to pick them up for veterans who are in nursing homes or live out of state. In those cases, relatives may purchase walking sticks directly from the manufacturer, Peavey Manufacturing in Eddington, at 843-7861.

The walking stick program at Cole Museum is intended to encourage Maine veterans of WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars to take part in parades such as the Fourth of July parade, beginning at 11 a.m. July 4 on Wilson Street in Brewer. Veterans may walk or ride in one of the buses provided by First Student.

The parade will continue to Bangor, go down Main Street and disband on Exchange Street.

There are incentives for veterans with walking sticks to march or ride in the parade, said Galen Cole, museum founder.

From 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on the Fourth of July on the lawn by the Brewer Municipal Pool, veterans with walking sticks may pick up a red-white-and-blue “One in a Thousand” sticker. In addition, they will receive a slip entitling them to an autographed copy of Don Colson’s “Quiet Courage,” the museum book profiling 89 Maine veterans.

After the parade, the veterans may turn in their slip for a copy of the book near TD Banknorth on Exchange Street in Bangor, on the lawn by the Brewer pool, or at the Cole Museum, 405 Perry Road, Bangor. The books will be available at the museum daily through Aug. 31.

Veterans who would like a ride to the start of the parade may take one of the buses at 9:30 a.m. on Exchange Street.

Promotion

BANGOR – Walter Gibbons III of Bangor was promoted to captain in the U.S. Army on March 1.

He is a 1997 graduate of Bangor High School and a 2004 graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in computer science.

Gibbons is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., with his wife, Lori, and son, Walter IV.

He is currently on his third deployment, the second to Afghanistan with the seventh Special Forces Group (airborne), where he is the Signal Detachment Commander for the Group Support Company.

Gibbons is the son of Walter and Pamela Gibbons of Bangor and Nancy Jenkins of Washington state.

Deployment

Army Reserve Pfc. Zachary T. Goodwin has been mobilized and activated at Fort Dix, N.J., for a deployment overseas to Iraq. He is a member of the 354th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, a Reserve unit based in Coraopolis, Pa.

Goodwin, a public affairs broadcast specialist, has served in the military for more than a year. A 1993 graduate of Houlton High School, he is the son of Richard L. Goodwin of Houlton and Vicki A. Goodwin Bangor.