Greencastle VFW honors charter members

Two local men were honored in January for 65 years of membership in Greencastle VFW Post 6319. Max Izer and the late Harold Hoffman, both 91, were charter members of the veterans organization founded in 1946.

“They were just getting started when I got home, and I immediately signed up,” said Izer from his Penn Hall home.

The Shady Grove native was drafted into the Army at age 22, after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served in Okinawa, working in the quartermaster department once the island was secured. He was discharged in the spring of 1946.

Izer worked at Landis Tool Co. for 42 years. He and his late wife Lorraine had one son, Jack, who lives in Allentown.

Hoffman, a Greencastle native, enlisted in the Army at the Carlisle barracks on May 31, 1941 and was discharged Feb. 1, 1946. He served in the Phillippines.

His career was spent at Letterkenny. He and his wife Alma had three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The veterans received pins from current officers Tom Cavanaugh and Dale Sheller to mark the longevity of their membership in the Harry D. Zeigler VFW Post.

The post was chartered Feb. 27, 1946. The original members were: John Alleman, Cyrus Barnhart, Wilbur Bear, Edwin Bittner, John Bittner Jr.,  Wilbur Burger, Stanley Chamberlin, Norman Diehl Jr., William  A. Diehl Jr., William E. Diehl, Clarence Finafrock, Charles Fitz, Tom Fox, Eugene Goetz, Wayne Hartman, Joseph Henson, Karl Higgins, Harold Hoffman, James Hoover, William Max Izer, Carl Kell, Jack Lanehart, Fred Lehman, Linford Mowen, Donald Myers, Linford Pensinger, Harold Rowland, Richard Schultz, Paul Seacrest, Walter Shank, James Snyder, Reuben Snyder, Frank Speelman, Kenneth Statler, Glenn Stine, Harold Stine, Donald Strock, Paul Swope, Paul Talhelm, Paul Tressler, Roy Walner, Owen Wilson, John Wine and Harvey Zimmerman.