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thedrifter
11-24-07, 06:41 AM
11/24/2007
WWII vet nears 100: ‘Like any other day’
BY LAURA LEGERE
STAFF WRITER

After a century caring for the dead and the living, William Chessick’s large hands are swollen at the joints.


The Clarks Summit resident, who turns 100 on Sunday, was an embalmer at a North Scranton funeral home before he served as a Navy medic in the South Pacific during World War II. He worked as a carpenter after the war until he retired in his late 70s.

Joining the Navy when he was 36, he is one of the oldest World War II veterans in the state.

In honor of his birthday, Mr. Chessick received a commendation from the state Senate on Veterans Day wishing him “a future replete with much happiness,” as well as awards from the national and state VFW organizations. He is a member of the Abington Memorial VFW Post 7069.

Sitting with his son, William Jr., on the day after Thanksgiving, Mr. Chessick remembered being shipped out on the USS Yavapai, a barracks ship that carried Marines to landmark battles in Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945.

He had only been married for six months when he left for the South Pacific.

Once he was on the ship, Mr. Chessick translated his experience as an embalmer at his brother-in-law’s funeral home into a role as a medic. “It’s more or less about anatomy,” he said.

He served as “a regular doctor” on the ship when there were no physicians on board, but he was quick to minimize his efforts.

“I don’t want to be no kind of hero,” he said.

Mr. Chessick’s son, who said his father never talked much about the war, pointed to a carefully restored black-and-white photograph to illustrate why.

In it, a young Mr. Chessick kneels in a freshly tilled field on Iwo Jima amid rows of headstones of fallen Marines. With his head bowed and his sleeves rolled to his elbows, he rests a bare forearm across the white gravestone of his best friend, Bob Warnigitus, whose body was eventually buried in a cemetery in Throop.

The photo has three pinholes across the top from being posted for years in plain view.

Mr. Chessick explained his reticence to talk about the war more simply. “It was over, and that was it,” he said. “I got home and got to working. I just lived life back to normal again.”

He said his happiest memory from his 100 years was returning home to his wife after the war. He looked at his son and added, “You were fast asleep when I got home.”

He said he doesn’t think much about the milestone he will reach Sunday.

“It’s no change in lifestyle or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just like any other day.”

Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com

Ellie