No Simple Operation

By the time this issue hits mailboxes, Jeff “Doc” Dentice likely will have made it back to Wisconsin from the inferno that Nevada becomes in the late spring.

Nothing against living in suburban Las Vegas, but Dentice’s retirement to the desert left him feeling dry. There’s no “juice” out here, the former Vietnam War combat medic thought. The juice, he says, is what one gets from being involved in the community.

“As a retiree, you just can’t go home in a chair and die,” the 57-year-old former production worker for Miller Brewing Co. in Milwaukee. “I’ve got to rock and roll.”

And rock and roll he will, based on the UAW Local 9 retiree’s past exploits that include founding the Wisconsin POW/MIA Balloon Launch at the Milwaukee Memorial Day parade and being a foster parent to many children.

While he handed off balloon launch duties this year (see story below) and retired from Miller last June, the former UAW Region 4 veterans chairman has been busy maintaining Web sites on the launch for the region’s vets.

And now he’s coming home to plan for the 10th anniversary of the balloon launch in 2007. Planning will begin immediately after 20,000 balloons rise May 29 from the 80-foot military cargo parachute that holds them down.

The launch started at Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee. Word soon spread among the Region 4 veterans, hundreds of whom show up for the event.

“It got so big I moved it down to the memorial on Milwaukee’s lakefront,” Dentice said. “The volunteers just kind of show up.”

It is now the largest balloon launch in the country, and it impresses him when cards attached to the balloons are returned, some from as far away as the East Coast.

“A lot of the people that find these are veterans and people going to and from Iraq,” he said. “That’s what blows my mind.”

If the Region 4 veterans are his family, as he says, then he provides a family for children who need one by becoming a foster parent, something he continues once the moving pod is unloaded back in Wisconsin.

Dentice became involved in foster parenting after a relative ran into some personal trouble and his family needed to step in. He and his wife have been foster parents to five children.

“We care about kids. We just love them,” he said. “It’s a lot of work. If people think they are going to be a foster parent and get rich off it, they’re very mistaken.”

So for now “Doc” is heading home to be with his families. “This medic is going to be back in his perimeter and be happy again,” he said.

Vince Piscopo

PHOTOS BY ALLAN LACOSSE

balloons 1

balloons 2

20,000 balloons are released from below a military cargo parachute at the 2005 National POW/MIA Balloon Launch in Milwaukee.

POW/MIA Balloon Launch is

a sight to see

When the last of the 20,000 black balloons vanishes from the Wisconsin sky on Memorial Day, Julie Spangler hopes that one thought will remain with the thousands of people who attend 2006 National POW/MIA Balloon Launch on Milwaukee’s waterfront:

“I want them to remember those who haven’t returned home, and I want them to honor those who did return home and welcome them back,” said Spangler, a member of UAW Local 95 who works at the General Motors’ assembly plant in Janesville.

The story of the balloon launch, now in its ninth year, really is a story about family. While it’s true that the launch, which happens immediately after the Milwaukee Memorial Day Parade, is a family event, the family we’re talking about is the UAW Region 4 veterans, who strive each year to make sure that those who have died or are still being held captive are never forgotten.

“It’s just how we are. We are one tight family,” said Spangler, coordinator of this year’s launch, the largest such event in the country. “Whenever we have something going on, we are there for each other.”

They need to be. It’s not easy filling 20,000 balloons with helium, and then holding them under a military cargo parachute until it is time for the volunteers to lift it and release the balloons. But it’s a fantastic sight when the balloons float up to the sky.

Dan Bogash, a truck repairman at the Chicago Ford Stamping Plant, is one of the many Region 4 UAW veterans who travel long distances to help out with the launch. He has made it his Memorial Day event for the last four years.

Neither Spangler nor Bogash is a veteran, but both have family members who have served in the armed forces.

“There’s a lot of time involved, but each year it gets smoother and smoother,” said Bogash, a member of UAW Local 588. “It gets more people aware of veterans’ issues and moves those people into action.”

Vince Piscopo

VFW-UAW effort nears completion

Nearly $265,000 has been raised by UAW members from across the country to help build a duplex at the VFW National Home for Children.

“We are gratified – but not surprised – by the generosity of UAW members toward this project,” said UAW Vice President Cal Rapson, who directs the union’s Veterans Affairs Department. “It once again shows the UAW will always go the extra mile for veterans and their families.”

The duplex is expected to be complete in May. It is at the National Home’s campus in Eaton Rapids, Mich., and provides short- and long-term housing for needy family members of veterans and active duty service personnel.

Donations are needed to finish and furnish the duplex. To donate, make checks payable to VFW National Home for Children/UAW 06. Send to UAW Veterans Department, c/o Bill Peterson, 8000 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, MI 48214.