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Korean War veteran intercepted enemy transmissions while in Alaska

Buffalo News - 9/3/2018

Sept. 03--At the age of 20, Howard J. Hetherly decided to leave his job on the railroad and fight in the Korean War.

"They were drafting young men at the time and I figured I'd get it over with and enlist. I figured four years would go by fast," Hetherly said. "It was the longest four years I've ever spent."

Hetherly, 87, joined the Air Force and instead of going to the Korean peninsula, he was sent to the remote Aleutian island of Adak in Alaska. One of 200 airmen, they worked around the clock scouring the airwaves for enemy Morse code transmissions.

"Whenever we heard somebody sending a message, we would start copying it and someone would decode it in a crypto room," Hetherly said. "They'd sometimes tell us we intercepted 'good information.' We'd hear that it involved transporting ammunition or moving troops."

Though far from the front lines, he says he took pride in knowing he was helping make a difference. But most of his time on Adak was filled with boredom.

"I was counting the days until I was sent back to Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts," he said. "I'll tell you, those days were really long."

He spent a year on Adak.

"We played cards, wrote letters and slept a lot," he said.

And the winter was wicked.

"In Buffalo we have like a damp cold in the winter, but up there it was like a dry cold and there is a difference. The temperature would go down to 20 below zero, sometimes colder than that. You wore special boots. They were white felt and we called them bunny boots," he said. "You couldn't go outside alone in case something happened to you."

When his year was up, Hetherly spent a couple of months in Anchorage.

"At least that was a town and you could leave the base and talk to people," he said, adding that he especially enjoyed chatting with women.

Back at Otis Air Force Base, Hetherly was far from bored.

He and five other airmen operated the base radio station that went by the call letters AF1FCI.

"We spoke with other air bases all over the world," he said.

When he finished his four-year hitch, Hetherly returned to his job as a car inspector with the Erie Lackawanna Railway in Lovejoy.

Ten years flew by and he advanced to a clerk's position. His memory of the Alaskan winter, he explained, provided the inspiration to take the desk job.

"It was warm and clean inside," he said.

After 41 years, he retired from what had evolved into Conrail and for years continued his hobby of raising and racing pigeons. But last year, he says, he developed health issues and had to give away his beloved flock.

"I cried when that happened," he said.

----Howard J. Hetherly, 87

Hometown: Sloan

Residence: Blasdell

Branch: Air Force

Rank: Airman 1st class

War: Korean War

Years of service: Enlisted February 1952 -- February 1956

Most prominent honors: Good Conduct Medal, honorable discharge

Specialty: Radio operator

----Despite health issues, Hetherly says he is able to keep up with his love of music, playing several instruments. They include the harmonica, banjo, guitar, piano and spoons.

His younger sister, Ginny Doak-Swann, who teaches music and golf, stops by his Blasdell home a few days a week "and we play music together."

Of family, Hetherly said his second wife of 48 years, Helen, died four years ago. They did not have children, but Hetherly had a son with his first wife.

"We were married one year and she flew to Mexico and was back in two days with the divorce papers," he said. "She took our son and disappeared moving all over the country."

About a year ago, around the same time he gave up his pigeon, the empty spot in Hetherly's life was unexpectedly filled. He received a phone call from his long lost son.

"When he called, he said, 'Hello, dad. This is your son, Paul.' I almost fell off my chair. He visited for a week last year. I hadn't seen him in 52 years," Hetherly said. "I couldn't get used to calling him son."

But he is getting plenty of opportunities to practice that.

"He calls me every week and he's coming up again in December," said the father, who added with pride: "You know, he's a college professor down in Texas."

___

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