Schenectady veteran, 95, has been organizing a Flag Day celebration for more than 15 years
Every day Fred Randall looks out his window at the American flag, but he sees what’s behind the stars and stripes.
Born and having lived in Schenectady for the majority of his life, Randall has called the Schaffer Heights Senior Apartments his home for 16 years. Even now at 95 years old, Randall has boundless energy and enthusiasm for his Flag Day celebration, which he has organized at the senior apartments every year he has lived there.
Every year, he makes sure a new flag is raised in a show of pride.
I’m a WWII veteran, and I very seriously love that flag out there, said Randall. `It is really a part of my life. I was in the National Guard from the time that I was 17.`
He said the crowd he gets at the event is always a good turnout. Various representatives have also attended throughout the years. Hesaid former Mayor Brian Stratton attended the event every year he was in office.
In preparation, Randall had his uniform hanging off a door in his apartment.
`My uniform is hanging right there on the door. I wear it once a year. I used to wear it every day, but those days are gone,` he said.
The days of active duty might be behind him, but his passion for playing drums is still strong to this day. At the Flag Day event, on Thursday, June 16, he even will be playing with a 15-piece band.
`When it comes time to play, I feel like a 10-year-old,` he said. `I have played since I was 9, and I think it has kept me young.`
A picture hanging in his den shows him with a band he formed in Wurzburg, Germany, while he was on active duty.
Randall’s wife, Marion, who died in 2005, always supported him playing the drums.
`She was always in favor of my playing,` said Randall.
Randall has also actively volunteered for many years and has received a number of honors for his efforts. He said he just enjoys being able to help people.
Randall credits his health to being active throughout his life.
`If I don’t [remain active], I get lazy and then I get fat,` joked Randall. `I got to keep going. I was this morning, for an hour, over at Sunnyview in the gym doing exercises.`
Service memories
When he was in the National Guard, he also took pictures for the state and one memory remains alive through a picture hanging on his wall. The picture shows a 155 mounted canon of the 209th Artillery of the 27th Infantry Division at Fort Drum. The picture shows the cannon directly upon firing with a plume of smoke coming out.
`[Sgt. Pat Pugsley] kept taking pictures and pictures and pictures of every time they fired the 155,` he said. ` I was sitting in the jeep and it was raining and I got a little pissed off at him and I turned around with my little camera and took his picture of him taking pictures in the rain and that was what came out.`
The picture, taken in 1972, was printed in the Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper, Randall recounted with pride.
In 1944, Randall was drafted into military service in his mid 20’s. He served during the final two years of the World War II. In the Army, he was a sergeant with the Army’s First Division and lived through various battles.
The good times and experiences are what he likes to share though.
`I do not quote anything that happened in the war. I won’t talk about it, I won’t think about it. It is too much,` he said.
Through his military background, he has gained a deeper understanding of what the American flag stands for.
`A flag to me is my emerald,` he said. `When I wake up and I am in an apartment where I can look out and see that my flag is there so I made it a point just to get out there and see to it that there is a new one every year.`
As long as he is at the senior apartment complex, he plans to keep doing the event.
`I probably will do it until they take me out of here in a box,` he said.
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