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Serving Princeton, Rosewood, Brogden, E. Johnston Co., W. Wayne Co., North Carolina |
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HeadlinesDelton Toler served his country in World War II Capps comes before election-eve Princeton Board Football: Grudge match ends in Princeton defeat, 39-13 Football: Princeton, Rosewood advance to playoffs Golf: PHS's Mileski takes 75th Cross-Country: Lady Dawgs at XC finals Student ambassadors team up with Habitat Veterans, bring your memorabilia to Princeton's Veterans Day celebration! Photos Football: Princeton at Rosewood Obituaries Movies American Gangster
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Delton Toler served his country in World War IIBy Barry Merrill 7 November 2007 — The man who came up with the idea for a Princeton Veteran’s Day Celebration will find himself in the middle of things, as the Grand Marshal for the parade on Saturday. Delton Toler, who is the father of the organizer, Teri Sutton, was tapped this year to serve as honoree this year. “She told me I was going to do it, so I guess I better,” Mr. Toler said Thursday.
Mr. Toler recalls, during a Bluegrass Festival in the town several years ago, suggesting to Mayor Don Rains, “Princeton has never done anything to acknowledge what (World War II Veterans) Raymond and Bill Joe (Sugg) had done.” Mayor Rains put the suggestion of a Veteran’s Celebration in the capable hands of Mr. Toler’s daughter. Four years ago the two Sugg brothers served as the first grand marshals. Mr. Toler is a bit younger than the Suggs, and wasn’t called into the service until late in World War II. He was working on the family farm on Toler Road, on the Wayne-Johnston county line, just off Old Hinton Road. His grandfather had bought the farm in 1919. His father, Richard Leslie Toler, was a World War I veteran. He remembers as he was growing up that the school bus didn’t come this way, so he and those from the area walked to Princeton School. As he got older, he eventually had a bicycle to ride to school, and later a bus would come down Old Hinton Road to take them to the school with only 11 grades, like school was back then. As Mr. Toler was nearing 18, like many of the other young men in the area, he received his notice that he was being drafted into the service. He entered the Army at Ft. Bragg in May of 1945, and he went through training at Camp Croft near Spartanburg, SC, and further training at Camp Pickett and Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia. “We were training for the invasion of Japan,” he recalled. His unit was getting ready to leave for the Pacific when news of the atomic bombs and the Japanese surrender changed things for Mr. Toler. Twenty-five from his unit were pulled out to go to Europe instead. In September of 1945 they headed across the Atlantic and members of his unit went to France and Germany. He wound up at the 7th Army Headquarters in Germany, was assigned to the Military Police (MP’s) and was assigned to a former German air base in Giessen, which was used as a base depot. His unit was to provide security on the base.
The experience moved him, as the German people, who had surrendered four months earlier, were just trying to survive. “The Germans didn’t have anything to eat.” The bombings had wrecked the towns and with the government gone, the economic system in the country was gone. He saw people asking for the soldiers’ leftover food. They asked to eat out of their mess kits after the soldiers were through eating, before they washed their mess kits. He said that some of the soldiers would callously dump out their food in front of the starving people, but many would respond and offer what they had left. He said that many of the grateful Germans would wash up the mess kits for the soldiers in appreciation for their sharing. “They were nice, smart people. They were just doing what they were told to do, just like we were doing,” Mr. Toler reflected. He noted that the U.S. didn’t have the capacity to help feed the country when they went over there, but through the Marshall Plan, our country stepped up to help them get back on their feet. He spent a year in Germany serving, and when he got home, there was no real time for celebration, as everyone was so happy just to be back. There were some who didn’t come home. For whatever reasons, it seems the WWII vets have a different attitude than those who served in more recent wars, he says. After he completed his service, he went back to the family farm. In 1952 he was courting a Wilsons Mills girl, Betty Gwenn Johnson, who became his wife. She moved into the Toler family home, but the next year they began building the home they presently live in. Like many other area farmers, he took a day job, going to work at the Carolina Power and Light Lee Plant on the Neuse River, and continued to work with them for 35 years. Delton and Betty raised three fine girls. In addition to Teri, who is married to Billy Sutton, lives in Princeton, and works at O’Berry as a secretary, Elizabeth Kay Radford is a CPA who is married and lives across Toler Road, but works for the Governor in his budget office. Their third daughter, Dale Mace, is also married and is a teacher in Dunn. Saturday we will celebrate our brave men and women like Delton Toler who left home and family to serve. And were changed by the experience.
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