KIRWAN HONORED AS VETERAN OF THE MONTH

The Wagner American Legion Auxiliary Greer Unit #11 is honoring Michael Kirwan as June’s Veteran of the Month. Michael Kirwan was drafted by the Army on January 19th 1951; he was 18 years old. He was the only man drafted from the area that he knew of when he left for his draft physical. Mike completed his basic training in Fort Riley, Kansas. He spent 16 weeks in total doing both his basic and infantry training all at Fort Riley. After completing his training, Mike can remember the Army officials putting up the list of where all of the soldiers were headed to after training concluded. Everyone in the unit thought that they would be headed to Korea, but in fact the group was dispersed to one of three areas. Some were to stay in the United States and be stationed, other soldiers were stationed in Europe and the rest of the unit was sent to Korea. Mike was a part of the group that was to be stationed in Europe. Mike said that he would never forget how he felt when he saw Europe next to his name.