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appalachiablue

(42,984 posts)
Sun Feb 4, 2024, 05:52 PM Feb 2024

96 Year Old Veteran Receives High School Diploma, Left School to Serve in WW2

- 96-year-old veteran finally receives diploma after leaving high school to serve in WWII, USA TODAY, Jan. 24, 2024.

A Rhode Island man who left high school nearly 80 years ago to serve in World War II has finally received his diploma thanks to loved ones who believed in him. Arthur Masterson, 96, joined the U.S. Navy in April 1945, during his senior year in the East Greenwich Public Schools system, said his daughter, Elaine Vespia.

He served in the Navy for 11 months, and after that, he was drafted into the U.S. Army for the Korean War. He never returned to school, but once his time in the military came to an end, he worked as a milkman and later for the United States Postal Service, where he retired, his daughter told USA TODAY on Friday.

Vespia said their family was spending time together around Thanksgiving when her son-in-law, a history buff, found old paperwork that said Masterson had left school to join the military. “I knew he never graduated,” Vespia said. “I just didn't know why he didn't graduate. It was never anything he talked about.”

She suspects a high school education wasn’t as important then as it is now, she said. After learning why he never graduated, her son-in-law had an idea: to reach out to the school division and get him an honorary diploma. Vespia, who works for the town of East Greenwich, where her father grew up and went to school, emailed Superintendent Brian Ricca, who responded almost immediately...Video,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/militarykind/2024/01/24/arthur-masterson-wwii-veteran-high-school-diploma/72311005007/

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96 Year Old Veteran Receives High School Diploma, Left School to Serve in WW2 (Original Post) appalachiablue Feb 2024 OP
My father left school at 12 to support marybourg Feb 2024 #1
Good for him, so dedicated to family, learning and appalachiablue Feb 2024 #2
Thank you for that. marybourg Feb 2024 #3

marybourg

(13,201 posts)
1. My father left school at 12 to support
Sun Feb 4, 2024, 06:31 PM
Feb 2024

his mother and younger siblings (his mother refused to accept welfare). When he retired from factory work at 65, he took classes and got his GED, then audited classes at the City Uni of NY. He read a newspaper (and not a tabloid one) every day of his working life., and was very well informed and a staunch Democrat.

appalachiablue

(42,984 posts)
2. Good for him, so dedicated to family, learning and
Sun Feb 4, 2024, 06:38 PM
Feb 2024

working hard. That kind of dedication and strength is admirable and rare. Big thanks for sharing his story.

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