Celebrating the service of Charles Fullmer to his country at the Jan. 25 meeting of the Bradford County Commissioners were (top, front, from left) Helen and Charles Fullmer, Christine Snyder, (back) county veterans affairs director Pete Miller, and commissioners Ed Bustin, Doug McLinko, and Daryl Miller. Above, Fullmer reacts to the presentation of a new Marine Corps uniform and hat from Miller.
Photos and Story by Rick Hiduk
Charles Fullmer of Wells Township, received a number of belated gifts arranged by Bradford County Veterans Affairs director Pete Miller with help from Fullmer’s family on Thursday. Attending the regular meeting of the Bradford County Commissioners with his wife, Ellen, Fullmer took home a new Marine Corps uniform and regulation white cap, as well as a handmade quilt from the Quilt of Valor Foundation.
According to Ellen, to whom Fullmer has been married for 72 years, Charles served in the Pacific Theater, where he took photos during surveillance and reconnaissance flights over enemy-held territories. He would then to help assemble and interpret the photos before giving instructions to bomber and fighter pilots.
“Now they do that with drones,” Fullmer remarked.
He was discharged from the service in 1946 with less than a hundred dollars, forty two dollars of which was earmarked to getting him back home to Philadelphia, where he lived at the time. He had been engaged to Ellen since 1942, and they were married a short time later. They have three sons with military history, one who served in Vietnam and two in Europe.
Carol Ullo and Cathy Shoemaker represented Quilts of Valor, an organization that has awarded more than 150,000 quilts to veterans since 2003. The quilts, Ullo (below, right) noted, are traditionally presented with a hug. “We hope that when you experience dark times or need the warmth of a grateful hug that you will wrap this quilt around you…”
Pete Miller credited the couple’s daughter, Laura Fullmer, Marine Corps League representative Roy Shrimp, assistant Veterans Affairs director Gene Barrett, and his own son with tying up the loose ends and helping to make the moment possible. The couple’s granddaughter, Christine Snyder, had driven in from West Chester for the event. Fullmer was surprised and humbled by their efforts.
“I appreciate it more than you know,” he stated after many “thank yous.”
Redistricting Mandate Sparks Debate
Recent news of mandated redistricting in Pennsylvania sparked a brief, but lively conversation among the commissioners on Thursday. While in general agreement that gerrymandering has gotten out of hand in several parts of the state and needs to be addressed, they felt that the recent court ruling was enacted too quickly and without enough consideration.
“Who’s going to be the unbiased individual to make these changes?” Commissioner Ed Bustin proposed.
“There’s a system in place,” said Commissioner Daryl Miller. “It’s to be done every 10 years.” Not only could the rapid change create a quagmire for election officials in every county, he suggested, everything will have to change again in 2020, after the next census.
Township Supervisor Asks for COG Support
Longtime Windham Township supervisor Gail Bowen asked the commissioners if one of them could join him at the next meeting of the Council of Governments (COG) and help rural municipalities make a stronger impression in Harrisburg on several matter about which Bowen feels state legislators are clueless. Among them are consistent property assessments and flooding issues. On the latter, the commissioners were in full agreement.
“It’s a mind-numbingly slow process,” Commissioner Miller stated. “But we are making progress.”
Regionalized flooding events, the likes of which has plagued Bradford County in recent years, are too quickly forgotten by Harrisburg, Commissioner Doug McLinko agreed. First responders often bare the brunt of the responsibility, he added, risking their own lives to rescue residents from remote areas that have no history of flooding.
Bowen (above) suggested that the concept of pouring money into Chesapeake Bay-based organizations that want to fix the problems of the waterways from the watershed, up, is backwards. “We need to start at the headwaters and work our way down,” he asserted, receiving nods of agreement from the commissioners.
In response to his request, Bustin agreed to attend the next COG meeting with Bowen.
Additional Photos:
Listening to the presentation by Quilts of Valor representative Carol Ullo
Charles Fullmer checks out the detail of the label sewn into the quilt with Quilts of Valor representative Cathy Shoemaker.