Slinger, WI – On Saturday, November 9, 2021, 75-year-old Air Force veteran Michael Carney of the Town of Polk will be joining seven other vets on the Stars & Stripes Honor Flight along with his granddaughter, Haley, of Fond du Lac, WI.
In 1964, Carney was working at a Kroger grocery store in Greendale, WI, when one of his co-workers was drafted into the United States Marine Corps. Instead of waiting to be drafted, Carney decided he wanted to follow in the military career of his military veteran father whose duties included copying Morse code.
So Carney enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 19, obtained a top-secret, special background investigation clearance, and became part of the Air Force Security Guard, working as an electronics spy. “It was all communications; I did radio work,” said Carney.
Carney learned one year after his enlistment that his co-worker “was killed by small arms fire in Vietnam.”
Carney attended boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and went on to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS, to learn international morse code. He went directly from Biloxi to the area of Brindisi, Italy and joined the 6917th Security Group out of San Candido de Normandie. His last 10 months were spent serving in southeast Asia with the 6924th Security Group. “We were copying [Morse code] in different countries over in southeast Asia. We had three units—two were in Vietnam and one was in Thailand.”
After Carney was discharged from the Air Force he went back to the grocery store he worked at prior to enlistment. Carney met his wife, Joan, through a blind date set up by a co-worker. “She was a good listener, a very quiet person,” said Carney, which he said was a good combination because he is a self-proclaimed “blabbermouth.”
They were married not long afterward. At the insistence of his father, he went on under the GI Bill to obtain his Master’s Degree in education from the National College of Education and taught third grade for 30 years in the Slinger School District. He spent another 10 years working at Sycamore Tree Daycare in Hartford, WI. “I love working with kids,” said Carney, “I’m just a big kid myself.”
Carney and his wife, Joan, have two adopted daughters and three grandchildren. They were married nearly 50 years; Joan passed away approximately one year ago.
Carney received an honorable discharge along with the Vietnam Service Ribbon, Department of Defense Ribbon and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. He belongs to VFW Zunker-Held Post 3358 out of Slinger. He is looking forward to seeing the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. as well as Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Other veterans from Washington County on the Saturday, November 6, 2021 flight include:
Army Veteran Thomas Buschke of Hartford
Army Veteran Charles McCormick of West Bend
Coast Guard Veteran Kenneth Weddig of Kewaskum
Army Veteran Glenn Bogenschneider of Slinger
Army Veteran Michael Darvin of Hartford
Air Force Veteran Thomas Albinger of West Bend
Army Veteran Donald Pape of West Bend
Stars and Stripes Honor Flight is the Milwaukee area hub of the Honor Flight Network. Founded in 2008, Stars and Stripes Honor Flight has flown more than 7,600 WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans from southeastern Wisconsin on one day, all-expenses-paid trips to Washington D.C.
