Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505080061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Monday, which marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, is a big day for World War II veterans; but today is something special for a Botetourt County man who served in an earlier war.
Hayden Via was 21 years old in 1918 when he shipped to France as an infantryman in the 82nd Division.
Now 98 and a resident of the Veterans Care Center at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salem, Via remembers the rides in the boxcars, the long marches, the nights spent in French barns and the roar of Big Bertha, a huge German cannon.
Tonight, at a dinner at the center, the Roanoke Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Association will recognize Via as the division's oldest living veteran, a fact confirmed through division records by Robert Brown, a chapter member who volunteers at the center. Via served in Company E of the 325th Infantry.
The division has a well-known history. In World War I, it produced an American legend in Sgt. Alvin York. In World War II, it became a parachute and glider outfit, the 82nd Airborne Division - nicknamed the All American - which took part in campaigns from Sicily through the Battle of the Bulge.
Via was born in Botetourt County and has lived there nearly all his life. Before joining the division, he worked for the C&O Railroad, laying track near the town of Buchanan. When the work ran out, he went to Fincastle and joined the Army.
Via's memory is a little shaky, but he remembers well that while in France, the Army let the officers go to Paris on leave - but not foot soldiers like him.
He arrived in France as a replacement and too late to take part in any major battles, but he remembers the big artillery shells falling nearby for three days straight.
He made friends with a French schoolgirl and remembers sitting by a river with her and other young people watching the water. The girl's father, a mail carrier, wouldn't let just any soldier come around his two daughters, but he let Via. "They treated me nice," he said.
Unlike some soldiers, Via didn't bring a wife home from France, but he did bring back the lice he acquired while sleeping in barns. When the division got back to Long Island, the Navy got rid of the bugs and gave the men new clothes, he said.
After the war, Via worked as a mule skinner at four sawmills, dragging big logs with his team. He married and had two sons, two daughters and one stepdaughter. His wife, Gladys, died in 1985.
Via lost his sight on Valentine's Day 1941, when ammonia exploded at the Cold Spring Creamery where he was working and he was struck in the head by a metal lid.
Up until gallbladder surgery about five months ago, Via was living a fairly independent life at his home in Botetourt County with the help of his housekeeper, Susan Boitnott, who still sits with him at the veterans center.
by CNB