Everett Behrens of Towamensing plans to spend Veterans Day at home. He will display the American flag. He will quietly reflect about the service he gave to his country 68 years ago.

"I have no regrets," he says of his service during World War II and later, the Korean War.January 31, 1943, Everett and seven friends enlisted in the United States Navy. He was 18 years old."I liked boats. I grew up on Long Island Sound. I thought it was the best way to serve my country," he says of his choice of the Navy.On Feb. 7, Everett and his friends departed from the railroad station in New Rochelle, New York, their hometown. It was his first serious time away from home.Everett's father died when he was nine years old. As one of six kids, he did what he could to help his mother by cleaning the high school and getting paid $6.27 a week, which all went to help support his family. When he was 16, he got his working papers and worked for Western Union delivering telegrams for 31 cents an hour."No one liked delivering the singing telegrams, so I did it. You got good tips from them. It all went to my mother."He graduated from Albert Leonard High School and nine months later, he was at Camp Perry, VA. He did boot camp and advanced training with the United States Marine Corps.From there Everett went to Bainbridge, Maryland and shortly after, to 52nd St. and 1st Ave. in New York to the Armed Guard Center as a gunner's mate, second class."We were told we were going to be put on a Merchant Marine ship as guards," he says.It was the beginning of an amazing journey he never could have imagined, with stops for unloading and reloading cargo in Boston, Halifax-Nova Scotia, St. John's-Newfoundland, Iceland and Greenland.On their way to Cuba they got stuck in a storm for 10 days. The ship lost its lifeboats and gangplank."They thought we had been lost at sea but we arrived safely in Santiago, Cuba. We were glad to see land."When the ship arrived back in New York, Everett was transferred to another ship, the SS Ezra Weston, and it headed to Southampton, England in a convoy of "500 or more ships. It was quite a sight."From there the ship went to Wales and then on to Normandy, France."We got there June 6, 1944 and unloaded troops for the invasion on Omaha Beach. From there we went to Utah Beach and unloaded the rest of the troops. We were shelled with 88s. A few of the soldiers that were on board were curious and went out to see what was going on. They were killed," he recalls sadly.He remembers vividly the bodies of soldiers in the water from that bloodbath. It's not something he'll ever forget.Was he afraid?"No. There's no fear of death at that age. I think that's why soldiers are so young."His ship traveled to Cherbourg, France, going back and forth to Liverpool to restock. On one such voyage back to France, they set off in a 10-ship convoy with one escort of a Canadian corvette."It was late in the day when we were torpedoed by a German sub off Falmouth, England. It cut the ship in half. The sub was between us and land. We were told to get off the ship and into the lifeboats. We were headed to the corvette to be picked up, about 1,000 yards away when it was hit. That ship went down in 28 seconds. We picked up about 80 percent of their men and we were all picked up by another ship and were taken to Falmouth. Our ship gently broke apart and sank in about 200 feet of water," says Everett.From Falmouth, they were taken to Glasgow, Scotland and given English uniforms to wear."I was allergic to wool and had quite an unpleasant time."They boarded the Queen Elizabeth II which took them back to New York harbor. He and some of his mates were sent to a rest camp in Florida for 15 days."That was very nice," he smiles at the memory.When he got back to New York, he boarded a T2 tanker, the SS Waxsaw, loaded with high octane gasoline and headed for the Persian Gulf, going through the Suez Canal."We anchored in Port Said. When we threw off the garbage, people came out in boats to scavenger for food."His ship made stops in Burma, India, Tasmania, Melbourne-Australia and then on to the Panama Canal."We were on the Atlantic side. We were given shore duty until another ship came to pick us up."The war ended and Everett was discharged. He joined the active reserves and got a second class builder's badge because he was a carpenter by trade.He moved back home to New Rochelle. It was while he was at boot camp in Little Creek, Virginia, for the Naval Reserves that the Korean War broke out. He was sent to Port Hueneme, California where he boarded a ship that sailed to Seattle to pick up supplies for the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific Ocean to build a base. There had been an old Army base there."There were no trees. Just tundra. And it was real cold. We built a base, living in quonset huts left over from the Army in 1943. We used the hanger as the chow hall and went there for showers. We unearthed a lot of equipment that had been buried by the Army before they left. It filled up three ships full and was shipped back to the states. I was put in charge of building a few schools on the base and before I knew it, the war was over and I was discharged in December of 1951."When Everett returned, he got married and moved to Staten Island. He worked for H.O. Penn and retired in 1986. He and his then wife, Ruth, have two children, a son, Everett, now of Deerfield Beach, Florida, and a daughter, Alice, now in Raleigh, NC. He has two granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.After he retired, he bought a motor home and did a lot of traveling.He and his wife, Marge, live in Trachsville with "our little angel" Candy, an eight-year-old Shih Tzu.As he reflects on his military service, he says "Today they call veterans Heroes. We were never called heroes. It was my job. I fought for my country to make it safe for everybody back home."