Donald White of Boardman holds a United States Army Training Center Armor, Fort Knox, book. White was stationed at that Army base in Kentucky from 1972 to 1975. Today he serves as commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 2. Staff photo / David Skolnick

BOARDMAN — Donald White spent three years at the Army Training Center Armor at Fort Knox, Ky., training soldiers how to drive tanks and fire weapons.

While White didn’t see any combat, he suffered a bad injury to his left hand when a tank driver moved forward without warning, and the hatch came down on his hand.

“My index finger was shattered and another was broken,” he said. “The (index) finger is still damaged.”

That accident led White, years later, to join the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 2, where he is currently the commander.

The DAV chapter focuses much of its attention on obtaining wheelchairs and scooters for veterans or their family members, White said.

“That’s our big thing,” he said. “We deliver them and get new batteries and make sure veterans can get around.”

The chapter has one of the largest honor guards in the area and often handles those responsibilities at funerals for veterans and other services.

“I’m also a service officer,” White said. “I help with claims on people who were injured while on duty.”

White said he finds the DAV work rewarding.

“We want to assist fellow veterans,” he said.

After graduating from Boardman High School, White chose to join the Army in January 1972. At the time, White said he had a very low number in the military draft, so he decided to enlist first.

He was assigned to Fort Knox and spent all three of his years in the Army at that base.

“It was a good experience,” White said. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it again with the same group of people. We worked a lot, but we had a lot of laughs too.”

While the Vietnam War was ongoing, White never was sent overseas. Shortly after White enlisted, then-President Richard Nixon announced no more soldiers would be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered for such duty.

“I had a sergeant tell me, ‘you’re staying here forever,’ and I was never reassigned from Fort Knox during the three years I was in the Army,” White said. “I did the same thing for three years. I got really good at what I was doing.”

White spent his time going to firing ranges to practice and to teach soldiers how to fire guns and drive tanks.

That sometimes led to mishaps, he said.

“Some of the trainees wouldn’t listen, and we’d have to get a tank out of 4 feet of mud,” White said. “These were 50-ton tanks so it wasn’t easy.”

About half of the U.S. Treasury’s stored gold is kept at Fort Knox. But White said he never got near it.

“It’s on the other side of the base,” he said. “You’d look over there from a distance, and there would be towers so you didn’t want to go anywhere near them. We kind of hoped someone would try (to steal) it so we could get close to the gold vault.”

After his three years were up, White returned to Boardman and got hired by Republic Steel. When it shut down, White was hired by the U.S. Postal Service.

He transported mail to various post offices and express mail to Pittsburgh on a split shift for the first three years.

“I wanted more stability,” White said. “I wanted to see my kids grow up so I got moved to letter carrier. Most of the time I was in Boardman.”

He retired from the postal service in 2015 after 30 years there.

dskolnick@vindy.com