Submitted photo John Mashiska, right, and his childhood best friend, Sam Calaizzi, were drafted into the Army together in June of 1951. However, they were granted a one-month delay because Mashiska was getting married a few days after receiving his draft notice and Calaizzi was his best man.

AUSTINTOWN — John Mashiska said he didn’t volunteer for military service because he figured if the military wanted him, it would find him.

He was right. He got his draft notice from the U.S. Army in June of 1951, just two years after he graduated from Youngstown East High School and while he was attending New Castle Business School. Fortunately, Uncle Sam allowed him to delay his entry for a month because the notice came several days before he was to marry his high school sweetheart, Beverly.

Also receiving a draft notice the same day was his childhood friend, Sam Calaizzi, who also got a delayed entry because he was the best man in Mashiska’s wedding.

Mashiska, who will turn 93 in December, entered the Army on July 9, 1951, while working at Truscon Steel on Youngstown’s East Side.

“I was mad when I got my draft letter. I was getting married,” he said.

He did his six weeks of basic training at Fort Lee, Va. Calaizzi went to Kentucky as part of a tank unit, so he and Mashiska did not see each other again until they both returned home. Calaizzi returned first because he was hit by shrapnel in the back.

“I was in administration. I knew that going to business school would work to my advantage somehow,” Mashiska said with a chuckle.

After basic training, Mashiska said he was put on a boat and sent right to Korea.

“They didn’t waste any time,” he said.

He was assigned to the 849th Quartermaster Petrol Supply Company, which was responsible for overseeing the petroleum, oil and gas used in the planes and Jeeps, and for lighting and heating purposes.

Mashiska said he did not see combat because he was in administration but, one time, the North Koreans tried to bomb his unit’s campsite in Incheon, Korea. He said if the bombing had been successful, it would have set their entire campsite on fire because of all the combustible liquids.

When asked if he had ever been shot at, Mashiska replied, “Not that I know of. I was lucky.”

He said once a group of Japanese men approached him and two other soldiers and asked them to purchase a money order at the post office. Mashiska said he and his fellow soldiers did so, but when asked a second time a few days later, Masishka made the money order out to his wife and mailed it home.

“It was $600. That was a lot of money, and we realized the Japanese soldiers probably used it to buy ammunition for the enemy, so I didn’t feel bad about it,” he said.

Mashiska said he worked hard because he wanted to make corporal so he could get paid more, noting his wife was working at Livingston’s in downtown Youngstown at the time. He was paid $374.30 per month by the Army.

He eventually was promoted to corporal, but he was discharged a short time later on June 10, 1953, from Custer, Mich.

“I never had to fire my weapon while I was in Korea. I was fortunate,” Mashiska said.

He said one of his best memories from the service was going to Okinawa, Japan, for rest and relaxation, and also seeing a USO show at the base.

After returning from the war, he got his job back at Truscon Steel, but was laid off. He was laid off from several jobs before working for 22 years as a production supervisor at Youngstown Steel Door. He lost his job there in 1985 and then worked at a rubber plant in Carey, Pa., for four years. He worked part-time for about five years at Sears in Austintown before officially retiring.

John Mashiska

AGE: 92

RESIDENCE: Austintown

SERVICE BRANCH: Army

MILITARY HONORS: Overseas Campaign Medal and Good Conduct Medal

OCCUPATION: various steel companies, Youngstown Steel Door for 22 years

FAMILY: wife, Beverly, of 66 years (died in October 2017); daughters, Lynn Yovanovich and Phyllis Miller, and son, John, all of Austintown; five grandsons, including one set of triplets, and a great-grandson due in December