Today's Features

    Destroyer sailors don’t expect a smooth ride when they ship out aboard a tin can, the nickname these fast warships acquired.
    With hulls that are long in comparison to their beam, destroyers are built for speed. Photos, particularly of older destroyers, will often show one of these ships riding over the crest of a swell with its bow completely out of the water. Back in 1952, Bruce Clarke, who owns a farm in Chamblissburg, had a rougher ride than normal when his destroyer struck a mine.

    Esmond Eugene Cocke, who lives north of Bedford, was living on a 400-acre farm where his father was a share-cropper, raising corn, cattle and pigs, when Uncle Sam sent him a written invitation to participate in World War II.

    It was 1943; Cocke was 18.
    “They gave me a choice when I went in,” he said. It would be a life-altering decision.

    One of the current residents of the Elks National Home originally lived there for a couple of years as a teenager during World War II.

    Sheridan Besosa was 13 and living in Puerto Rico when the United States entered the war.

Jane Amnott, now 91, has had a very active life. Even now, she’s still involved in the Keep Bedford Beautiful Committee (KBBC).

    “I was there last night,” she said when interviewed for this story.