By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — U.S. military veterans George Winn and Charles Rhea have quite a story to tell, and they’re searching for others with similar histories to share.

Retirees Winn, 87, and Rhea, 84, live at Mountain Home in northern Arkansas and are part of a unique group within a unique group of veterans whose military service spanned three major wars in the 20th century — World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

George Winn

They are members of the All 3 War Veterans Association, a national non-profit organization dedicated to tracking down all of the men and women who served in the U.S. Armed Forces — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or Merchant Marines — during those three major conflicts and documenting their stories for future generations.

The association currently has 172 members nationwide.

“We want (more) to join so their names can go in our role of honor,” said Winn, a retired Air Force colonel.

Interestingly, 19 members live in Arkansas, seven of them in Mountain Home.

“There are more All 3 War Veterans in Arkansas than any other state in the union, and right here in Mountain Home we have more All 3 War Veterans that belong to the organization than any other town in the United States,” he said.

Founded in 2004, the association’s objectives are to promote and support the interests of the retired veterans, and to make sure that they are recognized for their achievement and have their stories documented.

Time is of the essence because the veterans are all in their mid-80s or above, Winn said, noting that an estimated 1,000 WWII veterans now die every day.

Charles Rhea

A census by the Veterans Administration in 2006 estimated that 76,000 living Americans were veterans of the three wars.

“They’re all 85 or older, so they’re going fast,” Winn said. “We’re just trying to get as many people as we can to tell their war stories.”

The association holds an annual convention. This year’s convention was in St. Joseph, Mo, and next year’s is May 8-12 in Louisville, Ky.

Winn, who is a regional director in charge of trying to find eligible veterans in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, said that the association’s members include Medal of Honor recipients, and members range in rank from private to brigadier general.

Members of the group are not required to have participated in each of the three military conflicts. However, they are required to have served in the armed forces during that period.

“They all played an integral part in the fulfillment of each war’s military mission,” Winn said.

Winn, who along with Rhea represented the veterans group at the state Capitol earlier this year when it was honored by the state Senate and House, served in the Navy during WWII, mostly in the U.S. as an instructor teaching aviation machinist skills.

After the war, he joined the Air Force, where he served for nearly 30 years, including a stint in Japan as an intelligence/counter intelligence officer providing information to a bomber squadron operating in Korea. He later spent a year in Vietnam — 1971-1972 — commanding a district office of special investigations.

Rhea served two years in the Navy during WWII and was on the USS Ozark during the battle of Iwo Jima. He was pilot of a small boat that transported troops and munitions to the islands during the fierce battles. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Ozark was one of the first ships to enter Tokyo Bay.

After the war, Rhea worked at an oil refinery in Texas before joining the Air Force, where he spent 25 years working in radio operations, mostly at bases in Alaska. He never traveled to Korea or Vietnam.

“I didn’t have to go to either one of those … but you know you always need backup for any war,” he said.

He retired as a senior master sergeant.

Rhea said the All 3 War3 Veterans Association is vital because it is promoting history but also it brings together veterans who have a great deal in common.

“It’s just the relationships you have with all these people,” he said. “You’ve just got something in common to talk about.”

Winn and his wife, Charlene, moved to Mountain Home in 1996 after learning about the community from an Air Force officer while visiting a base in New Mexico.

He said his wife had wanted to retire to a small community with a courthouse square. While driving from Texas to Branson, Mo., he said, they saw a sign for Mountain Home and decided to take a detour.

“We were looking for a place that would be a good retirement community,” he said. “When we drove into town we drove around the square, she looked at me and I looked at her and we nodded and that was our decision to move here.”

Rhea and his wife, Dorothy, settled in Mountain Home in 1979.

“It’s just a great place to live,” he said.

The seven members of the All 3 Wars Veterans Association who live in Mountain Home are good friends and like to visit and talk about their common bonds.

“Most of us are members of the DAV (Disabled American Veterans), American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars,” Winn said. “Most of us are long-term members or life members.”

Along with Rhea and Winn, the other members of the association who live in Mountain Home are Robert Baker and Jack Barnes, who served in the Navy; Robert Clouse and Gene Grossman, who served in the Army; and Robert Thomas, who served in the Air Force.