BY TED POTTS
WESTMONT — The military always has been a big part of Harry Muncert’s life.
Muncert, a Westmont resident, is 85 and a World War II Navy veteran. He looks at least 10 years younger, perhaps because of his active involvement with a number of local veterans organizations.
He is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Conemaugh Valley Veterans, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Fleet Reserve Association and the Retired Enlisted Association.
He was in the Naval Reserve for 35 years.
During World War II, he served most of his duty aboard a newly commissioned rescue tug known as ATR 60. The tug had a crew of 65 – 60 enlisted and five officers. The tug mainly delivered various supplies to Navy outlets throughout the Caribbean. When the war ended, the tug returned to many of those bases, retrieving those same supplies for a return to its home port in Trinidad, Muncert said.
He enlisted in the Navy in March 1943. After completing basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, he was assigned to a torpedo testing range on Long Island. He soon requested a transfer to sea duty, saying “sailors belong on water, not land.”
He got his wish and was assigned to a tanker that hauled aviation fuel. With Muncert on board, the tanker carried a load of fuel to North Africa, the longest sojourn he had outside the United States.
He said he never saw an enemy submarine.
“But I don’t know if they ever saw me,” he added.
He left Navy active duty as a water tender second class, a designation no longer in use. It has been absorbed into a general engineering specialty, he said.
Muncert believes strongly that each veteran deserves all honors coming his or her way.
“No matter what their job or where they were assigned, he or she is a veteran and deserving of those honors,” he said with emphasis.
He said the World War II Recognition Ceremony held in the spring of 2008 at Cambria County War Memorial Arena was a major highlight for him.
Muncert was one of those instrumental in the ceremony’s planning as a member of Conemaugh Valley Veterans, which spearheaded the event.
He was one of several volunteers who spent countless hours calling World War II veterans who had indicated they planned to attend, asking them if their names were spelled correctly, if they needed transportation or medical assistance and similar questions. He personally delivered medals and citations to a number of veterans who were unable to attend the program.
That task brought tears to his eyes at several stops.
“I enjoyed the Navy and my time in the Reserves,” Muncert said. “That’s why I stay active with veterans groups.
“If it wasn’t for the veterans and the sacrifices they made to keep our democracy, we could be under someone else’s rule,” he said.
Muncert favors universal military training.
“I think it would give some of our young people direction and make them appreciate their country more,” he said.
Throughout his years in the Navy and Naval Reserve, Muncert said he has served aboard aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, ammunition ships, repair ships, tankers and an amphibious landing ship.
But no battleship.
“I had always hoped to be assigned to a battleship,” he said.
He rose to the rank of master chief petty officer in the Reserves.
He credits his involvement with the Navy and veterans groups with helping him keep a young outlook.
Muncert married the former Elizabeth Anne Sharpe of Ferndale on July 2, 1949, at Second Presbyterian Church in Moxham. They now attend First Presbyterian Church on Lincoln Street downtown. There is a daughter, Deborah Hartland of Upper Yoder Township, and a son, Eric, of Westmont. There are four grandchildren.
Harry Muncert is a graduate of the former Southmont High School.
