Enticed by early indications of spring, Mark Keane, a World War II veteran and former Tucson city manager, took a walk in West Sedona.
He stood quietly watching several skateboarders through a chainlink fence in Jack Malmgren Memorial Skate Park.
Keane said he always loved school, and after graduating from high school in 1937, he enrolled in Purdue University on an academic scholarship.
By the time he graduated from Purdue in 1941, WWII was in full swing. A colonel in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, Keane was quickly scooped up by the U.S. Army, placed into an officer position and ordered to train new recruits.
Before long, he and his recruits — part of the 85th Infantry Division — were deployed to North Africa.
Enticed by early indications of spring, Mark Keane, a World War II veteran and former Tucson city manager, took a walk in West Sedona.
He stood quietly watching several skateboarders through a chainlink fence in Jack Malmgren Memorial Skate Park.
Keane said he always loved school, and after graduating from high school in 1937, he enrolled in Purdue University on an academic scholarship.
By the time he graduated from Purdue in 1941, WWII was in full swing. A colonel in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, Keane was quickly scooped up by the U.S. Army, placed into an officer position and ordered to train new recruits.
Before long, he and his recruits — part of the 85th Infantry Division — were deployed to North Africa.
The Germans had a strong presence there at the time, according to Keane, but they soon moved out following the arrival of the 85th. The division was then sent to southern Italy where it saw combat almost immediately.
“My God, I’ll never forget going into the line the first time,” Keane said. “As we drove up in the trucks, we could hear the German artillery shells coming at us.”
The Italian Army was taking a lot of damage, so American, British and other Allied Forces took over most of the fighting, according to Keane.
The 85th spent two and a half years in combat in Italy, but Keane never once got hit, he said. He was one of the lucky ones.
For more on this story, please see Page 5A of the Friday, March 21 issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
— Tyler Midkiff
