Edgewater at Boca Pointe, an Acts Retirement-Life Community in Boca Raton, Florida, is proud to be home to 57 veterans, each with their own stories of service and sacrifice. This Veteran’s Day, we pay special tribute to our World War II veterans, whose experiences during a pivotal time in history offer a powerful reminder of courage and resilience. We had the privilege of sitting down with a few of these extraordinary individuals to hear their stories.
Buddy Harris: U.S. Air Force Auxiliary (1943-2011)
Col. Buddy Harris received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor for his WWII Service defending America against the Nazi submarine wolf packs along our Eastern Atlantic coastline and invasion of Nazi saboteurs disembarking from submarines.
Buddy joined the US Air Force Auxiliary and Civil Air Patrol as teenager during the war.
"I was 15 at the time on Dec. 7, 1942, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and immediately volunteered for the Civil Air Patrol." Buddy provided assistance to merchant mariners and members of the Armed Forces whose vessels were torpedoed and to pilots who crash landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaking about Nazi Germany, Buddy said, "It's difficult to imagine how anyone could be so cruel, vicious and inhuman, but evil exists since Adam and Eve. It's very disturbing to think all that effort could be put to a peaceful life, but that's what we fight for and hopefully achieve."
Art Polacheck: US Army Signal Corps (1945-1948)
"I enlisted in the Army Signal Corps when I was only 17," Art said. “First, because all my buddies were doing the same. And second, because I wanted to avoid the draft. Draftees had no say as to where they would be assigned; but as an enlistee, I could specify the branch and skill field I wanted.”
Art’s passion for radio electronics, which he learned as a child living in Chicago, led him to serve as a radio operator. “During the last year of the war, I was on Okinawa, encoding and decoding Morse messages,” he said. “After the surrender, I served in Tokyo, where I even formed a musical trio that entertained troops throughout the island.”
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Bernie Levine: US Navy (1944-1947)
Bernie also enlisted at 17. “After graduating from high school, I found a job in a factory making radio condensers,” he said. “But I knew I would be drafted as soon as I turned 18. So, in May 1944, one month before my 18th birthday, I enlisted in the merchant marine, which, during the war years, was part of the US Navy.”
Assigned to a liberty ship, Bernie carried essential supplies across the Atlantic. *“In fact, mine was one of the first liberty ships to cross without convoy protection,” he remembers. After Germany's surrender, his ship sailed to Italy to bring US military personnel home. “Some of them would then be transferred to Japan.”
Jerry Kaliner: US Navy (1945-1946)
Jerry's determination to serve led him to convince his parents to let him enlist at 17. “I drove them crazy, but eventually they agreed,” he laughed. After basic training in New York, Jerry found himself on a minesweeper in the Pacific. “Even after the surrender, it was dangerous. We had to detect and detonate mines,” he recalled. “One of those explosions sank a minesweeper patrolling alongside my ship.”
Later, Jerry was transferred to a Command Staff ship bound for the Bikini Atoll, where he witnessed the first post-war nuclear tests. "It was a surreal experience," he said.
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Harold Katz: US Army (1944-1946)
Harold Katz was pulled from the Connecticut College of Pharmacy by the draft in 1944. “By the spring of 1945, I was living in a tent on a beach on Cebu in the Philippines, waiting for the Japanese to come out of the hills,” he said.
After the war, he used his pharmaceutical training to run a medical dispensary in Yokohama, Japan. “I treated cuts, bruises, and non-combat wounds, and administered penicillin to GIs who had been both active and indiscreet,” he added. Harold fondly remembers the Japanese people he met: “They were kind and gentle.” Harold also seized the opportunity to climb Mount Fuji during his time in Japan.
Edgewater at Boca Pointe is proud to honor these heroes who sacrificed so much during World War II. Their stories remind us of the bravery, resilience, and camaraderie that defined a generation. We thank them—and all veterans—for their service to our nation.