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Proclamation honoring Mr. Peter “Pete” Seddon Edwards, Jr. upon his 100th birthday.
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WHEREAS, on January 2, 1921, Peter “Pete” Seddon Edwards, Jr. was born to Helen Pinkham Edwards and Peter Seddon Edwards, Sr.; and
WHEREAS, Pete attended a one-room schoolhouse on Irishtown Road in Bethel Park, PA; and
WHEREAS, Pete graduated from Bethel Park High School at the age of 17 and while attending high school worked at his family’s lumberyard unloading lumber and doing other odd jobs; and
WHEREAS, in order to prepare for college, Pete attended Mercersburg Academy where he played football, basketball and baseball; and
WHEREAS, Pete attended Colgate University in Hamilton, New York where he majored in Economics; and
WHEREAS, after hearing about Pearl Harbor, Pete enlisted in the in the US Army Air Corp on August 12, 1942; and
WHEREAS, Pete graduated a semester early in December of 1942, and in April of 1943 entered active duty as an Aviation Cadet, receiving his wings and Second Lieutenant’s bars in March of 1944; and
WHEREAS, in order to fly as a pilot, Pete had surgery to correct a deviated septum at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh; there he met Ruth Hay, a nurse from Somerset, PA. They dated for six weeks before Pete had to leave for training. Ruth visited him at training camp in Moultrie, Georgia where they were married on March 17, 1944 in the chapel at Spence Field; and
WHEREAS, in August of 1944, Pete traveled by troop ship to Italy where he was stationed in San Sevaro and Mondolfo from September 1944 to May of 1945, he flew 49 missions as a bomber escort in a P-51 Mustang; and
WHEREAS, because of his construction knowledge in remodeling a building for a mess hall, Pete was chosen to travel to Rome to purchase furniture for the mess hall. There, he was blessed by the Pope and had time to visit famous churches and the Coliseum; and
WHEREAS, in February of 1945, Pete was promot...
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