Longtime Noel resident Floyd Fine is a veteran of two wars.
He grew up in Noel but graduated from high school in Pineville because his father was the sheriff and the family moved to Pineville for that job. He graduated high school in 1942 and went into the Navy for two years and two months during World War II. He was a combat air crewman and an aerial gunner.
"I was in the South Pacific. We were flying mostly missions along the China coast and in the Philippines. They were long, 12-, 13-hour night missions. We were bombing and strafing whatever we could find," he said.
When the war ended, he was in Borneo, a large island in the South Pacific. He had to wait two months to get on a ship to get back to the United States.
"I wanted to go home," he said.
After he got discharged from the Navy, it was difficult to find a job, he said.
"All these guys coming home looking for a job -- it was tough," he said.
He went to the West Coast and got a job at a Dodge plant for a while, then worked in a forest, cutting trees in Ukiah, Calif., for about a month. Then he headed to Long Beach, Calif., looking for a job. He went to a bar one night and sat down beside a Marine and started talking about how difficult it was to find a job. The Marine suggested he join the Marine Corps, so he joined the active reserves as a corporal. He stayed in the reserves and brought his family out to California. When the Korean War started, he went active duty and spent 13 months in Korea as a technical sergeant.
After that he was stationed at Sandia Base in Albuquerque, N.M. He retired from the Marines and went to work for McDonald Aircraft in St. Louis, Mo., where he worked for 18 and a half years. He traveled extensively with that job. He retired and came back to Noel in 1982.
Back in Noel, he worked at the golf course for a while. He was mayor twice. He had a bar at the golf course for two years. He sold it in 1996 and built his house. Now, he said, he doesn't do much except watch television and go to the casino sometimes.
"I always wanted to come back to Noel," he said. "I've been everywhere. Been to England, been to Panama. I always wanted to come back to Noel."
General News on 03/23/2017