Melvin W. Iseneker

BOONVILLE — Melvin W. Iseneker, 83, Summit Street, formerly of Thornton Avenue, died Sunday after a long illness at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Utica.

Prior to military service, Mr. Iseneker worked several jobs in Boonville, including making butter and cheese at Sheffield Milk Plant. Returning to Boonville after service, he operated his own lumberjack taxi service for a time and March 12, 1951, became a rural mail carrier out of the Boonville Post Office, retiring May 26, 1973.

Born Jan. 23, 1925, in Boonville, a son of Albert J. and Florence Bougeois Iseneker, he grew up on Ann Street and attended Boonville High School until age 16. He later received his general equivalency diploma. Mr. Iseneker graduated in July 1949 from the American School of Aircraft Instruments.

He married Arvilla R. Cyr Strobel Trombley on July 13, 1951, in Great Bend, Pa. Mrs. Iseneker died Jan. 24, 1998.

On April 28, 1943, Mr. Iseneker entered the Army, where he volunteered for the paratroopers, first going to Camp Upton, Long Island, then Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga., for basic training, and in November of 1943, transferred to Fort Benning, Ga., for paratrooper training. On Dec. 24, 1943, he received his Parachute Silver Wings, and in May 1944, his company moved to Camp Shanks, near New York City, where his company boarded the Queen Mary Ocean Liner on May 30, 1944. They landed in the outer harbor of Glasgow, Scotland, and transferred to a sheepboat June 5, destination Liverpool, England, and from there, inland to Aldborne to wait for the 101st Division to return from D-Day at Normandy, France. Mr. Iseneker then trained with C. Company 506 Regiment 101st Airborne Division in Swindon, England until September of 1944. Later that month, he commenced airfield training for his company's mission, "Operation Market Garden." On Sept. 17, he and his company parachuted into the small village Son, about 25 miles behind enemy lines. On Sept. 18, they moved south and liberated the city of Eindhoven.

On Oct. 6, 1944, Pvt. Iseneker was severely wounded by a German Tank Shell during a battle at the village of Opheusden, which the American Allied Forces had taken the day before. During his journey from the battlefield through enemy fire, he was again injured by a shell that exploded next to him. He was taken to a hospital in Holland, from there to a hospital in Brussels, Belguim, and then to an American hospital in England, that was located in a Quonset hut. In Private Iseneker's words, his stay there was "horrible." Later, he traveled by train to Glasgow, Scotland, where he boarded the Queen Elizabeth Ocean Liner, traveling to the states, arriving Dec. 7, 1944, where he continued to recover in military hospitals, until his discharge from Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington D.C., where, in his words, "I stayed from February, 1945, getting put back together," until his honorable discharge from the Army, Company C 506th Parachute Infantry Divison on July 3, 1946.

Pvt. Iseneker related that during his stay at Walter Reed Army Hospital, on several occasions he met, and visited with General John Pershing, "Black Jack Pershing," of World War I fame. Pvt. Iseneker, and Gen. Pershing were both in wheelchairs, and Pershing would always stop and visit for a while. He related that Gen. Pershing was a "nice old fellow."

Pvt. Iseneker received two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Star Medals, the Combat Infantrymans Badge, European Theater Medal, World War II European Victory Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Dutch Lanyard, several citations from Dutch Villages for Liberation, and he received a New York State Conspicuous Service Cross from Governor George Patacki.

Mr. Iseneker was a member of Boonville Fire Company and Ambulance service and was an EMT and ambulance driver. He was a member of St. Joseph's Church, a life member of 101st Airborne Division Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Disabled American Veterans, a charter and life member of Harland J. Hessessey Post Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was a member of AARP, Charles J. Love Post American Legion, a charter member of the Boonville Elks Lodge 2158, and president of the former Vet's Home on Schuyler St., during the time that the VFW and American Legion were both located there.

Surviving are two sons and their wives, Brad P. and Eileen, Ormond Beach, Fla., and Greg A. and Colleen, Boonville; two stepdaughters and a stepson-in-law, Gayle and Robert Rhoades, Baldwinsville, and Andrea Bounds, Ocean City, Md.; a sister and her husband, Geraldine and William Hall, Boonville and Greensboro, N.C.; several grandchildren, stepgrandchildren, a great-grandchild and several stepgreat-grandchildren.

A brother, Hubert, died in 2004. A stepson, George Strobel, also died before him.

The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Trainor Funeral Home, 143 Schuyler St., with the Rev. Donald H. Karlen, pastor of St. Joseph's Church of Boonville, officiating.

Spring burial will be in St. Joseph's Cemetery.

There are no calling hours.

Donations may be made to Boonville Fire Co. Ambulance Fund, P.O. Box 164, Boonville, N.Y. 13309 or St. Joseph's Church Memorial Fund.