Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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8 UCW APRIL 28 - MAY 4, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DALLAS WOODHOUSE, Carolina Journal News Service. COMMENTS? editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Veteran honored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands for W WII service by AUDREY HOGUE Representatives from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands honored World War II veteran Don Bertino on April 17 for his role in the liberation of the Dutch people from Nazi oppression. He was one of several surviving veterans from eight allied countries to receive recognition from the Netherlands in advance of Liberation Day to be celebrated on May 5. e ceremony took place at the Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum where Bertino is a volunteer. Captain Mark Brouwer, an officer in e Netherlands Marine Corps, presided over the presentation on behalf of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Brou- wer is assigned to Camp Lejeune in Jack- sonville. Bertino, 96, is a native of Pennsylvania but came to North Carolina more than 60 years ago. He now lives in Fayetteville with his daughter. Bertino was drafted into the Army in 1943 at the age of 18. He would serve as part of a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun team in locations from Normandy, Belgium to Berlin. After World War II, he was again called into service during the Korean War. Bertino reached the rank of Private First Class during his service in WWII. During the Korean War, Bertino reached the rank of Sergeant. During his time in the military, Bertino was stationed in several installations from Pennsylvania to Fort Bliss, Texas, then Louisiana and New York be- fore shipping overseas. After his time in the military, he became a bricklayer in his native Pennsylvania, where the weather up north was too cold to lay brick year-round. "My brother-in-law left Pennsylvania in 1938 to attend Duke University, and in 1959, he told me if I wanted to lay brick 12 months out of the year, the Carolinas were the place to do it," said Bertino about his work. During an exchange with Brouwer, Ber- tino mentioned that, of the seven countries in Europe he'd been to, the Netherlands treated him the best. When asked the worst part of his time in the Netherlands Bertino responded with, "one of Hitler's bombs on Christmas Day," recalling a moment from his combat service. Bertino recalled his first day of service as "fast and furious." "ey threw us a bag of clothes, dressed us up, and said get on that train," said Ber- tino about that day in 1943. is took place in Pennsylvania, and three days later he said he was in El Paso. ough not every- one Bertino served with made it home, he considers himself fortunate. "I was at the right place at the right time. e enemy didn't get me, I got them." Bertino left military service in June of 1952 and continues to encourage younger men and women now serving: "Try and stay in for 20 years if you can," he says. "Stay in, do a good job, and honor our country." NEWS AUDREY HOGUE, Up & Coming Weekly Intern. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com 910-484-6200. e N.C. High School Athletic Association has no written contract or agreement with the State of North Carolina or the Department of Public Instruction to oversee the management of high school sports and has the largest cash reserves of any such organiza- tion in America. ese are just two of the issues legislators focused on during a more than two-hour investigative hear- ing into the non-profit governing body that oversees the state's high school sports programs. On April 15, NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker spent two hours being grilled by state lawmakers on the Subcommittee on Interscholastic Athletics, formed to probe the finances, oversight, accountabil- ity and structure of the NCHSAA. Carolina Journal first reported in March that state lawmakers began a sweeping investigation of the NCHSAA, a move that could lead to changes in how high school sports are governed. CJ examined a decade's worth of tax documents that showed the organization was stockpiling cash at an alarming rate, over $41 million. However, CJ's in-depth review of the issue showed lawmakers had become extremely frustrated with the NCHSAA for several reasons that had nothing to do with money. However, lawmakers' questioning focused on finances. A little more than a decade ago, NCHSAA broke away from UNC and became a com- pletely private nonprofit. e organization's assets have more than doubled during that time. Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell, pointed out that NCHSAA raised some of the costs to member schools in 2018, despite the fact that based on cur- rent expenses the organization could operate for nine years if it did not raise another dime. "I think we confirmed a lot of suspicions, and those suspicions are they have a lot of money," Sen. Vickie Sawyer told CJ after the hearing. "I heard today that they will think about things, that they may do something, or we see now that this is not the right way to handle it, Maybe. I heard a lot of double talk; I want to see action," added Sawyer. "I have more questions than I have answers," said Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond. "We talked today about scholarships. Very important. My rural county needs scholarships. And to only give about 40 schol- arships, for a total of 45,000 dollars and they have 41 million dollars, is appalling. It is an insult to the poor counties of North Carolina that are paying money in for membership, for insurance, and having their gate money clipped for (pre-season) endowment games, championships games. It is not equitable at all and we are going to have further conversations." Rep. Billy Richardson (D-Cumberland) questioned the association about oversight noting "Essentially, your oversight is yourself," Richardson said. Jerry Simmons, the principal at New Bern High School, who serves as the NCHSAA Board of Direc- tors said the association is accountable to the 'mem- ber schools' because the board of directors is "made up of representatives from those schools." Lawmakers clearly are taking issue with the NCH- SAA position that they are a fully "voluntary mem- bership organization." It is practically impossible to engage in public high school sports without being a part of the organization because of scheduling and assess to state play-off and championships. No action was taken but Senate President Phil Berger who co-chairs the committee said additional hearings will be held. After the meeting, NCHSAA issued the following statement from Mrs. Tucker: "We want to thank the members of the General Assembly Committee for the opportunity to discuss high school athletics in North Carolina. is was an insightful experience, and we appreciate hearing the legislators' concerns and open dialogue about our association," Tucker said. "We believe we accomplished our goal to better inform legislators of our mission, vision, and values. We look forward to continuing this dialogue in the coming weeks." Athletic association on defense as legislature takes shots at hearing by DALLAS WOODHOUSE Captain Mark Brouwer of the Netherlands Marine Corps (left) presents a coin to Don Bertino on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for his role in liberating the Dutch people during World War II. (Photo courtesy @asomf and @cramergal- limore ) State legislators questioned the NCHSAA commissioner on finances, oversight and accountability.