Salute to Veterans

Campus Pays Tribute to National Heroes

Each year, residents and team members pay tribute to the many Veterans that call The Summit home. This year, a special luncheon honored these heroes. Here are a few stories of their sacrifice.

Cecil Puckette

After high school, Puckette enrolled in Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned in the U.S. Army as second lieutenant after graduation. He was soon assigned as a mortar platoon leader in the First Tank Battalion of the First Army Division in Texas. “My assignments were varied and interesting,” Puckette said.

As a company grade officer, he commanded five different companies with five different missions, including running sled trains on the Greenland Ice Cap and a truck company in support of forces in Europe.

Puckette also relished the opportunity to teach in the U.S. Army’s Transportation School and served as its personal director for years.

“As a field grade officer, my assignments were just as varied and more demanding,” Puckette said. He ran a truck company in Europe with six companies and for three years, served as the Contingency War Plans officer for the U.S. element of NATO.

Puckette retired as a Colonel. “It was a privilege. I never viewed military service as a sacrifice. The major sacrifice was for my spouse and to a lesser degree to my children,” he said.

Hu Cocklin

A veteran of World War II, Cocklin attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in June of 1942. “As soon as they issued us uniforms, we got on this sailing ship called the Danemark because it came from Denmark,” Cocklin said.

The Danes gave the ship to the U.S. when the Nazis invaded the European country. The vessel was assigned to the Coast Guard Academy for training. “We spent at least one month on that in the Long Island sound because a German submarine met us out in the Atlantic,” Cocklin said.

The veteran—now over 100 years old—recalls his service with pride. “Especially in those days, everybody was patriotic. It meant quite a bit.”

Cocklin has been able to forge friendships with other heroes over the years. “You get associated with other people that have the same experiences. It’s like a band of brothers. You can really appreciate those friendships.”

Anita Carroll

Carroll didn’t serve in the military, but her life has been touched by service. The daughter of a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Carroll met her first husband, Tom McAdams, who she met at Fort Knox High School while their fathers were both stationed on the base.

From Guam to Germany, Carroll attended 10 schools in 12 years. “I certainly lived that kind of life so to speak.”

They married in 1962 and had two daughters before Tom was shot and killed in a helicopter in Vietnam. He was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Tom was a captain, serving under Col. George S. Patton, son of the famous General Patton from World War II. When he died, Patton asked his wife to visit Carroll. “For me, things were different because I had been brought up in a military family. I knew he was in a war zone and losing him was a little bit more of a possibility. I had two young children. Therefore, as a mother of two little girls, I had to do my mother thing. Probably didn’t grieve as I should have because I couldn’t.”

After losing her husband, she earned an accounting degree to provide a living for her young family. She later married Alan Beard, who passed away over 10 years ago. He was in the U.S. Coast Guard and served off the coast of Vietnam during the war.

She met and married, Robert Carroll, after meeting him at a Grief Share Program. She has three daughters, two grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

She shares her experiences in the book, My Gold Star Experience.