More Than 50 Years Later, A Diploma With Honors

By Kaaren Valenta

In the years since World War II, Darius Hallabeck never regretted leaving high school to serve his country.

Once he got past his initial reluctance at being drafted during the fall of his senior year at Danbury High School, he found that military service was a good experience.

“I’m sure I got more education than I would have in that year in high school,” the longtime Newtown resident said. “It didn’t occur to me to go back to school later. I would have been a lot older than the other students. I just went on with my life.”

Last week “Darry” Hallabeck finally got his diploma. He was one of three Danbury-area World War II veterans who received the honors at a formal ceremony with the Danbury Board of Education. Garbed in bright blue graduation gowns and wearing mortarboards, Mr Hallabeck, Steven Mikos, and Arthur O’Neil, both of Danbury, received their diplomas from Danbury High School Principal John Goetz. Corporal Hallabeck also received a certificate of appreciation from the Air Force Recruiting Service.

“It was a beautiful experience,” Mr Hallabeck, 72, said this week. “It was quite an event. I didn’t expect it.”

Darry Hallabeck grew up in New Fairfield where he attended a one-room school on Ball Pond. For high school he went to Danbury and had just begun his senior year when he received the notice that he was to report for duty on October 31, 1945.

“I got the traditional citation, ‘Greetings’ signed by President Truman,” Mr Hallabeck said. “I was 18 years old and was pretty upset that I had to leave school. My father tried to get me a deferment, but he couldn’t.”

Mr Hallabeck was so upset that he didn’t even tell his teachers at the high school. Days after he left for 17 weeks of artillery basic training at Ft Bragg, truant officers showed up at his home and wanted to know why he wasn’t in school.

After basic training, he was assigned to the Air Force and spent a year on the island of Okinawa with the 25th Fighter Squadron, loading bombs onto planes.

“Afterwards I came back home for a 30-day furlough, then I was sent back overseas with the occupational forces in Japan as an A-26 attack bomber armer. Finally I joined the reserves as a way of getting home.”

When he returned home, he got a job with Republic Foil in Danbury, and stayed there 44 years, originally as a mill operator and, during the last nine years, as a maintenance man. His years there were interrupted only once, when the Korean War started.

“I was recalled in 1950 and served another year at an Air Force base in Mississippi as an aircraft and engine mechanic and crew chief,” Mr Hallabeck recalled.

When he was discharged, he returned to his job at Republic Foil and, in September 1953, got married. He and his wife, Clematis, have two children, Don Hallabeck of Newtown and Marjorie Hallabeck of Bethlehem, and two grandchildren, Eliza, 14, and Patrick, 8.

“My career was going great, and I never felt that not having graduated high school made a difference in my life,” Mr Hallabeck said. “When you’re a young fellow you follow what you’ve got to do, and don’t think too much about it. But there was always an empty spot. I always had a feeling that it would be nice to have a diploma.”

So when he heard that the state Legislature had voted to honor World War II veterans who left school to serve by granting them their diplomas, he applied. Veterans must have served on active duty between December 7, 1941, and December 31, 1946.

 Mr Hallabeck said the graduation ceremony was an emotional experience for everyone involved, especially when the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” music was played.

“I’ve heard it many times over the years,” he said. “But this time it was for me.”