The veterans of America’s wars have lived lives of sacrifice. One such man is retired Major Charles Winn.

Major Chuck Winn, Sr. will tell you today, at the age of 94, that he has always been “all army.” He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1923. In high school, he was a cadet office in the Junior ROTC when he graduated in 1941. He was drafted into the Army as a Private into the Army Air Corps in February, 1943, a year and a half later. When color blindness disqualified him from pilot training, Charles was transferred the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania and later, to the combat engineers.

In November, 1944, Private First Class Winn landed in France from England with Company C, 292 Engineer Combat Battalion. After advancing through France, Belgium, Holland and into Krefeld, Germany he was sent to an accelerated officer candidate school in Fontainebleau, France. In May, 1945, Charles was commissioned an Infantry 2nd Lieutenant and assigned as a platoon leader with the 79th Infantry Division. He showed me an oversized aluminum Nazi eagle holding a swastika he took from a locomotive in Czechoslovakia that hauled one of Hitler’s “death trains.” He plans to donate it to the National Infantry Museum.

Lieutenant Winn was then assigned to the 1st Infantry Division which supported the International War Crimes Tribunals that brought Hitler’s surviving Nazi leaders to justice. He was the escort officer for the prosecution’s lead witness, General Erwin LaHausen, whose testimony implicated the defendants in the Holocaust and other war crimes. Charles found the Polish language, which his immigrant parents spoke at home, very useful during his Nuremburg assignment.

After returning home in July, 1946, Charles attended Grand Rapids Junior College and the University of Michigan. In January, 1949, he married his late wife of 62 years, Lorraine, who was a registered nurse.

In September, 1949 Major Winn returned to active duty from the Michigan National Guard. During his ninth month of occupation duty in Japan, the Soviet-trained North Korean army invaded the fledgling Republic of Korea in June, 1950. First Lieutenant Winn returned to battle as a platoon leader with Company C, 1st Battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment, the Army’s last all African-American combat organization.

He fought with the brave 24th Infantry from the desperate Pusan Perimeter Defense all the way to the Yalu River on North Korea’s border with China. In November, hundreds of thousands of Communist Chinese Forces intervened on behalf of the North. His company was late receiving the divisional order for a general withdrawal the night of November 26, 1950. As his unit was attempting a breakout, 1st Lt Winn volunteered, like a shepherd looking for lost sheep, to search for an overdue patrol and was captured by enemy forces. In November, 2013, the Army awarded him the Bronze Star in recognition of his outstanding combat leadership.

He was held in a Chinese prisoner of war (POW) camp for 34 months. When a soldier is captured in war, according to the Geneva Convention, he is only required to give his name, rank and serial number. This is all that 1st Lt Charles Winn did. Though starved and beaten, he persistently resisted turning traitor—not only refusing to give information; but also by resisting multiple communist attempts at indoctrination through a technique known as “brain washing.”

During the harsh first winter he and his comrades endured food shortages, illness, freezing weather, and injuries inflicted by the Chinese which have caused him lifelong physical problems. A practicing Catholic, his faith, and the inspiration of his fellow POW, Father Emil Kapaun, helped him to survive. Captain Winn weighed only 100lbs at his release.

After his release, in August, 1953, Captain Winn finally met his son young Chuck, who had been born two months after he left for Japan.

Major Winn remained on active duty serving as a company commander and instructor at the U.S. Army Infantry School; a headquarters commandant and operations and intelligence officer at an Army ammunition depot in France, and as an advisor to reserve units in New England until he retired in January, 1966. His many awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart for his POW wounds, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Parachutist Badge, French Legion of Honor, and Republic of Korea Ambassador for Peace Medal.

Major Winn settled with his wife, Lorraine, in Stoughton, Massachusetts, where he completed a second career as a safety engineer with Aetna life and Casualty Company. In March, 1965, the couple retired to Tarpon Springs, Florida where they lived for 30 years. Three years after Lorraine’s death, in June 2014, he moved to Stuart to be closer to his son, retired Army Colonel Chuck and his wife Lynn. For more information contact wfbhofbuddy@gmail.com.

What will the United States be like 10 years from now?

In the last 50 years our country has welcomed technological change: color television, cable TV, car phones, beepers, cell phones, and the internet—connecting us with each other. Though these new things have improved our lives technologically, they have also isolated more and more of us: neighbors from each other. This way of living has become to be seen as “normal,” the “new normal.”

Do we know our neighbors? What they do? Where they come from? Who are they really?

In the past, neighbors knew the children up and down the street, hosting them for storybook hour, babysitting, and generally kept an eye out for them.

Neighbors welcomed each other—for late night Christmas Eve cheer, just before Santa arrived; they hosted barbecues and birthday parties.

Neighbors cared about each other. When a family member died, neighbors knew. They brought dishes of food for the family.

As a child in the 1960s, I remember an elderly neighbor who couldn’t drive. My grandmother took her to the store once a week. And when my grandmother fell ill, to cancer—her neighbors prayed for her.

Neighbors are a resource, for more than a stick of butter, a cup of flour, or a borrowed shop-vac; they are help in a time of need.

Steve Carswell is a light of hope to many Treasure Coast neighborhoods. He has lived in Jensen Beach, Florida for more than 20 years. His wife Kyla is a native-born Floridian. She grew up on the Treasure Coast.

Steve can be found walking the neighborhood streets of South Florida, greeting people, and meeting their needs through prayer. He belongs to a national Christian organization known as E3. Their goal is to make positive change in every community they walk through by positively affecting individuals who themselves can change their own communities.

Steve has seen cancer patients healed, gang members turn to Christ, alcoholics quit drinking, homosexuals freed from bondage and their families also come to believe in the power of God.

Carswell’s E3 team consists of 5 families, working full-time as missionaries in Florida. The men often walk neighborhoods with their families, teaching their own children how to help others by sharing the Gospel and the love of Jesus. E3 teams are disciples of Jesus, making disciples. Authentic believers, they follow where God leads.

One afternoon, Steve and another E3 team leader walked a local Stuart neighborhood. An older man was sitting out on his porch. He called out and asked what they were doing, walking the street though it was drizzling. This neighbor was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Steve offered to pray for the man.

Two weeks later, Steve received a phone call. The older man had returned to the doctor, to find that his cancer was gone. Steve is a humble man; he takes no credit, but gives the glory to God.

Steve Carswell can relate many such positive light-filled stories.

The E3 team believes that what happens in Florida affects the nation. The large state is culturally diverse and there is much movement in and out of state lines. Ideas and concepts that are successful in Florida can be taken to other states—helping to change the nation positively.

The east coast of Florida, from Fort Pierce to Miami is approximately 90% unchurched. (Barna Research) Neighborhoods need to be reached with the knowledge of Jesus on foot—in their own communities, just as believers shared the Gospel in the book of Acts.

With a God-sized vision, the E3 team will be reaching every major city in Florida during 2017. They regularly receive requests for national and international training by Christian churches and organizations who wish to change their communities for the better too. This alone speaks much of Steve Carswell’s E3 team.

Steve Carswell states, “Our mission is to faithfully obey Jesus by making disciples who make disciples, starting churches that start churches to the 4th generation and beyond until there is no place left that hasn't heard the Gospel of Jesus.

Our broken heart is for those far from God, and in Florida we know the population is about 20 million. According to Barna Research, 18 Million are not open to the traditional church; the North American Mission Board states that this is approximately 53% of Florida residents.”

By 2020, just a few years out, E3’s God-sized vision is to be used by God to establish a healthy reproducing church in every Florida zip code (1,473).

Carswell asserts, “Our strategy is: zero budget disciple-making, church planting and missionary mobilization.”

As E3 members impact neighborhood individuals, they teach new believers how to simply share the Gospel. These key people begin home Bible studies, which grow into churches.

Carswell’s team includes a Spanish speaking believer to reach Hispanic neighborhoods. The E3 team also reaches out to the Muslim community with the truth of Jesus.

The United States will not be changed by government, nor by social policies. The only way communities can be made better is through Lord Jesus. The only way to save our country is through Lord Jesus.

What will the United States be like 10 years from now?

It’s up to all believers to do the will of God—living life as the light of the world.

I personally have known Steve Carswell for many years. When my son was a middle-grader, Steve Carswell pastored a local youth group. He helped guide my son out of the negative, dangerous influences coming through the cell phone. Steve Carswell is an authentic Christian. I have chosen to partner with Steve Carswell’s E3 team, because I believe and I know that they are changing my community and my country for the better.

If you would like to partner with or contact Steve Carswell about E3, please email him at: steve.carswell@e3partners.org

Hometown Heroes