Palm Coast veterans reflect on service ahead of Veterans Day event

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Some things in life you just don’t forget.

Ask Billy Jones about his military service in the U.S. Army, and he can recall the exact time served: 22 years, 3 months, 21 days.

“I’d like to do it again, if I was younger,” Jones said. “I had too much fun, too many experiences.”

Jones joined the Army on June 10, 1958, after graduating from Henderson State Teachers College. At 23, he entered his military career as a second lieutenant and distinguished military graduate. His first roles were armor officer, working with tanks, and then transportation core officer, working in aviation.

During this time, he was promoted to first lieutenant. Jones then went to flight school to learn how to fly airplanes and helicopters. In 1962, he went to Germany, assigned to the helicopter unit — 11th transportation company — and was there for more than a year.

“I flew a lot of senators and congressmen while I was in Germany, I flew several when I was in Vietnam, but the most important persons I flew were the American soldier,” Jones said.

In 1966, he was promoted from captain to major and sent into combat in Vietnam. Jones was assigned to the 282nd Aviation Company. He spent a year there supporting the maintenance unit for all helicopters as part of the company. In 1970, Jones would then serve another year-long tour in Vietnam.

Once back in the U.S., he was assigned to the Army Material Command Project Manager’s Office for the attack helicopter program. In 1980, Jones retired from the U.S. Army. He then went on to work in the banking industry for 18 years.

During his military service, he set sights on Palm Coast. He bought a property in the early 1970s, but then later bought a different lot and moved to Palm Coast in 1997 with Jo, his wife of 63 years.

Jones has been active in the local community by being a guest speaker and coordinator of the group Veterans in the Classroom, coordinator of the Chain Gang at local football games, a C.O.P. (Citizen Observer Patrol) with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, a driver for a disabled veterans group, a member of the Military Officers Association of America, member of the American Legion, member of the Veterans Advisory Council in Flagler County and a poll volunteer.

“Veterans have sacrificed their lives to protect this country so that you can have a place to live, and a place to go to school and a place to enjoy,” Jones said.

A family legacy

Honoring veterans is also part of what defines another Palm Coast resident: Frank Consentino Jr.

“The reason I joined the Navy in the first place was because it was a family tradition,” Consentino said. “I come from a family with a long military history. The history of the extended Consentino family goes back to the Seven Years’ War in Canada, and continues to the present. Forty-nine members of my family have served in the military with 239 years of combined military service, as close as I can estimate.”

Consentino said of his relatives in the military, "They’ve served in every military branch except the U.S. Coast Guard. Some were wounded in action, and some were POWs, but by the grace of God, every one of them came home."

After joining the U.S. Navy at 18 years old, Consentino served four years of active duty and two years in the Navy Reserves between the Korean and the Vietnam Wars.

Aboard the USS Bennington CVA-20, Consentino was a radarman, as part of the Combat Information Center. Later, he was sent to Naha, Okinawa, and served in FASRON 118 (a Fleet Aircraft Support Squadron) for 18 months. Following that, he was transferred to another aircraft carrier, the USS Midway CVA -41, which is now a permanent museum in San Diego.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Consentino said. “It's a good experience for a young man, gives you a chance to travel, see the world, grow up, and truly become a man on your own. As I said, I had an opportunity to go to a lot of places, mostly all in the Pacific, and I would do it again.”

Following his military career, he worked for 19 years as a field service engineer for a company that built X-ray machines. Then he opened his own business called New England Mega-Volts Inc. For 36 years he traveled all over the U.S. and parts of Canada selling, installing and repairing X-ray machines.

Consentino and his wife have lived in Palm Coast since 2006. He is active in the community and part of several local groups. He has been a past-president and past-lieutenant governor with the Flagler-Palm Coast Kiwanis Club, a board member of the Family Life Center, the Color Corps Commander for the Knights of Columbus, poet laureate for the Flagler County library, and is an award-winning published author.

As he stays involved with residents in Palm Coast, he tries to help veterans and others as much as he can.

“We’re a brotherhood,” Consentino said. “When you’re in the military, you form friendships, and you know what these other guys went through, maybe not every single detail, but you pretty much know what happened to them as veterans.”

Save the date

The city of Palm Coast and Flagler County will host a combined Veterans Day event honoring local veterans on Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The event features a ceremony from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Flagler Auditorium, hosted by Flagler County. It will be live-streamed from the auditorium to Central Park for those who do not want to drive from one location to the other, or would prefer to social distance and stay in an outdoor space, as opposed to being inside the auditorium.

Veterans and their families are then welcome to join the City of Palm Coast for a barbecue lunch from Hot Diggity Dog at Central Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Both events are free but require a ticket via pre-registration. Registrations for the ceremony can be made through Flagler Auditorium or the Veterans Service Office at the Government Services Building, located at 1769 E. Moody Blvd. Registration for the luncheon may be made through parksandrec.fun/events.

Please remember to have a mask/facial covering to use when indoors or where social distancing of six feet apart cannot be maintained, per guidance from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.