Clyde R. Alho

• Sergeant
• Served:  August 1969 – February 1972
• Vietnam War April 1970 – March 1971 Artillery Fire Base Nancy (3 months), MARS Operator at Dong Ha Command Post (9 months)
• Radio Teletype Operator
• Awarded Vietnam Service Medal National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal w/60 DVC, 1 – Overseas Bar
• Sharpshooter (M-14 Rifle), Expert (M-16A1)

My connection to Presque Isle began back in my childhood during the 1950’s and 1960’s. My father Clyde E. Alho was born and raised in Bessemer, Michigan. After his time in the US Navy during WWII, he spent a good part of his working years in Chicago after meeting and marrying my mother Laverne.As a child, all of the family vacations were spent in Bessemer. The family of a good childhood friend of my father’s had a cottage on Little Oxbow Lake outside of Presque Isle. During my childhood years, we would spend some time at their cottage on our vacations. On the way to the cottage we would stop in Gunnar’s bar (Winegar Tap) which is now the Yacht Club. Gunnar was the original owner of the bar and started thinking about selling it in the middle 1960’s. In 1968 my parents bought Gunnar’s bar and moved to Presque Isle.At that time, I was 20 years old and still going to school. After I finished school and my time in the US Army I started working for AT&T Bell Laboratories in Naperville, Illinois.During my adult years I would visit my parents in Presque Isle and my grandmother and aunt in Bessemer often during the years. Did lots of fishing, skiing, camping and some hunting. I even met my wife (Connie) one summer at the PI American Legion at an anniversary party for post member Ray Harrington and his wife Clara. My wife was in PI staying with friends on Oxbow Lake.My mother passed away in 1991. My father moved in with my sister in northern Illinois. While there he started dating Irene Sala whom he originally knew from PI and who had a cottage on Annabelle Lake outside of PI. They married in 1992 and lived in northern Illinois. My father passed in 1998, and he was buried in Bessemer. The years following our visits were to Bessemer with an occasional stop in PI. I have kept my membership in the PI post of which my father was a member for over 30 years. My mother was an active member of the post’s auxiliary.

Son of Clyde E. Alho.