Proud Air Force veteran had ‘sense of patriotism’
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Jack Pletcher was proud of his 20 years of service in the Air Force — and it showed in the way he dressed, even when he was out of uniform.
“He was pretty organized from being in the military,” said his wife, Mary Ann. Until his health declined in recent years, she said, “he would not wear sweat pants. To him, they were too sloppy. He liked something that was fitted closer to the body.”
Jon “Jack” Karl Pletcher of Greensburg died Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, at Westmoreland Manor. He was 80.
Born Sept. 30, 1938, in Greensburg, he was a son of the late William M. and Edna Pletcher.
Mr. Pletcher joined the Air Force in 1957. Though imperfect eyesight kept him from his desire of working on a helicopter crew, he found plenty of satisfaction handling military communications before retiring as a staff sergeant.
“He had a sense of patriotism, he liked what he did and he got to travel places he wouldn’t have otherwise,” his wife said. That included stints in Turkey and the Philippines.
He also was deployed to Vietnam. “That was nothing to enjoy, but he felt he was making a contribution,” said his wife. “At one time he was stationed only three miles from the (Demilitarized Zone).”
While stationed near Washington, D.C., he worked with classified information at the Pentagon.
He also served in an honor guard for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration Jan. 20, 1961.
“He was along the road when the motorcade came by,” his wife noted. “He said it was so cold, and they had to stand so still in the parade route.”
Mr. Pletcher retired from the Air Force in 1977, preferring not to be separated from his family for a pending return deployment to Turkey.
But, a member of Greensburg’s VFW Post 33, he continued to have a strong interest in military topics — from reading war novels to studying battle histories and conversing with a neighbor who was a Civil War re-enactor.
He loved cats and dogs. Perhaps his favorite pet was Brasco, a husky- German shepherd mix he taught to present either his right paw or left paw on command.
“He’d mix up the order of left and right, and the dog knew the difference,” his wife said.
Not one to sit idle, Mr. Pletcher followed his military career with a civilian one that saw him repeatedly rebounding as positions he held came to an end. He was a crew dispatcher for the Pennsylvania Railroad, then, after taking a college computer course, he took on a job working with data for Stuart Drugs of Greensburg.
His last position, before a final retirement at age 72, was fielding calls to the information technology department at the Bank of New York Mellon in Pittsburgh.
“He was a second-shift worker,” his wife said. “He liked that you could stay up late and you could sleep in.”
In addition to his parents, Mr. Pletcher was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Christina, a son, David Alan, and a brother.
In addition to his wife of 57 years, he is survived by a daughter, Christine Gworek of Greensburg; two granddaughters; two great-grandchildren; a brother; and three nieces.
Family and friends will be received from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Kepple-Graft Funeral Home, 524 N. Main St., Greensburg, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Interment will be in Westmoreland County Memorial Park.
Memorial donations may be made to Otterbein United Methodist Church, 111 College Ave., Greensburg, PA 15601 or the Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org.