A RELUCTANT HERO (Hillary! discovers Western New York)

Up until Wednesday, the day before he got his long-overdue World War II medals from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the lobby of Niagara Falls International Airport, James "Jack" Breier, 85, of Grand Island, wasn't sure he wanted to go through with it.

"He was saying, "I don't want any attention, I'm not going,' " said his daughter Marilyn Brennan, also of Grand Island, who launched the drive to get the medals. "And then he'd say, "Gee, it's going to be exciting to be there.' "

Brennan was holding her father's medals and ribbons in the framed display case that Clinton had presented him a few minutes earlier in a blaze of flashbulbs and television lights in front of a crowd that included his wife, Marge; their six children and their spouses; and many of their 20 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

There was the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, the Good Conduct Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation with the first oak leaf cluster, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Honorable Service Lapel Button, the Sharpshooter Badge with a rifle bar and the New York State Ribbon for Merit.

"This is a long list, Jack," Clinton said, "and I want to take a little time . . . so your grandchildren can hear about what you did."

The senator noted that her father was a World War II veteran "and didn't talk much about it."

Instead, after his discharge, he came home and began working as a grocer for P.J. Schmitt Co., which is where he met his wife, who was a switchboard operator there.

He and Marge had six children in seven years and he built a tennis court in their back yard. "He loves to play tennis," Marge said.

Later, he owned and operated a cafeteria at Buffalo Pipe & Foundry, then was the chief of maintenance at Niagara Nursing Home.

At Buffalo Pipe and Foundry, "everyone knew Jack," his oldest daughter, Sue Dommell of Kenmore, recalled. "He even had a back room where he supplied them with work clothes and steel-toed shoes. If somebody needed something, they'd say, "Go see Jack.' "

It was only recently that people began to hear about what he did in the war. He talked a little about it before Clinton arrived Thursday.

He was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles, and took 17 combat jumps. ("I don't appreciate a plane ride anymore," he said Thursday.) One of those jumps was during the Normandy invasion. Another was in the Battle of the Bulge. A squad leader, he took the first patrol over the Waal River.

He was captured by the Germans and spent a day and a night as a prisoner behind the third line of Nazi defenses. Then, because he spoke German (his stepmother spoke only German when he was a child), he was taken back to the American side.

He served with and was a close friend of Sgt. Frederick W. "Fritz" Niland, whose story of being plucked from the battlefield was the basis of the film "Saving Private Ryan." During the filming, director Steven Spielberg's production team phoned him several times for consultation.

In Holland, he suffered a head wound, and surgeons put a steel plate in his head "the size of a silver dollar," he said.

One reason he didn't talk much about the war was that the head wound cost him his voice. For 58 years, he has spoken in a whisper.

"He was always very guarded about information about the war," said Charles Aronica of Grand Island, a friend of the family whose brother, Chris, helped arrange the awarding of the medals. "It was very hard for him to discuss it. He went through a lot. We picked up that he was due some medals, but the records weren't available. They were apparently in a fire.

"The beautiful thing about him," he added, "is he's a humble man. It was duty for country."

FISCAL CONTROL BOARD GETS SENATOR'S BACKING
The Buffalo News (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030530/1002449.asp)
Sharon Linstedt, news staff reporter
May 30, 2003
     U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that a state-imposed fiscal control board is the right medicine to cure Buffalo's critical financial condition but that there also must be a focus on the area's long-term opportunities to improve the local economy and image.
     The New York Democrat has particularly high hopes for the University at Buffalo Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and the spinoffs it will create for Western New York.
     "I'm betting on bioinformatics. I may be wrong, but I think I'm right," Clinton said, citing the $10 million in federal funding she has helped direct toward efforts to create a bioinformatics center here.
     "I think it's a good bet to generate jobs and generate good feedback about Buffalo," she said.
     Additional federal money for the center will be in the forthcoming federal budget, she said, but it is too early to know how much.
     During a series of Western New York stops Thursday, the senator said that while the area is facing "tougher conditions than most" upstate New York communities, it is important to focus on specific opportunities.
     "We need to invest in the opportunities we have in front of us, things that could really turn into something for the long term," Clinton said.
     While looking forward, Clinton did not downplay Buffalo's current money woes. She said she supports State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi's conclusions that a fiscal control board is necessary to put the city's finances back in order.
     "I don't think there's another option. Something has to be done," she said. "It could be a real saving grace, if it's done the right way."
     That right way, according to Clinton, is to select board members who are willing to make tough decisions. She said she would like to see a mix of representatives from the public and private sectors willing to change Buffalo's financial course without regard for political repercussions.
     "They have to be able to work independently to do things that politically you can't get people to do," she said.
     Clinton, who campaigned on a platform of helping the upstate economy, said she has found helping to jump-start the Buffalo economy from Washington more difficult than she first thought, placing blame on Bush administration policies.
     "I never would have predicted the administration would undo the prosperity of the 1990s," she said, noting that the economic upswing then largely bypassed Buffalo.
     The senator's list of concerns for the Buffalo area also includes the recent spate of accidents - some of them fatal - along Route 20 in Hamburg. Clinton said she has asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to send in a team to investigate the conditions.
     "It's just tragic what's happening out there," she said. "We need to find a short-term solution, not wait until we can get a new intersection put in."
     Clinton also addressed national and international issues in an afternoon meeting with The Buffalo News editorial board. She expressed general frustration with the Bush administration and the Republican majority on topics ranging from the U.S. economy to the war in Iraq:

On Iraq, based on what she knew at the time, Clinton still would have voted to authorize military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein. However, based on more recent intelligence, notably the inability to find any weapons of mass destruction, she said she is not sure she would have approved sending in U.S. troops.

On President Bush's impending visit to the Middle East, the senator called it an "important trip" and applauded Bush's decision to make an in-person appeal for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

On the Bush tax cut, Clinton said, "It defies the rules of arithmetic." The tax cut, she said, will not revive the economy.

On presidential politics, she said the Democratic Party has "five or so" good candidates for 2004, any of whom would make a good president. The problem, she said, is that their message is not yet getting through to the public. "There is no echo chamber," she said.
     Earlier in the day, Clinton visited the Cassadaga Job Corps Center in Chautauqua County, where she viewed the construction site for a building that will house a new program for licensed practical nurses. The program is a partnership of the center and Erie 2 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES.
     The center produces more than 100 certified nurse's aides each year, and is partnering with CVS for a pharmacy program.
     Clinton also toured several GED classrooms and the carpentry and electrical training shops.
Chautauqua correspondent Norma Braude contributed to this report.

CLINTON URGES EXPANSION OF PLAN TO HELP BETHLEHEM RETIREES
The Buffalo News LINK
Fred O. Williams, news business reporter
March 30, 2003
     Flanked by ex-steelworkers, Sen. Hillary Clinton urged the expansion of a federal safety net on Thursday for retirees who lost health coverage from Bethlehem Steel and other failed companies.
     "Many people are not getting the help that was intended," she said during a press conference at the United Steelworkers of America District 4 office in Cheektowaga. "What we're trying to do is plug some of the holes that were left in the plan."
     The Health Care Tax Credit Enhancement introduced in the Senate earlier this month would broaden tax credits for younger retirees and for spouses of retirees, she said. The proposal has the support of lawmakers from other steel states including Indiana, Maryland and West Virginia, Clinton said.
     Bethlehem's bankruptcy cut off health and life insurance for about 12,000 retirees and their family members in Western New York in March, according to company figures. Another 3,000 retirees from Republic Steel lost their benefits last year when successor company LTV went bankrupt.
     Under the Trade Act of 2002, retirees whose pensions were subject to a federal takeover - such as at Bethlehem and LTV - can take a tax credit for 65 percent of the cost of their health care premiums. The credit is available to retirees over age 55 until they become eligible for Medicare at age 65.
     The measure backed by Clinton would lower eligibility to age 50. It would also include people who are currently left out because their retiree spouse is covered by Medicare.
     The expansion also extends eligibility to people currently excluded because of a three-month break in their insurance.
     Diane Pavlik, the wife of a Bethlehem retiree, said the expansion would help her pay for health coverage that Bethlehem used to provide. She is excluded from Trade Act benefits under current rules because her husband has Medicare, but she's not yet 65.
     "I am currently uninsured . . . I am one of those who is falling through the cracks," she said. Replacement coverage will cost $300 to $600 a month, she added.
     Greg Kraus, age 53, is two years short of the minimum age for benefits under current law, despite having worked at Bethlehem for 35 years. "If I have to pay my health care it will cost half my pension," he said.
     Clinton said she didn't know the cost of expanding the tax credit to people like Kraus and Pavlik. The expansion would broaden coverage to many thousands of retirees left uninsured by Bethlehem's collapse, Clinton said.
     However, she said covering retirees is only a step in the direction she'd like to see.
     "Ultimately we have to fix the health care system - I started working on that about 10 years ago," she said, alluding to her national health care proposal as first lady in 1993. She favors expanding Medicare to include prescription drug coverage.
     Clinton also took aim at Gov. George Pataki for not applying for emergency federal bridge funds that would get the tax break to retirees sooner.
     "The existing plan is not getting the support it deserves in New York," she said. Sen. Charles Schumer and Steelworker officials have also been pushing the state to apply for emergency funds.
     State Labor Department spokesman Robert M. Lillpopp said that the lengthy application process for emergency bridge benefits would leave retirees no better off. Other state programs are aimed at helping uninsured workers.

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