Walter Howard Clausson, aka Pop, Walt, Pop Pop, and/or Uncle Howard, was born January 5, 1930 in Beaver Falls, PA, the 9th child of William Allen and Ethel Mae Moon Clausson. The son of a farmer and mechanic, with eight other siblings Walt’s childhood was very humble. He remembered wearing burlap potato sacks for clothing and kicking the snow off the bottom of the bed, that came through the slats of the wall on cold wintry nights on the Pennsylvania farm where they lived. Despite their meager lifestyle, there was lots of love and Pop said he never knew they were poor.
Pop wanted to join the service and fight in WWII with his brothers, but he was too young to enlist. When the Korean War began, Pop was only 17, still too young to enlist, so he falsified his age, and on April 23, 1947, he was sworn into the United States Army. When his mother found out, she was going to report him for being underage, but he told her how well he was doing, and how important it was to him to support the country, and that he was going to church every Sunday. That sold her and she finally agreed. Pop served in the Korean war as a medic and in Tres, Italy. He was proud of his time in service but tortured by memories of the war in his later years.
