A Vet’s Story – Frank Scattene
Eating ham and cheese with Stormin’ Norman
It was Oct. 22, 105 days before Groundhog Day. Frank Scattene walked through Lehigh University’s Ulrich Student Center like a curious child. He climbed the stairs and wandered around, asking questions the whole way.
“Wow, this is nice,” said Scattene, “You know, this used to be the old ROTC building. This is were I started. What do they use this for now?”
Ulrich is now Lehigh’s Student Center, filled with mailboxes. Scattene is now a retired Army veteran. But it is in this building that Scattene’s story begins.
His story is not grand or special in the way that most people imagine for a veteran. He was never in combat, never had to witness someone dying in battle, never ran from gunfire. His story is the story that never gets told. It is the story of a man behind the scenes. A man forgotten by many, but worth remembering.
Reservists are often forgotten and under-appreciated. Scattene knows what that feels like, because he was one of those people.
“One thing people don’t have an understanding or appreciation for is that when you’re a reservist you come home from your day job, you go to your office or PC and you answer e-mails, make phone calls, work on a project. You’re constantly working. You can never find time to chill out,” said Scattene. “There is a lot of time commitment that people don’t see. There is a lot of pain and heartache that [reservists] put in that does not get recognized, but they continue to do it because they feel that they should.”
A very clean cut man with the remnants of a crew cut and still wearing a crisp suit at 7 p.m, Scattene does not look like the kind of man who gets emotional. Yet when he recalls one Christmas in Sarajevo, away from his family and home, his clear eyes get cloudy with tears and he looks away.
It was his last trip overseas and he was working on the Dayton Agreement after Desert Storm. The agreement was signed in Paris on Dec. 14, 1995. Scattene deployed in June of 1998. Scattene was involved with the economics department, which helped with the up-keep of the peacekeeping mission. His job involved creating a statistics bureau, helping with labor law reform and coordinating the international funding for the mission.
Scattene’s group was supposed to leave in December of 1998 but chose to stay longer. That way, the next group of reservists coming over to take their place would not miss the holidays with their families. But that meant Scattene would.
It was during this time that a USO group came into the financial offices where he was working and stared singing Christmas carols.
“I about lost it,” said Scattene.
Scattene said that this experience made him think. If he was this touched by a small caroling group, how do the men who are in combat feel when someone like Bob Hope comes to town and organizes events much more extravagant?
Scattene could e-mail his friends and family, receive and send pictures instantly, read about his son’s football game on The Morning Call’s Web site. People in battle do not have those niceties; especially people who were overseas before all of the new technology available today.
He thought of the Vietnam veterans who do not get the appreciation that they deserve. He now has even more respect for them because he knows what they had to go through without any support from their country.
Today, Scattene is still living in Bethlehem, but this time with his wife and two children. He works for Computer Aid Inc. and is the senior manager in tax and international accounting. When he comes home and night he actually has time to “chill out.”
Scattene did, however, have some fun, interesting and oddly coincidental experiences while serving his country.
Scattene’s first real job involved handling the finances associated with the Pope’s visit to Wiesbaden air base in Germany in November of 1980. While on the job, Scattene got to meet with then, one star General Norman Schwarzkopf. Schwarzkopf wanted to do something to bring in some money from the event and decided that selling ham and cheese sandwiches to the visitors was the way to do it.
Apparently, this was not one of Schwarzkopf’s greatest decisions. The sandwiches did not sell and the Army had a hard time getting rid of them afterwards. People were eating ham sandwiches for days – including Scattene.
Many people remember the Iran hostages and that day in January of 1981, when they finally were returned to the American military. Scattene remembers that day too, because he was there outside the hospital in Germany. “It must have been a four-lane road outside the hospital,” said Scattene, “One whole lane was full of TV trucks. I saw Peter Jennings there, who was the European correspondent at the time.”
One of the hostages was also a Lehigh alumnus and the Alumni Association was in touch with Scattene in order to get a message to the hostage.
Scattene was able to get close enough with his military ID to get a few pictures when the hostages arrived at the hospital early in the morning.
“I was late for work that day,” said Scattene, “15 minutes – it was worth it. The whole world was watching.”
September 11th
During the week of Sept. 11, 2001, Scattene was at Herbert Field in Florida in a class he was taking for the military. The title of the class? Dynamics of International Terrorism. That Tuesday morning he was in class when someone came in and told them that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. Everyone immediately knew it was a terrorist attack.
A television was brought into the classroom and those who did not have to leave because of their jobs sat and watched, like the rest of America.
“It was a surreal kind of day,” recalled Scattene.
Flights were canceled and guest speakers had to be replaced, but the course went on that week, with the help of the assigned book - which had the Twin Towers on the front cover.
Scattene does statistics for home football games, and had gotten word that Lehigh had recruited someone from Bosnia to play basketball. Scattene was intrigued and eventually got to chat with the player, Zlatko Savovic, nicknamed “Zo,” about where he was from. Zo told Scattene that he was actually from a town called Banjaluka, which Scattene had been to during his stay in Sarajevo.
Not only had he been there, but Scattene had also taken some video footage of the town. He thought it would be a good idea to show it to Zo and the basketball team.
“I was kind of hoping they could relate [to Zo]” said Scattene.
As the video began, Scattene watched Zo, who was looking intently at the screen. Scattene imitated how Zo slowly leaned in, squinted a bit at the screen and then pointed, exclaiming, “That’s my house!”
Why tell you all of this? Because being involved with the Army for 23 years, Scattene has affected many people’s lives. He has also done it in a positive way. He has worked on peace agreements, visits from the Pope, building coast guard stations and schools in Jamaica, new technology for the Army.
Rather than death and destruction, Scattene has dealt with repairing and moving on. He has encountered many people with whom he can connect. As a result of this, he has many positive stories regarding his experience.
He is the man behind the scenes, one of the forgotten who holds everything together, even when it’s about to fall apart.
Remember the movie, “Groundhog Day?” When Bill Murray gets stuck in the same day over, and over again? Well, that’s how Scattene and the rest of his group describe being on deployment.
“Everything’s the same,” said Scattene, “You wake up, shower, go to work, come home. There’s no family, everything’s the same.”
Scattene was supposed to leave Sarajevo soon after New Year’s Day in January. That was when the next group was supposed to arrive with someone to take his place. Things got pushed back, however, and Scattene did not get to leave until February.
“I made a sign,” said Scattene raising his arms to demonstrate, “I stuck it over the door as we were leaving.” He pretended to smack the sign above the imaginary door; “It said, ‘Happy Groundhog Day’.”
It was Feb. 2, 1999. The day Scattene finally left Sarajevo, it was Groundhog Day.
Lindsay E. Hinsch is a junior at
Lehigh University. Her hometown is Unadilla, N.Y.