Ronald E. "Ron" Costa is in his second career of government service. He has served as Westport's Veterans Agent for the past 26 years. From his office in Town Hall Annex he meets with veterans and fields phone calls Monday through Friday. Prior to that he was a career Air Force man, signing up in 1953 and retiring in 1975. Mr. Costa served in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
When stateside, he was posted as close as Otis Air Force Base in Bourne and as far west as Lowry Air Force Base and the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Mr. Costa saw Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon and Vice President Humphrey when they visited bases where he worked. In 1964 he witnessed one of Bob Hope's famous Christmas shows for veterans overseas. Both natives of Fall River, Mr. Costa and his wife Roberta were married in September 1959. They built a house on Newton Street in Westport in 1965 and moved in full time after Mr. Costa retired in 1975. The Costas have four children: Vicki, Steven, Michael and Kathleen, all of whom live in Westport.
SIGNING UP?: "I originally enlisted in the Air Force in 1953 as an electronics repairman. After I finished basic training, I went to tech school at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado then to bombsight school and flexible gunnery school to learn how to repair bombsights and guns on aircraft."
FAMILY? "Roberta was with me on all of my tours of duty. Our first two children were born in the U.S. and the second two were born in Japan. We're a close family. All my kids live within half mile of each other, work in the area, and talk together just about every day."
WHERE STATIONED? "I was stationed twice each in Colorado, Japan, Hanscomb Air Force Base, and Otis Air Force Base. My second duty in Colorado was at the Air Force Academy. Whatever place I put in for I got. Somebody was looking out for me."
AIR FORCE DUTIES? "First I was involved with bombsight repair. Next I was in consolidated maintenance and supplied power units to aircraft as specialists were working on them. Then I worked as a transportation coordinator at the Air Force Academy. Wherever cadets were going, here or abroad, we took them."
VETERANS AGENT SERVICES? "I've worked with vets from WWI to the present. If a veteran qualifies for services, I can provide financial assistance for food, clothing, shelter, housing supplies and medical care. I have an average of 2,000-3,000 calls a year. Veterans ask what they're entitled to, what their spouse is entitled to, and information about everything from medical matters and to burial forms. I answer an average of 15 calls a day."
SEEING EISENHOWER? "President Eisenhower loved Colorado and had a summer home there. I used to see him every day when he had the Summer White House at Lowry Air Force Base between 1953 and 1955. It was impressive. You had to have clean uniforms and we worked long shifts. You might get a nod when he was passing by."
BOB HOPE? "When Bob Hope's 1964 Christmas Show was in Tokyo, I got off duty after a 12-hour shift and walked over to take a peek at the hanger the show was going to be in. When the ambulances came in, one of the drivers says if you give us a hand wheeling in the wounded on wheelchairs and gurneys I'll get you into the show. Not only did we go in but we sat in front row center. I got my ticket signed by Bob Hope, Lana Turner and Anita Bryant. A photo of me in a crowd of guys around the comedian Jerry Colonna was in the next day's Far East edition of Stars and Stripes."
HUBERT HUMPHREY? "In June 1968, the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, I was working at the Air Force Academy compound in Colorado where Humphrey had come for the cadets' graduation and I was called to guard his compound. He gave me a card that entitled me to sit at a reserved spot to watch the proceedings in the Senate."
FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD: "Every Christmas I get mail from around world from people we knew while I was serving. Occasionally some of them stayed with us when passing through. When we traveled across country we visited with others we knew."
FAVORITE LOCAL SPOTS? "I used to enjoy walking around getting exercise and watching the people at Lincoln Park. I could get jobs for my veterans there. My kids worked there in the summer, too."
PASTIMES: "I really love reading Louis L'Amour Western novels. I have at least 40 of his books. If I haven't read one of them, it's because I can't find it. I think the plots of many Hollywood, even Japanese, films, are based on his stories."
VACATIONS? "In October, I'll spend week in Newport fishing and going out to good restaurants in the evening."
LOOKING BACK? "Thirty-five people applied to be veterans agent in 1975 and I'm still here enjoying the job."
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