A warm welcome
MONONGAHELA – Korean War veteran Jesse McDonald returned home from the hospital a month ago to find his furnace blowing nothing more than cold air.
Over the next four weeks, he kept warm in his Carroll Township mobile home by using space heaters, until a South Fayette Township furnace company came to his rescue.
“I was happy as hell yesterday when they called me and said they were delivering me a furnace,” McDonald said Wednesday when Gillece Services donated to him a new, energy-efficient furnace valued at nearly $3,000.
McDonald said he reached out to Veterans of Foreign Wars about his problem and was referred to the Free Furnace Program that existed for the past year under a partnership with Gillece and VFW.
“We heard about Jesse (McDonald), that we had a spunky 79-year-old Korean War vet who, once his heat ran out, he had COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) problems,” said Tom Eshenbaugh, the company’s operations manager.
Eshenbaugh said the veteran met the low-income guidelines and held an honorable discharge to qualify for a free furnace.
“We were happy to install one for him,” he said, adding that it’s the fourth furnace Gillece has donated to a veteran in the past year.
The company had to special-order and retrofit McDonald’s furnace to make it work in a mobile home constructed in 1976.
McDonald fathered five children with his wife, Nettie, with whom he had celebrated 50 years of marriage before she died.
He served six decades ago in the U.S. Army, assigned to carry a Browning automatic rifle in Korea.
He spent his working career as a trucker.
He praised Gillece for being generous, saying there is “too much greed” in the world today.
“I appreciate you guys,” he said as Eshenbaugh left his home on Wisebecker Lane.
For information about the program, call Linda Eshenbaugh at the VFW regional office at 412-395-6259.