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Steamboat Springs — Carl Ramunno spent about 18 months in Korea during the Korean War.

What he learned there would be the guiding force behind the rest of his life.

"When he came out of Korea, he knew right away what he wanted to do," said his son, John Ramunno, who said his father immediately married his mother, Marilyn, and went to college to become a teacher. "It made him grow up quick. : The service set him up for life."

Carl Ramunno went on to become an industrial arts and woodshop teacher at Steamboat Springs High School, but he is most remembered as the school's legendary, discipline-instilling wrestling coach, who led athletes to six team and 28 individual state titles.

"He just had an incredible program," John Ramunno said. "He just had great discipline : and taught a lot of values that I think people hang on to, to this day."

Carl Ramunno died Dec. 6, 1999, at the age of 68. More than 800 people attended his memorial service.

"That was only about two years of his life, but I swear there was almost a daily story," John Ramunno said about his father's time in Korea, as he remembered Carl Ramunno's "Christmas in a foxhole" story. "When I was a kid, I thought he must have been there for 10 years. : He put his life on the line for his country. There's not a day goes by I don't think about something he told me or taught me."

Stories about veterans returning home too often are negatively focused on issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, said local veteran Jim Stanko, organizer of the annual Memorial Day ceremony to be held Monday. Not often enough, Stanko said, are there stories about men such as Ramunno, who returned from service to make a positive impact on the community for many years.

"He took a lot of us kids and shaped us up," Stanko said about Ramunno - from personal experience. "That's what we're trying to show: What you learn in the military carries over. : Not only did they serve their country, they came back and served their community. I know we have problems, but people came back and help build their communities. They don't get the recognition."

Honor in every war

In honor of such men, the Steamboat Springs Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4264 and the American Legion Post No. 44 will pay tribute to six veterans from past wars Monday, to symbolize all 265 veterans at the Steamboat Springs Cemetery.

Representing Civil War veterans will be Charles C. Graham, a Steamboat businessman who was elected to the state Senate as a Populist. He died at the age of 76.

"He was a pioneer resident here, first locating on a ranch on the Elk River and then moving to Steamboat Springs where he erected a building on Lincoln Avenue and lived many years," reads an obituary in the Jan. 14, 1914, Steamboat Pilot. "In the early days, he was prominent in Republican politics, but at the time of the Populist (wave) he joined that party."

Representing veterans of World War I will be Claude A. Luekens, who served 23 years as a Routt County Commissioner and 19 years as the mayor of Steamboat Springs. He died July 13, 1971, at the age of 88.

"His record of community service was so impressive that it seemed that his vocation of many years, the Chrysler-Plymouth agency and garage, was only a sideline," read Luekens' local newspaper obituary. "Actually, his business was one of the two originally Chrysler-Plymouth agencies in Colorado."

Don Brookshire will represent veterans of World War II. Brookshire, a Steamboat Springs native, died in 1997. He owned and operated the former Corner Liquor Store and later was employed as the lift ticket supervisor for the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. for 20 years. A Navy veteran based on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, Brookshire was elected to three terms on the Steamboat Springs City Council and also was active in veterans groups and other organizations.

Ramunno is representing veterans of the Korean War.

Representing veterans of the Vietnam War is James A. Chew, the only Steamboat Springs police officer to ever be killed in the line of duty.

Chew joined the police department in 1970 and was shot while stopping a vehicle that was reported stolen. The vehicle was driven by Harold Vernon Bingham, an escapee from the Washington state prison system. Bingham later was arraigned on first-degree murder charges in Routt County.

Bingham reportedly had escaped from prison and ended up in Steamboat Springs after a car chase in which police lost him on Rabbit Ears Pass. A few days later, a pistol and rifle were reported stolen in Steamboat Springs, leading police to suspect that Bingham made it back into the city limits and took the weapons. The day after the guns were reported stolen, Chew was killed, possibly by one of those stolen guns.

Chew was following up on a stolen vehicle report near Fourth and Oak streets when he confronted the driver. The details surrounding the shooting are unclear, but Chew reportedly was shot in the back by Bingham and later died of the injuries he sustained.

Greg Kyprios will represent veterans of Operation Desert Storm. He was a captain in the U.S. Army, who later started a management consultant group for high-tech and aerospace leaders in Steamboat Springs. KittyHawk Partners carries on in his absence. His wife, Tina Kyprios, said the firm works with equipment used by soldiers across the world and continues to have an impact on our national defense.

"Without a doubt, Greg was the smartest guy I've ever known and a guy who was very gifted in many ways and still quietly humble," Tina Kyprios said.

She said her husband possessed courage and integrity.

"He was a man who valued truth, people and relationships," she said. "He was an exemplary citizen and a wonderful example to others of how to live, and love."

For more information about Monday's Memorial Day ceremony, which is at 11 a.m. at the Steamboat Springs Cemetery, call Stanko at 879-3936.

"The Memorial Day ceremony has been going on since 1920," Stanko said. "We haven't missed a beat."

- To reach Brandon Gee, call 871-4210 or e-mail bgee@steamboatpilot.com