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HANOVER TWP. &mdash; We knew him as Alex, the old guy who lived down the street who dug coal in the woods behind my childhood home on Boland Avenue.
				Those woods were playground heaven to me and my childhood friends racing bikes, building forts, apple fights and damming up the creek that flowed near the Lee Park Little League field. And there was Alex, near a hill we called Fossil Hill digging for coal leaving behind trenches we used whenever we played Army with toy guns.
				I never knew Alex&rsquo;s last name or his life story until this past week when told by longtime Boland Avenue resident Bob Slabinski. It was one of those &ldquo;punch in the gut&rdquo; type of situations when I found out who Alex really was.
				Alex Luckes was 74 when he died June 20, 1996.
				What I learned was Alex wasn&rsquo;t just the old guy digging for coal.
				Luckes was a captain for the Hanover Township High School football team in 1940 and most importantly, he was a U.S. Marine.
				During his high school playing days, Luckes was recognized as one of the best players during the 1940 season.
				&ldquo;Harry &lsquo;Fritz&rsquo; Dorish, Swoyersville&rsquo;s all-around athlete and Alex Luckes, Hanover tackle, are the most popular scholastic gridders in Wyoming Valley as a result of their gridiron achievements during the recent campaign,&rdquo; the Times Leader Evening News reported Nov. 30, 1940.
				After high school, Luckes went to Duke University in North Carolina where he played football along with Pittston great Bob Nanni. Luckes earned a starting position midway through his sophomore season in 1942.
				Listed as 205 pounds at 6 feet tall, Luckes and Nanni anchored the Blue Devils&rsquo; offensive line as tackles.
				&ldquo;(Luckes) is a tough boy, will see lot of service,&rdquo; the Charlotte News reported Sept. 11, 1942.
				&ldquo;According to reports from Durham, N.C., Alex Luckes, former Hanover Township High star, will be in the starting lineup when Duke University plays Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh today,&rdquo; reported the Wilkes-Barre Record on Oct. 24, 1942.
				Luckes suffered a knee injury during the Pittsburgh game. The knee injury kept Luckes from playing against Georgia Tech.
				Before the Pittsburgh game, the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Oct. 22, 1942, that Luckes enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.
				&ldquo;Big Alex Luckes, the 200-pound sophomore lineman at Duke, notified his family in Lee Park that he has enlisted in the Marines. The 20-year-old sophomore, who won all-scholastic honors as tackle at Hanover and is now playing most of the time on the Duke varsity, will remain in school until graduation or until the Marines call him for enrollment in the candidates&rsquo; class for commission at Quantico, Va. He has been sworn into the service as a private first class and has been assigned to the inactive service,&rdquo; the Wilkes-Barre Record reported.
				Luckes stayed on Duke&rsquo;s campus into 1943 participating in spring drills. He wasn&rsquo;t called for service until July 1, 1943.
				&ldquo;Pvt. Alex Luckes, son of Alex Luckes Sr., Boland Avenue, Lee Park, is with the V-12 Marines training corps at Duke University. After playing tackle at Hanover Township High School in 1940 and getting elected captain of the gridiron eleven, he went to Duke University. He played varsity football there before he enlisted as a private in the Marine officers&rsquo; candidate school and began the V-12 training while a sophomore,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported Sept. 18, 1943.
				No published stories of Luckes&rsquo; war service were found during a newspaper archive search.
				According to U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls obtained on Ancestry.com, Luckes was attached to the 1st Battalion, 13th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division based out of San Diego, Calif.
				The 5th Marine Division took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima that began Feb. 16, 1945 and ended March 26, 1945.
				The Battle of Iwo Jima claimed the Marine lives of 5,931 and wounded 17,372, according to a 1995 report from the History and Museums Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, in Washington, D.C.
				Luckes was honorably discharged on April 13, 1946.
				My memories of talking and seeing an old man digging coal as we raced our bikes around him in the woods have changed. Now I see him as a hero like all veterans.
				For the upcoming Memorial Day, I will not only visit my father&rsquo;s grave as he was a U.S. Marine veteran who fought in the Korean War, I will also stop and pay my respect to Alex as they are both buried in St. Mary&rsquo;s Cemetery in Hanover Township.

Look Back: ‘Alex the coal digger’ was U.S. Marine Corps veteran of WWII