Staunton Star - Times - Published in the Interest of the Staunton Community for Over 143 Years

This week's Looking Back photo is the property of Mike Pintar. It shows his father, Emil Pintar, at his post in the DeCamp Tower that sat alongside the railroad tracks on State Route 4 south of Staunton. The year is unknown, but he served as telegraph operator. His job would have been to copy train orders and messages for the train crews and report to the dispatcher the passing of trains. The telegrapher was the eyes and ears of the train dispatcher. In addition to their train duties, telegraphers at most small stations worked for Western Union. We don't know if that was the case with Emil, but those who worked at DeCamp Tower during the World Wars were in charge of receiving and seeing that many heartbreaking telegraphs were delivered in our area.