Editorial
Logan Herald-Observer January 19, 2011
3
Down Home By Sandy Turner Sandy Turner writes a weekly column “Down Home” which is published in several newspapers in the Midwest. She puts a humorous spin on issues that revolve around families and every day life, drawing from her own experiences.
Dad, snowdrifts and freezing temps It’s hard to find anything good to say about this week. Between dealing with snow, freezing temperatures and worrying about dad, I was about to blow a gasket. I was beginning to think frequent visits plus sorting hundreds of nuts and bolts was working until dad shoveled the driveway with a short-sleeved shirt on. My worries of him being bored suddenly turned into concerns of his capability of being home alone. Snow drifts are freaking him out and he’s constantly staring at the backyard worrying that the eight-foot mounds are going to knock over the privacy fence that separate him from a car dealership. His conversations sway between flying over Iceland during World War II and wishing he could move south. He was getting more than just grumpy, at times he was just plain ole’ mad. His dog is so desperate to get outside he runs to the back door as soon as I show up. Dad convinced himself that the dog was going to get sucked into the snow like quicksand. Since the dog is 20 pounds overweight, it is a struggle for him to wade through, even though I make paths that quickly get covered up by the constant drifting. By Thursday he’d almost convinced me that maybe he’d be better off in a place where he would have the comfort of being surrounded by others and wouldn’t have the stress of worrying about the dog, the snow or the frozen birdbath. How long would he have stayed outside in freezing temperatures with a short-sleeved shirt on? What if he thinks the dog is stuck in the snow and tries to retrieve him? I often wish we could have 15 minutes of conversation without dementia playing a part in it. I’d quickly ask him the questions that I’m trying to find the perfect answers for. Ten years ago when his dementia was just slightly apparent – and he knew what was coming – he told me the answers, but I need to know if they still hold true. Do you want to live alone? Are you really unhappy or just frustrated because you can’t sit in your backyard – your favorite place in the whole world? When I come by after work he’s already heading to bed. As soon as it gets dark, he’s down for the count. Dad called and it was 7:30 at night. This can’t be good, as a dozen scenarios run through my mind. The neighbor was calling to say that he found dad and dog frozen in the backyard or his confusion had finally got the best of him and he forgot where he was. “Young lady,” he said in a stronger voice than I’ve heard in awhile. “Where are you?” which quickly took me back to teenage days of running rampant. “Home,” I said. “What’s wrong?” “I couldn’t go to sleep until I knew you were OK. There are snow drifts 10 feet tall out there.” Turned out to be a great week after all, as I knew a part of dad is still intact and he’s going to be OK.
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Herald-Observer Editor MARY DARLING mary.darling@heraldobserver.com Sales Coordinator LOYAL FAIRMAN loyal.fairman@heraldobserver.com Advertising ads@heraldobserver.com Production Assistant MARY LOU NONEMAN marylou.noneman@woodbinetwiner.com 107 No. 4th Ave. P.O. Box 148 (mailing address) • Logan, IA 51546 Phone 712-644-2705 • Fax 712-644-2788 Published weekly in Logan, Iowa A Western Iowa Newspaper Group Publication of Midlands Newspaper, Inc. The Official Paper of the City of Logan and the Logan-Magnolia Community School District Periodical Class Postage Paid at Logan, IA 51546 USPS 317-740 Subscription Rates $31.50 per year for Senior Citizens (Age 62 years or older in county) $38.50 per year in Harrison County, Panama, Portsmouth and Moorhead $41.00 per year outside of Harrison County in Iowa and Nebraska $45.00 per year elsewhere in the United States $24.00 college/academic (9 month) The contents of this newspaper are protected by copyright. Other than non-commercial, personal use of a limited nature, no part of this publication may be copied and reproduced in any way without the prior written consent of the publisher.
In a blaze of glory Helmuth Fromsdorf was wet behind the ears, out of his depth, or any other phrase one chose to describe him. At the ripe age of 24 the high command had made the inexperienced young man commander of the U-853 German submarine. Dismayed crewmembers described their commander’s poor judgment and leadership skills in the letters they wrote to family and friends. Fromsdorf had served as a junior officer, but his previous job had illprepared him to run a submarine. Perhaps, his superiors promoted him to captain because after losing nearly 800 U-boats and commanders the Germans had to use the people they had. Though Helmuth’s men mocked him behind his back, he was probably perceptive enough to know they doubted his ability to command. The U-853 had a good combat record in spite of Fromsdorf’s youth and inexperience, and it was operating off the New England coast in early 1945. The German phase of the war ended, and on May 4, 1945 German Naval Headquarters in Berlin ordered all U-boats to cease
hostilities and prepare to surrender. Captain Fromsdorf didn’t acknowledge the message and turned his submarine into a rogue agent of continuing warfare. The U-853 prowled up and down the coastline until it found the USS Eagle Boat off Portland, Maine. A torpedo sank the ship and 49 crew members died. The U-boat continued along the coast searching for more prey until it found the US Merchant Marine ship, the SS Black Point off Point Judith Lighthouse, R.I. The Black Point went down with 19 crewmembers in full view of employees on the lighthouse. They and several ships sent out an SOS and the USS Coast Guard Cutter Moberly with the USS Alerton left the US Naval Base at Newport, R.I. to search the water with sonar. The U-853 desperately evaded the Americans and fled to deeper water, but the U-boat was no match for the two ships. Sonar found the submarine off Block Island, R.I., and sailors dropped their depth charges, as the U-boat continued to elude them. Hedgehog rockets combined with the depth
Perley’s Bits & Pieces By Jim Perley Logan Herald-Observer Columnist jperley@iowatelecom.net
charges to finish the career of the U-853 and her crew. Though debris and diesel oil rose to the surface, the bombardment continued until May 6 when the Navy confirmed that the U-boat with her crew of 56 men had been destroyed. It was the last German submarine to be sunk in United States waters. No one knows why Helmuth Fromsdorf chose to die in a blaze of glory. Did he value the fatherland more than his own life? Or was he still trying to prove to himself he was worthy of command? Whatever the reason, he took many men to the afterlife with him. The United States government tended to hide or minimize attacks within its borders to avoid public fear and panic. This policy prompted Navy officials to describe the dead as victims of boiler explosions.
Since they were listed as “killed by accident,” the sailors were ineligible for U.S. Purple Hearts. The case was closed. Paul M. Lawton, a lawyer and naval historian studied the case, and he thought the dead sailors had been treated unjustly. After two years of extensive research, he and his helpers proved the naval officials were wrong and after more persuasive pressure, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy conceded the error and corrected the official records to show the crew men were “killed in action.” James Fahey, a military archivist helped by locating old military files and arranged for officials to present Purple Hearts to next of kin on the USS Salem. At last, justice was done for the men killed in Helmuth Fromsdorf’s blaze of glory.
News from the Extension Service
Legacy of Loess Say what you will, but the most interesting and dominant landform in all of Iowa is only found in the western border counties, namely the Loess Hills. Loess is wind-deposited dust that actually occurs to some degree whenever the wind blows on open land. In March and April when cropland is bare and we get strong winds sweeping across the land, dust is moved around and can pile up just like snow drifts. What happened here? Ice that was up to a mile thick slowly melted during the last glacial period and great volumes of meltwater had to go somewhere. Huge rivers carried the water from the ice away, the energy of the water carried ground up rock debris along. As the water moved, the flow varied and the rock debris was sorted into bigger stuff – sand and gravel, medium sized stuff, called silt and fines called clay. A relief map of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota shows the Missouri River, which formed as the primary meltwater outlet from northern glaciers, has a valley that significantly broadens around Sioux City. South of Sioux City, this broad valley allowed
the massive volumes of meltwater to spread out and slow down. When flowing water slows, it progressively loses the energy to carry first gravel and then sand, then silt and finally clay. Effectively, the flood plain was turned into a soil-particle sorting machine. While every flood plain does that, the Iowa and Nebraska Missouri River bottom is classic. Today sand lenses are remnants of a stream with fast water, and where the water spread out and stood during each cool winter when the ice to the north melted more slowly and the river level dropped, a vast plain of sorted fine clay was deposited. Those clayey deposits are today referred to by geologists as river back swamps, but locally we call them gumbo or other more choice words. During all the melt runoff there were frequent strong winds predominantly blowing from west to east that accessed the fresh and loose deposits left in the valley. Wind is able to pick up particles, especially the medium-and fine-sized ones, and clouds of dust blew, mostly moving to the east. At the edge of the valley, the slight rise caused the wind to lose energy and
Rich Pope Harrison County Extension Program Coordinator drop the silt first, and slowly a ridge built up. Throughout the centuries, we wound up with this geological snow fence effect that today we call the Loess Hills. My definition of the Loess Hills includes the Missouri River bottom. Let’s look at just a few of the legacies we have from that geologic drama of glacial meltwater and strong winds on western Iowa. For one, the deposited silt largely originated from limestone rock. As much as 30 percent of the soil volume is lime, which means if you want to grow blueberries or azaleas, or other acid-needing plants, you have a problem. Also, loess is very uniform, and when wet those individual silt particles have trouble holding together. As you drive around Harrison and neighboring counties, road cuts through the loess
are nearly vertical, to keep them from getting soaked with rainfall. A sloped bare surface of loess saturates with water and loses strength, leading to dramatic erosion. Look no further than stream head gullies in the loess that can grow to over 100-feet deep. Add to it that the north-facing slopes have different summer exposure to the sun from south-facing slopes, with the southern exposure dryer, and you have different plant communities. Trees establish more readily on the north-facing slopes. These are at the core of the unique beauty that characterizes the hills and attracts tourists, hunters and scientists. For additional information contact Rich Pope at the Harrison County Extension Office at ropope@iastate.edu or 6442105.
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