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2016
Salute to Veterans
Headlight Herald
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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Salute to Veterans
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Veterans Day Calendar of Events Wednesday, November 9
Thursday, November 10
son at Denny’s 503-815-2695.
College campus). The Life Change Christian Fellowship 9 a.m. at East Elementary All-Day – Denny’s Shining 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Til- Church is sponsoring a lunSchool in the auditorium/ Star program where people lamook Naval Air Station / Air cheon for the veterans. gymnasium. can donate money to Denny’s Museum – 20th annual VeterAll veterans are invited for the which will be passed on to ans Day event. Breakfast ($8 3 p.m. – at Werner Gourmet student body to thank them veterans charities. For more per person – money pays for Meat Snacks at 2807 Third for their service. Cake and information, call Irena Ander- the cost of the food – profit is Street in Tillamook. A 30 ft. by 60 ft. will be raised on a 134punch reception follows the son at Denny’s 503-815-2695. donated to veteran charity). foot new flagpole to honor student convocation. local veterans. There will be 11 a.m. – 20th annual Vetrefreshments available. All-Day – Denny’s Shining Friday, November 11 erans Day event begins at at Star program where people Tillamook Naval Air Station / can donate money to Denny’s All-Day – Denny’s Shining 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. – at the Elks Air Museum which will be passed on to Lodge on Third Street in TillaStar program where people veterans charities. For more mook. A spaghetti dinner for can donate money to Denny’s Noon – at Swiss Hall 4605 information, call Irena Ander- which will be passed on to veterans will be hosted by the Brookfield Avenue in Tillason at Denny’s 503-815-2695. veterans charities. For more mook (one block south of the lodge. information, call Irena Ander- Tillamook Bay Community
Tillamook Air Museum
503-842-1130
Thanks To Our Service Men and Women
www.tillamookair.com info@tillamookair.com
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS POST & AUXILIARY 2848 PRESENT THE
20TH VETERANS DAY CELEBRATION
NOVEMBER 11, 2016
Program Starts at 11:00 AM at TILLAMOOK AIR MUSEUM HONORING MILITARY OF THE MODERN ERA CONFLICTS 1990 TO PRESENT KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Judy J. Riggs, USAF, Senior Master Sergeant and Donavan Goff, US Army, Specialist • RIVER CITY BAGPIPES & DRUMS • USCG COLOR GUARD • TILLAMOOK HIGHSCHOOL CHOIR & COMMUNITY CHORUS • TRAVELING MILITARY MUSEUM • MUSIC BY BUFFALO KITTY BAND
SOS FUNDRAISER BREAKFAST @ AIR BASE CAFÉ SERVED 7:30-10:30AM
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Salute to Veterans
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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Donald McRae served his country in WWII for his two years in the service. After returning home, Donald moved his family to Garibaldi where he worked for local mills before starting his own business, McRae and Sons. That was 1957. Back then Don, his wife Veta and their son Don, Jr ran the company. Today, the company is operated by Don Jr.’s sons Ralph and Dan, and his nephew
Sam. Originally, the firm created paper-roll plugs for the large paper manufacturers in the area. Shortly thereafter, McRae & Sons approached Purdy Corporation about the possibility of manufacturing their brush handles, and this relationship was born. Today, McRae & Sons manufactures upwards of 6.5 million wooden
pieces per year from its 75,000 square-foot facility in Bay City. All of this was started almost 59 years ago, and has lasted for three generations. The longevity and success of the family business being handed down to the next generation, is the same type pride Donald took in his military service and for his country. This along with the love for producing a product, is surly what is ingrained in each wooden piece his sons and their sons still manufacture today.
IN HONOR OF GOD, FLAG AND COUNTRY: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
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Thank You to all of our Veterans On Veterans Day we thank our service men and women who are no longer with us, those who have served and those who are still serving — we salute you on Veterans Day! From the Davison Auto Parts Staff Mon - Fri: 8 AM - 6 PM Sat: 8 AM - 5 PM Sun: 10 AM - 4 PM 2005 11th Street, Tillamook, OR 97141 (503) 842-4452 H61308
VETERANS DAY!
A SPECIAL DAY SET ASIDE TO HONOR OUR MEN AND WOMEN WHO FOUGHT OUR WARS TO GIVE US THE FREEDOM WE ENJOY TODAY. ALL OF US AT DECKER REAL ESTATE HONOR OUR VETS AND WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR YOU. IF YOU ARE BUYING OR SELLING A HOME OR PROPERTY, WE CAN MAKE THAT “SOMETHING SPECIAL” FIT YOUR SITUATION. OUR VETERANS GAVE UP THEIR FREEDOM BY JOINING THE ARMED FORCES AT AN EARLY AGE FOR A SEASON TO GIVE US FREEDOM FOR A LIFETIME. THESE ARE SPECIAL FOLKS, SHOW THEM YOU CARE. - Carolyn H. Decker
“THANK YOU”
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onald McRae is a proud American and served his country during Word War II in the Army Air Corps as a mechanic. He was actually in training at the end of the war finishing up about the time Japan surrendered. He served from 1945 to 1947. Even though the war was ending, the military sill needed a full trained force, so McRae was shipped off to serve in Okinawa. He trained working on B29 airplanes, but ended up working on the P47
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Carolyn Decker Teresa Burdick Mark Decker Nancy C. Love cell (503) 801-0935 (503) 812-3495 (503) 801-0498 (503) 812-1320
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Salute to Veterans
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Airman Carl Young served his country during the Cold War C
arl Young found out it was easier to enlist into the military than it was to be discharged. Keep with us. Young signed up for service in the Air Force and was stationed for three years, between 1957 and 1960, in Chicksands England. His job was with the 6950th Radio Group Mobile in the security service. How he ended up in the military is an interesting story. As Carl tells it, he graduated high school in Portland and immediately went into the recruiter’s office to check out his options. When he got up to leave, the recruiter told him “your bus is outside.” So
he hopped on the bus and was taken to basic training in San Antonio Texas. He didn’t even have time to say goodbye to his mother, his wife Linda said. “I went the the recruiter and never went home,” Carl said. “I was in basic training before I knew it.” Carl says he always wanted to go to Spain, and thought the military was his best option, but he never made it. He’s OK with that though, saying Chicksands was close enough. “He never go to go, but he came close,” Linda said. While in Chicksands, Carl and his team with the
6950th Radio Group Mobile monitored Russian communication and in particular, messages and orders coming from Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, the Russian leader during that portion of the Cold War. “I lived the entire time in a quonset hut,” he said. Carl was discharged in 1960, but it was not as easy as joining. He said when he landed in Washington D.C. he took off his uniform. It was a rule that you had to be wearing your uniform to be discharged, and Carl didn’t have it anymore. “They ended up discharging him anyway,” Linda said. “But it
We Support Veterans
was much harder than enlisting.” After being discharged, he moved back to Portland and took an apprenticeship in the printing business and eventually worked most of his career in printing production for Norwest. He married Linda in 1968 and they still enjoy spending time together. She says, she’s heard all of Carl’s stories about his military years. After he retired from the printing business, Carl worked for the Postal Service as a Postman. Today Carl lives at the Griffin House in Tillamook. Linda visits him everyday.
Carl and Linda Young.
at
Left to right: Richard Gaddy, Jeanette Rawe in honor of husband Francis G.M. Rawe, Delbert “Al” Wilder, Alice Cook in honor of Robert S. Cook, Carl Young, Donald McRae. Caregivers: Jamilee Willard and Nana Tuimato.
RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITY TILLAMOOK, OREGON
Bill Norcoss Benny Barbee Kenneth Beebehiser James Johansen Herb Lafkey Robert Mathis Vince Saturino Lowrie St. James
Donald Wustenberg Donald McRae Carl Young Delbert “Al” Wilder Richard Gaddy Robert Cook in honor of Alice Cook
Phone: (503) 842-4496 • Email: info@thegriffinhouse.org • 6630 Alderbrook Road, Tillamook, OR 97141
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Salute to Veterans
Dan Gillespie U.S. Army – Vietnam, Infantryman
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n the 1960s, Sgt. Dan Gillespie went looking for adventure in Asia. “That’s why I enlisted,” he said. No one from Gillespie’s family had served in the military since the Civil War. “I felt it was time someone paid their dues for our citizenship,” said Gillespie, “My dad wasn’t happy because I was the only boy out of six children.” His first week in Vietnam led he and his company to the Saigon River in a rag boat. “They’re called rag boats because of the canvas on top to protect you from rain,” he said. The middle of three companies to land
ashore, his took the least amount of fire and ultimately were ambushed. Gillespie and his company were pinned down for eight hours. After surviving the encounter, Gillespie served a full year and was a fire team leader, a squad
leader and a platoon sergeant. “I was also the tunnel rat,” he said, meaning whenever a tunnel was found, it was his job to explore it. “I had a .45, a knife and a flashlight. The knife wasn’t for handto-hand combat, but for checking for booby traps.” Two Bronze Stars were awarded to Gillespie for acts of heroism. “These things sound ballsier than they really are,” said Gillespie with a smile, while re-reading the description of what earned him the accolades. “These are kind of what you get for doing your job.” Gillespie has also been awarded two purple hearts. “The third (Purple Heart) didn’t count because I didn’t see a military doctor.” After leaving Vietnam, Gillespie said one of his first thoughts were, “Well, I better quit smoking.” According to Gillespie, many soldiers picked up the habit because a lit cigarette was handy to have to remove leeches. Following his service with the military, Gillespie went to college, where he earned a degree in Psychology and law enforcement and entered the police force with Oregon City for over 20 years. “It’s why I became a policeman,” said Gillespie, “I liked a little excitement, but not quite that much.”
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Vince Richard kept repairing during Korean War
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orld War II was over when Vince Richard, a 20-year old Portland native, enlisted in the Navy in 1948. He got a little surprise. Richard remembers hearing that his ship was heading to the ‘Far East.’ “We hadn’t heard there was a war going on. I was just a ‘white hat,’ he said, noting that he was an enlisted man. But, it was also something that he had been looking forward to. “We couldn’t imagine being in the Navy and not being in any war.” However, before his time was up he would be sitting off the coast of North Korea working on repairing equipment to help the soldiers and sailors in their fight against the communist forces. The ship played a support role in the Inchon invasion, splitting time on the coast and also at a base in Japan. Now 86 and living in Garibaldi, he was stationed about the U.S.S. Hector (AR-7), a Navy
repair ship. He worked in the ship’s machine shop. The ship would split time for the remainder of the Korean War, alternating repair service along the Korean coast and in Japan with normal duty out of Long Beach. One time, Richard said he watched his ship navigate dangerous waters with a cargo of people being evacuated from the area. Normally, he said, the Merchant Marines would handle the evacuation. However, his ship was traveling through waters that had been mined and created a nautical graveyard of Merchant Marine ships. Originally in for a three-year tour, he was extended for an additional year because of the Korean War. When he did leave the Navy, he said he found himself in a little bit of a quandary. He had his pay in one hand and his separation papers in the other and wondering what he was going to do.
He decided to work in machine shops in Southern California, Sacramento and, eventually, Portland. He bought the property in Garibaldi about 25 years old as a place to stow his 20-foot trailer with a Vic’s Craft of Pacific City dory boat on it. Shortly afterward, he moved to Garibaldi. He is not using the boat quite as often as he used to, Richard admitted. The last time he went out with his wife and friend, he said he got seasick. But he still remembers fondly the times he and his wife would go fishing in the Pacific Ocean off the Cape Meares Lighthouse.
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Salute to Veterans
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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Sgt. Ed Eaton, U.S. Army – Vietnam Platoon Sgt. and sniper with the River Raiders of the Mekong
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ne of the first 55 trained snipers for the United States Army has written a book on his year in Vietnam and now calls Bay City home. “I was the first sniper to flunk sniper school,” said Sgt. Ed Eaton, author of the autobiographical “Mekong Mud Dogs.” As a teenager in MiltonFreewater, Ore., Eaton joined the Oregon National Guard before enlisting in active duty – and a year in Vietnam. The sniper training school was on a volunteer basis, according to Eaton, and was only available after a experiencing a couple months of combat. “They didn’t want to start from scratch,” said Eaton. As one of 10 snipers left vying for accreditation, he failed the test. However, as an infantryman with a great shot, he took what he learned and equipped his M16 with a starlight scope. “My company never
knew I wasn’t a sniper,” said Eaton, yet he could hit targets over 700 meters away. Eaton said his kills were called in as coming from his company’s “sniper,” and the sniper school called him in and
properly equipped him. He then passed his test. On April 3, 1969, Eaton single-handedly held off two groups of Viet Cong after his helicopter crashed following the rescuing of a comrade. “It was a brutal crash,” said Eaton. Swapping between his damaged sniper and
an M16, Eaton gave the illusion of multiple soldiers exchanging fire. “If you’ve ever been in combat, you understand ‘he who makes the most noise wins,’” said Eaton. When a rescue helicopter came to retrieve his comrades, Eaton stayed behind with his injured Captain, Mike Perkins and ultimately saved his life, as well as his comrades until another helicopter rescued them. Once out of the service, Eaton entered the radio business, acquiring a Wall Walla, Wash. station. In 2003, Eaton moved to Tillamook and became the original manager of Coast 105.5 FM. “I’m very proud of the fact I have served,” said Eaton, “For me, Veteran’s Day is to remember all veterans and especially those veterans who have paid the ultimate price.” Ed Eaton’s book, “Mekong Mud Dogs,” has won the first place eLit award for digital publishing excellence. For more information, visit edthesniper.com.
Tillamook Regional Medical Center
SALUTES OUR VETERANS. God bless you and thank you for your service.
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Brownlee Bush fights freezing cold, Nazis in historic World War II battle
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rownlee Bush grew up in the Redwood Empire of northern California in a small town called Requa near the mouth of the Klamath River. With an Indian reservation nearby, about half of his school were Indians. He left school after the eighth grade and went to work driving trucks in logging camps in the local forest. “The war came along and everybody needed help.” His life in Northern California was a world away from the War in Europe. Those two worlds collided in 1944 when he was drafted. Less than a year later he landed in France and was assigned to the 333rd Regiment of the 84th Infantry Division. That was the beginning of a tour through Belgium and Germany which put him in the center of the war. Later, he would be one of the five to survive through the end of the war out of the 200 soldiers in the unit when he arrived. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. He helped liberate German forced labor camps. He was at the Elbe River when the Army was told to stop there, patrol and wait to meet up with Russian forces invading from the east. He still remembers vividly when he was in the Battle of the Bulge shortly after arriving in Europe. “I got my feet frozen in Belgium 72 years ago next month,” he recalled re-
cently. That was when he was part of one of the most famous battles against Nazi Germany – the Battle of the Bulge. His unit was originally headquartered in the Netherlands, preparing for the invasion of Germany when they were reassigned to stop the last ditch German winter offensive Americans called the Battle of the Bulge. The fighting was done in bitter, subzero cold and blizzard condition where the weather could be just as deadly as the Nazi soldiers. Once, he and several other soldiers hid in a barn using the breath from the cows to try to keep warm. “It worked,” he said. That morning, the American soldiers discovered something else, a pair of Nazis had taken refuge from the cold upstairs. “We could here them speaking German,” he recalled. The Americans captured the Nazis upstairs. A short time later, his unit was tasked to liberating slave labor camps operated by the Nazis.
“We must have opened the gates on a dozen slave labor camps,” recalled Bush. He was shocked. “The guys were emaciated and couldn’t get out of bed. Some were dead. “I couldn’t go into another one after that. The smell was too much.” The largest camp liberated by the 333rd was in Salzwedel, Germany. Bush later learned than many of its inmates had come from the “extermination camp” at Auschwitz, Poland.
The 3,000 women held in the Salzwedel camp had been forced to make shell casings for small arms. Bush was one of four men who opened the Salzwedel camp’s gates. When they got ready to leave, the camp’s SS cook attempted to escape. One of the Allied soldiers shot him. According to the division’s combat chronicles, the 84th took the German towns of Wurm n See BULGE, Page A9 and Mul-
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lendorf, Dec. 18, before moving to Belgium to help stem the German winter offensive. Battling in snow, sleet, and rain, the Division threw off German attacks, recaptured Verdenne by Dec. 28. In the ensuing weeks, the division took Beffe and Devantave, then seized Laroche. By mid-January, the Nazi offensive had been stopped. The 84th went on the offensive, taking both Gouvy and Beho. By early February, the Railsplitters Division assumed responsibility for the Roer River zone, between Linnich and Himmerich. Two weeks later, the Division cut across the Roer, took Boisheim and Dulken, and then crossed the Niers Canal taking Krefeld before the unit reached the Rhine. After crossing the Rhine, the Division drove from Lembeck toward Bielefeld in conjunction with the 5th Armored
Division, crossing the Weser River to capture Hanover. By April 13, the division had reached the Elbe, and halted its advance, patrolling along the river. The Russians were contacted at Balow. The Division remained on occupation duty in Germany after VE-Day,
returning to the United States in January 1946 for demobilization. Now in his 90s, Bush lived in Northern California for about 39 years before he moved to Oregon, and eventually to Tillamook. He has outlasted most of his comrades from the Railsplitter Division, at-
tending the final official reunion several years ago in St. Louis. He recently finished attending a Battle of the Bulge reunion in Seattle. Bush said he doesn’t know the people at the reunions any more, but he enjoyed the chances to talk about the old times and make new friends. Still, the memories are not too far away. He found that out when he attended a reunion in Albany (New York) almost 20 years ago. A woman asked if any members of the 333rd were attending and about four people raised their hands, according to Bush. They found out the woman was a survivor of one of the labor camps the unit had liberated and that she eventually married an American and had a daughter. She had been wanting to thank the Americans who saved her and others in the camps. Edith Plakins and her family would eventually visit Bush in Oregon.
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Answering the Call Thank You Vets! Another
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We Salute all Service Men and Women on Veterans Day! Thank You for your service to our country! From the staff at Tillamook Motor Company
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Salute to Veterans
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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Keith Johanson finds a way keep serving decades after Vietnam
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Thank you for your service to our country
native of the small Minnesota town of Crookston, Keith Johanson always wanted to fly and be a Naval aviator. After two years attending the University of Minnesota–Duluth, Johanson found a way to learn when he joined the Naval Aviation Cadet program in March of 1965. It was a program the U.S. Navy used to help replace fliers lost during the Vietnam War. After his regular training was completed he was assigned to the Miramar Naval Air Station just north of San Diego where he was assigned to a replacement air group to learn to fly F-8 Crusaders. He also had to go through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training while stationed at Miramar in order to be able to fly. “We did it in the mountains near Warner Springs west of Borrego. It was tough. The end of the week culminated in a mock concentration camp,” Johanson explained. He survived SERE. Johanson spent much of 1969 serving on the Essex-class aircraft carrier called the U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard, stationed off the coast of Vietnam. He was the Maintenance Division Officer as well as one of the pilots, but it was his maintenance duties which took most of his time. Still, he remembers the view of pristine beaches on his flights into North Vietnam. “They were the most beautiful white beaches. I wanted to come back
PETER MILLER, DVM TRACY SOLIS, DVM, MS
after the war to see them. They were long white beaches which quickly turned into dense green jungle,” he recalled, as he was doing photo reconnaissance missions. When he left the Navy, Johanson went back to school, eventually graduating from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in law enforcement and corrections. He started a law enforcement career for a while after graduation, working as a campus policeman for the University of Minnesota-Crookston in his hometown, before moving on when his wife was accepted into veterinary school. He later moved into sales, selling items like curtain walls and electronics. He has been living in Tillamook for 25 years and has been spending one day a week volunteering as a driver for the Disabled American Veteran van service which provides local veterans with free transportation to medical appointment in facilities in the Portland area. “It is a way to give back,” he said. Even after more than three years, he says he still enjoys the drive through the Coastal Range on Highway 6. It is something that he wants to continue doing for as long as he can.
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Salute to Veterans
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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An organization for veterans T he Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is the oldest surviving veterans service organization in the United States. The national organization began in Denver in 1899 as the first official post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and was officially charted by Congress in 1914. Dedicated to working on behalf of veterans, it lobbies Congress for health care and benefits for veterans. It is also an important civic organization dedicated to integrating veterans into their local communities. One of the organization’s many goals is to promote awareness through community involvement. The VFW has a long-standing relationship with the Boy Scouts of America and sponsors thousands of units across the country. It also sponsors scholarships like the Scout of the Year award, focused on citizenship and na-
ARABIAN GULF (Oct. 26, 2016) Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Barnes, from Tillmook, Ore., cleans off corrosion on the mounting brackets of the sonar receiver transmitter on an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Swamp Foxes of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 74 in the hangar bay the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (Ike). Barnes serves aboard Ike as an aviation electronics technician and is responsible for inspecting and maintaining all the electrical system of the helicopter. Ike and its Carrier Strike Group are deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew J. Sneeringer
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sistance to families who are deployed and have unexpected financial hardships. If you are looking for a way to support veterans in remembrance of this Veterans Day, consider making a charitable contribution to your local VFW post. While it is a government-chartered non-profit organization, it receives no government contributions and relies solely on local contributions to keep its services afloat. Few people not directly involved in the military are aware of the contributions made by active veterans groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars. As a veteran, If there is a local post in your area, connecting with it can help you stay in touch with issues important to you and give you a chance to help shape the youth in your community, continuing the trend of service started in the armed forces.
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tional service. It is also committed to helping the local community. With several thousand posts in diverse communities across the country, the organization offers programs based on local need and coordinates many volunteer efforts, including blood drives, community food kitchens and visits to hospitalized veterans. The primary focus is to develop community service and increase active citizenship in communities, with a heavy focus on shaping young people into model citizens. In addition to its work in the community, the VFW connects active military units with locals in a number of ways. It provides free phone calls to deployed service members and those in the hospital recovering from injury. It helps local posts support active units through welcomehome and going-away events. It provides as-
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Veterans Day Facts V
eterans Day is a holiday that means so much to so many. Originally started after World War I, the increasing number of veterans in recent years and the military commitments have made the holiday more important to contemporary society. More schools and businesses close, and celebrations have blossomed across the country. Despite those developments, there are still some questions about this national holiday. There’s even some question about the actual name of the day. Does the
day belong to veterans? Should the name have an apostrophe? If so, does it belong to one veteran or all veterans? There is no apostrophe in the name because it is a day to honor all veterans. How is it different than Memorial Day? Memorial Day is meant to honor and remember veterans who have died in the service of their country or because of wounds from service. Veterans Day is meant to honor all veterans. It has taken on an increased awareness of living veterans, their service and the contri-
butions they have made to national security in recent years. Veterans Day is not only a national holiday in the United States. Dating back to World War I, Canada, Australia and Great Britain all observe Remembrance Day on November 11. The celebrations are a little different in each place, but the overall intent is the same: to honor
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those who have served to protect the country. Parades, wreath laying and ceremonies mark celebrations in all three countries. While Veterans Day is a federal holiday, it is not universally observed. There is no requirement for businesses or state offices to close, although all federal services are suspended for the day. There is no federal law requir-
ing all schools to close as there is for other federal holidays, so each school district decides whether to follow the observance. Unlike other national holidays that have been moved to Monday to create a long weekend, Veterans Day is always observed on November 11 regardless of the day on which it falls. Veterans groups have long lobbied for special recognition. Schools can and do choose to observe the holiday on different days of the week. The practice of wearing poppies on Memorial
Day is a tradition that has gone largely unobserved by many in recent years. Many wonder if it is appropriate for Veterans Day as well. Officially, the wearing of poppies to remember war dead is precisely that—a remembrance for those who have died—and, because Veterans Day honors all veterans, the wearing of remembrance flowers is not a common practice. Many communities, however, are developing rituals and ceremonies to mark the holiday honoring all veterans.