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www.driftlessjournal.com | news@driftlessjournal.com | 563-382-4221 | Tuesday, November 7, 2023 | Vol. 5 Issue 45
Northeast Iowa Veteran, 80, looks back on a life of service By Zach Jensen Dropping out of high school is almost never a good idea. But, for one northeast Iowa man, it may have been one of his best decisions. Sam Fox, now 80, of rural Waukon, was raised in Oelwein, and in 1960, he dropped out of school – apparently for no reason other than just not wanting to go anymore at that time. And, looking back upon his experiences with several branches of the United States Armed Forces, including his years of service to combat veterans, Fox likely wouldn’t change a thing. “I was a young kid and thought I knew the world,” he said with a chuckle. “I Oelwein native and Vietnam Veteran Sam Fox, 80, has served the United States Navy, Marines, Air Force and Department of Defense, among other jobs. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Zach Jensen)
had good grades, could have made the honor roll, just didn’t want to. After leavin’ school, I turned 17, and a week later, I got off the bus in San Diego, and there was a Chief Petty Officer usin’ cuss words I didn’t even know, and I thought I knew’em all.” Fox finished Navy bootcamp in San Diego before going to Navy corpsman school. “I qualified for various jobs, and that was one of the choices,” he said. “O’course, when I said I wanna be a corpsman, I didn’t have any idea what I was doin’.” For those who don’t know, Fox said the U.S. Marine Corps has no medical department. So, all the medics, nurses and doctors who serve with the Marines are Navy. After corpsman school, he went to work in a hospital in Key West, Fla., for 18 months. “Then, I decided I wanted to go back to school,” he recalled, “So I got sent to Bethesda, Maryland, Naval Medical Center, and after a while, I ended up with a
Quilts of Valor: Honoring military Veterans, one stitch at a time By Denise Lana
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Offering peace with paws for Veterans with PTSD By Zach Jensen United States military Veterans are in crisis. Veterans Administration information says that of the total number of deployed U.S. servicemen and women who died between 2001 and 2007, more than 20 percent were suicides. Additionally, according to Ron Hirschberg, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, “We know that, among all Veterans, there are 20 suicides a day, and between 2015 and 2020 there was about a 40 percent increase in suicides among active-duty service members. Thirty thousand Veterans have died by suicide in just the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom conflicts over 20 years.” Carol Dowe, a 1961 graduate of Decorah High School, lost a Veteran family member to suicide 20 years ago – a tragedy that has followed Dowe ever since – which inspired her to help Veterans in the U.S., Canada and Israel. “We have to do something about getting a handle on suicide,” Dowe said. “Letting our Veterans know there’s so much help for them is so important.” It’s that endeavor that led her to finding Retrieving Freedom, a Waverly-based company that trains
U.S. Army Veteran Josh Davison sits with his service dog, Eda. The two “met” at Retrieving Freedom, a Waverly company that trains service dogs for Veterans with PTSD. (submitted photo) black Labrador Retrievers to be service animals for Veterans affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and children with autism. Dowe hosted a Retrieving Freedom presentation Tuesday, Oct. 17, at Decorah’s VFW hall. Retrieving Freedom, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to training Service Dogs to help people. They breed and train chosen dogs that exhibit specific traits necessary to perform tasks to help these individuals, and believe in matching the dog to the client. The training program isn’t designed to train each dog to follow a
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certain program. Instead, dogs are trained to meet the needs of their specific client. The dogs go through more than two years of training to meet our strict standards for a successful placement. “The service dogs we train help improve the lives of the people they are placed with,” the website’s information stated. “Not only do they help with specific chores and perform tasks associated with their training, but they also offer companionship and unconditional love.”
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Decorah Quilts of Valor member, Mary Jane Michels, toils away at her sewing machine during a recent Decorah QOV meeting hosted monthly by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1977 in town. Photos of local veterans, past and present, line the wall of the VFW’s hero wall behind Michels. “We are honoring all veterans!” Michels expresses, who counts among those veterans her dad, three uncles, a nephew and a cousin. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Denise Lana)
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n keeping with “It takes a village to raise a child,” “Teamwork makes the dream work,” and “It takes two flints to make a fire,” the Quilts of Valor organization’s mantra should be “It takes a guild to craft a quilt.” National and local QOV guilds Quilts of Valor Foundation began in 2003 by a woman whose son was deployed in Iraq. She had a vision of a soldier sitting on his bed, haunted by visions of war demons. She then envisioned him wrapped in a quilt, and his demeanor changed from despair to comfort. That woman came up with a simple model for her idea: volunteer teams would donate time and materials to make quilts for Veterans. According to the QOV guidelines, the quilts must be made of quality materials, not charity pieces. They cannot be tied, but rather, must be hand or machine stitched. Recipients of the quilts are nominated, and the quilts awarded to them ceremoniously to say, “Thank you for your service, sacrifice and valor in serving our nation.”
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The Decorah chapter of Quilts of Valor, spearheaded in 2014 by Calmar local and passionate quilter, Julie Lukes, started with six members. Nine years later, the group has expanded to 26 women from around the Decorah area. Many are quilting connoisseurs, others, aficionados, but all share one common thread — their love of military. Mary Engan joined the guild in 2019 after her husband received a quilt for his service in the Army. “I saw that I could sew, I can quilt. I can do this! So, I joined the group!” Mary continued, sharing how she lost her father, Lawrence Janzer, in WWII. “I was born in December, and he was killed in the invasion of Normandy six months later in June. I never knew him.” Many of the members of the guild know personally the sacrifices made by military Veterans. Retired bridal seamstress Patricia Timp saw her husband
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