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Port Austin native reflects on time in service Local Vietnam vet happy at Fiddler’s Green

Honoring all heroes this Veterans Day

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NOVEMBER 2019

Veterans Day

‘Greatest job I ever had’

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Port Austin native reflects on time in service

By Scott Nunn Assistant Editor PORT AUSTIN — From his time leading a three-generation tool manufacturing company, to his career as an industrial arts educator, veteran Marine Capt. John Upthegrove looks back on his military career in high esteem.

“It was the greatest job I ever had,” Upthegrove said.

From protecting ground troops and other aircraft, to boosting morale by flying in the priest to outlying units on a Sunday or bringing in hot chow or beer — Upthegrove racked up serious miles behind the stick of a Huey helicopter. In fact, when Upthegrove left the service in 1974 he amassed 39 air metals, signifying that he flew more than 975 combat missions during his time in Vietnam.

“My primary role was to give gun cover to transport helicopters and support any ground unit that was in contact and needed help,” Upthegrove said.

Upthegrove also would provide cover for transport helicopters as they inserted recon teams into the jungle.

“At the time we were flying into Laos,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to be doing it, but we did it. We dropped recon teams off along the Ho Chi Minh trail.”

As a pilot in hostile territory, Upthegrove found himself under enemy fire from time to time.

“One time I remember I landed Col. Hershey at one of his platoons in the boonies and no sooner did I touch down and I started taking mortars and

had to get out of there really quick,” he said.

Upthegrove said the pilots would try to maintain an altitude of 1,500 feet. However, as gunships flew in a corresponding cloverleaf pattern as they alternated cover for ground troops, they would find themselves well below the 1,500-foot height that kept them safe from ground fire.

“Small arms would bring down a helicopter if they hit the right thing,” Upthegrove said. “When you would get in a mission where you are expending ordnance you never get back up to 1,500 feet.”

Upthegrove had a few close calls over his time in the service.

“I had a 50 cal shoot at me one time,” he said. “I about rolled the helicopter on its back to get out of his fire.

I was very fortunate that I happened to be looking in his direction when he started shooting at me.”

In his career Upthegrove’s helicopter went down three times for various reasons, but he was able to walk away unscathed.

Ultimately, Upthegrove spent only 10 months of the 13 months he was supposed to spend in Vietnam — something that didn’t sit well with him.

“I was part of Nixon’s cutback,” he said. “I didn’t like being pulled early. I felt the job wasn’t done and the new guys coming in, I felt they couldn’t handle the job. That was just me. They probably could handle it as well as I could when I first got there.”

Upthegrove said times were stressful when you first started out.

John Upthegrove and his wife Sharon pose for a photo in their home.

(Scott Nunn/Huron Daily Tribune) “When things got hot, there was a lot to sort out and find out who’s talking to who,” he said. “It was a lot to comprehend and sort out. It is very confusing for the first three months, but you get it sorted out after a while.”

While Upthegrove was over in hostile territory when he was deployed, the growing hostility at home concerned him as he returned.

“I was more apprehensive coming home than I was going over there because of the stories we heard of things that happened to the guys coming through,” he said. “There was a lot of protesting going on and I would say a lot of them didn’t even know

what they were protesting. When I got home, I went through the airports without any problems.”

Despite the pressure from protesters to be ashamed of his service, Upthegrove has a lot of pride in his time over there.

“What I did in Vietnam, I know there are a lot of soldiers and Marines walking around today because of what I did and I am proud of that,” he said.

After ending up back in the states, Upthegrove was stationed at the New River Air Station where he taught other pilots how to fly the Cobra before shipping the pilots off to Vietnam. continued on page 3

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Veterans Day

NOVEMBER 2019

John Upthegrove and mercenary pilot Capt. Tram Xnan pose for a photo with a large stag that was harvested to feed a village of mercenaries. (Courtesy Photo) continued from page 2 Upon leaving the military, Upthegrove continued a similar roll for Bell, training Iranian pilots.

However, once again Upthegrove found himself displaced by politics in 1979 as Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown during the Iranian revolution.

Eventually, Upthegrove found himself back home in Port Austin where he worked at the Port Austin Level Company for 18 years — a business founded by his grandfather in 1947 — and raised his family with his wife Sharon. At 50 years old, Upthegrove went on to get his master’s degree in education from Saginaw Valley State University before becoming an industrial arts

educator at North Huron Schools before retiring.

Upthegrove said his time in the service was one of the best experiences of his life.

“I wouldn’t have given it up for anything,” he said. “When you pull somebody out of a situation where they felt they were dead and they throw their arms around you and give you big a hug, it is very rewarding.”

“And from up there in the air you can see everything,” Upthegrove continued. “You are your own boss. Nobody can tell you what to do — not even a general. He can ask and if you agree with him you can do it, but you are the commander of that aircraft. It is very exhilarating. It is hard to explain.”

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Veterans Day

NOVEMBER 2019

Honoring all heroes this Veterans Day Veterans Day, which is celebrated annually on November 11, commemorates the hardworking men and women who sacrifice their time and put themselves in harm’s way to defend the country’s core values of freedom and opportunity. While Veterans Day certainly is a chance to honor those who have donned the uniform during wars and military installments, it also can be a chance to recognize the unsung heroes of wartime — those who step into roles so that soldiers and strategists can focus their attention elsewhere.

Take for example Naomi Parker Fraley. In 1942, Fraley was a machine shop worker at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, Calif. She was one of scores women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, helping to produce munitions and war supplies. Parker was 20 years old in 1942 and served as the inspiration for what would become one of the most indelible images of the era, known as “Rosie the Riveter.” Parker unknowingly inspired the iconic image after she was photographed at work bent over an industrial machine in a jumpsuit with her hair tied back in a polka-dot bandana. In 2018, Naomi Parker Fraley died at the age of 96, not nearly the household name she perhaps should have been.

Rosie the Riveter helped to tout the contributions of female war employees who were defending America by working on the homefront. Rosie was a successful morale-booster, and some may be surprised to learn that Rosie has various incarnations.

Norman Rockwell’s depic-

tion of a female riveter, which appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1943, became an iconic staple of that time. Muscular, with a rivet gun on her lap, a sandwich in hand and a boot stomping on a copy of “Mein Kampf” — and timed perfectly to coincide with the release of a song called “Rosie the Riveter” by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb — Rosie became a household name. But another Rosie image actually predates Rockwell’s Post cover.

Naomi Parker Fraley was reportedly the inspiration for an ad created by a lesser known artist named J. Howard Miller.

Miller produced a “We Can Do It!” poster for Westinghouse Electric in 1942 aimed at boosting spirits among the company’s workers.

The poster helped to recruit new female personnel, according to scholar James J. Kimble. This Rosie was portrayed in a red bandana with her bent arm flexed, rolling up her shirtsleeve.

Both Miller’s and Rockwell’s depictions of female war workers became ingrained in popular culture. Rockwell’s cover art was eventually loaned to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for use in war bond drives for the duration of the war. Miller’s version has been emulated for generations and still epitomizes a strong female presence in the workforce.

This Veterans Day is a prime time to delve into American wartime history, with interesting stories like the origins of Rosie the Riveter, and pay homage to all of the heroes that help ensure America’s reputation as a great nation.

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Reggie Daniel’s ‘not under any type of pressure’ to leave Fiddler’s Green Served in navy at the tail end of Vietnam War

By Robert Creenan Tribune Staff Writer BAD AXE – Some people come to Fiddler’s Green, the housing complex for military veterans in Bad Axe, because they are down on their luck or have nowhere else to go.

Others, like Reggie Daniel, come here just for a change of pace in their lives.

Daniel, 65, is a Vietnam veteran who has been at times a sheet metal worker, a robotic machine builder, a truck driver, and even homeless.

Daniel, who hails from Ferndale, a Detroit suburb, enlisted in the Navy right out of high school in 1973, after the Paris Peace Accords that would end the Vietnam War was signed.

He comes from a military family, with his father being a veteran, his youngest brother a vet, one nephew serving in the Air Force for 29 years, another nephew serving in the Navy for 11 years, and his son currently stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the Army.

Though he only served for two years, in a company with all Michigan natives, he did serve on a Navy destroyer that helped pick up 300 refugees fleeing Vietnam.

Daniels does not remember exactly where they were picked up, just that it was along the coast.

“We took them to Guam,” Daniel said, “We left them there, then we went back out to sea.”

After he left the Navy in May of 1975, Daniel worked in sheet metal, robotic conveyor systems, and as a truck driver for Thorn Apple Valley. But when he was 43, he took a fall from his truck, causing back problems that would eventually lead to three back surgeries.

“At age 45, I was told no one would hire me,” Daniel said.

Reggie Daniel at Fiddler’s Green in Bad Axe. Daniel is a Navy veteran who served for two years at the end of the Vietnam War (Robert Creenan/Huron Daily Tribune) Daniel lived off the settlement he received from his employer and ended up becoming homeless for a year and a half before finding himself an apartment in downtown Detroit.

After traveling between Detroit and Georgia to spend time with his mother, when his father died from prostate cancer in 2004, Daniel was homeless again for a year before finding a place with his girlfriend.

He does suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, not from any military combat, but he was jumped on when in the service.

While Daniel is proud to say he is a veteran, there are aspects of Veterans Affairs he finds frustrating.

His family has a history of prostate cancer. Aside from his father, his two brothers got it in 2009 and 2012.

When Daniel started getting the symptoms of prostate cancer in 2013, he went to the Detroit VA hospital for treatment, where he claims they did not treat him fairly and did not administer the proper treatments.

He did start going to the Ann

Arbor VA hospital in 2017, where he says all the treatments he was supposed to receive in Detroit were administered. To this day, he does not trust the Detroit VA hospital with any of his treatments.

Daniel has been at Fiddler’s Green for the past month and a half, mainly to get in better mental and physical shape.

“I was living with a woman, my girlfriend, and I talked about it with her,” Daniel said, saying he needed the change of scenery for a while, coming from Warren. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be here, I’m not under any type of pressure.”

Daniel said that he likes the place so far, with the staff offering counseling services and taking care of his medical issues, including his PTSD. Daniel spends his time at Fiddler’s Green going to the Bad Axe VA Clinic, shopping at Walmart, hanging out with the other residents, watching TV or being on his computer.

He does have to go back to the Ann Arbor VA for further cancer treatments, but his prostate specific antigen levels are low enough that he has a 99% chance of not having it anymore.

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Veterans Day

NOVEMBER 2019

Explore the history of Veterans Day

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Service members make numerous sacrifices in defense of their countries. While the debts to service members may never be the kind that can be repaid in full, paying tribute to veterans, on Veterans Day and throughout the year, can be a great way to show them just how much their efforts are appreciated.

Veterans Day begins with Armistice Day Veterans Day is a byproduct of the end of World War I, when Germany and the Allied Nations signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ceasing fighting and establishing terms of peace. On November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the signing of the treaty, the first Armistice Day events were held. Armistice Day was initially a legal holiday to honor the end of World War I only, states History.com.

The United States Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and November 11 became a national holiday starting in 1938. However, in 1954, after the country had been embroiled in both World War II and the Korean War, Congress amended the Act of 1938 by renaming the commemoration “Veterans Day” to honor veterans of all wars.

Veterans Day in October?

According to Military.com, for a short time, thanks to the Uniform Holiday Bill, which in 1968 established three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating national holidays on Mondays, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October — the first being October 25, 1971. However, many people did not agree with this decision, continuing to honor the holiday on the original date. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed a new law that returned Veterans Day to November 11 beginning in 1978. Since then, parades, memorial events, volunteer efforts, and other celebrations revolving around veterans have been held on November 11.

Veterans around the world Many countries, including the United States, celebrate veterans on or near November 11. America’s closest neighbor to the north, Canada, commemorates veterans on Remembrance Day (also November 11), as does the United Kingdom.

Britain also has Remembrance Sunday, which is the second Sunday of November.

Remembrance Day also is called Poppy Day, when people of the Commonwealth member states wear a red poppy flower in honor of military members who have died in the line of duty.

Paying tribute There are various ways to honor veterans on Veterans Day and Remembrance Day. Federal government closings, educational efforts in schools, parades, and visits to military hospitals or cemeteries may take place. In Europe, it is common to observe two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. every November 11.

Veterans Day and its sister holidays mark the honoring of veterans of all wars, with a particular focus on living veterans. It is a day to celebrate the dedication and selflessness of hardworking military men and women.

3 unique ways to give back to service members Military service in the United States was once more common than it is today.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the draft for military service was ended in 1973, a point in time when 2.2 million men and women made up the country’s active military personnel.

By 2018, the number had dipped below 1.3 million. Military service in Canada is also somewhat uncommon, as the Department of National Defence reports that active military personnel totaled just 68,000 as of 2018.

The vast majority of people in countries where military service is not compulsory will never serve in the military. But that does not mean non-military personnel do not appreciate the sacrifices service members and their families make.

In fact, a recent report conducted for

Canada’s Department of National Defence found that while many Canadians seem only vaguely aware of what their military does, appreciation for service members was high.

Service members and their families make many sacrifices to protect the lives and freedoms of their fellow citizens. The following are three unique ways to give back to these selfless men and women, who often benefit greatly from even the simplest of gestures.

1. Serve as a driver for veterans.

Unfortunately, many service members return from overseas missions with disabilities, some of which prevent them from driving. Adults who want to help service members can serve as drivers for veterans who can’t drive themselves. Such

a gesture ensures they won’t miss any appointments with doctors or physical therapists, helping them get on the road to recovery that much quicker.

2. Donate your airline miles.

Some disabled veterans receive medical treatments far away from home at facilities that specialize in treating certain types of injuries, which can make it difficult for their families to be there for them during their recoveries. By donating airline miles to military families, ordinary adults can ensure injured servicemen and -women can still see their families during difficult times in their lives. Access to such support systems can be a big help as veterans work to recover from their injuries.

3. Sponsor a service dog.

A significant percentage of veterans return home with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. PTSD has been linked to a host of conditions, including depression and anxiety. However, programs such as Companions for Heroes, an organization that places service dogs with veterans, has helped many veterans successfully cope with PTSD. By sponsoring a service dog through an organization such as Companions for Heroes, adults who want to help service members can provide an invaluable service to men and women fighting to regain their quality of life.

There are many ways for ordinary citizens to show their support for the brave men and women who selflessly serve in the military.

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NOVEMBER 2019

Veterans Day

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A nod to November There is much to be thankful for in November. Here’s a look at some of the interesting facts about the month.

• Many elections take place in the United States on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. In 2019, Election Day falls on November 5th and includes various gubernatorial elections, mayoral races and a variety of local elections.

• November used to be the ninth month of the calendar of Romulus.

That all changed when the calendar was modified and January and February were added.

• November is 30 days long. It is one of four months that last 30 days.

How Memorial Day and Veterans Day differ from each other Memorial Day and Veterans Day each honor the military, though the two holidays are not the same. Memorial Day, which is celebrated annually on the last Monday in May, honors the brave men and women who lost their lives while serving in the American military. Many communities host memorial ceremonies honoring their fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, ensuring such soldiers’ bravery and sacrifices are never forgotten. While many people now view Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer, the weekend should not be celebrated without also pausing to reflect on and recognize the military personnel who lost their lives in defense of freedom and the American way of life.

Veterans Day is celebrated annually on November 11 and recognizes all men and women who have served in the military.

Veterans Day coincides with Remembrance Day, which is a celebrated by the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of 53 member states with connections to the British Empire. Though Veterans Day and Remembrance Day are each celebrated on November 11, the latter recognizes armed forces members who died in the line of duty, making it more similar to Memorial Day than Veterans Day. It’s not uncommon for people to recognize fallen soldiers on Veterans Day, but many use the holiday to express their appreciation to existing veterans.

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• November is the last full month of the fall season in the northern hemisphere.

• The chrysanthemum is the flower of November, which is fitting since so many mums are seen during the fall.

• November’s birthstones are topaz and citrine.

• People born in November fall under the zodiac signs of Scorpio or Sagittarius.

• Veterans are commemorated in both Canada and the United States each year on November 11.

• November’s full moon is known as the Beaver Moon. Algonquin tribes and colonial Americans would use the month to set beaver traps before the swamps froze to ensure a supply of furs for the winter. It is also sometimes called the Full Frost Moon.

• According to folklore and The Farmer’s Almanac: “Ice in November brings mud in December.”

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Veterans Day

NOVEMBER 2019

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Donate to a Military Family Some of the most honorable citizens in the country struggle financially to give their families the holiday celebration they deserve.

You can say thanks and show support to their sacrifices by supporting a notable charity who distributes your donations responsibly to those in need.

If you’re unsure how to go about finding an organization and the right way to donate, here are a few charities to consider.

Operation Help A Hero This organization offers all-around support for serving military members, veterans and their families.

A part of their mission is to connect with servicemen and servicewomen year-round.

Around the holidays, Operation Christmas Spirit is their unique way to offer relief, gifts and support throughout the season.

Their website makes it easy to do your part in supporting

their cause and the military.

Whether you make a financial donation or volunteer your time to operate a charity event or coordinate a gathering, the organization is always in need of volunteers.

Soldier’s Angels This nonprofit group provides comfort to military members through numerous charities. Two of their holiday focused chapters include: Adopt-A-Family offers gifts for military children and provide parents with grocery store gift cards to create a delicious holiday meal.

Holiday Community members coordinate the sending of cards, letters and stockings to service troops and veterans.

According to the organization, donations have helped contribute to these impressive statistics.

• More than 120,000 items provided to veterans at their VA Medical facilities in 2017.

• 851,000 care packages sent to deployed service members over the last 15 years.

• More than 22,000 veterans were provided with food assis-

tance throughout the country in 2017.

Toys for Tots Established in 1947, the Toys for Tots program was developed by Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Bill Hendricks, whose wife handcrafted dolls to give to children in need.

Hendricks was unable to find an agency to help distribute the toys, so they decided to

start their own service. Today, the Marine Toys for Tots Program is attributed to distributing an average of over 18 million toys to seven million less fortunate children annually. Donating to the cause is easy, as most businesses participate in collecting gifts over the holidays. If you can’t find a donation center in your area, urge local companies to take part in the giving tradition.

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