Veterans Day Salute 2022 - part 2

PR nonprofit guides vets to outdoors

By Shannon Geisen Park Rapids Enterprise

Mandatory Fun Out doors (MFO), a Park Rapids nonprofit orga nization designed to get veterans and their families outdoors, was awarded a $20,000 grant in 2021.

The grant from the Minnesota Veterans 4 Veterans Trust Fund (V4V), another nonprofit organization, is support ing programs for local veterans to hunt, fish, garden, mushroom hunt, dog sled, ride horseback and more.

MFO was founded around 2018 by retired Park Rapids DNR con servation officer Sam Carlson.

V4V chair Dean Ascheman said MFO received the grant “because we liked the variety of her programs.”

Military connection

A Wadena High School graduate, Carlson grew

up in a military family.

All three of her brothers served – two of them during conflicts.

“I was not in the mil itary because of some health issues, and I wanted to be able to serve those who served,” she said.

She began her career in law enforcement. To unwind, she would head to the woods.

“Growing up in the outdoors – hunting, fishing, camping, boat ing, all that stuff – I realized how therapeu tic the outdoors were,” Carlson said.

In 2004, she switched to the DNR, moving to Park Rapids in 2009. She retired in August 2020.

Founding MFO

“I have worked with a lot of nonprofit, vet erans-based organi zations over the last 15 years,” she said.

“Hunting and fishing is my background, so I did

a lot of those types of events with those other groups. … But there’s more outdoors than just hunting and fishing.”

So Carlson branched out on her own and founded MFO, with a focus on military ser vicemembers and com bat veterans.

She still partners with many of the same vet erans organizations.

Many veterans clubs have contributed to MFO as well, such as the Wadena VFW and Park Rapids American Legion. Carlson said she is appreciative of their support.

One hundred per cent of all donations to MFO go toward lodging, meals and supplies.

“We don’t have any overhead. I don’t pay anyone anything. I don’t pay myself any thing,” Carlson said.

Healing and recreational

MFO works with ser vicemembers of all ages and from all conflicts.

Mobilizing volun teers is the easy part, she said. “I usually get more volunteers to help than I do veterans. Peo ple want to help.”

Vets from across Min nesota are welcome.

Carlson finds she has a harder time getting younger veterans to participate, in particu lar, because they have a mindset that “someone else deserves it more.”

But that’s simply not true, she said.

MFO organizes group, individual and fami ly-oriented outdoors events to encourage “fresh air, a little exer cise and camaraderie.”

Charlie Hensel Marine Corp Lance Corporal

Matthew Ziegler Army National Guard Private

Nick Litzau U.S. Marine Corps MSGT (retired)

Jon M. Esler U.S. Navy E-4 Served 8 years

Jason Bliss U.S. Army Sergeant Served 8 years Iraq/Afghanistan

Rodney Bliss U.S. Army Master Sergeant Served 25 years

Kasey Krautkremer Air Force Senior Airman

Curtis O. Gwynn Navy 3rd Class

Danny Martin U.S. Marine Corps LCpl E-3

Dennis A. Strange Army SSGT E-6

Arthur Conway Army Rex Lindblom Army E-5 - SP2

Contributed / Sam Carlson

Sam Carlson, founder of Mandatory Fun Outdoors, has duck hunted with former Vikings head coach Bud Grant. "He is great," she said of the WW II veteran. Her Park Rapids nonprofit organization aims to get servicemembers outdoors for recreation and healing.

Counselors are avail able for those who wish to talk to one, but it is also helpful to talk to fellow vets while sitting around a campfire.

“I try to make it as healing as possible,” Carlson said. “We try to provide the outdoor, therapeutic side of it.

We also pride ourselves on being an alternative to alcohol, drugs and suicides.”

Long-lasting friend ships are formed as well. “They’re exchanging phone numbers,” she said. Six months later, she’ll learn that a vet is having Easter dinner with one of the guides.

“It really is a great way for them to get out, but for them to learn how to go out.”

Fish, hunt and more Carlson frequent ly asks veterans which activities they’d like to do via MFO’s Facebook page. “We do everything and anything,” she said.

MFO has led pheasant, turkey, deer and bear hunts.

One time, someone suggested a dog sled trip. “I said, ‘OK,’ so I lined up a couple mushers and a weekend where they stayed at Park Rapids. It was a family event,” Carlson recalled. After the dog sled ride, they all went ice fish ing. “It was awesome. It was 30-below, but it was awesome. We had sleeping bags with hand warmers in there, and everybody had a great time.”

Last weekend, MFO hosted an all-female veterans’ event in Niss wa called “Gals and Gills.” More than two

dozen female vets went fishing with 13 pro fessional guides, who donated their time. This was MFO’s third annual event.

Carlson took a Purple Heart recipient on a bear hunt with his two chil dren. Recruiting some friends who are bear guides, she said, “It was a hunt of a lifetime for him.”

American Heroes Out doors loaned a fish house for the camp. Her broth er, an Afghanistan vet, shared his side-by-side ATV.

“He shot a bear. It wasn’t a huge bear, but it was his first one, and he was tickled pink. There were just smiles every where,” Carlson said.

Each July, MFO arrang es a “Warriors and Wall eyes” event on the Lake of the Woods.

“We had a Vietnam prisoner of war at that (2021) event. He was

fascinating,” Carlson said, adding that he will be featured on an epi sode of American Heroes Outdoors TV.

Veterans are thankful for these opportunities, but Carlson and volun teers say “it’s our way to thank you guys.”

She plans to use the $20,000 grant to create garden spaces for vet erans. They would plant and harvest food for their families. She hopes to do a trial run in Park Rapids. She’s looking for a plot.

To learn more, visit www.mandatoryfunout doors.org or email mfo. information@gmail. com. Donations can be sent to MFO, P. O. Box 646, Park Rapids, MN 56470.

Shannon Geisen can be reached at sgeisen@parkrapidsenterprise.com.

John G. Brauch Navy LTJG

Robin (Dillon) Brown Army MSG

Bud Gates (AKA: Santa Claus) Marine Corps Corporal

Shelly Gates-Shermer Army Spec-4

Richard W. (Dick) Max U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant

Philip Busch U.S. Army SP-4

Richard W. Weech U.S. Marine Corp 1st Lieutenant

Robert Linder U.S. Army Cpl

Richard Kok Air Force Airman 1st Class

Raymond J. Wolf Army P.F.C.

Robert Soukup Army Private First Class

Mike Swanson Army E-5 Staff Sgt Served 4 years

David E. Hernandez Naval Reserves LTJG

Cal Astrum U.S. Navy WWII

Aaron Majors U.S. Air Force Tech Stg

Orville Vredenburg U.S. Army Corporal

Terry Morris U.S. Air Force Sgt E-3

Ernie D. Hernandez Navy LCDR

Jerry Ritola Army Specialist E5, Cold War, Berlin Served 3 years

Don Nilson Army Sergeant E-5 James Breitweser Army Colonel

Clyde R. Breitweser Army Private First Class

John Glatzmaier Air Force Sergeant

Sherry Parkos Air Force

Contributed / Sam Carlson

Mandatory Fun Outdoors held a tribute to women veterans in honor of the the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Fishing guides took the vets to Mille Lacs Lake to experience smallmouth fishing.

Air Force vet says service helped him grow up

By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise

“It’s Dutch,” said Richard Kok, explaining his last name, which is pronounced like “cook.”

The Anoka High School graduate had been working for a couple years when one of his buddies declared, “Let’s join the service.”

The four friends enlisted in the Air Force, did their basic training together, then all went on different paths from there. It was 1954, and Kok served until September 1957.

After training for mainte

nance on the Honeywell E-6 autopilot at Chanute Air Force Base (AFB) in Illinois, Kok was stationed at Biggs AFB in El Paso, Texas.

“We’d swing the compass es every month on the air craft to make sure they’re accurate,” he said. “Because the E-6 autopilot follows the compass. If the compass says north-northeast by 15 degrees, that’s where you’ll go.”

To maintain his flight status, Kok also had to fly four hours a month. “I’ve been on B-36 airplanes a lot,” he said. “We bombed the Golden Gate Bridge tons of times.”

When asked what he got out of being in the Air Force, Kok repeatedly comes back to: “I

grew up. Being away from home, being away from school. It made me grow up.

“Get away from mom and dad, get away from all your friends. … It taught me how to be by myself, be alone, make my own deci sions.”

He recalls missing the teen scene back home, where every one went roller skating Mon day, Wednesday and Saturday nights at Bill’s Roller Rink. “That was my life,” he said. “That was tradition.”

Otherwise, Kok said, his job in the Air Force really had nothing to do with what he did

for a living later on. “I really didn’t think about what I was going to do when I got out,” he said. “Other than service life made me grow up. And then, I guess, from then on it was eas ier to find a job, to get a job or go to school to get good wages and make it in life.”

After his discharge, a girl friend’s dad helped Kok get into Thermo King school, from which he went on to work for Stan’s Truck Refrigeration in New Brighton.

By the time he retired, he was doing refrigeration and air

conditioning maintenance for Embers restaurants.

Originally from Minneapo lis, Kok has lived at Heritage Manor in Park Rapids since 2017, when he placed his wife, Karen, in memory care.

During his career as a refrig eration and air conditioning technician, the Koks had a cabin on Stocking Lake. After his retirement, they built a home on Big Sand Lake, later selling the home and renting a place in Menahga until he needed help with Karen.

“I do not regret the Air Force at all,” he said. “It was good for me. I think I did a good job for them.”

Nicholas Grundyson U.S. Army SGT Annalea Grundyson U.S. Army SPC

Bruce Rolando USAF Lt Col

Joshua Rolando USAF SMSGT Debra Anderson-Gates Navy

Patrick Sullivan U.S. Coast Guard Machinery Tech 2nd Class

Jan Bauerle U.S. Army

Michael Moyer U.S. Army National Guard E-3

George Roger Clark Navy EN2

Bill Pinnick U.S. Army

Jim Lange Marine Corps Corporal

Rick L. Pinnick Air Force

Michael Henry Hafner Sr U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class

Michael Henry Hafner Jr U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class

Harold Guse Navy Petty Officer 1st Class

Elmer Koskela U.S. Navy E-4 Fireman

Michael John Hafner U.S. Army Sergeant First Class

Clifford “Kip” Lof Army SGT 1st Class

Robin Fish can be reached at rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com.

/ Shutterstock.com

Nevis graduate drafted into Korea War

By Shannon Geisen Park Rapids Enterprise

Loren and Julia Avenson are 1952 gradu ates of Nevis High School.

They met on the school bus.

Married for nearly 67 years, the Avensons have seven children.

They recently moved into Heritage Manor. Loren has Parkinson’s.

After high school grad uation, Loren worked on the North Shore for a

year, then he was draft ed into the U.S. Army in 1953. He was sent to Korea for two years.

“I had a carpenter shop. It was a big tent. I had four, five Koreans working under me. But we didn’t understand each other,” Loren, 89, recalled.

Through creative com munication, they built a wooden base for a 10-person canvas tent.

“And that’s what I lived in, too, a tent,” Loren said.

Stationed near Seoul, Loren said he went to the frontlines one time on his own.

“He didn’t have to get in on the actual fight ing,” Julia said.

When Loren returned stateside in 1955, he and Julia got married that November. They moved

from Hibbing back to Nevis.

He was the manager of the box factory in Nevis for a couple years.

But Loren was a car penter by trade, con

structing commercial buildings, cabins, garag es, churches and more.

“He built quite a few places in Nevis,” Julia said, including the Cath olic church.

Loren ran his own construction company with six employees. They owned In-We-Go Resort from 1974-79. Shannon Geisen can be reached at sgeisen@parkrapidsenterprise.com.

HONORING

Marvin Brown Marines CPL Served 4 years Vietnam War

James Killmer Marines Corporal E-4

John Vocelka Navy E-5

Ronald I. Petrie Army Sgt. 1st Class

Amber Treziok Navy E6

Nikolaus Raymond Walter Treziok U.S. Navy

Joe Markell USCG E-6

Eddie R. Jokela U.S. Army 1st Sergeant

Mark O. Hensel Army Private 1st Class

Jerry Olsen U.S. Army Sgt E-5 Served 3 years Vietnam War

Paul Leon Shepersky Army Sp4 Served 2 years

John G. Glatzmaier Navy

Suzette A. Parkos Air Force

Theodore O. Hensel Army Specialist 4

Ethan H. Hensel Marine Corps Sergeant

Drew R. Zick Marine Corps Lance Corporal

Laura Winterberger U.S. Army E-4

Avenson

Cvandyke / Shutterstock.com

Jacqueline Kay Schmelzer

Army National Guard Served 4 years

Army veteran has positive memories of service

Richard Cox Robin Fish/Enterprise

By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise

The details are some times a little fuzzy for U.S. Army veteran Rich ard Cox, who lives at the Cottages memory care unit at Heritage Living campus in Park Rapids. Nevertheless, the impressions he took away from his tour of service remain.

Originally from Albi on, Neb., Cox was in eighth grade when his family moved to Min nesota.

“My father sold his business, bought a resort here,” he said, identifying the Maple Lane Resort near Vin ing. “And so I finished my high school right here.”

He enlisted for a threeand-a-half-year tour when he graduated from

Henning High School, approximately 1954.

With a war starting in Vietnam, Cox said, “the draft was right on my tail. I talked it over with my parents, and they said, ‘You’d just as well get it over with and get it behind you, and you’re probably at your best time.’ So, that’s the path I chose, and they were right.”

Sure enough, he was drafted almost immedi ately after he enlisted.

Cox recalls that his parents were “pretty strict about ‘do the right thing.’”

He did basic train ing at Fort Riley, Kan sas, and possibly spent some time at Fort Leon ard Wood in Missou ri – again, details are fuzzy – but what’s super clear is the 30 months

he spent in Germany.

“I ended up being in the inner workings of the government sys tem,” he said. “I ran an office section and handled other soldiers coming and going in the military.”

Cox was part of the 10th Infantry Division, a division that handled soldiers’ training, rec reation and records.

“It was a good career,” he said. “The army didn’t treat me badly at all. … We just take that rigorous row that every soldier, I think, had to have crossed.”

He also noted, “You go into the military and you never think, ‘I’ll be standing on Main Street in France.’ You’d say, ‘Ah, yeah! You’ll never be there!’ We were in Paris two or three times. That’s

pretty good. I saw quite a little of the world.”

Nevertheless, he called his discharge back home “a beautiful finish. Just did what they asked me, and they trained me well. … We were ready for combat action.”

Among the world events that took place during his tour was the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

“They were very con cerned that we were going to get drafted for an unlimited period of time,” said Cox. “So, that’s kind of what we worked toward, but that never happened. We got transferred back to the States, eventually, and sent home and dis charged.”

Cox says he always recommends military

Curtis Hensel Marine Corp Corporal

Mark Bjerke Navy Lieutenant Commander

Henry Moyer Army National Guard E1

Fred W. Hensel Navy Petty Officer Second Class

Robin (Bob) Rossi Army Sergeant Served 2 years Vietnam War

Robert L. Schroeder Navy HM3 Army Cpt

James (Gene) Brumbaugh Navy SFMFN E-3

Andy Roberts U.S. Navy BT3 Biler Tender 3rd Class

Charles Andress U.S. Air Force Private 1st Class

Eugene M. Henderson Air Force Master Sergeant

Bruce Henderson Marine Vietnam War

Elmer (Jake) Yliniemi Army Cpl Served 2 years Korean War

service to young people.

“At the time you come in, you really don’t know what you want,” he said. “You’re inex perienced. You learn in a hurry, and you figure out in a hurry, ‘I like this; I don’t like that.’ That’s the way you go: bang, bang.”

He said he enjoyed the camaraderie of military men, the training in the fields and the opportu nity to find out what you’d like to do.

“Some people say, ‘Oh, what a dump!’ and I said, ‘No way were we

in a dump.’ We were getting trained well. … You know what it is? It’s trying to get your brain built up so that you’re worth something once you get out of the mil itary. That’s the way I looked at it.”

After returning to civilian life, Cox worked in heavy steel fabrica tion and manufacturing, a field of endeavor that he found thrilling. He paused to take a degree at the University of Min nesota and went right back into industry.

“It’s not an exciting career, but it was a good career,” he said.

Robin Fish can be reached at rfish@parkrapidsenterprise.com.

Jim Harshe Army E-5

Gary Harshe Marines P-1

Frank Edward Soukup Sr. Army Airborne Staff Sargeant

Frank Joseph Soukup Army Corporal

John Firehammer Navy P.C.T.

Class

Richard Moen Army SP3(T)

Korean War

Raymond J. Novak U.S. Army 2nd Lieutenant Served 15 years WWII

Melvin Hochstatter U.S. Army Private 1st Class Served 2 years Korean War

Charles “Chuck” Blair U.S. Army Signal Corp Served 2 years Vietnam

Paul Hensel U.S. Navy E-4

Raymond G. Dockter U.S. Army National Guard E-3

David Hilgendorf USN/USMC E-5 1st Force Recon

Roy A. Breitweser Army Corporal

Candice R. Hammond Army National Guard Sergeant

Betty Breitweser Carroll Navy HM3-E4

Larry Corroll Navy HM2-E5

Harold Breitweser Marine Lance Corporal

Al Winterberger U.S. Army E-3

Milt Johnson served during Korean era

By Shannon Geisen Park Rapids Enterprise

Anticipating the draft, Milt Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force. He had been attending college in Grand Forks for two years, studying engi neering at the time.

“I was going to be drafted. I beat the gov ernment. I joined the Air Force, rather than going to Korea,” he recalled.

The government “respected” his college education, Johnson said. He was stationed in Spo kane, Wash. and Omaha, Neb., four years total.

“I was just in per sonnel and paperwork and things,” John son said. “It was a new experience, but they did respect me. I did venture through it OK.”

After his military ser vice, he returned to col lege and became a mor

tician. He served as a mortician in Hibbing for five years, before diving into other endeavors.

“I’ve been to pretty

much every state in the country, except Alaska and Hawaii,” he said.

He lived in Rochester for 30 years.

Johnson participated in an Honor Flight a few years ago, with his grandson at his side. They spent three days in Washington, D.C.

A Civil War buff, Johnson, 87, lives at the Heritage Manor Apart ments in Park Rapids. He moved here this past spring. His son, whom he calls his “guardian angel,” lives nearby. He has four children.

Johnson was born in Almelund, Minn., about four miles from the Wisconsin border, and graduated from North Branch High School. “That’s home and heaven there,” he said.

He has traced his genealogy back to the 1500s on his father’s side and 1600s on his mother’s side.

Shannon Geisen can be reached at sgeisen@parkrapidsenterprise.com.

Free Veterans Day dinners will be available Friday, Nov. 11 in both Park Rapids and Akeley.

The American Legion in Park Rapids will be serving their Veterans Day turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, vege table and dessert from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The din ner is free to anyone in the community, includ ing non-members.

In Akeley, the meal is free for veterans and their spouses and will be served from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Red River

Event Center on Hwy. 34. Anyone who prefers to come in and pick up their meal may call 652-2222 on Veterans Day with the number of meals and time they plan to arrive.

The dinner is spon sored by Akeley Veter ans and Community Outreach Organization. Luminaries honoring veterans will also be on display. For information on joining the Akeley Veterans and Commu nity Outreach organiza tion, contact Charlotte Negen at 218-652-2161.

Hunter Schommer

Nathan Alto

Daniel Alto U.S. Navy

Erland Alto

Charles

Tony

4 years

Robert Hoeke U.S. Navy Served 4 years

Steven Hoeke U.S. Marine Served 5 years, Afghanistan

MSG Jonathan Fondow Army Master Sergeant Served 20 years

Donald Haaagenson U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Served 2 years

Brian Poff Army E-3 Served 3 years

Bruce Hoeke Air Force Served 2 1/2 years Korean War

Leslie (Whitey) Hansen Navy AW-E4

Lloyd Lundstrom Navy Seaman 1st Class

Robert Johnson Marines George Wroblewski Air Force Served 4 years WWII

Raymond G. Bortz U.S. Army 3rd Armored Division Corporal Served 2

Ian Yates U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Served 11 years

Jesse Ziegler Air Force Major

James Vocelka Air Force E4

David Vocelka Navy E5

Clifford Kimball Staff Sergeant Served 2 years WWII

Maggi Yerkes CDR U.S. Navy 23 1/2 years Vietnam

Tony Yerkes U.S. Navy Lieutenant Served 6 years Vietnam

Milt Johnson Shannon Geisen/Enterprise