November 11, 2020
Honoring All Who Served
Thank You Veterans A special publication of
Veteran profile
Jurgemeyer used service as springboard for travel, education Was stationed in Germany during Vietnam War By Jack Harvel The Fort Morgan Times
Marne Jurgemeyer was drafted into the U.S. Army during the height of the Vietnam War. After visiting a friend in Phoenix, Jurgemeyer returned to find a draft letter waiting for him. “I got back on July 24 and by Aug. 6 I was sitting in a bus driving down to Denver to the induction station,” he said. Jurgemeyer was sent to basic training at Fort Ord, a now-closed military base off the Monterey Bay in California. “It was really sad to see it close for people in the Army because that’s a great place,” Jurgemeyer said. “Everybody complains about basic, saying it’s so hot; well I don’t think it got below 40 degrees or above 75.” Next Jurgemeyer would go to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, and then Fort Cox for Officer Basic training and a motor officer course before being deployed. “They sent me to Germany and it was the 14th Armored Cavalry regiment,” Jurgemeyer said. “Well, the armored cavalry is an armored unit so we were — most people don’t have any idea what our mis-
Marne Jurgemeyer / Courtesy photo
Marne Jurgemeyer graduated from U.S. Army Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in July 1970. He went on to serve as an officer leading a platoon in West Germany during the Cold War.
sion was — but we had tanks, we had armored personnel carriers and when I was there we had spy scout crafts.” Those were the first line of defense in the event of a Soviet invasion of West Germany. “Our principal reason was we were the trip wire if the Russians decided that they wanted to come across, we were the first ones who would catch them, and so we had 121 kilometers of East German
Inside
Marne Jurgemeyer used service as springboard for travel, education ..........................................2 Walter Amack served in Vietnam ..............................................................................................4 High Plains Honor Flight takes its inaugural trip..........................................................................8 Specialized training kept Howard Bostrom away from the action during Vietnam War...................10 Evan Riley served in U.S. Army in Vietnam, Germany ................................................................ 12 2 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
Marne Jurgemeyer, a U.S. Army and Army Reserves veteran, is pictured at Fort Morgan Library & Museum on Nov. 2, 2016. Jurgemeyer served as an See JURGEMEYER, pg. 3 officer in West Germany during the Cold War in the early 1970s.
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Brian Porter, Publisher Sara Waite, Editor Jenni Grubbs, Assistant Editor Jack Harvel, Reporter Andrew Ohlson, Advertising Representative Samantha Fagan, Circulation Kent Shorrock, Publication Design Copyright 2020. Prairie Mountain Media
JURGEMEYER from page 2 border that we patrolled,” Jurgemeyer said. Though the border wasn’t as active as the one separating Berlin, there were incidents with border crossings. Jurgemeyer remembered one in particular, where a Ukrainian soldier for the USSR attempted to defect. “He crossed over at night and he couldn’t find anybody to surrender to,” Jurgemeyer said. “He crossed the border again, and there was a minefield in there, and stayed in a barn and then came back the next day and he was picked up by the varied border police.” The event kept Jurgemeyer from attending the 1972 Summer Olympics in West Germany, which he had tickets to. When Jurgemeyer was allowed to return home, he took his time. “I know it’s good duty in Germany, I learned how to drink real beer,” he said. He and some friends he’d made in the Army spent three months touring Europe in a Volkswagen
Fort Morgan Times file photo / Fort Morgan Times
See JURGEMEYER, pg. 4 Marne Jurgemeyer is pictured at the Fort Morgan Museum just before his retirement in 2010.
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Marne Jurgemeyer sits in a restored Lotus Europa on Main Street.
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JURGEMEYER from page 3 bus. When Jurgemeyer returned to the U.S. he obtained a graduate degree in history, with a focus on the middle American period and French history. He joined the Army Reserves to help get him through college. “I was going to graduate school and I needed some money so I got on the Reserve units down in Denver,” he said. “It put me in a better financial bracket for going to school.” He used his degree to become a history educator for the Fort Morgan Museum in 1979, and four years later would become the director of the museum. “I ended up staying there for 33 years until I retired,” Jurgemeyer said. Jurgemeyer built up the museum over his tenure, helping expand it to two stories, upgrading its permanent exhibit and hosting many different art exhibits. When he left the museum in 2010 he said he wanted to spend more time on his own projects, like restoring a 1971 Lotus Europa and working on his model train collection. He was the last museum director, with the responsibilities being absorbed by the library after his retirement. 4 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
Camp Wollbach in West Germany was the border camp where Fort Morgan veteran Marne Jurgemeyer's platoon worked out of for patrolling the border with East Germany during the Cold War in the early 1970s. Jurgemeyer was an officer in the Army from 1970 to 1974. Marne Jurgemeyer Courtesy photo
Veteran profile
Amack served in Vietnam Brush native and Snyder High School graduate was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1965 By Jenni Grubbs The Fort Morgan Times
Walter Amack may have retired a decade and a half ago, but the septuagenarian Brush resident is always looking for the next thing for him to do. Over the years, that drive to get going has led him toward hobbies
involving collecting and raising exotic and tropical fish, gardening, working and living as a campground host, creating fancy chocolate candy, being a volunteer fireman, staying involved at Brush VFW Post No. 3551 and plenty more. A gregarious, curious man, there seems to always be something Amack wants to try out or pursue further. One of his newer endeavors in March 2018, when the interview for this story took place, was smoking pretzels in his Traeger grill. And he was doing that at the Brush condo that he and his wife, Donna, moved into in 1999. That
Jenni Grubbs / The Fort Morgan Times
See AMACK, pg. 6 Walter Amack is s hown at his home in Brush in March 2018.
The American Legion and
Harold DeHaan American Legion Post 19 Sons of the American Legion Squadron 19 And Auxiliary Unit 19 16913 CR 17.5 (121 Nelson Road) - Fort Morgan
salute our militaary veterans of all wars this November 11 - and every day. The Leggion supports our veterans throughout the year: 3,000 Legion-lledd Veterrans Outreach Centers since the VA scandal broke.
$1 million: Thhe amount raised for scholarships for children of active-duuty servicemembers who died since 9/11. We thannk you for serving America with honor, courage and commitment.
Veterans Day y42 201 20 The American Legion - America’s Veterans Service Organization
SALUTE TO VETERANS • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • 5
AMACK from page 7
Walter Amack / Courtesy photo
Walter Amack is pictured during U.S. Army basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in November 1965.
is the third home they had owned in the city, though, in their around five decades together since getWalter Amack / Courtesy photo ting married in November 1970 Walter Amack is shown in Vung Tau, Vietnam, while serving there in the U.S. Army 73rd Aviation Co. in about 1967. once he returned to Brush after serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. “I was a prop repairman. I decades on reality television Military draft worked on the props of the airshows like “Survivor” and “Fear After Walter soon graduation, Growing up planes. I kept the pilots cool. Factor” food-eating challenges: found himself headed out of MorWalter was born in Brush on When they stopped turning, they “the baluts,” which are developing gan County, though. Dec. 12, 1945, and grew up on sweated,” he joked. bird embryos boiled and eaten “I got drafted,” he recalled of farms around Morgan County, Where he was stationed at Vung out of the shell. how he wound up serving as an including in Brush, Wiggins and Tau was right by the beach, and “Little gals would come into the airplane propeller repairman in Snyder. He is the older brother to the soldiers were able to take bars and want to sell you a balut the U.S. Army’s 73rd Aviation little sister, Diane Alexander. advantage of that proximity. and a Saigon tea,” he said. “They Company at Vung Tau Rest & His father, Louis Amack, was a “It was the R&R Center in Viet- would smooch you on the cheek. Recuperation Center in Vietnam farmer, although he did not have nam,” he said. “They had a big It was a different time.” during the Vietnam War. “If they his own farm. So the family hospital and brought a lot of the send you to school, they’re not moved around until they wound Returning home wounded there. We could go to going to send you to Vietnam to up at a hog farm in Snyder. After he was discharged from the beach and have barbecues.” get your butt shot off.” “I was in the seventh grade the military, Walter initially landWalter had some “pretty crazy His service started Nov. 2, 1965, when we moved to Snyder,” he ed in Fort Benning, Georgia, but times” in Vietnam, including visits recalled. “That’s where I finished and he was honorably discharged to bars and fish markets, where he soon headed back to Colorado. in November 1968. After extendschool.” “Before I got out, they try to the vendors “just put the fish While in high school, he played ing his service from his initial help you find a job,” he recalled. down on the dirty streets and peodraft requirement, he served for a baseball, football and basketball. ple would go buy them.” That was “I went to post office school.” “It was a small school,” he said. total of three years, with a year He got hired at a U.S. Post not on Walter’s agenda, though. and a half of that serving having “Everybody got to play.” Office in Longmont, but that job “I couldn’t do it,” he said. “It just He graduated from Snyder High been in Vietnam. did not suit him much at all. turned my stomach. They just laid Walter’s Vietnam service was School in 1963. “I had to go to work at 4 in the the stuff out and it stunk.” “They was green and white, and considerably safer and more comafternoon and didn’t get off until Walter also has memories of a fortable than that of many of his they was dynamite,” he chanted, midnight,” he recalled. “That certain Southeast Asian delicacy fellow war veterans. recalling a school cheer. See AMACK, pg. 7 that has shown up in recent 6 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
AMACK from page 6 wasn’t real good for a young guy.” Walter also butted heads with a supervisor over finishing his postal route a couple minutes early, which could have meant someone expecting to be able to get a letter or package in the mail at the last minute might not be able to do so. “I got in trouble for it,” he said. Walter wound up quitting the postal service job, and he headed back to Morgan County and worked for a farmer, then worked “a little bit in the oil field,” and then worked for a few more farmers. But when he got hired at Cox Grain, that was the job that stuck. Although the company’s ownership changed a few times, Walter would eventually retire from it. “I was a grease monkey at first, then drove trucks,” he recalled of his earlier years with Cox Grain. “Then I loaded trucks with grain, then dispatched trucks and was buying grain. They had 20-some trucks. That was a job. Wherever they got sent, somebody was mad.” Walter left the dispatching job and went back to the grain elevator, which was where he was stationed with Cox Grain when Cargill bought the company. It later became a co-op. That was what he was working for when he got a call from Cargill that he would have been offered early retirement before the switch. As a result of that phone call and Cargill’s mistake, it wound up Walter Amack / Courtesy photo working out that Walter got to The U.S. Army's Rest and Recuperation Center in Vung Tau, Vietnam, is pictured in 1967. Brush resident Walter retire at age 58. See AMACK, pg. 8 Amack served there with the 73rd Aviation Company for a year and a half around that time.
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AMACK from page 7 Donna also was working for Cargill at the time of the mistake, and she got to retire, too, at age 59. “It was a blessing in disguise,” she said. “We got to be camp hosts in Yampa for three years.” One of those years, their campground hosting duties included seeing that a bear got trapped by wildlife officials. “The dumb people, they kept feeding the bears in the campground,” Walter recalled. After the bear was declared to be vicious due to coming into the campground and scaring campers, it was determined that it needed to be trapped. That trap was baited with molasses and “it wasn’t 30 minutes when the bear was in the trap,” Walter said. His daughter and young grandson were visiting the campground at the same time as this was happening. “Our grandson got to keep a pouch with the bear claw in it,” Walter said, along with documentation that he was allowed to keep it. Walter and Donna enjoyed their time as campground hosts, but it was only a temporary part of their retirement years. Still, that did not mean they were headed back to the grain company, or any other job. “We never did go back to work,” Donna said.
Starting a family
It was the job at Cox Grain that led Walter to Donna, who already was working in accounts payable at the grain company in Brush. One of their earlier dates was at Muir Springs in Morgan County, he recalled. “We went frog hunting once,” Walter said. “There were all these frogs there,” she said. “We got one in a net, but it already had its legs cut off.” They both laughed a bit at the memory. “I thought I had hit a gold mine when I saw all those frogs,” Walter said, calling them “good to eat.” They got married Nov. 25, 1970,
Walter Amack / Courtesy photo
Vietnam War veteran Walter Amack and daughter Lynelle Phillips are shown during the Honor Flight trip he got to take in September 2015 to Washington, D.C., to see the war memorials there.
and raised son Brian together. Younger son Brad was born not long after that and daughter Lynelle soon came along, too, completing the family. “Lynelle was born on my daddy’s birthday,” Walter recalled, “so (Donna) could get a dozen red roses.” Walter explained that his father had promise to give the bouquet of roses to the very-pregnant Donna if she gave birth on his birthday. “I slipped on ice and didn’t realize I was in labor,” she recalled, although that did happen on her due date. But Walter’s father had to buy her the roses. The couple raised their young children in Brush, living in a couple different homes first on the south side of town and then on the north side. It was during this time period that Walter had the afore-mentioned tanks of exotic fish, including Jack Dempsey fish, angel fish
8 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
and Egyptian mouth breeders. In fact, the move to the second house was partly motivated by this hobby. “I had to have room for my fish,” he said of all the aquariums he had at the time. “I had lots of fish. It was a lot of work to keep them all clean, but they was pretty.”
the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.) The tragedy that led to the creation of that softball tournament may have happened over the last hours of New Year’s Eve 1998 and the early hours of New Year’s Day 1999, but it felt all-too-fresh in Walter’s mind in March 2018 during the interview for this story. Twenty-seven-year-old Brad Softball tournament Amack died after getting hit durWhile he has had a variety of ing a New Year’s Eve party in hobbies and activities that have Evans, and the father called it kept him busy over the years, one murder. constant for Walter for two “Brad got hit in the mouth and decades has been the annual ben- broke his brainstem,” Walter said, efit softball tournament that bears pain at the memory apparent in the name of his late son, Brad. It his words. “I don’t know how it is usually held each summer to happened. I don’t know who said raise money for scholarships and something. Brad got hit in the to support city parks and recremouth. That was it. The kid was a ation facilities. state heavyweight champion.” For the first decade, Walter and He remembers the call he and Donna organized that tournaDonna got at 2 in the morning ment. Now, it is under the City of from coroner Don Heer. Brush’s guidance. The 22nd such “We jumped in the car and went tournament was held in 2019. (It was not held in 2020 because of See AMACK, pg. 9
AMACK from page 8
ing it over and having it be for both parks and recreation improvements and the annual scholarship. agreed. to Greeley,” Walter recalled. “We put in a scoreboard and the But they did find a way to do There would not be much punishment for the individual who hit some good and bring hope to oth- north dock at the fishing ponds,” Walter said. “(2018 was) the 21st ers after their tragic loss. Brad, though, with no conviction year we’ve done that tournament. “Brad played softball. He or jail time after “police made a lot It kind of amazed me. When we of mistakes,” according to Donna, bowled. He was athletic,” Walter said. “He was a kid who had fun.” started it, I thought maybe it goes and after the individual in quesHe and his wife decided to hold five years, but 20… They don’t tion’s wealthy father got involved, a benefit softball tournament with want to quit, so we’re doing it according to Walter. again.” the proceeds going to a scholar“The kid got fined $100 for The tournament has offered ship at Morgan Community Colunderage drinking,” Walter said. some solace for Walter and Donlege. “That’s all.” “We got the softball tournament na, as well as for the rest of their The Amacks could have filed a family and the Brush community. started,” Walter recalled. “All wrongful death civil suit, but “It feels good,” Walter said. three of our kids went to MCC, so chose not to do so. “Something good out of some“That’s not going to do anything we just set it up that way.” thing bad.” “By the second year, we had or bring him back,” Walter said. Since the second year, that tourenough to make the $10,000 “These were Brad’s friends” at nament has featured unique, colendowment,” Donna said, still the party. These memories were not easy sounding amazed at how that had orful, printed T-shirts for nearly everyone involved. happened. for Walter and Donna to share “We’ve had a lot of local people “For 10 years, we did the tourduring this interview and essenwant to make our shirts,” Walter nament,” Walter said, with them tially have to relive. said, but it is Eric Penfold, a organizing the tournament and “People think you get over it. related fundraising auctions. “In a friend of Brad’s, who continues to You don’t. It gets better, but it make them and adds a special doesn’t go away,” he said, his eyes small town, you hate to ask the saying on the back. glistening. “If people can get over same people to donate, but they One such saying was “if the fish do. it, they don’t think nothing of aren’t biting, they might be a hitAfter that first decade, the city their kids.” approached the couple about tak- ting,” and thinking about it made “You never get over it,” Donna
Walter smile.
Other hobbies
Not long after starting the softball tournament, Walter got involved with making fancy, chocolate candy at Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center, where his cousin was the activities director at the time. “It started because Brad was friends with a librarian who did it,” he explained, and Walter learned from her. “I made coconut balls with mashed potatoes (using) an old Eben Ezer recipe. I made turtles, English toffee, peanut butter balls… pretty much anything chocolate.” As a result, Walter was known as “the Candyman,” which was just fine with him. “All the people in the memory care wing want to help you,” he said of such candy-making demonstrations. “I remember one lady who licked her arm rather than get the chocolate cleaned off.” While he has cut back quite a bit on his chocolate craft, “At Christmastime, I make a lot of candy,” Walter said in 2018. “And now I smoke pretzels.” 970.225.5152 Office
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SALUTE TO VETERANS • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • 9
Veterans Services
Courtesy photos
High Plains Honor Flight Veterans stand at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on Sept. 16, 2019. It was High Plains’ first trip following the dissolution of North Colorado Honor Flight.
High Plains Honor Flight takes its inaugural trip
120 veterans traveled to Washington, D.C., in September 2019 By Jack Harvel The Fort Morgan Times
On its inaugural flight on Sept. 16, 2019, High Plains Honor Flight escorted 120 veterans and 60 accompanying volunteers, called guardians, to Washington, D.C., to visit war memorials dedi-
cated to their service. Five World War II veterans, 19 Korean War veterans, three veterans of the Korean War and the War in Vietnam and 93 Vietnam Veterans participated in the trip. It was the first High Plains Honor Flight since Northern Colorado Honor Flight had declared its mission accomplished after 21 trips, mostly with WWII and Korean War veterans. The new mission is to accompany as many Vietnam veterans as possible to the monuments. “It’s a great service; these guys never got welcomed home like The convoy of police and military escort the Honor Flight on the Mile of
10 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
See FLIGHT, pg. 11 Smiles on Sept. 15, 2019.
FLIGHT from page 10
they should have,� Diana Warberg of High Plains Honor Flight said. The trip started with a short reception at the Embassy Suites in Loveland, where volunteers and veterans meet before being shuttled to the Denver Airport. A convoy of Patriot Guard Riders, an organization of patriotic motorcyclists, law enforcement and three helicopters accompanied the buses along the “Mile of Smiles,� a stretch of highway where people gather to welcome the incoming veterans. “It’s filled with law enforcement, fire department, Boy Scout troops, there’s a jeep group that brings a bunch of jeeps in, and they stand at the side of the road waving,� Susan Balderston, a guardian who has done 10 Honor Flights, said. In Denver, after a short program featuring the co-founder of the National Honor Flight program Earl Morse, the veterans boarded a plane to Baltimore. The next morning the veterans
Courtesy photo
Supporters cheer and wave their flags as over 120 veterans drive by the "Mile of Smiles" on route to the Denver airport on Sept. 15, 2019.
loaded on to four buses, escorted by the National Park Police. The
group visited the World War II memorial, the Iwo Jima Memori-
al, Arlington National Cemetery, the Air Force Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, The Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Wall. Honor Flight soldiers participated in the wreath laying ceremony after watching the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) joined the group before they boarded their buses returning to the airport. On their return, active duty military personnel and members of the El Jebel Shriners greeted the veterans at the terminal. The buses then returned to Loveland where veterans were greeted by their loved ones. An Honor Flight photo book, a roster of participants and a commemorative coin were handed out to the veterans before leaving. Honor Flights are open to all former service members. Prior to the start of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a flight had been planned for September 2020.
In Loving Memory ry y
We Support Our Troops Today!
of Kenny Bath and Bry ryan y Bath — United States Navy vy y Thank you for your serv rvice v to our country ry. y We are forever gratefu ful. u
Kenny Bath Served 6 years
Bryan Bath Navy vyy SEAL
“Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep, Its own appointed limits keep. Oh hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea! Amen.� - O Eternal Father - Navy Hymn Respectfully submitted by Keith Bath Farms
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Love, Your wife, Jean Sons Dan & Darl Daughter Debby and families.
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SALUTE TO VETERANS • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • 11
Veteran profile
L s D C
Facebook photo
Chet McCoy, Dale Colerick, Marne Jurgemeyer, Steve Larson and Howard Bostrom stand in Brush as the Color Guard for 2018's Fourth of July Parade.
Specialized training kept Bostrom away from the action By Jack Harvel The Fort Morgan Times
Howard Bostrom was working for the Colorado highway department in 1964 when a draft letter came for him. Bostrom had learned about how drafting worked in high school and knew he would be at the front of the line when the draft began. “I got a letter and I looked and my number was up there pretty high and I thought maybe I just ought to volunteer for the draft,”
Bostrom said. “My mom said, ‘I don’t think you’re going to have to do that.’ I said, ‘Why not,’ and she goes, ‘Well, I got this certified letter here with your name on it.'” He was told his basic training was in Fort Polk in Louisiana, a base that hadn’t been in use since the Korean War. “We were one of the first units up there,” Bostrom said. “We’d go out to the firing range and there’s trees and stuff in them; well that didn’t last very long because with a 50 caliber on a turret.” Bostrom received specialized
12 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
training in Fort Hood, Texas, where he became part of an Army unit that operated the Little John Missile, a rail-mounted rocket that was developed in the 1950s, and stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Though it used conventional weapons, the missile system could theoretically be equipped with a nuclear payload. “We had no nuclear rounds with it, but when they said nuclear when we got over there, the news media got wind of it and it got turned into a big news activity there in Japan, so we were on our
best behavior,” Bostrom said. “We fired one round, that was about it through the whole thing. It probably had a range of 10-15 miles at the most.” Bostrom was in Okinawa as fighting in Vietnam was getting more intense. The limited range of the Little John Missile and the limited infrastructure in Vietnam made its use in that conflict implausible. “Because of our capability, we weren’t designed to fight in a jungle warfare situation,” Bostrom
See BOSTROM, pg. 13
BOSTROM from page 12
Fort Morgan Times file photo
Howard Bostrom, right, joins other local veterans in clapping along with the Army theme song during a Veterans Day program in 2015. Facebook photo
Howard Bostrom plays the bass guitar with guitarist OJ Metzgar at the Brush People's Market on July 31, 2019.
said. “They would have taken the battalion plus to keep them secure.” Before returning home in 1966, Bostrom stayed for a month in mainland Japan at the base of Mount Fuji, where he would wake up early in the morning to photograph the mountain as clouds rolled over it. He also was briefly moved to Bangkok, where he stayed for about two weeks. After his service, Bostrom returned to northeast Colorado, attending what was then called Colorado State College in Greeley, graduating with a degree in business and education. “I kind of bounced around a few jobs and I eventually ended up working for NECALG (Northeast Colorado Association of Local Governments),” Bostrom said. He worked in weatherization, a process of protecting homes from the elements and making them more energy efficient.
“I was responsible for all the gas appliances, to make sure they’re operating with no gas leaks, no carbon, they’re all operating safely, and I enjoyed that,” Bostrom said. When he wasn’t working Bostrom was playing and performing music. “I play the bass guitar and keyboard and a little bit of drums, too,” Bostrom said. He currently performs in a twopiece that plays a mix of country, blues, light rock and jazz. Over the years he’s performed at different clubs and venues, sometimes in Morgan County playing to the folks at Eben Ezer. “A lot of it is kind of directed towards dance. The older generation does two step, three step and waltz. We can do a lot of that if we get the right drummer,” Bostrom said. Bostrom will perform this Veterans Day at the Country Steak Out from 5 to 7 p.m.
Sergeant Don Chapin
United States Marines Corp 1951 – 1954 Served in Korea Equipment Operation, First 155 MM howitzer Battalion, Fleet Marine Force Pacific In Loving Memory The Chapin Family SALUTE TO VETERANS • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • 13
Veteran profile
Evan Riley served in U.S. Army in Vietnam, Germany Veteran well known around Brush for his Poppies to support VFW Post No. 3551 By Jenni Grubbs The Fort Morgan Times
Evan Riley was not looking for a fight, but one sure found him – and it changed the rest of his life. The Brush U.S. Army veteran, now in his mid-70s in fall 2020, was in the last week of his sophomore year at Fort Morgan High School in spring 1962. “Two guys jumped me, and I fought them,” Riley recalled in an interview in August 2018 for this story. “It wasn’t my fault. I was going to protect myself.” But Riley was doing too good of a job of protecting himself in the school probation officer’s mind. “The probation officer kicked my hand off of the second guy’s neck,” Riley recalled. “He was turning blue.” Next thing Riley knew, he was being told to leave school, that he was suspended. “They said, ‘You’re out of here.’ I
said, ‘Fine. I’ll go to 11th grade.” But as the year had not finished, the school officials were going to make Riley repeat 10th grade. With that plan, he would have been 19 by the time he would have graduated. “I said no,” he recalled, and just like that Riley was finished with school and finding a job at 17 years old. Work and a job with Westland Motors led him to Hastings, Nebraska, where he received notice in 1965 that he had been drafted into the U.S. Army. That took care of Riley having to make many of the decisions for what he would do for the next 21 years of his life. But he did eventually finish out high school. “I was supposed to graduate in 1964, but I graduated in the service,” Riley recalled.
Growing up
As a boy, Riley’s family moved around quite a bit. “I went to school in Fort Morgan, Brush, Snyder, Holyoke, Haxtun, Kersey and the last time was in Fort Morgan,” he recalled. The timing of some of those moves was clearer than others for Jenni Grubbs / The Fort Morgan Times the septuagenarian during his Evan Riley is shown with a Poppy display at VFW Post No. 3551 in Brush in See RILEY, pg. 15 August 2018.
“Where Friends Meet!” 431 Main St, Fort Morgan
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RILEY from page 14 interview for this article in August 2018, but the overall list of locations was never in doubt to Riley. He knows his family moved from Fort Morgan to Brush when he was in third grade, and then to Snyder when he was in fifth and sixth grade. Partway through the year, they moved back to Fort Morgan. Riley played some baseball when he was young and ran track in junior high and high school in Fort Morgan. “I ran the mile run,” he recalled. But his prep sports days would be limited by the same fight that led to him dropping out of high school.
Getting drafted
After Riley got his draft notice, he reported to U.S. Army basic training in Texas. The Army’s first plan for him was to train him as a medic. But the Army could not seem to make up its mind about what Riley was supposed to be in the service. Evan Riley / Courtesy photo “They sent me to a camp for Evan Riley was stationed with the U.S. Army at the 121 Evacuation Hospital in Korea in 1968 and worked as an See RILEY, pg. 16 ambulance driver and medic.
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RILEY from page 15 truck drivers,” he recalled, then medic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas,” he said. Both of those sets of training would play roles in his next couple decades in the military. He was sent to Germany and arrived there Thanksgiving Day in 1965. “I worked there as a medic and ambulance driver,” Riley recalled. He completed his two years from the original draft in 1967 and returned to Fort Morgan. There, he married a gal named Ruth on Jan. 20, 1968. But not long after getting back to Colorado and getting hitched, Riley received notice that he was being pulled back into the Army. “I got drafted back in in March ’68 from Fort Morgan,” he recalled. “They sent us to Fort Bliss, Texas, in ’68. Two months later, they sent me to Korea.” He was stationed at the 121 Evacuation Hospital in Korea as a medic and ambulance driver. In 1969, Riley returned to the Evan Riley / Courtesy photo United States when the Army next Evan Riley, left, took care of the fuel tanks for the U.S. Army while serving in 1971 with Company B, 503rd Supply & stationed him at Fort Knox, TenTransport Battalion, 3rd Armored Division, in Germany. nessee. There he again worked as a medic and ambulance driver. In thinking back to that conundrum. are constant reminders of his time October 1969, his first son, Russell, gives him nightmares to this day. in Vietnam. “I take pills every night,” he said “We would ask, ‘Why you trying was born at Fort Knox. of the sleepless nights and trouble- to throw grenades at us?’ ‘Just do it Riley’s proximity to the exploding Re-upping with the Army some dreams he worries will pop for some rice,’” was the reply, Riley land mine in 1971 left him with an That December, Riley chose to up in his head. recalled. “A bite to eat, that’s why.” injured leg and “messed up hearre-enlist in the Army for another One specific episode in Vietnam ing,” but these injuries also got him People going hungry and being six years. His next stations were out of Vietnam for good. had a major impact on not only his desperate for food was an enornot what he necessarily wanted, “In ’71, they sent me back to Fort mous problem in Vietnam at that mind, but his body, as well. but he did not get a choice. Carson, Colorado,” Riley said. “I time. “There was a land mine,” Riley “They gave me a truck driver’s “Some women (killed) for some- spent two months in the hospital to recalled. “The guy stepped on it. I MOS (military occupational skill), was a few yards back. That was it.” thing to eat,” he recalled. “One sol- get patched up.” then they sent me to Vietnam in ’70 dier I was over there with was with Next thing he knew, the North and ’71,” Riley recalled. “When I his girlfriend. She struck him with Recovery and reVietnamese were shooting at the got there, I was supposed to be a enlistment a blade in the chest, just for someAmericans who had survived the truck driver, but they put me at a thing to eat. They were together for land mine. “When I got to Fort Carson, they medic in the company. They put me almost three months.” “Then they were gone,” Riley put me in the hospital and put hearas a medic because they said I There were people who would said. “The Vietnamese were kids ing aids in me,” Riley said. “They couldn’t drive truck.” and women in fields, rice paddies.” seek out whatever garbage the said, ‘If you can’t walk and run, While he was in Vietnam, his secAll of the ones who had been American soldiers were getting rid you’re out of the service.’” ond son, Jeffrey, was born in Hast- shooting had disappeared, and of to see if it included anything ediThree months later, he was getings, Nebraska, in September 1970. besides the American soldiers were ble. ting a check up and passed. Even But overseas, Riley was dealing “The Vietnamese came there to under orders not to shoot back if though he still needed pain pills, he with the ugliness of the Vietnam there were not any Vietcong fight- clean up, and they would take the could do the required 50 sit-ups War. garbage home to feed their kids,” ers around. and was told he could stay in the “I didn’t really get into the fight“I feel sorry for the kids,” Riley Riley recalled. Army and serve at Fort Carson. ing in Vietnam,” he said, at first said. “They would stand out on the These are only a few of the In March 1972, his daughter, very reluctant to look back to that highway and throw a grenade at things that keep him from sleeping Lisa, was born at Fort Carson while time. “It’s just another war. It’s in you, but what going to do? Shoot soundly. the family was living there. the past.” the kids?” There are also the problems he Eventually, the Army shipped However, his time over there still His face was very troubled at has with the rest of his body that See RILEY, pg. 17 16 • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • SALUTE TO VETERANS
RILEY from page 16 Riley out overseas again, this time with Company B of 503rd Supply & Transport Battalion of the 3rd Armored Division. “They sent me to Germany and I was on transportation and drove truck,” Riley said. “They made me take care of the fuel tanks.” He was overseeing the tanks full of gasoline, diesel and “JP4” jet fuel. While in Germany, Riley chose to extend his enlistment even further so that his wife and kids could come live with him on the U.S. Army base. It also allowed him to take care of some unfinished business. “In ’75 in Germany, they said I could get a high school diploma,” Riley recalled. He passed the graduation equivalency test. “While I was in Frankfurt, I graduated from high school,” Riley recalled of receiving his diploma in 1976. “I graduated in Frankfurt, Germany, 10 years after I was in the service.”
Returning to the U.S.
termaster training in Korea before he had left there. Now that his quartermaster training was official, the Army put it to use. “They stationed me at Fort Riley for two years as quartermaster,” Riley recalled. “I worked in a warehouse, and then I took over the gas station. I was in charge of it.”
Bouncing around
From Germany, Riley was called back to the United States in 1977 and told to report to Fort Riley, Kansas. “They sent me to school to become a quartermaster,” he recalled of going to the school in Fort Lee in Virginia. At that school, he learned about handling “everything from washers to tanks, weapons to food,” and he learned it quickly. “It only took me a week to pass,” Evan Riley / Courtesy photo Riley recalled. “I already had the training,” having gotten basic quar- Evan Riley served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam in 1970 and part of 1971.
But Riley’s time in Kansas at the fort that had the same name as him would not last too much longer. “They sent me back to Germany,” he recalled. That was a short-lived posting, though, and before he knew it he was headed back to Kansas and was going to college on the post at Fort Riley. “They said, ‘You got to go to college,” Riley recalled, so he did. But after about a year in college, the Army ordered him back to Germany to serve as quartermaster. “My family wasn’t there, so I had to do two years there,” Riley recalled. He wound up re-enlisting for another six years, and then was sent to Fort Hood in Texas to be the quartermaster there. “I worked in a warehouse and I took care of fuel there,” he said, but also noted that he did not have any JP4 at Fort Hood. “Then I did my last hitch there. I was a teacher for maintenance for about six months. I had to teach people mechanics at Fort Hood.” In 1985, the Army sent Riley back to Korea for a short stretch before his latest enlistment would be up.
See RILEY, pg. 18
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RILEY from page 17 Even though three more years in the Army would have meant he would be eligible for a promotion to sergeant first class, Riley decided that was not in the cards for him. He wanted to start making decisions about where he would go and do for himself. “It’s time to go home,” he recalled thinking. Of course, that meant he would have to go back to Kansas and serve briefly there so he would be able to retire. He went to Fort Riley and was stationed in the central issue facility, where soldiers were issued and checked back in their field equipment. “I had to issue sleeping bags, tents, cots to all the new people coming in and take them back as needed,” he recalled. But in 1986, he officially retired from the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant.
Family drama
Riley had another reason for being ready to be finished with the Army and getting back to the States: His family life was imploding. By his retiring from the Army, Riley was able to end his marriage of about 18 years, since she wanted to marry his brother. But Riley would not stay single long after the divorce. He married his second wife, Yong, a Korean woman he had met. That relationship lasted about three years. He was four years into his retirement in 1994 when his first son graduated and Yong headed to Alabama. Again, Riley was not alone for too long, though. “I married my third wife, Pam, in 1995,” he said. But that relationship also would not last. “Less than a year later, we separated,” Riley said. “We divorced in 1998.” He did not have any more children with either his second or third wives, which worked since they each had children of their own from previous relationships. Riley has mostly been a bachelor for around the last two decades. But he also has at least five
Evan Riley / Courtesy photo
After 10 years in the U.S. Army, Evan Riley earned his high school diploma while serving in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1976.
grandsons, one granddaughter, two great-granddaughters and five great-grandsons to dote over as often as he can. “I just saw one grandson this last weekend,” Riley said in August 2018, a smile on his face. “The youngest grandson, Josh, was over here.” But since the grandchildren and great-grandchildren were living around the country, including in Texas, Arizona, Nebraska and Minnesota, he does not see some of them too often.
Post-military work
In 1986, Riley returned to Brush
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and settled down there. He had a variety of jobs over the years, starting out with 10 months at the beef plant “as the cleanup man.” From there, he worked at a pork plant for 18 months as a ham skinner, followed by three years at the sugar factory as a coal and lime kill worker. He would spend the next 16.5 years working at Tormohlen Eggs, although the last few years there saw his health take a significant downward turn. “In my 14th year, I had a heart attack,” Riley recalled. “My 15th year I had a stroke. My 16th year and 6 months, I had my second
heart attack, and they told me to go home.” After that, he qualified for disability pay, and that plus retirement and disability pay from the Army has since has been the bulk of his financial support. However, he did do a stint at True Grit steakhouse as a dishwasher, and he does quite a bit around the Brush VFW. “I take care of myself. That’s what I do. I take care of my house, take care of my car, take care of my body. I play pool, I play chess. I try to help the commander and quartermaster,” Riley said of the Brush
See RILEY, pg. 19
RILEY from page 18 do that at home. There’s nobody there. I go out and enjoy myself, so I made a couple dollars here and there.” Christensen said Riley was being modest. “Evan just has that nice, friendly face,” the then-Brush VFW Commander said in 2018. “They recognize him as a veteran,” and he’s able to get them to donate. “He once got $700 in one day.” Little did Riley know that one fight back in high school in Fort Morgan would set him on winding path that eventually would bring him back to Morgan County and have him be fairly well-known in the Brush community almost 60 years later. For many people in Brush, Riley is familiar as the friendly face known as a retired veteran and longtime resident holding up a box of Poppies at the grocery store and asking for support for the local VFW’s community events and scholarships. And that’s OK with him.
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VFW officials in 2018, Eric Christensen and Jerry McDaniel. At the Brush VFW, he helps his fellow veterans with remodeling the facilities and he seeks donations for Poppies from community members. “He’s a life member of the VFW and a trustee,” Christensen said of Riley. “Besides helping us remodel (the VFW) building, he’s our best fundraiser with Poppies. … Evan helps provide money for us to put back into the community. It is very appreciated.” Riley also serves on the VFW Honor Guard and Color Guard, including with firing rifles at Memorial Day events and funerals with military honors. He said he enjoys telling people about the purpose behind the Poppies and asking them for donations in exchange for the bright red fabric flowers. “It’s nice to get out and talk to people and get money for the community,” Riley said. “That’s why I do it. I like to talk to people. I can’t
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Evan Riley / Courtesy photo
Evan Riley retired from the U.S. Army in 1986 as a staff sergeant after having served for 21 years.
SALUTE TO VETERANS • NOVEMBER 11, 2020 • 19
THANKING ALL
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