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70 Years Later
154TH YEAR ISSUE NO. 29 $1
TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014
World War II Navy veterans meet at RidgeWood Health Campus
By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter cmattingly@registerpublications.com
Of about 300 crew members on the World War II ship Adair, what would be the chances of two of them meeting in the same care center? Raymond Gordon, 88, and Estel Gover, 89, both of Aurora, now reside at RidgeWood Health Campus, Lawrenceburg. Recently, each was wearing Navy clothing while being visited by relatives, and through a discussion, realized they'd both not only been on the Windsorclass attack transport, but had been there at the same time. Gordon, whose memory has faded, enlisted in the Navy in March 1943, and served on Liberty ships before his transfer to the brandnew Adair. Gover, who can talk a mile a minute, joined up in October 1943, and was sent to the University of Chicago for communications school after basic training. “They put me in the amphibious forces landing division,” he said. Sent first to Florida as an instructor at Fort Pierce, he was transferred to Baltimore in May 1944. “That's when I got on the Adair,” he said. “When the ship was christened, the band was playing and we were sliding down into the water, stern first,” he said. That was at Sparrows Point Shipyard, Maryland, where the USS Adair was built, the first ship the United States had that was welded together rather than put together with rivets, said
DearbornHamilton Cos. head up multistate drug trafficking bust Sheriff Jim Neil reports that members of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Regional Narcotics Unit (“RENU”) have been involved in a large scale heroin and cocaine trafficking investigation over the last 12 months that has resulted in the disruption of a drug trafficking network operating in California, Texas, Nevada, lllinois, as well as cities throughout Ohio, including Dayton, Springfield and Cincinnati. During this investigation to date 14 individuals have been arrested and law enforcement has seized approximately 35 pounds of heroin, 18 pounds of cocaine, as well as over $600,000 dollars in assets derived from the drug trafficking activities of these individuals. Further investigation identified two individuals responsible for organizing the drug trafficking activities as a current and former inmate of the London Cor-
See BUST, Page 8
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Gover. From Chesapeake Bay, the Adair sailed into the Atlantic on a shakedown cruise, he said. “We got in a real bad storm,” said Gover. “The waves were so big …. I saw the bow of the ship dip water – about 60 feet it went down and dipped water.” Gordon remembers almost going overboard in a bad storm, most likely the same one. Talking to this reporter a couple of years ago, he said the whole ship shuddered. The bow went into the water and the propeller at the back of the ship rose into the air. “I looked up, on the deck … and seen green water above me,” he said. But there was a box on deck that saved him, as the water washed him under it. “His leg caught under the box,” said his daughter Debbie Gordon Brunner, Aurora. “He had to be on crutches.” But he remained on the ship, which returned to port in Virginia. One of the wales had broken open from the stress, and though it hadn't admitted water, the ship went into dry dock for a few days for repairs, said Gover. The Adair carried troops and cargo in 1944 and 1945. But she got hit in the North Atlantic on her first trip to North Africa, said Gover. “We had 400 troops aboard,” he said. The other ships in the convoy would circle the Adair to protect the troops, but somehow either she was struck by a torpedo or perhaps hit a floating mine. “We got a hit in the side. They couldn't figure out how
CHANDRA L. MATTINGLY/The Journal-Press
Two RidgeWood Health Care Campus residents share their memories of serving on the same ship during World War II during a visit with their daughters. From left: Joy Bruehl, WW II veteran Estel Gover, Debbie Brunner and WW II veteran Raymond Gordon. a torpedo could ever get to us,” said Gover. “It disabled us. They had to unload the troops and send us back to Virginia.” That was his first and last mission. As the crews were unloaded in LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) lowered over the sides, Gover, as a communications man, stood in one of the boats to tell those lowering it how close it was to the ship's side. “When we got about halfway down the side, the cable broke and we fell,” said Gover. “... It felt like it drove my legs right up.” Then a
coil of the cable fell, hitting him in the head and knocking him off the boat into the cold Atlantic. “I was fighting the water to stay away from the boat because the waves were hitting the boat so hard,” he said. Three men on board the LCVP saved him. “They got a mop and stuck it out to me and pulled me back in,” said Gover. But he couldn't eat or drink or do anything, as his brain swelled from the injury, he said. Doctors drilled into the back of his head to drain the fluids, telling him he had
a fractured skull. Eventually he was sent to a Veterans Administration hospital in Louisville, Ky., then given a medical discharge. “He lived the rest of his life with that scar on his brain,” said his daughter Joy Bruehl, Middletown, Ohio. Gover's folks were working in an aircraft factory in Michigan, but after visiting there, Gover went back to the home place in Pulaski County, Ky., about eight miles west of Somerset. Living alone, he put out crops and farmed for two years, despite the occasional blackout spells his
daughter said he had. “My uncle watched out for me,” said Gover. From time to time, he'd “get on a horse and be gone for two or three days. … I rode for miles, all the way down into Cumberland Bottoms,” he said. With a rifle and fishing gear, he'd shoot a rabbit or catch fish for his meals. Eventually, Gover met a woman at a Christmas party in Kentucky. She was someone he'd known from high school but hadn't seen for five years, Violet Haggard, who had a little girl, Joy,
See 70, Page 8
Dillsboro wary of county’s new 911 fee By Chandra L. Mattingly Staff Reporter cmattingly@registerpublications.com
Anyone getting a $5,000 bill might have questions. For Dillsboro Town Council, the fee from Dearborn County for police dispatching raised questions of how the town will afford it year after year, but also of fairness. Dearborn County 911 Director Charles Ashley attended the Monday, July 14, council meeting but had only a few specific answers for councilmen's questions. The county 911 center started with
12 dispatchers in 1995, and still has “We're looking to hire one or the same number of dispatchers, he maybe two more staff members … said. hopefully before “The call volthe end of the ume has about year,” he said. gone out the Dearborn “To make it equitable to roof … so we're County 911 gets everybody would be to do money from the trying to add to our staff,” said state 911 board it at the county level.” Ashley. Deargenerated by a Rick Fields 90 cent fee on born County Commissioners land and cell Dillsboro Town Council came up with a phones and any funding plan to other device that charge all the can be used to entities served by the dispatch center, dial 911, said Ashley. That generates based on call volume, he said. about $56,000 per month, a total of
$671,000 this year, all of which goes toward the 911 side of the county's dispatch service. But that doesn't cover the total cost even of the 911 side, so the county supplements the funding with $331,000 from its general fund, which comes from county property taxes, said Ashley. Dillsboro Councilman Rick Fields asked why the county is seeking funds from other entities for 911, and Ashley said he did not know. “Where do the commissioners think communities like Dillsboro will get this money?” asked Fields. Again,
See FEE, Page 8
Fritch named general manager of Register Publications April Fritch, 53, Lawrenceburg, has “I come from a sales background, been named general manager of Reg- with the last 18 years spent in print ister Publications, the largsales,” said Fritch. est print media business in “We will continue to enDearborn and Ohio counties sure that we provide our and in the Greater Harrison readers and advertisers with region of Southwest Ohio. excellent products. The team Fritch, named to the poat Register Publications is by sition by company owner far one of the most helpMurray Cohen, has been adful and cooperative group of vertising director for nearly employees that I have ever two years. She will retain her had the pleasure of working responsibilities as ad director, with. Our team will continue but also will oversee daily to review our newspapers and April Fritch operations of the media comspecial sections to provide pany’s other departments, inthe community with compelcluding circulation, distribution, Inter- ling, interesting, and useful informanet, and production. tion.”
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Fritch, who comes from a newspaper family, said she has been an avid reader of and subscriber to the local papers for the 25 years she has lived in Dearborn County. “I feel many years from now there still will be a place for community newspapers,” said Fritch. “But as trends change, I’m aware that providing mobile apps, and constantly improving our websites, gives our readers more options to enjoy our products, and gives advertisers more opportunities to reach our subscribers and other folks who visit our websites.” Fritch pointed out subscribers invite Register Publications’ newspapers into their homes, and many people read
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them from front to back, which is a decisive advantage for local advertisers. “They want the information and the advertising in our papers, whether they choose to subscribe to the traditional format or go online,” she said. Fritch’s father, Bill Fritch, began his career at The Greensburg Daily News, and went on to become a reporter, sports editor, columnist, and copy editor at newspapers in northwestern Indiana. “I grew up with the newspaper. I had a love of the newspaper before my relationship here ever started. It’s easy for me to sell, and easy for me to promote. It’s easy for me because I believe in it,” said Fritch.
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