THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
THE SUNDAY
Giles says Mesa did ‘right thing’ with private jail
Tribune
PAGE 3
This Week
NEWS ............................. 6 As Gilbert superintendent leaves for Hawaii, more positions come open
COMMUNITY ........ 15 Veterinarian treats pets’ medical problems with acupuncture
EAST VALLEY
PAGE 4
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | EastValleyTribune.com
West Mesa Edition
INSIDE
Sustainability, development bright for EV Sunday, May 28, 2017
Death toll dropping, but drownings remain a problem BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
C
handler Fire and Medical Battalion Chief Blas Minor remembers the warbled hot tone, then hearing his unit dispatched to a house where a parent found a child underwater in a pool. It is the call all firefighters dread. When he got to the house, Minor saw something he will never forget: a grief-stricken father approaching firefighters holding the limp body of his daughter in his arms. “I just remember the look on the father’s face,” Minor said. “Dad said, ‘Please save my little
(Special to the Tribune)
Children are getting swimming lessons from the YMCA in a new campaign it launched last week to reduce child drownings.
girl.’” That’s exactly what happened. The girl, probably about
kindergarten aged, was coughing, lethargic and had a blue lip. Paramedics revived her in the
ambulance on the way to the hospital while Minor comforted her nearly hysterical mother. “You take that home with you, there’s no question about it. It’s something every firefighter dreads. It sticks with you for the rest of your career,” Minor said. Sadly, not all such calls have a happy ending, even though the death toll is dropping. Firefighters, state health officials and the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona have made great progress in reducing pediatric drowning, defined in statistics as children 5 years old or less. See
DROWNINGS on page 12
Downed by enemy fire: A Memorial Day story BUSINESS . ................ 18 Chandler corner comes back to life as old Mervyn’s gets new tenant
OBSERVANCES ..... 24 Remember the Fallen: Memorial Day ceremonies in the Valley
BUSINESS........................18 OPINION....................... 19 SPORTS........................... 21 FAITH.............................. 23 CLASSIFIED....................30
BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
W
hen Kathy Attwood of Tempe attends a special mass for the war dead at St. Vincent’s Cemetery this Monday, it will mark the 45th consecutive Memorial Day dedicated in part to the memory of her brother Tim. In a war that many Americans have forgotten – or don’t want to remember – the memory of Army First Lt. Tim Conry is never far from her or her other brothers’ thoughts. Nor is it far from the hearts of retired Army Col. William Reeder and Army veteran Dan Jones. Each of them was indelibly affected by Conry’s death in Vietnam on May 9, 1972, when his Cobra helicopter gunship
corkscrewed in flames and crashed in the jungle near Ben Het, South Vietnam. Providing air cover with Reed for a mission supplying some South Vietnamese troops that were hemmed in by Viet Cong guerrillas, Lt. Conry was one of 759 Americans killed that year in Vietnam. He died 23 days after his tour of duty began. He was one of 619 Arizonans killed in a war that claimed the lives of 47,434 Americans in hostile action and an additional 10,786 who died
(Special to the Tribune)
Kevin Conry of Ahwatukee and his sister, Kathy Attwood, hold the framed medals their brother, Army Lt. Tim Conry, earned before and after he died for his country in a South Vietnamese jungle in 1972.
in non-hostile incidents between 1956 and 2008, according to the National Archive. His sacrifice came nearly nine
months to the day before the United States reached a peace See
MEMORIAL on page 8