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An albert lea veteran remembers his time in the forgotten war
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veteran of the army and navy still proud of his many years of service
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The Albert Lea BEyond the yellow ribbon group works to help military families
Page 2 • VETERANS DAY • Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013
Legion to host Veterans Day ceremonies in Albert Lea By Kelli Lageson
kelli.lageson@albertleatribune.com
This year’s Veterans Day program in Albert Lea will be presented under the direction of the Leo Carey Post 56 of the American Legion. All events will be on Monday, Veterans Day. Starting at 8:15 a.m. until approximately 8:45 a.m. Monday, there will be a program at Southwest Middle School in the gymnasium by the local Veterans of Foreign Wars group. John E. Barron, a retired major of the U.S. Army, will speak. Special music for the program will be provided by the seventh-grade choir. Presentation and retiring of the flag will be by the Post 447 Color Guard and Leo Carey Post 56 American Legion Honor Guard. Some Legion members will visit St. John’s Lutheran Community to visit with veterans around 8 a.m. Between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. there will be the raising of the colors, volley firing and taps played at the FreeA breakfast will be born County Veterans from 8 a.m. to 12:30 Memorial. p.m. Sunday at the The annual program Albert Lea American starts at 11 a.m. in the Legion for veterans Commissioner’s Room and their families. Cost on the second floor of is $5. the historic courthouse.
Special breakfast
File photo
Military veterans Jim Hockinson, Dave Olson, Bill Goette, Corald Peterson and Dave Mullenbach raise hands together during a singing of “God Bless America” during the Veterans Day ceremony in 2012. There will be a Pledge of Allegiance and a special recognition of MIA/POWs. The main speaker will be retired Freeborn County Veterans Service Officer Jon Rhiger. Music selections will be by the Careyaires. Following the program there will be a lunch at the Legion.
The Legionnaires will be at Hawthorne Elementary School at 1 p.m. to show the students a flag-folding ceremony and to speak about the meanings of the colors in the flag and other significant features. The public is invited to attend the events and show their support for veterans.
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Front Row L-R: George Warner, Bruce Nichols, Walter Karsjens, Theodore Mattick, Mark McConnell, Arthur Christiansen. Row 2 L- R: Esther Quam, Daniel Mellum, Rex Clay, Calvin Dammen, Richard Nelson, Walter Stevens. Row 3 L-R: partially hidden Merle Hovland, Allen View, Roy Stevens, Peter Galkin, Don Perschbacher, Donald Searles, Dick Dopplehammer, Warren Thorson. StandingL-R: Virgil Bosma, Vernon Baer, Gerald Joachim, Kenneth Adams and Russell Gates. Not pictured: Daryl Walk, Caroll Sprenger, Joe Probst, Anne Lehman, Irvin Himmerich
Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013 • VETERANS DAY • Page 3
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group helps area military families By Brandi Hagen
brandi.hagen@albertleatribune.com
For the last two years, Albert Lea’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group has been helping service members and their families with their needs. The group’s mission statement says, “In continuing Minnesota’s proud history of supporting our nation’s military, Yellow Ribbon support efforts unite key areas within local communities to leverage existing support activities, build awareness, make commitments and take action to recognize and support service members, military families and employers.” The work the Albert Lea Beyond the Yellow Ribbon has been able to do has slowed down since Albert Lea’s Delta Co. of the Minnesota National Guard has returned from deployment, but chairman John Severtson said there are still some tasks the group has been able to help with. One of them has been helping a soldier’s wife and her premature twins run errands or make a trip to Rochester for an appointment while her husband is stationed in Afghanistan. “She calls and we help,” Severtson said. Another way the group was able to help was by donating to the sixth annual Minnesota Gold Star Retreat in Brainerd the first weekend in October. The retreat is a state-funded event, which the Legislature approved to honor the fallen and offer grief support.
At the retreat, Gail Springborg, survivor outreach services support coordinator in Albert Lea and an adviser for the event, said fallen service members are recognized with a rose. “It’s the little touches that are really significant,” Springborg said. The Albert Lea Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group donated the money for those roses for the second year in a row because it’s not something that can be funded by the government. The roses are placed with a family’s mementos of their fallen loved one on a table at the retreat as a memorial. Following the service, Springborg said many families take the rose out to the gravesite of their loved one. “It’s so important for those families to feel the support of the community,” Springborg said. “Even though it sounds like a small gesture, it’s so significant to the families to have the community saying we recognize your loss, support your grief and remember your fallen loved one.” Looking ahead, the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group is hoping to partner with the American Legion Post 56. “They’re more or less a veterans group in town,” Severtson said. “Why not have veterans help veterans.” Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, Severtson said, has been able to help support service members in other ways like raking leaves, blowing snow, setting up a place for them to video chat with their family, monetary donations and connecting them with others who can help. “I think we’ve accomplished
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John Severtson, chairman for Albert Lea’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group and first vice commander for the American Legion Post 56, hopes the two groups can partner to help veterans and their families. everything we’ve been asked to do,” Severtson said. “The toughest part is getting a soldier’s family to say, ‘we need help.’”
The group is always looking for ways to fundraise or help a family and can be reached by calling 507-438-8225.
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Page 4 • VETERANS DAY • Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013
Veteran remembers his time in the Forgotten War By Sarah Stultz
sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com
By the age of 19, Albert Lean Junior Dorman had experienced more than most people will in a lifetime. After entering the Minnesota National Guard at the age of 16 with his parents’ permission, he entered active duty at the age of 17 and about a year later was sent to fight in the Korean War. “To this day, I don’t think we realized the seriousness of what we were doing,” said Dorman, now 80. “I guess we didn’t think much about it.” He said he signed up for Company G with the 47th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard in Albert Lea in 1950 with about a half dozen of his friends. They were in 11th grade at the time and wanted to play basketball. “We couldn’t play at school, and we weren’t happy with school anyway,” he said. “We went to the armory, and they had a nice basketball court.” In January of 1951, the 47th Division, which included his unit, was called up for duty. The unit left for Camp Rucker in Alabama for training. Dorman, who then was 17, had to say he was 18 to be able to go. About 11 months later, he received notice that he would be going to Korea with Company I of the 35th Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. After a brief stop back home, he was sent to Fort Lewis in Washington for a few days and then boarded a ship to Japan. After a week of orientation in Japan, he boarded another ship headed for Inchon, Korea. Following additional training, he was sent to an area he and the other soldiers called The Punchbowl, which was a nickname given to a valley in Yanggu County in the Gangwon Prov-
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ince of Korea. Dorman said after a week there, he received orders to move up to the front line to relieve a group that was there. “I started to realize the seriousness of what was happening,” he said. “When we were up there and got into position, all sorts of things started
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happening. The North Koreans started firing mortars and rockets at us.” The first night he was on the front line he said he crawled into a foxhole to get a couple hours of sleep. When he woke up, he found a mortar shell that had not exploded at the entrance to the hole where he was sleeping. He had to crawl over it to get to safety.
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“That was my first day on the line. It got more and more as I went along,” he said. Now more than 50 years later, as he thinks back to that time, he said he realizes how lucky he was that nothing happened to him. After leaving The Punchbowl area, he was transferred to a place called
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Wanda and Junior Dorman stand next to a box of awards that Junior received for his service in the Korean War in Hanson Tire Service.
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Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013 • VETERANS DAY • Page 5 Heartbreak Ridge and then to Koje-do, where he was assigned as a prison guard. Dorman said there were about 8,000 prisoners on the island, including North Koreans, nurses and even women and children. He was discharged in December of 1952 as a master sergeant after just turning 19 a few months prior. Dorman said he and his wife, Wanda, visited the Korean War memorial in Washington, D.C., for the 50th anniversary of the war. He recalled an insignia on the top of the memorial that reads “Freedom is not free.”
“Every time I think about that, I think of how lucky I was to be able to come home,” he said through tears. “To walk through that memorial, it was scary how realistic it was. It brought back a flood of memories, like it was yesterday.” Sometimes called the Forgotten War, the Korean War killed more than 100,000 people in three years, wounded 100,000 more and left 8,000 unaccounted for, he said. He thinks about the war frequently and deals with hearing loss every day because of his experiences. As part owners of Hanson Tire Service, Junior and Wanda have three
sons, nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He said he participates in the local Leo Carey Post
56 American Legion post, along with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter.
Sarah Stultz/Albert Lea Tribune
Medals for Korean War service by Junior Dorman hang on a wall at Hanson Tire Service.
We proudly support our troops, past & present 2410 Y.H. Hanson Ave Albert Lea, MN 56007
Junior Dorman on Nov. 1, 1952, in Koje-do, Korea.
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Page 6 • VETERANS DAY • Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013
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Still proud of his service
By Kelli Lageson
kelli.lageson@albertleatribune.com
A veteran of both the Army and Navy who served all over the world is still proud of his service and glad he served his country after all these years. Ron Eisenbise, 74, lives in Albert Lea and is a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a member of the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans. He enjoys when people come up to thank him for his service “I say ‘Thank you for noticing,’” Eisenbise said. Eisenbise joined the Army in 1956. After 16 weeks of infantry training, Eisenbise ended up in a transportation unit. Then in 1957 he participated in Operation Deep Freeze aboard a Navy ship. The ship sailed to the North Pole, and the soldiers fed Eskimos and “took care of the people on top of the world,” Eisenbise said. He jokes that he liked the food on the Navy ship so much that he decided to join the Navy in 1960. He preferred the Navy uniform to his Army uniform, too. “I got more lady friends with my seamen uniform,” Eisenbise said with a smile. His last rank in the Army was corporal. He didn’t have to do much boot camp for the Navy since he had already been enlisted. He spent some time near Spain as a radioman, but he was anxious to get back to the U.S. He had just gotten married and was looking for a way to get back near home. He found out submarine sailors were needed, and training would be back in the U.S. So he attended a Navy training for submarine duty in New London, Conn., and that started his long career
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Ron Eisenbise is a veteran of both the Army and Navy. He lives in Albert Lea. aboard many submarines that traveled all over the globe. He would spend anywhere from a few months to a year serving on a different submarine. Their names include the USS Place, USS Barbel, USS Charr, USS Daniel Boone, USS Plunger and USS Blueback, among others. While serving on the USS Bugara, Eisenbise saw Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Photos of all the submarines are framed and hanging in Eisenbise’s living room. And while the submarines were similar, they were all just a little bit different. Eisenbise said the subs were usually built in groups of three, and they would call them sister ships. The USS Blueback and USS Barbel were sister ships. Eisenbise liked the Blueback best. “That one had an ice cream ma-
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chine,” Eisenbise said. He guessed each submarine held about 100 men. Eisenbise worked as a diesel mechanic, but he said every crew member had to be trained in every duty to be part of the submarine crew. “I was pretty good at fixing stuff,” Eisenbise said. As well as fixing things, Eisenbise was part of a crew that delivered a submarine to Brazil and taught a new crew how to use it. Eisenbise got to be part of that crew as a translator. He knew enough Brazilian, Portugese and Spanish to help in that role, but he says he wasn’t fluent. Though he spent years aboard submarines, Eisenbise said they still made him nervous. He was usually anxious when the sub was diving or surfacing because that’s when
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accidents happen, he said. “You’re always nervous,” Eisenbise said. “What goes up has gotta come down.” Because of his ship knowledge and his ability to fix engines, Eisenbise was asked to fix river boats during the Vietnam War in the mid1960s. He said there were no propellers on the boats, and that they had engines like jet skis so they could run in just a few inches of water. He was in and out of Vietnam for 3 1/2 years, and some of the time he was based in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He enjoyed the income with both hazardous and combat pay, but memories of war still bother him sometimes. “It wasn’t worth getting shot at,” Eisenbise said. “A lot of times I dream of being on those boats and hearing bullets hit the leaves on trees or going above your head.” In 1979, Eisenbise retired
from the service. He has worked various jobs since coming home from the service, including at Queen Stove and Land O’Lakes. He misses the camaraderie with his fellow enlisted friends. “You know who your friends are,” Eisenbise said. Eisenbise has continued to be interested in ships and submarines since his service. He got to revisit the USS Boulder when it docked in Duluth in the ’90s. Eisenbise has visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., too. He remembers placing his hand near a friend’s name. “I had a hard time seeing that,” Eisenbise said. Eisenbise has three daughters and said they are all lovely. His oldest is Debra, who lives in Baltimore, Md., the middle child is Joni, a nurse who lives in Albert Lea, and the youngest is LaRae, who lives in Bemidji.
Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013 • VETERANS DAY • Page 7
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Ron Eisenbise poses for a photo in his Army uniform.
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Page 8 • VETERANS DAY • Albert Lea Tribune • Friday, November 8, 2013
Veterans young and old deserve support services Throughout the years the United States has been involved in many wars, which then produced many war veterans. These men and women fought for their country, both on foreign and domestic soil, and then returned to their homes to take up their old lives. Some of the country’s oldest veterans right now are those who fought in World War II. Though some of the country’s oldest veterans fought in World War II, young American men and women are coming back as veterans every day from deployments near Iraq and Afghanistan. Freeborn County veterans staff said the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen then and now have similar needs when they get back from war. The soldiers are often young and don’t quite know what to do or how to transition back into society after deployments. World War II veterans don’t feel they should take benefits and services now when there are younger veterans in need. However, the system doesn’t work that way.
Timetable of benefits available to veterans*: Limited time from release from active duty: unemployment compensation 90 days: dental, re-employment 120 days: Servicemens Group life insurance converted to Veterans Group life insurance 2 years: G.I. insurance for veterans with service-connected disabilities 10 years: G.I. Bill services expire 10 years from release date. This includes educational benefits. 12 years: vocational rehabilitation for those with service-connected 10 percent disability or more. Rehabilitation includes educational benefits and a monthly living allowance. Once a veteran has gone through the program there will be assistance in finding employment. No time limit: service-connected disability compensation, medical care, readjustment counseling, home loans, employment assistance, assisted housing or nursing care in veterans homes, reduced property taxes, free fishing and hunting licenses, military ID access to commissaries After death: military honors, some monetary burial benefits and death and indemnity compensation for spouse and benefactors * Contact the Freeborn County Veterans Service Office at 377-5184 for details on these services. Other services are available to dependents and spouses.
Younger veterans getting out of the service are encouraged to seek
Front row (left to right): Allen Kleinpaste, Ken Phinney, Ila Schmidt, Bill Angell, George Oetjen, Bill Shea, Bob Christianson, Myrland Jordahl. Back row (left to right): Ted Gill, Melvin Burnett, Arnie Boot, Jerry Smith, Richard Cherney, Merlin Huddleson, Bill Reynen, Dale Rippey, Allen Myrom, Roy Carlsen, Jim Gustafson, Bernie Priebe, Connie Bensen, Emil Lykken.
out benefits when older generations weren’t. The benefits available
are more publicized and military services more vocal about the opportunities. The Minnesota National Guard has been active in promoting the benefits available to veterans. National Guard members only have access to benefits if they are federally activated; if a governor activates them, federal benefits do not apply. Technology is also changing veterans, as it has everything else in society. With World War II soldiers letters took weeks, and the ride on the ship back to the United States gave the soldier time to decompress before returning back to society. Today email and video chatting programs are instantaneous, and flights back from Afghanistan allow soldiers to see their families within days; however, the transition back into society doesn’t happen that quickly. Other changes that have come to veterans through the generations are the services themselves. Some are more specialized, especially within the medical field with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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